TURTLE (OR TORTOISE) TUESDAY

☀️ In the southern Sahara, where degraded, baked, crusted soil prevented any seedlings to establish, ecological restorationists dispatched 500 "ecosystem engineers."

More commonly known as African spurred tortoises, the ecotechnicians went to work digging burrows to avoid the desert heat and cold.
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🌧️ Water stayed in the soil. Plants grew. Insects and microorganisms moved in, followed by birds and small mammals.

🛰️ From space the region even looks alive.

✅ This is another example of a successful low-tech nature-focused rewilding effort. (Recall my incessant beaver updates.)

https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/sahara-desert-ecosystem-restoration-tortoises/

#TurtleTuesday #Environment #Rewilding #EcologicalRestoration #EnvironmentalRestoration #Conservation #Biodiversity

Underground Networks and the Future of #EcologicalRestoration

How mycorrhizal #fungi form vast underground networks that sustain #ecosystems, regulate #CarbonFlows, and support #PlantHealth.

https://veganorganic.net/2026/05/underground-networks-and-the-future-of-ecological-restoration/ #ecology #plants #nature

It’s been nearly five years in the making, and now it’s almost here! The Trees of My Country: A Natural History of India in 50 Trees, published by Aleph, will hit the bookstores soon.

It took me across India, this great country of the trees, from the steamy forests of the Andaman and Nicobar islands to the high Himalaya, from the coral atolls of Lakshadweep to the far reaches of Arunachal […]

The bats last night were spectacular. I kid you not I saw one the size of a raven in the garden. Dozens swooping and dipping and maneuvering throughout the West garden, nibbling on all the odd flying insects buzzing around.

I am so curious where the bats roost during the day - it cannot be on our property so they must fly down from the mines in the mountains. I very much wish to make some bat boxes or similar encouragement for them, they're my favorite wildlife I think.

#Bats #Wildlife #EcologicalRestoration #Cycles #Ecology #Mojave #Desert #SouthwestUS

OnlineFirst - "‘We are made of this lagoon’: Ecological re-story-ation in Venice" by Margherita Scapin, Carolyn Smith, and Alexander Cullen:

#EcologicalRestoration #waterscape

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/25148486261446443

If you do conservation work or ecological restoration in the Pacific Northwest, I really can’t recommend Northwest Meadowscape’s Brush & Forestry Scythe highly enough. It is easily the most effective tool I’ve ever used for clearing nightmare tangles of Himalayan blackberry and other invasive plants. The short blade also means this scythe can be used among trees to thin understory shrubs and forbs.

I am not being paid by Northwest Meadowscapes, nor am I associated with them in any way other than being a very satisfied customer. I know first-hand how physically demanding ecological restoration work can be when tackling invasives, and I wanted to let any restoration workers in the Fedi know that there’s a tool out there that will absolutely make your work easier.

#Cascadia #PNW #EcologicalRestoration #Conservation #Forestry #Scythe #NorthwestMeadowscapes