In northcentral Montana, along the Missouri River as it flows east from its origins, a nonprofit organization is working hard to conserve a large piece of the plains. By blending the public with the private, philanthropy with entrepreneurship, patience with boldness, the American Prairie Reserve is stitching together a 3.5 million-acre park for people and wildlife. [node:read-more:link]
Cargill Inc. said its Wichita, Kans.-based North American protein business is donating $50,000 in new fencing materials to ranchers who lost fences during last week’s fast-moving wildfire in western Kansas and two nearby states. The wildfires consumed more than 1,000 square miles of grazing land in rural Kansas, destroying an estimated 100,000 miles of ranch fencing in Kansas alone, Cargill noted in a news release. The company said the Kansas Livestock Association told officials that replacement fencing materials were needed more than anything else to rebuild what the fire destroyed. [node:read-more:link]
Once a dominant species of the eastern US, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was devastated early last century by the disease chestnut blight, caused by the fungal pathogen Cryphonectria parasitica which was recently detected in southwest England. Now researchers at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), part of the State University of New York, have planted 100 transgenic young trees which carry a wheat gene enabling them to withstand the blight in a "seed orchard"in upstate New York. [node:read-more:link]
The number of bats counted in the Soudan Underground Mine has dropped 70 percent due to white-nose syndrome, according to the annual survey of the state's largest bat wintering area.Researchers have known since 2013 that the deadly fungus was present on some bats that spend their winter deep underground in the former iron ore mine near Tower. Last winter was the first time they had seen hundreds of dead bats outside the mine during winter months, a sure sign of white-nose syndrome. This winter, the deaths have mounted to catastrophic levels. [node:read-more:link]
The election of Donald Trump signals an end to the recent optimism about reducing the mass imprisonment of two million U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Hungry honey bees appear to favor flowers in agricultural areas over those in neighboring urban areas. The discovery has implications for urban beekeepers and challenges assumptions that farmland and honey bees are incompatible, said authors of a new study from The Ohio State University.The team positioned honey bee colonies in an apiary in a central Ohio cemetery smack in the middle of where urban residential development transitions into farmland. [node:read-more:link]
Two broadband companies -- one for-profit, one co-operative -- are providing reasonably priced broadband to rural communities in Minnesota. [node:read-more:link]
Many dog owners don’t think twice about settling Fido in their lap for a drive to the store, or rolling down the windows so Rover can feel the breeze in his ears. But a bill pending in the Maine Legislature would require dog owners to restrain dogs inside a moving vehicle and keep them out of the way of the driver. [node:read-more:link]
A Canadian firm's subsidiary is taking over a former machine shop in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle to make and sell natural gas compression equipment that will create up to 130 jobs. Gov. Jim Justice says Bidell Gas Compression will operate out of a 100,000-square-foot facility in Weirton that was previously owned by ArcelorMittal Steel. The property had been recently purchased from ArcelorMittal by the Frontier Group, an industrial and commercial facility redeveloper. Bidell is a subsidiary of Calgary, Alberta-based Total Energy Services Inc. [node:read-more:link]
Greg Gardiner is a cowboy. His wide-brimmed hat carries a band darkened by years of sweat and dust. Decades of 100-degree sun, 10-below cold and wicked winds from every direction have left his face as leathery as an old baseball glove. Below his lip is a small goatee and above it a wide trademark mustache. Several days after the biggest fire in the state’s history swept through Clark County, Gardiner slowly drove along some of his family’s 48,000 acres. [node:read-more:link]
