FTR News and More

List Of 10 Countries With The Greatest Number Of Endangered Species

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:42:00 MST

Painful statistics......

Trade Curbs Sought For Sharks, Corals, Bluefin Tuna

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:27:00 MST

Tuna popular in sushi, colorful corals used in jewelry and sharks whose fins make soup have been proposed for international trade restrictions overseen by the United Nations, a spokesman for the treaty said on Thursday. Juan-Carlos Vasquez of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) said countries had submitted 40 requests for trade curbs and controls that will be reviewed at a conference in Qatar in March. African elephants, some plants from Madagascar, the skin...

Bush-Era Epa Document On Climate Change Released

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:35:00 MST

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released a long-suppressed report by George W. Bush administration officials who had concluded -- based on science -- that the government should begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions because global warming posed serious risks to the country. The report, known as an "endangerment finding," was prepared in 2007. But the Bush White House refused to make it public because it opposed new government efforts to regulate the gases most scient...

Wolf Hunting To Resume In Idaho If Judge Doesn'T Intervene | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:22:00 MST

The gray wolf, virtually exterminated in the West in the early 20th century, will be hunted once again in Idaho beginning Tuesday after a successful reintroduction program saw populations of the predators bloom across much of the northern Rocky Mountains. Though a federal judge has been asked to intervene, new state laws call for wolf hunts to begin this week in two parts of Idaho, followed by hunts in much of the rest of the state and in Montana later in the month. Protected since 1973 un...

Wolf Release In Mexico Sparks Concern In Us

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:25:00 MST

Give me a break American wildlife officials and ranchers are raising questions over a plan to release a rare North American gray wolf to its historic range in northern Mexico: Will it stay south of the border and what can be done if it threatens livestock? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this week it learned of the plan to release captive-bred Mexican gray wolves during a meeting with Mexican officials. A male, female and two yearlings could be released in Sonora state, bordering Ar...

Limits On Logging Are Reinstated - Nytimes.Com

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:04:00 MST

In a move to protect endangered species, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Thursday that his department had reversed a Bush administration decision to double the amount of logging allowed in and around old-growth forests in western Oregon. Veering between swipes at “indefensible” moves by the Bush administration and pledges to step up noncontroversial timber sales, Mr. Salazar said in a conference call with reporters that he was reinstating a compromise reached 15 years ago...

Report Shows Greater Peril For World'S Threatened Animals, Plants

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:43:00 MST

The global crisis for endangered species is more serious than the financial meltdown, with numbers of imperiled animals and plants rising at record rates, scientists are warning in a report released today. In its latest four-year assessment of endangered species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added several new entries to the Red List of Threatened Species. Judging from the list's expansion, the report warns, the world is unlikely to meet a goal of reversing...

Judge Tosses Bush-Era Forest Management Regulations

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:47:00 MST

A federal judge sided with environmentalists yesterday and threw out Bush-era Forest Service regulations that govern management plans for national forests. Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the service failed to analyze the effects from removing requirements guaranteeing viable wildlife populations. The planning rule determines how 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands develop individual forest plans, governing activit...

Epa Grants California Fuel Emissions Waiver Request | Green Business | Reuters

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:51:00 MST

The Environmental Protection Agency has granted California's waiver request that will allow the state to enforce strict greenhouse gas emissions standards on cars beginning with the present model year. California first applied for the waiver in 2005, but was denied several years later. Now, the EPA grants the waiver based on the need for California to improve its air pollution conditions....

Third Of All Shark Species Threatened With Extinction

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:01:00 MST

A third of all sharks on the high seas are threatened with extinction because they are overfished or killed incidentally in swordfish and tuna catches, a nature group warned Thursday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, the producer of the world's Red List of endangered species, released its shark study ahead of a meeting in Spain of tuna fishery managers. The gathering includes those responsible for fisheries "in which sharks are taken without limit," IUCN said...

Doe Revives Futuregen, Reversing Bush-Era Decision

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:59:00 MST

The Obama administration gave conditional support today for a federal-industry partnership that would build an advanced coal-burning power plant in Illinois to trap and store carbon dioxide emissions, reversing a Bush-era decision to abandon the FutureGen project. The Energy Department plans to contribute slightly more than $1 billion to the project. The announcement follows pressure from Illinois lawmakers -- including Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat -- who had savaged former En...

Directive Limits Activity In Roadless Areas Of Forests

Thu, 28 May 2009 19:52:00 MST

Stepping into a major environmental dispute, the Obama administration said Thursday that no new timber-cutting or road project could begin in roadless areas of national forests without the permission of the secretary of agriculture. The Agriculture Department, which issued a directive outlining the policy, called it an interim measure meant to bring “consistency and clarity” to decisions on a contentious issue that has faced legal challenges since the Clinton administration banned...

Endangered Species Consultations Lack Critical Oversight, Gao Report Says - Nytimes.Com

Tue, 26 May 2009 22:00:00 MST

The Fish and Wildlife Service has no established way to track cumulative threats or injuries to most of the imperiled species the agency is attempting to protect, according to a new report from federal investigators. The Government Accountability Office found that FWS lacks a systematic way to track required monitoring reports or the harm to or death of protected species. Instead, the agency relies on individual biologists to maintain crucial species information -- meaning the retirement or l...

Elephants Suffering In Mali Drought

Mon, 18 May 2009 21:25:00 MST

The bodies of young elephants covered in the brown dirt of dried-up wells tell a heartrending story. Reaching desperately for drops of water, they had lowered their trunks, toppled in, remained trapped and died in Mali's scorching heat. The "last desert elephants in West Africa" have "adapted to survive in the harsh conditions" they face, Save the Elephants said Monday. But now, the group says, conditions have gone from bad to worse, and they are living "on the marg...

Undoing The Damage, Step By Step

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:19:00 MST

The Obama administration is reversing many of the potentially damaging anti-environmental regulations rushed through in the Bush administration’s final months. This week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar withdrew a rule that would have weakened protections for endangered species. He also took the first legal step to revoke a rule that would have allowed the ruinous coal mining practice known as mountaintop removal to inflict even greater damage on Appalachia’s landscape. Former Pres...

Interior Dept. Reinstitutes Independent Reviews On Endangered Species

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:32:00 MST

The Obama administration announced today that federal agencies will once again be required to undergo an independent scientific review if they embark on projects that might affect threatened or endangered species, marking yet another reversal of a last-minute Bush administration environmental regulation. In mid-December, former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne issued a rule allowing government agencies to decide on their own whether a project would harm an imperiled plant or animal without ...

Brazil'S Endangered Species List Triples In Size

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:25:00 MST

Deforestation and illegal animal trade have done enormous damage to the species of Brazil over the last 20 years. The country's list of endangered animals now stands at 627 species -- 288% higher than the 218 species that were on the same list in 1989. It's not clear if this is the first major revision to Brazil's endangered list since '89, but it's a significant update: 489 species were added to the list, while 79 were considered recovered enough to be dropped from the l...

Biologists Call On Obama Administration To Overturn Bush Rules That Cut Science Out Of Endangered Species Decisions

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:36:00 MST

More than 1,300 federal and independent scientists with biological expertise and three leading scientific societies today called on the Interior and Commerce departments to overturn rule changes made in January that weaken the scientific foundation of the Endangered Species Act. In a letter, the scientists urged the department secretaries to rescind changes to Endangered Species Act regulations that allow federal agencies to decide for themselves if their own projects -- such as roads, dams a...

Interior Sends Revised Endangered Species Rule To Omb

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:28:00 MST

The Interior Department is proceeding with a final rule revamping changes that the Bush administration made to Endangered Species Act regulations in its final months. The department sent a final rule on ESA consultations to the White House Office of Management and Budget yesterday, OMB said. The move suggests Interior will use authority given it by Congress in a recent spending bill to fast-track the regulatory rewrite without going through the normal full review process. At issue is the B...

Interior Secretary Should Repeal Bush'S Weakening Of The Endangered Species Act

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:07:00 MST

OUR new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has some decisions to make. One of them will clearly signal whether he will fulfill President Obama's promise to "develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making" or whether he will continue George W. Bush's long-standing commitment to undermine scientific integrity. Salazar has until May 9 to undo one of Bush's 11th-hour and more regressive policies — one that would gut America's signatur...

Drilling Off Alaska Can'T Proceed Without Further Environmental Review

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:20:00 MST

Reporting from Washington and Nuiqsut, Alaska — A federal appeals court dealt a blow Friday to oil and gas industry efforts to allow drilling in the fertile energy-producing regions in the icy seas north of Alaska. FOR THE RECORD: Arctic drilling: An A Section article Saturday about a federal court ruling that blocked oil leases off the Alaska coast identified Michael LeVine as an Ocean Conservancy lawyer. LeVine is a lawyer with the environmental group Oceana. The Bush administrat...

Obama Expected To Kill Key Bush Epa Program

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:53:00 MST

The Obama Administration intends to close an EPA program heavily promoted by the Bush Administration that rewards voluntary pollution controls by hundreds of corporations with reduced environmental inspections and less stringent regulation, according to EPA sources and internal emails. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson is expected to sign a memo terminating the Performance Track program, possibly as early as this week, senior EPA officials said today. Performance Track offers regulatory pe...

Conservationist Move To Protect Pint-Sized Animals May Ruin Businesses In The West

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:35:00 MST

Haven't businesses had enough protection for the last 8 years? It's cute, it's furry and some conservationists say it may soon be extinct because of global warming. But should the American pika be placed on the endangered species list? Yes it should, says Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. The center has sued the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to grant endangered species status to the pika, a runty relative of the rabbit that lives...

Salazar Puts Coastal Drilling Plans On Hold

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:45:00 MST

President Obama is shelving a plan announced in the final days of the Bush administration to open much of the U.S. coast to oil drilling, including 130 million acres off California's coast from Mendocino to San Diego. On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ordered the plan be put on hold while his agency conducts a 180-day review of the country's offshore oil and gas resources. Salazar's critical comments about the plan signaled that the new administration will seek to rewrite...

Agency Denies Request To Protect 165 Species

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:24:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has turned down a request to provide endangered species protections for 165 plants and animals -- including 85 that live in Utah -- but says another 39 might qualify. The agency responded Thursday to a petition by WildEarth Guardians, an environmental group that asked in 2007 that more than 200 species be protected under the Endangered Species Act. Included in the request were beetles, flowers, snails, fish and other species. Diane Katzenberger, an agency sp...

Obama Orders EPA to Reconsider Ban on State Emissions Standards

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:54:00 MST

U.S. President Barack Obama began reversing the climate policies of the Bush administration on Monday, clearing the way for the government to allow states to set stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars. The president told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider California's request, denied under President George W. Bush, that would allow it to impose stricter limits on vehicle carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for contributing to global warming. As many as 1...

Loggerhead Sea Turtle Deaths Prompt Lawsuit Threat

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:44:00 MST

A coalition of conservation groups has notified the National Marine Fisheries Service of its intent to file a lawsuit as early as March if the agency does not act immediately to protect imperiled sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. The action comes after fisheries observer data showed that the Gulf of Mexico bottom longline fishery, which harvests reef fish like grouper and tilefish, resulted in the capture of nearly 1,000 threatened and endangered sea turtles between July 2006 and the end of 20...

The Associated Press: House Democrats Move To Overturn Bush Species Rule

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:18:00 MST

A group of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday moved to overturn a last-minute rule by the Bush administration intended to reduce input from government scientists when evaluating whether dams, power plants or other projects might harm endangered species. The 13 House members introduced a resolution that, if passed by both houses of Congress and signed by incoming President Barack Obama, will block the rule from taking effect. The action uses a 1996 law that allows Congress to review new regulation...

Wolf Removed From Endangered Species List

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:15:00 MST

For the second time in less than a year the federal government will try to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in most states. Federal officials say Wyoming is not included because the state has not done enough to assure the animal's survival. Wildlife and conservation groups were quick to disagree with the decision saying the wolf population has not sufficiently recovered and that delisting poses too great a threat....

Despite Request For Delay, Gas Pipeline Vote To Forge Ahead

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:09:00 MST

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said yesterday that it plans to vote this week on a proposal to build a natural gas terminal in Sparrows Point and an 88-mile pipeline to Pennsylvania, despite a request to delay action until concerns about an endangered bat and a threatened turtle can be addressed. "The case is still scheduled for consideration Thursday," said Tamara Young Allen, a commission spokeswoman. "The commission could address the issues brought by the wildlife ser...

Obama Environmental Team

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:10:00 MST

President-elect Barack Obama's new "green dream team" is committed to battling climate change and ready to push for big policy reforms, in stark contrast with the Bush administration, environmental advocates said on Monday. "If this team can't advance strong national policy on global warming, then no one can," said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, referring to Obama's picks for the top energy and environment jobs in his administration...

Lawsuit Challenges 11Th Hour Cuts In Endangered Species Protections

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:09:00 MST

Regulations announced by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week that would exempt many federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act were published in the Federal Register Tuesday. But the regulations are being challenged in court by three conservation groups - the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife, who filed suit in federal court for the Northern District of California the day th...

Endangered Species Decisions Tainted

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:07:00 MST

A high-ranking Interior Department official tainted nearly every decision made on the protection of endangered species over five years, a new inspector general report finds, concluding she exerted improper political interference on many more rulings than previously thought. Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service, did pervasive harm to the department's morale and integrity and may have risked the well-being of species with her agenda, In...

US Greenhouse Emissions Up

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:48:00 MST

The Bush administration today lost one of its main talking points for defending its approach of relying on voluntary measures to address climate change. The government’s energy statistics agency is reporting that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased 1.4 percent in 2007 — meaning the slight decrease recorded the prior year was a mere blip on the nation’s current pathway toward increasing its fossil fuel burden on the atmosphere. Last year, President Bush touted a 1.3 perc...

Bush'S Destructive Path On Environment

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:41:00 MST

So many environmental regulations to gut, so little time. In a surprising show of industriousness, the Bush administration has unleashed a last-minute attack on national environmental regulations. "Midnight regulations," as these activities are called, are nothing new - the first president to ram through unfinished business before leaving office was Jimmy Carter in 1980. Every president since Carter has done the same thing, and the amount of paper used is staggering: Bill Clinton, for...

Bush Acting Qickly to Kill the Environment

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:21:00 MST

In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia. The administration is widely expected to try to get some of the rules into final form by the week before Thanksgiving because, in some cases, there's a 60-day delay before new regulations take effect. And once the rules are in place, undoing them generally would b...

Sale of Pristine Wilderness Slated to Happen Six Days Before Christmas

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:59:00 MST

On election day, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to announce that it will sell oil and gas leases on areas in eastern Utah, including sections of Desolation Canyon, White River, Diamond Mountain, Bourdette Draw, and other lands in the Nine Mile Canyon region. These public lands had largely been off-limits to new oil and gas leasing because of a series of federal court and administrative decisions overturning earlier illegal BLM leasing decisions. The BLM had previously declared the...

Bush Hurries to Burn the Environment

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:53:00 MST

As the U.S. presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before leaving power. > Whether it's getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste or making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations, these proposed changes have found little favor with environmental groups.
The one chang...

Action Needed To Save Orcas

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:20:00 MST

It was a grisly time in Vancouver Island waters, as boats fitted with blades on their bows searched out basking sharks, gentle giants who lazed near the surface, and sliced them into pieces. Basking sharks are extraordinary creatures, the second largest fish on the planet at up to 12 metres. But they were a nuisance for fishing boats, so the federal government set out to eliminate them. The sharks are now considered endangered. The slaughter is not some dark chapter from the distant past....

