Birdwatching has recently surged in popularity across the world, especially among younger generations. In fact, research has shown that it’s Gen Z’s second fastest growing hobby. 

Many have turned to the pastime as a way to reconnect with nature and reduce stress levels, and it has other potential health benefits as well: some studies demonstrate its potential to help slow age-related cognitive decline by acting as a brain exercise. 

Moreover, the little equipment or experience needed makes the hobby accessible to everyone — all you really need is the presence of birds. Unfortunately, their populations are declining due to a variety of issues, including habitat and environment degradation, climate change, and, more directly, plastic pollution. 

Why is Plastic Pollution Such a Big Problem? 

Birdwatching and birds themselves are not the only victims of plastic pollution. Outside of being beloved to birders, birds play an important role in many  environmental and ecological processes. 

For one, birds are significant contributors to the health of plant populations. They pollinate, fertilize, and disperse seeds across continents, which promotes plant reproduction and supports the growth of the forest and foliage that serves as habitats for other species. 

The ecological importance of birds also extends to health issues. For example, research has shown that when vulture populations decline, humans are increasingly exposed to disease-causing bacteria and pathogens. This trend occurs due to the increase in the presence of animal carcasses, which vultures would normally remove from environments. Bacteria from these carcasses can enter water systems and turn into a serious threat to human health. 

Humans also rely directly on certain species of birds for certain tasks. For example, foragers in multiple regions in Africa have relied on the Greater Honeyguide to lead them to honey, while various types of birds can provide pest-control on farms by eating common nuisance insects, like coffee borer beetles. 

So when we lose our birds, we’re not just losing their aesthetic or emotional value — we’re also losing all of the extensive good they do for us and our environment. 

The Importance of the Past

Bird populations have been threatened by human-caused events throughout history, some of which have been devastating. Oil spills are one example, killing thousands of birds with each incident. The 1969 Santa Barbara spill, for example, led to the deaths of an estimated 3,600 birds. 

Another particularly infamous case was the chemical DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) which was commonly used as a pesticide and led to a decline of bird-of-prey populations, resulting in imbalance in affected food chains due to a lack of predators. 

But while threats to birds and their habitats exist, these events have also inspired real, feasible progress towards conservation. After the 1969 oil spill, there were extensive clean-up operations and a new-found attention to ecological issues that included the eventual creation of Earth Day. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring highlighted the dangers of DDT and became one of the most influential texts in the environmental movement as well as a catalyst for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency,

 In today’s environment, one of the biggest threats to birds is the increase of plastic pollution. Our next step should be following environmentalists  who came before us and putting together the next solution.

The Problem With Plastic

There are a number of reasons that plastic poses a large threat to birds, including entanglement, exposure to chemicals and, most especially, ingestion. In 2015, it was estimated that nearly 90% of seabirds consume plastic. By 2050, that number is projected to increase to 99%, which is virtually every seabird on the planet. 

Birds eat plastic both directly and indirectly by eating prey that has already consumed it. Plastic consumption can cause serious ailments, leading to lack of proper nutrient consumption and gastrointestinal obstruction/organ damage. Plastics can also find their way into nests and cause severe damage. Chicks are prone to entanglement, which can prove fatal due to strangulation and the infections they cause. These issues have been observed worldwide and occur in both aquatic and terrestrial birds. 

PULLQUOTE: “Given that birds in particular mistake plastic for prey, macroplastics or MPs have been found in the gastrointestinal tracts, feces, and even in feathers and other tissues or organs of several hundred avian species from freshwater, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems.” – Limin Wang et al. 

Plastics, which can take up to and over a thousand years to degrade, end up permanent fixtures of bird habitats, making exposure dangerously common. They’re also extremely widespread, with an estimated 12 billion tons of plastic waste expected to be found in the environment by 2050. 

These numbers are intimidating, but we should note that even the tiniest efforts add up over time. The easiest way to begin helping the birds we love can be as simple as saying no to a plastic bag. 

What can you do to help?

One way to start is by learning more about the effects and origins of single-use and disposable plastics. Knowing where they come from is the first step to identifying what you can do to cut down on them. Plastic water bottles, packaging, and plastic bags are especially prominent pollutants, but they’re also not too difficult to cut out of your life. 

Reusable bottles, kitchenware, and bags are great ways to reduce plastics while keeping the everyday items you need. As for the plastics already in the environment, getting involved in local clean-up efforts can help clear affected areas and boost community engagement. If there aren’t any around you, consider starting one! Every movement, no matter how small, makes a difference. 

Birdwatching is just one of the many aspects of our lives that rely on the presence of these fascinating, loveable creatures. If they’ve helped you alleviate the stress from work, find friends, or even just given you some small amount of joy, consider paying it back — it could mean saving their lives.

Check out our End Plastics campaign for more information and ways to take action, like calculating your plastic footprint or signing the Global Plastics Treaty petition. 

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post Birdwatching is Booming, So is Its Problem appeared first on Earth Day.

Bees, butterflies, and moths are typically beloved images of what we commonly know to be pollinators. However, the insects we often look at with distaste — those like mosquitoes, wasps, and flies — are actually also important pollinators in their own right. 

Bees and the like are incredibly critical to ecosystems, providing plants and crops we rely on with the pollen they need to reproduce. However, it’s also important to shed light on the other creatures that affect our environments, ones we often try to get rid of because of their reputation. 

They do a lot more than incessantly annoy us by supporting plant reproduction through plant pollination worldwide. In honor of national Pollinator Week, here are some less appreciated pollinators and the surprising benefits they have for ecosystems around the world. 

Over-Hated Garden Dwellers 

Flies are famously disliked in households worldwide.They’re often considered a nuisance, not doing much other than buzzing around where you don’t want them to. Surprisingly, despite how we see them, it’s actually been determined that flies are the second-most important pollinators, right after bees. 

The fact is flies are necessary for the health of plant populations across the world, including crops — According to a research article published by biology researchers from the University of Exeter, they visit around 72% of global food crops, cross-pollinating between plants and ensuring reproductive success.

Flies are incredibly diverse, species and habitat wise. Hoverflies are a specific family of flies, made up of over 6,000 different species, as detailed by a 2024 University of Georgia field report. They can be found on and across various continents. These flies play a valuable role in pollination and pest control, as they frequently visit flowering plants and naturally prey on destructive pests like aphids. 

A 2019 study observed hoverfly migration in and out of England and continental Europe, reporting billions of hoverflies seasonally migrating. The massive numbers of flies leads to significant pollination across land-masses, and this redistribution of pollen supports the reproduction of plants, including popular crops like sweet peppers, strawberries and onions. 

