Seaweed farming may help tackle global food insecurity

Researchers at the Friedman School see significant income-boosting potential in the sustainable superfood

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TUFTS UNIVERSITY

To help solve hunger and malnutrition while also slowing climate change, some farmers could shift from land to sea, suggests a recent study from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. The study was published in Global Food Security.

Producing and selling seaweed could boost incomes for farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in coastal regions of Africa and Southeast Asia, said Patrick Webb, the Alexander McFarlane Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School and senior author of the study. The other authors were Natalie Somers, N23, and Shakuntala Thilsted, who works for the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research and won a 2021 World Food Prize for research and innovation in aquaculture and food systems. The team reviewed research papers, existing databases, United Nations and World Bank Group reports, and more.

A more sustainable alternative to raising livestock, seaweed cultivation requires no land, freshwater, or chemical fertilizers, and could become particularly profitable as demand for nutrient-rich seaweed products grows around the world, the study found. Those profits would mean more buying power for those households and communities who produce, process, package, and export the microalgae, which in turn would translate into healthier diets.

“One of the biggest problems of food insecurity in LMICs is the unaffordability of healthy diets,” said Webb, who also serves as director for the Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab at Tufts. “There are roughly 3.5 billion people in the world who can’t afford a healthy diet even if they choose local foods at local prices. For many of those people, cultivating and selling seaweed would lead to higher incomes and improved nutrition through purchases on the market.”

Easy and environmentally friendly

A friendly crop for both farmers and the environment, seaweed has been grown in parts of Asia for centuries using fairly simple techniques, according to the study.

To start, farmers attach long lines of rope to the roots of the algae, which nourish the plant by absorbing nutrients from the water. Six to eight weeks later, they gather the seaweed by hand and dry it in the sun. “A lot of what we're looking at on the farming side is not about finding new crops or different kinds of crops. It’s about what’s already being grown that could be scaled up cost-effectively,” Webb said.

On top of being relatively easy to grow, seaweed has a miniscule carbon footprint, and may even help lower the ocean’s carbon levels. Though little is yet known about how much CO2 seaweed releases during harvest, research has found that perennial brown algae farms absorb up to ten tons of CO2 per hectare of sea surface per year. In addition to its “carbon sinking” powers, when added to livestock feed, seaweed could help dramatically reduce methane gas emissions.

“Unless we get significant warming of the oceans, cultivating seaweed offers a way that is not just climate friendly, but climate proof,” said Webb. “We don’t know how soon the industry will start to experience the negative effects of climate change, but the potential looks good. By farming seaweed, it’s not going to accelerate those negative effects. Whereas cutting down trees and adding more livestock certainly would.”

The challenges of production and processing

But while seaweed farming helps the environment, climate change itself may present barriers to growing more of it. Ocean water is becoming increasingly acidic, which is not ideal for growing healthy, edible seaweed, the authors said.

Additionally, seaweed’s primary value as an export would be for its extracts as ingredients, rather than as a sea vegetable to be eaten whole, according to the study. And while countries with higher average incomes that produce and export brown, green, and red seaweeds in large quantities already have the infrastructure needed to effectively process, test, and regulate what may eventually land on consumers’ plates, most LMICs do not.

Research into processing bottlenecks is limited, and what little data exists on factors such as consumer patterns is owned by the food companies who collect it, Webb said—which means governments and entrepreneurs in many LMICs have had few resources or incentives to invest in aquatic plant farming.

“The steps taken between the farm and the fork, that’s what we need to focus on,” Webb said. “We need to work more closely with governments and the private sector to figure out where the bottlenecks are and how to overcome them.”

A bounty for the taking

If those obstacles can be addressed, the opportunities of seaweed aquaculture are boundless, the authors said. The industry has flourished in Indonesia, where seasonal labor is steadily available and farms can achieve industrial-level economies of scale (in contrast to the family-run farms of, for example, India and Tanzania). Indonesia is now a key exporter of two seaweed species from which carrageenan, a thickener found in nut milks and meats, is extracted.

“There are many different types of seaweed, and they all require somewhat of a different environment in which to grow. The vast coasts of Africa and Asia, not all of it will be prime real estate,” Webb said. "But much of it will be.”