Green Activists Rue Easing Of Species Act

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:55:00 MST

Lost amid the discussions of socialism, tax cuts and Joe the Plumber is what will happen to the Arizona bald eagle - and hundreds of other endangered species - when a new president takes office Jan. 20. > In the waning days of the Bush administration, one of its final acts may be a new set of rules that would drastically change the Endangered Species Act, the 1973 law that has been credited with saving the grizzly bear, the bald eagle and the California condor.
The rules, which...

Bush Administration Gives 10 Days For Species Comments

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:33:00 MST

It wasn't unexpected, but today the Bush administration said it's going ahead extremely quickly with a proposal that has enraged environmentalists -- and is giving the public just 10 days to comment on it. I guess the Bushies can see 1/20/09 coming up very fast. > It sounds like a snoozer: changes in the consultation requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. The Bush administration calls the changes "narrow." But it's bound to mean big changes whe...

Fast Readers Wanted

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:58:00 MST

ushing to ease endangered species rules before President Bush leaves office, Interior Department officials are attempting to review 200,000 comments from the public in just 32 hours, according to an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press. The Fish and Wildlife Service has called a team of 15 people to Washington this week to pore through letters and online comments about a proposal to exclude greenhouse gases and the advice of federal biologists from decisions about whether dams, power plan...

Endangered Species: A 9-Second Rewrite

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:31:00 MST

It's a time of maximum danger for the environment. The clock is winding down on the Bush administration, leaving little time to fulfill its long-cherished dreams of weakening endangered species protections. > Not known for worrying about manipulating the rules, facts or common sense, the administration appears ready to go to absurd lengths to rush through damaging changes. Consider how the Department of the Interior is hurrying to cement into federal policy the administration's hig...

Ebay Bans Ivory Sales

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:46:00 MST

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org) applauds eBay's decision to institute a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products by 1 January 2009 and calls on all other internet traders to follow their example. eBay's decision was announced just hours before the release of IFAW's latest investigative report showing internet trade in wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of elephants and many other endangered species. The re...

Troubled Species 2, Sarah Palin 0

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:15:00 MST

Alaska's governor and John McCain's high-flying running-mate, who lost in her attempt to stop the US government from declaring polar bears a threatened species, went 0-for-2 on Friday. That's when Washington decided to put the beluga whales of Alaska's Cook Inlet, which haven't recovered since their numbers were cut in half during the 1990s, on the endangered species list. > Why a whale derider? Palin on Friday called the decision ''premature'' and chall...

Bush Rushes To Enrich Industry While Stiffing The Environment - October 17, 2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:34:00 MST

Lame ducks they may be. But President Bush and Vice President Cheney are using their last months in the White House to cram more sweets into the goodie bags of industry with yet more of their public-be-damned orders to create more misery for nature and the environment. > First out of their bags of tricks was an order to the Bureau of Land Management to ignore the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which allows Congress to take emergency action when public lands are threatened. &l...

Gop Environmental Record A Challenge For Mccain

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:25:00 MST

As GOP Sen. John McCain struggles to distance himself from President Bush on economic policy and the national debt, he also faces the tough task of separating himself from a Republican administration with the worst environmental record in recent years. > California has passed the most sweeping environmental measures in the nation, and voters in the state are likely to take into account the criticism McCain is getting from environmentalists for backing a Bush philosophy of ultra-light regul...

Beluga Whale Added To Endangered List

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:22:00 MST

The federal government on Friday placed the beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, concluding that a decade-long recovery program has failed to assure their survival. > "In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering," said James Balsiger, acting assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The findings by NOAA's National Marine...

Green Groups Deliver Comments On Species Act

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:11:00 MST

n August, the Bush administration proposed seriously weakening the Endangered Species Act by allowing government departmentsmost of which employ no biologiststo assess for themselves whether their proposed projects would jeopardize endangered species or their habitats. > Breaking with its own conventions, the Fish and Wildlife Service refused to accept comments by email. So several green groups took it upon themselves to accept email, print it out, and deliver it to the FWS.
He...

Udall Vows To Fight Bush Administration Fast-Tracking Of Oil-Shale Leasing

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:05:00 MST

Even as Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman declared his state open for business to the oil-shale industry Monday in Golden, Democratic congressman Mark Udall of Colorado vowed to fight the Bush administrations fast-tracking of commercial leasing in the West. We will go back to work and make sure that the interests of Colorado are protected when it comes to oil-shale development, Udall told the Colorado Independent. If were going to have a few months here where the Bush administration wants to...

System Acts As Wildlife Crossing Guard

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:33:00 MST

On a quiet sage- and pine-dotted stretch of highway in southwest Colorado, deer and elk wander into the paths of oncoming cars so often that they account for 70% of the crashes that occur there. > If this were another road, Colorado transportation officials might fence it off to keep the animals from crossing. But the one-mile portion of U.S. Highway 160 is an important migration route for wildlife.
So the state is trying a different approach: an intrusion detection system that...

Mammal Gamble

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:26:00 MST

The world's most comprehensive study of mammals in the wild reveals that at least a quarter of species risk extinction. A staggering 79 percent of apes and monkeys in regions of Asia, for instance, face such danger. But while this study may be alarming, it need not come across like an alarmist. > True, hundreds of mammal species could disappear "within our lifetime," according to Julia Marton-Lefèvre, director general of the Geneva-based International Union...

Co2 Could Worsen Whales’ Sonar Problems

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:58:00 MST

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court heard a dispute between a group of conservationists and the Navy over sonar exercises that scientists say are killing and injuring whales. What isnt often mentioned in the debate is how the burning of fossil fuels could be making the problem worse. > It’s not mentioned because the discovery of the connection was published only last week. Scientists have long known that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes ocean acidification, and th...

Grey Wolf Returns To Us Endangered Species List |

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:59:00 MST

A federal judge on Monday overturned a decision that removed the grey wolf from the endangered species list in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. > The ruling immediately halts the practice of killing wolves that threaten livestock and pets in the three states.
Forty-five wolves have been killed in Wisconsin this year, either by government personnel, at the request of landowners, or by landowners themselves, a state official said. > The ruling was in response to a lawsuit ...

Bush Failing Environment

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:55:00 MST

Loose regulation, now blamed for ills ranging from the U.S. financial crisis to imports of tainted Chinese goods, is drawing increasing fire from opponents of the Bush administration's environment program. > In the final months of President George W. Bush's two terms in office, criticism about the use of regulation instead of legislation to craft environmental policy has grown louder.
That is amplified by the campaign for the U.S. presidential election on November 4, wi...

Boxer Calls Absent Bush Officials 'Cowardly'

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:05:00 MST

Sen. Barbara Boxer called top Bush administration officials cowards Wednesday after they failed to attend a hearing on the administration's environmental record. Boxer, D-Calif. and chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was incensed that two high-level officials at the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Interior skipped the committee hearing. > “They're cowardly and they have been a danger to the people of this country,&rdq...

Agency: Relist Wolves

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:27:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday asked a judge to reinstate the gray wolf as an endangered species. Department of Justice attorneys filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., asking the court to vacate the department’s rule that removed wolves from the endangered species list and send it back to the agency for further determination. In the motion Monday, Fish and Wildlife said it planned to reconsider the rules and the appropriate designation for wolve...

Freshwater Fish On Rapid Decline In North America

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:02:00 MST

About four out of 10 freshwater fish species in North America are in peril, according to a major study by U.S., Canadian and Mexican scientists. And the number of subspecies of fish populations in trouble has nearly doubled since 1989, the new report says. One biologist called it "silent extinctions" because few people notice the dramatic dwindling of certain populations deep in American lakes, rivers and streams. And while they are unaware, people are the chief cause of the proble...

Bush Administration Sneak Attack On Endangered Species Act

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:21:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity and dozens of other groups submitted comments today on another Bush administration attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act that could severely limit protection for the nation’s endangered species. The rule, proposed August 5th, includes a very short public-comment period and purports to merely be an amendment to “the formats of the lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants.” But it would substantively redefine where species ...

Warming Oceans Make Strongest Storms Stronger

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:48:00 MST

As the world's oceans get warmer, the strongest tropical storms get stronger, climate scientists reported on Wednesday as the remnants of Hurricane Gustav spun out over the central United States. "If the seas continue to warm, we can expect to see stronger storms in the future," James Elsner of Florida State University said. "As far as this year goes, as a season, we did see the oceans warm and I think there's some reason to believe that that's the reason we're ...

Center Appeals Epa Permit For New Coal-Fired Power Plant

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:32:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity today appealed the Environmental Protection Agency’s July 31, 2008 approval of a Clean Air Act permit to construct and operate the Desert Rock Energy Project. EPA approved the permit for the proposed 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant near Farmington, N.M., without first considering its effect on threatened and endangered species, as required by the Endangered Species Act. Today’s appeal to EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board challenges t...

Endangered Species On Military Bases

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:25:00 MST

Given the nature of the activities that occur there, military training areas are not typically considered suitable habitats for plants and animals to thrive. However, Colorado State University researcher Steve Warren has found that many species, including some threatened and endangered species, flourish on military training areas. "Within the United States, the density of threatened and endangered species on military training areas is between 3 and 18 times greater on Department of Defen...

Federal Plan Would Cut Habitat For Endangered Peninsular Bighorn Sheep Nearly By Half

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:44:00 MST

Wildlife biologist Aimee Byard took it as a hopeful sign when she spotted 11 bighorn lambs, including a rare set of twins, nibbling encelia and ambrosia high above the multimillion-dollar homes of Rancho Mirage this spring. But as fall approaches, biologists such as Byard are growing concerned that the peninsular bighorn sheep, an endangered species, soon may lose some of the protection that has helped them survive. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working on the final details of a map t...

Proposed Changes To Endangered Species Act Called Bad Science

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:09:00 MST

Changes that the Bush administration is proposing to make to Endangered Species Act regulations just aren't sound science, various scientists and conservation groups say. They're concerned that the loss of scientific oversight resulting from the changes will leave some species vulnerable to federal projects that could damage habitats. The Endangered Species Act (ESA), signed into law by President Nixon on Dec. 28, 1973, does more than just provide for the creation of the Endangered...

Right Whales Entangled By Politics

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:40:00 MST

At the New Brunswick Museum, the right whale skeleton is a hit. Children gaze up in awe at the 40-foot-long assembly, which hangs from the ceiling with dinosaurlike grandeur. One boy points out to his mother that she could fit the family car inside its ribcage. But for right whale researchers, this is more than a skeleton: It’s the remains of Delilah, a female whale they’d studied for more than a decade, observing her courtships, the parenting of her first calf, and, sadly, her de...

States Sue Epa Over Oil Refineries

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:13:00 MST

Twelve states, New York City and the District of Columbia are suing the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming the Bush administration has failed to rein in emissions from oil refineries. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says the suit is aimed at forcing the EPA to adopt new regulations to reduce oil industry pollution that contributes to global warming. The other states that have joined in the suit are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Me...

Administration Faulted For Insufficient Public Comment Time On Endangered Species Issue

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:11:00 MST

The Bush administration is providing insufficient time for public comment as it seeks to loosen rules protecting endangered species, representatives of more than 100 conservation groups contended Friday. The Interior Department last week set a 30-day public comment period on an administration proposal that would allow federal agencies approving or funding dams, highways and other projects to decide for themselves — without input from government experts — whether endangered species...

American Pika -- The Rabbit Cousin That Hates Global Warming

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:23:00 MST

This is sad. I remember seeing pikas in the wild in Colorado in 2000. By 2005, they were pretty much gone except from the highest places. The American pika, a furry relative of rabbits and hares with a squeaky call, is getting pushed out of its mountain home because of global warming, say conservation groups. Today they went to court to protect its place on the planet. Environmental lawyers at Earthjustice filed court documents asking resource agencies to list the small mammal under stat...

Gulf 'Dead Zone' Suffocating Fish And Livelihoods

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:00:00 MST

Fisherman Terry Pizani turns his captain's wheel with a mournful expression on his face. Far below, the fishing grounds off the Louisiana coast where the 63-year-old has made a living for five decades have become an aquatic graveyard known as a "dead zone." "You don't see nothing," he said. "Usually you see bait fish on the water. You don't see no bait fish, nothing. Nothing's there. "I don't have no kind of testing material to test the water, bu...

George W. Bush: Teddy Roosevelt Reversed

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:35:00 MST

AS THE CLOCK ticks down on presidencies, usually a time when White House occupants take stock of their legacy, George W. Bush is performing as a Theodore Roosevelt in reverse. Teddy Roosevelt, who left office in 1909, designated two landmark national monuments, protecting the Grand Canyon in Arizona and creating an Olympic National Monument in Washington to stop the slaughter of elk that today bear his name. The Bush administration is busy trying administratively to take an ax to public la...

Waves Of Disaster

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:34:00 MST

They are called lantern fish, silvery navigators of the ocean’s deepest depths, bug-eyed, blunt-nosed, and gap-mouthed, with close-set rows of pointy teeth. Every night around the globe, at least 600 million tonnes of these finned creatures, along with a few related species—which make up as much as 90 percent of deep-sea fish biomass—swim upward from their dark hiding places to near the ocean’s surface to gorge on zooplankton, made up of organisms that are often too t...

Stifling Public Comment On Species Act

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:17:00 MST

Remember when I encouraged you to comment on the Bush administration's attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act? I even helpfully provided a link. Well, turns out you better bust out pen and paper and a Forever Stamp, because the Fish and Wildlife Service is no longer accepting comments by email (H/T Grist). (It seems to have something to do with the 600,000 comments they got about protecting polar bears—the very thing they're trying not to do.) That's right, they want you ...

Peter Tatchell: Could The Decline Of Oxygen In The Atmosphere Threaten Human Survival?

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:39:00 MST

I've wondered about this for years. Interesting that there are so many sleeping and asthma problems, yet no one ever mentions studies on local oxygen percentages. The rise in carbon dioxide emissions is big news. It is prompting action to reverse global warming. But little or no attention is being paid to the long-term fall in oxygen concentrations and its knock-on effects. Compared to prehistoric times, the level of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere has declined by over a third a...

Bush To Relax Protected Species Rules

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:19:00 MST

Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants. New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press. Interior Secretary Dirk Kemp...

Gorilla 'Mother Lode' Found In Congo

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:11:00 MST

Researchers have found 125,000 western lowland gorillas living in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo, almost doubling the known number of the endangered species. A report released today at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland says a new census tallied more than 125,000 critically endangered gorillas in a 47,000-square-kilometre area. Estimates from the 1980s had suggested fewer than 100,000 of the great apes had survived and many experts belie...

Primates 'Face Extinction Crisis'

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:44:00 MST

A global review of the world's primates says 48% of species face extinction, an outlook described as "depressing" by conservationists. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species says the main threat is habitat loss, primarily through the burning and clearing of tropical forests. More than 70% of primates in Asia are now listed as Endangered, it adds. The findings form part of the most detailed survey of the Earth's mammals, which will be published in October. Nations...

Oil Spill On Nearly 100 Miles Of Mississippi River

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:21:00 MST

A sheen of oil coated the Mississippi River for nearly 100 miles from the center of this city to the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday following the worst oil spill here in nearly a decade. The fuel-laden barge that collided with a heavy tanker on Wednesday was still leaking. The thick industrial fuel pouring from the barge could be smelled for miles in city neighborhoods up and down the river, even as hundreds of cleanup workers struggled to contain the hundreds of thousands of gallons. Some envir...

