Updates

China began reintroducing extinct-in-the-wild Przewalski’s horses into the harsh semi-desert of the Junggar Basin in Xinjiang. From an initial group of 11 horses, the population grew to over 900 by 2025, helping reverse desertification by restoring soil health, dispersing seeds, and increasing regional plant

Posted: April 24, 2026

From reshaping water systems to supporting fish, birds, amphibians, and even helping to fight wildfires, beavers don’t just build dams, they transform entire landscapes. In honor of April 7’s International Beaver Day, we take you to visit the world’s largest beaver dam, a structure so big it can be seen from space.

Posted: April 11, 2026

How tall can a tree grow and what happens when life follows it upward?

In Tasmania, the Swamp Gum (Eucalyptus regnans) reaches more than 300 feet, rivaling redwoods. The tallest known specimen, the Centurion, rises 329 feet (100 meters), making it the tallest flowering plant on Earth. Yet its height is only part of the story. High in its canopy, natural hollows collect rainwater, forming suspended pond ecosystems where frogs and insects live in entire communities, thriving above the forest floor.

This striking example, highlighted in Trees, An Illustrated Celebration by Kelsey Oseid, invites a deeper realization – trees are living systems that actively build the world around them. They move water from soil to sky, influence rainfall patterns, regulate temperature through evapotranspiration, and create vertical habitats that sustain life from the microscopic communities in the soil to water-filled hollows high in the canopy. A single mature tree is not just an organism, it is a climate moderator, a hydrological partner, and a layered ecosystem in its own right.

Join us for our upcoming spring course Emergent Intelligence of Trees, hosted by Jim Laurie, where we’ll explore these awe-inspiring traits and mechanisms of trees and the forests they live in. Course starts March 18; Free Introductory Webinar on March 11.

Posted: March 7, 2026

In Cornwall, England, two beavers met for the first time as they were released into a newly established habitat, marking the first time beavers have been legally released into an English river system.

Beavers were hunted into extinction in the UK roughly 400 years ago, but their role as a keystone species is too valuable to local ecosystems to go on without. Beavers play a key role in rehydrating ecosystems, contributing to cooling, fire resilience, drought resilience and biodiversity.

The bureaucratic process took years and a lot of money- was it worth it? Discover the challenges and rewards and whether this beaver blind date was a success.

Posted: February 20, 2026

As our Thinking Like Water series comes to a close, we turn our attention from individual sites to the watershed as a living system.

This includes a rare, live conversation with two very special guests: the legendary ecological restoration pioneer Bill Zeedyk and conservation scientist Shantini Ramakrishnan. Their combined experience spans decades of hands-on restoration, mentorship, and community-led learning to troubleshoot and restore degraded landscapes and waterways.

In Episode 5, the finale of this five-part series, we explore restoration approaches born from local wisdom. The film zooms in on Bill Zeedyk’s watersheds to witness a river’s rewilding through a town center with Lea Knutson of Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, induced meandering on a wildlife refuge with Craig Sponholtz of Watershed Artisans, and a landscape-scale perspective from Josh Miner at Fort Union Ranch, where Zeedyk’s techniques have been applied across 95,000 acres of canyons, tributaries, rivers, uplands, and roads.

This final episode and live conversation reinforces the series’ core insights: water is not something to control, but to understand; reading the landscape is a key first step to restoring our land and waterways; and where there’s a will, there’s a way to coax a river back to its perennial nature.

Posted: February 20, 2026

A team of Australian researchers spent five years analyzing the microbiomes of tree bark from eight species of Australian trees. They found that bacteria present on the bark were able to consume gases, including methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide.

“While people have talked about addressing climate change in part by planting trees, the discovery of this hidden world of bark adds a whole new dimension. It could also inform people’s calculations about which trees are the most potent climate warriors.”

Posted: February 7, 2026

You may recall our Featured Creature profile about Greenland Sharks from a few weeks ago, which was thoughtfully written by Anya Reddy. We’re excited to share a new development in the world of Greenland Shark research, furthering our understanding of these ocean giants. From their eyesight to their swimming patterns, this new research tells us more of the elusive sharks’ story.

“The newly published findings upend commonly held beliefs and expose the challenges of studying a shark that has long resisted the reaches of science. But the disruptive nature of the research also underscores the challenges scientists face in predicting how a rapidly changing climate might harm or help the elusive fish.”

Posted: January 31, 2026

Beavers have a rightful reputation for increasing biodiversity in rivers and wetlands, but scientists have found that local bat populations have been found to benefit, too! Researchers studied eight streams with active beaver dams and found that bat activity increased by nearly 60%.

“According to the study, bats are drawn in by a combination of better habitat and more food. Beaver activity creates standing dead trees that bats use for roosting, along with more open, varied forest edges that make hunting easier. These areas also support larger numbers of insects, giving the bats a more reliable source of food.”

Posted: January 24, 2026

In coastal cities, traditional approaches to preparing coastlines for rising sea levels can actually intensify the process of erosion rather than preventing it. Instead of employing these more traditional (yet ineffective) “solutions,” Boston, Massachusetts has introduced nature-based solutions to protect their coastline.

“[Nature-based solutions] offer a wealth of community and environmental benefits by enhancing the natural services provided by coastal ecosystems—including wetlands, dunes, barrier islands, seagrasses, coral and oyster reefs, and mangroves—that build climate resilience while providing key social and economic benefits.”

Posted: January 17, 2026

What does it mean to truly design with the ecology of a place—its soils, plant communities, and future climate—rather than applying a fixed method or template?

Posted: January 17, 2026

What role should climate forecasts and assisted migration play in restoring ecosystems for future conditions, not just reconstructing the past?

Posted: January 17, 2026

How might curiosity, adaptation, and continual learning from ecological processes reshape not only how we implement and steward miniforests, but how we understand responsibility, stewardship, and our place within the web of life?

Posted: January 17, 2026

Yet another major organization has adopted Bio4Climate’s living climate systems perspective. This piece from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) delves into land-based climate action solutions and outlines key areas for the kind of improved policy required for effective forest climate action.

“Leveraging the potential of forests as a cost-effective means to drive progress on climate action requires looking at the bigger picture. Yes, forests are important carbon sinks and deforestation is a significant source of emissions – but forests, and natural systems more generally, provide far more than just climate benefits. They are diverse and complex systems, and policy and management practices need to reflect these traits to be effective.

Posted: January 12, 2026

What are the biggest challenges in securing land for miniforest projects, and how do implementers navigate competing land uses and pushback?

Posted: January 12, 2026

How do existing municipal plans shape where miniforests can happen, and how can residents find and advocate within those pathways?

Posted: January 12, 2026

When initiating a miniforest as a community member, where do you start, and what kinds of municipal support help move a project forward?

Posted: January 12, 2026

How are concerns about maintenance, forest spread, and long-term protection addressed over time?

Posted: January 12, 2026

When beginning to understand a site, what sources help identify appropriate forest plant communities?

Posted: January 12, 2026

Using local ecotypic plants is part of the method—what does that mean, and what models or partnerships could help grow and source them?

Posted: January 12, 2026

How can miniforests become part of more outdoor educational programs, especially in schools?

