March 3, 2022
Excerpt:
“According to Walter Jetz, an ecologist who leads Yale University’s biodiversity mapping efforts, it’s essential that policymakers make data-driven decisions about which areas to protect. Otherwise “you might gain a large percentage of area protected but you have done very little in actually safeguarding species.”
The Southeastern United States has a high concentration of freshwater mussels, those humble mollusks that help keep streams and rivers clean by filtering water. But they are one of the most imperiled wildlife groups in the United States. Last year, officials announced that eight species had gone extinct.”
Read the full article in the New York Times: