One cannot deny the value that the young Shingi Male has provided us with over the past two years in terms of some incredible sightings. Although sightings of him and his mother have become less frequent, he still roams safely within her territory.
The impressive size of the Shingi Male next to his mother
The last surviving cub of a litter of three, he is on the cusp of independence.
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18 sightings by Members
Londolozi’s most viewed leopard and prolific mother. This gorgeous female has raised multiple cubs to independence.
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Spotted this leopard?
You’ve seen this leopard
107 sightings by Members
Young leopards are often agile, enthusiastic and playful, frequently running to climb trees and termite mounds as they navigate their environment, and the Shingi Male is no exception.
The enthusiastic change of direction as the Shingi Male quickly climbed this marula tree
One afternoon, after unsuccessfully trying to find his mother, the Nkoveni Female, another vehicle found the Shingi Male not too far away, lying in a marula tree. My guests and I had been hoping throughout their stay to capture a sighting of a leopard in a tree, and this seemed like it might be our moment.
Unfortunately, it was not. As we made our way there, we could see him resting in the tree from a distance, but just as we came into full view, he descended into the long grass below. A minor moment of disappointment as the sun began to set, we realised we had missed the opportunity.
We continued to follow him as the sky shifted from yellow and orange hues to soft pinks and blues. Suddenly, he ran off, stopped abruptly, and leapt into the long grass. Two Harlequin Quails (small ground birds) flushed as he pounced in their direction. It seemed that his rest in the tree had given him renewed energy, as he continued to hunt several of these birds—unsuccessfully, but very entertaining to watch.
With the grasses being lush and long this time of year, the leopards can stalk effectively by getting down low.
As the light continued to fade, he walked through the clearings ahead of us. A fallen marula tree in the distance appeared to guide his path, and with the long grass surrounding him, we looped ahead and waited. Soon, we were delighted as he came bounding onto the fallen marula tree.
He then continued to climb way up to the upper reaches of this tree.
He climbed way up to the upper parts of this fallen Marula and appeared to have picked up the scent of something.
As we watched him, something incredible was brewing behind us, and with that we spun around, and to be honest, I could not quite believe my eyes…
It looks almost too good to be true, but with all the moisture and clouds around this time of year and the glimmers of the fading sun, this is a sighting I will always remember.
He then rubbed his face on the end of the branch before turning back and climbing back down.
Combing his whiskers on the branch beneath him, he then spun around and climbed down the marula tree.
He walked through the long grass once more before settling on a termite mound, scanning the nearby herd of impala as the last of the sun set faded behind him. We left him here and journeyed home with an exceptionally memorable moment that we were fortunate enough to share together.
The last light of a spectacular afternoon spent with this young male leopard.
SALEM — The House of the Seven Gables is earmarking money to move five of its historic structures further inland in anticipation of rising seas and groundwater levels caused by climate change.
As such, the organization is seeking grants and donations to implement its 50-year climate adaptation plan. In 2022, the Gables received a $509,919 grant from the state to study site conditions and create the plan that was completed in May.
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GOLDEN TROUT WILDERNESS, Calif. — The first two miles were pleasant enough. The grade was mild, the forest serene. It was what lay ahead that worried me:
A 2,500-foot descent to Jordan Hot Springs, a spot in California’s High Sierra backcountry that has long had a hold on my imagination — an idyllic meadow with rock-dammed bathtub-hot pools.
Given my age and lack of recent high-altitude exertion, I could easily need a helicopter to get out.
But that was a secondary concern. I was most anxious about what I might see along the way. Would it be an affirmation of nature’s power of renewal or an omen of irreversible decline?
I was retracing my steps of 20 years earlier to a scene of mass death I had never been able to erase from my mind. At a small plateau alongside Ninemile Creek in the Golden Trout Wilderness Area, I had stood in a forest of black sticks standing on both sides of a steep canyon like whiskers on a beast too large to comprehend.
I had hiked to Jordan Hot Springs and the burn scar of the 2002 McNally fire to probe big questions of fire ecology: Are Sierra forests overgrown? Is fire management the unintended cause of destructive crown fires? Do forests reduced to blackened earth and charcoal trees recover?
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The McNally fire wiped out whole forests in 2002. What does it tell us today about the future of vast areas devastated by recent fires?
At that time, the questions proved too big. I never wrote a story.
But the image stuck. Year after year I would wonder, “What does that canyon look like today?”
It took another fire to turn that question into action.
I did not grasp from the TV images of the 2020 Castle fire how deeply it would affect me personally when I saw its aftermath with my own eyes.
It was two years ago that I took a nostalgic drive up Highway 190 into the mountains east of Porterville in the San Joaquin Valley. At the elevation where the oak and scrub give way to cedar, fir and pine, I had a horrific shock rounding a familiar bend anticipating a thrill I had felt so many times before.
Instead of my favorite Sierra vista, I saw total disfigurement. The road ahead, once hidden in a sheath of forest, is now a scar carved into the side of a landscape of exposed soil and the standing carcasses of tens of thousands of blackened trees.
Those last 10 miles up the Tule River Canyon had always been a spiritual climb for me, releasing the weight of urban life along with the Central Valley heat and enlivening my spirit with cascading streams, pine-scented air and anticipation of the road’s end.
I had been enamored of this view since 1962, when I first drove to the end of Highway 190 in Quaking Aspen to begin my summer job packing mules into the Sierra backcountry.
Now it was gone. So much beauty lost. Never to return?
The 2020 Castle fire left huge sections of Sequoia National like these standing dead trees.
(Daniel Flesher / LA Times Studios)
In the recent years of unprecedented wildfires, the public discourse has been filled with speculation that such a total tree die-off, combined with a warming climate, could irreversibly change a forest, leaving it barren of the conifers that dominate an alpine ecosystem.
I didn’t want to believe that. I wanted hope that in my lifetime I might see the Tule River Canyon once again as it was.
Thus arose the fanciful idea that a return to Jordan Hot Springs would allow me to see into the future by looking at the past. My purpose was aesthetic and emotional, not scientific. But if I was going to personalize nature, I thought it would be prudent to backstop my feelings with expertise.
I asked around and found a fire ecologist who has been studying the McNally fire almost since the embers went out. Chad Hanson, co-founder and principal ecologist of the John Muir Project and resident of nearby Kennedy Meadows, is the kind of scientist who returns to the field year after year and wades through waist-high underbrush to track the trajectory of recovery.
Hanson jumped at the opportunity to take a reporter off-road to see nature as he sees. He offered some advice that I understood better once we were on the trail: “Don’t wear shorts.”
On the first leg, a 650-foot drop to Casa Vieja Meadows, his commentary turned the hike into a walking lesson to reshape my view of the nature of fire and nature itself.
“To really grasp what’s happening in nature, especially after wildfires, you really have to think like a forest,” he said. “And forests don’t operate on human timescales, and they don’t operate the way humans do, especially when it comes to life and death.”
Hanson has a relationship with the forest that is at once clinical and lyrical.
“A standing dead tree is vastly more important to wildlife and biodiversity in the forest than a standing live tree of the same size,” he said. “A tree in the forest ecosystem may have two or three hundred years of incredibly important vital life after it dies.”
1
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1.A screen grab of an area of the 2020 Castle Fire that has undergone post-fire logging. 2.A screen grab of along the trail to Jordan Hot Springs a charred tree sits surrounded by White Thorn Bush.
A screen grab of trees charred by the 2020 Castle fire in this once-dense portion of the forest.
(Daniel Flesher / LA Times Studios)
Woodpeckers carve nesting cavities in the softer dead trees and broken-off snags, then move on each year, leaving behind homes for other nesting creatures, such as nuthatches and chipmunks. As the trees break off or fall, the downed logs become food and cover for earthbound species and eventually decay into nutrients in the soil.
