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We lost a wonderful and wise storyteller last month, veteran author, activist, and pioneering publisher of Heyday Books, Malcolm Margolin. A passionate champion of Indigenous rights and social justice, Malcolm helped generate widespread interest in Native California history. He founded Earth Island’s California Institute for Community, Art & Nature, which aims to promote a diverse and beautiful world using imagination, creativity, and good humor. Malcolm was a master dream weaver who believed that art and storytelling could help us build bridges across differences and move us towards a more just world. As Lori Fogarty, executive director of the Oakland Museum of California said, “Malcolm embodied and expressed the true joy of connection through storytelling and learning.” During these divisive times, we are holding his vision of storytelling as a medium of repair and regeneration close to our hearts. Malcolm will be dearly missed, but his life’s work lives on.

Join us on October 9 for the 26th annual Brower Youth Awards. The signature event, hosted by Earth Island’s New Leaders Initiative, honors young environmental leaders who are making a difference in their communities. This year, we will gather at the Brower Center in Berkeley, California, in a cozy, intimate setting that allows our awardees to shine. We will honor each recipient through videos, speeches, and an audience Q&A. After the ceremony, celebrations will continue with a buzzing reception that will include food, drinks, music, connection, and more. This is a family-friendly event and all ages are encouraged to attend. Register here.

This October, California’s Fish and Game Commission will decide whether to impose a slot limit for striped bass. A slot limit regulates the size of fish that can legally be harvested and helps protect overharvested species, and under most circumstances it’s a sensible conservation approach. But striped bass are nonnative predators in California waters and protecting them poses an unnecessary risk to native species. Endangered salmon and steelhead, in particular, cannot afford added predation stress. By limiting striped bass harvest to boost their population, we are undoubtedly doing so at the expense of other species. Read more about the issue and how you can take action on Fish On’s website.

Members of the Tallgrass Institute team in Chile supporting fieldwork on lithium extraction impacts on Colla and other Indigenous communities. Photo courtesy of Tallgrass Institute.

Tallgrass Institute is excited to join Earth Island as a new project. The institute works to advance the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and is guided in that work by Indigenous leadership and expertise, as well as enduring Indigenous values, stories, and cultures. It builds investor knowledge and action towards integration of Indigenous priorities in business portfolios, investment, and corporate practice. It also provides trainings around Indigenous insights to activate shareholder advocacy and forward values-aligned research that creates a pathway towards ripe engagement. “Our work as a center for Indigenous economic Stewardship is to care for — with intentionality, time, and foresight — Indigenous economic visions as part of building strong and healthy communities,” says Founder and Executive Director Kate R. Finn.

This back-to-school season, bring hands-on environmental science to your school! KIDS for the BAY (KftB) School Programs provide opportunities for students, teachers, and families in the San Francisco Bay Area to engage with their local environment. KftB programs inspire and empower students to think critically about the natural world and practice their observational skills and the scientific method. Field trips to creek, bay, and ocean habitats turn the local watershed into a living laboratory for learning. All KftB programs support Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core Standards. Learn more about KftB’s 2025-2026 School Programs and register today!

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Project Coyote is thrilled to announce the release of its Keeping it Wild Compassionate Coexistence teaching curriculum modules for primary (K–2), upper elementary (grades 3–5), and middle school (grades 6–8) levels. This curriculum provides teachers with the tools to teach kids about North America’s wild carnivores. Each teaching unit contains multiple lesson plans centered on foxes, coyotes, wolves, and other wild carnivores, providing an opportunity for teachers to incorporate humane education into their science units. The curriculum aims to foster empathy, respect, and compassion for all living beings and empower youth to be creative problem solvers.

Earth Island Journal’s new Autumn 2025 issue opens with an investigative report from Washington State about a quasi-academic group that would have you believe that wood tables and toys are better carbon sinks than standing trees. It also includes a report from Vietnam, where animal rights activists are working to rehabilitate bears freed from the country’s now-illegal bear bile farming industry; a feature from the Niger Delta, where Big Oil is rapidly selling off its assets without cleaning up the severe environmental damage it has wreaked on the region for 70 years; and a moving personal essay that explores the links between soil health and rural healthcare. You can read these stories and many more by subscribing or reading the magazine online. Want to stay up to date? Get news and personal notes from Journal editors with our newsletter.

Join Plastic Pollution Coalition on Friday, November 7, from 1 pm to 4pm PST for the Plastic Pollution Solutions Expo at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, CA. The expo will provide an exclusive look at solutions that have the potential to turn the tide on plastic pollution through systems change. Get your tickets here. Learn more about solutions as global thought leaders address the question How Do We Solve Plastic Pollution by 2040? on Saturday, November 8, from 9am to 5pm PST at TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch. Sign up here to tune into the livestreamed event or find the archived talk post-event.

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