Tennessee’s first-ever professional bull riding team set to compete in the inaugural PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Team Series including eight-time world finals qualifier Matt Triplett (Canton South Dakota) and Tennessee’s own Dustin Ortiz (Franklin Tennessee) a record-setting MMA fighter branching into bull riding in addition to Thiago Salgado (Navirai South Dakota) and Aaron Williams (Apple Valley These signings follow the inaugural PBR Team Series Draft when the new bull riding league’s eight founding teams participated in a five-round draft to begin building their rosters ahead of the beginning of the regular-season in July Triplett has been a force on the premier series since making his PBR debut in 2011 thrice finishing inside the world’s Top 10 at season’s end including a career-best result in 2014 where he finished No 3 in the race for the PBR World Championship Triplett is also no stranger to competing in the team format under Head Coach Justin McBride’s leadership he rode for Team USA Eagles at the prestigious PBR Global Cup Franklin-native Ortiz established himself as a rider to watch during the PBR Scouting Combine held earlier this winter A mixed martial arts fighter turned bull rider Ortiz holds the record for the fastest knockout Ortiz has a record of 20 wins and 9 losses The 33-year-old is in the process of relocating to Texas to train with Stampede Head Coach McBride and his Brazilian teammates While Salgado may have been sidelined for the entire 2022 season as he recovered from reconstructive shoulder surgery he had the bull riding world abuzz during his rookie campaign in 2021 Salgado made his premier series debut in Fort Worth and at 18 years old became the second youngest Brazilian ever to ride on the elite Unleash The Beast Salgado delivered four Top-15 finishes before qualifying for his first PBR World Finals that November Arizona young gun Mortensen was electric in his PBR debut Touring Pro Division event in April 2022 via a perfect 2-for-2 performance From a family with a rich history in Western sports his father Judd and uncle Brock both qualified for the PBR World Finals who is currently being mentored by teammate and fellow South Dakota-resident Triplett brings youthful vibrance to the Nashville Stampede Presently a Senior at Sanborn Central High School seeking his third bull riding qualification in four years to the South Dakota High School State Rodeo Finals Two-time California Circuit Finals Champion Williams joins the Nashville Stampede after multiple successful seasons competing within the PRCA Also an accomplished rodeo athlete at the collegiate level is a three-time qualifier (2015-2017) to the National College Finals Rodeo Moody and Williams join Kaique Pacheco (Itatiba Brazil) and Joao Henrique Lucas (Bastos Brazil) who were selected by the Nashville Stampede during the PBR Team Series Draft The Nashville Stampede will host its inaugural homestand on Aug The bull riding action for the 2022 PBR Team Series’ Stampede Days at Bridgestone Arena begins at 7:45 p.m at the Bridgestone Arena Box Office, or by calling PBR customer service at 1-800-732-1727 Brazil — The red earth is dusty and cracked Fields planted with neat rows of corn stretch for miles across this part of Mato Grosso do Sul state Tucked amid the cornstalks swaying in the wind a sign points the way to the Várzeas do Rio Ivinhema a sprawling reserve that’s home to one of the region’s last slices of forest The reserve spans 73,000 hectares (180,000 acres) manager Reginaldo Oliveira stands knee-deep in a grassy patch of land and tugs at the vegetation he looks out at a swamp drying up in the distance “This here is normally all flooded,” says Oliveira who has managed the park for the past nine years we’ve been able to reach places we could never reach before are threatened with extinction in other regions But this lush oasis is now on the frontlines of a historic drought that has ravaged the region since 2021 the second-longest river in South America and the source of freshwater for 40 million people in Brazil is at the center of the crisis: its water levels have plummeted to their lowest in nearly 80 years and disrupting food freight transported by ship the knock-on effects of the drought have been stark a tributary of the Paraná River that snakes some 100 kilometers (62 miles) through the reserve Oliveira and his team have been forced to step back from monitoring some 60 km (37 mi) of the river for signs of illegal fishing as dwindling water levels have made vast stretches impossible to navigate by boat which we couldn’t see before,” he says later as our motorboat hurtles toward the point where the Ivinhema meets the Paraná passing a family of capybaras sliding into the water one by one “We risk crashing the boat if we go into these shallow areas.” The lingering drought has also dealt a blow to wildlife and triggered wildfires in areas once shielded from the flames that plague the rest of the region “This type of forest never caught fire before precisely because it was swamp underneath.” fires engulfed the edge of this once-flooded forest “This human interference caused profound changes in the water cycles,” says Leonardo Palmas who manages Mato Grosso do Sul’s conservation units as part of Imasul “The region’s