Our maps showed we were walking through forest burned in the McNally fire, but what I saw around us made that hard to imagine. A canopy of Jeffrey pine, red fir and incense cedar shaded the trail. Except for the blackened bark on their lower trunks, there was no sign of catastrophic fire.
“That’s because there wasn’t,” Hanson assured me. The fire had passed through where we were walking. But the common descriptors “scorched,” “blackened” and “destroyed” did not apply.
“Most of the fire area is like this, where it would have killed a few of the seedlings and saplings but basically almost nothing else,” Hanson said. “It’s largely unchanged by the fire.”
It took nearly five weeks for the McNally fire to cover 150,000 acres. Much of that time, at night or when the wind was down, it moved at a human walking pace.
“The temperature drops and the relative humidity goes up, the winds die down, flames drop to the ground and it starts creeping along,” Hanson said.
A screen grab of a hillside heavily altered by the 2020 Castle fire.
(Daniel Flesher / LA Times Studios)
Several times as we walked, the canopy opened up nearby and Hanson stopped to point out a high-intensity burn where a burst of wind in the heat of the afternoon had lofted the flames into the living branches more than 100 feet above us. Some were an acre or two, some up to 50 acres.
A quarter century after the fire, each was a mini-laboratory of regeneration. My first impression was sunlight, a brightness that contrasted with the shade we stood in. Then brush, predominantly whitethorn and manzanita, interspersed in waist-high thickets. Then snags, standing dead trees broken off halfway up. Finally, patches of young conifer, some mere saplings, some 15 to 20 feet tall
The few trees that had survived the fire now looked like Christmas trees planted on top of telephone poles. For a year after the fire, Hanson said, they would have appeared dead with all their foliage scorched. But at the very top, surviving terminals had sent out new twigs in the next growing season.
Those were the starter trees that spread the seed that had germinated and was now thriving in the open sunlight.
At one burn, Hanson proposed that we make a side trip and wade through the brush up on a steep canyon wall where, he assured me, we would find even more saplings just breaking through. Knowing that we had completed less than half our descent, and that each step down would require a step back up, I decided to wait to see how I felt later in the day on the way back up.
Casa Vieja Meadows was a perfect Sierra scene: a half-mile plain of yellow-green grass, a ring of forest all around it, a cattleman’s shed across the way and tranquil Ninemile Creek running its length.
At the meadow’s end, the creek dived into a rocky canyon, the beginning of a 1,500-foot drop through patches of willow, cottonwood and fern.
When we reached that spot that has stuck in my memory for 20 years, my immediate reaction was disappointment. I saw no beauty, only a scar that was neither a forest of dead trees nor living ones. Only a few snags remained. The fallen trees must have been there — there had been no logging to remove them — but were submerged in the brush, out of sight. At most, a dozen or two pre-fire trees survived on both sides of the canyon.
From a belt of willow at the stream’s edge to the ridges above, both sides of the canyon were covered in gray-green hue of whitethorn extending as far as I could see toward Jordan Hot Springs, still a half mile beyond.
Here, Hanson preached a beauty based on the timescale of natural succession. Because of its size and severity, this high-intensity burn area will remain what is called montane chaparral for decades, he said. In doing so, it will give the greater forest ecosystem what it cannot survive without.
“That’s some of the best wildlife habitat,” he said, sweeping his hand over the horizon. “We’re not used to seeing it that way as humans where we see the flames go high and kill most of the trees. But it turns there are a lot of wildlife species in the forest that have evolved over millions of years to depend specifically on areas where most of the trees have been killed.
A screen grab of a hillside above Jordan Hot Springs where the 2002 McNally fire burned. There are early signs of conifer regeneration emerging among lower vegetation.
(Daniel Flesher / LA Times Studios)
“This is actually really important habitat for shrub nesting birds, for small mammals, woodpeckers, bluebirds, nuthatches, any cavity-nesting species. They depend on these patches where you have a lot of dead trees.”
Hanson assured me this vast landscape of brush was already making its return as a conifer forest. To see the evidence, we’d have to slog into the whitethorn to see the future. I shakily followed Hanson up a canyon as he worked his way through openings he said were likely blazed by foraging bears, then over a fallen tree trunk that crumbled under my steps.
I was gasping for air and having difficulty maintaining balance when he stopped.
Hanson began noting tufts of pine needles poking out of the waist-high brush around us. “One, two, three, four, five, six,” he said, counting as he went along. Farther up, he pointed out clumps of new conifers, some up to 18 feet tall.
The saplings just now poking their needles into the sunlight, and hundreds more that we would only be able to be seen on our hands and knees, will grow and propagate, he said.
“It’s going to keep regenerating every year, every decade after the fire,” he said. “There’s going to be more new ones coming in and the earlier ones are going to get taller and older. And that’s just classic natural progression.”
In a hundred years, they’ll be so thick they’ll block out the sun, and the brush, starved of energy to drive photosynthesis, will wither, and the shrub nesting species will move to a different mountain cleared by a later fire.
I had seen what I needed to see. All that was left was to fulfill a personal desire to return one more time to Jordan Hot Springs.
Through all my youthful explorations of the Kern River Canyon — my Yosemite without crowds — that golden-green meadow with its pools had been only an illusion for me. Named for the man who came across it blazing a trail from the San Joaquin Valley to the Mojave Desert in 1861, it was a storied place just beyond my horizon.
Several times I led mule strings to Soda Flat, a private outpost in Sequoia National Forest. The hot springs beckoned only 3½ miles away. But after 20 miles on the trail, duty to my livestock and to my client, Bakersfield realtor Ralph Smith, prevented me from indulging that fantasy.
So much has changed since then. The pack station at Quaking Aspen was demolished and relocated four miles deeper into the backcountry on logging roads. A paved road was cut into the roadless area east of the Kern River giving automobile access to the five-mile John Jordan Hot Springs trail.
My visual memory of Jordan Hot Springs from that 2005 hike has faded. The catharsis I felt then of finally seeing it after so many decades has not. At the stage in life when I know that my return to many places will be my last, I wanted to fix its image in my memory, to sit simply one more time and contemplate the beauty of this small spot in the universe.
It wasn’t to be.
A screen grab of an aerial view shows the scale of the 2020 Castle fire.
(Daniel Flesher / LA Times Studios)
Noting my fatigue, Hanson asked if I wanted to go on. With the sun on its downward arc and a 500-foot descent ahead to fulfill that wistful desire, he thought prudence dictated that it was time to turn home. I had to agree. It was a slow ascent. I couldn’t go more than a few hundred feet without stopping to sit and catch my breath. But I made it, just before dark — without a helicopter.
I never intended to settle the big academic and political questions over what’s the right way to care for a forest: Indigenous stewardship vs. forest thinning; post-fire logging and bio-mass extraction vs. natural decay and regeneration; fire control vs. natural selection.
Much has been written about that. Much more will likely be before I could report that a consensus is achieved.
I do have a preview of the Tule River Canyon a quarter century from now, and it won’t be the place I have known for so much of my life. There will likely be no vistas of forest canopy, no shaded glens with water cascading through a tapestry of conifers, pine sap spicing the morning air.
More likely, there will be mile after mile of whitethorn and manzanita, a few grandfather trees identifiable by their odd conical foliage high on spindly trunks, patches of vigorous young pine 15 to 20 feet tall, and saplings whose tops barely break through the brush.
From my new perspective, I’m still not able to call that beauty, but I can call it hope. I’m betting on one who crawls through the brush to find answers that it’s only the beginning of something that will take longer than my lifetime to reveal itself.