For seaweed farming to expand in these places, governments must take it seriously and create food safety regulations and an overall environment where it can happen, Webb said. Local and international investment interest will also be key. “If it doesn’t happen tomorrow, with the right conditions, it could happen the day after tomorrow,” Webb said.

It’s early days for seaweed production in LMICs, but Webb is confident about its promise for farmers. “The Ministry of Agriculture, or even the Ministry of Fisheries in these countries probably never discusses seaweed,” he said. “What if they did? They might discover a goldmine.”

The lead author received financial support from the United States Agency for International Development as part of the Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the United States Agency for International Development.

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JOURNAL

Global Food Security

DOI

10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100686 

ARTICLE TITLE

Seaweed's contribution to food security in low- and middle-income countries: Benefits from production, processing and trade

Wild mammals moved farther during severe COVID-19 lockdowns

Human behaviour changed dramatically during lockdowns in the first months of the global COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in behavioural changes of land mammals.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN

 

IMAGE: WILDLIFE DURING COVID view more 

CREDIT: MARK GOCKE

Tucker and 174 colleagues, including members of the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative, analysed global data from land mammals tracked by GPS devices. Tucker: “There were many media reports that nature was recovering during those first lockdowns. For example, cougars were roaming the streets of Santiago, Chile, but we wanted to know: is there any evidence of this? Or were people simply paying more attention to everything while being at home?” 

Movements of mammals

Tucker and colleagues collated data from the movements of 43 different species of land mammals from around the world. In total, more than 2,300 individuals were included: from elephants and giraffes to bears and deer. The researchers compared the mammals' movements during the first period of lockdowns, from January to mid-May 2020, with movements during the same months a year earlier. “We saw that during strict lockdowns, animals travelled up to 73 percent longer distances in a period of 10 days than the year before, when there were no lockdowns. We also saw that animals occurred on average 36 percent closer to roads than the year before. This is probably because those roads were quieter during strict lockdowns,” said Tucker.  

There are several explanations for these results: there were fewer people outside during strict lockdowns, giving animals the opportunity to explore new areas. “In contrast, in areas with less strict lockdowns, we saw that animals travelled shorter distances. This may have to do with the fact that during those lockdowns, people were actually encouraged to go into nature. As a result, some nature areas were busier than before COVID-19,” says Thomas Mueller, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Goethe University Frankfurt, who designed the study together with Tucker.

Unique opportunity

The lockdowns provided a unique opportunity to study the effects of an abrupt change in human presence on wildlife. “Our research has shown that animals can respond directly to changes in human behaviour. This offers hope for the future, because in principle this means that making some adjustments to our own behaviour could have a positive effect on animals,” says Tucker. 

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abo6499 

ARTICLE TITLE

Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Jun-2023

Three sopranos discuss their roles in Strauss’s most complex opera

By MIKE SILVERMAN

AP

yesterday

This image released by the San Francisco Opera shows, from left, Linda Watson as the Nurse, Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, and Camilla Nylund as the Empress in Richard Strauss’ "Die Frau Ohne Schatten." (Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera via AP)


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Part fairy tale, part psychodrama, Richard Strauss’s “Die Frau Ohne Schatten” (The Woman Without a Shadow) calls for three big-voiced sopranos who can do justice to a long and difficult score.

That’s one reason the opera, which premiered in 1919, is a relative rarity, though many consider it Strauss’s masterpiece. Now the San Francisco Opera is presenting it for the first time in 34 years with a cast that includes three leading Wagner and Strauss singers: Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, Camilla Nylund as the Empress and Linda Watson as the Nurse.

Another reason the work is a challenge is Hugo Hofmannsthal’s libretto, which mixes fantastical events with psychological insights.

In the story, the Empress, who comes from the spirit world, must acquire a shadow (enabling her to bear children) or else her human husband will be turned to stone in three days. She and her Nurse try to entice the unhappy wife of Barak the Dyer to give up her shadow and thus remain childless in exchange for a life of luxury. But gradually, the Empress learns to appreciate humanity and changes her mind. And the Dyer’s Wife pulls back from the brink of trading away her shadow. Everything ends happily for the two couples.

