Thanks to anti-pollution regulations in the United States and Canada, acid rain levels are significantly lower than they were decades ago, says the Christian Science Monitor, and scientists are finding lower acidity in the soils in the U.S. Northeast and eastern Canada. “The start of widespread soil recovery is a key step to remedy the long legacy of acid rain impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems,” said Gregory Lawrence of the U.S. Geological Survey in a statement. Lawrence was lead author of a paper in the journal Environmental Science and Technology that described comparisons of soil samples from 27 sites over the past quarter-century. Acid rain depleted calcium and brought aluminum to the upper levels of soil. “This phenomenon caused environmental havoc – poisoning fish, trees, and plants – during peak acid rain levels dating back to the 1970s,” said the Monitor.