Biodiversity

Deceleration stories that highlight issues around animal and plant relatives, land protection efforts, urban green space, and the politics of public space.

Plans to Fell Brackenridge Trees Rooted in City’s War on Birds

By Greg Harman ● Biodiversity ● January 31, 2022

Plans to take down more than 100 trees at Brackenridge Park have been cast as being about historic structures. For Parks, it’s about something higher.

Latest in Biodiversity

We Can Live with Jaguars Again

By Greg Harman ● Biodiversity ● November 25, 2021

More than a century after being driven from their historical territories from Texas to California, jaguars are returning to the United States. More than 25 years of experience in South and Central America illustrate how we can share the land with them successfully.

San Antonio Snoozing on ‘Lights Out’ Bird Campaign

By Greg Harman ● Biodiversity ● November 11, 2021

Bird populations are crashing. City lights are a major culprit. But ‘Bird City Certified’ San Antonio isn’t dimming its downtown—it’s turning on the River Walk’s holiday lights two weeks early.

Growing Back Better: Planting for Pollinators

By Greg Harman ● Solutions ● May 14, 2021

It’s been three months since Winter Storm Uri scorched South Texas, leaving stands of gray stalks where living trees once stood, collapsing walls of cacti and making puddles out of aloe. What better time to rethink what we are growing and why—particularly in this time of global biodiversity crisis.

PODCAST: San Antonio’s ‘War on Birds’ Keeps Expanding

By Greg Harman ● San Antonio ● March 22, 2021

Two years ago, the City of San Antonio launched a war on the birds of Elmendorf Lake. The target was the hundreds of cattle egrets who have been roosting at this Westside ecological gem for decades. By razing the island to the ground, and dismantling possibly hundreds of nests, the assault destroyed the nesting ground for many related migratory birds. Many young were killed.