It was only five years ago that some biologists declared lynx all but eliminated from Minnesota. But when they started looking hard, researchers found lynx across St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties of northeastern Minnesota. Last year, a lynx den was discovered in Minnesota for the first time in more than 20 years.

Read (WTOP)

A group of Colombian scientists believe they’ve found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for “ecological mischief” is high.

*…and once the insects eat the coca plants, what would prevent them from eating every other type of plant in the area?*

Read (WTOP)

Grasses that filter pollutants and give crabs and small fish places to hide from predators are being grown in homes and schools so they can be transplanted later in the Chesapeake Bay.

Read (WTOP)

About 93,100 acres of Virginia waterways are closed to shellfishing. It’s the largest amount of condemned acreage in five years.

Read (WTOP)

Migrating birds are unlikely to be seriously affected by offshore wind farms, according to a new study.

Read (BBC)

A new study finds that more than 1,000 lakes in the arctic region of Siberia have disappeared or shrunk dramatically over the past 30 years. The region has been getting markedly warmer. Human activities are thought to be partly responsible.

Read (NPR)

For the first time in 30 years, the toxic algae bloom known as red tide has shut down shellfish beds from Maine to Cape Cod. Red tide is an annual phenomenon in Maine, but it’s rapidly spreading along the coast of southern Massachusetts. And the shellfish scarcity has the region’s restaurants scrambling.

Read (NPR)

A disease has killed more than half of the world’s estimated 150,000 Tasmanian devils and wildlife experts are struggling to comprehend the fast moving epidemic.

Read (New York Times)

The bass keep dying in the Shenandoah River, and the region’s main fishing ground seems to be dying with them.

A mysterious fish ailment combined with some poor reproductive spawns have dropped to near nothing the catches of mature bass in the Shenandoah Valley’s main waterway, fishermen and state officials say.

Read (Alaska Fisherman’s Journal)

Underwater bay grasses had a banner year in the upper Chesapeake Bay in 2004, with the largest increases in and around the Susquehanna River.

Read (Baltimore Sun)

Earlier this month, the Brazilian government announced that almost one-fifth of the entire Amazon had now been cleared by deforestation.

Read (BBC)

Scientists are turning 30 acres of California forest into a futuristic vision of environmental study.

Read (New York Times)