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Dear Friend,

As the days stretch longer and become warmer, we are met with a natural urge to step outside and reconnect with the world around us. Whether it’s a simple neighborhood walk or a hike in the mountains, spending time in green spaces is critical for our mental health — which underscores the vital importance of protecting our natural landscapes. While a warming climate brings challenges like excessive heat and fire risk, these very same green spaces act as antidotes. This month’s newsletter highlights the ways in which we celebrate the arrival of spring while recommitting to the stewardship of the lands that sustain us.

In community,

Sumona Majumdar

Check Out the Spring Print Issue of Earth Island Journal

Spring is here and so is the Journal’s new print issue. Now out on newsstands, the Spring 2026 issue is packed with news and features from across the world. These include a cover story from Ukraine, where mushroom foragers are holding on to their wild food-gathering traditions despite the tremendous risks posed by the war; an investigative report from California where the state is failing to protect thousands of child farmworkers laboring in toxic fields; an essay exploring whether birds might have spiritual inner lives; a feature about a Bosnian husband-and-wife team working against huge odds to record the country’s solitary bee species; a conversation with farmer and food sovereignty activist Leah Penniman, and more. You can read these stories in the print issue (subscribe here) or online. Want to stay up to date? Get news and personal notes from Journal editors by signing up for the magazine’s free newsletter.

Join Us at Bioneers Next Week

Bioneers 2026 is just around the corner! Scheduled for March 26 through 28 in Berkeley, California, this annual conference is a great opportunity to connect with visionary activists, scientists, artists, educators, Indigenous leaders, and community organizers. The Earth Island community will be part of several events at the conference: 2025 Brower Youth Award winner Kyle Trefny, cofounder of FireGeneration Collaborative, will be one of the keynote speakers; Sharon Danks of Earth Island’s Green Schoolyards America will be hosting a panel, Where Children Play: The Green Schoolyards Movement, followed by an educators networking session; and Bridget Hughes, Earth Island Institute senior program advisor, and Jovida Ross, co-director of EII’s Food Culture Collective, will be hosting a networking session for activists and organizers.

There’s still time to secure your spot: Register today. IslandWire subscribers can enter the following code for a 20-percent discount: 360b20.

Register

Apply for the 2026 Brower Youth Awards

Earth Island’s New Leaders Initiative is now accepting applications for the 2026 Brower Youth Awards. Each year, six young winners are selected, awarded a $3,000 cash prize, and flown to the San Francisco Bay Area for a leadership week that includes trainings, coaching, and skills-building workshops. Youth environmental leaders ages 13 to 22 (as of the application deadline) living in North America are encouraged to apply. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Find out more about the awards here.

Apply

Celebrate the Wild and Scenic Film Festival

Join us at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California, on April 25 for this year’s Wild and Scenic Film Festival. The one-day festival will feature films that explore nature, wildlife, adventure, and more. Arrive at 6:30 p.m. for the pre-film Eco Fair, free swag, and silent auction. Film screenings will begin at 7:00 p.m. Proceeds from the event will support Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s local environmental advocacy. The festival also includes a free Home Electrification Fair from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. IslandWire readers can get a $5.00 discount on tickets using the code CCL. Tickets and more information here.

Schoolwide Mural Project Inspires Stewardship

The KIDS for the BAY Blue Watershed Classrooms program recently provided watershed science education resources for a unique schoolwide mural project at Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley, California. Garden teacher Rivka Mason and local muralist Priscilla Hine engaged the school’s 500 students in learning about creek ecology and creating an interactive mural of Derby Creek, which flows under the school campus. In an interview with KIDS for the BAY, Mason and Hine shared the delights and challenges of this project, the mural’s role in engaging students in hands-on science education, and how artistic expression is a vital tool for inspiring students to connect with and care about their local environment. Read the full story here.

New Dams Planned Across Sarawak Are a Bad Idea

This month marks 10 years since the cancellation of the Baram Dam in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, which would have displaced 20,000 Indigenous Peoples and flooded an area the size of Singapore. But this year, the Sarawak government announced plans to build five new dams across the state. To mark the anniversary of stopping the Baram Dam, and to renew calls for protecting Indigenous lands, The Borneo Project is re-releasing its film series on development without destruction. Watch the film Commerce or Corruption? which asks the question, Who really benefits from dam projects in Sarawak?

Pushing for Furbearer Reform in Colorado

Project Coyote continues to advocate for reforms to Colorado’s outdated “furbearer” regulations, which treat species like coyotes as commodities rather than vital members of ecosystems. As Colorado Parks and Wildlife considers rule changes, we are urging the agency to adopt science-based policies that reduce cruel treatment of these animals by, among other things, establishing a closed season for coyotes, ending unlimited killing, setting reasonable hunting and trapping limits, and conducting population surveys to guide wildlife management. These changes are critical to improving protections for coyotes and other furbearer species while promoting more humane, responsible wildlife management in Colorado.

North Atlantic Right Whales Need Urgent Help

Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission / NOAA.

The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) is working in Maine to protect the North Atlantic right whale from extinction due to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. IMMP’s Cindy Lowry, Maine campaign coordinator for these critically endangered whales (who have fewer than 370 left in their population) has penned an op-ed in Maine’s Portland Press Herald calling for their protection. Read the op-ed on IMMP’s news page.

Want to Reduce Plastic Use? We Got You!

Photo by engin akyurt / Unsplash

If you’re just learning about the plastic pollution crisis, it can be overwhelming. Maybe you can’t stop thinking about how all of the plastic all around you is affecting your health. Maybe drinking from a plastic water bottle feels different now, and so does storing your food in plastic containers and eating out of plastic takeout boxes. You know there’s a real problem here, but where on Earth do you even start to try to fix it? Plastic Pollution Coalition’s A Beginner’s Guide to Reducing Plastic in Your Life will take you through the key first steps. Learn more.

Call to Protect Indigenous Peoples in Isolation

On March 3, representatives of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples organizations, and civil society from Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Suriname, Paraguay, the United States, Russia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom adopted the Jakarta Declaration: an international call to protect Indigenous Peoples in Isolation. Indigenous Peoples in Isolation are communities that choose to live separately from, or without maintaining sustained contact with, the outside world. They face extreme risks from violence, disease, territorial loss, and growing pressure from extractive activities. These pressures are putting them at risk of physical and cultural extinction. The document, endorsed by 28 organizations including the SIRGE Coalition calls on states, multilateral institutions, national and international financial institutions, and global supply chains to take concrete and urgent action to protect the rights of these communities.

Exploring a Just Food Policy in Mississippi

On February 26, the Mississippi Farm to School Network joined six incredible partners in Cleveland, MS, to officially launch the Mississippi Delta Food Policy and Action Council. The event brought together 70 leaders from across the food system, including farmers, educators, business owners, and advocates. Together, we aligned four key pillars that can help ensure local abundance benefits to local people: policy and research, infrastructure and land access, market development and food access, and agriculture and food literacy. The energy in the room was powerful. We built a shared mission, identified next steps, and strengthened partnerships to move this work forward together across the Mississippi Delta.