Certain types of flies can also be major players in the creation of beloved foods like chocolate. Tiny flies known as midges are the sole pollinator of cacao trees, making them critical to the chocolate industry. Cacao flowers, which have small, intricate openings, can only be entered by midges due to their miniscule size. 

Even with midges, due to the complex nature of the plant and its reproduction process, only 10-20% of the flowers actually get pollinated. Without midges pollinating cocoa flowers, the plants would be unable to produce the seedpods used to make chocolate.

 In short: no flies, no chocolate. 

A Common Menace 

People tend to live in terror of wasps. To some, even the sight of a nest’s stalk being built is a sign to call the exterminator. Of course, this isn’t unfounded, considering that wasps are notorious for being aggressive. What’s lesser known about them, however, is their tropical family members’ prominence as specialist pollinators, that focus on pollinating a narrow variety of plant species. 

Many of these plants are important in their own right: Figs are a well-known and well-loved fruit, of which there are almost nine hundred different species. They’re more than just fruits, though. Figs actually act as a keystone species, due to the significant number of animals and insects that depend on them for sustenance year-round. A 2018 study even documented that certain species of figs can help support declining bird populations, by providing them with a reliable source of food. 

Fig wasps are a small, often overlooked species of wasp. The two native to the United States are unnoticed to the point that they have no common name, only a scientific one: Pegoscapus. Figs and Fig wasps have a mutualistic relationship, meaning that both species generally benefit from their exchanges, though a first glance might say otherwise.

When a fig’s flowers (which are actually inside the fruit) are ready to reproduce, they attract female wasps, who crawl into the fruit through a small opening— it’s so small that while entering, the wasp will lose its wings. As the wasp crawls around to lay its eggs, it spreads the pollen it collected from the previous fig it was in. The flowers can then reproduce while the wasp, done with its job, dies within the fig.

While it sounds like a morbid exchange, it allows the wasp’s eggs to grow in a safe environment where they can hatch before continuing the cycle. This relationship maintains both populations and indirectly supports other species who rely on figs. 

Not all wasp pollination requires the death of the insect, however. Other species of wasps promote pollination the same way many other pollinators, including flies, do — they feed on nectar to support their energy levels, landing on flowers and collecting pollen in the process. As they travel from plant to plant, the collected pollen is transferred between flowers, fertilizing their seeds. This is commonly known as “incidental pollination”, a process butterflies and moths also take part in. 

The World’s Most Hated Insect 

It’s a well-known fact that mosquitoes are widely hated, and not without good reason. One particular species of mosquito, Aedes aegypti, might well be one of the most dangerous insects in the world, as a past carrier of yellow fever and the Zika virus. 

However, like any other creature, there’s a large diversity of species within the mosquito family, and some can actually be beneficial to both humans and the environment. There are around 3,500 species of mosquitoes documented worldwide, and only about 3% of those species are able to transmit diseases. 

Take, for example, the elephant mosquito, or Toxorhychites rutilius, which is found across a broad range of the southeastern United States. Rather than feeding on our blood, these giant, colorful creatures prefer plant nectar, pollen, and even the larva of other mosquitoes, and as they buzz from meal to meal, they pollinate flowers along the way, collecting and transferring pollen between the plants that host the substances they feed on. 

Another type of mosquito, Aedes Communis, commonly known as a snow pool mosquito, is a critical pollinator of blunt-leaf orchids. Found across the North of the United States, Alaska, and Canada, this mosquito does feed on blood to sustain the development of its eggs, but it also commonly feeds on nectar.

 As it feeds, it collects pollen from one flower and transfers it to the stigma of another, effectively pollinating the orchids and allowing them to reproduce. Blunt-leaf orchids are also important to ecosystems — they often indicate the presence of the many protected species they grow in tandem with. 

Now, it’s important to note that the details about mosquito pollination are still being studied, and there’s not much concrete information about what their pollination patterns, preferences, and effectiveness are just yet. That being said, researchers have drawn tentative conclusions about mosquitoes being potential nocturnal pollinators, due to their observations of significant mosquito presence around flowers at nighttime, rather than during the day.

 Professor Helen J. Young conducted a study that blocked flowers from pollination during daylight and evening hours, and found that the flowers that only received nocturnal pollinators (which operate similar to mosquitoes) produced twice as many seeds.

So, while we’re still learning about mosquito pollination, it’s safe to say that they do have a purpose other than just spreading disease and generally annoying people. 

The Surprising Reality

Not all of the insects we know as “pests” are deserving of that title. Flies, wasps, and mosquitoes are just a fraction of the thousands of non-bee pollinators that exist and are essential to plants around the world. An estimated 35% of global food crops and 75% of the world’s flowering plants rely on pollinators to be able to reproduce and continue population growth. 

While some insects are certainly a threat to gardens and human health, there are many that are wrongly implicated, ones our environments would be substantially different without. We don’t have to forgive all of them, but maybe we can learn to appreciate the ones that deserve it. 

Additionally, the unfortunate truth is that pollinators of all kinds are being threatened by issues such as climate change, pesticide use, habitat loss, and disease. That’s not a fact you have to just accept, though. There’s plenty each of us can do to support our local pollinators, and a great way to start is by getting involved with National Pollinator Week. Be sure to also check out additional resources like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and our own bee conservation tool-kit. 

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post Pests Do More for Us Than You Think appeared first on Earth Day.

Black-capped Chickadee. White-throated Sparrow. Common Loon. In 1964, at just four years old, Gordon Atkins recorded his first ever bird list. “It was a bittersweet moment,” says Atkins upon discovering his old list. “But it gave me pause to reflect on my experience as a birder — from a list of common backyard birds in the Northwoods of Canada where I grew up to leading tours all over North America.”  

Since Atkin’s first list, the skies of North America have grown quieter. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, since 1970, North America has lost nearly 3 billion wild birds, largely attributed to habitat loss driven by human-driven climate change. 

Birds are especially vulnerable during migration periods. A 2024 article in the International Journal of Avian Science states that mortality during spring migration is on average 6.3 times higher than during stationary periods. Disease, exhaustion, and food shortages at critical stopover locations (associated with extreme weather and wind conditions) drive this rate up. Climate change contributes to migration dangers as well, with the Carbon Brief database noting that 77% of extreme weather events are more likely or severe because of climate change.

Based at Camp Au Sable in Grayling, Michigan, Atkins, now 66, studies gull behavior and ecology. Extreme weather events, he says, like flash floods, droughts, intense storms, and wildfires are becoming less rare and more normal. “We’re adding energy to the system. You get hotter hots, colder colds, wetter wets, and dryer dries.” And if these big storms hit during migration or nesting seasons, he notes, they can devastate bird populations.