NEW HOPE, Pennsylvania — Former special education teacher Jessica Zander cultivated a beautiful sanctuary where experiences are tailor-made for children of all abilities.
‘Helping Friendly Farm’ opened in 2022 and offers families a combination of sensory exploration, nature, and animal interaction.
After making a reservation, families typically have the whole farm to themselves and can enjoy activities at their own pace.
They can enjoy various rooms in the sensory barn and interact with trained animals like goats and pigs.
To learn more about ‘Helping Friendly Farm,’ watch the video above and visit their website.
Big emotions such as anger, worry, or sadness can overwhelm both children and adults. Family time in nature offers a simple way to calm those heavy feelings and bring everyone closer together.
Nature helps families regulate emotions, lower stress, and restore balance through simple shared experiences like fresh air, sunlight, and movement. Even short moments outside, such as walking under trees or sitting near water, give the mind space to reset and the body a chance to relax. For families living in Pasadena, that might mean an evening walk through a tree-lined neighbourhood, a visit to a nearby park, or a quiet moment in one of the city’s many green spaces.
Families that spend time in nature often notice calmer moods and easier communication. Natural settings reduce stress hormones, slow heart rates, and create peaceful pauses that help everyone process emotions more clearly. These small breaks away from screens and routines can encourage understanding and patience during difficult moments.
This article explains why nature supports emotional health for families and how everyday outdoor moments, like a park visit or garden game, can ease tension and strengthen wellbeing. Simple ideas and realistic examples will show how you can use family time in nature as a steady support for connection and emotional balance.
Why nature eases big feelings for families
Spending regular time outdoors can calm the body, balance mood, and build emotional awareness. Families who include nature in their routines often notice fewer arguments, steadier attention, and more relaxed communication.
Nature’s calming effect on the mind and body
Natural environments can lower the stress hormones that rise during frustration or anxiety. Studies show that being outside for even 20 minutes can reduce cortisol levels by more than 20%. The body’s stress response slows, breathing deepens, and muscle tension eases. Families often feel this calm within minutes of stepping into a park or forest.
Nature benefits adults and children differently but meaningfully. Parents report fewer headaches and better sleep, while children display more patience and focus. A licensed psychiatrist (Pasadena CA) often recommends incorporating outdoor time alongside therapy or medication as part of a steady emotional care plan. Practical options include short morning walks or quiet time in the garden to support mood balance.
Reducing anger, worry, and sadness through green spaces
Access to trees, grass, and sunlight can provide relief from anger, sadness, and chronic worry. People in green spaces experience lower rumination, the cycle of repeated negative thoughts, compared to those indoors. Families walking on a local trail often notice children’s tempers soften and adults’ concerns ease by the end of the outing.
A study from multiple public health groups found that families who spend time outdoors each week report higher relationship satisfaction and fewer daily conflicts. Outdoor play encourages laughter, light movement, and teamwork. These natural rewards act as gentle emotional resets. For individuals in therapy, such relaxation complements professional support from mental health providers across California who focus on lifestyle-based care.
Time in sunlight also raises vitamin D levels, which influence serotonin activity and support a stable mood. Simple outdoor routines often lead to better mornings and more restful evenings.
Mindfulness and mental wellness in natural environments
Nature naturally invites mindfulness, a state of paying attention to the present moment without judgment. The soft sounds of wind and birds can help draw awareness away from worries about the past or future. This mental pause eases emotional overload and gives families space to reset together.
Some people describe outdoor mindfulness as easier than indoor meditation because natural cues keep attention grounded. Parents who practice slow breathing outdoors with their children model stress management in a simple, visible way. Over time, families can learn to notice feelings sooner and respond with patience rather than frustration.
Licensed mental health professionals note that this awareness helps prevent emotional buildup that can lead to conflict at home. Even five minutes of quiet observation among trees or at a park bench can restore calm. Families who value mental balance often build small outdoor rituals, such as end-of-day walks, as reliable anchors for emotional wellness.
Simple ways to boost family wellbeing outdoors
Families can improve their mental health and strengthen emotional balance through shared time in natural spaces. Regular outdoor activities also build stronger relationships and encourage physical exercise that supports calmness and focus.
Outdoor activities to strengthen family bonds
Practical outdoor ideas include activities such as hiking or trail walking, which help build trust and communication among family members. Gardening together teaches care and shared responsibility as everyone participates in planting or tending to vegetables and flowers. Outdoor games and picnics encourage laughter and relaxation, giving families a chance to enjoy each other’s company in a fun and low-pressure way. Children who spend time outdoors often become more confident in expressing emotions, and parents also gain more patience and awareness of their children’s needs through these shared experiences.
Nature walks and the power of exercise together
Nature walks combine physical exercise with time spent in green spaces, which supports both physical and mental wellbeing. The fresh air, sunlight, and gentle rhythm of walking ease tension and can lower stress levels. Families can choose routes close to home, such as local parks, lakes, or tree-lined paths, to make this practice a regular habit.
Walking side by side is also a great way to create natural moments for conversation. Children often open up more easily in outdoor settings because the movement and scenery reduce emotional pressure. This allows parents to listen more closely and respond with understanding.
Short, regular walks – about 20 to 30 minutes – can benefit sleep quality, improve focus, and elevate mood. A comfortable pace suits all ages and encourages families to notice small details in nature, such as the sound of birds or the colour of leaves. These observations promote mindfulness and emotional grounding.
When families spend more time outdoors, practical preparation can help make these outings smoother and less stressful. Simple habits like carrying water, wearing comfortable shoes, or protecting devices with durable accessories such as Ghostek cases can prevent small frustrations from turning into bigger emotional moments. Having the essentials to hand allows you to focus on being present rather than worrying about minor mishaps. These small steps support the overall goal of creating calm, enjoyable outdoor experiences together.
Building emotional resilience in children through nature
Children develop emotional resilience through repeated experiences in nature. Outdoor exploration exposes them to challenges and discoveries that build confidence and adaptability. For example, climbing over a fallen log or identifying animal tracks allows them to practice problem-solving and patience.
Parents can use outdoor time to teach emotional regulation skills. Deep breathing exercises, quiet observation of waves, or naming positive feelings after completing a walk can help children link peaceful emotions with natural surroundings.
A simple family routine, such as weekly visits to a park or garden, is an easy way to support long-term mental health. These experiences reduce anxiety and strengthen emotional awareness. Over time, children learn that nature offers a dependable place of calm and safety when they face anger, worry, or sadness.
Summing up
Families that spend time in nature often notice calmer emotions and stronger connections. Simple activities like walks, picnics, or gardening can lower tension and help both children and adults control anger or worry. These shared moments give everyone a chance to slow down, breathe deeply, and reset their mood.
Natural spaces also create a setting where people feel safe enough to talk about their feelings. Fresh air, open skies, and quiet surroundings support honest conversation and reduce emotional strain. As a result, family bonds often grow steadier and more trusting.
By adding regular outdoor time to weekly routines, families can improve emotional balance and communication. Even short experiences outdoors can bring a sense of peace that lingers long after returning home. Together, these experiences show that nature can serve as a gentle guide through big feelings like anger, sadness, and worry.
Scientists say they have for the first time unlocked how a parasitic ant uses chemical warfare to take over the nest of a different species, by tricking workers into an unlikely assassination.The deadly scheme unfolds like a Shakespearean drama. In an ant colony, the queen is dying, under attack by her own daughters. Meanwhile, the true enemy — an invader queen from another ant species — waits on the sidelines. Her plan is simple: Infiltrate the nest and use chemical weapons brewed inside her body to deceive the worker ants into mistaking their rightful ruler for an imposter.In a few hours, the nest’s queen will fall. Once the former matriarch is dead, the invader will assume the role of the colony’s new leader.Matricide in an ant colony is not unheard of — it typically happens when a colony produces multiple queens or when a solo queen reaches the end of her fertility. But this particular scenario, in which an outsider queen turns workers into her proxy assassins, has never been described in detail before, researchers reported Monday in the journal Current Biology.In fact, this strategy is yet to be documented in any other animal species, said the study’s senior author, Keizo Takasuka, an assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of Kyushu in Japan.”Inducement of daughters to kill their biological mother had not been known in biology before this work,” Takasuka told CNN in an email.The researchers observed this behavior among ants in the Lasius genus, documenting invasions and worker manipulation by queens in the species L. orientalis and L. umbratus.”Prior studies had reported that, after a new L. umbratus queen invaded a host colony of L. niger, host workers killed their own queen,” Takasuka said. “But the mechanism remained entirely unknown until our study.”Scent of a worker antAnts communicate through smell, which is how they distinguish between nestmates and foes. When researchers previously observed parasitic ant queens near a colony’s foraging trails, they saw that the parasite would snatch up a worker ant and rub it on her body, disguising her scent and allowing her to slip into the nest undetected.For the new study, coauthors Taku Shimada and Yuji Tanaka — both citizen scientists in Tokyo — each raised an ant colony and introduced parasitic queens. Shimada observed an L. orientalis queen in an L. flavus colony, and Tanaka recorded an L. umbratus queen invading a colony of L. japonicus.In both experiments, the scientists first co-housed an invading queen with host workers and cocoons “so that she acquired the nestmate odour,” Takasuka said. “This allowed her to gain nestmate recognition and avoid retaliation upon entry.” The scientists then released the queen into the colony.Both parasite queens followed a similar plan of attack. After disguising their smell, the queens entered the colonies’ feeding areas. Most workers ignored the interloper. Some even fed her mouth-to-mouth.But the invading queens weren’t there for dinner — they had an assassination to set in motion. After locating the resident queen, the invader sprayed her with abdominal fluid that smelled of formic acid. The scent agitated workers, with some of them turning on their queen immediately and attacking her. Multiple sprays followed, and the attacks became more brutal.”The host workers eventually mutilated their true mother after four days,” the scientists reported.All in the familyThe death of the true queen was the invader’s cue to start producing hundreds of eggs, attended by her newly adopted “daughters.” Over time, her biological daughters would number in the thousands, usurping the colony until none of the original species remained.”It’s refreshing to see a very careful observational study that discovers something interesting that we — ‘we’ meaning ant researchers — suspected but had never confirmed,” said Jessica Purcell, a professor in the department of entomology at the University of California, Riverside.”I was really struck by this discovery, especially the use of a chemical compound to elicit that behavior by the workers,” said Purcell, who was not involved in the research.Social insects like ants gather and store resources for the colony to share. That makes them an attractive target for social parasites — species seeking well-stocked nests that they can exploit. Some ant species kidnap the colony’s offspring and enslave them. Others, such as L. orientalis and L. umbratus, set up shop in the colony, where they eliminate the existing queen and take her place.”There’s all of this amazing diversity,” Purcell told CNN. “What we didn’t know a lot about before this study is the various ways that socially parasitic queens might go about assassinating the host queen. People had done some observations of direct killing, where the infiltrating queen would go and cut off the head of the existing queen. But this is astonishing that they can actually use chemical manipulation to cause the workers to do it.”Violence within families is often described in fairy tales and myths, with wicked adults — typically desperate parents or jealous stepparents — conspiring to harm or kill children. Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Snow White is hunted and then poisoned by an apple; Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the forest and captured by a witch, who imprisons them and fattens Hansel for her supper.But while such stories include plenty of violence, the killing of a mother in folklore — let alone children being tricked into matricide — is almost nonexistent, said Maria Tatar, a professor emerita of folklore and mythology at Harvard University who was not involved in the new study.In that respect, Takasuka noted, the grim tale of the invading, manipulative ant queens stands out even more.”Sometimes, phenomena in nature outstrip what we imagine in fiction,” he said.
Scientists say they have for the first time unlocked how a parasitic ant uses chemical warfare to take over the nest of a different species, by tricking workers into an unlikely assassination.
The deadly scheme unfolds like a Shakespearean drama. In an ant colony, the queen is dying, under attack by her own daughters. Meanwhile, the true enemy — an invader queen from another ant species — waits on the sidelines. Her plan is simple: Infiltrate the nest and use chemical weapons brewed inside her body to deceive the worker ants into mistaking their rightful ruler for an imposter.
In a few hours, the nest’s queen will fall. Once the former matriarch is dead, the invader will assume the role of the colony’s new leader.
Matricide in an ant colony is not unheard of — it typically happens when a colony produces multiple queens or when a solo queen reaches the end of her fertility. But this particular scenario, in which an outsider queen turns workers into her proxy assassins, has never been described in detail before, researchers reported Monday in the journal Current Biology.
In fact, this strategy is yet to be documented in any other animal species, said the study’s senior author, Keizo Takasuka, an assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of Kyushu in Japan.
“Inducement of daughters to kill their biological mother had not been known in biology before this work,” Takasuka told CNN in an email.
The researchers observed this behavior among ants in the Lasius genus, documenting invasions and worker manipulation by queens in the species L. orientalis and L. umbratus.
“Prior studies had reported that, after a new L. umbratus queen invaded a host colony of L. niger, host workers killed their own queen,” Takasuka said. “But the mechanism remained entirely unknown until our study.”
Scent of a worker ant
Ants communicate through smell, which is how they distinguish between nestmates and foes. When researchers previously observed parasitic ant queens near a colony’s foraging trails, they saw that the parasite would snatch up a worker ant and rub it on her body, disguising her scent and allowing her to slip into the nest undetected.
For the new study, coauthors Taku Shimada and Yuji Tanaka — both citizen scientists in Tokyo — each raised an ant colony and introduced parasitic queens. Shimada observed an L. orientalis queen in an L. flavus colony, and Tanaka recorded an L. umbratus queen invading a colony of L. japonicus.
In both experiments, the scientists first co-housed an invading queen with host workers and cocoons “so that she acquired the nestmate odour,” Takasuka said. “This allowed her to gain nestmate recognition and avoid retaliation upon entry.” The scientists then released the queen into the colony.
Both parasite queens followed a similar plan of attack. After disguising their smell, the queens entered the colonies’ feeding areas. Most workers ignored the interloper. Some even fed her mouth-to-mouth.
But the invading queens weren’t there for dinner — they had an assassination to set in motion. After locating the resident queen, the invader sprayed her with abdominal fluid that smelled of formic acid. The scent agitated workers, with some of them turning on their queen immediately and attacking her. Multiple sprays followed, and the attacks became more brutal.
“The host workers eventually mutilated their true mother after four days,” the scientists reported.
All in the family
The death of the true queen was the invader’s cue to start producing hundreds of eggs, attended by her newly adopted “daughters.” Over time, her biological daughters would number in the thousands, usurping the colony until none of the original species remained.
“It’s refreshing to see a very careful observational study that discovers something interesting that we — ‘we’ meaning ant researchers — suspected but had never confirmed,” said Jessica Purcell, a professor in the department of entomology at the University of California, Riverside.
“I was really struck by this discovery, especially the use of a chemical compound to elicit that behavior by the workers,” said Purcell, who was not involved in the research.
Social insects like ants gather and store resources for the colony to share. That makes them an attractive target for social parasites — species seeking well-stocked nests that they can exploit. Some ant species kidnap the colony’s offspring and enslave them. Others, such as L. orientalis and L. umbratus, set up shop in the colony, where they eliminate the existing queen and take her place.
