Solutions

Explore the most promising new technologies, tools, and ideas for addressing our planet’s greatest sustainability challenges.

A group of male African lions rests in the Masai-Mara Game Reserve, Kenya, as storm clouds build overhead. Photograph by Denis-Huot Africa’s Conservation Conundrum 05.15.2023 Article - The trophy hunting industry in Africa is dying, and that should concern all of us. What, if anything, replaces it will prove critical for the protection of the continent’s wildlife and wild places.
A Mediterranean rainbow wrasse shelters in Neptune seagrass, which is likely the oldest living organism on Earth. A single patch of seagrass found in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain is estimated to be between 80,000 and 200,000 years old. From Weed to Wonder 03.11.2023 Photo Essay - Once dismissed as an underwater nuisance, scientists are beginning to see seagrass meadows as vital to marine and coastal health.
Two spotted owls perched on a tree in a Northern California forest. Photograph by Danny Hofstadter What Conservation Sounds Like 02.17.2023 Article - New bioacoustic tools are revolutionizing scientific research and enabling much quicker conservation efforts around the globe.
Faces stained from digging in mud, snow geese pause to take measure of their surroundings before returning to their feast. The gray birds are juveniles, the white birds with black wings are adults. Photography by Nancy Crowell Washington’s Runaway Snow Geese 01.24.2023 Article - Mae West said too much of a good thing is wonderful. But she’d never seen the beautiful, marauding snow geese that swoop in each fall to take over Washington State’s Skagit Valley.
Two Iberian lynx peer over rocky outcrops. Photograph by Andoni Canela Bounding Toward Recovery 01.03.2023 Article - The Iberian lynx—one of the world’s most endangered cats—made a giant leap toward a comeback in just a few years, easing the way for other species to follow in its path.
A western leafcutter bee visits a flower in search of pollen, Trinity Alps, California. Photograph by Clay Bolt Making Nature Less Predictable 12.02.2022 Article - In their fight against the homogenization of nature, scientists and farmers are walking well-worn paths and using innovative approaches to help bring native pollinators back to California.
Learning from the Ancients 11.22.2022 Opinion, Review - In his latest book, Elderflora, Jared Farmer chronicles a history of exploration and study, destruction and preservation that will keep humans and age-old trees intertwined for the long haul.
The Sharavati River flows through the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Photograph by Dhritiman Mukherjee Seeing the River for the Fish 11.03.2022 Article - Scientists and local communities are working to save an iconic but little-known species of fish in India—but first, they have to find it.
A lone dragon’s blood tree in the Momi Valley of Socotra. Photograph by Neil Lucas Saving the Dragon’s Blood 10.12.2022 Article - Despite a range of threats, from droughts and cyclones to goats and militarization, Socotra's iconic trees are staging a slow, patient comeback—with the help of the people who know them best.
Forest Orphans 10.12.2022 Spotlight - Swaddled symbols of hope and regeneration, orphaned flying foxes rest up and grow, preparing for their role as some of Australia’s most important forest stewards.
A Way Forward with Wolves 09.10.2022 Article - Washington state’s long-running conflict between wolves and ranchers mirrors our society’s bigger ideological rifts. Some are trying to bridge the gap—using both horse and technology.
Returning England’s Forgotten Frog 08.24.2022 Video - As scientists were discovering a surprising detail about an often-overlooked frog, the last local population of the species was winking out of existence. The extraordinary story of England’s pool frog and the effort to bring it back.
The Saguaro Solution 08.18.2022 Article - Can a massive effort to replant cacti in the Sonoran Desert restore an ecosystem ravaged by fire?
A levee divides a parched salt pond from a burgeoning wetland. Past the Salt 07.14.2022 Article - In San Francisco’s salty South Bay, an ambitious wetlands restoration project is seeking to balance a return to the ecological past with the realities of a changing future.
Methow Valley resident Ken Bevis salvages a deer recently struck by a car. Atonement in the Kitchen 06.03.2022 Article - One way to make sense of the senseless slaughter of roadkill? Salvage it for food.
A greater one-horned rhino surveys its terrain in Kaziranga National Park, India. Photograph by Anup Shah To Rewild a Rhino 05.10.2022 Article - In northeastern India, taking care of a vulnerable species also means looking after the humans who live alongside it.
Ghana’s Sacred Monkeys 04.19.2022 Article - Myth and mystery have long protected two species of monkey and the West African forests they depend on, but for how much longer?
The brook trout, a species native to the eastern United States, made its way across the west in the hands of settlers looking to recreate a small, living piece of their adopted homeland. Photograph by Nick Hawkins The Tale of the Trojan Trout 02.21.2022 Article - Can the introduction of a modified invader save the West’s native fish?