The day after the production opened on June 4 (performances continue through June 28), the AP sat down with the three sopranos to talk about the challenges and rewards of their roles. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation:


This image released by the San Francisco Opera shows, from left, Linda Watson as the Nurse, Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, and Camilla Nylund as the Empress in Richard Strauss’ "Die Frau Ohne Schatten." (Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera via AP)

AP: The story is so complicated and laden with murky symbolism that even its admirers sometimes scratch their heads. What do you say when someone asks you what this opera is about?

NYLUND (the Empress): It’s a fairy tale for adults. Hofmannsthal and Strauss were influenced by the situation of women in their society, and especially the empresses in Europe. They had to marry and they had to bear children. That was their job. And that’s still a big issue for women: Are you going to have children, are you not going to have children, how does that affect your position, your life.

WATSON (the Nurse): It’s very complicated. I tell people to read the synopsis five times and then just go see it. I’ve done this piece for 20 years and somebody came up to me last night and said, OK, we understand most of it, but how DID the Empress get a shadow? And I was like, I don’t know.

STEMME (the Dyer’s wife): Hofmannsthal and Strauss, they loved to leave questions like this. I mean, who is ‘Die Frau’? The Empress doesn’t have a shadow at the beginning, and the Dyer’s Wife loses hers for a moment. Is it important? No, because I also think the opera is about relationships. And I’m intrigued by my character being based on Strauss’s own wife. But to tell the story, no, nobody can really do it.

AP: How do the relationships between each married couple play out in the opera?

WATSON: It’s about the miscommunication that happens in any marriage, any relationship between two people in love. Their goals may be the same but they fall out for the wrong reasons.

NYLUND: The Empress and the Emperor, they don’t have any communication at all when the opera begins. Only at the end, when she has to save him because of her strength and the development she has gone through. She becomes a human being, she understands what is empathy, what is love.

STEMME: I think that the Dyer’s Wife wants to move up through this marriage, so she wants more. She’s really trying to make her husband understand that she is about to leave him if he doesn’t change and start to see her. Of course she doesn’t see him for his struggles and what he is either. Until she goes too far and he tries to kill her. She finally gets a reaction from Barak that she never got before and it makes her begin to understand him.

NYLUND: It’s really fantastic that two men have written this opera and it says so much about how a woman thinks and acts. Its really something very, very special.

AP: The vocal parts for all three of you are notoriously difficult. What challenges did you encounter when you first started to sing your roles?

STEMME: I fell in love with the character, but not exactly with the music, because this role requires a range of 2½ octaves. It took a long time to learn. It’s very tricky and the tonality is complicated, just like her personality. I understand why he composed it like this, to explore the complexity of her personality and also to show that she doesn’t understand herself as a person.

WATSON: It’s excruciating. I had sung the Dyer’s Wife, and when I decided to switch I thought, ah, OK, I’ll sing a mezzo role and this will be one step easier, lower. And that’s a joke. Is it a mezzo role? It is, and it’s not. It’s very high, and very low, down to a low E-flat. If you don’t have the technique, you can ruin your voice in a second. You’re just going to yodel through the whole piece.

NYLUND: When I first started studying my role I thought, Oh my God, what is he doing here? Because you have to start like some kind of coloratura with a really light top that goes up to high D, and then you have to also have power in your voice, so the role is very complex.

AP: What do you imagine happens to your character after the opera ends?

WATSON: I think she dies. The Empress rejects her and she is sent off to live among “mankind,” which she detests. It’s death for her.

NYLUND: I see her living happily ever after. The Emperor has finally noticed that they are equal, because of what she did for him. They can communicate on the same level now.

STEMME: Maybe not happily ever after, but Barak and his wife will start to talk, communicate. Because they have found each other as human beings.

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten - Opera in three acts (HD 1080p)

Oregon, mecca of weed, to crack down on illegal pot growers by holding landowners responsible

By ANDREW SELSKY

A marijuana grow is seen on Sept. 2, 2021, in an aerial photo taken by the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office in the community of Alfalfa, Ore. Oregon has long been known as a mecca for high-quality marijuana, but that reputation has come with a downside: illegal growers who offer huge amounts of cash to lease or buy land and then leave behind pollution, garbage and a drained water table. 

