1+ week, 5+ day ago   (570+ words) The blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, was first observed in 1904 at the Bronx Zoo in New York, almost certainly arriving on imported Japanese chestnut stock. Asian chestnuts had evolved alongside it and were tolerant. American chestnuts had no defense at all....

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (1142+ words) WorldAtlas The native fish of the American West have taken a brutal beating. A century of dams, water diversions, drought, and introduced species pushed dozens of them toward oblivion, and the region's trout, chub, and salmon are among the most…...

5+ day, 9+ hour ago   (1231+ words) Here is what happened in 1983, why the fix worked, and why the spillways have sat dry through an era when the fear runs entirely the other way. Glen Canyon Dam has three ways to pass water. Turbines send it through…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago   (1736+ words) WorldAtlas A cottonwood tree on a good river bottom can clear 40 feet before a child starting kindergarten finishes grade school. Most trees never move that fast, and the ones that do share the same kind of ground: the wet soil…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (416+ words) Montana completes an extraordinary Missouri River sweep of the top three. Fort Peck Lake held 12.683 million acre-feet on August 21, 2026, at an elevation of 2,223.33 ft. The project's upper storage capacity reaches about 18.46 million acre-feet. The reservoir runs roughly 134 miles across northeastern…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (399+ words) An older published maximum of 71 years sits above it, and the Lake Winnebago authors cited that record as the species-level ceiling. The two figures are not equivalent. The 58-year specimen carries radiocarbon validation behind it, while the 71-year record rests…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago   (777+ words) WorldAtlas The world's list of tallest trees is constantly changing. With modern technology letting us explore spaces we couldn't before, researchers are still finding and measuring new forest giants. In 2006, the title of world's tallest tree changed when a new…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago   (438+ words) Watts Bar Reservoir took in contaminants carried down the Clinch River from the Oak Ridge Reservation, where nuclear and industrial operations released mercury, PCBs, radionuclides, and other pollutants. EPA records place 82 river miles of the Clinch River and its Watts…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (810+ words) Lake Superior holds the clearest example of a restored native fish among the Great Lakes. Lake trout were once the dominant cold-water predator throughout the Great Lakes, but commercial overharvest drove their numbers down, and invasive sea lampreys accelerated their…...