Christine Shreves of Wellfleet, Massachusetts finds a Kemp's ridley sea turtle at Great Hollow Beach on Cape Cod in November. Each fall and winter on the inner shores of Cape Cod, endangered sea turtles wash up, stunned by the cold ocean temperatures and confused by the cape’s hook-like geography. With the help from volunteers and biologists at Mass Audubon, the New England Aquarium, and rehabilitation centers, the turtles are rescued, rehabilitated, and flown to warmer waters. When Turtles Fly 11.30.2021 Article - A massive human-assisted migration lands stranded sea turtles back in warmer seas.
Sign designating the National Wild and Scenic section of the Rio Chama. A River’s Right to Flow 10.22.2021 Article - Indigenous communities and conservationists around the world are challenging the view of water as a human commodity, and fighting to keep this precious resource in the ecosystems it sustains. Can the same approach work in the arid Southwest?
Heeding the Pandemic’s Warnings 08.27.2021 Article - While wildlife trafficking receives more media attention, experts are urging global leaders to clamp down on legal wildlife trade and the significant disease threats it poses.
What it Means to be Wild 07.08.2021 Opinion, Review - Against the backdrop of a world so thoroughly altered by humankind, Emma Marris's latest book, Wild Souls, challenges our assumptions about nature and how we protect it.
Mexican wolf "M1296" walks off a sedative after being processed and released back into the field during a January 2016 annual Mexican wolf count based out of Alpine, Arizona. After receiving vaccinations and a new GPS collar, M1296 was reacquainted with his mate not far from where he was initially captured. Photograph by Christina Selby Into the Wild 06.18.2021 Article - North America’s rarest wolf subspecies is finally reclaiming its native territory in the Southwest, thanks in part to a fostering program that places captive-born pups into wild dens.
Lew Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya—© Ami Vitale Extraordinary Animals and the People Who Love Them 03.29.2021 Review - The new book Beloved Beasts hacks through the undergrowth of the conservation movement in search of a clear path forward.
Scales of Reference - sockeye salmon Scales of Reference 03.11.2021 Article - Collected at the tail end of British Columbia's "silver fever," hundred-year-old salmon scales are now helping conservation scientists reconstruct and better manage the populations of one of Canada's most important fish.
How to Count a Wolf How to Count a Wolf 02.25.2021 Video - The first step in managing a rare and controversial predator—particularly in a state where it's been absent for decades—is knowing how many you have. That’s easier said than done with a species as elusive as this one.
Of the world’s 19 species of storks, the greater adjutant is the most endangered in the world. In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated the global population at just 800-1200 individuals. From Reviled to Adored 02.23.2021 Photo Essay - How one community—and one woman in particular—have found a way to protect the rarest stork in the world simply by learning to appreciate the species and embracing it as one of their own.
Susanna Tuffy, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator from Duxbury, Massachusetts, feeds a baby squirrel from inside her bathroom window. Tuffy cares for about 60 animals a year in her home. The Other COVID Nurses 01.01.2021 Photo Essay - Caring for sick and injured wildlife has always been challenging, but during the pandemic, for many rehabilitators, it has become a grueling, 24/7 labor of love.
Olms are aquatic, cave-dwelling salamanders found beneath the Dinaric Alps of southern and southeastern Europe. Saving Slovenia’s “Human Fish” 12.15.2020 Article - Scientists in this Central European country are leading the charge to understand and protect a charismatic, cave-dwelling salamander—and the subterranean habitats that supply much of the region's drinking water.
African elephant bulls display displacement behavior during fighting to determine dominance—Addo Elephant National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Africa’s Pandemic-fueled Conservation Crisis 11.17.2020 Article - The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing weaknesses in how we protect African wilderness and species. But it has also given us an opportunity to vastly improve our approach to these urgent challenges.
A lesser whistling duck forages in Pallikaranai Marsh. Chennai Ran Out of Water — But That’s Only Half the Story 10.30.2020 Article - To reduce flooding and bridge droughts, India’s southern coastal metropolis is using ancient knowledge, community action, and wetlands restoration to harness its monsoon rains.
A male Hainan black-crested gibbon hangs from a branch in the Bawangling National Nature Reserve in Changjiang, South China's Hainan Province. Photograph by Xinhua News Agency The Gibbon’s Tail 10.14.2020 Article - For the world’s rarest ape, survival may depend on stories passed down for centuries among the people of its Chinese island home.
Laurent Lollis looks out over a herd at Buck Island Ranch, with his father, Gene Lollis, in the background. Buck Island Ranch is owned by Archbold Biological Station and is a leading site for rangelands science, including biodiversity and carbon cycling research. Recent studies have shown that grazing of grasses in the humid soils increases the carbon sequestration by the roots. Raising Nature on Florida Ranchlands 08.11.2020 Article - “Rancher vs Environmentalist” has been a longstanding trope. But in the Sunshine State, ranching just may be the last, best hope for ecological salvation.
