The Bison that Protect One of Missouri’s Last Prairies

A photo of a bison herd standing atop a brown and green grass landscape. There are seven bison in the foreground, They are brown and large, with fur and horns. The sky behind them is bright blue.

Before European settlement, the place that we call Missouri was home to millions of acres of tallgrass prairie, a grassland biome home to a diverse array of plant and animal species, like bison. Today, less than one percent of it remains. Bison once roamed North America with numbers in the millions. After government-sanctioned mass slaughter…

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Citizen Scientists in the Midwest Help Experts Gather Environmental Data

A person bends down and submurges a clear bottle into a green creek. They are wearing black boots. There are orange leaves scattered around them.

A new policy brief from the United Nations argues that citizen science is crucial to global water security. Ground and surface water are facing increasing threats from pollution and climate change, and scientists need help. Citizen science, which is done by non-professional scientists, is part of the solution, according to the report. And it’s happening…

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