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Ben Goldfarb

@bengoldfarb.bsky.social
11K followers 622 following 1.1K posts

Independent conservation journalist writing a book about fish. Author of CROSSINGS, on #roadecology, and EAGER, on beaver belief.

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Reposted by Ben Goldfarb
Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 14h
POV ur inside a baitball of mullet. A lot of Coralheads didn’t get much work done yesterday, mesmerized by the mullet run that blotted out the sun and turned Coral City into a marriage of heaven and hell for predators and prey 🪸🐠👀
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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 30/09/2026
Pushes to build a road connecting Brazil’s Acre state to Peru’s Pacific coast could trigger up to 68,500 hectares of Amazon deforestation per year. Experts warn the BR-364 highway extension also threatens carbon credit revenue & accelerates land speculation. @constancemalleret.bsky.social reports.
mongabay.cc
In Brazil’s Acre, calls for new roads clash with deforestation commitments
Along a freshly repaved stretch of the BR-317 highway in Acre, a Brazilian state bordering Bolivia and Peru in the Western Amazon, pasture stretches out as far as the eye can see. Solitary Brazil nut…
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American Rivers @americanrivers.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Across the Northeast, unsafe and outdated dams are coming down to revitalize fish runs and improve public safety. As our Northeast Regional Director, Andy Fisk, says, "Proximity to abundance is transformational." 👏 Thank you @bengoldfarb.bsky.social for the story: biographic.com/death-by-a-t...
biographic.com
Death by a Thousand Dams | bioGraphic
Tens of thousands of small barriers hamper fish recovery in the northeastern United States. But while the demolition of big dams out west gets the most attention, a similar revolution is revitalizing ...
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Reposted by Ben Goldfarb
The War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
We are looking forward to recording our next episode featuring our celebrity guest, massive bull elk.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
(when you burn precious characters writing your own sequence numbers in the post like a chump, forgetting that Bsky does it for you 😭)
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In my biased view, this is a kick-ass series of important & thorough stories about the clash between our built environment & the wild world that should, like, win some awards or something. Failing that, I'm grateful to you for reading and to all the @biographic.bsky.social staff for their hard work!
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
...and of course I couldn't possibly write about infra without including a story on #roadecology and wildlife crossings, this one focused on the star-crossed movement to protect Texas's ocelots from vehicle collisions. (6/6) biographic.com/no-country-f...
biographic.com
No Country for Old Ocelots | bioGraphic
Can wildlife crossings save America’s most endangered feline?
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
...an exploration of bird-window collisions — why that happened, how to stop them, the animal rehabbers retrieving and saving injured victims — centered on Chicago, America's bird-strike capital... (5/6) (this one also cracked Best American Science & Nature Writing!) biographic.com/city-of-glass/
biographic.com
City of Glass | bioGraphic
Meet the dedicated cadre of experts and volunteers working to protect birds from glass in the window-strike capital of the United States.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
...a deep dive into the emergent science of fence ecology and the ongoing efforts to liberate rangelands from the tyranny of obsolete barbed wire barriers... (4/6) biographic.com/entangled/
biographic.com
Entangled
Laid end to end, the world’s fences would reach the sun. What are they doing to wildlife?
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The others: a piece on the abstruse but vital instruments of local government (land use codes, zoning, master plans, etc.) that preserve open space and maintain wildlife corridors in the fast-developing American West... (3/6) biographic.com/living-in-th...
biographic.com
Living in the Sprawl | bioGraphic
As housing developments devour open space in the western United States, can local governments stave off habitat loss?
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
That piece is the 5th & final installment in my years-long and deeply reported series for bioGraphic "on the people and projects re-envisioning infrastructure to benefit wildlife." Big ups to @sbedard.bsky.social for wrangling the grant that supported this work! (2/6) biographic.com/wildlife-at-...
biographic.com
Wildlife at the Crossroads | bioGraphic
Animals often struggle to navigate the roads, fences, buildings, and other architecture girdling the planet. But as scientists and conservationists work to better understand the ways our infrastructur...
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"If eco-social anomie describes a societal forgetting, dam removal achieves the opposite—a 'collective remembering' that unshifts our baselines." This week @biographic.bsky.social published my story on the rewilding of New England rivers, a mill dam at a time. (1/6) biographic.com/death-by-a-t...
biographic.com
Death by a Thousand Dams | bioGraphic
Tens of thousands of small barriers hamper fish recovery in the northeastern United States. But while the demolition of big dams out west gets the most attention, a similar revolution is revitalizing ...
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Claire G. Griffin @polargriffin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Local stream restoration projects and all the people working on them are what give me hope in this day and age. Locally, we have people doing dam removals, large wood installations, culvert replacements. There are a lot of people, from all walks of life, who are working to help streams and rivers!
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Only a little sad we’re keeping Nimmo and deGrom outta the playoffs
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thanks to @highcountrynews.org for running this harrowing story on the drought-fueled Bearpocalypse that’s driving ursids into conflicts across the West. Bear issues have become nightly here in Salida; I just wrote to city council begging for better waste disposal. www.hcn.org/articles/as-...
hcn.org
As bears ‘spin out’ in southern Montana, wildlife managers are at wit’s end - High Country News
Amid a record-breaking year of Western bear conflict, the historically tolerant Red Lodge community is grappling with opposing views on how to live with the species — and if a 'fed bear' really should...
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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
[Good news] It was a record year for razorbill & puffin breeding as the Gulf of #Maine - which has been warming faster than 99% of the ocean - sees a pause in its heating over the last couple years, @themainemonitor.org reports Common & endangered roseate terns also did well this summer:
themainemonitor.org
Seabird researchers report good year for razorbills and puffins
Seal Island saw a record 127 razorbill nests, while Eastern Egg Rock saw a record 213 puffin burrows.
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Kate Beall @katebbeall.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
“Historically the Oyster would’ve boiled with river herring,” Furey said as we gazed at the doomed dam. “That’s the history I’m interested in.” Dam(n)—love the poetry that comes when folks in New England talk about fish (maybe it’s that he’s a fish biologist). And love to read of a river I know 🦪
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undiminished somewhere 🌕 @tallesteden.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
If you can read this without crying, I don't know what to tell you. Good crying to be clear, that so many people are fighting the good and hard fights to keep our paradise among the stars vibrant and alive.
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Alison Bowden @alisonbowden.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Rather than being a force acting against history, fish were history—and unlike mill dams, they had a future." 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟
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bioGraphic @biographic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is the final story in a five-part @bengoldfarb.bsky.social series 👇 about infrastructure and wildlife. Each dives deep into a different element of the human-made world—the roads and dams, buildings and fences we’ve placed in front of animals, and how to reduce the impacts of those obstacles.
biographic.com
Wildlife at the Crossroads | bioGraphic
One year after the Trump administration slashed biodiversity protections at home and abroad, people and organizations are figuring out where to go from here.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this fun piece, especially New Hampshire fish guy @nathanbfurey.bsky.social!
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The dam removals that get the most press tend to be superlative western ones, like the Klamath and Elwha—big rivers, big fish. For @biographic.bsky.social, I wrote about some equally vital, under-the-radar projects now restoring eastern streams, one old mill dam at a time. #AlewivesAreTheNewSalmon
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Krista Langlois @cestmoilanglois.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Do you love rivers? Do you love New England? If so, you'll love this @bengoldfarb.bsky.social story about the tiny, historic dams choking the region's rivers, and the people who are freeing them. Read the thread below for some absolute gems from the story.
biographic.com
Death by a Thousand Dams | bioGraphic
Tens of thousands of small barriers hamper fish recovery in the northeastern United States. But while the demolition of big dams out west gets the most attention, a similar revolution is revitalizing ...
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I'll accept payment in the form of aspen cambium.
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Colton the fish sp💀💀ker 🐟🪴📚🏕️🐝 @fishsqueezer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It's been a while since we were reminded of how the visual activity & biomass of coral reefs per unit area vastly exceeds any other vertebrate ecosystem and it isn't even close. Briefly watch @coralcitycamera.bsky.social for a reminder. Even tropical bird feeding stations can't match this furor. 🐟🌎
youtube.com
Coral City Camera (Miami's Free-Range Aquarium Underwater Livestream)
YouTube video by Coral Morphologic
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
For the true experts (@andrewmergen.bsky.social et al): let's say one were to write an article about the potential impacts of USFWS's new harm interpretation, focused on an emblematic species or two that might be especially screwed. What critters might one highlight?