characteristics began to change — it became more prone to fires.” The Paraná River Basin has been hit further by the rapid advance of large-scale agriculture which environmentalists blame for ushering in a new era of erratic rain patterns and more intense droughts across the region the most important economic activity here was cattle [ranching] but now this land is all being converted to grain production,” Palmas says “And we have seen the buffer region around the park converted from forest to plantations with the marshlands drained to make that happen.” Mato Grosso do Sul is home to Brazil’s largest stretch of Atlantic Forest, the country’s most threatened biome it covers some 6.3 million hectares (15.6 million acres) But the forest has been rapidly giving way to sprawling monoculture plantations over the past five decades Mato Grosso do Sul is Brazil’s third-largest producer of corn which are now mostly occupied by monoculture plantations The Indigenous village of Kurupi sits on a plot of red dirt just a few meters away from a busy highway where a steady flow of trucks carrying commodities rumble past on their way to Naviraí A few wooden huts are scattered amid the last remaining trees sparingly used by the few dozen residents to wash and cook corn and sugarcane plantations stretch for hundreds of hectares The Guarani-Kaiowá recently reclaimed a part of this sprawling monoculture farm which they say belonged to their ancestors But they’re struggling to find a way to survive from the now-barren soil that can no longer yield subsistence crops “The forest is being destroyed and the rain is going away It’s a weak land and it’s already lifeless,” Martins says Medicinal herbs central to the Guarani-Kaiowá culture have also vanished as the forest has been replaced by plantations everything has become a sugarcane field here who grows limes and bananas on about 6 hectares (15 acres) says he also feels the impacts of the drought Each banana tree normally soaks up 20 to 30 liters (5 to 8 gallons) per day but the prolonged dry spell has stunted their growth “This here is a banana that’s lacking water,” he says as he leads Mongabay through rows of banana trees because of the drought … The banana isn’t good quality anymore because of the drought Prudente recently dug a well and installed an irrigation system in a bid to offset the damage to his banana trees he’s also started growing hydroponic lettuce in a greenhouse hoping to shield his livelihood from drought “We are working with a climate problem,” says Prudente who leads a local association of banana growers “The weather today is a very serious problem for us and the biggest challenge we have in family farming.” Prudente also blames large-scale monoculture operations for the shifting rain patterns battering his crops and for polluting the soil with pesticides which he says they often spray from planes that swoop low over the region in corn — they clear all the forest,” he says know that the biggest problem nowadays is deforestation The drought ravaging the Paraná River Basin is part of a broader climate crisis playing out across Brazil’s other biomes As deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest hits 15-year highs This has diminished rains that have historically nourished other parts of Brazil a hydrology researcher at the Mineral Resources Research Company (CPRM) an arm of Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy “This rain that is supposed to fall but isn’t falling — it normally comes from the Amazon,” says Henriques who runs a project monitoring water levels in the Paraguay River another major waterway that merges with the Paraná As moisture evaporates from the lush rainforest vegetation, it forms powerful “flying rivers” that travel and eventually dump heavy rainfall over other regions But this phenomenon is changing as droughts grow more common and severe “These flying rivers are an essential part of a natural cycle that is now being disrupted,” he says in a phone interview The impacts have been particularly stark in the Pantanal, a labyrinth of flooded marshes and lagoons stretching across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. Much of the region is normally permanently flooded, but searing temperatures and prolonged droughts have fueled unprecedented wildfires since 2019 which have engulfed huge swaths of the Pantanal and killed millions of animals flames have wiped out wildlife habitat and driven some species out He blames a changing climate for also driving changes in animal behavior: last year nearly a third of the parakeets broke with tradition and remained in the park after breeding those that migrated began trickling back to the reserve in August species that are more resistant to drought will flock to the park while those better-adapted to more humid environments may migrate out the park will remain a refuge for wildlife although the animals that call it home may change over time “We don’t know how long the drought will last — that’s what worries us,” Oliveira says what we see is that the fauna has enormous capacity for resilience and adaptation.” FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post More droughts are coming, and the Amazon can’t keep up: Study The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […]