"A Beacon Box contains vital maps, flash drives and information to help guide first responders to the right roads, gates and water sources -- especially mutual aid crews arriving from out of town and unfamiliar with the area."
"Monteverde has one of the few cloud forests left in the world, as they are one of the first forests to disappear due to global warming," said Rodrigo Valverde, co-founder of Sky Adventures. "It [contains] 2.5 percent of all the world's biodiversity, which makes it one of the few places in the world where you can see the most exuberant flora and fauna."
"They didn't even try to fly away. They just feebly made noise," a woman told the Santa Barbara Independent on Saturday after spotting over two dozen dead or dying cormorants near Goleta Beach. "A few were on their stomachs, wings spread [and] gasping for breath.... Heartbreaking."
Indigenous communities have seen dramatic changes, from rescinding land-management policies that were more inclusive of Indigenous knowledge to reducing $1.5 billion in climate funding for tribal initiatives.
We found our route but advanced only a few hundred yards before encountering an impassable logjam. The dense forests on either side meant that we couldn't go around it, only through.
It's an opportunity for people to get out and see birds without pressure, no matter how long it takes or how many birds we see, said OBara, a retired nurse who has been leading the accessible outings for three years. She said disabled people often cannot keep up on traditional outings, especially when competitive birders are focused on checking off a list of the greatest possible number of species.
An unnamed tourist saw it and told Aidan Moore, who works for Alcatraz City Cruises. Moore told SFGATE that he was initially skeptical, but the guest's iPhone footage left little room for doubt. The video shows, not a sea lion or an otter, but an actual Canis latrans, doggedly dogpaddling, then clambering out of the water, noticeably shaky and struggling to settle tired paws on the craggy rocks.
Wildlife populations are in decline. Recreation sites are crowded and often underfunded. Wildfires are larger, more destructive and harder to control. Climate change is reshaping natural systems, from ocean fisheries to mountain snowpacks, faster than institutions can respond. At the same time, communities are being asked to host new energy projects, transmission lines and mineral development - often without clear processes, adequate resources or trust that decisions are being made in the public interest.