Posted: January 12, 2026

It’s no secret that everyday stresses have never been as abundant as they are today. In Beijing, China, young people are seeking relief from stress through forest therapy, which includes interacting with and connecting to trees.

“For young people like Wong and Mo, trees emerged as spaces to explore themselves and connections to each other. And while the story of China’s urbanisation is often told through images of polluted air, water and soil, young people like Wong and Mo present an alternative narrative: that young Chinese generations seek to repair the urban environment by connecting with others while caring, nurturing and even hugging the trees with their friends and strangers.”

Posted: January 3, 2026

How does knowledge of miniforests unfold over time, and what comes into view through different ways of studying them?

Posted: January 3, 2026

What early signals—cooling patterns, soil change, insect activity—are most important to track in the first few years of a miniforest, and which signals require much longer timeframes to fully understand?

Posted: January 3, 2026

How do the tools and methods we choose (from sensors to simple field observations) shape what we are able to notice—and what might they still miss about how miniforests function?

Posted: January 3, 2026

On a stretch of highway between Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado, wildlife now have a safe way to travel from one side to the other. The Greenland Wildlife Overpass connects roughly 40,000 acres of habitat that were previously disconnected for wildlife.

Though it will be used by a variety of animals, the 200-foot-wide overpass was designed with elk and pronghorn in mind. The overpass is the final piece of a wildlife crossing system that has been in progress for many years and now connects roughly 18 miles of safe crossings for wildlife.

Posted: December 27, 2025

Can you choose one native tree or shrub near you and imagine—or draw—the relationships it supports?

Posted: December 27, 2025

How might we shift our relationship with plants from aesthetics alone toward ecological function?

Posted: December 27, 2025

Life depends on movement. In what ways could miniforests reopen pathways for species, energy, and relationships to move through human-dominated landscapes?

Posted: December 27, 2025

Solutions that support wildlife conservation and biodiversity are right up our alley, and efforts to help sloths safely navigate forests in the face of urbanization is the newest example. Keeping sloths away from predators and man-made threats, such as cars, is crucial to ensuring their survival.

Seeing the need for a safe method of passage within fragmented forests, the Sloth Conservation Foundation set up rope bridges. The impact of this conservation effort doesn’t start and end with sloths: at least 14 other species have utilized the rope bridges according to camera traps.

In response to these efforts, “a conservation project in Brazil recognized it was similar to the challenge faced by the endangered northern maned sloth, a species endemic to the country’s Atlantic Forest.”

Posted: December 20, 2025

What changes when we approach the forest as a living community rather than an inventory of species—and what practices help us learn to listen?

Posted: December 20, 2025

What responsibilities emerge when we grow food in ways that restore soil, water, and biodiversity?

Posted: December 20, 2025

What emerges when we study ecological succession more deeply, and what aspects of the Miyawaki Method still call for real, on-the-ground experimentation?

Posted: December 20, 2025

We couldn’t agree more. Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) found that “placing social justice at the center of restoration practice remains vital to success, with ecological targets aligned to local social, economics and cultural ones.”

“Too often there is a superficial consideration of justice, creating unjust interactions and outcomes which impede the effective long-term restoration and protection of both nature and human well-being. However, there are increasing numbers of ‘bright spots’ of just and transformative restoration, many involving Indigenous Peoples, and these case studies provide evidence of what works and illustrate how deeper justice leverage points are actionable in practice.” – Prof. Rodriguez, UEA School of Global Development

Posted: December 13, 2025

This week, we’re highlighting Asphalt to Miniforest, a panel on how depaving and miniforests can help cities restore their hydrology, cool neighborhoods, and bring life back to paved places. Caseylee Bastien, RLA, CPSI (Landscape Architect/Ecologist, BSC Group Inc.), Leigh Meunier (Project Manager, Green & Open Somerville), and Max Rome, PhD (Director of Green Infrastructure, City of Boston) joined Alexandra Ionescu, Bio4Climate’s Associate Director of Regenerative Projects, for a conversation on what it takes to restore the water cycle in urban settings.

Max offered a clear framing:

“What we know in New England, is that basically, if we could capture the first inch of rain that runs off impervious surfaces and get that back into the ground, we would be very closely approximating and recreating the natural hydrology in this area, the way the rivers responded to storms before we built our cities, the nutrient loading into rivers before we built our cities.”

The discussion also explored political, cultural, and community realities—from simplified landscapes to joyful depaving parties—and offered a hopeful reminder that cities can transform when people learn and act together. It also invited us to step outside during a storm: to stand under a tree, watch how it slows the rainfall, and notice how nature works with water.

Asphalt to Miniforest left us with two questions to reflect on:

We hope these questions deepen your own thinking as well.

Posted: December 13, 2025

What was once a retirement home for horses has been transformed over four years through rewilding led by young people. Called the Youngwilders, this youth-led movement aims to support nature recovery in Britain, one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Slowly, they have witnessed wildlife returning to Maple Farm, the plot of land where their movement began. Nightingales and butterflies take flight, while snakes and insects burrow in the ground among the scrub and hedgerows. Oak saplings take root, and bees nest in the hollows of the trees their seeds came from.

“From a planetary perspective, restoring small parcels of land might feel insignificant, but this is the way a global nature restoration movement starts: one field, one sapling, one nightingale at a time.”

Posted: December 6, 2025

How do we determine the right level of maintenance for each site—balancing low-intervention approaches with the support young miniforests need in challenging urban and suburban conditions?

Posted: December 6, 2025

What shifts when we approach a miniforest as a living community—one that forms its own relationships—rather than as a planting project to be managed?

Posted: December 6, 2025

How can we better understand and support the belowground community—duff layers, fungi, and macroinvertebrates—so that their relationships meaningfully guide how we design, plant, and care for miniforests, especially in urban and suburban soils?

Posted: December 6, 2025

What unique opportunities arise when miniforests are planted along stream buffers, and how might the method help us rethink riparian restoration practices?

Posted: December 6, 2025

Instead of uprooting trees and changing landscapes to accommodate new construction, investor and author Shiv Malik has a vision for a new kind of city: a forest city.

“Powlesland said: ‘I think the question is, can we build what is necessary for humans to have a healthy, happy society while either not degrading nature or ideally restoring nature? That is the question of the 21st century, and it feels like nobody is answering that question.’”

The city would be just east of Cambridge, and, if successful, it’s likely that a slew of other similar cities would follow. Could a future where our towns and cities are built around nature become a reality?

Posted: November 28, 2025

Earlier this year, twenty red-browned amazons were released in a forest reserve in Alagoas, Brazil. At the time, only four wild birds remained. Due to illegal trade and deforestation, the species was nearly driven to extinction.

After a decade of silence, these birds have brought their cheerful chirps back to the forest.

Before being released into the wild, these birds spent a couple of years in a large aviary within the forest, where they learned to identify food sources and adjust to the environment. The released parrots are all young, and it’s likely that they will be able to breed in the next few years. Keep an eye out for updates on red-browned amazon chicks in 2027!

