Millions of Americans enjoy feeding and watching backyard birds. Many people make a point of putting food out in winter, when birds needs extra energy, and spring, when many species build nests and raise young.

As a wildlife ecologist and a birder, I know it’s important to understand how humans influence bird populations, whether ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Space Coast is set for another busy year in 2025 with new moon missions, new spacecraft and the debut of a new rocket.

Meanwhile, NASA could see billionaire Jared Isaacman confirmed as its new administrator while prep continues for the Artemis II human spaceflight to orbit the moon in 2026.

Coming off a record 93 launches...Read more

DENVER — A new law decades in the making could finally lead to the cleanup of some of the thousands of abandoned mines in Colorado that leak toxic metals and acid into the headwaters of the rivers that sustain life across the West.

The Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden on Dec. ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Fluorescent-colored sand sprinkled on San Diego County beaches could help reveal the complicated patterns of erosion that plague the region’s coastline.

A so-called “tracer study” would use environmentally benign grains of bright material to show the movement of sand carried by ocean currents. The technique is recommended in ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — California is entering the fourth month of what is typically the rainy season, but in the Southland, the landscape is beginning to show signs of drought.

The last time Los Angeles recorded rainfall over a tenth of an inch — the threshold that officials typically consider helpful for thirsty plants and the reduction of wildfire...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida’s beaches draw thousands of tourists each year, in addition to residents who swim or surf in the ocean. Yet more often than the public realizes, fecal bacteria is present at high levels in some swimming areas.

In December alone, the state health department for Palm Beach County collected samples for routine ...Read more

Starting this week, farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley are banned from burning agricultural waste in the field, a legislative mandate aimed at improving air quality that has been decades in the making.

The near-complete prohibition on mass burns of agricultural prunings and field crops, as well as orchards and vineyards removed from ...Read more

After a record year of launches, SpaceX kicked things off again with the first mission of 2025 on Friday night.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:27 p.m. on the Space42 Thuraya 4 mission carrying a communications satellite to a geosynchronous transfer orbit for a commercial company ...Read more

ATLANTA — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday it has finalized a plan that could lead to the expansion the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

The plan approved by the FWS — which manages the 407,000-acre refuge — adds 22,000 acres to the Okefenokee’s “acquisition boundary.” That includes the creation of a 1-mile �...Read more

After a record year of launches, SpaceX is set to kick things off again with the first mission of 2025 on Friday night.

A Falcon 9 on the Space42 Thuraya 4 mission carrying a communications satellite to a geosynchronous transfer orbit is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a four-hour ...Read more

Above the equator, winter officially begins in December. But in many areas, January is when it really takes hold. Atmospheric scientist Deanna Hence explains the weather and climate factors that combine to produce wintry conditions at the turn of the year.

As the Earth orbits the sun, it spins around an axis – picture a stick going ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is preparing to issue a decree permanently banning new offshore oil and gas development in some U.S. coastal waters, locking in difficult-to-revoke protections during his final weeks in the White House.

Biden is set within days to issue the executive order barring the sale of new drilling rights in portions of...Read more

DENVER — Colorado’s eight collared wolves in the wild spread out in the northern and northwestern parts of the state in December, according to a monthly tracking map released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

At least one wolf crossed back into a watershed that includes Larimer County for the first time since October, according to the map, ...Read more

Two rare female whales have been documented off the coast of Florida, each with a calf, marine surveyors said.

The 20-year-old whale mothers, named Blackheart and Caterpillar, were seen Dec. 30 near Ponte Vedra Beach, a suburb of Jacksonville, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Research Institute.

It’s ...Read more

DENVER — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a reward for information after determining that a male wolf that died last summer after it was captured for killing livestock had been shot before it was removed from the wild.

That gunshot wound caused the wolf’s health to decline and was fatal after its capture, federal officials ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is preparing to issue a decree permanently banning new offshore oil and gas development in some U.S. coastal waters, locking in difficult-to-revoke protections for sensitive marine areas during his final weeks in the White House.

Biden is set within days to issue the executive order barring the sale of new ...Read more

Apple agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a lawsuit that alleges the tech giant recorded private conversations from people who used its voice assistant Siri without their consent.

The iPhone maker was sued in 2019 for allegedly violating users' privacy after The Guardian reported that contractors hired by the company to review Siri's ...Read more

A recent detection of a flesh-eating parasite in southern Mexico has U.S. officials concerned that the previously eradicated New World Screwworm (NWS) could make its way back into the country for the first time since the 1960s.

The pest was found in a cow in southern Mexico, near the border of Guatemala, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife in...Read more