Long believed to be a single species hopping along stream banks across Borneo, a common rainforest frog is revealing itself to be several different species. It’s also leaving scientists with questions about just how many unrecognized species have been hiding in plain sight, and how to protect biodiversity in the evolutionary “gray zone.” 

Indigenous peoples have used forest thinning to protect against wildfires for millennia. These traditional methods – including cultural burning – have often been neglected in modern times, which is thought to have contributed to wildfires in the US and elsewhere. Now, researchers have shown for the first time in a regional hotspot for wildfire risk and drought risk that forest thinning with modern tools has an additional benefit: it increases the snowpack in winter by 16 to 30%, thus recovering lost water and helping to safeguard its supply for natural and human needs.