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Tree Guy Alexander

@treeguyalexander.bsky.social
78 followers 94 following 86 posts

Environmental researcher and writer. I'm interested in resilient communities and ecosystems, collaboration between organizations, and trees. 📍Currently WY, originally MD, most recently CA

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Davey Alba @davey.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
NEW: Spoke to 25 small publishers about the kind of impact Google's AI changes to search has had on their businesses. Things don't look good—not for the publishers, and not for the quality of information out on the open web, which ironically Google itself relies on. Gift link: bloom.bg/43Jmzk3
In March 2024, website owner Morgan McBride was posing for photos in her half-renovated kitchen for a Google ad celebrating the ways the search giant had helped her family’s business grow.

But by the time the ad ran about a month later, traffic from Google had fallen more than 70%, McBride said. Charleston Crafted, which features guides on do-it-yourself home improvement projects, had weathered algorithm changes and updates in the past; this time, it didn’t recover. McBride suspected people were getting more of their renovation advice from the artificial intelligence answers at the top of Google search.

The now-ubiquitous AI-generated answers — and the way Google has changed its search algorithm to support them — have caused traffic to independent websites to plummet, according to Bloomberg interviews with 25 publishers and people who work with them. That’s disrupting a delicate symbiotic relationship that’s existed for years: if businesses create good content, Google sends them traffic.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 07/04/2025
Trump's environmental actions will significantly increase the cost of living for millions of people and bring about hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
latimes.com
Trump is cutting the nation's environmental programs. Here are the health risks to Americans
The president's environmental actions will significantly increase the cost of living for millions of people and bring about hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
And yet nobody in my department wants to think about the ethical problems with AI, like how it only serves to help entrepreneurial and mgmt types save money by replacing people
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
This weekend I got in my last x-country ski of the season (I'm a newb). The lodgepole pines were sparkling like fake Christmas trees. It's normally so windy here on the High Plains that we don't get this effect, but the mountains above town decided that winter was going out in style! #treesky
A snowy path through pine trees. The trees are covered in a dusting of snow and sunlight shines through the branches.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Yup. It turns out "people buy a ticket for $10 to see a movie one time" is one of the GOAT business models unless you intentionally kill it bsky.app/profile/rntr...
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Happy #caturday! Raise your paw if you love helping with laundry.
A single cat paw sticks out of a pile of towels, exposing its adorable little toe beans
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Lol I was told to use an AI transcription service for an interview with an indigenous leader. At one point she talks about a sense of entitlement in a community she's had trouble working with. The AI summary: "a sense of entitlement among indigenous people," literally the opposite 🤦
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Am I practicing my French again in case I have to apply for jobs in Canada, France, Switzerland, etc? Sure am!
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
this shit sucks so much, most of us have lived through at least 3 other recessions now im just so sick of this shit they just keep stealing our future from us
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Jenni @jennismovingcastle.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Millennials be like,
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
File me under "despairing," and I feel so energized and motivated and full of love because of what @booker.senate.gov is doing
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I saw @booker.senate.gov speak in 2008 when he was mayor of Newark. He spoke with so much energy and passion then. He was speaking with that same energy when I went to bed last night and he was still going when I woke up. Absolutely inspiring.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
FLAVOR FLAV ⏰ @flavorflav.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Cory Booker
media.tenor.com
a pink bunny wearing sunglasses is holding a drum with the words `` still going '' written on it .
Alt: a pink bunny wearing sunglasses is holding a drum with the words `` still going '' written on it .
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I'm not used to winter continuing into April, but it does make for some pretty excellent sunrise runs.
Sunrise glints through the leafless branches of three or four trees growing in the distance. In the foreground, a dusting of snow covers a grassy field. A fence separates the field from a small river.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Is there a way to turn off the AI summaries in Proquest? I dive into articles to read and learn and identify takeaways for my own work, not to have a machine tell me what it thinks I should learn #highered #research #researchsky
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Happy #caturday to this guy, who is very good at helping with my least favorite chore (putting away laundry) and also is my ray of sunshine in dark times
A gray tabby cat snoozes on a pile of laundry.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I was SO excited for this, because @amberruffin.bsky.social is one of the funniest people alive
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 29/03/2025
One hell of an opening for this @tressiemcphd.bsky.social piece www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/o...
Tressie McMillan Cottom
By Tressie McMillan Cottom

Opinion Columnist

Behold the decade of mid tech!