“There’s all of this amazing diversity,” Purcell told CNN. “What we didn’t know a lot about before this study is the various ways that socially parasitic queens might go about assassinating the host queen. People had done some observations of direct killing, where the infiltrating queen would go and cut off the head of the existing queen. But this is astonishing that they can actually use chemical manipulation to cause the workers to do it.”
Violence within families is often described in fairy tales and myths, with wicked adults — typically desperate parents or jealous stepparents — conspiring to harm or kill children. Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Snow White is hunted and then poisoned by an apple; Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the forest and captured by a witch, who imprisons them and fattens Hansel for her supper.
But while such stories include plenty of violence, the killing of a mother in folklore — let alone children being tricked into matricide — is almost nonexistent, said Maria Tatar, a professor emerita of folklore and mythology at Harvard University who was not involved in the new study.
In that respect, Takasuka noted, the grim tale of the invading, manipulative ant queens stands out even more.
“Sometimes, phenomena in nature outstrip what we imagine in fiction,” he said.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Find a shady spot under a tree, take a breath of fresh air and call me in the morning.
Health care providers have long suggested stressed-out patients spend time outdoors. Now hundreds of providers are going a step further and issuing formal prescriptions to get outside. The tactic is gaining momentum as social media, political strife and wars abroad weigh on the American psyche.
Of course, no one needs a prescription to get outside, but some doctors think that issuing the advice that way helps people take it seriously.
“When I bring it up, it is almost like granting permission to do something they may see as frivolous when things seem so otherwise serious and stressful,” said Dr. Suzanne Hackenmiller, a Waterloo, Iowa, gynecologist who started issuing nature prescriptions after discovering time outdoors soothed her following her husband’s death.
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
Getting outdoors can improve your health
Spending time in natural areas can lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones and boost immunity, multiple studies have found.
“Study after study says we’re wired to be out in nature,” said Dr. Brent Bauer, who serves as director of the complementary and integrative medicine program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The program focuses on practices that usually aren’t part of conventional medicine, such as meditation, acupuncture, massage and nutrition. “That’s more than just ‘Woo-woo, I think nature is cool.’ There’s actually science.”
Telling someone to go outside is one thing. The follow-through is something else. Starting about a decade ago, health care providers began formalizing suggestions to get outside through prescriptions.
Dr. Robert Zarr, who doubles as a nature guide, launched an organization called Park Rx America around 2016, offering providers protocols for prescribing nature outings. The guidelines call for talking with patients about what they like to do outside — walking, sitting under a tree, maybe just watching leaves fall — how often to do it and where to go. That all then gets included in a prescription, and Park Rx America sends patients reminders.
Nearly 2,000 providers have registered with the organization across the U.S. and a number of other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Cameroon and Spain. They’ve issued more than 7,000 nature prescriptions since 2019, said Dr. Stacy Beller Stryer, Park Rx America’s associate medical director. About 100 other organizations similar to Park Rx America have sprung up around the U.S., she said.
A nature prescription can motivate
Bauer specializes in treating CEOs and other business leaders. He said he issues about 30 nature prescriptions every year. The chief executives he treats sometimes don’t even know where to begin and a prescription can give them a jump start, he said.
“I recommend a lot of things to a lot of patients,” he said. “I’m not under the illusion all of them get enacted. When I get a prescription, someone hands me a piece of paper and says you must take this medication … I’m a lot more likely to activate that.”
Hackenmiller, the Iowa gynecologist, said she’s having more discussions with patients about getting outside as a means of escaping a world locked in perpetual conflict.
“When so many things are out of our control, it can be helpful to step away from the media and immerse ourselves in nature,” she said. “I think time in nature often resonates with people as something they have found solace in and have gravitated to in other times in their life.”
Getting outside is the important part
The effectiveness of nature prescriptions is unclear. A 2020 joint study by the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Pennsylvania and North Carolina State University concluded that more work was needed to gauge follow-through and long-term health outcomes.
But unless you’re choking on wildfire smoke or swatting swarms of mosquitoes, getting outside — no matter what motivates you — can be helpful.
At William & Mary college in Williamsburg, Virginia, students issue nature prescriptions to their peers. “Patients” obtain prescriptions by filling out online applications indicating how far they’ll travel to get to a park, times they can visit, whether they need a ride and favorite outdoor activities.
Students issued an average of 22 online prescriptions per month in 2025, up from 12 per month in 2020.
Kelsey Wakiyama, a senior, grew up hiking trails around her home in Villanova, Pennsylvania, with her family and their dog, Duke. When she started her freshman year in Williamsburg, she didn’t know where to walk. She saw an advertisement for nature prescriptions in the weekly student email and eventually got one that helped her find trails near campus.
“I love the greenery,” Wakiyama said. “When you’re sitting inside — I was in the library for four hours today — the fresh air feels very nice. It calms my nervous system, definitely. I associate being outside with a lightness, a calmness, good memories. That kind of comes back to me when I’m outside.”
Copyright 2025. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a monstrous Category 5 hurricane, bringing fierce 185 mph winds, heavy rain and flooding, life-threatening storm surge, and power outages.Hurricane Melissa is one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record and is the most intense storm to hit Jamaica since records began being kept 174 years ago.As of early Wednesday morning, the hurricane was bearing down on Cuba, and videos of the storm’s intensity and the damage it had caused in Jamaica have been emerging. Here is a look at some of that footage. Police station turned into a shelter in a hard-hit area of JamaicaCNN reports that a police station in Jamaica’s southwestern city of Black River has been turned into a temporary shelter amid reports of extensive damage. Video from Jamaica Constabulary Force shows some of the damage. See the video in the player above.“The Black River Police Station has become a refuge for residents whose houses have been flooded,” Jamaica’s Constabulary Force posted on X Tuesday. “We are sticking close to the community as we weather Hurricane Melissa together,” the force added.In the player below: Video released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force shows police in Black River surveying damageStrong nighttime winds in JamaicaKingston, Jamaica, was experiencing difficult weather conditions into the night on Tuesday amid Hurricane Melissa.Heavy rain in Kingston Downtown Kingston, Jamaica, saw heavy rain after Hurricane Melissa made landfall.Flooding in St. Thomas, JamaicaSt. Thomas, Jamaica, saw heavy flooding, and TVJ in Jamaica and CNN were reporting that residents were being urged to remain cautious as rising waters continued to pose a flooding risk in the area.Strong winds hit St. JamesSt. James, Jamaica, saw heavy winds ahead of the landfall of Hurricane Melissa____CNN contributed to this report
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a monstrous Category 5 hurricane, bringing fierce 185 mph winds, heavy rain and flooding, life-threatening storm surge, and power outages.
Hurricane Melissa is one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record and is the most intense storm to hit Jamaica since records began being kept 174 years ago.
As of early Wednesday morning, the hurricane was bearing down on Cuba, and videos of the storm’s intensity and the damage it had caused in Jamaica have been emerging. Here is a look at some of that footage.
Police station turned into a shelter in a hard-hit area of Jamaica
CNN reports that a police station in Jamaica’s southwestern city of Black River has been turned into a temporary shelter amid reports of extensive damage. Video from Jamaica Constabulary Force shows some of the damage. See the video in the player above.
“The Black River Police Station has become a refuge for residents whose houses have been flooded,” Jamaica’s Constabulary Force posted on X Tuesday. “We are sticking close to the community as we weather Hurricane Melissa together,” the force added.
In the player below: Video released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force shows police in Black River surveying damage
Strong nighttime winds in Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica, was experiencing difficult weather conditions into the night on Tuesday amid Hurricane Melissa.
Heavy rain in Kingston
Downtown Kingston, Jamaica, saw heavy rain after Hurricane Melissa made landfall.
