Ecologist Gergana Daskalova moved back to the small Bulgarian town of her childhood. It's a place many people have abandoned — and that's the very reason she returned. At the same time as land is being cleared around the world to make room for agriculture, elsewhere farmland is being abandoned for nature to reclaim. But what happens when people let the land return to nature? This episode, science reporter Dan Charles explains why abandoned land has conservationists and researchers asking: If we love nature, do we tend it or set it free?
Read Dan's original reporting in Science Magazine and NPR.
Want us to cover other ecology, biodiversity or land science stories? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org!
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plus.npr.org/shortwave.This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact checked by Tyler Jones. Jimmy Keely was the audio engineer.
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