That is what I want to say every time someone asks me, “What about A.I.?” with the breathless anticipation of a boy who thinks this is the summer he finally gets to touch a boob. I’m far from a Luddite. It is precisely because I use new technology that I know mid when I see it.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Le Monde @lemonde.fr · 29/03/2025
Politique antidiversité de Donald Trump : Paris dénonce des « ingérences inacceptables » américaines visant des entreprises françaises
lemonde.fr
Politique antidiversité de Donald Trump : Paris dénonce des « ingérences inacceptables » américaines visant des entreprises françaises
Un courrier de l’ambassade des Etats-Unis demande aux sociétés françaises de prouver qu’elles ne mettent pas en œuvre de programmes de promotion de la diversité, de l’équité, et de l’inclusion qui enfreignent les lois fédérales, sous peine de ne pas pouvoir travailler avec le gouvernement américain.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
A friend visited the National Gallery of Art in DC and pointed out that my cat might be a time traveler from 19th century France
A photograph of the painting "A Woman With a Cat" by Renoir. In the painting, a young woman holds a gray cat, though the cat does not look particularly happy about it
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
jae holzman @jael.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
i profiled the first major american environmental disaster of the trump era i would appreciate it if you shared, as the communities impacted feel deeply ignored by the mainstream media
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The Parker Out Of Space @tonyparkerart.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Seriously. Don't post "AI images of me in the style of ____". AI is theft. AI is also trying to steal artist's jobs. It is a horrible look.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
What people in every part of higher education need to understand is that Republicans now want to do to universities what they’ve tried to do to labor unions: erase them from the institutional landscape. The question is how much you want to collaborate in your own destruction.
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Rick CarBOOso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
What’s most confusing and sad about the AI hype to me is every person who supports it doesn’t seem to understand that there are people who find great satisfaction in doing things - creating, serving others, solving puzzles. It’s wild to realize the tech class is, at heart, lazy and incurious.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
One of the biggest surprises about moving from the West Coast tech industry to a university in a deep-red state is that I face way more pressure to use AI here than ever before.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
As a member of the Editing Lobby, unfortunately I can confirm this is true
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
I'm v surprised to learn it's a little hard to find info on where wild burros (ie feral donkeys) are on BLM land. Lots of info on horses, but where my burros at?? I need this for a research project I'm starting on, and didn't expect to have to put much effort into this part of it.
Three donkeys stand in a field with sparse, shrubby vegetation.
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
🚨NEW: climate inaction will cost more than a third of global GDP this century, but an investment of less than 2% GDP now will reduce harms by 90% - a "massive opportunity for humanity", finds a report from Boston Consulting Group and University of Cambridge.
forbes.com
Climate Inaction Could Cost 1/3 Of Global GDP This Century, BCG Warns
The Big 3 consulting firm finds that most harms come from productivity losses, but also reveals how nations could avoid 90% of climate damage.
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 12/03/2025
"forced discrimination programs" = EPA programs that made it slightly more difficult for industry to turn Black neighborhoods like Pleasantville in Houston or Africatown in Mississippi into cancer havens polluted with unregulated toxic waste
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
The tattoo of P-22 on my right arm tingles when I see things like this
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Sort of a non sequitur, but this keeps popping into my head while working on a research proposal: I don't agree with them in pretty much any way, but I have to say that "sagebrush rebel" is some badass branding.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Zeke Lunder - The Lookout @wildland-zko.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
If you are in the wildfire mitigation business in SoCal, we are currently taking on advertisers for a SoCal Fire Geek Roadtrip series (starring Tim Chavez!), to be filmed in May. Please reach out to me via email links at the-lookout.org.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Saw this cartoon while my cat grooms me after I went on a nice run around the reclaimed Superfund site in my little town. I'm smiling ear to ear.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Happy #caturday from this ferocious beast and the cuts on my hand that make people ask, "Do you garden without gloves or do you own a cat?"
A grey tabby cat gnaws on a human hand.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Source New Mexico @sourcenm.com · 05/03/2025