Epa E-Mail Concluded Global Warming Endangers Public Health

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:18:00 MST

Under a subpoena threat from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the Environmental Protection Agency late Wednesday sent the panel a copy of its Dec. 5 proposal to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act -- as a brief loan. Three Senate Democrats -- Boxer, Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) -- huddled together with their aides to review the documents, which were e-mailed to the White House Office of Management...

Destruction Of Wetlands May Cause “Carbon Bomb”

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:49:00 MST

Threatened by climate change, development and dehydration, wetlands throughout the world could release a “carbon bomb” if they are destroyed, scientists reported Sunday. These wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, 20 percent of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, the ecologists told an international conference. If all the wetlands on the planet released their carbon, it would substantially increase the climat...

Judge Returns Gray Wolf To Endangered-Species List

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:37:00 MST

A federal judge in Montana has restored protection to gray wolves in Northern Rockies. They were taken off the endangered-species list March 28 after federal officials said the species — once hunted, poisoned or trapped to the verge of extinction — was "thriving." The order, by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, is expected to halt public hunts being planned by officials in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The National Resources Defense Council claims that 106 gray wolves ha...

State Supreme Court Gives New Protection To Endangered Species

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:43:00 MST

The California Supreme Court gave new protection to the state's endangered species Thursday, ruling unanimously that developers, loggers and other commercial interests may be required to compensate for unforeseen wildlife losses. The ruling, which affects both public works and private development, threw out a long-term logging plan approved by the state for 200,000 acres in Humboldt County, a plan that lower courts put on hold several years ago. The state high court said the Departme...

White House Buries Climate Change Deaths Report

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:34:00 MST

The White House buried a report prepared by US government scientists which detailed a rising death toll from heat waves, fires, disease and smog they predicted would be caused by global warming. Environmental advocates accused President George W Bush's administration of delaying the release of the 149-page report so that it could avoid regulating greenhouse gases. It was prepared as part of a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling under the Clean Air Act, which found the Environment...

Coral Reefs Face Extinction

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:25:00 MST

You don't have to be a marine biologist to understand the importance of corals — just ask any diver. The tiny underwater creatures are the architects of the beautiful, electric-colored coral reefs that lie in shallow tropical waters around the world. Divers swarm to them not merely for their intrinsic beauty, but because the reefs play host to a wealth of biodiversity unlike anywhere else in the underwater world. Coral reefs are home to more than 25% of total marine species. Take out t...

Risk Of Extinction 'Underestimated'

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:00:00 MST

Endangered species may be 100 times more at risk of extinction than most experts believe, it was claimed. Methods used to determine which species should be on the "Red List" of those facing extinction greatly underestimate the danger, according to one US evolutionary biologist. Dr Brett Melbourne, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, says they overlook a key factor - random differences between individuals in a given population. Such differences may include variations in m...

Ice-Free Summer At The North Pole?

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:52:00 MST

The distinct possibility that the North Pole could be free of sea ice -- for the first time in recorded history -- may become a cold reality this summer. The Arctic's thick, resilient multiyear sea ice (frozen sea surface), which usually accumulates and lasts through the annual melting season, has started to give way to thinner, vulnerable first-year ice. Satellite data gathered by the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that young sea ice, which is ...

Army Pushes For Slowed Development Near Range

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:30:00 MST

Development of a site adjacent to a military range used to train Army combat medics could further push an endangered songbird onto the range and threaten plans for future training, a Fort Sam Houston spokesman warned Thursday. "Camp Bullis cannot shoulder the burden of environmental compliance alone," said Phil Reidinger, a spokesman for the fort, which manages the range on the northwest side of the city. Like many military installations in fast-growing communities, residential and...

Mccain Wants To Lift Ban On Offshore Drilling

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:41:00 MST

Sen. John McCain on Tuesday will propose lifting the ban on offshore drilling as part of his plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil and help combat rising gas prices. "The stakes are high for our citizens and for our economy, and with gasoline running at more than four bucks a gallon, many do not have the luxury of waiting on the far-off plans of futurists and politicians," McCain will say Tuesday in Houston, Texas, according to excerpts of his speech released by his campaign. &...

Protection Sought For 32 Endangered Species "At The Knife'S Edge Of Extinction"

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:36:00 MST

Conservation group WildEearth Guardians has filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect 32 rare plant and animal species "at the knife's edge of extinction." All 32 species -- some of which may already be extinct -- were originally part of larger petitions to protect 674 species filed with the FWS in 2006 and 2007. Those filings have not yet yielded a response. Many of the species on the list exist in tiny habitats, often smaller than one acre...

Urbanisation Threatens Many Species

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:34:00 MST

A new study has suggested that the growth of cities around the world could threaten many animal and bird species in the future. Researchers from Harvard University looked at the effects of urban growth on nature and found that, unless urban planning improves, the world might lose many animals, plants and natural resources. They published the report in the journal Biological Conservation. Co-author Peter Kareiva explained: "As a species we have lived in wild nature for hundreds of th...

Noaa Confirms Caribbean Monk Seal Extinct

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:51:00 MST

After a five year review, NOAA’s Fisheries Service has determined that the Caribbean monk seal, which has not been seen for more than 50 years, has gone extinct—the first type of seal to go extinct from human causes. Monk seals became easy targets for hunters while resting, birthing, or nursing their pups on the beach. Overhunting by humans led to these seals’ demise, according to NOAA biologists. The last confirmed sighting of the seal was in 1952 in the Caribbean Sea at...

Senate Climate Bill Dies Before Debate Starts

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:43:00 MST

The Senate's bid to pass a far-reaching climate change bill ended in defeat today, with Democrats arguing that GOP leaders had sabotaged their effort to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to head off any possible filibuster, limit amendments and move the bill forward. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., immediately pulled the bill from the floor. The final tally was 48-36. But the bill's sponsors proclaimed it a victory that ...

Protection Sought For Three Arctic Seal Species

Sat, 31 May 2008 08:08:00 MST

Today the Center for Biological Diversity filed a scientific petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect three ice-dependent seals under the federal Endangered Species Act due to threats from global warming. The petition seeks to protect the ringed, bearded and spotted seals, which occur in the icy waters off Alaska in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. Today’s petition follows previous petitions by the Center seeking protection of the polar bear, Pacific walrus...

Courts Call President'S Hand On Environment

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:35:00 MST

When President Bush took office in 2001, it was clear his appointees would try to streamline environmental reviews that often prove burdensome to industry. The only question was whether the administration would follow legal means to advance this agenda or try to dodge the law. The answer is now clear. Over the past eight years, the Bush administration has consistently failed in court when faced with legal claims it is violating the nation's major bedrock environmental statutes. In case...

Bush'S Polar Bear Legal Disaster

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:31:00 MST

As expected, the U. S. Department of the Interior added the polar bear to the list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act last week. Even with the Bush administration's attempt to render the ruling toothless, this action will almost surely go down in history as the turning point in the global-warming debate. The department concluded that the past and projected melting of sea ice in the Arctic poses an immediate threat to the polar bear's habitat. It pointed to greenhou...

No Real Protection for Polar Bears

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:16:00 MST

Finally, after several years of lawsuits and thousands of letters, the Bush Administration has listed the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. Aren’t we all glad? Not so fast: There is a clause in the act that excludes global warming from the list of threats the federal government must consider when trying to protect polar bear habitat. Instead of “endangered,” the polar bear is listed as “threatened” and gets more limited protection than that provided by...

Environmental Deal Sets Aside L.A.-Sized Tract

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:14:00 MST

A group of environmentalists and the owners of a large stretch of wilderness have reached a deal that would set aside the largest parcel of land for conservation in California history. After years of legal tussles, conservationists including the Sierra Club have agreed not to challenge proposed development on the sprawling Tejon Ranch north of Los Angeles in exchange for close to 240,000 acres, in a deal to be announced Thursday. At 375 square miles, the preserve of desert, woodlands and ...

Government Accountability Office Finds Illegal Political Interference In Endangered Species Decisions Is Widespread

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:57:00 MST

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report today finding that political interference in scientific decisions concerning the nation’s endangered species were not limited to former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald. MacDonald resigned in disgrace one year ago after an investigation by the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General found she had used her position to aggressively squelch protection of endangered species and ecosys...

Polar Bear Added To U.S. Endangered Species List

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:34:00 MST

Wow... a major step. On the eve of a court deadline, the U.S. Interior Department is adding the polar bear to the list threatened species. This comes after evidence that rising temperatures are causing Arctic Sea ice -- the bears' habitat -- to vanish. This makes the mighty polar bear the first animal to be listed as endangered or threatened as a result of global warming. In Canada, polar bears are listed as a species of "special concern." At the moment, Canada has no plans ...

Bush Sets Record: Two Years Since Any U.S. Species Listed As Endangered

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:00 MST

Friday marked two years since the Department of the Interior last protected a new U.S. species under the Endangered Species Act. This period includes the entire tenure of Dirk Kempthorne as Secretary of the Interior and is by far the longest period without a new species being protected since the landmark federal law was passed, surpassing even James Watt, who, under Reagan, in 1981 and 1982 went 382 days without protecting a species. “The Bush administration has been an unmitigated d...

Endangered Species Up The Risk Of Extinction For Other Species In Ecological Community

Fri, 09 May 2008 15:52:00 MST

An endangered species of flora or fauna ups the risk of the extinction of the other species in its ecological community. Trophically unique species are more vulnerable for cascading extinction, according to studies of a team of theoretical biologists active at Linköping University and the University of Sheffield. The researchers simulated what happens in a food web when a species dies out, to see which species might die out and what the consequences might be in each case. Findings indica...

Device Lets Ships Hear Whale Chatter, Avoid Strikes

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:19:00 MST

A spotter bangs three times on the boat's cabin roof, signaling the captain to cut the throttle -- now. In the foggy gray of Cape Cod Bay, the reason for the abrupt stop soon becomes apparent: The research vessel is surrounded by rare North Atlantic right whales, their glossy black heads bobbing just above the surface as they feed on plankton slicks. Ship strikes are the top human-related cause of death for these mammals, which are in danger even from this vessel, a slow-moving researc...

Koalas Under Threat From Toxic Eucalyptus Leaves

Wed, 07 May 2008 09:43:00 MST

Koalas are threatened by the rising level of carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere because it saps nutrients from the eucalyptus leaves they feed on, a researcher said Wednesday. Ian Hume, emeritus professor of biology at Sydney University, said he and his researchers also found that the amount of toxicity in the leaves of eucalyptus saplings rose when the level of carbon dioxide within a greenhouse was increased. Hume presented his research on the effects of carbon dioxide on eucaly...

Censorship Prevalent At Us Environment Agency

Tue, 06 May 2008 15:00:00 MST

A survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a lobby group based in Washington DC, has revealed that many scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency feel unable to speak openly for fear of retaliation from senior officials appointed by the Bush administration. The findings of the survey, in which a total of 1583 EPA scientists were surveyed, have proved how widespread the censorship of science has become at the agency. According to a report in New Scientist, over half of the ...

Agencies Issue Plan To Run Columbia Dams, Preserve Salmon

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:33:00 MST

The Bush administration Monday issued its final court-ordered plans for making Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams and irrigation projects safe for endangered salmon. The proposed changes in operations would cost hundreds of millions of dollars but no dam removals. Once an expected challenge is filed, it will be up to U.S. District Judge James Redden to decide whether the plans — known as biological opinions — meet the demands of the Endangered Species Act to put salmon on the ro...

Us Plan To Protect Right Whale From Shipping Blocked By Cheney

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:42:00 MST

Efforts to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from being killed by ships are being blocked by Vice President Dick Cheney according to leaked documents. A behind the scenes struggle is raging between the White House and US government scientists who want to force ships to slow down near the calving grounds of the almost extinct right whale. The right whale controversy is the latest example of the Bush Administration sidestepping the advice of its on scientists w...

Judge To Bush Administration: Decide Polar Bear Listing Now

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:02:00 MST

A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to determine by May 15 whether or not the polar bear deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act because its survival as a species is threatened by global warming. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilkin found the Bush administration guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act by missing the deadline for a final polar bear decision by nearly four months. Judge Wilkin ruled for the plaintiffs, the Center for Biological Diver...

Where The Buffalo Roam -- And Die

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:12:00 MST

How can a population be truly wild when it lives in a managed boundary and could be 100% targeted and killed by error filled government programs? More than half of Yellowstone National Park's bison herd has died since last fall, forcing the government to suspend its annual slaughter program. More than 700 of the iconic animals starved or otherwise died on the mountainsides during an unusually harsh winter, and more than 1,600 were shot by hunters or sent to slaughterhouses in a disease...

Off Endangered List, Wolves Face New Pressure From Hunters

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:43:00 MST

Tony Saunders stalked his prey for 35 miles by snowmobile through western Wyoming's Hoback Basin, finally reaching a clearing where he took out a .270-caliber rifle and shot the wolf twice from 30 yards away. Gray wolves in the Northern Rockies have been taken off the endangered species list and are being hunted freely for the first time since they were placed on that list three decades ago, and nowhere is that hunting easier than Wyoming. Most of the state with the exception of the Ye...

Climate Change Faster Than Expected

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:37:00 MST

A study by the global conservation group World Wildlife Fund says that climate change is having a greater impact in the Arctic than was previously thought. The report is being unveiled at the meeting of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of Arctic nations Thursday in Norway. WWF says the new report represents the most wide-ranging view of the situation since the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment was published in 2005. The study finds that the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet...

Northern Oil Drilling Will Hurt Polar Bears

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:34:00 MST

Canada's decision to open bidding for the rights to drill in the northern Beaufort Sea will destroy a large area of critical polar bear habitat and put the animal's future in danger, the World Wildlife Foundation said Thursday. "These are areas where polar bears and bowhead whales and beluga whales and who knows what else call home," Dr. Peter Ewins, WWF Canada's director, told CTV.ca on Thursday. "Clearly these areas are important, perhaps critical, habitat for the...

Greenpeace Stops The Trading Of Endangered Species

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:59:00 MST

You'd probably find the idea of an event for trading in rhinoceros horns or tiger skins pretty shocking. But today, 1,600 companies from 80 countries came together in Brussels to trade all sorts species, including some threatened and endangered ones: fish, also known as our global marine life. The Brussels Seafood Expo is the world's biggest sea food trading event, where species on the brink of collapse - like Mediterranean bluefin tuna and North Sea cod - are, literally, served up o...

Conservationists Want Lynx Protected In NM

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:33:00 MST

A coalition of conservation and animal protection groups on Monday sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a continuing effort to force it to extend Endangered Species Act protection to the Canada lynx in New Mexico. The Colorado Division of Wildlife, which has released more than 200 lynx in Colorado since 1999, tracked about 60 of the animals into New Mexico's Taos, Rio Arriba and San Juan counties between 1999 and 2006, the lawsuit said. The federal government lists the elusive, f...

President Bush'S Environment Plans Criticised

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:36:00 MST

President Bush has been criticised by environment groups after he called for a halt to the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 but offered few ideas on how to achieve it. The proposal on global warming, which fell short of European proposals, was announced as the US Congress prepares to consider more ambitious plans and before international climate change negotiations take place in Paris. Mr Bush offered only broad principles, such as focusing on emissions from the power indust...

Column: National Media Useless about Trash Island

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:33:00 MST

Floating in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between California and Hawaii, is a giant island of trash known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's twice the size of Texas and has been growing ten-fold every decade since 1950. The fact that most amazes me, however, is that I had never once heard of this "island" until yesterday. The island was formed as several major ocean currents all flowed to the same spot, carrying trash with them. As the currents moved on, the trash began co...

