Nature Dies In Darkness

    Events are being cancelled, some news is censored and other sensitive subjects are not broached. There is more silence than there was. People disappear and some things disappear, never having been seen. One of those things is The National Nature Assessment. 
   The assessment was announced on Earth Day in 2022. President Biden issued and executive order to undertake a thorough examination of the state of nature. The evaluation of the environment was to be done by a large number of experts and scientists, who were mostly volunteers. Research was undertaken and hundreds of pages written. A draft of the report was about to be submitted, but, The National Nature Assessment was cancelled by the Trump administration.

   The National Nature Assessment disappeared, but The Nature Record exists. The authors of the Assessment thought their work needed to be evaluated and made public. They did not want the data to disappear. 
   The 800+ pages of the draft is available for public comments and scientific review. "For a chapter-by-chapter journey through the state of nature in America," here is The Nature Record.  It can be read online or downloaded. If you fear that nature is not in good shape and don't want to read about it, skip to Chapter 4: "Bright Spots in Nature."

Samizdat:
   I usually write "Sources", but perhaps that word is now appropriate. For more background see:
   Catrin Einhorn produced two good reports for the New York Times:
1) "Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature. They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway: The first full draft of the assessment, on the state of America’s land, water and wildlife, was weeks from completion. The project leader called the study “too important to die.” NYT, Feb. 10, 2026.
  "The draft was almost ready for submission, due in less than a month. More than 150 scientists and other experts had collectively spent thousands of hours working on the report, a first-of-its-kind assessment of nature across the United States.
   But President Trump ended the effort, started under the Biden administration, by executive order. So, on Jan. 30, the project’s director, an environmental scientist named Phil Levin, sent an email telling members of his team that their work had been discontinued.
   But it wasn’t the only email he sent that day.
   “This work is too important to die,” Dr. Levin wrote in a separate email to the report’s authors, this one from his personal account. “The country needs what we are producing.”

2) "Nature Report, Killed by Trump, Is Released Independently: A draft assessment of the health of nature in the United States is grim but shot through with bright spots and possibility."
Catrin Einhorn, NYT - March 5, 2026
   "The report’s name has changed from the National Nature Assessment to the Nature Record, to reflect that it is a new, independent effort, but it builds off work that was already underway and most of the authors remain the same. Its scientific review will be conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the same organization that would have reviewed the report had it remained under the auspices of the federal government.    
   The first two chapters that will summarize the sprawling endeavor are not yet written, because the authors are waiting until after this round of feedback. But 13 other chapters are in place.
   The report explores not only actions that harm nature, but also how people are affected by nature and its loss, with chapters on human health, the economy and national security. And throughout, the report highlights solutions and nature’s ability to recover when given the chance."
  For an example of reports on various substacks see:
"Why the Trump Administration Couldn’t Kill the Nature Record: Science has a way of refusing to stay buried", Jeff Nesbit, The Contrarian, March 16, 2026.