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We should be grateful to natural landscapes: Without any prompting from human beings, they absorb 29% of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide we spew into the atmosphere, per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Wildfires don’t stop being dangerous after the flames go out. Even one modest rainfall after a fire can cause a deadly landslide, according to new UC Riverside research.

Over-pumping of groundwater has caused domestic wells to go dry in the San Joaquin Valley. Yet many of the first round of plans prepared to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) do not yet propose ways to address this problem.

September, the unglamorously-named “NEP20b” became the biggest-yet-spotted blob of warm water there since satellite records began in the early 1980s.

For decades, federal, state and local agencies have prioritized fire suppression over prevention. As climate change continues to fuel dry conditions in the American West, many experts say it’s long past time to shift the focus back to managing healthy forests that can better withstand fire and add to a more sustainable future.

From the southern tip of Baja California to southeast Alaska, the range of sea creatures has pushed northward as water has warmed. Some creatures are expanding their range as they migrate north by holding on to their southern frontier. Others are disappearing from their historical homes.

What can we do to be better prepared to manage fires – including understanding the factors that influence where, when, and how fires burn, and what the consequences of fires are for humans and ecosystems.

Chinook Salmon have become a welcome and familiar sight in recent years in Putah Creek. Considered a keystone species across the Pacific Northwest, Chinook Salmon hold a special place as a cultural and food resource.

The geology and the structure of Earth’s critical zone control subsurface moisture storage potential and determine the resilience of forest and river ecosystems to drought.

Winter outlook forecasts cooler North, warmer South with ongoing La Nina

More than five million acres have burned across the West Coast in this year’s unusually severe wildfire season. To provide further context on how policymakers and forest managers can effectively mitigate the mounting threat of wildfires, RFF’s Ann Bartuska, David Wear, and Matthew Wibbenmeyer share their insights.

“The three-month outlook for January, February and March has most of California above normal for temperature but below normal for precipitation, and that would also include Marin for below-normal chances for precipitation,” said meteorologist Matt Mehle of the National Weather Service.