Posted: November 23, 2025

While we would rather see farms converted to regenerative agriculture, it is encouraging that even some conventional farmers are willing to give up crop land to build wetlands. They are discovering what Jim Laurie, Bio4Climate Biologist and Cofounder discovered decades ago- nature can clean up chemical waste in ways we don’t even understand. The new wetlands are designed to prevent nitrate runoff and protect waterways.

But that is not all. Farmer Jim Fulton shares, “We’ve had nesting ducks, herons, egrets in the summertime, hundreds of red-winged blackbirds that are out roosting in all the tall grasses, which is great. A lot of frogs. We had an exceptionally high amount of water, and at one point, we even had fish in it,” he said, which came as a surprise.

Posted: November 14, 2025

A new study from the University of Kansas published in Nature Microbiology reveals that soil microbes can “remember” drought and that this memory helps plants survive. These tiny organisms, which have evolved alongside native plants for thousands of years, store information from past climate conditions in their DNA and community structure.

When plants grow in soils where microbes have experienced drought, they activate genes linked to stress tolerance and iron uptake, including one called nicotianamine synthase.

In short, nature carries a built-in memory system. The living soil beneath our feet connects ecology, genetics, and climate resilience, reminding us that life itself is one of the planet’s most powerful climate technologies.

Posted: November 7, 2025

Scientists are now acknowledging the direct connection between the loss of biodiversity and impacts on human health. Despite this growing recognition, the loss of biodiversity is not getting the same attention that climate change is among health care professionals.

This might be due to the dramatic effects that wildfires, floods and extreme heat have on communities as compared to the more subtle, less visible impacts of biodiversity loss, making the connection harder to see.

Physician Neil Vora and wildlife veterinarian Chris Walzer argue that the health care sector must treat biodiversity loss as a core public health issue because nature underpins the quality of our food, water, air quality, infectious disease control, mental health, and climate resilience. They note that major health policies largely overlook the crucial role of biodiversity, and urge integrating the protection and restoration of biodiversity into climate-health policy, clinical practice, community health programs, education curricula, and funding to avoid irreversible harm for current and future generations.

Posted: November 2, 2025

Differentiating two approaches, this cost comparison by our friends at Beyond Pesticides breaks down the hidden ecological and social costs of poor or unsafe land management strategies. This guide was shared as an essential resource by Sara Grantham and Rika Gopinath during Bio4Climate’s Wildlife and Climate course this week. While chemical land management focuses on treating symptoms, the organic approach is a preventive approach that addresses root causes. In this context, unwanted organisms (pests, including insects and weeds) are the symptoms of a problem caused by poor soil health.

Posted: October 25, 2025

American Planning Association

Miyawaki mini forests are catching on in the U.S. Alexandra Ionescu, associate director of regenerative projects at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate in Cambridge, Massachusetts, helped organize the first Northeast Miniforest Summit this past summer. With more than 500 registrants, the two-day symposium brought together educators, scientists, local government officials, volunteers, and others with an interest in mini forests to share insights about how to increase the use of the Miyawaki method.

“It is wonderful to see people coming to the planting day with so much excitement,” Ionescu says. “They come back to see the progress of the trees they helped plant and form this connection with place.”

Ionescu sees a potential role for planners to identify suitable mini forest sites, one of the largest challenges. Other mini forest programs have been launched by the Natural Urban Forests in Seattle, Washington; Urban Pocket Forest, Berkeley, California; and LA Microforests, Los Angeles.

Posted: October 17, 2025

Dr. Jane Goodall taught generations that we, too, share in the tapestry of life, with our own roles to play. We can choose to understand, care, and help, or we can extract, consume, and degrade. We can choose to unravel the tapestry of life, or to stitch it back together.

Posted: October 17, 2025

Climate change is usually framed as a problem of greenhouse gases and rising global temperatures. Yet the real heartbeat of climate stability lies closer to the ground, in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and even the work of animals. These ecosystems continuously interact with the air above them, shaping weather, rainfall, and temperature patterns.

Welcome to the realm of micrometeorology, the science of small-scale processes at the land–atmosphere boundary.

Posted: September 29, 2025

Today, we’re revisiting one of his great lectures. After you give it a watch, check out above for a more personal account of our own Jim Laurie’s time with Savory.

Posted: September 21, 2025

In a newly release podcast episode, Nate Hagens from The Great Simplification sat down with friend of Bio4Climate Dr. Anastassia Makarieva to go deep on the critical yet still overlooked role forests play in maintaining ecological balance and climate stability. Through the lens of the biotic pump theory she helped author, Anastassia highlights the importance of moisture and rainfall cycles, the dangers of ecosystem tipping points, and the escalating risks of deforestation.

Posted: September 15, 2025

Though culture was previously thought to be unique to humans, a growing body of research finds evidence in species of all ilk, from elephants to bumblebees. That day in 1998, in his office at the University of Sydney, Dr. Michael Noad uncovered tangible evidence of a rapid, Beatlesque cultural revolution among whales: A song crossed the ocean, cleared a population boundary, and eclipsed what had come before. These song revolutions, it later turned out, happen every few years. More than a decade after his original discovery, Noad and his collaborators found that the leaps don’t stop there. A year later, a new song would appear in New Caledonia, and a year after that, in French Polynesia, in what scientists have aptly come to call “cultural ripples.”

Posted: September 1, 2025

What if the key to solving big problems isn’t too much more complicated than a heck of a lot of small actions taken together, just like the work everyone in this community is doing every day?

The New York Times has been profiling the potential of regional and hyperlocal climate solutions. And what do most have in common? Deep connection to the earth’s living systems.

“Local fixes alone won’t stop big environmental problems or stop global warming. That will require a wholesale remaking of the world’s energy, transportation and agricultural systems. But these are precisely the kinds of small-scale solutions that are desperately needed as the world figures out how to live on a hotter, more volatile planet.”

Posted: August 26, 2025

Ever since our GBH conversation with Ecocide International last year, we at Bio4Climate have been fascinated by global legal strategies and the rights of nature (if you can keep a secret, we’ve got a course coming up on this soon).

If you’ve been following along, you may know that Pacific Island nations have long been among the most powerful voices pushing for stronger international climate law. A new advisory ruling from the world’s highest court strengthens the case for reparative and protective interventions and gives advocates new legal ground to stand on.

A five-year quest by Pacific island countries to clarify states’ legal obligations to tackle climate change, triggered by an assignment given to 27 university students, has led to a landmark ruling delivered last week by the world’s highest court in The Hague.

The International Court of Justice ruled unanimously that failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions may be “internationally wrongful.” It said those responsible must stop polluting activities, and—where restoring infrastructure or ecosystems proves impossible—must compensate communities that suffered as a result. The decision also holds states accountable for companies under their jurisdiction which fuel the climate crisis.

Posted: August 26, 2025

Coaxing Water to Stay on the Land Across N.C. Peatlands New York Times “In its natural state, the soggy, spongy soil known as peat stores exceptional amounts of planet-warming carbon. Peatlands cover only about 3 percent of land on Earth, but they sock away twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests put together. They also offer protection from wildfires, floods and drought, and support rare species. “But decades ago, in peatlands across North Carolina, people dug ditches to drain the waterlogged earth, often to fell old-growth trees or plant new ones for timber. “As peat dries, its virtues turn upside down. The soil itself becomes highly flammable. Even without burning, drained peat starts to emit the carbon it once stored, converting a climate solution into a climate problem.”

