Preview of Niagara Falls

At the Ft. Bragg Army base in North Carolina, an improbable alliance is giving the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker a new lease on life. After a clash between U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army revealed that low-grade forest fires sparked by artillery and tracers inadvertently created excellent woodpecker habitats, the two sides joined forces to monitor and protect the birds on the base.

The axolotl—an amphibian with incredible regenerative abilities—is ubiquitous in pet stores, science labs and pop culture, yet almost extinct in the wild. Now, scientists and farmers in Mexico City are using ancient Aztec farming techniques to secure the creature’s future. Meanwhile, another team is partnering with salamander-breeding Dominican nuns to save a closely-related species.

Decades of war and unsustainable agriculture have stripped almost half the trees from the rainforest atop Mozambique’s Mount Gorongosa. The devastation threatens the watershed that sustains life in nearby communities and in Gorongosa National Park. Now, park experts and local farmers are uniting to plant a new shade-loving cash crop—coffee—that will help restore the forest.