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The imperiled wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) is a species that was once common throughout eastern North America. Habitat loss and fragmentation due to human development, mortality resulting from collisions with motor vehicles and farm equipment, and illegal capture for the pet trade have all contributed to the estimated 50% decline of the species over the last century. 

Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service, discusses how climate change is manifesting itself in our national parks.

Adult blacklegged ticks become active in the fall, when they climb up vegetation to seek an animal host, including us and our dogs. When fall or winter weather goes below freezing, the ticks become inactive and hunker down under the leaf litter for protection. But during warm spells even in mid winter they can re-activate.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has argued that Lyme disease was cooked up by the American military in a Long Island laboratory in the 1950s. It’s a debunked conspiracy theory that Kennedy has repeated in campaign events and on his podcast in the months before being named by President-elect Donald Trump to oversee national health policy.

Humanity has good reason to want to conserve bobcats and other large mammals. Large animals in an ecosystem reduce the spread of disease-causing organisms that can pass from wild animals to humans, a mechanism known as the dilution effect.

Harvard botanist Dr. Peter Del Tredici discusses how northeastern forests are being shaped by urbanization, invasive species, acid rain, and climate change.

Montane birds make their home in the spruce-fir forests found on the Catskill high peaks (approximate elevation: 3,000-4,000 feet). These forests are different from what you’ll see lower on the mountain, as the plants and trees here are better suited for the harsher conditions and cooler temperatures at higher elevations.

The Trump election seems in line with an increasing global trend towards autocracy in world governments during the past 20 years. Perhaps the world has become too complex and human numbers too large for democracy to work anymore? Has the process been corrupted by money? Are we comfortable with kings?

The concentration of methane in Earth’s atmosphere is increasing rapidly, which concerns atmospheric chemists because methane is a powerful contributor to global warming.  Moreover, there is an acceleration in the rate of increase of methane in the atmosphere. 

We talk about many fascinating strands of forest science from lightning and disturbance ecology to chasing down and studying the world's largest tropical trees with Evan Gora, a forest ecologist and Staff Scientist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

Writer and food activist Janisse Ray talks about the loss of heirloom seeds and the role that individuals can play in preserving agricultural diversity.

Featuring Cary Institute forest ecologist Evan Gora, the segment follows reporter Daniel Grossman to the Amazon to find out what’s causing these trees to die, and what scientists are doing about it.

Scientists at Cary Institute have studied how invasive spongy moth defoliation affects ticks, Lyme disease risk, and forest ecosystems. When forests lose their leafy canopies, the resulting effects ripple through ecosystems in surprising ways.