Posted: August 16, 2025

Wetland are disappearing The Convention on Wetlands reports that nearly one-fifth of the world’s wetlands have been lost in the last 50 years. It’s easy to shrug off abstract statistics like that, but what does that loss mean for life on Earth, including ours? These ecosystems feed human and animal populations, support the water cycle, and reduce the impacts of climate change by buffering extreme weather. But agricultural expansion, urbanization, water drainage, pollution, invasive species, and infrastructure development all threaten these delicate, essential ecologies. Indigenous and local communities, who often have the deepest ties to these landscapes and depend on them for sustenance, are also key stewards and must have a central role in decision-making. In many cases, preventing destruction in the first place is more cost-effective and ecologically sound than attempting restoration later. The wetlands that need our help are all around us. What’s in your neck of the woods? Explore the interactive map below!

Posted: August 16, 2025

In New Jersey, Benefits Bloom in Tiny Forests The New York Times spoke with experts and miniforest practitioners around Deleware and New Jersey, including Northeast Miniforest Summit keynote speaker, Dr. Doug Tallamy of Homegrown National Park. “The downsides are few, and the potential benefits could be large.” Dr. Tallamy said. Because the forests start with small seedlings and require little maintenance after the first few years, he said, microforests are one of the cheapest options for boosting nature and biodiversity in cities.

Posted: August 1, 2025

Governments Are Legally Required to Address Climate Change, Top Global Court Says The International Court of Justice came out swinging this week, saying that countries that have historically driven the climate crisis have a legal responsibility to clean up their act. If not, they could be on the hook legally, with courts able to order them to stop or pay up. As international courts call on governments to take responsibility for climate harm, how can they invest in and scale up nature-based solutions to meet the moment?

Posted: August 1, 2025

Glaciers are dying, and so few of us have even ever met them. These powerful monuments of ice, rock, and sediment carve out our landscapes, serve as a water source for 1.9 billion people, enhance biodiversity, and drive natural systems. Artist, Ludwig Berger, traversed the retreating Morteratsch Glacier in Switzerland simply to listen. We hear the glacier sing and cry as it cracks, carves, and thaws.

Posted: July 19, 2025

Life finds a way. Sorry to go all Jeff Goldblum on you, but it had to be done. Tucked away in the Owens Valley area of central California lies Mono Lake. This body of water is a testament to the evolution of life, and how ecosystems can teem with life in the most unlikely of places. “Twice as salty and alkaline as the ocean, Mono Lake has no outlet. For more than 760,000 years, water has flowed in but escaped only through evaporation, leaving behind dense mineral deposits. The result is an extreme environment where no fish can survive, yet life has adapted in extraordinary ways: Trillions of brine shrimp and alkaline flies thrive in its waters, forming the base of a food web that supports millions of migratory birds each year.” Read: The Strange, Salty Power Of California’s Mono Lake

Posted: July 19, 2025

Floods are getting more dangerous around the country. When storms hit, it’s easy to keep our focus on the weather and the rain. And we’ve certainly seen evidence that climate change is fueling wetter wets. But often, the other half of the story is what the land can no longer do…and all that water has nowhere to go. Part of the reason is that the land no longer works the way it used to. Forests absorb water. Wetlands slow it down. Healthy soil holds it like a sponge. But when those systems are removed, drained, paved over, and purged of native wildlife, water moves faster, hits harder, and runs off. We’re not here to point fingers, we’re trying to expand the conversation. When we see how changes to land and water systems shape extreme weather, we also start to see where regeneration can make a difference.

Posted: July 12, 2025

A Story of Fire and Water This week the Washington Post looked at how land that’s been burned and denuded from repeat wildfires is seeding the ground for back-to-back flooding in New Mexico. And it’s not just proliferating wildfires. Runoff is also driven by degraded land, the lack of biodiverse vegetation, and the absence of natural water engineers like beavers.If you want to better understand floods, you’ve got to look down at the dirt, not just up in the clouds.

Posted: July 12, 2025

Is It Time to Break Up With Fireworks? “I’ve seen first-hand the devastation that fireworks can cause. For several years, when I volunteered as a marine mammal rescuer with a local rescue organization, we reliably collected dozens of distressed sea lion pups and disoriented birds in the days after the big bang of Independence Day. Animal shelters routinely clear their kennels before the Fourth of July (a.k.a. euthanize resident dogs who haven’t been adopted) in preparation for the influx of panicked dogs and cats that jump their owners’ yards, terrified when the big booms go off. Studies in Europe confirm that fireworks displace migratory birds long-term, cause birds to abandon their nests for good and lead wild horses to injure themselves when they flee the noise.” “Call me a party pooper, but once I learned all this, I began to hate fireworks with a passion. When I started asking why we need to set off destructive explosives in order to have a good time, I found that all of this could easily be avoided because safer and more environmentally friendly alternatives are readily available.”

Posted: July 5, 2025

Roadless Rule A Reckless Attack On Climate Regulators Read our full statement on the federal government’s move to declare “open-season” on 58 million acres of native forests, paving the way for road and development construction. “…Tearing up these ecosystems for short-term profit threatens to unravel climate stability through cascading, long-range feedbacks. What harms a forest in one place can disturb rainfall, heat balance, and ecological life somewhere else…”

Posted: June 28, 2025

Perspective: Bio4Climate in Washington Last week, Bio4Climate Science Communications Intern Adrianna Drindak attended a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., by The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Federation of American Scientists about how federal policies can bolster resilience to extreme heat. “While it is important to identify ways to survive the present conditions, that is not a long-term solution to limiting the effects of extreme heat. We must target the source of extreme heat, which lies with our carbon emissions and disrupted ecosystems, to work towards a cooler future. And that HAS to be a part of every heat mitigation briefing, conversation, and agenda.” Read the full dispatch.

Posted: June 28, 2025

First Day of Summer Brings Record Heat Around Globe Any doubt in much of the northern hemisphere that the summer solstice has arrived is sure to be shattered, or sweat out, this week. And it’s not just the U.S. From London to Madrid to Beijing, temperatures across the hemisphere are either flirting with or exceeding 100° F this week. In most of these geographies, these temperatures would be near record-setting in the deep summer, let alone on the season’s first day. Cooling centers and fans are frequent public safety measures in times like this, but they’re limited bandaids that don’t always reach the people who need them most, nor do they address the root of the problems we’re collectively facing. Unpack how nature cools our overheating planet & restores the systems that balance the climate & keep it in check in the first place.

Posted: June 21, 2025

Oceans: Legal Personhood For Whales In a June 4 address at the One Ocean Science Congress, Princess Angelika Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho of the Kingdom of Tonga announced plans to grant legal personhood to whales. Personhood is a legal maneuver that recognizes non-human beings as rights-bearing entities under the law, giving governments stronger tools to protect their lives and habitats. This proposed legislation is a continuation of efforts to maintain Tongan waters as a refuge for whales, often a keystone species in ocean ecosystems. The announcement for expanded whale protections coincides with the United Nations Oceans Conference, which concluded on June 13th (more on this below). At the summit, UN members advanced Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) significantly closer to ratification, expanding sustainable practices within international waters.

