In efforts to address climate change and identify ways to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses like CO2 in the atmosphere, one key place to include is below our feet: the soil. Soil organic carbon is a central component of soil health. A 2020 study showed that soil carbon represents 25% of the potential of natural climate solutions.
Science Categories: Working Lands
Major USDA Grant to Support Climate-Smart Agriculture
In September, the USDA announced a huge new pot of funding, sending $2.8 billion to 70 climate-smart agriculture projects. Each project aims, in its own way, to support the production of climate-smart commodities, which are defined as those that are produced using practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon. We’re excited to share
Science News: Guiding Renewable Energy, Celebrating Climate Legislation, and much more
Biden Signs Landmark Climate Bill On August 16th, 2022 President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. Although it’s not perfect, it is the biggest, most important piece of federal climate legislation to date. It encompasses clear and actionable policy to drive the needed investment to decarbonize our economy emissions. Importantly, the bill clearly prioritizes
Science News: Major advance in whale protection and much more…
Encouraging News for Whales We’re thrilled to report a major advance in our collaboration to protect whales. For over a decade, reducing deadly collisions between cargo ships and whales has been a priority for the Point Blue Oceans team. In 2017, we published a seminal paper showing that the actual number of whale deaths from
Planning for Change: New Tools to Support Bird Habitat in the Central Valley
How can water managers in California’s Central Valley make sure enough water is allocated to birds as the region faces changing climate patterns while still helping the state reach its ambitious 30×30 conservation goals? New planning tools are here to help.
Point Blue Expands Work in Fire Ecology
We’re pleased to announce Point Blue’s first ever Fire Stewardship Ecologist position which has been filled (and co-created to a large extent) by former Sonoma-Marin Partner Biologist Taj Hittenberger. This is an exciting step for both Taj and Point Blue in the direction of further incorporating fire into our conservation efforts.
Science News: Birds in the Valley, Restoration in the City
Teaming up for Drought Response As Californians work to address the increasing threat of severe drought as part of climate change, Point Blue is playing a critical role in making sure that waterbirds have a voice at the table. Over the last three months, and continuing into this winter, Point Blue, in partnership with The
Re-Balancing Act Making a Ranch Ecosystem More Resilient
Heather Bernikoff has been a changemaker in her community through the many roles she’s held—a volunteer leader on non-profit boards, a health educator, and an advocate for direct service programs, to name a few. Now on her ranch in the rolling foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada, she is effecting change on the land by
Science News: More drones for science? Yes!
Science Drones from Antarctica to CA Drones are fast becoming an important conservation tool. At Point Blue, we began using them to survey a colony of half a million penguins in Antarctica that we’ve been monitoring on foot since the early 1970s. That study is still active and proving to be successful in bringing a
Carving Out Support for Conservation
By Lishka Arata, Senior Communications Coordinator When Melinda Whipplesmith Plank reached out to Point Blue last spring to ask if we were interested in an artist collaboration that would support our conservation work, our immediate answer was an enthusiastic, “Yes!” Millie, as she prefers to be called, is a woodblock print artist based out of
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