In case you missed it yesterday: Elon Musk's DOGE list of lease terminations contains an Albuquerque office that houses a "critical" dispatch center that handles wildfire emergencies, as drought and high winds this spring leave the state increasingly at-risk for wildfires.
buff.ly
Albuquerque center housing ‘critical’ wildfire dispatch on DOGE termination list as fire risk grows • Source New Mexico
The center is "critical during emergencies where homes, lives and natural resources are at risk from wildfire," according to a NM forestry spokesperson.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
It is absolutely wild to hear longtime allies talking about us like this. The scale/scope of the geopolitical changes happening right now are really hard for me to comprehend or believe sometimes
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
A colleague pointed out to me today that most of the attention to the effect of the administration's actions on public lands is focusing on national parks. Which is a real issue! But National Forests are where we're likely to see some of the worst impacts
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Big post-fire tree story
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
I watched Flow last night and it absolutely blew my mind. Such a tense, dramatic, and occasionally funny story—without a single line of dialogue. Absolutely loved it and not just because I'm a cat guy #oscars
media.tenor.com
a black cat with yellow eyes is laying in the grass at night
Alt: an animated black cat with yellow eyes is laying in the grass at night
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Playing The Decemberists' "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" and watching the #Oscars red carpet. One of my favorite developments in Hollyweird is that dudes now wear REALLY COOL suits and tuxes.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
I worry that the focus on NOAA's weather predicting value is ignoring the millions of other ways NOAA researchers enrich communities and local economies. There are no oysters without NOAA. There are no blue crabs without NOAA. NOAA trains teachers. NOAA is the lifeblood of coastal communities.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Extra special #caturday this week: I came home from work super grumpy a couple days, and this is how my dude reacted the second day.
A grey tabby cat lies on a human man's chest, squinting like a silly boy
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
This makes me so happy. California showing a degree of respect and sovereignty to native tribes in managing their own cultural burning and prescribed fire programs as they scale. Senator Dodd, The Karuk Tribe were tireless champions of this. www.latimes.com/environment/...
latimes.com
California tribe enters first-of-its-kind agreement with the state to practice cultural burns
After suppression of Indigenous cultural burning, the state agrees Northern California's Karuk Tribe may practice the burns more freely than it has in over 175 years.
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Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 28/02/2025
The Santa Monica Mountains National Park and Channel Islands collectively lost 14 permanent staffers. Their jobs were in archaeology, preservation, research and emergency medical response.
latimes.com
What park workers firings mean for L.A.’s natural wonders
The Santa Monica Mountains National Park and Channel Islands collectively lost 14 permanent staffers. Their jobs were in archaeology, preservation, research and emergency medical response.
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The Lever @levernews.com · 27/02/2025
After U.S. Forest Service layoffs, will for-profit contractors protect you from wildfires?
levernews.com
The Firefighting Fire Sale
After U.S. Forest Service layoffs, will for-profit contractors protect you from wildfires?
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
I've been thinking about this skeet for the last three days
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Matthew Hurteau @mhurteau.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
It will be dumb luck if this fire season is mundane in the Southwest. If hiring is delayed fire crews will be less well prepared for an already dangerous job. If fire crews are not hired, no one will respond when fires threaten communities. Actions have consequences.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 19/02/2025
Federal funding cuts have forced wildland firefighters to cancel prescribed burns, which help prevent wildfires. “We will be more vulnerable to a catastrophic fire in the future as a result,” one firefighter said.
propub.li
How Trump’s Federal Funding and Hiring Freezes Are Leaving America Vulnerable to Catastrophic Wildfire
Uncertainty over funding and hiring stemming from the president’s executive orders has limited wildfire training and postponed work to reduce flammable vegetation. It has also led some firefighters…
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Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 23/02/2025
Gregg is a former Marine and Forest Service ranger. He's saved the lives of hikers dangling off a cliff or going through cardiac arrest, and he's bravely fought forest fires to save small rural towns. 100% of his salary is paid by WA state. Elon fired him. Share his story.
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