Posted: June 14, 2025

The Microbial Garden Within Biodiversity is not just something found in forest, wetlands, and oceans. It’s in the soil and on your skin. Diverse life is all around, and within, us. “Inside you, there is a garden. It teems with microscopic communities of life forms—microbes including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa—that are rich in purpose we are only beginning to understand. This garden also envelopes you, growing on all your surfaces to form an invisible barrier. It is the threshold where you interface with the world, a world rich with its own unseen gardens. What I’m talking about here is your microbiome: the world within you. Humans might act as if the Earth belongs to us, but microbes were here long before us. ” KEEP READING ON ATMOS

Posted: June 7, 2025

In Death, New Life: The Science And Symbolism of a Whale Fall Writer Omnia Saed explores how a whale’s death becomes a deep-sea cradle of life, and an expression of renewal, memory, and transformation. What’s happened in the past can sustain life in the present in ways we are only beginning to understand. A whale fall is more than just the end of one life—it is the beginning of countless others. Each stage transforms the carcass into a foundation for vibrant ecosystems, offering sustenance in the ocean’s darkest, most inhospitable depths. The whale’s final descent becomes a poignant testament to this relentless cycle of life—a story of renewal echoing through the ocean’s depths, where nothing is wasted, where the large feeds the small and the small feeds the large in a potentially endless loop, and everything is repurposed to sustain the next chapter.

Posted: May 31, 2025

Is a river alive? Robert Macfarlane sat down with Emergence Magazine to talk about his upcoming book and how we can reimagine our relationship to, and understanding of, water. I take the opportunity to “who rivers” all the way through: “the river who flows; the river who runs; the river who reaches the sea”—not which. And English is a language of “it”-ing, of objectifying. In French, as you’ll know very well, it’s la rivière or la fluve qui coule—who—so they have the “who” present, but we don’t. And I also kind of scratched my head very early on: I suddenly realized that “to river” is not a verb in English. But what could be more of a verb than a river?

Posted: May 24, 2025

In a forest deep in Italy’s Dolomite mountains, a multinational team of scientists recorded something extraordinary: spruce trees syncing their electrical activity, communicating with each other, just hours before a solar eclipse. Older trees responded first. To the research team, this suggests they may hold “ancient memories” and help guide younger trees, like elders anchoring a community. The research adds a rich new layer to our understanding of the underground network of roots and mycorrhizae as a dynamic, living intelligence that responds collectively to changes in the world (and worlds) around it. This trend underscores the broader ecological crisis, and is a big reason why we have a Featured Creature series in the first place. Every creature is an important part of some system. Birds play crucial roles in pollination, seed dispersal, and pest control. Their decline signals deeper environmental issues that also threaten human and non-human health and well-being.

Posted: May 14, 2025

A new Miami Herald investigation dives into Florida’s “climate denial bubble,” where real estate values continue to climb in flood-prone neighborhoods, even after devastating storms and King Tides. In many cases, prices actually rose after extreme flooding, driven by short-term thinking and demand that ignores mounting risk. It’s a reminder of what’s often missing from mainstream climate conversations: the planet will endure, but the systems we (and all living things) rely on for stability, safety, and survival may not. As risks accelerate, so does the urgency to work with nature to protect what makes life livable. The most immediate tools we have are living systems that regulate water, heat, and resilience beneath, on, and above the ground.

Posted: May 14, 2025

A recent Washington Post article by Sarah Kaplan highlights a record-breaking spike in atmospheric CO₂ in 2024, an increase far beyond what fossil fuel emissions alone can explain. Scientists are beginning to recognize that stressed ecosystems, particularly forests, are no longer able to absorb carbon the way they once did. Drought, wildfire, and extreme heat have weakened nature’s carbon sinks to the point that they may now be releasing more CO₂ than they absorb.Because it’s not just what we’re putting into the atmosphere, it’s what we’re destroying that would otherwise keep it in balance. Taking this reporting further means looking at the full climate function of ecosystems, especially their role in managing water. Forests don’t just store carbon, they create clouds, move heat away from the Earth’s surface through evapotranspiration, and help bring and hold water inland, buffering drought and building healthier soil. When ecosystems break down, the whole climate system begins to unravel.

Posted: May 5, 2025

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has revealed alarming declines in bird populations across every U.S. habitat, with 229 species in urgent need of conservation efforts. This trend underscores the broader ecological crisis, and is a big reason why we have a Featured Creature series in the first place. Every creature is an important part of some system. Birds play crucial roles in pollination, seed dispersal, and pest control. Their decline signals deeper environmental issues that also threaten human and non-human health and well-being.

Posted: May 5, 2025

In a world where carbon is often cast as the villain, Judy Schwartz sits down with Paul Hawken for an interview that invites us to see it instead as the lifeblood of all living systems. Judith Schwartz: How might humanity’s relationship with the broader living world change if we asked questions like “what does carbon want?” or “what would carbon do?” Paul Hawken: This objectifies carbon as well. We might ask: What do we want? Do we want to live in a world where 60-70 percent of pollinators have disappeared? Did we want a 73 percent reduction in animal life on the planet in the past fifty years? Do we want to see the mantle of Earth, the soil, the source of all land life, obliterated by chemicals? Do we want to pursue bogus technological solutions such as direct air capture (DAC), carbon capture systems (CCS), bio-energy carbon capture systems (BECSS), etc? We might ask ourselves this: there are approximately 8.4 million species and about 3.4 trillion creatures overall on Earth. Do we want to be the only species that dysregulates the atmosphere by destroying the biosphere?

Posted: May 1, 2025

Does what happens in the soil impact what happens in the sea? Uh, yeah. Rob Moir, Director of the Ocean River Institute, explains how Miyawaki forests like ours at Danehy Park and Greene-Rose Park (both featured here) reduce runoff and help cool coastal ecosystems.

Posted: May 1, 2025

They call him “Yoda for scientists.” But to Bio4Climate’s Jim Laurie, John Todd has always been a wonderful mentor, and a friend. They first met at the New Alchemy Institute in 1988, when John was building systems of bacteria, microbes, plants, fungi, and animals—self-organizing communities capable of breaking down toxic wastes from agricultural and septage lagoons. It changed the trajectory of Jim’s career as a scientist, steward, and curious mind. Guided by John’s breakthroughs in these eco-machines, Jim went on to design and construct his own living ecosystems, capable of breaking down toxic industrial pollutants like ammonia, chloroform, and BPA. In 1995, John Todd designed an EPA-backed Vermont Eco-Machine housed in a greenhouse, and Jim moved to Vermont to operate it. That greenhouse treated municipal sewage to a high standard, even through the bone-chilling New England winters. These were not just experiments in biology; they were critical turning points for Jim, moments when he saw firsthand that nature, when nurtured (if not always fully understood), could often repair humanity’s worst environmental damage. John’s words still guide Jim to this day. “When you include all kingdoms of life, nature is self-organizing and relentless.”

