Conservationists in the Northern Appalachian-Acadian region are changing how they think about forest protection and management, by bringing together mainstream ecological knowledge with Indigenous ecology and culture.

Five regional partners including the Wildlands Network and Two Countries One Forest held a conference outlining a shared vision, called "Future Forests Reimagined," and now they are working to apply it.

Megan de Graaf, forest program director for Community Forests International, stressed the importance of working across state and national boundaries. The forest region covers the territory of the Wabanaki Confederacy, stretching across Northern New England and into the maritime provinces of Canada.

"The forest type here is unique, and also fairly imperiled," de Graaf pointed out. "There are the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change that go hand in hand. And one of the biggest but less-seen crises is that of overlooking Indigenous contributions and Indigenous knowledge."

The initiative has three prongs: to identify and protect areas of old, wild forests; establish new areas that can grow into future old forests; and spread the use of "ecological silviculture," storing carbon, preserving biodiversity and landscape connectivity while also yielding forest products communities rely on.

shalan joudry is an L'nu, or Mi'kmaw, storyteller and ecologist. She echoed there is so much to be learned from Indigenous history, culture and language.

"The landscape has helped create these cultures and languages," joudry noted. "And conversely, these cultures of people, societies, and nations have helped shape the landscape as well."

She emphasized non-Indigenous ecologists need to be working together with Indigenous communities and individuals, learning Indigenous knowledge and languages.

"Change and new vision will happen, even in ways that we can't even imagine yet," joudry contended. "Sharing together is going to end up shifting the way that we actually see the ecosystems and how they function."

joudry argued the way we speak can change our approach to conservation. For instance, she explained many Indigenous languages in North America are verb-based, which have taught her to focus more on descriptive actions and to see the world in constant flux, in contrast with noun-based languages such as English and French.

Jennifer Melville, vice president for conservation grants at the Open Space Institute, added forests are the lifeblood of the region.

"Without our forests, we don't have clean water, we don't have clean air, we don't have the wildlife that we depend on, and in some cases the food that we depend on," Melville outlined. "Whether you're a hunter or you're a fisher person who relies on the clean water for that. Also, so many of us just love to get outside."

Additional sponsors of Future Forests Reimagined include the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for the Environment and Leadership for the Ecozoic.

The Trump administration's long-term plan for artificial intelligence could have far-reaching environmental impacts across the country.

His strategy calls for the removal of land use rules considered prohibitive to the construction of AI data centers. Last year, then Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Microsoft would invest $1 billion to establish a new AI data center in Laporte to generate cloud computing infrastructure.

Ben Murray, senior researcher for the advocacy group Food and Water Watch, said fossil fuel plants are already being reopened to help meet high energy demands.

"We just need to be aware that anything that prolongs our reliance on fossil fuel is going to increase the problems that we're seeing from the climate crisis," Murray explained.

Murray argued high-tech progress should not come at the expense of increased household energy prices. Residents' support is low due to concerns about increased traffic and noise near the centers. The Trump administration said environmental and permitting regulations will only slow America's dominance in the AI field.

A report last year found emissions from data centers owned by Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft were more than seven times higher than officially reported. Computer servers using AI require far more energy than those without. A ChatGPT query, for example, can use up to 10 times more electricity than a standard Google search.

"These companies can seem as if they're decreasing their emissions and meeting net-zero goals but in reality, the emissions are amping up faster than ever for these companies," Murray pointed out.

Murray noted the push for more data centers is already leading Big Tech companies to backtrack on their climate goals. It is possible to power AI services with renewable energy sources, he added, but doing so requires political will.

As of June 2025, a 1,200-acre corn and soybean field just outside of New Carlisle has turned into eight Amazon-led AI energy centers. The tech giant plans to construct a total of 30 at the site.


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After one year, Washington's first comprehensive bee survey has documented 15 species that have never been collected in the state before.

The project is cataloguing native bees, which includes nearly all species in the state, but excludes honeybees.

Karla Salp is a communications consultant with the Washington State Department of Agriculture's Washington Bee Atlas program, which conducted the survey.

She said the data will serve as a baseline to track bee populations.

"The reason why this is happening in the first place is to answer the question, how are pollinators doing in Washington state?" said Salp. "And the answer is we don't know, because we've never actually looked at even what bees we have throughout the state."

Salp said the project also involves compiling a list of plants that each bee species pollinates so residents can make their yards more attractive to these beneficial insects.

As honeybee numbers continue to decline rapidly, Salp explained that native pollinators may become more important to Washington's agriculture.

"Knowing what native pollinators we have and how we can support them is really a sustainability issue" said Salp, "to make sure that whether we have honeybees here or not, there are options for pollination."

Volunteers collected over 17,000 bees on more than 600 different host plants.

Salp said the process of identifying them is slow because each one must be viewed under a microscope, and there is still considerable work to be done.

"We're expecting to find a lot more species" said Salp, "that are either rare or even new to the state. "

If people are interested in volunteering, an online application for the Bee Atlas program is available on the Washington State Department of Agriculture website.




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The Trump administration wants to overturn a conservation rule that had garnered more public comment than any in U.S. history up until that time.

Commonly known as the Roadless Rule, the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulation prohibits road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvesting on nearly 60 million acres of national forest land.

Sarah McMillan - the senior attorney and director of the Wildlands & Wildlife Program at the Western Environmental Law Center - said before it was adopted in 2001, 1.5 million people submitted comments, with the vast majority in support of the rule.

"This was a rule that was carefully, thoughtfully developed," said McMillan. "There was a long process of inventorying these roadless areas and identifying these remote, often mature and old-growth trees. This didn't happen overnight."

A rollback of the rule would allow more logging and drilling on federal lands, which McMillan said would worsen climate change, harm wildlife & vital ecosystems, jeopardize water quality, and negatively affect recreational opportunities.

The Bush administration attempted to repeal the Roadless Rule in 2005, but lost in the courts.

In announcing the proposed rollback, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claimed more logging would improve forest management, which would in turn decrease forest fires.

But McMillan said that argument is disputed in a 2020 Wilderness Society study that found just the opposite.

"The truth is, un-roaded areas burn at a significantly lower rate than areas with roads," said McMillan. "So, fires start near roads."

McMillan said it doesn't make sense to allow private developers to log more trees when the planet is undergoing a biodiversity and climate crisis - especially because old-growth trees create a buffer against climate change.

Forests cover almost 30% of New Mexico's land area.




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