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CBS News
5 hours ago
- CBS News
Michigan conservationists address decline in state's Kirtland's warbler population
The Kirtland's warbler, a colorful songbird that mostly resides in Michigan, is facing a decline in population, a bird count taken in June shows. In response to the circumstances, a team of conservation experts is working on a long-term plan to stabilize the population. This effort will include habitat monitoring and planning among state agencies, federal agencies and nonprofit groups. The conservation team's goal is to maintain at least 1,000 breeding pairs of the species. The 2021 population was estimated at 2,245 breeding pairs. The 2025 count, which took place in June, is estimated at 1,489 breeding pairs in U.S. lands, with only a few in Canada. "This is a situation we've been monitoring and addressing for several years now," said Erin Victory, a wildlife biologist and Kirtland's warbler management coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "We are confident we have enough tools and resources available to us, collectively within the conservation team, to reverse the decline and stabilize the population." About 98% of the Kirtland's warbler population lives in Michigan, with just a few in Wisconsin and Ontario. The ground nesting species prefers to breed among jack pine forests, a habitat that can be found among several counties in northern Lower Michigan and federally-managed lands. Specifically, the birds seek out jack pine stands that are about six to 20 years old, a growth pattern that historically happened through wildfire cycles. A census of the species takes place every two to four years, with volunteers and government staff using calls of the male bird to count the breeding pairs. Through this work, the bird population was considered to have dropped to less than 200 pairs in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. One of the steps that has been taken is monitoring its preferred habitat for an influx of cowbirds that can push out the Kirtland's warbler young. Another step is to clear-cut mature jack pine through timber sales, followed by planting jack pine seedlings, with the long-range schedule meant to build up ideal habitat. "While a population decline is not what we wanted to see this census, it is encouraging that we already understand the principal cause and conservation team members are taking steps to address the issue," said Steve Roels, coordinator of the Kirtland's Warbler Conservation Team and Kirtland's warbler program director for the American Bird Conservancy.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Germany train crash: Everything we know after derailment kills three and injures dozens
At least three people were killed and dozens were seriously injured after a passenger train derailed in the southwest German town of Biberach, authorities said. Emergency personnel were deployed to the scene, where rescue dogs searched throughout the night for survivors. No more casualties had been found as of Monday morning. About 50 people are believed to have been injured, of whom 25 were seriously injured, German media reported citing local authorities. German chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his shock over the crash. He said in a post on X: 'I am in close contact with the Interior Minister and the Transport Minister and have asked them to support the rescue forces with all available means. We mourn the victims. I express my condolences to their relatives.' The Independent takes a look at everything we know about the German train crash. What happened and how did the train crash? Around 100 people were on the train when two carriages derailed in a forested area at around 6:10pm local time, German news agency dpa reported. The crash happened near the town of Riedlingen, dpa reported, roughly 158km west of Munich. According to reports, there had been a storm in the area shortly before. 'Two carriages of a regional express train derailed on the railway line between Sigmaringen and Ulm early Sunday evening. According to current investigations, three people were killed and other passengers were seriously injured,' Ulm Police said in a statement. Authorities believe that a landslide is the likely cause, after significant rainfall struck the area shortly before the train passed through. 'There have been heavy rains here, so it cannot be ruled out that the heavy rain and a related landslide accident may have been the cause. However, this is currently the subject of ongoing investigations," said Thomas Strobl, interior minister of the state of Baden-Württemberg. At least two wagons are believed to have derailed at the site of the crash, which is around 45 kilometres southwest of Ulm. Police continue to investigate the possible causes of the crash, district fire chief Charlotte Ziller told German outlet Bild. Who died in the crash? Three people died, with the number of injured estimated at 50. Around 25 are believed to be injured seriously, emergency services told Bild. Ms Ziller said the dead include the driver of the train and another employee of Deutsche Bahn, Germany's second largest rail company. "It was terrible to witness," resident Karl Figler, 76, told the outlet. "Two people were lying dead next to the train. They were carried away in blankets. At the same time, seriously injured people were being cared for." A collection point for relatives has been set up at a local community centre, and Deutsche Bahn has set up a special hotline for the affected people and their families. What was the aftermath? Scores of emergency services personnel swarmed the site to search urgently for survivors, using rescue dogs in case some remained trapped in the rubble. As of Monday morning, no further survivors or dead bodies had been found in the search. A number of high-profile figures also rushed to the scene after the news broke on Sunday afternoon. This included the CEO of Deutsche Bahn Richard Lutz, the minister-president of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann, of the GReen Party, and the federal and state transport ministers Patrick Schnieder and Winfried Hermann, of the CDU and Green Party respectively, Bild reported. Emergency workers continue to work at the site of the crash.
New York Times
13 hours ago
- New York Times
Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good
When I was a kid in the 1980s, my parents sent me to a Waldorf school in England. At the time, the school discouraged parents from allowing their kids to watch too much TV, instead telling them to emphasize reading, hands-on learning and outdoor play. I chafed at the stricture then. But perhaps they were on to something: Today I don't watch much TV and I still read a lot. Since my school days, however, a far more insidious and enticing form of tech has taken hold: the internet, especially via smartphones. These days I know I have to put my phone in a drawer or in another room if I need to concentrate for more than a few minutes. Since so-called intelligence tests were invented around a century ago, until recently, international I.Q. scores climbed steadily in a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. But there is evidence that our ability to apply that brain power is decreasing. According to a recent report, adult literacy scores leveled off and began to decline across a majority of O.E.C.D. countries in the past decade, with some of the sharpest declines visible among the poorest. Kids also show declining literacy. Writing in the Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch links this to the rise of a post-literate culture in which we consume most of our media through smartphones, eschewing dense text in favor of images and short-form video. Other research has associated smartphone use with A.D.H.D. symptoms in adolescents, and a quarter of surveyed American adults now suspect they may have the condition. School and college teachers assign fewer full books to their students, in part because they are unable to complete them. Nearly half of Americans read zero books in 2023. The idea that technology is altering our capacity not just to concentrate but also to read and to reason is catching on. The conversation no one is ready for, though, is how this may be creating yet another form of inequality. Think of this by comparison with patterns of junk food consumption: As ultraprocessed snacks have grown more available and inventively addictive, developed societies have seen a gulf emerge between those with the social and economic resources to sustain a healthy lifestyle and those more vulnerable to the obesogenic food culture. This bifurcation is strongly class-inflected: Across the developed West, obesity has become strongly correlated with poverty. I fear that so, too, will be the tide of post-literacy. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