In The West, A Fierce Battle Over Wolves

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:25:00 MST

Gray wolves have entered the spin cycle. Since March 28, when the wolf was taken off the list of federally protected species in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, a fierce battle of perceptions and posturing has unfolded on the Web and in the news media as pro-wolf and anti-wolf forces stake out sometimes hyperbolic positions concerning where in the West animals and humans should exist. The backdrop is a running time clock and a lawsuit. On April 28, a coalition of environmental groups has said...

Endangered Whale’S Home Proposed For Oil Development

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:36:00 MST

The Bush Administration today took the first step toward opening up 5.6 million acres in the Bering Sea off Alaska to oil and gas leasing. The proposal, published in today’s Federal Register by the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service, would allow oil development in an area north of the Aleutian Islands near Bristol Bay that has been designated critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale, according to a written statement from the Center for Biological Diversity...

Noaa Considers Case To Protect Five Puget Sound Rockfish Species

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:34:00 MST

NOAA considers case to protect five Puget Sound rockfish species Wed, Apr 09, 2008 NOAA Fisheries is assembling a team of biologists to examine the decline of five Rockfish species in the Puget Sound and determine if it should formally propose listings under the Endangered Species Act. The assessment follows the acceptance of a petition filed by a Washington citizen. There is evidence that the bocaccio, canary rockfish, yelloweye rockfish, greenstripe rockfish and redstripe rockfish spe...

Noaa To Study Ice Seals For Endangered Species Listing

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:34:00 MST

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service has accepted a petition from a California environmental group seeking protection under the Endangered Species Act for an ice seal called the "ribbon seal" that inhabits Alaska's Bering Sea. "In addition reviewing the ribbon seal, we are also preparing status reviews on bearded, spotted and ringed seals for possible listing," said Doug Mecum, acting administrator for the Alaska Region of the Fisheri...

Wolverine News

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:38:00 MST

Let’s call him Wally — Wally Wolverine, or “W” for short — because Wally’s gender is about all scientists now know about the creature discovered more than a month ago north of Truckee. After some 85 years without hide nor hair of a wolverine in the Sierra Nevada, W’s appearance — he was caught on a remote sensor research camera seeking out martens — caused quite the stir amongst scientists, wildlife enthusiasts and, apparently, more than a...

New Heat On Bush Environment Chief

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:33:00 MST

Amid new calls for the resignation of George W. Bush's top environment official, 12 states and 11 non-profit groups went to court this week accusing the Bush administration of refusing to comply with an environmental order handed down a year ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. "It has been a full year since the Supreme Court declared that greenhouse gases are pollutants which should be regulated by the federal government, but the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has refused to g...

Bush Policy: Quick Border Fence Trumps The Environment

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:39:00 MST

The "Environmental President" strikes again... Fear not, America: the Bush administration is not giving up on its immigrant-blocking border fence. On Tuesday, it declared that it's going to ignore some 30 environmental laws and regulations in order to accelerate its project to build a wall separating the United States from Mexico. Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, issued the order, with an ominous warning. "Criminal activity at the border d...

Agreement Postpones Killing Of Sea Lions At Oregon Dam

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:30:00 MST

The authorized killing of California sea lions at a dam on the Columbia River would be postponed under a proposal reached Tuesday by the Humane Society of the United States and federal and state governments. The Humane Society filed a motion March 28 seeking a preliminary injunction against the authorization for killing the animals and said it would seek a temporary restraining order if it wasn't granted by Friday, the earliest date the "lethal removal" was likely to begin. Tho...

Three Wolves Killed In Wyoming Within Days Of Protection Removal

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:54:00 MST

WTF is wrong with these idiots? Oooo... the big bad wolf is going to eat all the elk I'd like to hunt... This just makes me angry. Wyoming hunters and ranchers killed at least three gray wolves within the first three days of the animals' removal from the federal endangered species list, local and state wildlife officials said. Wyoming, Montana and Idaho took over management of wolves within their borders on Friday as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended protection of the animal...

Appeals Court Upholds Ruling On Keys Endangered Species

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:53:00 MST

A federal appeals panel has upheld a ruling barring issuance of flood insurance for new development in endangered species habitat of the Florida Keys. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Tuesday with a 2005 decision by a Miami federal judge. The National Wildlife Federation and other groups contended since 1990 that the issuance of flood insurance policies for new development failed to meet requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The endangered species ...

Fewer Donate To WI Endangered Species Fund

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:41:00 MST

The income tax checkoff to donate money to protect endangered species in Wisconsin turns 25 this year after raising $13 million over the years. But donations are declining, in part because more programs are on the tax form that go after the same money, the program administrator said Monday. "The last four years, it has been kind of a significant drop," said Signe Holtz, director of the Department Natural Resources' Bureau of Endangered Resources. Another source of r...

Gray Wolf To Be Taken Off The Endangered Species List

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:37:00 MST

Government officials announced on Thursday that the gray wolf, scientific name Canis lupus, of the Northern Rocky Mountains will be removed from the endangered species list. The removal will end a 13-year restoration effort in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. p. The gray wolf was almost extinct in the 1990s due to excessive hunting and habitat degradation, but populations have recently rebounded thanks to hunting bans and reintroduction campaigns. “Gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mo...

Lawsuit to Protect Hundreds of Species

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:44:00 MST

In a move that got suprisingly little press, the conservation group WildEarth Guardians on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking the immediate protection of 681 U.S. species under the Endangered Species Act. The list of species includes plants, snails, butterflies and numerous other Western species. (I wish I could provide a more detailed accounting, but even WildEarth's own website doesn't have any news about the suit posted yet.) The only real mention of this lawsuit so far come fro...

Since '01, Guarding Species Is Harder

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:10:00 MST

With little-noticed procedural and policy moves over several years, Bush administration officials have made it substantially more difficult to designate domestic animals and plants for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Controversies have occasionally flared over Interior Department officials who regularly overruled rank-and-file agency scientists' recommendations to list new species, but internal documents also suggest that pervasive bureaucratic obstacles were erected to limi...

Maine Seeks Green Label For Lobsters

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:08:00 MST

The Maine lobster industry has long been held up as a well-run fishery. Now it's seeking a seal of approval to prove it. Efforts are under way to have the state's signature seafood certified as sustainable by an international organization that evaluates fishing practices worldwide. With consumers demanding more "green" food products, the lobster industry stands to lose out if it doesn't get certified, supporters say. "It'll open up a lot of markets for us," ...

Chinook Salmon Vanish Without A Trace

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:51:00 MST

Where did they go? The Chinook salmon that swim upstream to spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, have disappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and most dependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska left gloomy fisheries experts struggling for reliable explanations — and coming up dry. Whatever the cause, there was widespread agreement among those attending a five-day meeting of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council here last week th...

Bush'S Epa Hurts The Environment, Again

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:47:00 MST

What do you do when the president behaves as if he is above science and the law? When it comes to environmental regulation, George W. Bush has repeatedly ignored both, and this country's system of checks and balances has been powerless to stop him. The latest outrage came last week when the Environmental Protection Agency released its new standard for ozone, the primary ingredient in smog. The administration lowered the standard that regions must meet to comply with clean-air rulesfrom 84...

Wolverine Denied Endangered Species Protection

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:07:00 MST

The Bush administration announced today that it has no obligation to protect endangered wildlife, provided their U.S. populations are contiguous with larger populations in Canada or Mexico. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it has determined that protecting the wolverine in the contiguous United States as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act is not warranted because "the wolverine population in the contiguous United States is not discrete ... it is no...

Smelt May Join Endangered-Species List

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:26:00 MST

A silver 6-inch-long oily fish that once teemed through coastal rivers in Washington, Oregon and California is the latest candidate for the Endangered Species Act. Federal scientists will give the Pacific smelt, or eulachon, a close look for possible federal protection, the agency in charge of endangered fish announced Wednesday. The decision by the NOAA Fisheries Service comes in response to a 2007 petition by the Cowlitz Tribe of Southwest Washington. The tribe urged protection as smelt ...

U.S. Sued Over Endangered List

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:45:00 MST

Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government for missing the deadline to list the polar bear as a threatened animal under the Endangered Species Act. The Natural Resources Defence Council, Greenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity presented their complaint to a court in San Francisco, saying they hoped the move could prompt an early listing of the animal in the Endangered Species Act by the government. According to the three groups, the U.S. governme...

Bush Administration Refuses To Protect The Last American Jaguars, Driving Conservation Group To Court

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:22:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity issued a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today over the agency’s decision not to recover an endangered species native to the United States, the jaguar, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The notice is required to allow the federal agency one last chance to comply with the law. “Jaguars evolved in North America, and their recovery in our country is part of recovering our damaged ecosystems,” said M...

Aspen Times News For Aspen Colorado

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:16:00 MST

Federal wildlife managers have dramatically increased the amount of land they want to designate as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, a threatened species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday it wants to designate nearly 43,000 square miles in six states. That’s more than 20 times the 1,800 square miles in three states the agency proposed in late 2006. The agency reconsidered its earlier rulings about the lynx and seven other species after allegations that Julie Ma...

Environmental Groups Challenge Gray Wolf Removal From Us Endangered Species List

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:52:00 MST

Environmental and animal rights groups are challenging the U.S. government's removal of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list. The groups say the estimated 1,500 wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are too few to ensure the species survival. State officials have pledged to keep wolves on the landscape. But they want to let hunters kill possibly hundreds of wolves in state-sponsored hunts starting later this year to reduce conflicts with livestock and big...

What To Do When Compact Fluorescents Crack

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:48:00 MST

Compact fluorescent lamps contain small amounts of toxic mercury that can vaporize when the bulbs break, creating a potential health risk for infants, young children, and pregnant women. If a lamp does break, follow these cleanup procedures: more stories like this Keep people and pets away. Open windows, and leave the area for 15 minutes before beginning the cleanup. Do not use a vacuum cleaner, even on a carpet. This will spread the mercury vapor and dust and potentially contaminate th...

Alaska Disputes Polar Bear Threat

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:51:00 MST

The polar bear can be found in just one place in America — Alaska — and is perhaps as much a symbol of the state as, say, alligators are of Florida. So you might think Alaska's politicians would be pounding on doors in Washington to protect it. You'd be wrong. As the federal government decides whether to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Gov. Sarah Palin and the state's Republican congressional delegation are solidly opposed to the ide...

How Did Reichert (R) Get So Green?

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:29:00 MST

Last fall, two congressmen from Washington state eyed each other warily in a Capitol Hill corridor as they discussed a bill that would expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area in the Cascades. Rep. Jay Inslee, a Democrat from Bainbridge Island, is a leading proponent of environmental protection. But he wasn't the one pushing the wilderness bill. It was Rep. Dave Reichert, an Auburn Republican, and he was trying to persuade Inslee to co-sponsor the legislation. Inslee had no intention of...

Wolves Lose Protection Under Endangered Species Act

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:03:00 MST

Today the Bush administration finalized its controversial decision to remove the northern Rockies gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The delisting will take effect 30 days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) publishes the final rule in the Federal Register next week. The removal of federal protections for the gray wolf puts its continued survival in the northern Rockies at the mercy of the woefully insufficient state manage...

Brazil Launches Zero Extinction Initiative

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:07:00 MST

In a pioneering effort to halt species extinction in the Brazilian Amazon, the state of Para is launching the Zero Extinction Program, the first of its kind in Brazil. The program, part of a decree signed today in Belem by Para Governor Ana Julia Carepa identifies threatened species, key sites where they live and measures to protect and conserve these threatened habitats and species. While Pará is the second largest Brazilian Amazon state (1.25 million km2, roughly twice the size of Tex...

Tiny Step for an Endangered Species

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:06:00 MST

A record 280 species are candidates for protection under the U.S.'s Endangered Species Act, but at least one of those is now getting a chance to be saved from extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this week it will propose that an extremely rare Hawaiian plant, Phyllostegia hispida, receive coveted protected status. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, it took nearly two and a half years for the Service to make this "emergency" designation, despite know...

Several Shark Species Endangered By Overfishing

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:21:00 MST

The American Association for the Advancement of Science warned about the danger of extinction that several species of sharks face, due to overfishing. In the conference held in Boston yesterday, the association declared that nine species of shark would be added this year to the list of animals that face extinction, Reuters reports. Apparently, the most endangered species is the scalloped hammerhead shark. "Sharks are definitely at the top of the list for marine fishes that could go ext...

Hammerhead Shark Added To Endangered List

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:08:00 MST

One of the world's most recognisable sharks is to be added to the official list of endangered species amid fears that it could soon become extinct. The scalloped hammerhead, so-called because of its unusual snout, has been put at risk through industrial-scale fishing and the value of its fin, a delicacy in China. The World Conservation Union is to put it on its list of 'globally endangered' species – one step below the top rating of 'critically endangered'. ...

Preying On The Predators

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:40:00 MST

It was not long ago that predators such as wolves, mountain lions, owls, hawks and even eagles were considered "varmints" in our country. There were "good" animals like deer and rabbits, and "bad" animals that preyed on the good ones. Society professed that the bad ones should be killed, and the federal and state governments actually paid bounties on many species of predators and hired "predator-control specialists" to shoot, trap, gas or poison them. In some c...

Court Rules Against Arizona Cattlemen, For Mexican Spotted Owl

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:41:00 MST

The federal district court in Phoenix has upheld protection of 8.6 million acres of critical habitat for the threatened Mexican spotted owl in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. For the Mexican spotted owl, critical habitat ensures that Forest Service logging does not drive the owl to extinction or limit its recovery. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the critical habitat for the owl in 2004, but the designation was challenged in court by the Arizona Cattle Growers̵...

No Place For Predators?

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:45:00 MST

The days when wildlife managers viewed the cat of many names as vermin to be eradicated are long gone. Modern managers promote predators' role as guardians of ecosystem integrity, but they are also employees of the state and must balance the needs of the species with the will of the electorate. As America's great stretches of wilderness rapidly disappear into the transfigured landscapes of advancing development, the fate of the cougar depends on whether “rational and civilized peop...

Court Again Overturns Controversial Bush Environment Rule

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:44:00 MST

A federal appeals court Friday overturned a Bush administration plan for cutting mercury emissions from power plants, siding again with states and environmental groups in an ongoing legal battle over the administration's effort to write business friendly rules for the utility industry. The decision is one of several rulings by the court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, against Bush administration regulations that would have eased environmental requirements. Most pr...

Higher Elevation Species at Risk

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:42:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled Feb. 1 that the Gunnison's prairie dog qualifies to be listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling shouldn't affect the Four Corners, even though the area's prairie dog population is almost exclusively Gunnison's. The ruling is for the higher-elevation Gunnison's prairie dogs. The Gunnison's prairie dog lives between 6,000 and 12,000 feet. The ruling pertains to the Gunnison's prairie dogs found i...

State Mulls Longfin Smelt For Endangered Status; Legal Battle Looms

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:12:00 MST

The state Fish and Game Commission made the longfin smelt a candidate for the state's endangered species list Thursday, setting off alarms statewide among both water agencies and construction contractors. The three commissioners voted unanimously to list the tiny fish that ranges from California to Alaska as a candidate species for one year. After a year of study, the fish could be added to the state's list of endangered or threatened species. During that year-long study, however...

The Climate May Be Right For A Global Warming Bill

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:49:00 MST

Scores of climate change bills are stacking up in the legislative queue. Numerous hearings, the most recent on the polar bear, are highlighting the issue. And some regulation-averse corporate executives have even called on Congress to step in. But despite the dramatic shift in the Capitol in favor of doing something to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, global warming legislation remains a long shot for this year. Proponents always knew it would be tough to get a bill with mandatory limits t...