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The more I think about this, the angrier I get. Non-target take *is* the problem—it’s not like we’re harpooning whales anymore. I know this memo is meant to promote development, not align w/ ESA’s logic, but it’s so fucking galling to see the nation’s top wildlife official flout basic conservation.
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Andrew Mergen @andrewmergen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Our Clinic and students were pleased to partner with Ben on a robust defense of the Roadless Rule. I have been around these issues for 25 years and we need this rule now more than ever!
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Now extended to Oct 6! But still urgent.
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Ted Zukoski @tedzukoski.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
From the man who literally wrote the book on the many ways roads harm wildlife.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is more activisty than I usually get, but these are weird times. In collab w/ Harvard's Env Law & Policy Clinic, I authored a letter objecting to Roadless Rule's rescission, made public so that you can draw upon it in your own comments. Have at it! emmettclinic.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/u...
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
“Felling a tree is not a take of the bats roosting in it unless the tree is felled for the purpose of killing or capturing them.” The @USFWS's new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, as revealed by Nesvik's memo, is the perfect blend of evil and stupidity. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/c...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Moves to Gut a Core Endangered Species Protection
An internal memo reinterprets the law so that only the intentional killing of animals, not collateral harm, is illegal.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Otoliths or gtfo
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Colin was one of my favorite editors to work with and we published so many great stories together at Hakai Magazine and bioGraphic. Someone, please hire him! Ideally, selfishly, in science/environmental news so we can work together again 💛
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Colin Schultz @colinschultz.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
So, now, I'm looking for what's next. If you know of any open positions--especially those involving editing science, news, or science news--I'd love to hear about them. Please let me know at clnschltz@proton.me
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
would love to know what this agent thinks the CC LUC means for lynx
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The agents are getting… dumber?
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Braeden 🎣🦀🌲🦅 @bvd100.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The Seattle Miracle: 1️⃣ Seattle’s tree canopy cover grew 50% (10pp) since 2007. 🌲 2️⃣ Seattle’s population has grown by about 25% (150k people) over the same timeframe. 🌆 This is an incredible civic achievement. Politicians should be shouting this from the rooftops.
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The War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Cites aren't loud, cars are loud. A better world is possible.
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Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
🚨🚨 1. New preprint! We examine whether the diversity of transcontinental freshwater fish radiations, such as killifishes and cichlids, might be driven by marine ancestry in the aftermath of an asteroid impact! Retained salinity tolerance explains their biogeography and diversity!
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Elle @biknmusicmama.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Once again gonna recommend everyone read “crossings” by @bengoldfarb.bsky.social
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Jack A Brand @jack-brand.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Glad to see our new review on behavioural diversity in fishes out today in Fish and Fisheries! Check out the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/faf....
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Elle @biknmusicmama.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I would recommend reading “Crossings” by @bengoldfarb.bsky.social if you want to understand how bad roads are for ecology. The Forest Service had begun to remove roads that were no longer in use to boost the ecological usefulness of forest tracts
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A bit of good news to brighten your Friday evening: APR’s bison get to stay on public lands, at least for now. www.publicdomain.media/p/trump-admi...
publicdomain.media
Judge Blocks Trump Admin Effort to Evict Hundreds of Bison From Public Land
The temporary restraining order marked a major victory for American Prairie, which has spent more than 20 years restoring buffalo in Montana.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is like ten gazillion items down the Atrocity List, but I’m driven absolutely crazy by the way Trump’s sycophants have adopted his deranged approach to capitalization.
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
NYT is under the unfortunate misapprehension that all steelhead die after spawning
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bioGraphic @biographic.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If you root for the under-loved and lesser-known animals, plants, and fungi of the world, have we got news for you. After a decade of operating under the umbrella of the California Academy of Sciences, bioGraphic has officially incorporated as our own fully independent nonprofit! 🌿 🪸🦇🐢 🐟🍄 (1/2)
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
i mean, here's how i describe them in this current piece of writing... not too far off!
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Trout as niche — that’s good!
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