EVERETT, Wash. -- Eelgrass plays a vital role in marine habitats, but along the West Coast, it's disappearing at alarming rates.

A new study found to restore seagrasses, it's more important to think about 'where' rather than 'how.' The report, commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts, analyzed 51 eelgrass restoration projects, including 14 in Washington state.

Kathryn Beheshti, California SeaGrant State Fellow for the California Ocean Protection Council and co-author of the report, said there are multiple restoration methods, and she expected that to be the most significant factor.

"What we found was that actually, restoration method, while important, is not the most important factor in predicting whether a restoration project will succeed; and that it's much more dependent on the environmental conditions and the site-specific conditions of a particular project," Beheshti outlined.

Researchers found about 30% of the world's eelgrass has disappeared since the 1870s, including a troubling case in California's Morro Bay, which has seen a 90% decrease in the last 15 years.

Beheshti said major causes of eelgrass decline are development and runoff pollution.

Eelgrass is found near shore and is considered a foundation species for ecosystems; other species, from sea otters to halibut, use it as habitat.

Melissa Ward, a post-doctoral researcher at San Diego State University and the report's other co-author, studies eelgrass's ability to combat climate change.

She said there's promising research that the plant is good at storing carbon. It also removes carbon dioxide from seawater, which is increasing in the ocean as more greenhouse gases are pumped into the atmosphere.

"It's becoming more and more important to keep eelgrass in the water, because it can elevate the pH and make the water less acidic," Ward explained. "So, the refuge that seagrasses provide may become more critical as we move forward, but at the same time, they're also threatened by climate change."

Ward added restoration is crucial work, but conservation is as well.

"While we do need to restore to try to get close to historic levels of eelgrass coverage, we also need to make sure that we don't lose what we already have," Ward urged.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Virginia is the ninth-likeliest state for a driver to hit wildlife but environmental advocates are working to change it.

One in 76 people in Virginia are likely to collide with an animal on the road in the Commonwealth. Advocates tried to pass legislation during this General Assembly session, which would have established a grant fund to provide money for wildlife corridor projects but the bill stalled.

Meg Gammage-Tucker, president of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, said wildlife corridors involve fencing to guide larger mammals to safe natural crossings, instead of busy roads.

"It provides exclusionary fencing. Black bears, deer, bobcats are not going to cross a major roadway," Gammage-Tucker explained. "That protects the animals and it protects the people that are driving in those spaces. Because there's not only an animal cost but there's a human health cost. "

Instead of the grant fund, a budget proposal has advanced to provide $450,000 to support the implementation of the Virginia Wildlife Corridor Action Plan.

Pat Calvert, director for policy and land conservation for the Virginia Conservation Network, knows the effects of wildlife collisions personally. A deer ran in front of his car last fall. There were no wildlife corridors or even warning signs along the road. He said his experience highlights the need to pass legislation to fund wildlife corridors, including more funds for the wildlife corridor action plan the Commonwealth has already developed.

"Where they cross the road, you could say, 'well, the deer shouldn't be crossing there or the animal shouldn't necessarily be crossing there,'" Calvert observed. "But they were crossing there probably before there was ever a road to begin with. So if we know those conflicts exist, there's this plan called the Wildlife Corridor Action Plan and now we just need that seed money to make it happen."

Virginians are victims of more than 60,000 wildlife collisions each year, according to Northern Neck Virginia Insurance.

Gammage-Tucker stressed they will keep pushing for lawmakers to establish the grant fund, because the effort comes out of more than their love of animals.

"This is not just, 'we are passionate people who want to save animals,'" Gammage-Tucker emphasized. "This is important because it helps us be proactive, effective managers of Virginia. It protects waterways, animals, ecological systems and biodiversity, but most importantly it protects people."

For aquatic animals, like turtles, Gammage-Tucker added water underpasses are possible.


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Areas surrounding New Mexico's Aztec Ruins National Monument, and other monuments, are at risk of losing federal protections from the "Unleashing American Energy" executive order. The Trump administration has directed the U.S. Department of Interior to review all oil, gas and minerals on public lands.

Daniel Hart, director of Clean Energy and Climate Resiliency Policy with the National Parks Conservation Association, says the order could enable more fossil-fuel production on federal lands - including where development is now banned. He notes water often runs through these lands.

"Mining just next to them already is problematic - same with oil and gas. We have runoff - an unfortunate disaster can cause cleanup efforts. There's still streams and waters in the Southwest that are unusable by people and animals," he explained.

The order aims to solidify the U.S. as a global energy leader by removing what it calls burdensome regulations. But Hart noted that the U.S. was the world's leading oil producer under the Biden administration and says lands owned by the public should not be under consideration for more extraction.

Wildlife - already struggling with climate change - also are affected by drilling and mining, which Hart says can demolish established corridors and reduce food sources. In addition, he notes visitors to parks and monuments could feel the effects of more fossil fuel activities.

"This development even on the border of a park or a monument is problematic, but this is looking at even removing those borders to increase that leasing and it's the haze in the air and it's the noise and the lights that get rid of those 'dark sky-night sky' designations in many of these parks," he continued.

Twenty-four million acres of public land are already leased to oil and gas companies for extraction, with more than 12 million acres hosting active sites. In 2017, the Trump administration issued a similar review which included the state's Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Neither made the list for increased activities.

Environmental groups are raising alarms as the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert Township moves closer to becoming the first decommissioned nuclear plant in the U.S. to restart. However, President Donald Trump's executive orders may be a game changer.

The Palisades plant, owned by Holtec International, shut down in 2022 after 50 years in operation and is poised to restart at the end of the year.

Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist for the nuclear watchdog nonprofit Beyond Nuclear, said while he is concerned the President Donald Trump may still fund the plant's reopening, he hopes it does not happen.

"Trump now has said that he's revoking the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 as well as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021," Kamps pointed out. "If he were to do that, then Palisades and Holtec would be cut off from this gravy train that they're on."

Holtec responded in a statement saying in part, "The restart of Palisades is a historic opportunity for Michigan and the United States to return 800 megawatts of safe and reliable baseload energy back to the state's electric grid - and more than 800,000 homes."

Holtec also stated the restart of Palisades is possible because of the strong broad-based support it received from the local community, bringing with it high-paying permanent jobs. However, Kamps contended the plant, which sits on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, is dangerous for the health of the community, environment and economy.

"We don't need this extreme risk that they would put us at, and it's insanely expensive," Kamps asserted. "Holtec altogether has requested more than $16 billion at the Palisades site alone."

He also warned Palisades' steam generator tubes suffered significant damage after sitting for two years without chemical preservation, creating even greater risks of a meltdown. He stressed he and other environmental groups plan to make their voices heard at a hearing tomorrow of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Licensing Board.


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