The ring-billed gull, Atkins’s bird of study, has been migrating up to six weeks earlier in recent years. As a result, breeding and egg incubation occur much earlier than usual, exposing eggs to freezing nighttime temperatures. For the gulls, increasingly sporadic weather events dramatically reduce hatchling survival rates. In the last six years, Atkins’s gull colony has had three years of 0% breeding success, two years of moderate success, and only one year of excellent breeding. 

But ring-billed gulls are adaptable and resilient, able to adjust to new, man-made habitats even as their old stomping grounds cave to human activity. Other birds aren’t so lucky. Long distance migrators, including songsters like warblers, tanagers, and meadowlarks, are among the most impacted and least inclined to adapt their migration timelines. False springs kill insects and interrupt fruit bearing plants — food sources these exhausted migratory birds heavily depend on. Wetlands are also drying up, leaving waterfowl with fewer habitat options and at greater risk of contracting a deadly virus in the wetlands that remain. 

Hope, eBird, and Citizen Science

Experts believe there is hope in data. Since its inception in 2002, Cornell’s citizen-science platform eBird has radically altered how scientists — and the average birder — collect and understand bird data, allowing anyone to report bird sightings.

Hobbyist birders are now part of something larger, equipping scientists with mass amounts of data critical to monitor changes in migratory patterns and population sizes. Just this past May, a Science study based on eBird data found that three quarters of bird species in North America are plummeting across their ranges.

Restore Habitats with Native Plants 

Migration is by far the most stressful time in a bird’s life — even without climate change related food insecurity and deadly weather events. If you’re a birder, keep an eye out for our avian friends. You can make your own list or sign up for a citizen science effort like eBird. 

And if you’re not much for birding, there’s still plenty to be done to aid our avian friends during their long journeys across continents and oceans. In addition to climate change, the destruction of natural habitats contributes to the severe decline in bird populations. Planting native species can help, and that’s where you come in. Support the Canopy Tree Project and help Earth Day continue to plant trees and restore natural environments around the globe — for us humans, our bird friends, and every little creature in between.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post Hope and the Avian Migration Crisis appeared first on Earth Day.

Humans rely on bees probably the most out of all insects in the world, but not just for honey or pollination. No, they’re actually also working away in labs and even giving us parts of their very home to help humans out. 

So if all you know about bees is that they flit from flower to flower, think again. Here are some of the fascinating ways bees have helped humans even more than just making all the flowers and food bloom across the world.

The Humble Honeybee and Medicine

The sweet taste of honey is almost certainly the first thing you think of when you think of bees. But honey isn’t just food. Medical grade honey, taken from honeybees, has been developed to help treat burn wounds. It has antibacterial properties that prevent infection, and its use has proven to be effective against a type of bacteria that are resistant to up to 13 types of antibiotics. On top of that, even honey used in large amounts didn’t make the bacteria more likely to become resistant to its antibacterial properties. 

Though research is ongoing to fully understand medical grade honey’s capabilities for treating wounds, researchers are also exploring other ways bees can help us, including with their venom 

It might sound counterintuitive. Isn’t venom-anything bad for you? Well, apparently not.

In 2020 researchers found that honeybee and bumblebee venom killed cancer cells in triple-negative breast cancer, an invasive, fast-spreading, and hard-to-treat cancer. And it killed the cancer cells without harming healthy cells. 

Dr. Ciara Duffy, who headed the study, also tested a small component of honeybee venom called melittin that can be produced synthetically and found it had many of the same anti-cancer effects.

Synthetically-produced melittin means we can protect the honeybee population. It also means scientists can make it more effective as a cancer cell-killing agent by adding new components to better recognize and target cancer cells. Duffy’s team has also started testing melittin on ovarian cancer cells, which has also proven effective.

None of Your Beeswax! …Well Maybe Just a Little

It’s common knowledge that bees pollinate plants, which lets those plants produce food for us to eat. But, how much do they actually help us?

Oh, just about 30% of the world’s dietary supply. Which means every three meals a day a human eats, an entire meal can be attributed to the hard work of bees.

While other insects and animals do contribute to pollination as well, bees as a species are pulling the most weight. But it’s not just the domesticated bees living in stacks of bee boxes on the sides of fields doing this work. Studies have shown that having wild bees and honeybees interact increases the pollination efficiency of honey bees, specifically in a sunflower field. The best way to ensure that interaction is having natural habitat nearby farms so wild bees can live nearby, while still pollinating crops.

But beyond helping our food grow, and making honey from it, bees also create beeswax. It’s the substance the bees use to actually make their hives and the cells that they store honey and larvae in. For bees it serves as the building block of their home, but it also has several properties that make it useful for cosmetic purposes. 

Products like lipstick and cream use beeswax as a stiffener, which keeps the product adhered to the face better. But it also has antiseptic properties that protect the skin. It creates a thin film on the surface of skin and protects it from bacteria. This makes beeswax a good natural ingredient in cosmetic products. 

Bee Brainpower

Worker honeybees live for 15 to 38 days in the summer, and they have a lot of flowers to visit and paths to memorize in that barely two month lifespan. A bee’s brain is smaller than one cubic millimeter—a sesame seed is two to four millimeters—so researchers at Virginia Tech wanted to analyze how bees were able to keep so much knowledge in that tiny brain of theirs.

Professors Read Montague and Brian Smith put bees in a laboratory and tested how different scents, which would be flowers in the real world, sent specific signals in the bees brain as they tried to learn about a new environment. Some of the brain chemicals bees have are the same in humans, and can lead to new discoveries about how brain chemicals play into learning or brain disorders.

They’re continuing to study how chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, tyramine, and octopamine release in a bee’s brain to help them learn and possibly apply those findings to better understand how human brains learn as well. 

Busy, Busy Bees

Bees do a lot for us, even if we don’t always see it. The yellow-striped flyers have contributed to the ecosystem for generations, happily buzzing away while people collect their honey and beeswax, and now are studying every part of them to further medicine and research. But not everything about honeybees is always peachy.

Though they’re not endangered, honeybee populations have been on the decline. Exact numbers are hard to pin down, considering there are wild hives out there we don’t know about, but 2025 started with 2.63 million colonies in the U.S. and ended with an estimated loss of 50% of hives. Fortunately, they seem to be recovering this year, but it’s important to do all we can to support honeybee populations. 

One way to help bees is to make our system of agriculture more sustainable. Habitat loss contributes to wild bees population decline, so the less new farmland we have to make from their habitats, the more they can thrive both in human-kept hives and the wild. Learn how you can support sustainable practices like regenerative agriculture and keep habitats safe from further development.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post All the Things You Didn’t Know Bees Do for Us appeared first on Earth Day.