(Deschutes County Sheriff via AP, File)



SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon has long been known as a mecca for high-quality marijuana, but that reputation has come with a downside: illegal growers who offer huge amounts of cash to lease or buy land and then leave behind pollution, garbage and a drained water table.

Now, a bill passed by the Oregon Legislature seeks to tackle that by making the landowners themselves responsible for the aftermath. The bill also prohibits the use of rivers or groundwater at the illegal site, as well as criminalizes seizing the identity papers of migrant workers who tend the plants or threatening to report them for deportation.

Under the bill, local governments are authorized to file a claim of lien against property used for illicit marijuana, if the owner doesn’t pay for the cleanup.

A leader of the state’s cannabis and alcohol regulatory agency has said southern Oregon is to marijuana what Bordeaux is to wine. But the state faces challenges on two fronts: The regulated industry has a glut of product that has slashed prices and profit margins, and there has been huge growth in illegal pot farms operating under the guise of growing hemp, which became legal nationally in 2018.

After passing the Senate and House, the House Speaker Dan Rayfield signed the measure Wednesday, over the objections of some Republicans. Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek is expected to sign it next week.

“This is just an assault on property rights here in the state of Oregon,” GOP Sen. Dennis Linthicum said on the Senate floor.

But Sen. Jeff Golden, of Ashland, said property owners should know something is amiss when they are “approached at the beginning of the growing season with requests to lease their property for tens, sometimes hundreds of thousand dollars for a single year.”

Witnesses have described backpacks with thousands of dollars in cash being handed over to landowners and getting numerous offers to buy.

“We pay CASH and offer a fast close,” says one letter received by a landowner last year, one of three offers.

Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler told lawmakers that after police raid illegal pot farms, neither landowners nor the suspects make efforts to remove the cheaply built greenhouses, known as “hoop houses,” latrines, and other debris, including plastics and chemicals.

“Frankly, it’s an eyesore for our community, with no means to deal with it,” Sickler said.

Some two years ago, the ideal growing conditions began attracting criminal gangs from Mexico, Russia and other countries, police said. Thousands of hoop houses cropped up and police were overwhelmed, nailing only a fraction of the sites. Workers at these farms often live in squalid conditions and use open latrines, and they are sometimes cheated out of their pay.

Due to persistent police raids, which netted over 100 tons of illegal marijuana across the state last year, the grow sites have become smaller and more dispersed. For example, on Thursday, Josephine County Sheriff’s deputies and other officers raided a property in Cave Junction and destroyed about 2,000 marijuana plants and 100 pounds of processed marijuana.

Landowners who have been intimidated and suffered environmental damage from illegal grow sites are applauding the bill.

“At least most of the landowners knew what they were doing was wrong. I believe this measure will help to stem the tide,” said Jack Dwyer, who has a house near the community of Selma. In 2021, Dwyer said a large illegal grow site nearby siphoned all the water from a creek that runs through his property, causing it to run dry.

Christopher Hall, who works to engage the public in water stewardship, said the bill shows that Oregon officials understand the problem of large-scale illicit cannabis operations and are committed to solving it.

The illicit sites “not only turn streams into gravel roads but also lead to serious human rights violations and dumping of trash, sewage, chemicals, and other waste into ditches, riparian areas, and streams,” he said.

The Senate approved the measure before GOP senators began a walkout on May 3 over Democratic measures on abortion, gender-affirming care and gun safety. The House passed the marijuana bill on a 53-3 vote on May 31. The bill will now go to Kotek to sign into law, taking immediate effect.

“The governor supports cracking down on illegal cannabis operations that have been prevalent in southern Oregon,” said Elisabeth Shepard, Kotek’s spokesperson.