Bat flying over homes in Berwickshire, Scotland Pandemics of Our Own Making 07.21.2020 Opinion - While it's critical that we devote our scientific ingenuity to beating back the current pandemic, we must also address our broken relationship with nature in a concerted effort to prevent similar outbreaks in the future.
Wanted Alive 07.14.2020 Spotlight - For the first time in decades, Icelandic whalers have stopped hunting fin whales, thanks in part to a growing appreciation for the value these mammals bring to both marine and human communities.
In Beroboka, a village within the Menabe Antimena Protected Area, children hunt for rhinoceros beetles—a favorite snack. Farming Insects to Save Lemurs 03.19.2020 Article - A reimagined approach to an age-old practice is helping to fight malnutrition in Madagascar—and may have the added benefit of protecting the island nation's imperiled primates and the forests they call home.
Hooded grebe in Patagonia Standing Guard 12.24.2019 Photo Essay - The population of this critically endangered bird has stabilized thanks to the conservationists who look after them, but what happens if the caretakers leave?
Mexico City and its Sacred Salamanders Mexico City and its Sacred Salamanders 12.10.2019 Video - Important symbols of both Mexican culture and ecosystem health, axolotls are on the brink of extinction in the wild, but a return to ancient practices offers hope for their future.
Pools and bog peatland at dawn, Flow Country, Scotland Refilling the Carbon Sink 11.12.2019 Photo Essay - Long seen as wastelands, Scotland’s bogs are now the scene of an intense restoration effort in which millions of exotic trees are being felled to fight climate change.
The mountain chicken used to fill the valleys of Montserrat and Dominica with its distinctive call. Now, the critically endangered frog is rarely heard on the islands. Photograph by Geoffrey Giller Song of the Mountain Chicken 10.30.2019 Article - These giant frogs—once a delicacy on two Caribbean islands—were almost wiped out by disease and natural disasters. But their resilience and years of dedicated conservation efforts have kept hope for the species alive.
Restoring Harmony in Haida Gwaii 10.15.2019 Article - A collaboration between Haida tradition and Western science may offer a way to bolster both Haida culture and the marine ecosystem intertwined with it.
Margaret Nyambura Mamai, a Maasai woman, places cactus pads infested with cochineal insects into healthy (and partially infested) thickets of prickly pear plants on the Laikipia Plateau. A Plague of Cactus 09.26.2019 Article - Across Kenya’s wildlife-rich Laikipia Plateau, a thorny enemy is advancing. But a tiny sap-sucking insect may help save the region’s animals and people.
Two swallow-tailed kite nestlings hunker down in their nest near the top of a tall pine in Florida’s Withlacoochie State Forest. A Precarious Perch 08.27.2019 Article - Swallow-tailed kites have lost much of their habitat in the southeastern United States, but thanks to an unlikely ally, their numbers are beginning to climb.
Hundreds of Chinook salmon fry swim in a tank at the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis. Raised in Rice Fields 06.26.2019 Article - California’s Chinook salmon have been losing habitat to agriculture for decades. Now, they’re getting a much-needed boost from strategically flooded fields.
Aerial view of the Kupeke fishpond along Molokai’s southeast shoreline. Photograph by Mickey Pauole Hawaii’s Ancient Aquaculture Revival 06.12.2019 Article - In an ocean state that now imports half of its seafood, a determined group of activists is restoring the age-old aquaculture practices of Native Hawaiians.
A Caribbean spiny lobster emerges onto a coral reef in late afternoon. The Lobster Wars 05.29.2019 Article - In one coastal Mexican town, a sustainable fishery anchors the community. So why has Florida outlawed the same fishing methods?
western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) Hands Full 05.13.2019 Spotlight - Successfully raising a single infant is challenging enough that gorillas rarely have twins. But both of these babies are thriving, thanks to a few extra helping hands.
Dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus) Below the Bill 04.09.2019 Spotlight - One of the world’s largest birds has long been persecuted for both its outsized bill and its eating habits, but an ambitious cross-border plan is helping this threatened pelican bounce back.
prawns Protected by Prawns 03.17.2019 Video - Restoring native crustaceans along West Africa’s Senegal River may be a critical step in controlling one of the world’s deadliest tropical diseases.
A cutthroat trout feeds at the surface of a clear lake in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Photograph by William Hughes Resurrecting the Greenback, Take Two 02.07.2019 Article - After a case of mistaken identity, scientists face an upstream swim to save a fabled fish.
