rewilding

The large marsh grasshopper was once ever-present across Eastern England’s wetlands. But after decades of habitat destruction, these handsome insects are now fragmented and locally extinct, holding out in the wettest fens, valleys, and peat bogs of the New Forest and Dorset.Now, London-based Citizen Zoo is trying to bring them back—and it’s planning to do it by turning regular people into zookeepers. Reintroducing the grasshoppers to restored wetland sites across their historic range can bring huge benefits to ecosystems…

How it’s grown: Most meat alternatives on the market today are made using plants. Cultivated meat products are made using animal cells that are grown in bioreactors. Tissue samples from living animals are isolated and their cells grown in a lab. As those cells grow and multiply, they can be processed into food. Why it’s important: This pair of approvals are first of their kind in the US. Animal agriculture makes up nearly 15% of human-caused global greenhouse-gas emissions, and the two companies are among a growing…

Restoring the planet is always a process of design, one that is shaped by the values, idiosyncrasies, and blind spots of those in charge. Laura J. Martin, environmental historian These fish fared surprisingly well—twice as well as non-irradiated fish—and ever since have been outcompeting natural fish and breeding with them, not to mention the countless other “improved” fish released by states and federal government agencies every year since at least the 1930s. Catch a wild fish today and its body probably bears marks of…

In the mountains of northern Italy, when there’s a wedding in the village, friends often paint the names of the happy couple on a bedsheet and hang it near the main road. A similar sheet currently hangs above the roundabout in the small town of Caldes, in the province of Trentino, but it features just one name: Andrea. Sempre con noi. “Andrea. With us always,” punctuated with a single spray-painted heart.It’s been two weeks since the body of Andrea Papi was found in the forests near his hometown. The 26-year-old…

Those interested in the concept of rewilding, a form of environmental conservation that seeks to restore land to a more natural state as popularised by the book by Isabella Tree, should be well advised that this film has nothing to do with that. Rather, it is an almost endearingly amateurish package, written and directed by Ric Rawlins, that is an exercise in something that’s almost as fashionable these days: folk horror. There’s lashings of folk horror about these days, some of it, like Enys Men, very good. Rewilding,…

Scientists advocate for the restoration of two keystone species: the gray wolf (pictured here) and the North American beaver. Credit: Gary Kramer / USFWSAs the effects of climate change mount, ecosystem restoration in the US West has garnered significant public attention. This has been bolstered by President Joe Biden’s America the Beautiful plan to conserve 30% of US land and water by 2030. Writing in the journal BioScience, William J. Ripple and 19 colleagues follow up on the Biden plan with a proposal for a “Western…

I just got back from a walk in Hyde park, headphones in, Max Richter playing, after a sweltering 30C day in London. I stopped halfway to take my trainers off and pad my feet on the grass. This is where I often go when I need to breathe, and not to think.I’ve been a nature nerd since the days of making mud pies (and grass on the side), turning up stones to see worms and woodlice, and foraging for blackberries with the other kids in the village, often to make some sort of inedible fruity soup.When I think about this special…