Virginia installed 46 water-control structures across 150 miles of old drainage ditches to re-wet a swamp; restored peat now traps 200,000 metric tons of carbon a year

The Fish and Wildlife Service restored peat wetlands at Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge North Carolina’s coastal peatlands are being restored to protect wetlands, reduce wildfire risks and keep carbon stored in the soil. The work is focused on bringing water back to areas that were once drained and altered for farming, timber harvesting…

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Hawaii’s 34,000 acres of managed eucalyptus plantations could become a local source of lumber for homes and infrastructure

Hawaii imports much of the lumber used to build its homes, schools and infrastructure, but a new University of Hawaii at Mānoa research project is asking whether some of that material could instead come from trees already growing on the islands. More than 34,000 acres of managed eucalyptus plantations exist across Hawaii, yet much of…

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In 1905, a 13-year-old crawled through a tiny Tennessee cave passage and found a hidden underground lake

In 1905, a 13-year-old boy exploring Tennessee’s Craighead Caverns squeezed through a narrow, muddy passage and stumbled upon something far larger than he could have imagined: a vast chamber containing an underground lake. His name was Ben Sands, and his discovery would eventually become known as the Lost Sea, today recognised as the largest underground…

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At 20, Finnish immigrant Maggie Walz arrived in Michigan with just $7; in 1903 she claimed 160 acres on a Lake Huron island and the colony she founded grew to five settlements with around 1,000 people

Maggie Walz Photo credit: National Park Service Born Margareeta Johanna Konttra Niiranen in Tornio, Finland, in 1861, Maggie Walz came to the United States at the age of 20 with almost nothing, just $7 in her pocket and a determination to build a new life. According to the National Park Service (NPS), Walz arrived in…

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In 1958, Mahala Ashley Dickerson visited Alaska on vacation and decided to move there; after claiming 160 acres, she became the territory’s first Black homesteader and months later its first Black lawyer

Dickerson had built a career that included several notable firsts. (Anchorage museum photo) American lawyer and civil rights advocate Mahala Ashley Dickerson’s life took her from Montgomery, Alabama, to Alaska, where she broke barriers in both the legal profession and homesteading. Her journey has been featured by the National Park Service among important figures in…

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In 1940, the Walker sisters sold their 122-acre Tennessee homestead for $4,750; a lifetime lease let them keep living there inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Deep in the heart of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where mist clings to the ridges and the forest hums with life, stands a quiet log cabin. It is the home of the Walker sisters, six unmarried women who refused to leave their mountain home, even as the world changed around them. Their story is…

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In 1898, 17 years after surviving the O.K. Corral gunfight, Virgil Earp claimed 160 acres in Arizona; two years later, he earned title to the land

Representative Image (AI-generated) Seventeen years after surviving the famous O.K. Corral gunfight, former Tombstone lawman Virgil Earp embarked on a very different chapter of his life. In 1898, Earp claimed 160 acres of land near Prescott, Arizona, under the federal homesteading system. Because of his previous service in the Union Army during the Civil War,…

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