The Biden administration on Thursday proposed revoking a rule imposed under former President Donald Trump that weakened the government’s power to enforce a century-old law that protects most U.S. bird species.

Chicago birdwatchers were treated to a rare glimpse of a wayward hummingbird at LaBagh Wood, far beyond its normal range of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Illinois is known for growing corn and soybeans, but there’s another local crop some say is ready for its close up: honey. We visit a bee farm just north of Chicago that has become one of the most celebrated in the entire state.  

The American mink is the poster critter for Chicago River Day, the annual cleanup hosted by Friends of the Chicago River that has volunteers fanning out from Lake County to Calumet to clear litter and trash from sites along the waterway. Here’s how to participate in Saturday’s event.

Scientists have long talked about climate change — hotter temperatures, changes in rain and snowfall and more extreme weather — being the “new normal.” Data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put hard figures on the cliche. 

When “My Octopus Teacher” won an Oscar last month for best documentary, I was reminded of my own cross-species encounter with a rather large insect on the Paw Paw River in southwestern Michigan.

In the first Biden administration rule aimed at combating climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to phase down production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.

Clover was once commonly included in lawn seed mixes, but then gained a reputation as a weed. It’s time, horticulturalists say, to revisit clover’s environmental benefits.

Between 2010 and 2020, Chicago’s canopy cover decreased from 19% to 16%, largely due to the loss of mature ash trees, according to the 2020 tree census spearheaded by the Morton Arboretum. 

Working with specimens in the Field Museum’s collections, researchers from Loyola University Chicago found microplastics in fish dating back to the 1950s. “Plastic is everywhere,” the scientists said. 

From Friday through Monday, hundreds of cities from around the globe will be competing in this annual challenge to record the most nature observations. Can Chicago improve on its middle-of-the-pack results from 2020? 

Across America, people of color are exposed to more air pollution than whites from industry, vehicles, construction and many other sources, a new study has found.

Huge swaths of the Midwest were drained to make way for agriculture. UIC’s Kimberly Van Meter is harnessing NASA imagery to hunt for the region’s lost wetlands, the first step toward strategic restoration.

Chicago went from tank-top to sweatshirt weather in a matter of minutes on Tuesday in one of the wildest temperature swings the city has ever seen.

Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be as many as 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected.