Latest news with #Lehner
Malaysian Reserve
30-04-2025
- General
- Malaysian Reserve
Rent Mason Bees Partners with UC Davis to Combat Rising Houdini Fly Threat to Native Bees
Join the Hunt for Houdini Flies! BOTHELL, Wash., April 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Rent Mason Bees, the nation's largest solitary bee provider, has partnered with researchers at the University of California, Davis to address the alarming spread of the Houdini fly, an invasive kleptoparasite threatening native mason bee populations across the Pacific Northwest. This week, they officially launched THE HOUDINI FLY HUNT, calling on bee hosts and citizen scientists nationwide to help track and report sightings of this destructive invader. The collaboration is led by Abigail Lehner, a PhD candidate at UC Davis, who is researching how mason bees are impacted by global environmental change. Lehner recently received a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) program to deepen the understanding of Houdini fly biology and to develop an effective management plan. 'I've seen a significant increase in Houdini flies in Washington and Oregon this year, and they are devastating to mason bee populations. Unmaintained bee hotels are a major cause of their spread,' said Lehner. The Houdini fly—a small, gray insect with red eyes, about the size of a fruit fly—was accidentally introduced from Europe within the last few years. These parasitic flies are often seen hovering near bee hotels or sitting at nest entrances. Houdini flies exploit mason bees by sneaking into nests when the mother bee is away. They lay their eggs on the pollen stores intended for bee larvae. When the Houdini larvae hatch, they consume the pollen, starving the developing mason bees. Fully grown Houdini flies then escape the sealed chambers at the same time the surviving bees would normally emerge, earning their notorious name. Thyra McKelvie, Managing Director of Rent Mason Bees, emphasizes that proper care and public education are critical. 'Many people don't realize that setting up a bee hotel comes with responsibility,' McKelvie said. 'Without proper maintenance, these hotels can quickly become breeding grounds for parasites like the Houdini fly.' McKelvie outlines three critical steps for responsible mason bee care: Place clean, openable nesting material out in early spring. Remove nesting materials at the end of spring (mason bees only live 6–8 weeks). Harvest and clean cocoons in the fall to remove parasites. 'If you want to prevent further spread, it is imperative to clean out your bee hotel in the fall and remove Houdini larvae,' Lehner added. Join the Houdini Fly Hunt! One of the best ways to combat this threat is by identifying where Houdini flies are spreading—and that's where you come in. Report your findings here: Houdini Fly Hunt!Watch the video to learn how to spot and stop Houdini flies: Mason Bee Predator Alert! Houdini Fly – How to Spot, Stop & Hunt! Your participation is crucial in protecting our native pollinators and strengthening ecosystems across the country.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
KLX Energy Services Announces 2025 First Quarter Earnings Release and Conference Call Schedule
HOUSTON, April 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. ("KLX" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: KLXE) announced today that it will report its 2025 first quarter financial results prior to the Company's live conference call, which can be accessed via dial-in or webcast, on Friday, May 9, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (9:00 a.m. Central Time). What: KLX Energy Services 2025 First Quarter Conference Call When: Friday, May 9, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time / 9:00 a.m. Central Time How: Live via phone – By dialing 1-201-389-0867 and asking for theKLX call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time, orLive Webcast – By logging onto the webcast at the address below Where: For those who cannot listen to the live call, a replay will be available through May 23, 2025 and may be accessed by dialing 1-201-612-7415 and using passcode 13753324#. Also, an archive of the webcast will be available shortly after the call at for 90 days. Please submit any questions for management prior to the call via email to KLXE@ About KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. KLX is a growth-oriented provider of diversified oilfield services to leading onshore oil and natural gas exploration and production companies operating in both conventional and unconventional plays in all of the active major basins throughout the United States. The Company delivers mission critical oilfield services focused on drilling, completion, production, and intervention activities for technically demanding wells from over 50 service and support facilities located throughout the United States. KLX's complementary suite of proprietary products and specialized services is supported by technically skilled personnel and a broad portfolio of innovative in-house manufacturing, repair and maintenance capabilities. More information is available at Contacts: KLX Energy ServicesKeefer M. Lehner, EVP & CFO(832) 930-8066IR@ Lascar Investor RelationsKen Dennard / Zach Vaughan(713) 529-6600KLXE@ View original content: SOURCE KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. Sign in to access your portfolio
CBS News
14-03-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Arctic ice approaches historic low, impacting habitat for polar bears
At the edge of the Arctic in northern Canada, the annual migration of polar bears draws tourists, photographers, and scientists like Geoff York. Buggies traverse the frozen terrain, bringing tourists closer to something truly wild. The polar bears pass through Churchill, Manitoba, hoping to catch a ride out of the tiny town on Hudson Bay's sea ice. After a summer of fasting on land, the bears need to get back to their frozen home to hunt seals and bulk up. "They're just dreaming of ice and being back out there," said York, senior director of research and policy with the conservation group Polar Bears International. But this migration ritual is changing. The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe, according to a study published in 2022 in the journal Nature. "The Arctic is one of the fastest warming regions in the planet," said Flavio Lehner, chief climate scientist for Polar Bears International and assistant professor at Cornell University. He explained that the warming is melting the sea ice that bears depend on. "It's important, because it's a complete transformation of the ecosystem," Lehner said. The Western Hudson Bay polar bears are off the ice for a month longer than their parents and grandparents. That hurts their hunting and ability to have healthy cubs that make it to adulthood. The change has cut this population by up to half in 40 years, according to Polar Bears International. "It's hard to find other places, maybe other than places maybe that have been deforested in the Amazon, where you see such a stark change," Lehner said. And what happens in the Arctic trickles down to those who reside on the rest of the planet. "If the sea ice disappears, the Arctic will warm faster and the planet will warm faster," Lehner said That ice can be thought of like the Earth's air conditioner. It reflects light and heat away from our waters. Without it, the sun is absorbed and warms the oceans. Scientists say to slow the melting, we need to significantly cut emissions from fossil fuels.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. Closes on New $232 Million Senior Secured Notes and $125 Million ABL Credit Facility
HOUSTON, March 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: KLXE) ("KLX", the "Company", "we", "us" or "our") announced today that it has closed on refinancing its existing 2025 senior secured notes by issuing approximately $232 million of senior secured notes due March 2030 together with warrants to purchase common stock of the Company. The Company also announced it has closed on its new ABL credit facility due March 2028 with a $125 million commitment, a first-in-last-out facility with a $10 million commitment, and a committed incremental loan option with a $25 million commitment. About KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. KLX is a growth-oriented provider of diversified oilfield services to leading onshore oil and natural gas exploration and production companies operating in both conventional and unconventional plays in all of the active major basins throughout the United States. The Company delivers mission critical oilfield services focused on drilling, completion, production, and intervention activities for technically demanding wells from over 50 service and support facilities located throughout the United States. KLX's complementary suite of proprietary products and specialized services is supported by technically skilled personnel and a broad portfolio of innovative in-house manufacturing, repair and maintenance capabilities. More information is available at Contacts: KLX Energy ServicesKeefer M. Lehner, EVP & CFO(832) 930-8066IR@ Lascar Investor RelationsKen Dennard / Zach Vaughan(713) 529-6600KLXE@ View original content: SOURCE KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. Sign in to access your portfolio
CBS News
04-03-2025
- CBS News
Polar bears in Canada are on the edge of extinction. Here's what's being done to protect them.
Just on the edge of the western Hudson Bay lies the small town of Churchill, Manitoba. Here, the sea meets the boreal forest under the rippling northern lights. Farther to the north, the trees stop growing. Snow coats a harsh landscape of Canadian shield, and the ceaseless wind cuts through the willows. No roads lead to Churchill. Just a rail line and an airport runway, carrying the occasional charter plane. But it attracts tourists and scientists alike because for a short time in the fall, the kings of the arctic migrate through town back to their homes on the frozen sea ice. Travelers come here, from all over the world, seeking one thing: to lock eyes with a polar bear. The bears Polar bears meander through Churchill every autumn as they wait for ice on the bay to form. Males take to the ice first, roaming and testing out the edges, eager to travel north where they can finally hunt for the ringed seal – their primary food source. Scientists converge on Churchill because it is the most accessible point to study polar bears. The bears here are the most researched in the world, and the most photographed. These arctic beasts have big personalities: they play and cuddle and nap to pass the time. Males will often spar, trying to get to know each other so that they're prepared for the charged battles in the spring, during mating season. Cubs stay close to their mothers for two to three years before they're chased off and forced to live on their own. For the following year, they test the waters – sometimes struggling to survive as they learn to hunt and sustain themselves in the tundra. "A stark change in the ecosystem" In recent years, however, the warming arctic is melting their habitat on the ice, changing the bears' behavior: scientists from Polar Bears International say the ice is forming two weeks later than it was in the 1980s, and receding two weeks earlier in the spring. This monthlong change in their environment is forcing bears to keep to shore longer, closer to humans and farther from the seal lairs in the north. It's a change — sparked by the altering climate — that their parents and grandparents didn't have to face. Yes, the bears have been constantly evolving, ever since they diverged from the grizzly roughly 500,000 