Land

The science—and practice—of safeguarding wildlands and helping developed areas return to nature.

Latest in Land

Large group of used dirty sleeping mattresses. Abandoned in wild landfill

Fungi help turn old mattresses into insulation

A white pickup truck is driving away from the viewer across a flat sandy plain with tall, smoothly sculpted dunes rising in the background. Small patches of dry grass are scattered in the foreground.

Death Valley National Park needs help ID’ing joyriding vandals

a small chick sits on a nest with its parent behind, cleaning its feathers with its beak

Watch an albatross give its brand-new chick a very careful cleanup

By Laura Baisas

The tiny blooms of Dendrobium eruciforme, known as the caterpillar orchid due to its creeping habit and small size. © Andre Schuiteman RBG Kew

Zombie fungus, ‘living stones’ among favorite botany discoveries of 2025

an elk with horns in the wood

New wildlife cam features 800-pound elk in northern Michigan

By Laura Baisas

A fluffy beavers sits in front of a fallen tree branch with yellow leaves.

Idaho once dropped 76 beavers from airplanes—on purpose

By Jennifer Byrne

a cave painting of two warty pigs

Pigs have been island hopping for 50,000 years

By Laura Baisas

a yellow flag with a coiled rattle snake and the words "dont tread on me"Gadsden Flag, Vikkram, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.

How the timber rattlesnake became a symbol of American independence

By Laura Baisas

‘Mr. Fezziwig's Ball,’ an 1843 illustration by John Leech for ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. This novella was the earliest and most popular of Dickens' Christmas stories. The kissing under mistletoe (left) and evergreen decoration hanging from the ceiling are vestiges of pre-Christian winter rites.

A history of mistletoe: The parasitic ‘dung on a twig’

A cross sectional image of an actively growing microbialite from South Africa.

‘Living rocks’ suck up a lot of carbon

By Laura Baisas

several red and beige mushroom-like plants growing at the base of a tree

Asexual parasitic plants break biology’s rules

By Laura Baisas

a close up of evergreen branches

How the evergreen shaped America

By Trent Preszler

Awa Guajá couple, family of Takarentia, only contacted 5 days before this picture was taken, 1992.

Half of all uncontacted Indigenous tribes may disappear by 2036

Big bison in the National Park on the shore of a lake or river

This national park uses helicopters for bison round-up duty

a toilet in the woods, covered by wooden panels

World’s first mushroom-powered toilet could replace stinky porta-potties

By Margherita Bassi

a small, brown prairie dog popping out of a hole

Tiny prairie dogs’ poop play a mighty role in grasslands

By Margherita Bassi

a red panda in a tree

11 adorable photos of red pandas to celebrate International Red Panda Day

By Popular Science Team

Mountains, river, and forest in Alberta, Canada

A $1 million treasure hunt is underway in Canadian wilderness

Two images of Bootanomyia dorsalis with 1 mm size comparison

Invasive parasitic wasp spotted in the US for the first time

a rattlesnake with brown and white scales is coiled on the ground of a forest

Michigan’s only rattlesnake is inbreeding

By Laura Baisas