OR Coho Listed as Endangered

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:30:00 MST

The announcement by NOAA's Fisheries Service Monday that it was listing Oregon coast coho as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act should result in little difference to Oregon fisheries, Ralph Brown said. "They've been managed as if they were federally endangered all along," said Brown, of Brookings, who is recognized as an expert in fishing and the ocean. "I'm not sure there will be too much difference," he said. "For those areas t...

Bush Budget Calls For Arctic Oil Drilling In 2010

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:10:00 MST

The Bush administration on Monday again asked Congress to allow oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying $7 billion could be raised in leasing fees from energy companies. In its proposed budget for the 2009 spending year, which begins on October 1, the White House said it assumed the initial tracts in the refuge could be leased during 2010. The government would share half the $7 billion in leasing revenue with the state of Alaska. However, the...

Wolves On Chopping Block Again

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:34:00 MST

Special regulations released Thursday will allow wolves to be shot if they are attacking stock animals or dogs, or if they are having an adverse impact on deer, elk or moose populations. Conservation groups immediately denounced the move, saying it will let the states of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming “kill most of the threatened wolves in the Northern Rockies.” “The Bush administration is giving a blank check to the states to slaughter wolves for doing what they need to do t...

Bad Week for Endangered Species

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:02:00 MST

Jaguars, whales, butterflies and prairie dogs got bad news this past week. The American jaguar may soon be a memory in America, as the Bush Administration has abandoned plans to craft a recovery plan for the rare species. Why? The official line is that there are "too few" of them to warrant recovery. Critics say that homeland security (i.e., the U.S.-Mexico border fence) is being given priority over the species' survival. Either way, the Interior Department has just guaranteed the...

Bush Allows Navy Sonar Use Despite Fears For Whales

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 07:15:00 MST

In a Navy-vs.-whales case watched closely by environmentalists from California to the Puget Sound area, President Bush on Wednesday exempted the Navy from some environmental laws. The fight is over permission to use sonar during Navy warfare training exercises off the coast of California. The military itself admitted that the sonar could permanently injure whales and dolphins. In a memorandum issued while he was traveling in the Middle East, Bush said the training was "in the paramou...

Congressmen Say Wolves Still An Endangered Species

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:52:00 MST

Five congressmen from the House Natural Resources Committee want to delay a plan to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from the federal endangered species list. In a recent letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the congressmen wrote that states "hostile to wolf conservation" could reduce today's 1,500 wolves to "as few as 300" if the predators lose protected status. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which Kempthorne oversees, plans to announce the deli...

Bush Allows Navy Sonar Use Despite Fears For Whales

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:25:00 MST

Bush Administration Abandons Effort To Undercut National Forest Protections

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:34:00 MST

Conservation groups are declaring a "victory for public participation" as the U.S. Forest Service and the timber industry Monday abandoned their appeals of a federal court decision that invalidated a Bush administration rule removing environmental protections for the 192 million acre National Forest System. Regulations issued in 2005 by the Forest Service sought to overhaul the land management planning process for national forests by eliminating mandatory protections for wildlife and...

Conservationist Groups: Bush Administration To Miss Deadline For Polar Bear Endangered Species Act Listing

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:00:00 MST

In response to the Bush administration’s announcement that it will not meet Wednesday’s deadline to issue a final Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing determination for the polar bear due to global warming, environmental groups announced their intent to go back to court to enforce the deadline. The administration was required by law to make its decision by Wednesday following its proposal one year ago, but today announced “we expect to…finalize the decision within t...

Pygmy Rabbit May Warrant Protection Under The Endangered Species Act

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:58:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Service announced today that the pygmy rabbit may warrant federal protection as a threatened or endangered species following a review of a petition seeking to protect the pygmy rabbit Brachylagus idahoensis under the Endangered Species Act. Today's decision, commonly known as a 90-day finding, is based on scientific information about the species provided in the petition requesting listing of the species under the ESA. The Service will now undertake a mo...

Polar Bears Vie With Oil For Us Government Focus

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:44:00 MST

The U.S. government will soon decide whether polar bears are in danger because global warming is melting their icy habitat. But last week, the government offered some of that habitat as a place to drill for oil. Strangely enough, both those decisions are the province of the Interior Department. The department's Fish and Wildlife Service is supposed to announce a decision by Wednesday whether polar bears should be listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A de...

Ranchers, Farmers Keep Nature In And Feds Out

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:03:00 MST

Southern Colorado ranchers are setting aside land for conservation and inviting scientists on their property to study the imperiled Gunnison sage grouse. On the Eastern Plains, farmers are flagging nesting sites of the mountain plover to avoid plowing over them. The goal of the ranchers and the farmers is the same — to avoid strict regulations under the federal Endangered Species Act by helping animals at risk of extinction. These days, the embattled federal law that is designe...

The Environment 2007, Al Gore, Fuel Efficiency, Cars, Global Warming, Extinction Of Species

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:15:00 MST

An important article with a dismal if necessary message... follow the link to read the whole thing... This year, Al Gore, the Man Who Was Almost President, received a stunning vindication from the Nobel Committee for his Paul Revere campaign about global warming. "The Earth has a fever, and the fever is rising," Gore said in his Nobel lecture in Oslo, Norway, in December as he accepted the Peace Prize, which he shared with the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chang...

Petition Seeks Protection For Seals

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:24:00 MST

Frustrated by a lack of regulations limiting global warming, a conservation group wants ribbon seals listed as threatened or endangered because their habitat — sea ice — is disappearing amid climate change. The Center for Biological Diversity on Thursday filed a 91-page petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service seeking to list ribbon seals as threatened or endangered. The group says the classification is needed because sea ice is disappearing due to climate change brough...

Suit Filed To Protect 13 Species In Four States

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:34:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups filed lawsuits today challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to properly designate and protect “critical habitat” areas for 13 endangered species in Oregon, California, New Mexico and North Carolina. The suits are part of broader effort by the Center to challenge political corruption harming 55 endangered species and over 8.5 million acres of wildlife habitat. It filed simultaneous lawsuits challenging six ot...

Carbon Cuts A Must To Halt Warming-Us Scientists

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:49:00 MST

There is already enough carbon in Earth's atmosphere to ensure that sea levels will rise several feet (meters) in coming decades and summertime ice will vanish from the North Pole, scientists warned on Thursday. To mitigate global warming's worst effects, including severe drought and flooding, people must not only cut current carbon emissions but also remove some carbon that has collected in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, they said. "We're a lot closer to c...

Al Gore Blames Us For Climate Change Deadlock In Bali

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:06:00 MST

In an impassioned hour-long speech interrupted many times by applause, former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore said the United States was stopping progress at the U.N. Climate Change talks in Bali. "I am going to speak an inconvenient truth. My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that. We all know that," he said. The Bali talks are aimed at launching negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protoc...

George W. Bush’S ‘Convenient’ Truth

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:20:00 MST

When so many voices are shouting down the truth... what does it really mean? The man whom the people elected in 2000 to be president was in the temporary residence of the man whom the Supreme Court anointed. President George W. Bush hosted former Vice-President Al Gore, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and five other Nobel laureates on November 26. This annual handshake photo-op has been an American tradition. The Nobel committee had cited Gore, on October 12, as “probably the s...

Whalers In Alaska Fear Oil Drilling May Curtail Way Of Life

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:25:00 MST

Each summer and fall, the Inupiat, natives of Alaska's arid north coast, take their sealskin boats and gun-fired harpoons and go whale hunting. Kills are celebrated throughout villages as whaling captains share their catch with relatives and neighbors. Muktuk, or raw whale skin and blubber, is a prized delicacy. But now, that traditional way of life is coming into conflict with one of the modern world's most urgent priorities: finding more oil. Royal Dutch Shell is determined to ex...

Wolf May Lose Endangered Species Listing

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:47:00 MST

For rancher Randy Petrich, the removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list — a move that would open up the animals to hunting in the Northern Rockies for the first time in decades — couldn't come soon enough. On the same land where it was once rare to see the animal, Petrich has seen fresh wolf tracks almost every morning this fall — close enough to threaten his cattle. "I believe that any wolf on any given night, if there happens to be a calf there, t...

Us Joins Critics Of Japan'S Whaling Plans

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:12:00 MST

The United States has joined several other countries and environmental groups in calling on Japan to rescind plans for killing more than 1,000 whales, including humpback whales which had been nearly hunted to extinction before a ban on killing them was imposed in 1963. The International Whaling Commission, the IWC, has entirely banned commercial whaling since 1986. But Japan, the world's largest consumer of whale meat, has killed thousands of whales in recent years under a controversial p...

Politics Undercut Species Act, Suits Say

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:21:00 MST

Wiped out across most of its range in the American Southwest, the Mexican garter snake was considered a shoo-in for listing under the Endangered Species Act. It got nothing. Neither did the Mississippi gopher frog. Though listed as endangered in 2001, the now-rare amphibian got not a single acre of habitat set aside on its behalf. The loach minnow, once common in Arizona and New Mexico rivers, saw 143,680 acres of proposed critical habitat chopped by more than half. In each case, Bush ad...

Racoons, Endangered Species Impacted By Oil Spill

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:39:00 MST

Incident Commander Barry McFarland, a representative for the Cosco Busan ship that caused the Nov. 7 oil spill in the San Francisco Bay, said the vessels deployed to clean up oil left on the surface of the water were decontaminated today at San Francisco's Hunters Point and in Alameda. The ships are no longer in the bay because there is no longer oil on the bay's waters, he said. "There's no visible oil that we're seeing in the surveillance, so the vessels are being (de...

Mediterranean Sharks And Sting Rays At Risk Of Extinction, Warns Report

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:37:00 MST

A new report from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has warned that 42 per cent of Mediterranean sharks and sting rays are at the risk of extinction. “Our analyses reveal the Mediterranean Sea as one of the world’s most dangerous places on Earth for sharks and rays,” said Claudine Gibson, IUCN Shark Specialist Group program officer and co-author of the report. “Bottom-dwelling species appear to be at greatest risk in this region, due mainly to intense fishing of the s...

Loggerhead Sea Turtles May Gain Endangered Status

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:13:00 MST

The U.S. government announced today that it is considering listing loggerhead sea turtles found off the U.S. West Coast as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The action comes in response to a formal petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network in July 2007 that aimed to increase protections for loggerhead sea turtles. The petition sought to have North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles listed as endangered under the federal Endangered ...

Legal Setback For Bush Administration On Vehicle Emissions

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:12:00 MST

The administration of George W. Bush suffered a legal setback here when a US federal appeals court ruled that government emission standards for light trucks and sport utility vehicles are not stringent enough. The San Francisco-based federal appeals court ordered the Bush administration to tighten emission standards set for automobiles sold in the United States as quickly as possible, in response to a lawsuit filed by 11 states, including California, two cities and four environmental groups. ...

Six Of The Eight Bear Species At Risk Of Extinction

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:42:00 MST

Some of the world's foremost bear experts have declared that six out of the world's eight species of bears are threatened with extinction - but not the American black bear. Among the eight species of bears, only the American black bear is secure throughout its range, which encompasses Canada, the United States and Mexico. In a statement Saturday as they wound up a meeting in Monterrey, the experts updated the status of the seven species of terrestrial bears. Technically a ma...

Hunting Group Intervenes In Lawsuit Over Grizzly Bear Protection

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:22:00 MST

A federal judge has allowed a hunting group to intervene in a lawsuit in which conservation organizations are challenging a federal move to strip grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area of protections under the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Idaho on Wednesday granted a request from Safari Club International and Safari Club International Foundation to participate in the lawsuit as friends of the court. Grizzly bears were removed from Endangered Species Ac...

Oil Spill Spreads In San Francisco Bay

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 10:06:00 MST

Challenged by strong winds and tides, cleanup crews struggled Friday to contain an oil spill spreading in the San Francisco Bay as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for the area. No stranger to natural disasters in California, the governor traveled to the Bay Area on Friday for a briefing on the status of the 58,000-gallon spill, which started early Wednesday after a 900-foot container ship rammed into a tower of the Bay Bridge. The ship was crippled, and oozed the oil ...

Hearing To Consider Adding Pacific Herring To Endangered Species List

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:19:00 MST

A Fish and Game advisory committee is meeting today over whether Pacific herring in southeast Alaska's Lynn Canal should be placed on the endangered species list. The Sierra Club has filed a petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service to see if the fish should be listed as endangered or threatened. The listing could pose a problem for the developers of the Kensington mine near Berners Bay. Mine developer Coeur Alaska has said a listing could stop construction of the Cascade ...

Primates: Extinction Threat Growing For Mankind'S Closest Living Relatives

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:55:00 MST

Mankind's closest living relatives -- the world's apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates -- are under unprecedented threat from destruction of tropical forests, illegal wildlife trade and commercial bushmeat hunting, with 29 percent of all species in danger of going extinct, according to a new report. Titled "Primates in Peril: The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates--2006--2008,*" the report compiled by 60 experts from 21 countries warns that failure to respond to the ...

President Bush Moves To Conserve Birds

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:33:00 MST

President George W. Bush outlined several conservation measures his administration is taking to benefit birds while speaking Saturday at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland. He directed that a new State of the Birds report be written, said the U.S. would participate more in an international effort to conserve albatrrosses and petrals, and offered new cooperation with Mexico to protect birds that migrate between the two neighbors. Many species of birds live part of their lives here i...

An Appreciation Of Al Gore

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:11:00 MST

When I learned this month that the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for their groundbreaking work to raise awareness about the threats posed by global warming, I was delighted. In 1990, then Sen. Gore visited the Green Belt Movement in Kenya and later wrote about our work planting trees with poor, rural women in his book Earth in the Balance. A few years later, Vice President Gore invited me to join him on a trip to Ha...

Why We Should Save The Delta Smelt

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:55:00 MST

California is a thirsty state. You don't mess with its water, even in a good year, unless you have an excellent reason. Which is why many Californians are shaking their heads in dismay over a federal judge's recent decision to cut by as much as 30% the water sent south from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta this winter. The judge's reason: to save a French-fry-sized fish called the delta smelt. The delta smelt makes no heroic journey across the ocean or up river rapids to re...

Endangered Species Act Targeted During Drought

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:32:00 MST

It’s man against mussel in the halls of Congress. In a rare show of bipartisan unity, Georgia’s entire congressional delegation fired the latest salvo in the bureaucratic war over water in the drought-parched states of Georgia, Florida and Alabama. With the filing of identical bills in the U.S. House and Senate, lawmakers are seeking a temporary exemption to the federal Endangered Species Act. Currently, billions of gallons of water are being discharged from Georgia’s lak...

Endangered Species Act Protection Sought For The Ashy Storm-Petrel

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:39:00 MST

Today the Center for Biological Diversity filed a scientific petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the ashy storm-petrel under the federal Endangered Species Act. The ashy storm-petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa) is a small, smoke-gray seabird that nests and forages almost exclusively on the offshore islands and waters of California near San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. These waters are heavily impacted by development, including offshore energy terminals, shipping ...

Where The '08 Contenders Stand On Global Warming

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:36:00 MST

Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize for his years of work on climate change has caused considerable speculation about whether he might be a late entry in the race for the White House, a subject on which he remains coy. But where does the former vice president's award leave the declared presidential candidates on global warming? Their positions range widely: from a corporate carbon tax (Sen. Christopher Dodd) and an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 (John Edwards) to a cap-and-...