In unusual orca sighting, tour spots at least 20 killer whales off San Francisco

AP
yesterday

Unusual killer whale pod seen off California

 

Roughly two dozen killer whales were spotted last month off the coast of San Francisco in an uncommonly large grouping of orcas for Northern California. The whales were likely together celebrating a kill of sea lions or seals near the Farallon Islands. (May 7)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An uncommonly large grouping of orcas for Northern California — roughly two dozen killer whales — were spotted by a whale watching tour off the coast of San Francisco last month, likely gathered together to celebrate a successful hunt for sea lions or seals.

“I screamed ‘orca!’” recalled Michael Pierson, a Oceanic Society naturalist leading the tour, after noticing “those distinct dorsal finds poking out of the water.”

“It was really, really special,” Pierson said in an interview Wednesday.

The big group of whales was seen on May 7 near the Farallon Islands, about 28 miles (45 kilometers) west of San Francisco. Killer whales are more commonly found around the deep ocean canyon beneath Monterey Bay — about 75 miles south of the city — and can be spotted anywhere from the coastline to just 5 miles off shore, according to Nancy Black, a marine biologist and owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch.

It’s easier for whale-watching tours to see them in Monterey Bay because the canyon is so close to the beach, while the Farallon Islands require a miles-long boat ride from San Francisco, and the water still may not be deep enough there, Black said.

“They’re the whale that most people want to see when they go whale-watching,” she said, “you just don’t know when they’re going to be around.”

In this photo provided by Michael Pierson, an unusually large group of killer whales was spotted off the coast of San Francisco on May 7, 2023. (Michael Pierson/Oceanic Society via AP)

Black, who is also the director of the nonprofit California Killer Whale Project, said she’s seen larger groupings of orcas than last month’s two dozen but added that any sighting is special. As she spoke, she watched five swim together in Monterey Bay.

The Oceanic Society regularly does tours to the Farallon Islands — which include collecting data for scientists and conservationists — and spring is migration season. Pierson and the boat’s captain, Jared Davis, decided to try a different route on May 7 to head out over deeper water.

When spotted during Farallon Islands tours, the orcas are usually in a family group of three to six whales. They typically range from Baja California up the West Coast and Canada to Alaska.

Last month, however, the tour stumbled across several family groups congregating together, for a total of 20 to 24. They were likely near the islands because it’s where pregnant sea lions and seals give birth this time of year — and the mammal-eating whales had probably just feasted.

“We don’t know exactly why this particular group was so big,” he said.

While the adult males, with their distinctive 6 feet-tall (2-meter) dorsal fins, were “definitely a showstopper,” Pierson said the mothers and their calves were also a big hit.

“You could hear the coos and awws from everyone on board,” he said.

Mexico’s porpoise resists extinction

Social media and duct tape are helping people make DIY air purifiers that filter out wildfire smoke

By BEATRICE DUPUY

AP

today

A Corsi-Rosenthal air purifier built by Liz Hradil is seen at her home in Syracuse, N.Y. after the wildfire smoke covered much of New York Wednesday, June 7, 2023. The method involves taping four air filters together with a box fan. Experts say the DIY method is highly effective against filtering air indoors against wildfire smoke. (Liz Hradil via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Social media users are sharing a surprisingly effective way to protect yourself indoors from the toxic wildfire smoke blanketing much of the East Coast: a box fan, four air filters and a whole lot of duct tape.

As searches for “air purifiers” spike on Google, people are posting on TikTok and Facebook about how to build the DIY air purifier. The technique, known as the Corsi-Rosenthal method, has gained attention in recent years amid the pandemic and raging western U.S. wildfires.

Some East Coast residents are learning about the box fan method for the first time, unlike their West Coast counterparts who are accustomed to wildfire smoke.

Seattle resident Angel Robertson, 34, posted a video on a New Yorker’s TikTok demonstrating how to put it together. In her video, which has amassed more than 600,000 views, Robertson duct tapes four 20-by-20 air filters into a box shape and attaches the fan on top. The whole apparatus costs under $100.

“It works extremely well and will save your life with really smoky days,” she says in the video. “It does a lot better than the normal air filters.”

Public health experts say Corsi-Rosenthal purifiers are highly effective at removing particles from the air. Petri Kalliomäki, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, said their clean air delivery rate is relatively high and can be used to purify air against not only smoke, but pollen and viruses.