Giant pandas are one of the most recognizable animals in the world, but many of the most interesting things about them are far less well known. Behind the black-and-white fur is an animal with unusual genetics, strange reproductive biology, an ancient evolutionary history, and a body far stronger than its gentle image suggests. Here are 9 surprising facts about giant pandas.  

1. There are two kinds of giant pandas: the Sichuan giant panda and the Qinling giant panda of Shaanxi.

Scientists generally recognize two subspecies of giant panda: the more common Sichuan giant panda and the Qinling giant panda, which lives in the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi. Qinling pandas are known for their somewhat browner chest and belly fur, as well as differences in skull and tooth shape.  The two panda groups have distinct genetic traits, and because the Qinling panda preserves an older genetic lineage, they are not casually crossbred.

2. Giant pandas are all nearsighted.

Their poor vision may be linked to the fact that they have long lived in dim, obstacle-filled bamboo forests, where sharp eyesight is less necessary and visual function may have gradually weakened. Exact estimates of panda nearsightedness differ, but pandas appear to see best at close range and can distinguish details especially well within about half a meter.

At the same time, pandas have highly developed senses of smell and hearing, which help compensate for their weak eyesight when finding food, detecting danger, and communicating with other pandas.

3. Panda babies are like tiny premature-looking human newborns.

A newborn giant panda cub is astonishingly small. At birth, it usually weighs only about 90 to 130 grams (roughly 3 to 5 ounces), and measures around 15 to 18 centimeters long, about the size of a stick of butter. Cubs are born pink, nearly hairless, blind, and extremely fragile. They are also very loud. Their constant crying is not just noise, it helps the mother keep track of them and avoid accidentally crushing them.

4. Giant pandas can seem to “pause” pregnancy, and females have only a very short breeding window.

This idea comes from a real biological phenomenon called delayed implantation. After fertilization, the embryo may not immediately implant in the uterus, which makes panda pregnancy hard to detect and easy to misunderstand. Female giant pandas also have only one brief fertile period each year, and that window usually lasts just 24 to 72 hours. So while people joke that pandas have babies depending on their mood, the truth is that panda reproduction is biologically complicated and tightly timed.  

5. Pandas are far stronger and more dangerous than they look.

Giant pandas may look cuddly, but they are still large bears with powerful jaws, teeth, claws, and forelimbs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notes that pandas have very powerful jaws and teeth for crushing bamboo, and anatomical research also suggests that giant pandas are well adapted for tree climbing.  One widely cited study of 151 carnivores ranked the giant panda fifth overall in bite force, behind only (polar bears > tigers > brown bears >lions). Studies commonly place a giant panda’s bite at around 1,300 newtons at the canines and about 1,800 newtons at the carnassial teeth. That is roughly equal to having the weight of a 130- to 180-kilogram object concentrated at one biting point

6. The panda lineage is ancient.

Giant pandas are not a recent species in evolutionary terms. Fossil and genetic evidence shows that the panda lineage goes back millions of years, making it one of the oldest surviving branches of the bear family. In China, the earliest likely references to giant pandas date back to ancient works such as the Shijing and Shangshu, placing them in the written record for over 2,500 years. They are not just modern conservation icons, they are survivors of an ancient lineage.  

7. Pandas descended from meat-eating ancestors but gradually became bamboo specialists.

Giant pandas belong to the order Carnivora, and their ancestors were meat-eating animals. Over time, however, pandas shifted toward a diet that is now about 99 percent bamboo. Research has also found that pandas lost normal function in a taste receptor associated with savory, meat-related flavors, which may help explain why meat became less appealing. Even so, their digestive system is still more like that of a carnivore than that of a true herbivore, which is one reason they must spend so much of the day eating.  

8. Giant pandas are solitary animals and need a lot of territory.

Adult pandas usually live alone and have strong territorial tendencies. Instead of constant social interaction, they communicate mainly through scent marking. According to San Diego Zoo, a panda’s home range can span several square kilometers, depending on food availability and habitat quality, depending on food availability and habitat quality. That means a single adult may need an area as large as hundreds or even thousands of soccer fields. This is one reason habitat fragmentation is such a major threat to pandas because pandas do not just need bamboo, they need enough connected forest to live and move safely.  

9. Most giant pandas really are “Cancers” or “Leos.”

Most panda cubs are born in July and August. That is because the breeding season usually takes place in spring, when females enter their short annual fertile period. As a result, panda birthdays cluster in late summer, with only a small number born outside that pattern. 

In recent years, giant pandas have moved from Endangered to Vulnerable. In China, years of habitat protection, forest restoration, and conservation work have helped panda populations recover, while also supporting the many other species that share their home.

To help restore and protect habitats around the world, support EARTHDAY.ORG’s Canopy Tree Project. Because in the end, animals cannot ask for help, but we can choose to act for them.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post 9 Surprising Facts About Giant Pandas appeared first on Earth Day.

The oil stank like nothing Puff had ever smelled before. Black goop coated his body, slipping beneath his feathers and soiling his white down belly. The pale-yellow whiskers crowning his head drooped under the oil. He could not move his wings. He could not even open his beak.

A trio of humans hovered over his head. Puff trembled, but could not stop their gloved hands from picking him up from the oil-slicked beach and setting him in a small red duffle bag. Just hours before, he’d been diving with the other Tufted Puffins, lining his beak with smelt and bobbing freely on the open ocean when all of a sudden, utter darkness ate up his blue-green sea. Oil and gas had boiled up to the surface after an oil rig had torn open the seabed. At least that’s what the strange buzzing contraption next to the humans went on and on about.

“January 31st, 1969. This just in. Thousands of seabirds washed ashore Santa Barbara’s white-sand beaches. Residents reported a strong stench three days prior, likely in connection with Platform A’s recent oil spill. Eye-witnesses say the birds are soaked in oil, still alive but ill and unable to move. Death tolls remain unknown. Authorities recommend taking live birds to the Santa Barbara Zoo for care.”

The radio fizzled out before continuing:

“With their pristine beaches smothered in goop, Santa Barbara locals are left wondering why. Who will be held responsible? How will the world react? Union Oil has declined to comment.”

Puff’s rescuers lay his quivering body in the back of their rust red sedan, pressed between a western grebe and a restless common loon. Snatches of the human’s conversation drifted to him from the front seats.

“Awful situation, it is, just awful. Like a giant spilled a heaping cauldron of ink all across the beach. Oh, and the sea! Ann, the sea looked like it was boiling.”

“They say some 3,500 seabirds and marine mammals have already died, from little guys like our puffin in the trunk to sea lions and dolphins. The oil drowns the birds, you know. Swipes that water-proofing right off their feathers.”

“But we can’t lose hope, Jack. They say Nixon might be out to survey the scene. And if a disaster like this catches the president’s attention, maybe our hopes for a cleaner, healthier environment can become reality.”

Puff cocked his head. A healthier environment? Would that mean cleaner waters too? Maybe even more smelt and little squid to feed on?

Later, at the Santa Barbara Zoo, a team of kind humans scrubbed Puff down and nursed him back to health. The volunteers said almost 9,000 oil-weighted birds like him had died in the spill. They also whispered about a certain environmentally-minded Senator Nelson of Wisconsin who’d traveled to survey the damage to Santa Barbara’s famed beaches. The humans believed Nelson might signal a changing attitude in their leaders. They dreamed of a world where beaches were clear, the water pristine, and the air as sweet as honey.

For months after his recovery, fear kept Puff pinned to the Santa Barbara Zoo. He was terrified of discovering the same black goop monster haunting the shores of his beloved ocean. But when he heard tell of Nelson’s visit and of the humans rallying for his and other seabirds’ cause, he felt he had to see the action himself. So, Puff, with his stubby little wings, embarked on a grand tour across the United States.

Soaring up from California and over the Rockies, Puff dropped by the University of Colorado, Boulder. He found students and faculty alike pausing their day-to-day activities to fight for the Earth—for Puff’s Earth. Green flags dotted campus and students organized teach-ins, symposiums, rap sessions, speeches, and films. Puff could hardly believe his eyes.

Across the Great Plains and over Lake Michigan, Puff stopped in Ann Arbor where students and faculty at the University of Michigan rallied under the banner “Give Earth A Chance.” Like the Coloradans, the Michiganders meant business. As pioneers of the teach-in format, Michigan’s organizers’ attracted over 50,000 attendees across 125 seminars, panels, rallies, and other events, paying special attention to ecological issues in the Great Lakes and the impact of war on the environment.

The buzz about the environment flew faster than Puff could keep up with. The humans came to call the movement Earth Day, and apparently, events spanned the entire nation. Puff even heard that activists down in Miami staged a parody Orange Bowl parade called the “Dead Orange Parade,” featuring the Statue of Liberty decked out in a gas mask.

All the commotion struck a chord in Puff’s heart. Returning to Santa Barbara later that year, he learned that volunteers from the University of California Santa Barbara had recovered 1,800 barrels of skimmed oil from his home seas. Puff swelled with pride. The future of Puff’s home seemed bright—humans and their fellow animals might still save their Mother Earth.

Like Puff, it’s important to keep our hopes and passions alive even when our world turns upside down. Whether it be fossil fuel companies polluting our seas or world leaders ignoring scientists’ pleas for swift climate action, know that you can’t and aren’t expected to control the whole world. Take a breath, recenter, and like Puff, get out there and find those little ways you can make a difference for our planet.

Join Climate Education and follow in the footsteps of the activists who grabbed the world’s attention with teach-ins after the Santa Barbara oil spill. Small changes can and will make a difference.

The post Puff’s Great Adventure appeared first on Earth Day.

Nature is full of creatures that do far more than simply survive. Many quietly perform jobs that keep ecosystems functioning. A review on biodiversity loss gathered evidence from more than 600 experiments involving over 500 kinds of organisms and found that when biodiversity is lost, living things populating the surrounding area become less efficient at using resources, growing biological matter, and breaking down and reusing nutrients.

This underscores how animals are not just interesting parts of nature, they are superheroes, each with their own special job, supporting the health and stability of the entire planet. Without their vigilant protection, entire ecosystems would be at risk of decay, as they lost their resistance to climate change, efficiency in resource usage, and improved environmental restoration. This National Superheroes Day, let’s explore some unsung champions inhabiting, and safeguarding, three vastly different layers of our Earth.

The Gardeners of Nature

In savannahs, deserts, and forests, one such heroic species moves with enormous weight but leaves life behind with almost every step. Elephants are far more than impressive giants, they are also major seed dispensers. Research describes them as “megagardeners of the forest” because they consume as many as 500 plant species and then deposit viable seeds over long distances in nutrient-rich dung.

This matters for the ecosystem’s health as seeds carried away from the parent plant are less likely to compete with it for nutrients. Additionally, distribution of a plant over a larger area decreases the chance of child plants catching parental disease. On top of that, being spread out lowers the risk of being eaten by insects and animals stalking the original area for the species, improving their survivability.

The elephants’ size, broad diet, long gut passage time, and large home range make them unusually effective at transporting seeds across landscapes in a way that smaller animals often cannot. On average, forest elephants transport seeds for 5.3 kilometers. 89% of the seeds get displaced by more than 1 kilometer from the parent plant and 10% carried further than 14 kilometers, far past the borders of the parent tree neighborhoods. These numbers show that elephants do not simply drop seeds near where they found them, they spread them across the forest, helping plants colonize new, uncharted areas, and maintain genetic diversity.

The Creepy Custodians

A very different superhero appears only after death. Vultures are often seen as ugly or ominous, yet they perform one of the most valuable jobs in nature: pollution and disease control. 

By finding and consuming dead animals quickly, they remove carcasses before they can become breeding grounds for harmful bacteria and other pathogens. This keeps the environment cleaner and lowers the risk of infectious diseases, like anthrax, spreading among humans and animals.

Vultures, being the only surviving vertebrates who are obligate scavengers, are especially efficient at disposing of remains, getting it done much faster and cleaner than other animals. Even when feral dogs populate areas devoid of vultures, they do not measure up to the birds’ standards, often being too few in numbers and leaving uneaten pieces behind.

Vultures’ work also supports cleaner water. When carcasses end up in streams and rivers, their decomposition causes a decrease in the level of dissolved oxygen and an increase of fecal-originating bacteria. Lower oxygen levels harm survivability of local fish who need it to breathe, while bacteria threaten human and animal health by causing infections, making vultures the guardians of water quality as well.

On top of that, these birds also provide indirect benefits to human communities. Their rapid cleanup of animal remains can reduce the food available to roaming scavengers such as feral dogs, which helps limit the spread of rabies among people. At the same time, Vultures save communities the time, cost, and labor that would otherwise be needed to dispose of the carcasses through burying or incineration.

The Shoreline Vanguards

While elephants strengthen the forests and vultures keep landscapes clean, corals protect life by building the structure of entire underwater cities. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), although coral reefs cover only about 1% of the planet’s oceans, they create a livable environment for at least 25% of all marine life. Rather than simply occupying an ecosystem, they create one.