Gore Ranks As Most Effective Advocate For Curbing Global Warming

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:56:00 MST

Former vice president Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize win today meant the same thing to both his supporters and detractors: He now ranks as the world's most effective public advocate for curbing global warming. While an array of activists, politicians and business leaders have all called in recent years for more stringent limits on greenhouse gases linked to climate change, no one has reshaped the public perception of what was once a wonkish scientific debate more than Gore. Through his ...

SCDOT Works for Endangered Mussels

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:51:00 MST

Another article that juxtapositions a positive environmental move against a few people's complaints about the move. Show me a case where you couldn't find someone to complain about anything the government does! In an effort to save endangered species Carolina Heelsplitter mussels, which are found in Greenwood County’s Cuffytown Creek, the South Carolina Department of Transportation has constructed check dams along Bowie Road, which crosses the creek. One Greenwood couple, ho...

Melting Ice Pack Displaces Alaska Walrus

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:03:00 MST

Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice. Alaska's walrus, especially breeding females, in summer and fall are usually found on the Arctic ice pack. But the lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas. Walrus feed on clams, snails and other b...

Maine To Limit Trapping To Protect Lynx

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 19:40:00 MST

A federal lawsuit aimed at protecting threatened Canada lynx has ended in a settlement in which state game officials agreed to restrict trapping in northern Maine. The agreement was formalized Thursday in a consent decree in U.S. District Court in Bangor that bans or restricts certain types of traps and requires the state to monitor and report cases of trapped lynx and rehabilitate injured lynx. The settlement follows a hearing last week in which Judge John Woodcock indicated that the laws...

Sea Otter, Peregrine Falcon Back From The Brink Of Extinction But Other Species At Risk In Canada

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:17:00 MST

There’s good news and bad news in the report the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) just dropped on the Minister of the Environment’s desk. The good news: The peregrine falcon and the sea otter no longer face extinction. The not-so-good news: COSEWIC proposes adding another 36 species to Canada’s official List of Wildlife Species at Risk. Species from all regions of the country, on the land and in the sea, are at risk of extinction. &#...

Bush Administration Pushes Climate Change Action Into The Future

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:16:00 MST

President Bush this week called on the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases warming the world to set a "long-term goal" for reducing such pollution, but was vague on how to complete the task. "By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem," President Bush told representatives of 17 nations attending the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change held in Washington, D.C., this week. "We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas...

Federal Report Shows Sea Turtle Declines

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:01:00 MST

After encouraging gains in the 1990s, populations of loggerhead sea turtles are now dropping, primarily because of commercial fishing, according to a federal review. The report stops short of recommending upgrading the federally threatened species to "endangered" status. But scientists and environmentalists say it should serve as a wake-up call about the future of loggerheads, which can grow to more than 300 pounds and are believed to be one of the oldest species. "We are very ...

Student Proves Giant Whorled Sunflower'S Extreme Rarity

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:46:00 MST

For several months last spring, the Vanderbilt greenhouse held more individual plants of a rare species of native sunflower than are known to exist in the wild. The whorled sunflower grows in a rare environment called wet prairie. Jennifer Ellis investigates the sunflowers in an Alabama site where a small population has been found. (Credit: Christopher Brown)Ads by Google Advertise on this site This unusual bounty was the result of research being conducted by Jennifer Ellis, a doctoral ...

Herring May Be Endangered Breed

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:43:00 MST

An evaluation of Pacific herring stocks in Lynn Canal could land the fish on the endangered or threatened species list, blocking or slowing development in the area. The National Marine Fisheries Service said the Pacific herring population appears to be in enough trouble to warrant a review under the Endangered Species Act. Herring stocks in Lynn Canal have declined 85 percent since the 1970s, the fisheries service said in its federal register filings. Commercial fishing of herring has been...

Arctic Sea Route Opens

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:14:00 MST

The Arctic's Northwest Passage has opened up fully because of melting sea ice, clearing a long-sought but historically impassable route between Europe and Asia, the European Space Agency said. Sea ice has shrunk in the Arctic to its lowest level since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, ESA said, showing images of the now "fully navigable" route between the Atlantic and the Pacific. A shipping route through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic has been touted as ...

Gunnison's Prarie Dog Reconsidered for Protection

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:06:00 MST

Danny Decker, a Cortez farmer with 560 acres of hay, has an enemy lurking in the fields. Decker is not alone. Local farmers, ranchers, business owners and government agencies grumble and groan when they see this four-legged rodent pop its head out of freshly-dug hole, and many people will do almost anything to get rid of prairie dogs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced the Gunnison's prairie dog, a species found only in the Four Corners, will be reconsidered for the...

Wildlife Disappearing As Never Before

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:01:00 MST

Life on earth is disappearing with species hurtling towards extinction at an unprecedented rate. Your view: What can be done to halt the extinction rate of life on earth? Species highlighted in the Red List In pictures: the Red List of endangered species One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70 per cent of the world's assessed plants now appear on the Red List of endangered plants and animals. Galapagos coral (top) and humphead parrotfish are ...

'Global Extinction Crisis' Predicted By Conservation Group

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:19:00 MST

Gorillas, China's baiji dolphin, Asian vultures and Pacific corals on Wednesday joined the list of species hurtling to oblivion as the World Conservation Union (IUCN) warned of a fast-track "global extinction crisis." In an update of its famous Red List of biodiversity, the Swiss-based IUCN said it had identified 41,415 species at threat. Of this, 16,306 species -- equivalent to 39 percent of the total -- are in danger of extinction, 188 more than last year. "The invalua...

One In Four Mammals Facing Extinction: Report - Abc News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:17:00 MST

A new international report reveals that one in four mammals, one in eight birds, and 70 per cent of plants are facing extinction. The report published by the World Conservation Union says that in the past year more than 16,000 species have been put at risk. Africa's western gorilla has this year moved into the critically endangered category, decimated by trade in bush meat and by the ebola virus. China's Yangtze river dolphin is listed as possibly extinct after an intensive but...

Most Polar Bears Gone By 2050, Studies Say

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:56:00 MST

Two-thirds of the world's polar bears could disappear by 2050 as global warming continues to melt the Arctic's sea ice, according to a series of U.S. government studies released last Friday. The new findings paint a sobering picture for polar bears, whose dependence on sea ice makes them particularly vulnerable to warming temperatures. "Our results have demonstrated that as the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear," said Steven Amstrup, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) wil...

Polar Bear Population Seen Declining

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:19:00 MST

Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 — and the entire population gone from Alaska — because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday. Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world's 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department. ...

Found In A Fridge: One Of The World'S Most Endangered Species

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:01:00 MST

TWO of the world's most beautiful creatures are found stuffed into a fridge in Hanoi - a rare insight into the lucrative trade in endangered animals across South-east Asia that makes a mockery of international conservation treaties. Vietnamese police this week found the two frozen tigers in an apartment, along with two soup kettles filled with animal bones in an outdoor kitchen. A 40-year-old woman confessed to police that she had hired three experts to cook tiger bones to make tradi...

Whales Get Blown Off: Federal Court Says Navy Can Do Sonar Testing

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:40:00 MST

A federal appeals court allowed the Navy on Friday to resume using underwater sonar blasts in anti-submarine warfare tests off Southern California despite possible harm to endangered whales, saying the nation's military needs come first. "The safety of the whales must be weighed, and so must the safety of our warriors. And of our country," said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The 2-1 ruling suspended an Aug. 6 injunction by a federal judge in Los Angel...

Judge Oks Rule That May Endanger Species

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:39:00 MST

A federal judge has upheld the government's practice of allowing development to proceed even if it is discovered after a project begins that the work could endanger protected species. The National Association of Home Builders praised the ruling Friday, saying its members might have had to delay some projects if U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had not agreed with the ``no surprises'' approach to development. ``The vast majority of endangered species exist on private prop...

Bush Administration Ordered To Write Global Warming Reports

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:00:00 MST

The Bush administration has been ordered by a federal judge to produce two scientific reports on global warming sought in a lawsuit filed by conservation organizations. U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration had violated the Global Change Research Act of 1990 when it failed to meet deadlines for an updated U.S. Climate Change Research Plan and National Impact Assessment. The judge ordered the Bush administration to issue the draft overdue r...

Environmental Battle Subject Of Film

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:20:00 MST

Standing on the northeast ridge of San Bruno Mountain, Steve and Ann Dunsky looked up and saw the fog roll in as the sun began to set. The light was perfect. And from their vantage point, the two filmmakers could see the butterfly-shaped quarry ravaged over the years from constant mining of rocks and minerals. The husband and wife weren't there to capture footage for their upcoming documentary, "Butterflies & Bulldozers: The Fight for San Bruno Mountain." They simply took a...

How Smuggler Of Endangered Butterflies Was Finally Netted

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:35:00 MST

The smell struck undercover agent Ed Newcomer as soon as he entered the small, sparse apartment. Faint and rancid, it permeated everything. It clung to the plastic containers that piled up in cupboards and on shelves. It seeped from the walls and the bathroom and the bed. The smell was unmistakable: dead insects. Inside the suspect grinned expectantly as he opened a container. Dozens of slimy white grubs slithered in the dirt. Another box revealed a dead black beetle the size of a fist,...

Judge Upholds Endangered Species Protections For Wild Salmon

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:30:00 MST

A federal judge has rejected a broad challenge by farm and development groups to the protection of wild salmon as endangered species. The judge upheld a federal policy of using different standards to determine whether or not to protect hatchery-bred and wild salmon under the Endangered Species Act. The decision is the third court decision in recent months confirming that wild Pacific salmon should be protected under federal law. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan rejected all of the arguments...

Protection, Habitat Sought For Jaguars

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:15:00 MST

A conservation group filed suit Thursday in federal court demanding that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designate critical habitat and create a recovery plan for endangered American jaguars. Although the government listed the jaguar as an endangered species in 1997, it did not initiate recovery planning or designate critical habitat, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the suit in Tucson. Critical habitat designation means naming geographical areas that may re...

Re-Examining Crucial Decisions

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 10:33:00 MST

Julie A. MacDonald swept through the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service like a force of nature. Or, rather, a force of politics. MacDonald, President Bush's appointee as assistant secretary, bullied scientists, overrode regulations and improperly handed over agency documents to industry lobbyists. She finally resigned in the wake of a critical inspector general's investigation of her activities. Now, eight major policy decisions about endangered species and habitat pr...

Weyerhaeuser Ordered Not To Log Owl Habitat

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 20:55:00 MST

A Seattle federal judge Wednesday ordered the Weyerhaeuser Co. not to log four sections of spotted owl habitat in southwest Washington. "This proves owls have a federal right to live," said Peter Goldman, a lawyer for the Seattle Audubon Society who filed the motion. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman issued the injunction granting Audubon's request to stop logging near the sites until the conclusion of its lawsuit against the state and Weyerhaeuser. The trial is set to begin...

House-Passed Wrda Bill Moves To Senate For Vote, But Veto Threat Looms

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:49:00 MST

For more than six years, environmentalists have been determined to persuade lawmakers to pass a massive water bill that holds more than $370 million in funding for the Picayune Strand State Forest in Collier County. The House overwhelmingly approved the water bill late tonight on a 381-40 vote, and the Senate will take up the measure Friday. But someone else stands in the way: President Bush. Wednesday, as both chambers prepared to debate the Water Resources Development Act, White House of...

Lawmakers Probe Claims Of Improper Influence Over Science

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:41:00 MST

Participants in a House Natural Resources Committee oversight hearing Tuesday examined allegations that Vice President Dick Cheney exerted undue influence over scientific decisions at federal agencies, and discussed ways to strengthen oversight of political appointees. The hearing focused on two recent disputes between scientists and policy-makers at Interior Department agencies. The first, over potential vice presidential influence at the Fish and Wildlife Service, was highlighted in a June 27...

Fish & Wildlife Reopens Endangered Species Listings

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:15:00 MST

Environmentalists declared a pyrrhic victory last week when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would revisit eight cases of Endangered Species Act listing decisions in light of evidence that disgraced former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald exerted “inappropriate influence” over the science behind them. MacDonald served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Wildlife and Parks from 2002 until last May, when she stepped down after an internal review found ...

Us Environment Chief Draws Fire On Global Warming

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:59:00 MST

The Bush administration's environment chief drew fire on Thursday from Democratic senators for delaying a decision on whether to let California regulate global warming emissions from cars and light trucks. Stephen Johnson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has said the government will decide this question by year's end, two years after California's first request to set state air quality standards stricter than national rules. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Dem...

Did Cheney Interfere With Endangered Species Act?

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:53:00 MST

From the day it became law 34 years ago, the federal Endangered Species Act has been politically hot – a flash point of contention between defenders of nature and advocates of economic progress. Now, the ESA is embroiled in new controversy. Two different government entities are investigating decisions by Bush administration officials related to species recovery. In one, the US Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointe...

Judge: Science On Coho Ignored

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:41:00 MST

It seemed like a rare good-news story for Northwest salmon: a Democratic governor rallies industry to help a troubled species, a supportive Republican White House hands the reins to the state, and happily, salmon numbers bounce back. The only problem: A federal judge concluded Friday that the story of Oregon coast coho was based on smoke and mirrors. The only evidence things are looking up for the salmon was a faulty analysis by Oregon officials that federal scientists said "does not mee...

Judge: Federal Agency Must Catch Up On Endangered Species Reviews

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:18:00 MST

A federal judge is giving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service three years to catch up on a backlog of endangered and threatened species status reviews that Florida builders claim has caused unfair construction delays and inflated housing prices. In his Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge John Antoon II dismissed the agency's defense that a lack of money and resources make it impossible to comply with a congressional mandate to review the status of endangered and threatened species every fiv...

Too Many Species Not Safe

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:43:00 MST

When the bald eagle officially flew off the list of endangered species during a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial last month, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne vowed: "We will work to ensure that the eagle never again needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act." What Mr. Kempthorne neglected to mention is that a growing number of species in need of those protections aren't getting them. The Bush administration has made fewer additions to the list of endangered species th...

300 Species Wait For Listing

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:47:00 MST

The bald eagle may have dropped off the roster of species protected by the Endangered Species List, but hundreds of additional plant, fish and animal species await protection. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Threatened and Endangered Species System, 278 species are currently "candidates for listing" under the Endangered Species Act. This number does not, apparently, yet include the 10 penguin species announced earlier this week as being considered for protection,...

The Eagle Soars, Again

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:06:00 MST

For all of the good feelings about the removal of the American bald eagle from the endangered-species list, one senses a twinge of uncertainty. As if an environmental win is a bad thing, diverting attention from helping other critters. The effect ought to be quite the opposite. After 40 years of purposeful effort by layers of government, committed property owners and vigilant volunteers, the country can celebrate a major victory. Nothing sustains enthusiasm like success, even if the word is a...

Protection of Highly Endangered Mountain Yellow-legged Frog Delayed Again

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:25:00 MST

In response to a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Rivers Council, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today published a “warranted but precluded” decision, agreeing with conservationists that the mountain yellow-legged frog deserves listing as an endangered species, but claiming listing is made impossible by “expeditious progress” on the listing of other species. This is the same decision the agency made more than four years ago, which the Ninth...

Court Sides With Builders, Administration In Dispute Over Endangered Species

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:16:00 MST

The Supreme Court sided with developers and the Bush administration Monday in a dispute with environmentalists over protecting endangered species. The court ruled 5-4 for home builders and the Environmental Protection Agency in a case that involved the intersection of two environmental laws, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the conservative majority, said the endangered species law takes a back seat to the clean water law when it comes...

