Ukraine president accuses Russia of ecocide in shellshock deaths of cetaceans washed up on PA shores

On May 9, Bogdan Bulete, regional head ranger at the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in Romania, received what he thought was yet another routine call to check out a possible dolphin stranding near the town of Sulina. But when he reached the beach this time, the sight that met his eyes was “overwhelming,” he told Mongabay. Up to 30 dolphins lay dead on the sand.

“Some of them looked burned, and all of them had marks of nets around their tail or their belly,” he said.

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/black-sea-dolphin-deaths-prompt-ecocide-allegations-against-russia/

Bill introduced to link Sequoia-Kings Canyon and Yosemite NPs with new PA

A longtime dream of connecting Yosemite National Park with Kings Canyon National Park by way of newly protected parklands has crystallized into federal legislation. How far the proposal actually gets remains to be seen.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, on Thursday introduced the Range of Light National Monument bill, calling for added protections for 1.4 million acres of mountains and forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and transferring the land’s oversight to the National Park Service.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/outdoors/article/Could-Yosemite-and-Kings-Canyon-parks-be-linked-17657483.php

Trees leafing out earlier in the spring along the Appalachian Trail: scientists

Stretching 3,531 kilometers over a wide range of landscapes, the Appalachian Trail in the eastern United States teems with life, especially when winter turns to spring. That annual transition is springing quite a bit earlier now than it has in past years, scientists have found, documenting a slow, but steady, change that has altered the annual rhythms of many of the trail’s ecosystems.

The findings rely on phenology, the science of tracking the timing of natural events. Phenologists have found abundant physical evidence that climate change is affecting Earth’s annual cycles, such as when butterflies first take flight and when leaves take on autumnal hues. One such cycle is the appearance of lustrous new leaves each spring, a process known as “green-up.”

https://eos.org/articles/leaves-are-springing-up-earlier-along-the-appalachian-trail