But their work does not stop in the ocean, coral reefs defend land inhabitants too. NOAA explains that reef structures act as natural barriers against waves, dissipating around 97% of wave energy. This helps reduce erosion and subsequent property and life damage. The service saves nations significant amounts of resources, as calculations suggest that without coral reefs to protect our shorelines, global yearly expenses caused by storms would increase by at least $4 billion. It is estimated that countries most at risk from these natural disasters, such as Cuba, Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillipines, and Mexico, each save around $400 millions in damages annually just from being surrounded by coral reefs.

But coral reefs are important not only because they support marine life and shorelines, they also help scientists develop new medicines. Many substances found in coral reefs are currently being used to develop treatments for diseases such as arthritis, cancer, viruses, bacterial infections, and more.

Anyone Can Be a Hero

Together, these species show that protecting nature is about more than saving individual animals. Elephants, vultures, and corals each perform a different kind of environmental service, but all of them help keep the planet healthy. Their stories remind us that ecosystems depend on cooperation, and that every living thing matters in the big picture.One way you can join these heroes in their quest to protect the planet is by donating to the Canopy Tree Project. Not only would your donation share in the spirit of planet conservation, but it would also help preserve habitats of animals, helping maintain biodiversity that strengthens our ecosystem.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post Nature’s Hidden Superheroes appeared first on Earth Day.

Waters beyond national jurisdiction — also known as the “high seas” — host charismatic icons like whales, rays, and sea turtles. They also contain creatures who seem to come from an alien realm: bone-eating worms snacking on whale skull, candy-colored forests of bubblegum coral, and siphonophores forming 100-foot-long chains of mouths and tentacles. But human knowledge of this life represents only a fraction of what’s really out there. In fact, scientists estimate that over 90% of marine species remain undescribed, meaning they have not been named or classified in scientific literature.

These otherworldly organisms are good for more than scientific wonder: life on the high seas also helps slow global warming. When phytoplankton photosynthesize on the sunlit surface, they fix carbon to build their biomass. This carbon moves through the food web; as organisms die and produce waste, some of the carbon sinks down to the deep sea, where it can be stored for hundreds to thousands of years. This is known as the biological pump, and it stores 2.8 billion tons of carbon annually (equivalent to 10 billion tons of CO₂).

Until now, there has been no legally binding international agreement dedicated to protecting biodiversity on the high seas, an expanse that contains 95% of the ocean’s volume. Some light finally pierced this literal and legal abyss when the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement took effect on January 17th, 2026, after nearly 20 years of negotiations at the U.N. The agreement aims to address biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation in the high seas, which are caused by climate change and pollution, including plastic pollution.

The BBNJ Agreement includes four pillars designed to protect marine species and ecosystems: here’s how each part works.

Marine Genetic Resources, a.k.a. The Biological Building Blocks of Innovation

What are marine genetic resources? Think: the chemical reaction that causes a bioluminescent jellyfish to glow, or the antifreeze proteins found in Antarctic fish that are used to improve the texture of ice cream. Marine genetic resources are the gene sequences, chemical processes, or other biological materials of marine organisms that can be used to generate new scientific knowledge and commercial products.

Marine genetic resources from the deep sea are especially eye-catching because this zone is teeming with extremophiles — organisms that thrive in extreme temperature, pressure, and darkness conditions. These adaptations are why deep-sea life often appears so alien. They’re also why researchers suspect that these creatures might contain unique genetic resources with potentially useful applications in fields like medicine, cosmetics, agriculture, and even climate change adaptation. 

The BBNJ Agreement says that marine genetic resources belong to everyone, not just the richest corporations that can most easily access them. The treaty requires benefits sharing, which means that money, data, and knowledge derived from marine genetic resources and their resulting products will be shared with the international community, particularly with developing countries. Countries will use these shared benefits to strengthen the technology and institutions that protect the sustainable use of marine genetic resources.

This effort is particularly important as humans explore the possibility of deep-sea mining, which many scientists believe would devastate these ecosystems before we’ve even had a chance to explore them. Benefits sharing makes everyone a stakeholder in the responsible use and development of marine genetic resources, creating both funding and financial incentives for their conservation.

Protecting Biodiversity Hotspots

The largest conservation area in the United States is actually in the ocean; the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is larger than all of our national parks combined. Located around Hawaii’s northern islands, this area protects diverse habitats from reefs to deep seas and hosts over 7,000 marine species. Some of these species are endangered, like the green sea turtle, and others, like the Hawaiian monk seal, cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

The second part of the BBNJ Agreement seeks to set up a network of similar marine protected areas across the high seas. Since these waters lie outside of any country’s jurisdiction, there hasn’t previously been a clear legal procedure for establishing marine protected areas here. Currently, less than 1% of the high seas are fully protected.

We don’t yet know exactly where the marine protected areas will be, but there are plenty of contenders. 

Take hydrothermal vent cities: towering chimney stacks push up from the seabed, pumping out piping-hot minerals where magma meets seawater. Microorganisms convert these minerals directly into energy through chemosynthesis — a process like photosynthesis, but swap out sunlight for inorganic compounds. The discovery of chemosynthesis radically changed scientists’ views about where life could exist and set off a whole chain of discoveries of new organisms.

Or the thermal dome: gather around! Every year in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, colliding warm and cool currents cause cold, nutrient-rich water to rise from the depths to the warmer surface, creating the perfect conditions for algae to thrive. Around this algae coalesces a vast, diverse food web. Zooplankton bring filter-feeding fish, which, in turn, bring tuna and birds of prey, eventually attracting animals like dolphins and whales. Besides being an essential food source, mating site, and nursery for a variety of migratory species, this biodiversity hotspot is also a carbon sink, meaning it reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by storing more carbon than it releases.

Hydrothermal vents and the thermal dome are just two pockets in the expanse of high seas biodiversity that may finally gain protections under the treaty. 

Environmental Impact Assessments

Without an international agreement, the high seas are kind of a free-for-all in terms of commercial activity. Who is going to come after (or even notice) corporations harming the environment miles and miles away from anyone’s national jurisdiction? 

The third part of the BBNJ Agreement addresses this absence of accountability. Now, any party planning an activity in the high seas that could harm the marine environment, like deep-sea mining, industrial fishing, or building new infrastructure, must first conduct an environmental impact assessment. The treaty also requires environmental impact assessments for activities within national jurisdictions whose impacts might extend to international waters.

This assessment reports on potential environmental harms, how the party plans to mitigate these harms, any gaps in their knowledge about the expected consequences, and follow-up strategies for long-term conservation. They are also required to consult with the public after publicizing their plans. 

