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Flip Your Strip gaining traction, leading to removal of water-guzzling turf

Tim Vandenack

July 16, 2022 |

Standard-Examiner |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington Terrace, Utah

In order to use less water in drought-ridden Utah, many residents are replacing their grassy park strips with vegetation and rocks that don’t need as much irrigation. As part of the “Flip Your Strip” initiative, the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District provides participants with money per square foot of grass removed. While the program is new, this idea has been tried and tested in California, where studies have shown that it is making an impact.

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In the US West, Researchers Consider a Four-Legged Tool to Fight Two Foes: Wildfire and Cheatgrass

Emma Foehringer Merchant

July 06, 2022 |

Inside Climate News |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Scientists are experimenting with a low-cost way of combatting an invasive species and wildfires. They’re using cattle to graze on cheatgrass, which has spread across the U.S. West, disrupted native plants and animals and become a source of fuel for fires. The cows were able to reduce the grass by an average of more than 60 percent, creating an area that could prevent fires from spreading.

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Could Human Pee Be the Key to Saving Seagrass?

Jesse Kathan

July 06, 2022 |

Hakai Magazine |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Florida

As ecologists look to protect failing seagrass ecosystems, they have turned to a surprising solution: crystallized human urine. In a lab study, seagrass treated with struvite — a crystalline substance formed from human wastewater — had five times more seagrass shoots than those treated with regular fertilizer. It’s difficult to get struvite commercially and it might not work in all types of environments, but if there is more of a supply, this part of human waste could help an important ecosystem.

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Soilless Farming to the Rescue. How to Boost Agriculture Without Hurting Forests

Abdullah Tijani

June 30, 2022 |

Foundation for Investigative Journalism |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria

A Nigerian agricultural entrepreneur is embracing hydroponics — a method that grows crops with water and no soil — as an alternative to farming methods that have led to land degradation. Because of Adebowale Onafowora’s knowledge, he has trained more than 20,000 people; and helped set up over 200 hydroponic centers. His inspiration led to the establishment of the Landmark University Greenhouse and Hydroponic Technology Centre, a place for research and training in the technique.

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Drought and inflation have come for farmers and ranchers. Does this Utahn have the solution?

Amy Joi O'Donoghue

June 06, 2022 |

Deseret News |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Castle Dale, Utah

A new Hydrogen nutrition technology allows a rancher in Utah to turn alfalfa seed into cattle feed within a few days with less than one-tenth of the water used in traditional hay fields. By using this technology, he’s been able to manage the drought in the region and preserve his farmland. While many could be skeptical of the system, the Legislature is planning to study how effective it could be for others in the state.

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How Stony Brook University Scientists Gave Shinnecock Bay a New Life

Rafael Cruvinel

June 02, 2022 |

SBU J-Drive |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, New York

After planting clams in Shinnecock Bay in 2012, scientists at Stony Brook University were able to reverse the trends of red tide in the coastal New York waters. The bay restoration project resulted in 400,000 square meters of seagrass regrowth and the local clam population significantly grew.

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Carbon credits versus the Big Gulp

Katherine Ellison

May 12, 2022 |

Hothouse Solutions |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Twitchell Island, California

By planting cattails and tule reeds in a California Delta farmland, scientists hope to change the area into a marsh with peat that can store carbon dioxide. This would also support levees from failing and prevent salty ocean water from ruining crops and threatening drinking water. Managing this kind of landscape can be expensive, and farmers are not always on board with converting their land, but this pilot project has already doled out 52,000 tons of carbon credit making it the first wetland project in the United States to do so.

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How farmers in Earth's least developed country grew 200 million trees

Katarina Höije Craig Welch

April 27, 2022 |

National Geographic |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Niger

After years of drought and land-clearing that left Niger with few trees left, the country now boasts about 200 million trees, which have mostly been reestablished naturally. While the effects of climate change could threaten the future of these trees, this method has also increased crop yields in villages. This model of letting trees grow back with little human influence could be implemented in other countries.

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Why a dry Chilean lagoon matters to the future of the Great Salt Lake

Amy Joi O'Donoghue

April 22, 2022 |

KUER Radio |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Chile

Burdened by extreme drought, water diversions, and a lack of regulation, Lake Acuelo in Chile dried up. Now, researchers are learning from this slow-moving ecological disaster to help other lakes in trouble, like Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

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Indigenous knowledge and science team up to triple a caribou herd

Chris Arsenault

April 21, 2022 |

Mongabay |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada, British Columbia

A collaboration between two First Nations communities, scientists, private businesses, and the Canadian government are recovering caribou populations in British Columbia. Because of their work, they have been able to triple the number of caribou in their herd over the last decades. While their methods of protecting the animals are controversial, they’ve been able to protect more than 7,000 hectares of additional land for caribou habitat.

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