Water
California achieved significant groundwater recharge last year, state report says
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-06-24/california-2024-groundwater-report
Protected areas
Major breakthrough in marine conservation unveiled at UN Ocean Conference
https://iucn.org/press-release/202506/major-breakthrough-marine-conservation-unveiled-un-ocean-conference
China is building the world’s largest national parks system
https://www.daily8.com/en/article/d4b90b7c59a3e4f6864166970e9ab46b
California’s Marine Protected Area Network Recognized as International Gold Standard for Marine Conservation
https://opc.ca.gov/2025/06/for-immediate-release-californias-marine-protected-area-network-recognized-as-international-gold-standard-for-marine-conservation/
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Restoring Our Coast with Karina Johnston
On today’s Conservation Conversations episode we talk with Karina Johnston, a PHD candidate at UCSB, a coastal habitat restoration ecologist formerly with Tidal Influence, and the newly appointed executive director of Heal the Ocean, a southern California nonprofit. She has so much experience and a wealth of knowledge to share, so let’s get straight to it with Karina as part of our series on coastal resiliency!
Thank you again to Karina for taking the time to talk with us. It’s the work like what she does that can give us all hope for the future of the CA coastline.
Please check out the Tidal Influence or Heal the Ocean website and get involved with them, or wherever you can.
http://www.tidalinfluence.com/
https://www.healtheocean.org/
Host and producer is Austin Parker
Music was provided by A Picture Book studio
Don't forget to like comment and subscribe if you want to help!
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NEWS June 15 2025
Land
California’s largest ‘land-back’ deal returns 47,000 acres to tribe
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/06/05/3094125/0/en/Largest-Ever-Land-Back-Conservation-Deal-in-Calif-Now-Complete-Western-Rivers-Conservancy-Conveys-Final-Acreage-to-Yurok-Tribe-in-a-47-000-Acre-Effort-Critical-to-the-Salmon-Wildli.html
Newly-declared conservation area in Peru is home to pink dolphins, giant armadillos
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-newly-declared-area-peru-home.html
Biodiversity
Three new wolf packs discovered in Northern California
https://phys.org/news/2025-05-wolf-northern-california.html
Western quolls and brushtail possums thrive in Australian national park a decade after reintroduction
https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/western-quolls-and-brushtail-possums-thrive-a-decade-after-reintroduction-to-national-park-1-335680/
Endangered snow leopard cub born at Kent big cat sanctuary
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwqy3q4zeno
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NEWS June 1 2025
Rewilding
Experts celebrate as rare parrot makes miraculous comeback from brink of extinction: 'They're already ready to fly'
https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/red-tailed-amazon-parrots-brazil/
2025 Lion census shows 32% population rise
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/out-of-the-woods-in-gujarat-why-asiatic-lions-future-cant-be-secured-by-numbers-alone-10022963/
Spectacular creature makes stunning comeback after decades of absence
https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/bearded-vulture-chick-spain-conservation/
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6:44
NEWS May 15 2025
Water
City of Phoenix encouraging residents to harvest rainwater this summer
https://www.abc15.com/weather/impact-earth/city-of-phoenix-encouraging-residents-to-harvest-rainwater-this-summer
How California’s farmers can recharge the aquifers they’ve drained
https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/california-groundwater-study-central-valley-drought-managed-aquifer-recharge/
Drawdown
This Solar-Powered Device Sucks CO2 From the Air—and Turns It Into Fuel
https://gizmodo.com/this-solar-powered-reactor-sucks-co2-from-the-air-and-turns-it-into-fuel-2000563558
Genetically enhanced crops proposed as scalable solution for CO₂ removal
https://phys.org/news/2025-05-genetically-crops-scalable-solution.html
Marine
IUCN launches project to combat marine plastic pollution in the Pacific
https://iucn.org/news/202504/iucn-launches-project-combat-marine-plastic-pollution-pacific
Indonesia plans 200000 hectares of new marine conservation areas in 2025
https://en.antaranews.com/news/354329/indonesia-targets-200-thousand-hectares-marine-conservation-growth
Rewilding
Captive-Bred Axolotls Can Survive in the Wild, Sparking Hope for the Endangered Species
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/captive-bred-axolotls-can-survive-in-the-wild-offering-hope-for-the-critically-endangered-amphibians-180986543/
Study suggests there are more jaguars in the Amazon than previously thought
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/study-suggests-there-are-more-jaguars-in-the-amazon-than-previously-thought/
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Pelecanus is a conservation-based collective in continuous wonder of the healing and encouragement that is possible on this planet and the people making it happen. We are committed to telling these stories and demonstrating optimism through science.