At the University of Connecticut Thursday, Misti Levy Zamora, an assistant professor in public health sciences, and her colleagues were handing out Corsi-Rosenthal purifiers for free to anyone stopping by. Zamora said she has done several tests at the university, public schools and her own home on the purifier.

“I can confidently say this thing is working really well today,” she said. “I was able to filter out all the particles in the air basically back down to what I saw last week within a matter of minutes.”

The power of social media led to the invention of the box, co-inventor Richard Corsi, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California at Davis, told The Associated Press. He said in 2020, he was sketching one night and put the design up on Twitter. Jim Rosenthal, CEO of Tex-Air Filters, took the design and built it. Corsi said he wanted to create an inexpensive purifier that the average American could afford. He’s now hearing from friends in the Northeast who are using his idea.

“When you have to seal up a building and reduce the amount of air flow coming in and when you have to spend a lot of time indoors, this is where portable air cleaners can really make a difference in your life,” he said.

Grace Turner, 31, built her box fan purifier for her home in Rochester, New York, after picking up the trick from living in Salt Lake City. She shared her DIY box on TikTok where she said the air purifier has made a difference in her home.

“There are a bunch of different designs people can choose from, and it’s really accessible to find the info,” she said of the DIY instructions online.

Liz Hradil, 27, who lives in Syracuse, New York, said the smoke burned her eyes, and she could feel the smoke in her nose and throat as the smoke descended onto New York this week. She went digging around online to buy an air purifier when she came across the Corsi-Rosenthal box and went to Lowe’s to pick up the filters and fan. She then immediately noticed that the smoke smell was gone after about 30 minutes of starting her purifier.

“It was my first time, and my New York friends were like this is so genius,” she said after sharing the photo of the box online. “No one had heard of it.”

Colorado’s most destructive wildfire caused by embers from old fire, sparks from power line

By JESSE BEDAYN, COLLEEN SLEVIN and MEAD GRUVER

AP

today


Embers from old fire and sparks from power line caused massive Colorado blaze in 2021

Authorities say embers from a smoldering scrap wood fire outside a home and a sparking power line separately caused a Colorado wildfire fanned by high winds that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and left two people dead. (June 8) (AP video: Brittany Peterson)


BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Embers from a smoldering scrap wood fire set days earlier outside a home used by a Christian religious communal group along with a sparking power line caused a 2021 Colorado wildfire fanned by high winds that destroyed nearly 1,100 homes and left two people dead, authorities said Thursday.

Authorities spent 18 months investigating and determined criminal charges were not warranted for either The Twelve Tribes that occupied the home or the utility in charge of the power line, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said at a news conference.

“If we were to tell you today we are filing charges, it would be wrong and unethical,” Dougherty said.

The Dec. 30, 2021, blaze in heavily populated suburbs between Denver and Boulder caused $2 billion in damage, making it the most destructive in Colorado history. Two people were also found dead after what was known as the Marshall Fire.

The inferno erupted following months of drought amid a winter nearly devoid of snow and fed on bone-dry grassland surrounding fast-growing development in the area near the Rocky Mountain foothills. It spread rapidly in winds that gusted up to 100 mph (160 kph) in places.

For one woman who lost her home and watched the news conference, seeing photos and hearing about the fire all over again was almost as difficult as the fire’s immediate aftermath.

“On top of trying figure out how it started, all this just stirs up all the same emotions. It makes you nauseous in re-remembering everything,” Barba Hickman said.

Experts say similar events will become more common as climate change warms the planet and suburbs grow in fire-prone areas.

The scrap wood fire — buried by residents Dec. 24 in a manner approved by firefighters who stopped by that day to investigate — was one cause when the powerful winds uncovered the buried embers six days later, Sheriff Curtis Johnson said at the news conference.

“Once they realized there was a fire and it was spreading, they attempted to put it out, but the winds were quickly spreading the flames faster than they could put it out,” said Johnson, who lost his home in the blaze and teared up during the news conference.

A loose Xcel Energy power line caused a separate fire less than half a mile (1 kilometer) away around the same time, Johnson said.


