Climate Good News
Around the world people are taking the initiative to mitigate climate change.
Here are some good news briefs compiled by the Climate Issue
group of the LWV of Bellingham/ Whatcom.
Birds Give “Yelp” Reviews to Help Restore Forests
Perhaps my favorite name for a project is right here in Washington state. The Listen Up Collaborative, with a number of tiny $100 recording devices, is getting data on whether their efforts to restore forestland are working.
After joining the Great Peninsula Conservancy, a nonprofit land trust outside Seattle, Adrian Wolf wanted to know what birds thought of the group’s forest restoration work.
Birds are invaluable indicators of ecological health. Their presence or absence can help to gauge the condition of restored habitats, where dense trees had been thinned to create space for other plants, or standing dead trees had been left in place for cavity-dependent species like woodpeckers. The importance of this work is highlighted by the loss of over half of all forest birds from the Western part of the United States, a loss driven by habitat degradation, making the health of remaining natural lands especially crucial.
In 2022, Mr. Wolf and a colleague secured funding from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for a dozen of the small audio devices called Audio Moths that they strapped to trees across several of the conservancy’s properties. The project has since grown to include six other partners: land trusts, tribes and county parks. Together, they are improving forest habitat and monitoring bird calls across 4,533 acres of protected land in western Washington, on rugged islands, in monoculture forests, along restored floodplains, and on land bouncing back from intense agricultural and timber use.
Why don’t they call in a bird count? They are expensive and not very accurate. Often, when people try to monitor the birds they hear or spot, their presence alone scares the birds off. Data from the collective’s audio recorders can replace anecdotal evidence with exacting specificity. The group is using software to identify and monitor 45 target species, including the Pacific wren, spotted towhee and chestnut-backed chickadee.
The project has been an unmitigated success. The dawn chorus at the Manzanita Ridge Preserve on Bainbridge Island, Wash., one spring day included Pacific wren, warbling vireo, western flycatcher, American robin and chestnut-backed chickadee.
The Listen Up Collaborative has collected more than 400,000 recordings from 92 study sites and is using artificial intelligence to discern bird calls. The amount of data collected is also enormous, and the AI can make mistakes: its findings need to be fact checked, a task that, in the case of the Listen Up Collaborative, often falls to volunteers as well as undergraduate and graduate students.
The data will help guide habitat restoration work, with the goal of drawing diverse animal species, mitigating fire risk, and bolstering forests’ resilience in the face of climate change. Mr. Wolf likened the process to collecting “nature’s Yelp reviews. If we understand how long animals take to respond to these forestry treatments, this could be entered into the recovery plans for certain species.”
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The New York Times Section A, Dec. 14, 2025: “In Washington, Birds Are Giving ‘Yelp Reviews’ of Forest Practices” by Cara Buckley.
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The Added Bonuses of Free Bus Rides
In 2025, two climate reporters for The New Your Times set out to find 50 fixes — one in each state — to our climate crisis. Did they? The answer is a resounding yes. Here are two of them that caught my eye. The first resonated with me because of the controversy on the price hike for riding buses in Bellingham.
Iowa City, Iowa: What do a psychiatrist, a librarian, a substitute teacher and a graduate student in biomedical engineering, an Amazon warehouse worker who’d just finished his night shift, and a man who’d lost his driver’s license, have in common? They all ride the bus and all ride for free.
In 2023, Iowa City initiated a two-year pilot project to cut emissions and encourage bus riding by beginning a two-year pilot program for free bus rides. They began with Covid Relief funds.
The outcome: “Ridership has surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 18 percent. Bus drivers say they’re navigating less congested streets. People drove 1.8 million fewer miles on city streets, according to government calculations, and emissions dropped by 778 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. That’s the equivalent of taking 167 vehicles off the roads.”
How did they do it? As part of a climate action plan, Iowa City hoped to replace 55 percent of vehicle trips with sustainable alternatives like walking, biking and taking transit by 2050. Farefree buses, seemed a no brainer.
The day the free fares started, the city threw a launch party with artists decorating the bus shelters, bands playing, and a booth for people to write notes thanking their bus drivers.
“You can make buses free, but it’s also important to make them convenient and appealing,” said Sarah Gardner, the city’s climate action coordinator.
Ridership eventually grew to 118 percent of pre-pandemic levels, compared to the average national transit ridership-recovery levels of 85 percent.
The program was so successful the City Council voted to extend it another year, paying for it by doubling parking fees and adding a 1 percent utility tax. After initial resistance from local shop keepers about the doubling of parking fees, the city reduced the hike to a more reasonable rate, and, in 2023, the City Council voted the plan a go.
Both the riders and the drivers appreciate the new system. Several drivers said that not having to ask passengers for payment or transfers has led to less friction with riders.
It also speeds up travel, they said, because no one was delaying things by rummaging for money. According to the city, on-time arrivals have increased by 13 percent. “There’s less dealing with the fare box and finagling over fares, but it’s definitely been busier,” said Justin Jones, who’s been driving city buses for Iowa City for 15 years, one recent morning just before starting his route.
Then he climbed into the No. 10 bus, which travels between downtown and the west side of the city, crossing the Iowa River, and set off.
A few minutes later, Abbas Mahadi, 20, climbed aboard, holding the hand of his 6-year-old cousin, whom he was chaperoning to elementary school. Free transit, he said, was essential for his family. “If you didn’t have free buses, it would be too much for us.”
Bus No. 10 pulled to a stop in front of an elementary school where Mr. Mahadi led his young cousin down the steps to the school while Mr. Jones waited until Mahadi hopped back on board. Then he slowly drove on.
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The New York Times Section A, Dec 7, 2025: “Iowa City Made Its Buses Free: Traffic Cleared and So Did the Air” by Cara Buckley.
