Ecotourism is often presented as the savior for wildlife and wild places — providing local communities with financial incentives to preserve nature while also reducing poaching and development pressure.
But, lately, others question whether rich Westerners jetting around the world really help much at all: They disturb animals, create demands for new development and only employ [...]

It’s that time of year when birds start thinking of heading south for the winter (and New Englanders like me wistfully dream about it). Enjoy this great 3-in-1 shot — bird, reflection and shadow – of a sanderling at the beach in Virginia by Flickr user Dave W.
Check out all The Nature Conservancy’s featured daily nature images, [...]

What’s more frightening than more Americans getting their news from Jon Stewart than a newspaper? When Jon Stewart says putting giant reflective mirrors into space will slow climate change…and he means it! It’s real scary stuff, kids, so we put it last in this morning’s Coolness to give you a good fright for the weekend! [...]

Yes, global warming is a big deal and a big challenge. But sometimes I get so frustrated by conservation and environmental NGO’s for not being able to chew gum and walk at the same time — in other words, for failing to appreciate the real lesson of greenhouse gas emissions.
The real lesson is there is [...]

Does a “green” job make you an environmentalist? Will the world come forward and pay Ecuador not to drill for oil in the Amazon? And how do birds know where to migrate to anyway? We don’t promise all these questions will be answered, but we do guarantee you’ll get the hottest green news links around, or [...]

Yes, I’m an avid birder and professional bird conservationist — but that doesn’t mean I don’t take time for other flying things…like hundreds of thousands of bats.
I took a few days off in late August and went down to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico, an easy drive for me from my [...]

Successful bird conservation is far harder than it looks. But there are some wonderful examples out there that show how we can have more and better bird habitat and benefit people, too.
One of the coolest examples that I know about is the work being done by The Nature Conservancy in Washington in the delta of [...]

Can skyscrapers be bird-friendly? Can we talk about climate change? Can we compost dog waste? Yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, kids — all in this morning’s Coolness. Happy weekend!

PETA gives a new 82-story Chicago skyscraper an award for being friendly to birds — incorporating design elements that will minimize bird strikes, [...]

Late summer birding!? But it’s still hot in many parts of the country, hot and sultry and not much seems to be happening with songbirds, right? They’re in their post-breeding slump, molting and fattening up, getting ready to go south…
But not every bird. There are birds are on the wing — shorebirds! They are streaming [...]

When faced with invasive, non-native weeds on the range, the first response for many conservationists is to load up a backpack sprayer full of pesticides.
Spraying chemicals toxic to wildlife and people — under the auspices of protecting wildlife and people — is often portrayed as a necessary evil if we want to stop the spread [...]