The US Fish and Wildlife Service officially declares the ivory-billed woodpecker extinct, as well as the Bachman’s warbler and 21 other species. 

The Biden administration restores protections for migratory birds weakened under Trump. 

Long before chickens were domesticated, people in New Guinea 18,000 years ago attempted to raise cassowaries, “the world’s deadliest bird.”

American bumblebee numbers have declined by 90 percent. Bees have disappeared from Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming.

Since 2020, a record 18 named storms have struck the United States, including seven hurricanes. In Virginia, this year’s active hurricane season resulted in a bumper crop of armyworms. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration bans the popular Hawaiian tourist activity of swimming with spinner dolphins.

Rick Spinrad, the administrator of NOAA, is addressing his agency's chronic sexual harassment problem by hiring more women.  

Australia returns the 395,000-acre Daintree Rainforest to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.

Rapidly melting glaciers are causing alpine lakes in the Canadian Rockies to lose their famous turquoise luster.

Ford Motor Co. and a South Korean partner will spend more than $11 billion to build four new factories, in Kentucky and Tennessee, to manufacture electric vehicles and batteries. 

Taking a Lyft or Uber is worse for the climate, traffic, and public safety than driving in a private vehicle.

Phoenix attempts to cool its city streets by painting them gray.

Washington State’s ban on plastic bags goes into effect.  

The developer of the 116-mile PennEast gas pipeline abandons the project despite having won approval from the US Supreme Court.

Stronghold Digital Mining buys a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania and will burn 600,000 tons of coal a year to mine bitcoin. 

More than half of US children have detectable levels of lead in their blood.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration will not require COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing for mine workers.

A Bay Area shaman is charged with starting the Fawn Fire in Northern California when she tried to boil water from a puddle that she thought was bear urine. 

California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is charged with manslaughter after its equipment sparked last year’s Zogg Fire, in which four people died and hundreds of homes burned.

Three tourists are charged after wading into the Brooks River in Alaska’s Katmai National Park, where numerous brown bears feed at the falls.  

River otters are attacking people and pets in Anchorage, Alaska.