The Unsung Reef 01.25.2019 Photo Essay - Australia's corals may get all the headlines, but the country's kelp-dominated temperate reefs are at least as important and imperiled. Now they're finally getting the restoration focus they deserve.
A male Raggiana bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea raggiana) displays in forest canopy of Varirata National Park, Papua New Guinea. Photograph by Nick Garbutt Where the Rainforest Meets the Road 01.08.2019 Article - Community-led conservation has taken root in a remote corner of Papua New Guinea. Now the plan’s architects must ensure that ecological protection and economic prosperity can coexist.
An Indian flying fox peers out of the leaves of a date palm tree in India’s West Bengal, just across the border with Bangladesh. Photograph by Dhritiman Mukherjee The Reservoir 12.12.2018 Article - In Bangladesh, a bat-borne virus you've probably never heard of is poised to become the next pandemic—and medicine alone may not be sufficient to stop it. Is an ecological intervention the answer?
Sounds of Survival 10.09.2018 Video - A quest to record a quiet frog’s call may mean the difference between its survival and its extinction.
Western Grey Kangaroos— Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) Raising Joey 08.27.2018 Spotlight - Kangaroo Island’s iconic animals are orphaned all too often by speeding cars. But a dedicated group of volunteers is working to save as many survivors as possible.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—© Florian Schulz Fulfilling a Promise 06.26.2018 Opinion - Creating protected areas is a critical first step, but reaping their benefit requires more than lines on maps.
A Grand Experiment on the Grasslands 03.13.2018 Immersive - A decades-long debate over protection of the lesser prairie-chicken could usher the Endangered Species Act into a new and very different era.
Life Stories 11.07.2017 Opinion - In today’s world, solutions-based science and environment stories aren’t just a pleasant diversion—they’re a critical step toward a healthy future for our species.
fisher Forgotten but not Gone: The Pacific Fisher 05.23.2017 Video - Facing new threats—including toxins from illegal marijuana grows—the fate of this little-known mammal hangs in the balance.
Honey Bees Can Mushrooms Save the Honey Bee? 04.25.2017 Video - A blood-sucking mite is wreaking havoc on honey bees—but scientists have discovered a surprising new way to fight back.
Members of Pilot’s family stand at the gate of his new boma. Lion Guardians 04.11.2017 Photo Essay - With human-wildlife conflicts on the rise across East Africa, Kenya’s iconic predators find some unlikely allies.
How to Feed Africa Sustainably 03.14.2017 Opinion - Renowned sustainability expert shares ideas for addressing food shortages in Africa without compromising ecological health.
Leaves of a moringa plant and a selection of products made from the moringa Ancient Crops Find New Life 03.07.2017 Article - Feeding the world sustainably—and nutritiously—may require crops that most people have never even heard of.
Photo by Ronald de Hommel Guardian of the Cotton-top 02.07.2017 Article - The landscape architect who became the unlikely steward of Colombia’s critically endangered one-pound monkey
maggot timelapse Maggot Revolution 01.18.2017 Article - Agricultural entrepreneurs want to solve the planet’s livestock-feed crisis by farming insect larvae. Will their scheme fly?
The rusty-patched bumblebee (seen here alongside this butterfly) is the first wild bee to be added to the endangered species list. Its presence on farms in Little Valley, Virginia has halted construction of the pipeline in the region. Photograph by Steven David Johnson Forgotten But Not Gone: The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee 09.27.2016 Video - Despite rapid population declines, this native bee has never received formal protection. Can a listing save it from extinction?
Cancer at Sea 08.23.2016 Article - A mysterious disease afflicting California sea lions is helping scientists understand the causes of cancer in all animals—including humans.
zika mosquito The Zika Challenge 08.17.2016 Opinion - As we look for ways to prevent the world’s latest mosquito-borne disease, our focus on the mosquitoes themselves might be obscuring a more sustainable solution.
Long leaf pine habitat in the gamelands outside Southern Pines, NC. The Birds and the Bombs 06.28.2016 Article - The fate of the Southeast's longleaf pine forests, and the endangered woodpeckers that depend on them, may rest in the hands of the U.S. military.
After being confiscated from poachers and rehabilitated, a Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) awaits release into Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam. Taking Pangolin off the Menu 05.10.2016 Photo Essay - Without the tireless efforts of local conservation heroes, one of the most heavily trafficked animals on the planet might just go extinct—before you even know it exists.
Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) slung from Super Huey Bell helicopter Great Fish River Nature Reserve, Eastern Cape Province SOUTH AFRICA A viable breeding population of 15 animals being relocated to an undisclosed destination. ENDANGERED SPECIES. CITES 1 Rhino Relocation 05.10.2016 Spotlight - To protect rhinos from poachers, conservation workers have taken to the air to move these massive animals quickly and efficiently to safer ground.

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