Plus, falling Antarctic ice shelves; the best place to see flowers in bloom
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JASPER DOEST
| | By Natasha Daly, Writer/Editor
When dozens of Ukrainian refugees arrived at the border town of Halmeu, Romania, last week, they found a curious sight: A European brown bear in the back of an open van, sniffing the fresh air. She’d just spent 20 hours cooped up, being driven out of Ukraine to a new home at a bear sanctuary.
People were thrilled to see Masha (pictured above arriving at a sanctuary). “She brought a smile to some really, really sad faces,” said her caretaker, Lionel de Lange. “I think they understood that she was going through the same thing as them—she had nowhere to go and no one to look after her.”
Masha, a former circus bear, highlights how the Russian invasion of Ukraine not only has affected the country’s 44 million people but its animals too. Dedicated caretakers like de Lange are putting their lives at risk to protect their charges. Some are whisking bears and big cats to safety. Others remain in conflict zones, desperately trying to protect and feed the thousands of animals left behind in zoos, shelters, sanctuaries, and on the streets.
Please read the full article here.
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| Now temporarily in a Romanian bear sanctuary, Masha (above) enjoys a quiet moment. She’ll stay here while she’s monitored by a veterinarian but eventually will move to a forested, 29-acre habitat with 40 other brown bears.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK CONLIN, ALAMY | | | Do we have to destroy a forest to save it? Some environmentalists say clear-cutting old woods may actually help fauna. Others question that assumption—and say it’s disastrous for a world trying to slow climate change. Older forests with larger trees hold disproportionately more carbon, according to a 2018 global study. Half of the carbon, the researchers found, is in the largest one percent of trees, Nat Geo reports. (Pictured above, timber logging in Vermont.) | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY RMFSTOCK, ALAMY | | Flower power: They say April showers bring May flowers. Spring can be aesthetically pleasing for flower lovers, but these buds nourish us and the rest of the animal world. Where are the best places to catch natural beauty? The normally barren deserts of California are blanketed in color. (Pictured above, orange poppies near Lake Elsinore in southern California.) The Netherlands produces 90 percent of the world’s tulips, making it the ultimate destination in the spring. See 10 of the best destinations for blooms here.
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 | We can’t always fix everything, but it’s definitely worth a try.
| | | | Gergana Daskalova | | Global change ecologist, Nat Geo Explorer | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY AVA PETERSON, ALAMY STOCK PHOTO | | A problem that can be solved: It rained hard Monday in Los Angeles, but California is going to need a lot more than that to keep enough water flowing. One deceptively easy method is to use existing canals and ditches (pictured above) to intentionally flood fields with stormwater that ordinarily would flow to the sea. The idea: Replenish the groundwater below even if the crops have a little flooding. Early experiments at vineyards are working, Nat Geo’s Alejandra Borunda reports.
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| We hope you liked today’s newsletter. This was edited and curated by Monica Williams, Heather Kim, and David Beard. Have an idea or a link for us? Write david.beard@natgeo.com. Have a good week ahead! | | | |
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