Posted: April 29, 2025

Last week we talked about the arrival of new data painting a clearer picture of what we already know: that the planet’s land is drying out—and fast. Soil moisture levels are dropping across large parts of the Earth. And not just in historically dry regions, but in places once thought to be stable too. The data shows where the land is drying. But it doesn’t tell the full story of what happens next, or how we can fix it…

Posted: April 29, 2025

Over the last two decades, satellites have revealed something that we’ve been ringing the alarm bell on for some time: the planet’s land is drying out—and fast. Soil moisture levels are dropping across large parts of the Earth. And not just in historically dry regions, but in places once thought to be stable too. The culprit isn’t as simple as “less rain.” Rising temperatures are causing more evaporation, and human activity, like deforestation, agriculture, and land degradation, is making it harder for the soil to hold on to water. That water doesn’t just vanish. It flows downstream, into rivers, and eventually into the ocean. When land dries out, it loses its ability to cool itself, feed plants, and support ecosystems. And once that cycle breaks, it gets harder and harder to bring the water back. But we CAN bring the water back.

Posted: April 15, 2025

What happens when you bury a highway? Madrid Río is a transformative ecorestoration project that revitalized the Manzanares River corridor in Madrid, Spain, by rerouting a section of the M-30 highway underground and rewilding the river it once traversed, becoming a benchmark for urban ecological recovery. And in a city particularly susceptible to temperature extremes as the planet warms, the project demonstrates the value of investing in nature-based solutions to keep the city, and all who spend time there, livable and cool. Want to learn more about Madrid Río? Check out our short video on Instagram!

Posted: April 5, 2025

At the recent R-Futures Conference, ecological designer Zach Weiss presented From Dreamer to Doer, a talk focused on practical pathways for restoring local water cycles. Drawing from recent scientific insights and on-the-ground experience, the presentation outlines how water cycle restoration can reverse drought, reduce the risks of floods and fires, and support the return of healthy, abundant ecosystems.

Posted: April 5, 2025

Did you see that the United States just shut down a national tree-planting initiative that helped communities mitigate increasing heat, flooding, and climate collapse across the country? With heat intensifying each summer, and government support drying up, our work together just became even more urgent. Areas without trees will be sweltering as concrete and asphalt soak up the sun and reflect back heat. Learn more about how our Miyawaki Forest Program is helping local community groups to plant these dense, biodiverse forests in the schoolyards, vacant lots, and urban heat islands that need them most.

Posted: March 29, 2025

How Native Plants Help Reclaim Water Resilience in Kansas City In Kansas City, Carl Stafford and My Region Wins! are using native planting as a tool to address two growing environmental challenges: stormwater runoff and future water insecurity. Through its Go Green Campaign, the organization is encouraging residents, business owners, and community groups to explore the role that native grasses and plants can play in improving local water cycles and restoring ecological balance. The initiative also invites reflection on the cultural and historical dimensions of urban landscaping, challenging the legacy of non-native species like Kentucky bluegrass, and making space for art, equity, and ecological restoration to intersect. Learn more and pre-order your own native plants

Posted: March 29, 2025

International Forest Day, International Water Day, International Rewilding Day. It’s been a week of days. A little overlooked perhaps in the shadow of these larger, more thematic days? World Frog Day, celebrating “natures tiny guardians.” “They outlived dinosaurs, weathered ice ages, and adapted to shifting climates. Yet today, despite their incredible resilience, frogs stand on the brink of disaster. These small, unassuming creatures do far more than fill the air with their evening croaks. They control insect populations, provide food for countless predators, and serve as nature’s bioindicators because they are sensitive to environmental changes long before these become crises.

Posted: March 22, 2025

Wet wood doesn’t burn. New York Times: Many California Trees Survived the Wildfires. Here’s Why. “The trees survived because they are filled with water: The roots draw moisture from soil and transport it through branches to its leaves. When the fires erupted in January, trees in Los Angeles had been especially nourished after two previous rainy winters. All that water makes burning a living tree akin to trying to start a campfire with wet logs”, Dr. Jacobsen said. For good measure, we tried a little experiment on this at home (though we can’t exactly condone playing with fire at home, even for science).

Posted: March 22, 2025

Wherever you are in the world, we hope spring is starting to find you (or autumn, for our southern hemisphere friends). And we think the change in season is a good time to take stock in nature’s ability to heal not just planet, but ourselves as well. Kiley Price for Inside Climate News writes, “Exposure to green spaces can improve mental health, speed recovery and relieve pain…But climate change and human activities could disrupt this effect.” We hope you find the time and space to get out for a stroll or dig a little in the dirt this weekend!

Posted: March 20, 2025

We already know that trees bring the rain. But new research demonstrates how deforestation in the Amazon doesn’t just reduce rainfall, it redistributes it. During wet seasons, deforested areas see a slight increase in rain due to shifting air circulation, but rainfall drops significantly in areas surrounding the bare ground, disrupting regional water cycles. In the dry season, rainfall decreases everywhere, as fewer trees mean less moisture released into the air. So you see, protecting forests isn’t just about the trees. It’s about safeguarding water, climate, and the intricate web of life itself.

Posted: March 20, 2025

Boston | The 19th annual Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) is coming to the Somerville Theater on April 12, hosted by Greater Boston Trout Unlimited. Enjoy screenings of 10 curated fly fishing films from around the world to get you ready for the upcoming fly fishing season. This year’s event features with a diverse lineup of films that highlight remote locations, unique challenges, and the passionate anglers who pursue them. Grab your tickets or learn more today!

Posted: March 20, 2025

You’ve probably heard about keystone species. But what about a keystone molecule? Molly Herring writes in Quanta Magazine about the profound impact rare compounds, termed “keystone molecules,” can have on ecological interactions. “The biological world is awash in chemical signals…If the message is powerful enough, the impact can ripple out across an ecosystem.” “’One small, simple molecule can be tying together these seemingly unrelated species and whole ecosystem processes,’ said study author Patrick Krug, a marine biologist at California State University, Los Angeles.”

Posted: March 12, 2025

What do you see below? No, it’s not an abstract painting. It’s a map. A new study from UFZ reveals that there is hidden order to the chaos of a forest. These distinct patterns shape how different forests grow, creating the conditions for thousands of species to thrive side by side. In tropical forests, animals spread seeds far from parent trees, reducing competition between the same species. In temperate forests, trees tend to cluster together, benefiting from underground fungal networks that help protect young saplings. So what do you think, is this the map of a tropical or a temperate forest?

Posted: March 12, 2025

After a U.S. Senate Committee hearing this week, just a few swing votes could make or break the so-called “Fix Our Forests Act” (H.R. 471). This logging bill, disguised as wildfire “management,” enables industrial deforestation in the name of fire prevention by giving loggers a way to bypass critical environmental protections. Help defend our forests by signing and sharing our petition to put your support on the record. We’ve done a social post about this too

Posted: March 12, 2025

Reintroducing wolves to the Scottish Highlands could restore ecosystems and help fight climate change. A research team from the University of Leeds explains their findings in depth, but the gist is that the wolves would naturally control booming red deer populations, allowing native forests to regrow and sequester around one million metric tons of CO₂ annually.