Flooding in St. Thomas, Jamaica
St. Thomas, Jamaica, saw heavy flooding, and TVJ in Jamaica and CNN were reporting that residents were being urged to remain cautious as rising waters continued to pose a flooding risk in the area.
Strong winds hit St. James
St. James, Jamaica, saw heavy winds ahead of the landfall of Hurricane Melissa
With Autumn in full effect, we’re craving the great outdoors more than ever. Sitting around a campfire when there’s a bit of a chill in the air? Sign me up yesterday!
So we’ve compiled another batch of bushcraft photos. From knives to lean-tos, bonfires to hatchets. We’ve got everything you need for a successful trip out in the wild.
Find a shady spot under a tree, take a breath of fresh air and call me in the morning.Health care providers have long suggested stressed-out patients spend time outdoors. Now, hundreds of providers are going a step further and issuing formal prescriptions to get outside. The tactic is gaining momentum as social media, political strife and wars abroad weigh on the American psyche.Of course, no one needs a prescription to get outside, but some doctors think that issuing the advice that way helps people take it seriously. “When I bring it up, it is almost like granting permission to do something they may see as frivolous when things seem so otherwise serious and stressful,” said Dr. Suzanne Hackenmiller, a Waterloo, Iowa, gynecologist who started issuing nature prescriptions after discovering time outdoors soothed her following her husband’s death. Spending time in natural areas can lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones and boost immunity, multiple studies have found.”Study after study says we’re wired to be out in nature,” said Dr. Brent Bauer, who serves as director of the complementary and integrative medicine program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The program focuses on practices that usually aren’t part of conventional medicine, such as meditation, acupuncture, massage and nutrition. “That’s more than just ‘Woo-woo, I think nature is cool.’ There’s actually science.”Telling someone to go outside is one thing. The follow-through is something else. Starting about a decade ago, health care providers began formalizing suggestions to get outside through prescriptions.Dr. Robert Zarr, who doubles as a nature guide, launched an organization called Park Rx America around 2016, offering providers protocols for prescribing nature outings. The guidelines call for talking with patients about what they like to do outside — walking, sitting under a tree, maybe just watching leaves fall — how often to do it and where to go. That all then gets included in a prescription, and Park Rx America sends patients reminders.Nearly 2,000 providers have registered with the organization across the U.S. and a number of other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Cameroon and Spain. They’ve issued more than 7,000 nature prescriptions since 2019, said Dr. Stacy Beller Stryer, Park Rx America’s associate medical director. About 100 other organizations similar to Park Rx America have sprung up around the U.S., she said. Bauer specializes in treating CEOs and other business leaders. He said he issues about 30 nature prescriptions every year. The chief executives he treats sometimes don’t even know where to begin, and a prescription can give them a jump start, he said.”I recommend a lot of things to a lot of patients,” he said. “I’m not under the illusion all of them get enacted. When I get a prescription, someone hands me a piece of paper and says ‘you must take this medication’ … I’m a lot more likely to activate that.”Hackenmiller, the Iowa gynecologist, said she’s having more discussions with patients about getting outside as a means of escaping a world locked in perpetual conflict.”When so many things are out of our control, it can be helpful to step away from the media and immerse ourselves in nature,” she said. “I think time in nature often resonates with people as something they have found solace in and have gravitated to in other times in their life.” The effectiveness of nature prescriptions is unclear. A 2020 joint study by the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Pennsylvania and North Carolina State University concluded that more work was needed to gauge follow-through and long-term health outcomes. But unless you’re choking on wildfire smoke or swatting swarms of mosquitoes, getting outside — no matter what motivates you — can be helpful. At William & Mary college in Williamsburg, Virginia, students issue nature prescriptions to their peers. “Patients” obtain prescriptions by filling out online applications indicating how far they’ll travel to get to a park, times they can visit, whether they need a ride and favorite outdoor activities. Students issued an average of 22 online prescriptions per month in 2025, up from 12 per month in 2020.Kelsey Wakiyama, a senior, grew up hiking trails around her home in Villanova, Pennsylvania, with her family and their dog, Duke. When she started her first year in Williamsburg, she didn’t know where to walk. She saw an advertisement for nature prescriptions in the weekly student email and eventually got one that helped her find trails near campus.”I love the greenery,” Wakiyama said. “When you’re sitting inside — I was in the library for four hours today — the fresh air feels very nice. It calms my nervous system, definitely. I associate being outside with a lightness, a calmness, good memories. That kind of comes back to me when I’m outside.”
MADISON, Wis. —
Find a shady spot under a tree, take a breath of fresh air and call me in the morning.
Health care providers have long suggested stressed-out patients spend time outdoors. Now, hundreds of providers are going a step further and issuing formal prescriptions to get outside. The tactic is gaining momentum as social media, political strife and wars abroad weigh on the American psyche.
Of course, no one needs a prescription to get outside, but some doctors think that issuing the advice that way helps people take it seriously.
“When I bring it up, it is almost like granting permission to do something they may see as frivolous when things seem so otherwise serious and stressful,” said Dr. Suzanne Hackenmiller, a Waterloo, Iowa, gynecologist who started issuing nature prescriptions after discovering time outdoors soothed her following her husband’s death.
Spending time in natural areas can lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones and boost immunity, multiple studies have found.
“Study after study says we’re wired to be out in nature,” said Dr. Brent Bauer, who serves as director of the complementary and integrative medicine program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The program focuses on practices that usually aren’t part of conventional medicine, such as meditation, acupuncture, massage and nutrition. “That’s more than just ‘Woo-woo, I think nature is cool.’ There’s actually science.”
Telling someone to go outside is one thing. The follow-through is something else. Starting about a decade ago, health care providers began formalizing suggestions to get outside through prescriptions.
Dr. Robert Zarr, who doubles as a nature guide, launched an organization called Park Rx America around 2016, offering providers protocols for prescribing nature outings. The guidelines call for talking with patients about what they like to do outside — walking, sitting under a tree, maybe just watching leaves fall — how often to do it and where to go. That all then gets included in a prescription, and Park Rx America sends patients reminders.
Nearly 2,000 providers have registered with the organization across the U.S. and a number of other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Cameroon and Spain. They’ve issued more than 7,000 nature prescriptions since 2019, said Dr. Stacy Beller Stryer, Park Rx America’s associate medical director. About 100 other organizations similar to Park Rx America have sprung up around the U.S., she said.
Bauer specializes in treating CEOs and other business leaders. He said he issues about 30 nature prescriptions every year. The chief executives he treats sometimes don’t even know where to begin, and a prescription can give them a jump start, he said.
“I recommend a lot of things to a lot of patients,” he said. “I’m not under the illusion all of them get enacted. When I get a prescription, someone hands me a piece of paper and says ‘you must take this medication’ … I’m a lot more likely to activate that.”
Hackenmiller, the Iowa gynecologist, said she’s having more discussions with patients about getting outside as a means of escaping a world locked in perpetual conflict.
“When so many things are out of our control, it can be helpful to step away from the media and immerse ourselves in nature,” she said. “I think time in nature often resonates with people as something they have found solace in and have gravitated to in other times in their life.”
The effectiveness of nature prescriptions is unclear. A 2020 joint study by the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Pennsylvania and North Carolina State University concluded that more work was needed to gauge follow-through and long-term health outcomes.
But unless you’re choking on wildfire smoke or swatting swarms of mosquitoes, getting outside — no matter what motivates you — can be helpful.
At William & Mary college in Williamsburg, Virginia, students issue nature prescriptions to their peers. “Patients” obtain prescriptions by filling out online applications indicating how far they’ll travel to get to a park, times they can visit, whether they need a ride and favorite outdoor activities.
Students issued an average of 22 online prescriptions per month in 2025, up from 12 per month in 2020.