Protection Sought for Desert Fish

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:40:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Great Basin Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club filed a petition today to protect the least chub, a rare fish species found only in Utah, as a threatened or endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act. The least chub has been reduced to just six fragile wild populations, three of which occur in the Snake Valley, where planned pumping of water for runaway growth in Las ...

Fla. Oks Moratorium For Gopher Tortoises

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 09:21:00 MST

Developers will no longer be allowed to bury gopher tortoises alive during construction under a moratorium approved Wednesday by state wildlife commissioners. Endangered status means an animal is at immediate risk of extinction. Threatened denotes a species could become endangered in the future if protections are not maintained. Under current gopher tortoise rules, developers are allowed to seek permits to bury them alive rather than relocate them during construction projects. About 70,0...

Common Backyard Birds Becoming Less Common

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:50:00 MST

Some of the most common birds seen and heard in American back yards are becoming a less frequent sight and sound in much of the United States, according to a study released by the National Audubon Society. Twenty common birds -- including the northern bobwhite, the field sparrow and the boreal chickadee -- have lost more than half their populations in the past 40 years, according to the society's research. "These populations are not yet on the endangered species list, but it is not...

Bush'S Sincerity On Environment Issues Doubtful

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:02:00 MST

Political public relations stunt or serious proposal? That's the domestic and international puzzlement about President Bush's conversion to the cause of global climate change. With much fanfare last week and in advance of a major international economic summit in Europe, Bush announced the United States would begin to engage in major talks about global warming. After more than six years spent in office delaying action and denying the mounting scientific evidence, Bush said, "In ...

U.S. Adopts Limits On Clean Water Law Enforcement

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:03:00 MST

The landmark U.S. law to fight water pollution will now apply only to bodies of water large enough for boats to use, and their adjacent wetlands, and will not automatically protect streams, the U.S. government said on Tuesday. Environmental groups said they fear the new policy will muddy the purpose of the federal Clean Water Act and put many smaller bodies of water at risk. Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation mandating protection of creeks, estuaries and other watersheds. Th...

Fight Against Illegal Wildlife Trade To Dominate Cites Meeting

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 18:23:00 MST

The U.S. delegation will push for strong conservation measures and international trade protections when the 14th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Conference of the Parties (CITES-CoP) convenes June 3-15. "CITES has proven to be a powerful tool to prevent the extinction of species such as tigers, elephants and whales and we intend to work with other countries to support the continued protection and conservation of these species," Deputy Assistant Secretary of the...

Yellow-Billed Look Approaches Extinction... and Listing

Tue, 29 May 2007 22:40:00 MST

The federal government has announced it is advancing the yellow-billed loon toward protection under the Endangered Species Act. The action comes in response to a formal administrative petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and other U.S. and Russian scientific and conservation organizations in April 2004 that sought protection for the species. The yellow-billed loon breeds in tundra wetlands in Alaska, Canada and Russia, and winters along the west coasts of Canada and the United S...

Bush'S Environment Adviser Rejects Eu Idea Of Blanket Carbon Emission Cuts

Tue, 29 May 2007 15:33:00 MST

The United States rejects the European Union's all-encompassing target on reduction of carbon emissions, President George W. Bush's environmental adviser said Tuesday. James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the United States is not against setting goals but prefers to focus them on specific sectors, such as cleaner coal and reducing dependence on gasoline. "The U.S. has different sets of targets," he said. Germany, which hold...

Salazar, Allard Team Up To Help Protect Endangered Species

Tue, 29 May 2007 07:43:00 MST

U.S. Senators Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard co-sponsored legislation recently to provide financial incentives for private landowners, including farmers and ranchers, to help save endangered plants and animals. The Endangered Species Recovery Act would provide $400 million annually in new tax credits and offer deductions and exclusions to farmers and ranchers who take steps to help endangered or threatened species on the properties they own. Species that could be protected in Colorado include:...

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's First Year in Office a Disaster for Endangered Species

Tue, 29 May 2007 07:40:00 MST

Today marks one year since Dirk Kempthorne was confirmed as Secretary of Interior. During that time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species program has gone from bad to worse. Prior to Kempthorne's confirmation, the Bush government had the lowest rate of placing species on the endangered species list of any presidency in history. Under Kempthorne, the program has ground to a complete halt: not a single species has been added to the endangered species list under his watch. ...

Government Scraps Species Law Changes

Sun, 27 May 2007 17:05:00 MST

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said Friday he has scrapped a proposal that critics said would protect fewer rare plants and animals from extinction. Kempthorne said that while he doesn't think Congress should change the Endangered Species Act, the department is still looking for ways to change how the law is enforced. Environmentalists in March had made public a draft of rule changes the Interior Department was considering that they said would reduce the number of species that coul...

Woodman, Spare That Marbled Murrelet

Sat, 12 May 2007 12:08:00 MST

Publicly, I prefer to celebrate the wonders of nature rather than get caught up in politics, but two recent actions pricked my "what are they thinking" reflex. Members of a timber group in Oregon sued to have the marbled murrelet removed from the endangered species list there so they could cut old-growth forests. Then the feds said they were taking a long look at the endangered species act to make it more helpful to property owners and users. Both wolves and grizzlies in the Rock...

Bush Administration Sets All-Time Record For Denying Protection To Endangered Species: Zero New Listings In Past Year

Thu, 10 May 2007 23:43:00 MST

Today marks exactly one year since the U.S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service last protected any new U.S. species under the Endangered Species Act. Fittingly, on this same day, the House Natural Resources Committee is holding important oversight hearings on implementation of the Endangered Species Act by a recalcitrant Bush administration. The last time the agency went an entire year without protecting a single species was in 1981, when the infamous James Watt was Secret...

House Panel Spotlights Political Intereference With Endangered Species

Thu, 10 May 2007 23:35:00 MST

Bush administration officials at the Interior Department have repeatedly manipulated science in order to weaken protections for endangered species, former agency officials and environmentalists told the House Resources Committee Wednesday. The hearing prompted a key Democrat to call for the resignation of the department's deputy secretary, who endured several hours of heated questioning from the committee. "Under your leadership we have got negligence, incompetence and political ...

Study Ties Coral Bleaching Disease To Warmer Oceans

Tue, 08 May 2007 16:01:00 MST

Warmer sea temperatures are linked to the severity of a coral disease, according to a study on Australia's Great Barrier Reef that offers a dire warning about global warming's potential impact on the world's troubled reefs. The 6-year study released on Monday tracked the relationship between water temperature and the frequency of a coral disease called white syndrome across more than 900 miles of the world's largest coral reef. "We've linked disease and warm wate...

Steelhead Now A Threatened Species

Tue, 08 May 2007 12:57:00 MST

Puget Sound steelhead were listed Monday as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. The agency proposed the listing about a year ago to cover naturally spawned steelhead from river basins in the Puget Sound, Hood Canal and the eastern half of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Also covered by the listing are two winter-run hatchery stocks: the Green River natural south of Seattle and the Hamma Hamma River on the Olympic Peninsula. ...

Legal Ruling May Put Endangered Species In Danger

Sun, 06 May 2007 08:58:00 MST

Ecologists and philosophers across the nation are protesting a new and narrowed definition of "endangered species." In a letter sent Monday to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the House Committee on Natural Resources, they warn that the new definition—spelled out in a legal opinion from the Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior in March—will substantially weaken the federal Endangered Spec...

Swift Action Can Cut Warming

Fri, 04 May 2007 23:50:00 MST

A new report from an international panel of scientists says global warming can be tamed through energy conservation, limits on greenhouse gases and other measures that won't seriously harm the world's economy. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lays out dozens of options for combating global warming - ranging from capping carbon emissions to encouraging more commuting by bicycle - and says they could limit the increase in global temperatures to 3.6 degrees o...

Scientists Sign Onto Letter To Protest New Interpretation Of Endangered Species Act

Wed, 02 May 2007 15:19:00 MST

More than three dozen scientists have signed a letter to protest a new Bush administration interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, saying it jeopardizes animals such as wolves and grizzly bears. The proposed policy revision would enable the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect animals and plants only where they are battling for survival. The agency would not have to restore the animals in areas where they have died out, or protect them where they're in good shape. The propos...

Timber Industry Uses Draft Bush Endangered Species Act Regulations

Tue, 01 May 2007 10:34:00 MST

On March 27, 2007, the media published draft Bush administration regulations that radically undermine the Endangered Species Act, causing a public uproar. In response, the administration asserted that it did not intend to implement the draft as written. In legal papers filed today, however, environmental groups show that Mark Rutzick, a former Bush official now representing the timber industry, has filed a lawsuit based on the draft regulations, not the actual law. "The Bush adminis...

Preservation Groups Suing Government Over Bears’ Removal From Endangered Species Act

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:38:00 MST

One of the most pristine expanses of wilderness in the lower 48 states grew even wilder over the last two decades, with the resurgence of grizzly bears across 9 million acres in and around Yellowstone National Park. On Monday, those grizzlies will be cut loose from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The move is being hailed by the Bush administration as a landmark in the drive to protect the bears’ vast habitat. But a lawsuit to reverse the administration’s ru...

Democrats Demand A Say In Changes To Species Protection

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:36:00 MST

Key Senate Democrats expressed concern yesterday about an Interior Department proposal they say will weaken the Endangered Species Act and demanded the Bush administration include Congress in any attempt to rewrite the 30-year-old law. "We have seen reports of a document reflecting extensive draft revisions" and "additional documents that have surfaced recently suggest that major rule revisions remain under active consideration," the senators told Interior Secretary Dirk Ke...

Bush's Gravest Impeachable Crime

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:15:00 MST

When my co-author Barbara Olshansky and I wrote The Case for Impeachment during the waning months of 2005 and early 2006, it seemed clear to us that the biggest impeachable crimes of the Bush regime involved the illegal war against Iraq, and the trashing of the rights and civil liberties enshrined in the Constitution. Almost as an afterthought, we also included a proposed article of impeachment against the president for his insidious efforts to block any regulatory, Congressional or internationa...

Next U.S. Species To Go Extinct May Be Two Hawaiian Birds

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:11:00 MST

A dramatic drop in sightings of the Akekee and the Akikiki, two very rare birds on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, is raising concern that these species may be on the brink of extinction. Beginning this month the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources will conduct population surveys of forest birds on Kauai to see if the suspected decline is taking place. “The strongest available measures such as captive-breeding, fencing out and removing invasive species, and emergency listin...

Cities Plagued By Rodents, Emergency Declared

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:29:00 MST

What global warming? The rodent population in six Peruvian regions has ballooned due to unusual weather patterns and the government declared a state of emergency on Tuesday to control the plague, including in the capital city, Lima. The rodents are flourishing in some areas because of higher-than-normal temperatures, which favor their reproductive cycle, said Pedro Morales, a spokesman for the Senasa national agrarian health service. The rampant rodents have affected nearly 150,000 peop...

Hundreds Of Troubled Species Await Official Protection

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:51:00 MST

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior, have lately come under fire for their management the Endangered Species Act. Last week a document was leaked that reveals plans to revise the law without prior congressional approval. While agency officials claim that the proposed changes would improve the act's consistency and clarity, environmental groups contend that they would loosen restrictions on timber and other industries, undermine wildli...

New Attack On Endangered Species Act Outrageous

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:04:00 MST

Can a dam - an enormous, concrete, human-constructed barrier that blocks the flow of a major river like the Snake - ever be considered a natural part of the landscape? The Interior Department apparently believes it can, simply because it exists. In a draft of outrageous new department rules governing the Endangered Species Act, the effect of dams on endangered wild salmon (dams kill them) are simply written out of consideration. Not that the fish don't die - dams kill from 40 to 60...

Endangered-Species Listing Sought For U.S. Beluga Whales

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:53:00 MST

The dwindling beluga whale population in Alaska's famed Cook Inlet could be extinct in 100 years and should be listed as an endangered species, a federal agency said Thursday. The proposal is being made by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which studied a petition brought by environmentalists a year ago. The findings, which were to be published today, are being strenuously opposed by business and industry groups — backed by all three members of Alaska's congressional del...

Court Hears Endangered Species Cases That Could Slow Az Building

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:56:00 MST

The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a pair of Arizona cases that could lead to tougher requirements for how federal agencies weigh the environmental effects of their policies. The specific issue before justices is whether the Environmental Protection Agency should have consulted more closely with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials when it gave Arizona's Department of Environmental Quality the power to issue permits for a housing development in the state's southern de...

Farmers May Help Endangered Species

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:49:00 MST

vBoth the House and Senate now have bills that would encourage landowners to protect endangered species by providing income tax credits for agreeing to enhance wildlife habitat on their property. “This bill provides the opportunity for landowners to make those improvements on habitat that will make the Endangered Species Act successful,” says American Farm Bureau Regulatory Specialist Rick Krause. He said the legislation actually amends the Internal Revenue laws, not the Endangere...

Lawsuit Seeks To Keep Gray Wolf On Endangered Species List

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:56:00 MST

Three animal advocacy groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday over its decision to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, says the gray wolf essentially remains endangered in the three states, and it demands that the Fish and Wildlife Service be prevented from implementing its "de-listing" plan. The lawsuit was filed by The Humane Society of the United Stat...

Court rulings on environment go against Bush administration

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:58:00 MST

A string of federal court rulings in recent weeks has gone against Bush administration environmental policies, and critics say they are proof that the White House regularly circumvents laws designed to protect the nation’s air, water, forests and endangered species. “They (courts) are finding in case after case after case that the Bush administration is violating the law,” said Trip Van Noppen, vice president of litigation for Earthjustice, a public interest law firm that re...

Oil Giant Backs Greenhouse Gas Limits

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:04:00 MST

ConocoPhillips has joined several other major corporations urging Congress to require limits on greenhouse gases tied to global warming, the first major U.S. oil company to take such a stance. The company said Wednesday it has joined the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an alliance of big business and environmental groups that in January sent a letter to President Bush stating that mandatory emissions caps are needed to reduce the flow of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the ...

Bush Admin Loses Salmon Battle

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:23:00 MST

A federal appeals court Monday strongly rejected the Bush administration's novel 2004 plan for making Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams safe for salmon, saying it used "sleight of hand" and violated the Endangered Species Act. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld U.S. District Judge James Redden's order requiring the dams to sacrifice power production to help juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean. It also keeps ...

Polar Bears Draw Record Public Response To Endangered Species Listing

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:05:00 MST

In just 90 days, more than 500,000 Americans have urged federal officials to list polar bears as officially threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to the profound effect of global warming on the bears' habitat, according to U.S. government statistics. That figure is almost double the former record for the number of comments in an endangered-species listing case in American history. The polar bear's sea-ice habitat is melting at a dangerous and unprecedented rate, according t...

Flak Over Environment May Ground Bush

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:55:00 MST

The Bush administration is taking more flak for its environmental policies from Congress, federal courts, official government watchdog agencies, and the court of public opinion. One probable outcome: It will be more difficult for President Bush, with less than two years left in office, to push environmental policy in the direction he wants. Federal courts have recently blocked or changed administration policies regarding forest management and the strip mining of coal. In response to the U.S....

Ipcc Report Confirms Widespread Impact Of Global Warming

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 14:14:00 MST

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its "Fourth Assessment of Working Group II," which updates past studies and sets forth the "current scientific understanding of impacts of climate change on natural, managed and human systems, the capacity of these systems to adapt and their vulnerability," the IPCC said in a summary of its findings. "It builds upon past IPCC assessments and incorporates new knowledge gained since the Third Assessment." Advert...

