The story of ticks and their relationship with wildlife reveals deeper truths about environmental change and ecosystem health. Through generations of careful observation, First Nations hunters like my father and grandfather have understood these complex relationships, reading the landscape and its inhabitants as living indicators of environmental well-being.
Climate’s Shifting Balance: How Warming Winters Transform Tick Ecology
Climate change has dramatically altered the conditions that influence tick populations. Where once hard winters would naturally control tick numbers, milder temperatures and extended spring and fall seasons now allow these parasites to thrive in unprecedented numbers. The shifting patterns of snow cover, earlier spring thaws, and later onset of winter create ideal conditions for tick survival and reproduction. These changes, combined with altered rainfall patterns and temperature fluctuations, have transformed the traditional balance between ticks and their host species.
Silent Suffering: Wildlife Bears the Burden of Increasing Tick Populations
The impact on wildlife, particularly deer and moose, has been profound. These magnificent animals face increasing challenges from heavy tick burdens that cause anemia and compromise their immune systems. Traditional hunters observe deer and moose exhibiting signs of distress – excessive scratching leading to significant hair loss, reduced feeding time as they cope with irritation and overall weakened physical condition. These conditions make them more susceptible to disease and reduce their chances of winter survival.
Moving with Need: Wildlife’s Journey Beyond Traditional Territories
Perhaps most telling are the changes in wildlife movement patterns. As my father noted, moose are now being observed in territories far south of their traditional ranges, a clear indication of environmental stress in their home ecosystems. These shifts in migration patterns and habitat selection reflect deeper disruptions in food sources and ecosystem stability. Animals are being forced to modify their seasonal movements and feeding behaviours, leading to new and sometimes challenging species interactions.
Photo Credit: Zachery Perry, Unsplash
Reading Nature’s Story: Traditional Knowledge as Environmental Baseline
Traditional knowledge, passed down through generations of hunters, provides a crucial context for understanding these changes. Historical observations of wildlife health, seasonal patterns, and animal behaviour offer valuable baseline information against which current changes can be measured. The intimate understanding of environmental warning signs and weather pattern impacts, accumulated through years of careful observation, helps communities anticipate and adapt to these shifts.
Sacred Choices: Traditional Knowledge Guides Food Security Decisions
These changes carry significant implications for food security in communities that rely on traditional hunting. Hunters must adjust their practices, considering the timing of hunts and the quality and safety of the meat they harvest. Traditional knowledge guides these decisions, helping communities apply time-tested protocols while adapting to new challenges. When First Nations Elders like my grandfather speak of seasons when they chose not to harvest certain animals due to health concerns, they demonstrate the sophisticated understanding of environmental relationships that have sustained communities for generations.
Small Teachers, Big Messages: Ticks as Nature’s Warning System
Ticks have become powerful indicators of broader environmental change. Their increasing presence and impact on wildlife populations signal shifts in climate patterns, habitat modifications, and fundamental changes in species relationships. These tiny parasites tell a larger story about environmental imbalances and biological responses to climate change, serving as early warning systems for ecosystem stress.
Stories as Science: Traditional Knowledge Lights the Path Forward
Through this lens, we can better understand how traditional knowledge and careful observation of natural relationships provide crucial insights into environmental change. The stories passed down through generations of hunters, like those shared between my father and grandfather, offer valuable perspectives on how our changing climate affects the delicate balance of life in our ecosystems. These insights, combining historical understanding with current observations, help us better comprehend and respond to the environmental challenges we face today.
By Rye Karonhiowanen Barberstock
(Image Credit for Header Photo: Erik Kartis, Unsplash)
The post Ticks as Environmental Indicators: Learning from Wildlife Movement and Traditional Knowledge appeared first on Indigenous Climate Hub.
Ticks as Environmental Indicators: Learning from Wildlife Movement and Traditional Knowledge
The case shows that climate change is a fundamental human rights violation—and the victory of Bonaire, a Dutch territory, could open the door for similar lawsuits globally.
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon.
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Climate Change
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”
The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”
Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
-ENDS-
Images available in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
The Trump administration’s relentless rollback of public health and environmental protections has allowed widespread toxic exposures to flourish, warn experts who helped implement safeguards now under assault.
In a new report that outlines a dozen high-risk pollutants given new life thanks to weakened, delayed or rescinded regulations, the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of hundreds of former Environmental Protection Agency staff, warns that the EPA under President Donald Trump has abandoned the agency’s core mission of protecting people and the environment from preventable toxic exposures.
Former EPA Staff Detail Expanding Pollution Risks Under Trump
The Positive Effects We’ve Had on Others Are Profound, Whether We Know It or Not
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
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