Kelsey Wakiyama, a senior, grew up hiking trails around her home in Villanova, Pennsylvania, with her family and their dog, Duke. When she started her first year in Williamsburg, she didn’t know where to walk. She saw an advertisement for nature prescriptions in the weekly student email and eventually got one that helped her find trails near campus.
“I love the greenery,” Wakiyama said. “When you’re sitting inside — I was in the library for four hours today — the fresh air feels very nice. It calms my nervous system, definitely. I associate being outside with a lightness, a calmness, good memories. That kind of comes back to me when I’m outside.”
Melanie Winter, who dedicated much of her life to reimagining the Los Angeles River as a natural asset, has died. She was 67.
Winter worked persistently for nearly three decades to spread her alternative vision for the river and its watershed, calling for “unbuilding” where feasible, removing concrete and reactivating stretches of natural floodplains where the river could spread out.
Leading her nonprofit group the River Project, she championed efforts to embrace nature along the river, saying that allowing space for a meandering waterway lined with riparian forests would help recharge groundwater, reduce flood risks and allow a green oasis to flourish in the heart of Los Angeles.
She developed ambitious plans for rewilding parts of the river channel and nearby areas, and helped spearhead new riverfront parks as well as neighborhood “urban acupuncture” projects that replaced asphalt with permeable paving, allowing rainwater to percolate underground instead of running in concrete channels to the ocean.
Melanie Winter and her dog, Maisie, look over the L.A. River near the Sepulveda Basin.
“She was a voice for nature and a voice for the river,” said Rita Kampalath, L.A. County’s chief sustainability officer and a longtime friend of Winter’s. “She had such strength of her convictions, and she was so clear-eyed in the vision that she wanted to push forward. And I think that inspired a lot of people.”
Winter had lung cancer but continued working and attending local water meetings even as her health declined. She died Tuesday night at a Los Angeles hospital where friends had been visiting to spend a little last time together.
“I think what always drove her was the sense of, it was a river that had been contained in concrete … and that nature-based solutions could do a better job,” said Conner Everts, a friend and leader of the Southern California Watershed Alliance. “Her goal was to re-create a natural meandering river, with the ability to recharge into the [San Fernando] Valley and restore nature, as much as possible.”
Winter was born in 1958 and grew up in the Valley.
She was a talented dancer, and at 17 moved to New York City to start a career as a dancer and actor. She performed in Broadway shows and several Hollywood films, and also found work as a photographer, making black-and-white portraits of actors including Bruce Willis, Helen Hunt and Val Kilmer.
She left the city in 1991 and moved back to L.A., where she gravitated toward other art forms and social activism.
Melanie Winter admires the lush surroundings during a canoe trip on the L.A. River in the Sepulveda Basin in 2024.
She organized a river cleanup for the group Friends of the Los Angeles River, and then a pivotal moment came in 1996 when she attended a meeting where she heard activist Dorothy Green eloquently describe how concrete channels had starved the life from waterways, and how the city could make room for the river once again. Green became her mentor.
She sued developers and the city to challenge a planned development by the river, and organized a community coalition to push for a new state park. In 2007, she and others celebrated the opening of Rio de Los Angeles State Park.
Winter spoke passionately about the need for a network of parks “along the backbone system of our waterways,” saying this can boost ecosystems, improve air quality and protect public health. The lush, shady vegetation along restored stretches of river, she said, can provide natural cooling, helping the city become more resilient to climate change.
“I want to reverse-engineer us to a better future,” Winter said in an interview in 2024. “It would be a living river instead of a concrete river.”
At Rio de Los Angeles State Park, Melanie Winter sits on a bench designed by local artists to commemorate the park’s founding.
Winter was steadfast and uncompromising as she faced resistance from engineers and local officials who preferred traditional hard-infrastructure approaches.
“Engineers just can’t wrap their heads around the idea that nature can do it cheaper, better, easier than they can,” she said. “If you want a livable Los Angeles, then I fully believe that flipping the script on how we treat our waterways is central to it all.”
Three years ago, her group published a study outlining a proposal to restore the river and its tributaries in the Sepulveda Basin and transform the area into the “green heart” of the Valley, reducing the size of three golf courses and opening wide corridors where the river and creeks would spread out in the floodplains.
Winter was disappointed when the city released a plan for the area that she said failed to prioritize restoration.
“Even though she met with so much resistance over the years, she didn’t lose her optimism and her strong desire to make positive change,” said Melissa von Mayrhauser, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley who interviewed Winter for her research and became a friend. “I’m inspired by her vision, and I have brought that into my research, and I plan to continue working on a career in river restoration.”
She said Winter’s legacy includes not only the parks and neighborhood projects she completed, but also vital plans and concepts that can still be adopted throughout the watershed, and along other rivers.
“Thanks to Melanie, there are so many more people imagining a living L.A. River than ever before,” she said.
Melanie Winter leaves the site of a shuttered quarry with her dog, Maisie, in 2024. She supported a proposal to converttwoold gravel quarry pits into giant reservoirs where storm runoff could be routed to recharge the aquifer and reduce flood dangers downstream.
Near Winter’s home in Studio City sits a small riverside park shaded by cottonwood trees, where the native plants attract hummingbirds. There is a bench shaped like a butterfly, a retaining wall with a snake sculpture, and a green metal gate with an arch in the form of a giant toad.
In the early 2000s, Winter started envisioning the park, called Valleyheart Greenway, and invited a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students to design the garden landscape.
When the park opened in 2004, Winter said it wasn’t just about planting the garden, but also about instilling in the children a connection to their river.
Learning about the river, she said, created a group of “children with a fierce sense of place and a fierce determination to protect what’s left and to bring back as much as we can.”
Usually, people try to avoid anything considered “rotting.”
But a rare corpse flower is expected to bloom in Brooklyn just in time for Halloween.
The infamous flower known for its rotting, putrid smell is literally called the “corpse flower” — otherwise known as titus-arum or amorphophallus titanum.
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) says this one should bloom in about two weeks. The bloom doesn’t last long, though, and neither, mercifully, does the smell.
NYBG says the corpse flower only blooms every three to five years after its first bloom, which can take nearly a decade, and lasts just for two to three days, heightening anticipation for the attraction.
The flower, which is “the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom,” according to the federal government, can grow up to 9 feet tall.
Good news: You can watch a livestream of this one as we wait, courtesy of NYBG, in the YouTube player above.
A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck early Saturday near the east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.The quake’s epicenter was 111.7 kilometers (69.3 miles) east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and had a depth of 39 kilometers, according to the USGS.There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.The Pacific Tsunami Warning System briefly said there was a threat of a possible tsunami from the earthquake but later dropped the threat from its website.The Japan Meteorological Agency said warnings were issued to coastal areas about a slight change in sea levels, but that means the likelihood of damage is minimal.Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula was hit by five powerful quakes — the largest with a magnitude of 7.4 — on July 20, 2025.
A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck early Saturday near the east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The quake’s epicenter was 111.7 kilometers (69.3 miles) east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and had a depth of 39 kilometers, according to the USGS.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning System briefly said there was a threat of a possible tsunami from the earthquake but later dropped the threat from its website.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said warnings were issued to coastal areas about a slight change in sea levels, but that means the likelihood of damage is minimal.
Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula was hit by five powerful quakes — the largest with a magnitude of 7.4 — on July 20, 2025.
Being stuck inside all day truly has us ready for adventure and the great outdoors. But since there’s still work to be done here at Chive HQ, I figured bushcraft photos were the next best thing.
We’ve compiled some of the most interesting and ingenious uses of bushcraft – not to be confused with Busch craft which is just me crushing an entire 12-pack by myself.
Perfect idea for the weekend: Enjoy these pics, then get out there and touch some grass yourself!
