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Making a home for fish in the desert takes a little help – and a lot of PVC

Dylan Simard

January 31, 2020 |

Planet Forward |

Multi-Media |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Rio Verde, Arizona

Volunteers in Arizona are building plastic cube structures to create a fish habitat in some of the state’s lakes. Since many of the lakes are in the desert, the shoreline is often not very hospitable for fish. These “fish cities,” made out of PVC pipe, plastic tubes, and glue, create an ecosystem in the lake. The Arizona Game & Fish Department dropped 500 cubes in Bartlett Lake and received positive feedback from anglers. They would like to implement the cubes in other lakes, but the project has been suspended because of limited funds.

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A rewilding triumph: wolves help to reverse Yellowstone degradation

Cassidy Randall

January 25, 2020 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Wyoming

Rewilding wolves rebalances ecosystems. Following the 1970s Endangered Species Act (ESA), efforts to reintroduce wolves into the Yellowstone National Park have proven successful, helping to reduce land degradation from overpopulated grazing animals. The effort began in 1995 with the introduction of wolves captured in Canada, with the help of Canadian agencies. Today, the wolves keep the park’s biodiversity in balance and attract tourists.

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Mending Coastal Marshes

Kerry Rose Graning

January 20, 2020 |

Hakai Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Louisiana

Martin Ecosystems uses recycled plastic bottles to manufacture artificial islands and shorelines, allowing native vegetation to grow and preventing land erosion, which has restored Louisiana’s wetlands and barrier islands. Plastic mats are layered, injected with Coast Guard approved foam for buoyancy, and planted with native vegetation. Once anchored in rows of up to 20 or more, they act as breakwaters reducing wave height by up to 80% and minimizing erosion. The mats also provide cover for nesting birds and a complex ecosystem for aquatic life. They have withstood years of hurricanes and tropical storms.

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How to Exorcise the Ghosts of Crab Traps Past

Dani Leviss

January 09, 2020 |

Hakai Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Jersey

Low cost sonar helps teams of crabbers in the Great Bay Estuary locate abandoned traps, which they use hook lines to remove to protect wildlife and damage to fishing boats. Funded by three grants, teams have retrieved around 2,200 traps and crabbers are compensated for their efforts. The initiative is modeled after one in the Chesapeake Bay, where 34,408 ghost pots were removed over six years. Similar efforts have been implemented around the world, including the Ghost Trap Rodeo in Tampa Bay, which is styled like a fishing tournament but competitors collect abandoned traps instead of catching fish.

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Cambodian “bat man” bolsters the fight against dengue fever

Claire Baker-Munton

December 26, 2019 |

Mongabay |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Cambodia, Pursat

In Cambodia, farming bats has provided a new way to fertilize crops and could potentially help decrease the presence of dengue fever-infested mosquitoes. Although definitive research is yet lacking about the impact of reducing a significant number of mosquitoes, the benefits of using the bats to improve soil quality has proven successful.

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Water for wildlife: Catchments prove lifesavers across Arizona

Jonah Hrkal

December 24, 2019 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Peoria, Arizona

Catchments are a manmade way to make water more easily accessible for animals. In Arizona, the Game & Fish Department oversees about 3,000 water catchments. Since 1940, the technology has vastly improved, leading to over 1.5 million gallons of water delivered to catchments since 2018 alone, which makes a significant impact in “providing life-sustaining water.”

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Community conservation agreements a lifeline for Uganda's grey crowned cranes

Fredrick Mugira

December 24, 2019 |

Mongabay |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Uganda, Kabale

Working with communities to develop alternative forms of livelihood helps to curb unsustainable practices and land degradation. In Uganda, the destruction of wetland habitat by farmers had had a serious impact on the population of grey crowned cranes in recent decades. The Cranes and Wetlands conservation project provides support to local communities, working to find alternatives to draining wetlands and promoting habitat restoration.

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Reforesting the Ocean

Christine McLaren

December 17, 2019 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Australia, Port Stephens

In Australia, scientists have developed a method to seed the ocean floor with healthy plants as a way to regrow dying ocean forests vital to the ecosystem. They have also crowdsourced the process, with volunteers collecting healthy seagrass and depositing it in bins along the beach.

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Climate Change Was Killing Northwest Oysters. Growers and Scientists Fought Back

Levi Pulkkinen

December 13, 2019 |

Bitterroot |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oregon

The world's oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is a positive thing in the face of climate change for those living on land, but can harm the animals that rely on certain acidification levels of ocean waters. When it became apparent off the coasts of Oregon and Washington that oysters and other sea life with a shell or a skeleton were suffering the ramifications, researchers created a sensor that could detect acidification levels that could warn oyster growers of potentially harmful areas.

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Regenerating New York Harbor, One Billion Oysters at a Time

Jake Price

December 13, 2019 |

Civil Eats |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The ambitious Billion Oyster project has several objectives: Get the youth involved in climate change action, revive the oyster population, and make New York’s shoreline less susceptible to flooding.

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