years ago, but the pace of change is what is alarming scientists. Chief climate scientist for Polar Bears International Flavio Lehner says because of the decline in sea ice, the polar bear population in the western Hudson Bay is as low as 618, approximately half of what it used to be in the 1980s. "That's quite profound," he says. "It's hard to find other places, other than maybe that have been deforested in the Amazon, where you see such a stark change in the ecosystem caused by climate change." Lehner doesn't anticipate that the situation will improve, and beyond the population decline, he's seeing a behavioral shift as well. It used to be much more typical to find mothers with triplets, which, in his personal experience, is now rare. Scientists at Polar Bears International say that these bears can only sustain themselves comfortably on land for 180 days. In other parts of the world, bears have been seen hunting birds and reindeer, but scientists say this high-protein diet can damage their kidneys, and doesn't stop them from losing 2-4 pounds a day when they're off the ice. "The current pace of change is operating too fast," explained John Whiteman, chief research scientist with PBI. "Polar bears won't be able to evolve or acclimate in time to be able to deal with our current rate of sea ice loss." Whiteman expects that the polar bears will stick around for the next 10 years or so in Churchill, but the timeline starts to get fuzzy 20 to 30 years into the future. "We ultimately know if we lose sea ice, we lose polar bears," said Whiteman. The town Churchill has always been a town at the precipice. It's lived many lives — from home to First Nations to trading post to military town to now, the polar bear capital of the world. It attracts a special type of person. Often one that finds pleasure in the solitude. The people who come for employment are semi-nomadic tourist industry workers, or maybe they're looking for a change. They're guides and nature enthusiasts, seasonal workers attracted to this slow, simpler pace of life. Others — like the town's mayor of 30 years Mike Spence — have spent their lives here. Back when he was a kid, conservation officers in town were shooting 20 to 22 bears a year. But over time, the approach has changed. "First of all, we respect wildlife," he says. "The polar bears are quite significant in the Indigenous world – it's at the top of its food chain. There's a lot of respect in that." The town is now facing a future where the polar bear tourist season could potentially disappear. In the interim, the community will be forced to coexist more closely with the bears as they wait for the ice to form on the bay. And as infrastructure too struggles to adapt to a warming climate and melting permafrost, Spence is one of the many people looking for solutions. "We've always been challenged," Spence says. But the community also "usually finds a way." Those solutions include taking command of a port and rail line that collapsed in 2017 due to a combination of flooding and lack of maintenance. Once it starts operating at its full potential, the hope is that it will welcome more consistent jobs and resources for the community. Meanwhile, a new program in town grows microgreens, and new polar bear-resistant trash containers dot the streets, all to forge a sustainable path forward in the north for people, and the wildlife. "What we need to do now is build on our young people growing up here, so that they play a bigger role in building a stronger community, and a bigger community," Spence says. "They see for themselves what they've got is pretty precious." Fighting for a future On the outskirts of town, Wyatt Daley hooks up his sled dogs, preparing to lead the first of three tours for the day. Fall is peak tourist season, and he'll spend the day out among the trees of the boreal forest, gliding on the snow. Churchill relies on the tourism that comes from those wanting to see the polar bears. In order to sustain their businesses, some tourism companies are looking to pivot to protect their futures. One of these ways is by advertising other aspects of this wild north – the aurora that dances overhead 300 nights of the year and the annual beluga whale migration in the summer. But it's not just the economic engine that needs to be fueled: there's a yearning for families and the next generation to choose Churchill, tend to it and savor everything it has to offer. Wyatt Daley was one of those children who, years ago, begged his parents to move further south. His father Dave, a dog musher and tourism company owner, would shake his head and tell him, "We have the dogs, this is where we make our living." And that was the end of that particular conversation. He watched his friends and their families move away – especially in the middle school years – searching for "better opportunities." After graduation, he traveled throughout the world, working in the tourism industry in Australia and Cologne. But he came home. Back to the dogs, and back to Churchill. Churchill, he says, has given him "everything." He feels a connection to the dogs, to the land. His father is his best friend. And that's exactly what he wants for his own son Noah – now 3 years old – who has an affinity for the dogs, too. "I remember being a little kid and standing on the back ski with my dad and doing tours," he says. "That's what I'm looking forward to most right now . . . I think about [Noah] coming out and doing tours with me." But this legacy is threatened by the warming arctic, and it's a weight the Daleys feel as they fight to protect their way of life in the north. "It's a scary thought to think the polar bears may not be here one day," Dave Daley says. "The planet earth is a living being, and we're the ones treading on it and changing everything. I think we really need to get a handle on it and start taking this seriously."