Posted: March 5, 2025

Breaking News from our friends at the Devon Wildlife Trust! The British government has moved to allow beavers to live wild across English rivers for the first time in centuries. Hear directly from Devon Beaver Project Lead Matt Holden below!

Posted: March 5, 2025

We don’t wade into politics very often. But every so often, a piece of legislation comes along that strikes right at the heart of everything we know to be true about the power of biodiversity in nature. Now making its ways through the U.S. Senate, the so-called “Fix Our Forests Act” (H.R. 471) is a logging bill disguised as wildfire “management,” enabling industrial deforestation in the name of fire prevention by giving loggers a hall pass to bypass critical environmental protections. Help defend our forests by signing and sharing our petition to put your support on the record.

Posted: March 5, 2025

Remote | Calling all Climate Educators and Communicators! Do you use games and simulations to educate your students about climate change, solutions and justice? Join Solve Climate 2030 on Tuesday March 4 at 9 am or 8 pm to learn how to participate in the first Worldwide Climate and Justice Games Day April 11, 2025 during Worldwide Climate and Justice Education Week 2025.

Posted: March 5, 2025

Robin Wall Kimmerer recently sat down with Yale Environment 360 to discuss her new book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. “The language of natural resources suggests that we own them, that we deserve them, whereas I want to remember that it’s a gift. We haven’t earned berries. We have not earned oxygen to breathe. We can’t buy it. It is not a commodity. It’s not a natural resource. To me, it’s a gift from the natural world.”

Posted: February 24, 2025

Earth is warming, so why is it so cold? Martin Keubler of DW explains that climate change impacts regions differently. The Arctic is warming up to four times faster than other areas, and some scientists believe this rapid warming might be weakening key wind systems, like the lower jet stream and the upper polar vortex, that normally confine extreme cold to the far north.

Posted: February 24, 2025

Bio4Climate’s Associate Director of Regenerative Projects, Alexandra Ionescu, will present on Miyawaki forests at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum on February 23rd from 2 to 3 PM, introducing attendees to the micro forests we’ve helped establish in Massachusetts! While the event is sold out, you can register for the waitlist.

Posted: February 18, 2025

At the heart of climate action is a fundamental question: Who controls the land, and how is it cared for? In recognition of Indigenous Women’s Day in New Mexico, Indigenous leaders, youth, and activists gathered to reaffirm what many scientists increasingly recognize, that protecting Indigenous sovereignty and listening to leadership are critical to safeguarding biodiversity and mitigating climate change. “It is time to restart our sacred relationship with the land and honor our matriarchal societies,” said Jolene Tsinnijinnie (Navajo and Kewa Pueblo).

Posted: February 18, 2025

Let beavers be beavers. A million dollar wetland restoration project in Czechia was mired in bureaucracy and delays. A group of beavers took matters into their own paws and re-engineered the landscape in days. Watch our quick recap below, or read here to learn more.

Posted: February 18, 2025

After taking Bio4Climate’s “Systems Thinking and Scenario Building” course in 2022, Erling Jorgensen wanted to share his learnings in a fun way that people with little training in biology and science could connect with. The result is “Journey of An Apprentice,” a written and visual essay about Life. Join Seacoast NH Permaculture for a fireside chat with Jorgensen on Thursday, February 20.

Posted: February 10, 2025

In 2023, record-breaking warming was linked to a global decline in Earth’s ability to reflect sunlight, caused by reduced low-level cloud cover (Goessling et al.). The exact cause of the reduced cover remains unclear, but a team of analysts led by Anastassia Makarieva suggests that disruptions in global biospheric functioning could be a contributing factor, noting the significant drop in cloud cover over the word’s great forests, as seen below. “The good news is that the recent extra warmth could wane if the forests partially self-recover. With the many unknowns remaining, we urge more integrative thinking and emphasize the importance of urgently curbing forest exploitation to stabilize both the climate and the biosphere.”

Posted: February 10, 2025

Climate action requires…action! Here’s a dispatch from Dianne Plantamura in Massachusetts about “The People’s Forest” at Veasey Park: “A new Miyawaki forest rises from rubble at Veasey Park after 160 volunteers planted 1800 trees in Groveland, emerging from what was a plot of invasive vines. Thanks to startup funds by the Groveland Community Preservation and corporate grants, the area is now known as ‘The People’s Forest.'” Do you have a project in your community or even your own backyard you’d like to share? Contact Us!

Posted: February 10, 2025

The new Transformative Change Report makes clear that “Fundamental shifts in how people view and interact with the natural world can help accelerate the system-wide changes needed for a more sustainable world.” Truth is, there’s a lot we can do to kickstart that change. Educate your Neighbors. Host a talk at the library or local coffee shop on the vital importance of wetlands, grasslands, and forest ecosystems.

Posted: February 3, 2025

Keep water on your property. Install rain barrels, rain gardens, and gray water systems.

Posted: February 3, 2025

Green your community. Cool your town with biodiverse Miyawaki forests, pocket parks and rain gardens.

Posted: February 3, 2025

Support regenerative farmers directly through farmer’s markets and Community Supported Agriculture.

Posted: February 3, 2025

Check out this update from Mother Trees on their seed bank project, made possible in part by support from Bio4Climate. They help farmers, community leaders, and forest stewards restore degraded landscapes.

Posted: February 3, 2025

Attention Suffolk County! Our friends at the North Fork Environmental Council are hosting a screening of John Feldman’s film, “Regenerating Life,” on February 8. We’re obviously big fans of the film (you might recognize a few familiar cameos), but so much of the material around farming and mitigating wildfires is particularly prescient right now.

Posted: February 3, 2025

It’s not too late to register for Jim Laurie’s free seminar on January 29th! From starting your own microgarden to restoring large, fire-scarred landscapes, increasing water infiltration, and supporting wetlands, this dialogue hopes to inspire actionable solutions for Earth’s most pressing challenges. Email us to get the link.

Posted: January 27, 2025

After taking Bio4Climate’s “Systems Thinking and Scenario Building” course in 2022, Erling Jorgensen set out to understand how life processes work and how they can be restored, and he wanted to share his learnings in a fun way that people with little training in biology and science could connect with. The result is “Journey of An Apprentice,” a written and visual essay about Life. Join Seacoast NH Permaculture for a fireside chat with Jorgensen on Thursday, February 20.

Posted: January 27, 2025

We’re global! Check out our new Global Outreach page, documenting our support for organizations around the world. After extensive research conducted in collaboration with Linsey de Jager, our Ecological Research Intern in South Africa, we are excited to introduce you to a cohort of organizations doing important, impactful work on the ground across localities.

Posted: January 21, 2025

Why do some areas burn worse than others? Often times the answer has a lot to do not with the water we pour on a fire after it’s started, but the water already in the ground before the first ember falls. Check out this clip from Jon Feldman’s film, Regenerating Life, on the efficacy of restored, intact ecosystems.

