Saving the Klamath, Salmon, and Yurok Culture; Trump Attempts to Shrink Bears Ears -- Again; Hints of Life on Mars; and more.

The culture of the Yurok tribe in Northern California is deeply intertwined with the Klamath river’s salmon. So, when toxic conditions caused by the dams on the river resulted in a massive fish kill, the Yurok people sprang into action and secured the historic removal of four dams, a story captured in The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life.

Also, on July 13, 2026, President Trump issued a proclamation reducing the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah by about 90 percent, to remove almost 3 million acres from monument status. We discuss the significance of these places to several local tribes who co-manage them, and why in their view the President lacks the authority to slash monuments.

And on Mars, our planet’s rocky twin, NASA’s Perseverance Rover is seeking signs of past life, and now scientists say they may have uncovered some of the most compelling evidence yet, in the form of complex carbon molecules in Martian mudstones. That and more, next time on Living on Earth from PRX.

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