I wonder how long it took between the earlier disappearance/mutation of the opsin (if I understand this right) gene that gives it broader-spectrum vision and the reappearance.

Maybe humans should invest in some ecosystems to handle the poop, rather than trying to keep birds off and getting pwned.

I read the article first and I was surprised to realize it was the same guy.

You’re welcome!

You might already know this, but I just wanted to mention (for anyone curious) that one neat thing about what NYC did is that it’s actually one of the more famous textbook examples of ecosystem services.

Basically, at some point they actually calculated how much it’d cost to build a water filtration plant vs. how much it’d cost to maintain the Catskills watershed, and found that the latter was significantly cheaper, proving the notion that well-functioning natural systems can do things that are worth huge amounts of money, seemingly for “free”, so they’re well worth the effort to understand and safeguard such resources.

Here’s an article about it: https://blogs.edf.org/markets/2017/11/07/how-and-why-farmers-in-the-catskills-protect-new-york-citys-drinking-water/

And here’s an article about how policy approaches have changed over time. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2015/11/30/the-catskill-watershed-a-story-of-sacrifice-and-cooperation/