Maddie Burakoff

3 days ago | audubon.org | Maddie Burakoff

When the U.S. government started setting aside public land more than 150 years ago, its goal was twofold: to protect the scenery and wildlife of these special places and to allow people to enjoy them, long into the future. For decades, though, land management agencies have struggled to fulfill that original mission as Congress has trimmed their funding, leaving them understaffed.

1 week ago | audubon.org | Maddie Burakoff

It’s a common sight up and down the Pacific Coast: a shimmering, pink-throated Anna’s Hummingbird, slurping up sweet fuel from a nectar feeder. Now, research suggests that feeding hummingbirds—a beloved backyard pastime—is also a powerful evolutionary force that has reshaped the birds themselves.

1 week ago | usgs.gov | Maddie Burakoff

"The blessing and the curse of PFAS is that they’re hard to destroy. These remarkably durable molecules contain super-strong carbon and fluorine bonds that don’t occur in nature. They resist high heat and corrosion. They repel both water and oil. Chemists created the first PFAS in the 1930s and were quick to put their innovation to use, including in the Manhattan Project, which built the first atomic bomb.

2 months ago | audubon.org | Maddie Burakoff

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson believes humans can restore and protect nature while staring down a planetary crisis. She’s convinced we can limit warming, prevent climate disasters, transform our culture, and find a way to have abundant and healthy life on Earth. But don’t call her an optimist. “Hope can be a very passive emotion,” says Johnson, a marine biologist, policy expert, and writer. “I think it’s insufficient.

2 months ago | audubon.org | Maddie Burakoff

Whether they hop around the prairie, dabble in wetlands, flit through forests, or forage along the shore, birds are suffering rapid population declines across the United States. That’s the finding from the latest State of the Birds report, a status check on the country’s avian life published every few years by a coalition of science and conservation groups, including Audubon. The 2025 report shows that birds across most habitats have suffered major losses since 1970.