Each country  is responsible for making sure that any private actor under its jurisdiction complies with this procedure, and potentially harmful activities can only go forward after the authorizing country has reviewed the impact assessment and granted permission. The BBNJ’s Scientific and Technical Body also reviews environmental impact assessments throughout their development, including deciding when one is needed, identifying any relevant omissions in assessment plans, and monitoring the project’s compliance with environmental standards. 

But let’s be clear, it’s pretty hard to measure an activity’s impact when we know so little about the ecosystems that might be harmed. Recall that over 90% of marine species remain undescribed. It’s no wonder, since humans have directly observed just .001% of the seafloor. If we want accurate environmental impact assessments, we’re going to need more robust research.

Capacity Building and Technology Transfer: We’re All in This Together

Which brings us to capacity building. Knitting together equity and conservation, this final pillar of the BBNJ treaty focuses on improving our collective capability to understand and conserve life on the high seas. As we know so little about the oceans, high seas technology and scientific knowledge is cutting edge, and conducting research or implementing conservation goals in this zone is often extremely expensive. The average daily operating cost of a deep-sea research ship is around $30,000.

Not all countries have the same capacity to undertake research and support conservation efforts on this blue frontier. And, as we begin to flesh out the BBNJ Agreement’s other mandates, we need good research to support good policy. With this in mind, the fourth pillar instructs countries to share their scientific expertise, data, and infrastructure (like specialized ships or lab equipment) to help build the marine technological capacity of developing states. The more widespread, diverse, and collaborative our efforts to understand and protect high seas biodiversity, the greater our chances of meaningful conservation.

How Can You Help Protect High Seas Biodiversity?

The United States has signed the BBNJ Agreement, but it has not been ratified by the Senate, which is necessary for us to become full members. Call or write your Senator! Let them know that you care about high seas biodiversity and ask them to ratify the treaty.
The BBNJ Agreement unfortunately does not address plastic in its four pillars, even though its preamble cites plastic pollution as a key contributor to high seas biodiversity loss. Disturbingly, the deepest-ever sea dive discovered plastic wrappers 7 miles underwater in the Mariana Trench, illustrating plastic’s reach into the most hidden crevices of our planet. If you want to be part of the solution to global plastic pollution, sign our Global Plastic Treaty or consider contributing to Earth Day’s End Plastics campaign.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at fielder@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post Inside the New High Seas Treaty appeared first on Earth Day.

Positive News You Can Use is EARTHDAY.ORG’s monthly feature showcasing inspiring environmental progress from around the world. February’s edition delves into recent solutions addressing deforestation and forest regrowth with new technology, forever chemical removal that can be applied on a large scale, evidence of solar’s success, and a recent record-breaking rate of species discovery.

Learn, hope, and share this news with your friends.

No Longer Forever: New Technology Breaks Down PFAS

Rice University researchers found an environmentally friendly way to break down PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” which can take up to 1,000 years to break down. 

Since the 1940s, PFAS have been used in many everyday products, such as clothing, carpets, and cookware, for their heat and water-resistant properties.  As a result, these chemicals accumulate in food, water, animals, people, and the environment. Over 200 million people likely receive water with measurable PFAS concentrations. Exposure is linked to causing pervasive health issues, including some cancers and reproductive disorders. 

Current removal methods, like incineration, fail to eliminate all the chemicals. However, testing this new invention in river, tap, and wastewater yielded positive results, suggesting it could be used in municipal water treatment systems.

The technology uses layered double hydroxide (LDH), a material composed of copper and aluminum. The eco-friendly aspect stems from its reuse and cleanup: early testing showed that LDH can be reused in at least six cycles of PFAS capture, destruction, and renewal. With the adoption of this technology and other innovative solutions, we are one step closer to removing hazardous chemicals impacting human and environmental health.

Species Discovery Rate Hits Record-breaking 16,000 Yearly

Scientists discover over 16,000 new species every year, with the most recent comprehensive data from 2015 to 2020 showcasing a higher rate than any period ever recorded, researchers at the University of Arizona found.

Certain groups are more diverse than previously thought. Long-term projections suggest there could be up to 73,000 more fish species and 32,000 more amphibian species than previously thought. There may also be over half a million plant species in total. 

Many scientists have declared we are in a mass extinction event, the sixth of the last 500 million years, but the first directly caused by human activity. Being able to use and redirect human influence for positive efforts through effective biological conservation efforts relies on documenting, identifying, and discovering species.

Brazilian AI System Stops Deforestation Before it Happens

The growing integration of artificial intelligence into environmental initiatives continues with Brazilian nonprofit Imazon, a scientific institution fighting for Amazon rainforest survival. The AI deforestation prediction model uses colored dots to indicate risk levels in Amazon patches. Notably,71% of the 15,000 square kilometers identified as high-risk forest areas were saved: Imazon’s map has helped inform 4,400 environmental legal cases and uncovered99% of illegal deforestation since its 2021 launch.

The Amazon is home to over 10% of the planet’s biodiversity and 40 million people. Deforestation has impacted the Amazon’s overall forest loss of 17%, and with current deforestation rates, 27% of the forest will be without trees. 

Predictive and large-scale modeling projects like these provide efficient methods to identifytopographic data in real time and combat deforestation. Models can therefore be used to inform environmental policy and direct government reforestation efforts involving high-risk and vulnerable forest patches. Imazon partners with local state prosecutors to push for deforestation prevention over punishment.

Solar Just Met 61% of America’s 2025 Electricity Needs, and Costs 96% Less Than it Did 40 Years Ago 

Solar, wind, and batteries continue to grow in the US, with solar named as the fastest-growing source of America’s electricity in 2025. Solar power generation met 61% of America’s electricity demand growth last year, the entire rise in daytime electricity demand, and with batteries, also met most of the rise in evening electricity demand. 

Fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas are finite resources, meaning that at some point they will be depleted. For instance, global coal reserves are estimated to run out in 133 years with our current use rates. Renewable energy technology allows a promise for energy generation far beyond this deadline. Solar energy sustains human populations using the Sun as an unlimited power source, all while contributing far fewer harmful greenhouse gases that accelerate the climate crisis. 

Solar energy costs have reduced 96% over the past four decades, and are projected to keep reducing from scaled-up production, manufacturing advancements, and technological improvements.

Nitrogen Fertilizer Doubles Forest Regrowth Speed

Researchers at the University of Leeds found that when forest soils contain enough nitrogen, tropical forests can regrow twice as fast after deforestation. Plants depend on nitrogen to form chlorophyll, allowing sunlight and nutrient absorption for growth. 