The two fires combined to cause the massively destructive blaze.

20 PHOTOS 

Homes burn as a wildfire rip through a development, Dec. 30, 2021, in Superior, Colo. Authorities say they have wrapped up their investigation into what started the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history and will announce their findings on Thursday, June 8, 2023. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Xcel Energy strongly objected to the findings of the investigation, contending in a statement that it didn’t have a chance to review what the company called “flawed” analyses.

“We strongly disagree with any suggestion that Xcel Energy’s power lines caused the second ignition,” said a statement from spokesman Tyler Bryant. “We operate and maintain our electric system consistent with leading energy service practices.”

A worker at a Boulder deli run by The Twelve Tribes declined to comment or give their name Thursday when The Associated Press visited the restaurant. Members of the group — a Christian religious community thought to have 2,000 to 3,000 members worldwide — have repeatedly declined to discuss the fire or what happened since the 2021 blaze.

The fire that destroyed swaths of houses in the cities of Superior and Louisville, neighboring towns about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Denver, is blamed for the death of a 69-year-old man who lived near where investigators believed the fire started. The remains of a 91-year-old woman, who was last seen trying to rescue her dogs from her home in Superior, were also found.

Thousands of residents were at home the day before New Year’s Eve and used the suburban area’s extensive road network to escape amid smoke, flames and blowing embers, which spread the fire in the wind. Shifting winds caused the skies to turn from clear to smoky and then back again in an area filled with middle- and upper-middle class subdivisions surrounded by shopping centers, parks and schools.

As smoke filled the parking lot of a Costco warehouse store and debris whirled around, a sheriff’s deputy ordered people inside to leave their carts, evacuate the sprawling building and head toward Denver, away from the fire. Within hours, it destroyed 1,084 homes and seven commercial buildings, and damaged nearly 200 structures.

Old coal mines that smoldered underground in the area could not be ruled out as playing a role in the fire, but were not deemed to be part of the cause, investigators said.

The area includes an abandoned coal field where two underground fires, fueled by coal deposits, have slowly burned over the years.

The fire, which spanned 9.4 square miles (24 square kilometers), ranks as the most destructive in state history in terms of homes and other structures destroyed and damaged. The second-most destructive fire erupted in 2013 outside Colorado Springs, destroying 489 homes and killing two.

A lawsuit filed against Colorado’s largest utility, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, alleged that sparks from a power line started the blaze. It says witnesses saw a fire igniting near a power line in the area identified by investigators, with one witness videoing sparks flying from a malfunctioning power line and igniting a fire on the ground.

Hickman’s husband expressed frustration the fire’s cause wasn’t pinned down more definitively.

“It doesn’t really provide any answers that help us. I guess I don’t know, it kind of leaves it open in my mind,” Rex Hickman said.

The Hickmans said they might be interested in joining litigation against Xcel Energy to try to recover costs, pointing to a California utility’s 2019 settlement for wildfire damages.

For now, the Hickmans have been settling into their new home in Charlottesville, Virginia, where they built a new home using insurance money. They plan to sell their vacant lot in Colorado.

“We were looking to get away from the fires in the West, and I have asthma pretty badly. The constant fires every summer is one of the reasons for us moving on,” Barba Hickman said.

The investigation took a long time for what was announced, but the decision not to pursue criminal charges seems appropriate, said Barney Thinnes, another homeowner who has had to rebuild.

“I’m with the sheriff. I just want to move forward with the whole thing,” Thinnes said.

___

Jesse Bedayn is a corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

2 people who allegedly harassed bison calf at national park being hunted by authorities

“Interference by people can cause wildlife to reject their offspring.”

ByJon Haworth
June 9, 2023, 

New warnings for tourists about wildlife at Yellowstone National Park

Authorities are looking for two people after they allegedly approached and harassed a bison calf at a national park in Wyoming.

The incident occurred in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming at approximately 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 4, when two individuals were seen “approaching and touching a bison calf at the southern end of Elk Ranch Flats in Grand Teton National Park,” read a statement from the National Park Service describing the encounter.

Park rangers are now asking the public for help with their investigation and anyone with any information on the alleged individuals involved with the bison encounter is asked to contact park authorities immediately.

“Interference by people can cause wildlife to reject their offspring,” the National Park Service said. “In this case, fortunately, the calf was successfully reunited with its herd, but often these interactions result in euthanizing the animal. Approaching wildlife can drastically affect their well-being and survival.”

Authorities are looking for two people after they allegedly approached and harassed a bison calf at a national park in Wyoming on Sunday, June 4, 2023.
National Park Service

“Summer is a great time to see wildlife in Grand Teton National Park among wildflowers, sagebrush flats, and meandering creeks. It’s important to view wildlife safely, responsibly and ethically,” authorities continued. “Treat all wildlife with caution and respect as they are wild, unpredictable and can be dangerous. The safety of visitors and wildlife depends on everyone playing a critical role in being a steward for wildlife by giving them the space they need to thrive -- their lives depend on it.”

The National Park Service took the opportunity to remind people to always be alert for wildlife and to keep a safe distance.

“Always maintain a distance of at least 100 yards from bears and wolves, and 25 yards from other wildlife. Use binoculars, a spotting scope, or a telephoto lens for a good view. Never position yourself between a female and offspring—mothers are very protective. Let wildlife thrive undisturbed. If your actions cause an animal to change their behavior, you are too close,” park officials said.

It is also illegal to feed any wildlife in national parks

“Wildlife will depend on people for food, resulting in poor nutrition and aggressive behavior,” the National Park Service said. “If fed, any animal may become unhealthy, bite you, expose you to rabies, or need to be killed.”

Anybody with information on the individuals involved with this case should contact the park Tip Line 307-739-3367. Additionally, if you happen to see any harassment of wildlife happening in the park, authorities say you should immediately contact the park’s dispatch center at 307-739-3301 to report the incident.

Campaigners want fossil fuel firms to pay into climate calamity fund; diplomats dubious

By FRANK JORDANS

AP

June 7, 2023

In this Nov. 6, 2020, file photo, a resident walking through a flooded street looks back at storm damage caused by Hurricane Eta in Planeta, Honduras. Environmental campaigners called Wednesday for fossil fuel producers to contribute to a new fund intended to help poor countries cope with climate disasters. (AP Photo/Delmer Martinez, File)

BONN, Germany (AP) — Environmental campaigners called Wednesday for fossil fuel producers to contribute to a new fund intended to help poor countries cope with climate disasters.

The so-called loss and damage fund was a key achievement of last year’s U.N. climate summit in Egypt. Developing nations have long demanded more financial support for the impacts from global warming, which is historically driven by pollution from rich countries.

“It is the prime responsibility for countries to fill that fund, particularly those with the greatest historic responsibility,” said Rebecca Newsom, of the environmental group Greenpeace.

“But in order to fill that fund at scale now, we need to really ramp things up,” she said. “The most obvious starting point is, of course, the fossil fuel industry, the creators of the crisis that we are now facing.”

Oil, gas and coal firms have faced mounting criticism in recent years for continuing to extract fuels that, when burned, release planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called earlier this year for fossil fuel companies to be held to account for the damage they caused despite knowing about the harmful effects of their products.


Wind turbines turn on top of a dump next to the 'BP Refinery Scholven' in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Oct. 22, 2022. Environmental campaigners called Wednesday for fossil fuel producers to contribute to a new fund intended to help poor countries cope with climate disasters. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

Negotiations on setting up the loss and damage fund are a main focus of international climate talks taking place in Bonn, Germany, this week. Some countries have pushed back against the idea of getting Big Oil to chip in from the start.

Mohamed Nasr, Egypt’s lead negotiator, said there was a risk of “overloading the very delicate and, I would say, very sensitive discussion that is happening” before this fall’s U.N. summit in Dubai.

While Nasr said he wasn’t opposed to contributions from the fossil fuel or aviation industry, these could be difficult to implement and the main focus should be on rich nations.

But Newsom, of Greenpeace, contrasted the recent surge in oil company profits with the rising damage expected worldwide from climate change.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to join the dots between growing climate loss and damage around the world and exorbitant fossil fuel company profits,” she said.