Natural Areas Association (NAA) is an association of scientists and practitioners focused on the management of ecologically significant natural landscapes with the intent to protect biodiversity for current and future generations. Natural Areas News is your trusted resource for current events, reliable science, conservation success, emerging challenges, best practices, and achievements of those who work daily to preserve natural areas.

The Trump administration fired scores of staffers across the federal government working through a probationary period, deeming their work to be no longer in the “public interest.” The laid-off workers were also warned they have limited rights to appeal the decision. The latest cuts come after the Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to fire their employees on probationary status. The seemingly indiscriminate layoffs sparked fears of additional cuts and raised questions about how agencies will function going forward.

Photo courtesy of the Department of the Interior

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden honored Peggy Olwell as its 2025 John C. Pritzlaff Conservation Award winner. Olwell is the Plant Conservation & Restoration Program Lead for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Washington, DC. Peggy built the BLM's nationally recognized Native Seed Program, which promotes the use of native plants in habitat conservation and restoration projects.

Local land conservation preserves habitat, species populations, addresses climate change and provides diverse benefits to people. In the US, land trusts and other nonprofit, donor-supported organizations collaborate with private landowners to preserve ecologically important lands from development and exploitation. This system is often resilient to executive orders, cancellation of regulations, protections, or removal of federal funding for conservation by the Trump Administration.

Rapid increases in wildfire area burned across North American forests pose novel challenges for managers and society. Increasing area burned raises questions about whether, and to what degree, contemporary fire regimes (1984–2022) are still departed from historical fire regimes (pre-1880).

Photo courtesy of USFWS, Public Domain

Following efforts to count overwintering monarch butterflies in California, the 28th annual Western Monarch Count reported a peak population of just 9,119 butterflies this winter. This is the second lowest overwintering population ever recorded since tracking began in 1997 and coincides with monarch butterflies being proposed for protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.