Posted: January 21, 2025

There’s a lot to unpack behind the fires raging through Los Angeles County. But right now, efforts to contain the blaze continue as people evacuate, animals seek refuge, and firefighters work around the clock. Our friends at Earthrise Studio said it right; “When crisis hits, community answers.” If you’re looking for ways to support the Los Angeles community right now, Earthrise has aggregated a few on Instagram.

Posted: January 13, 2025

Wildfires have become more frequent and devastating, affecting communities, economies, and ecosystems worldwide. In a hot, dry world, it makes sense that forests are more flammable. Wetter wets and drier drys can increasingly lead to hydroclimate volatility—or climate ‘whiplash’—with profound implications for flooding and, yes, wildfires. Learn more at Bio4Climate about how wildfires have changed over the last 10 years, and what pieces of the puzzle policy solutions tend to miss.

Posted: January 13, 2025

The World Meteorological Organization officially announced on Friday that 2024 was, globally, the hottest year on record. Little surprise there; we know we live on a warming world. That’s why we need to work with nature to mitigate the damage; plants and healthy ecosystems play a pivotal role in cooling the Earth. Learn more about how #NatureCools at Bio4Climate.

Posted: January 13, 2025

If you’ve got “take down the Christmas tree” on your to-do list this weekend, consider giving it a chance to support life beyond the season. From creating habitats for freshwater fish to enriching soil in gardens, your tree can be repurposed in ways that nurture ecosystems in your community. Be on the lookout for local lake habitat drives and mulch programs, or even more creative reuse options—like crafting coasters or natural sprays.

Posted: January 6, 2025

How much nature do we need? So asks Dr. Anastassia Makarieva to ring in the New Year. “We should protect wild nature as a working mechanism for climate stabilization…All ecosystems that are still capable of self-regeneration must be protected from our exploitation as much as possible. Stop taking from them. They are our gold standard, our ultimate treasure.”

Posted: January 6, 2025

As we look ahead to another year championing nature-based solutions, we look back on a year of growth, curiosity, and Life. Whether you’ve joined us online, on the water, or out in a forest, thank you for being a part of our community last year. Here were just a few of our favorite moments.

Posted: January 6, 2025

Look, we’ve all been there. When your work and passions are rooted in care for the earth, it’s hard not to feel deflated sometimes. But as the year comes to a close, it’s important to take stock in the progress made around the world. This weekend, we’re reading Wild Hope’s 10 Conservation Stories that Gave Us Hope in 2024. Whether it’s a global story or something in your own backyard, we’re curious: what would you add? What gave you hope this year?

Posted: December 22, 2024

Did you catch our shoutout from Post Carbon Institute senior fellow Richard Heinberg in Resilience Mag? “Destruction of habitat—as a result not just of climate change, but industrial agriculture, deforestation, and urbanization as well—is driving native species to the brink. Simply planting trees, if they’re non-native, may not help much and can even make the situation worse. In contrast, native trees and shrubs provide a food forest for birds and insects that would otherwise go hungry. The folks at Bio4climate have more ideas along these lines.”

Posted: December 22, 2024

Nature-based solutions must be a global priority. A new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services explores just how interconnected global crises are with the natural world, using data to detail the extent to which biodiversity loss exacerbates issues of food and water security, public health, and climate change.

Posted: December 22, 2024

If you haven’t noticed, we talk a lot about the water cycle here. And for good reason–from the soil to tree-top canopies, healthy ecosystems are fuel for the local and global water cycles that keep things cool. But it’s not just about rain and evaporation. A research team led by the Alfred Wegener Center found that much of 2023’s record high temperatures could be attributed to declining low-cloud cover in key regions, reducing the planet’s ability to reflect light and heat back into space.

Posted: December 14, 2024

“…and it did all of that with the wings of an owl, the belly of a penguin, and the nose of a kingfisher.” The more-than-human world has learned what works in context over billions years. Biomimicry is the practice of studying and emulating nature’s forms, processes, and systems to solve our own challenges, ideally in a way that creates conditions conducive to all life. Even if you’re not building a bullet train, you can learn from nature in your own ecosystem – consider how other species harvest water, capture energy, recycle materials, form symbiotic relationships. What can you learn from them?

Posted: December 14, 2024

There’s so much to love in this interview with Zoë Schlanger (author of The Light Eaters, required reading for Bio4Climate’s recent Biodiversity 11 course). But what sticks with us right now is how she bottles the desire we all have to connect with and understand the world around us, “I think that words are all we have, and for those of us who are not super acquainted with scientific jargon, we have to use these words like ‘language’ and ‘intelligence’ and ‘desire’ to talk about plants, in part because these are the metaphors that we have at hand. It’s the closest thing we can understand that gives us this little bridge of understanding between plants and ourselves.”

Posted: December 14, 2024

New! Story and science convene in this recent conversation between adventurer and photographer Jon Waterman, and climate scientist Flavio Lehner. Buckle up for a journey into the Arctic and its threatened future, led by the experiences and research of those studying it. The full episode is available now, produced in collaboration with the GBH Forum Network.

Posted: December 13, 2024

We champion ecorestoration initiatives around the world, but we still believe that the best place to start is right in your own backyard! Join permaculture instructor Andrew Millison on a tour of his 15-year-old food paradise in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and discover how five key principles transformed his urban backyard into a vibrant, life-filled oasis brimming with abundance.

Posted: December 13, 2024

“The greatest risk we face is the temptation to surrender to helplessness…I may not be able to save the zebras and the leopards, but I can help save the zebra swallowtail butterflies and the giant leopard moths. I can do that, at least in my own small yard, by nurturing the host plants they need to reproduce.” In her New York Times essay, Easing the Biodiversity Crisis One Flowerpot at a Time, Margaret Renkl makes an impassioned plea for biodiversity’s capacity to make a difference, and our ability to help by starting with our own backyards.

Posted: December 13, 2024

A small village in Romania is home to one of Europe’s most successful bison rewilding projects. Since 2014, 170 bison have been reintroduced to the Southern Carpathian Mountains after a 200 year absence. The short film, Zimbrul (Romanian for “bison”), explores their role in shaping this particular ecosystem and emphasizes the importance of participatory rewilding strategies. Scientists found that this herd alone could store enough CO2 to offset the emissions of 43,000 cars annually, underscoring how animal activity can enhance a given ecosystems’ capacity for carbon storage.

Posted: December 13, 2024

Get a bird’s eye view of the difference our Miyawaki forests can make. This interactive page from the City of Worcester explores both of our Miyawaki forests in the city and provides fresh perspectives for understanding how they can cool, green, and beautify the urban landscape while creating space for nature to thrive.

Posted: November 25, 2024

“I like to imagine the moment of liberation for a molecule of carbon dioxide. Imagine being held tight for centuries in the embrace of an ancient tree, locked up in lignin until… the gasp of a fungus-eating beetle sets you free to become a free-floating molecule, a thing of the air, a part of something vast and fluid. Is that how the spirit leaves the body? Released from the weight of wood, into the afterlife of cedars, there is no boundary between the sacred and the mundane.” Robin Wall Kimmerer reflects on the death of a tree during a recent a visit to the Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon.

Posted: November 25, 2024