Forests help capture carbon through carbon sequestration. This helps slow climate change by taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Reforestation efforts are gaining more traction in Brazil with the announcement of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, which can protect and revitalize tropical forests worldwide.

Even as global reforestation rates slowed in 2025, the current rate yields 10.9 million hectares of forest lost every year. Findings on how to direct regrowth efforts and exploring natural solutions help inspire different methods for governments, organizations, and individuals to regrow our forests. 

These discoveries serve as a reminder that people are doing their part to save the planet, and you can too. We have the power to innovate, using science to understand our natural world and technological advances to protect it. Mark Earth Day 2026 with Our Power, Our Planet, on April 22nd and every day to continue, promoting scientific progress that helps protect our world.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at fielder@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post Positive News You Can Use: Golden Age of Discovery appeared first on Earth Day.

Close your eyes. Imagine stepping into a forest that feels older than anything you’ve ever known. The air is cool enough to raise the hairs on your arms, crisp as you breathe it in. All around you rise tall trees, their trunks broad, disappearing into the layered canopies far above. At your feet, fallen trees rest in the green quiet, their weathered wood blending into the forest floor as new life grows around them.

This is an old-growth, or primary forest. Akin to the mysterious forests depicted in Brothers Grimm tales, old-growth forests feel untouched and otherworldly. In fact, one of the main characteristics is that it remains unmarked by human activity, allowing this complex ecosystem to flourish. Though these forests do not possess magical abilities like in fairy tales, their real magic lies in the rare habitats they create, which are sadly close to vanishing.

Climate change and unsustainable logging have destroyed U.S. forests. In the West, on average less than 5% of old-growth forests remain. In the East, just under 1%, on average, still stands. Old-growth forests take a very long time to develop, making this rapid destruction even more harmful.

So, What Exactly Is An Old-Growth Forest?

Forests develop in stages. These canopied ecosystems begin with shrubs and tree seedlings, then grow into developed trees, and after a hundred years or so, the trees reach past the harvesting age, advancing into an old-growth forest. Throughout each stage, if left untouched by humans or other disturbances like fire or insects, the forest develops as a rich ecosystem teeming with biodiversity.

No crevice of this land is left unused; the multilayered canopies are perfect for birds and other small critters. Undisturbed trees develop hollow cavities that become ideal nesting places for animals. Deadwood creates habitat for insects, fungi, reptiles, and amphibians, and the moist air benefits the lichen and mosses. It’s within this dense, layered architecture that the forest’s most dependent residents appear, ones whose whole success depends on the complex features of an old-growth forest.

“Hoo” Loves Old Trees? Owls! 

As wise as the ancient forest it calls home, the Northern Spotted owl is an indicator species, one whose presence signals the health of an ecosystem. One of three spotted owl subspecies, the Northern Spotted owl ranges across the Pacific Northwest, preferring to harbor in old-growth Douglas fir forests. 

Northern Spotted owls do not build their own nest, but seek out broken-top trees, tree cavities, which are the hollowed-out areas of a tree, and nests built by other wildlife. How sustainable of them! These birds flourish in the cluttered organization of an old-growth forest through the multilayered canopies that provide a happy environment for their prey. Younger forests are not capable of developing this level of complexity yet, making the existence of old-growth forests vital for this little owl’s livelihood. 

As old-growth forests are popular amongst loggers due to tree size and numbers, forest size has decreased greatly. After years of activism and negotiation amongst environmentalists, loggers, and the government, the Northern Spotted owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Under this, loggers are required to leave at least 40% of the forest intact within a 1.3-mile radius of any spotted owl nest or activity site. 

While the Northern Spotted owl helped old-growth forest enforcements in the Pacific Northwest, it isn’t the only species shaped by these forests. In the Southwest, an iconic, little fuzzy creature shows how dependent life can be on the structure and age of ponderosa pines.

Living High in the Ponderosa Penthouse 

The Kaibab squirrel has pointed ears, a black belly, and a bushy white tail. It is one of the rarest animal in the national park system. This adorable critterl is an endemic species, meaning it can only be found in one geographic region. You can spot it on the Kaibab Plateau in Kaibab National Forest and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Kaibab Plateau hosts most of the Southwest’s remaining old ponderosa pines, which the squirrel eats the seeds, pinecones, bark, and twigs of. The great height of these old trees is perfect for the squirrel, as they nest as high as 40 feet above the ground. 

The Grand Canyon’s North Rim has faced a multitude of environmental threats, such as drought and climate change, hunting, disease, logging, and most recently, the Dragon Bravo Fire, which burned up to 145,504 acres of land. In 1965, about 300,000 acres of Ponderosa Pine Forest were designated as the Kaibab Squirrel Habitat National Natural Landmark, protecting the forest for all those who depend on it. 

The Kaibab squirrel shows how species with small range areas and a specific habitat dependence can face major risks. Thousands of miles away from the Southwest, a similar dynamic appears with the Alexander Archipelago wolf, whose survival is linked to the old-growth rainforests of Southeast Alaska.

The Big Bad Wolf

This creature stalks the forest floor for its next meal. The Alexander Archipelago wolf resides in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, which happens to be the largest U.S. National Forest. This dark-haired wolf thrives in dense, undeveloped forests with lots of wildlife for food sources, something that old-growth forests provide. The cluttered forest floor also provides plenty of denning sites. 

The wolf’s favorite meal is the Sitka black-tailed deer, another old-growth dependent animal. Threats to the Tongass National Forest such as logging and road development, put prey animals like deer at risk, this in turn affects the Alexander Archipelago wolf. These wolves are beautiful, and hunters agree. In the fall of 2021, there were an estimated 230 wolves  around the Prince of Wales Island. But over the course of a month, 62 of those wolves were killed. Despite this, the wolf has been repeatedly denied any kind of status under the Endangered Species Act.

As old-growth forests shrink, this beautiful wolf’s future becomes inseparable from the future of its habitat. Protecting these forests is not just about just saving ancient trees, but also about preserving the unique animals that call them home

Keep the Ancient Giants Standing

Old-growth forests are  an awe-inspiring landscape that acts as a life-supporting system for these unique animal species. From owls in the Pacific Northwest to squirrels on the Kaibab Plateau and wolves in Southeast Alaska, the loss of ancient trees threatens entire ecosystems that cannot be recreated quickly once they are gone. 

The best way to preserve old-growth forests is to protect them. By 2030, EARTHDAY.org plans on planting 60 million trees globally to try and add to the forests of the future. If you would like to support this mission, please consider donating to the Canopy Tree Project today.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at davies@earthday.org or fielder@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post Animals Who Inherited the Fairy Tale Forests appeared first on Earth Day.