Don’t let the cooler weather of the past couple of days fool you, because the 90-degree weather is set to return this week — this is Texas, after all. If you find yourself chasing this brief respite from the heat, you might want to look north. Another short jaunt out of state is waiting to be discovered, just a few hours from Dallas…
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano resumed erupting on Tuesday, firing lava 330 feet into the sky from its summit crater.It’s the 32nd time the volcano has released molten rock since December, when its current eruption began. So far, all the lava from this eruption has been contained within the summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.Lava emerged from the north vent in Halemaumau Crater after midnight. The vent began shooting fountains of lava at 6:35 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. By mid-morning, it was also erupting from the crater’s south vent and a third vent in between.Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It’s located on Hawaii Island, the largest of the Hawaiian archipelago. It’s about 200 miles south of the state’s largest city, Honolulu, which is on Oahu.
(Video: USGS via CNN Newsource) —
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano resumed erupting on Tuesday, firing lava 330 feet into the sky from its summit crater.
It’s the 32nd time the volcano has released molten rock since December, when its current eruption began. So far, all the lava from this eruption has been contained within the summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Lava emerged from the north vent in Halemaumau Crater after midnight. The vent began shooting fountains of lava at 6:35 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. By mid-morning, it was also erupting from the crater’s south vent and a third vent in between.
Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It’s located on Hawaii Island, the largest of the Hawaiian archipelago. It’s about 200 miles south of the state’s largest city, Honolulu, which is on Oahu.
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey announced on Thursday a plan charting a path forward for the state’s biodiversity conservation goals and pledging to double the pace of land protection in Massachusetts.
The Fox River empties into Lake Michigan in Green Bay, where city officials have proposed a resolution acknowledging that local bodies of water have a right to be protected. (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)
Two Republican legislators have proposed legislation that would prevent local governments from enacting “rights of nature” ordinances — laws that grant natural entities legal rights — claiming that such ordinances are “incompatible with America’s founding principles.”
The proposal from Rep. Joy Goeben (R-Hobart) and Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) was released after the Green Bay City Council voted unanimously last month to direct the city’s sustainability council to begin drafting a “rights of nature” resolution.
The concept of granting natural entities legal rights is relatively new in American government, but countries around the world have enshrined legal rights for nature into their constitutions. In Wisconsin, the Menominee and Ho-Chunk Nations have written rights of nature provisions into their tribal constitutions. Two years ago, the Milwaukee County Board enacted its own rights of nature resolution that promises to protect the health of the Menominee, Milwaukee and Fox rivers and Lake Michigan.
The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights has been working for years to track and support the passage of rights of nature laws around the world. The organization’s executive director Mari Margill says these laws are meant to help protect the environment.
“As environmental crises deepen, supporters of the bill are trying to make it harder to protect the environment,” Margill says of the Goeben and Nass proposal.
While the Republican legislation, if it manages to pass the Legislature, is unlikely to be signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, critics say the proposal is an example of kneejerk Republican opposition to pro-environment ideas and another instance of Republicans from northeast Wisconsin attempting to meddle in Green Bay city politics.
A co-sponsorship memo supporting the legislation states that these types of ordinances threaten the integrity of the legal system and property rights.
“Allowing and promoting this ideology represents a dangerous shift in legal precedent,” the memo states. “It would allow nonhuman entities to sue in court, threatening property rights, stalling development, and burdening the judicial system.”
Goeben did not respond to a request for comment.
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), who helped write Milwaukee County’s resolution as a member of the county board in 2023, tells the Wisconsin Examiner the idea of granting bodies of water legal rights isn’t so different from corporations having legal “personhood.” In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its Citizens United decision that corporations have the right to free speech.
“It is wholly disingenuous to say only real tangible people have rights and then fight explicitly for those rights for corporations,” Clancy says. “It’s frankly frustrating to see Republicans take these really popular measures, these are broadly popular things, and rather than engaging with us in dialog, just trying to block these things through process. It’s a disingenuous way to go about it. Let’s talk about the things that necessitate these pieces of legislation.”
He adds that legislators have the power to do more than just write legislation. Goeben’s district is in the Green Bay suburbs but doesn’t include any of the city, but, Clancy argues that she could go to city council meetings and speak with people about these ideas instead of trying to blanket ban them without any dialog.
“It would be a much more earnest process to show up in Green Bay and go to those meetings and voice your concerns there,” he says.” We have bully pulpits, I show up at the city council, county board, school board meetings, both in my capacity as a legislator and as a parent and community member. Make your case there rather than trying to ban it.”
A number of Green Bay area officials expressed frustration at Republicans again involving themselves in Green Bay city politics. Earlier this year, Green Bay-area Republicans Rep. David Steffen (R-Howard) and Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) proposed a bill that would limit the types of flags allowed to be flown at government buildings. Many Green Bay residents saw the bill as an effort to weigh in on a local debate over the flying of LGBTQ Pride flags.
“Given the challenges our communities are facing, from our housing crisis to fully funding our public schools, I am always surprised by elected officials who don’t represent this city wasting time on policies that don’t solve real problems or fund actual solutions,” Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay) says.
Joey Prestley, the Green Bay city council member who has led the local rights of nature effort, says the resolution — which hasn’t been drafted yet — is meant to serve as a non-binding advisory statement that city government will consider the environmental effects of its decisions throughout the development process.
“Historically, the human actors have been the ones who have had the rights and the natural features have not been able to have people speaking for them,” he says.
Prestley says the idea for the resolution started after a group of residents objected late in the process to a new housing development. The development would be near the Niagara escarpment, a geological feature residents want to protect, but didn’t hit the thresholds that would instigate involvement from the federal Environmental Protection Agency or state Department of Natural Resources.
“My hope with a resolution would be maybe we consider these — all environmental features — but especially these ones that are important to our region, earlier in the process, and more thoroughly in the process, so we don’t have people coming up in the 11th Hour and saying, ‘wait a second, you can’t build this housing development,’” Prestley says.
He adds that if that consideration and discussion of the environmental effects came earlier, it could have been a more constructive discussion rather than turning into a heated local debate that had the potential to kill a housing project in a city that, like much of Wisconsin, is in dire need of more housing. The Green Bay city council approved the 160-unit project in April
“If it had been earlier in our process, it could have been more collaborative, and it could have been neighbors and environmental advocates working together with the developer and the city to make sure it’s a plan that benefits everybody, everybody who engages with the environment, everybody who relies on the environment, everybody who appreciates the environment,” he says.
In proposing a resolution, he adds, the objective is “not trying to compel anyone, but really trying to adapt as a philosophy for the city that we want to consider nature as the original inhabitants of the land did before we were here.”
Prestley says it’s easy to spin the rights of nature discussion as “the work of a crazy person” who wants “to get trees to sue the city,” but actually he says he’s trying to make sure the city considers the potentially damaging environmental effects of its actions after decades of managing the harmful contamination of the Fox River.
“There was not enough people speaking up for the damage that was happening to the river back then, and it created something that affected the whole community,” Prestley says. “People used to swim in the river. Nobody touches the river now. Maybe we should consider the environment. That’s not a radical idea, that is a sensible idea, considering what we’ve done in the past in this community, and thinking about how we want to move forward.”
Prestley says the proposed legislation seems “silly” and notes a number of city actions, such as wetland reconstruction, that have benefited the environment. He says that if the Legislature isn’t going to help, it should get out of the way.
“I think we’re trying to do good things in Green Bay for the environment,” he says. “And I think the state’s responsibility should be to help with the good things, or to do their own thing.”
The lawmakers proposing the bill, “they’re not helping us,” Prestley says. “They’re not helping the people, they’re just opposing things, and I don’t know why.”