Lake Superior Warming Rapidly

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:56:00 MST

Lake Superior has been warming even faster than the climate around it since the late 1970s because of reduced ice cover, according to a study by professors at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Summer surface temperatures on the famously cold lake have increased about 4.5 degrees since 1979, compared with about a 2.7-degree increase in the region's annual average air temperature, the researchers found. The lake's "summer season" is now beginning about two weeks earlier than i...

Bush Worst Environmental President in History

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:58:00 MST

Careful placement of corporate insiders from the oil, gas and mining industries into key federal government offices that oversee environmental regulations - coupled with a complacent press that no longer concerns itself with looking seriously at government and corporate cronyism - has left today's environment worse off that it's been in decades, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told an audience at Mississippi State University Monday night. “This is the worst environmental White House that ...

Supreme Court Rules Against Bush In Global Warming Case

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 10:10:00 MST

In a defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a U.S. government agency has the power under the clean air law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming. The nation's highest court by a 5-4 vote said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "has offered no reasoned explanation" for its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change. The ruling came in one of th...

Bush Tries Three Environment Nominations Again

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:10:00 MST

The White House has renominated three people for top jobs affecting the environment who previously were blocked in Congress because of their pro-industry views. If necessary, said industry lobbyists and Republican aides in Congress, Bush intends to skirt the Senate approval process by making recess appointments to put the three nominees in the posts. All three have ties to industries that face costly Environmental Protection Agency restrictions, and all three previously have bypassed or qu...

Draft Of Climate Report Maps Out 'Highway To Extinction'

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:11:00 MST

A key element of the second major report on climate change being released Friday in Belgium is a chart that maps out the effects of global warming, most of them bad, with every degree of temperature rise. There's one bright spot: A minimal heat rise means more food production in northern regions of the world. However, the number of species going extinct rises with the heat, as does the number of people who may starve, or face water shortages, or floods, according to the projections in ...

Judge Throws Out Bush Environment Law

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 23:26:00 MST

A federal judge has thrown out a new law from the Bush administration that allowed forest managers more power when approving logging and other projects without the long process of environmental reviews. The judge decided the government did not adequately consider the effects the new rules would have on the environment and did not gather appropriate public opinion on the issue. The ruling affects all 155 national forests and 192 million acres of national forest. The judge added that the rules...

Interior Assistant Secretary Manipulated Endangered Species Science

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:05:00 MST

A report released today by the Inspector General of the Department of Interior, IG, found that Assistant Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald, who has no biological training, rode roughshod over numerous decisions by agency scientists concerning protection of endangered species. The report also found that MacDonald violated federal ethics rules by sending what the IG's office called "nonpublic information" to industry lobbyists with groups such as the Pacific Leg...

Report Raps Interior Official Over Leaks

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:44:00 MST

A government official broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups, the Interior Department's watchdog said. The department's deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks acknowledged releasing information that was not supposed to be made public to organizations such as the California Farm Bureau Federation and Pacific Legal Foundation, according to the agency's inspector general. Environmentalist...

Don't Undermine Endangered Species Law, Dicks Warns

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:00:00 MST

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks issued a stern warning Wednesday to the Bush administration not to weaken the Endangered Species Act, in the wake of a leaked U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service document that suggests the agency was considering an overhaul to the rules. Dicks, at a hearing of the Interior appropriations subcommittee he chairs, told Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall that he should get congressional approval for any far-reaching changes to regulations underpinning the law. "If...

World's Tallest Man Ties Knot

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:40:00 MST

After searching high and low, the world's tallest man has married a woman two-thirds his height, a Chinese newspaper reported Wednesday. Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9-inch (2.36-meter) herdsman from Inner Mongolia, married saleswoman Xia Shujian, who was 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 meters) tall, several days ago, the Beijing New reported. Bao's 28-year-old bride is half his age and hailed from his hometown of Chifeng, even though marriage advertisements were sent around the world, it said. &...

Climate Zones To Disappear

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:36:00 MST

UP TO two-fifths of the Earth will have a hotter climate by the end of the century, according to a study that predicts the effects of global warming. The changes — which will have a devastating effect on biodiversity in areas such as the Amazon and Indonesian rainforests — will wipe out numerous animals that are unable to move to stay within their preferred climate range. They will have to evolve rapidly or die out. Lead author John Williams, of the University of Wisconsin, sai...

New Bush Plan To Gut Endangered Species Act

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:34:00 MST

The U.S. Interior Department is preparing a wide-ranging set of regulations which substantially weaken the federal Endangered Species Act, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Biological Diversity. "These draft regulations slash the Endangered Species Act from head to toe," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "They undermine every aspect of law - recov...

Water Deliveries Jeopardized By Endangered-Species Ruling

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 11:56:00 MST

The state's largest water-delivery system, which serves millions of people from the Bay Area to Southern California, will have to shut down in 60 days unless water officials comply with the state endangered-species law, a judge ruled. The decision, which sent shock waves through water agencies up and down California on Friday, says state water officials failed to obtain a required state permit allowing them to kill threatened or endangered salmon and Delta smelt. Alameda County Superio...

Gore Takes Climate Fight To Congress

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:46:00 MST

Al Gore - star of an Oscar-winning movie, former US vice president and the object of 2008 presidential speculation - on Wednesday took his crusade against global warming to Capitol Hill. Glad-handing like the lifelong politician he was until losing the 2000 presidential race to George W Bush, Gore called his return to Congress "an emotional occasion." But he did not mince words on what he termed the current climate crisis: "Our world faces a true planetary emergency." Go...

American Crocodile No Longer Endangered Species

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:28:00 MST

The American crocodile has rebounded from close to being extinct. The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service says it has been lowered from an endangered to a threatened species on the federal list. The reptile still remains protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. But the reclassification signals that scientists believe it's no longer on the brink of disappearing in South Florida, its only U-S habitat. The change in status is largely ceremonial since all the same protections remain u...

Florida Buys Time For Ridge Of Rare Species

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:40:00 MST

It might not look like much, but there's nowhere else on Earth like it. The sandy strip of land jutting at most about 300 feet above sea level and running 150 miles down the middle of the state was once the only bit of dry ground poking up through a shallow prehistoric ocean. What grew there 2 million or 3 million years ago - and still grows today - wasn't pretty: a sparse, sandy habitat covered with underbrush. Scrub: Even the name sounds ugly, preservationists admit. But for doze...

Climate Scientist Says Government Censorship Has Confused Public

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:58:00 MST

A top government climate scientist told Congress today that political appointees without scientific backgrounds are corrupting the scientific process and confusing the public by censoring scientists and improperly editing their research on global warming. "I believe that the nature of these edits is a good part of the reason for why there is a substantial gap between the understanding of global warming by the relevant scientific community and the knowledge of the public and policymakers...

Bush Administration Reinterprets Species Law

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 11:44:00 MST

This is completely ridiculous and ignores 20 years of good research into the importance of diversified habitat for species health. Tired of losing lawsuits brought by conservation groups, the Bush administration issued a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act that would allow it to protect plants and animals only in areas where they are struggling to survive, while ignoring places they are healthy or have already died out. The opinion by U.S. Department of Interior Solicitor Davi...

Petition Filed To Protect Pygmy Owl Again As Endangered Species In Arizona And Mexico

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:08:00 MST

Conservationists filed a petition today to re-establish protection for the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl as an endangered species. The petition asks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the owl as endangered in three possible ways: in just Arizona in the Sonoran Desert as a whole (Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico) or throughout the range of the western subspecies (Arizona, Sonora and Sinaloa). All three entities qualify for Endangered Species Act protection. "The pygmy owl shou...

Lifting Chinese Tiger Trade Ban A Catastrophe For Conservation

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:06:00 MST

Any lifting or easing of the current Chinese ban in tiger trade is likely to be the death sentence for the endangered cat species, a new TRAFFIC report says. The report, Taming the Tiger Trade, warns that Chinese business owners who stand to profit from the tiger trade are putting increasing pressure on the Chinese government to overturn the 1993 ban. This would allow domestic trade in captive-bred tiger parts for use in traditional medicine and for clothing to resume. According to WWF an...

15,590 Reasons To Put At-Risk Species First

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:50:00 MST

David Cameron opened up a second front in his green crusade yesterday by demanding more action to protect endangered plants and animals, as well as tackling climate change. The day after the Conservatives announced their controversial proposals to raise taxes on flying, the party leader insisted: “My vision of a greener future may start with the vital need to tackle climate change but it certainly doesn’t end there. We need to open up a second front in the green revolution . . . ...

Wolves Off Of Endangered Species List

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:19:00 MST

For three decades, the federal government has listed timberwolves as an endangered species in the western Great Lakes region. That ended at midnight Sunday, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service turned over management of wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan to state and local officials. Shooting wolves in the area won't be a federal crime anymore, although state laws still prohibit it in most cases. Thirty-five years ago, there were about 500 wolves in northern Minnesota, ...

Service Evaluating Hawaii Species List

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:02:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing whether 69 Pacific plant and animal species are properly placed on the federal endangered species list. While a few of the species being considered are from other parts of the Pacific, most are Hawaiian. They include such charismatic animals as the 'alala, or Hawaiian crow, which now survives only in captivity; the 'io, or Hawaiian hawk; the koloa, or Hawaiian duck; the Big Island's yellow palila; O'ahu's 'elepaio; and...

Brown Pelicans Are No Longer Imperiled, U.S. Agency Says

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:16:00 MST

Brown pelicans – including the kind seen regularly by San Diego County beachgoers – no longer are endangered and should be removed from the nation's list of imperiled species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in its first comprehensive review of the birds' status in nearly 30 years. A spokeswoman said the agency has money for the official delisting effort, which is expected to start by year's end. The Fish and Wildlife decision follows a long campaign by the ...

U.S. Accused Of Silencing Experts On Polar Bears, Climate Change / Scientists Told Not To Speak Officially At Conferences

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:41:00 MST

The federal agency responsible for protecting Arctic polar bears has barred two Alaska scientists from speaking about polar bears, climate change or sea ice at international meetings in the next few weeks, a move that environmentalists say is censorship. The rule was issued last month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service but was made public this week. The federal government has proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, and the wildlife agency is receiving public comment on th...

Wolves Need Time

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:27:00 MST

A federal proposal to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list attracted more opponents than supporters to a public hearing Wednesday, with many voicing concern that neighboring Idaho could decimate wolf populations if it is allowed to manage the animals. About 60 people attended a meeting and public hearing at Pendleton's Red Lion Hotel to discuss the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal to take the gray wolf in the northern Rocky Mountains off the endangered speci...

Lawmakers Criticize Bush EPA Budget Proposal

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:03:00 MST

The Bush administration's plan to cut some $500 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's budget shortchanges vital environmental programs and is unacceptable, members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee told the agency chief on Wednesday. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson endured a litany of criticism during the budget hearing, with committee chair Barbara Boxer leading the charge. Boxer, a California Democrat, called the budget proposal "shock...

Alaska Questions Science Of Polar Bear Listing

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:11:00 MST

The range of rationalization in these arguments from the side of the anti-environmentalists is truly amazing. Officially, the state of Alaska has not decided whether to back a federal proposal to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But speaking at a federal hearing, Gov. Sarah Palin's point person on polar bears stopped just short of saying it was a lousy idea. Tina Cunnings, a biologist and a special assistant to the commissioner of the Department of Fi...

Craig, Crapo Introduce Endangered Species Reform Bills

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:15:00 MST

Idaho's two U.S. senators have introduced bills in Congress to make changes to how the Endangered Species Act is administered. A slimmed-down version of one of the bills that focuses primarily in tax incentives for landowners was introduced in the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, presented a bill that both the committee chairman and the ranking minority member have signed on to, giving it a good chance of passing on the Senate floor, ...

UN Official: Brazil Biofuel Deal Risky

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:30:00 MST

A proposed ethanol alliance that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to forge with President Bush later this week poses both opportunities and risks for the environment, a top U.N. environmental official said Monday. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said growing international demands for ethanol and other biofuels can threaten the Amazon rain forest if safeguards are not put in place because the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness is...

Critics Take Aim At Polar Bear Listing

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:55:00 MST

Needless to say... we support the polar bear listing... A marked decline in sea ice off Alaska's coast is not enough to take the drastic step of listing polar bears — a species dependent on ice — as threatened, critics said Thursday at the first of three public hearings on the proposal. Restrictions that could kick in with a listing under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming would be too burdensome, given the unknowns about the future of polar bears, such as the e...

Groups Sue to Stop Land Exchange of Endangered Kangaroo Rat Habitat

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:12:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity and San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society will shortly file suit to stop a land exchange that will eliminate a 1,170-acre endangered species reserve on the former March Air Force Base (now March Air Reserve Base). The March Preserve supports one of the last, best populations of the endangered Stephens’ kangaroo rat as well as a host of other imperiled plants and animals. “The March Preserve was set aside for this endangered mammal nearly 15 year...

Suit Filed to Protect Polar Bears and Walrus

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:11:00 MST

Polar bears and walrus are facing a serious threat in the Arctic from expanding oil and gas exploration because federal regulations don’t assess the combined risks posed by such activity and global warming, according to a suit filed today in federal court by environmental groups. The suit challenges U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations that allow harm to the animals through oil and gas activities in the Beaufort Sea and adjacent coastal plains, where global warming is shrinking ice s...

Senator Reid Works To Protect Endangered And Threatened Species

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:45:00 MST

U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada cosponsored bipartisan legislation to create incentives for private landowners who help protect threatened or endangered wildlife. "This bill is a win-win for both endangered species and landowners around the country and here in Nevada," said Reid. "Private landowners play a vital role in preserving the environment and its inhabitants, especially since their backyards are home to threatened plant, insect, and animal species. This legislation will ...

Protect A Species, Get A Tax Break?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:23:00 MST

Save the species, save a buck. Landowners frustrated by the Endangered Species Act might get a carrot instead of the stick under a proposed revision of the law that would offer them tax incentives to give the critters a home. That approach is emerging as a narrower alternative to a comprehensive overhaul of the endangered species law, a priority for Republicans before Democrats took control of Congress this year. While environmentalists credit the law with saving and reviving species like ...

RFK Jr. Rips President Bush For Environmental Policy

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:31:00 MST

The crowd that nearly filled Virginia Tech's 3,000-seat Burruss Hall Auditorium to hear environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speak probably had an idea about what he thought of the Bush administration before he took the podium. Some of Kennedy's books were on sale in the auditorium lobby, including his most recent -- "Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy." But early on in a rambling speech ...

Scientists Use DNA To Track Poached Elephant Ivory

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:17:00 MST

Scientists alarmed by a surge in the slaughter of elephants for ivory said on Monday they have devised a genetic method for tracking the origin of poached tusks and pinpointing "hot spots" for the illicit trade. The killing of elephants for their tusks has reached levels not seen since a treaty that banned the ivory trade took effect in 1989, and the rise has been fueled by growing demand in Asia, the scientists said. The world community must act now or risk having the mammals, which ...

Antarctic Ice Melt Reveals Exotic Creatures

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:58:00 MST

Spindly orange sea stars, fan-finned ice fish and herds of roving sea cucumbers are among the exotic creatures spied off the Antarctic coast in an area formerly covered by ice, scientists reported Sunday. This is the first time explorers have been able to catalog wildlife where two mammoth ice shelves used to extend for some 3,900 square miles over the Weddell Sea. At least 5,000 years old, the ice shelves collapsed in two stages over the last dozen years. One crumbled 12 years ago and the...

Scientists Add Shark Species To Endangered List

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:28:00 MST

Scientists added several species of deep sea sharks on Thursday to the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) endangered Red List due to overfishing. At a meeting in Oxford, England, the scientists listed all three species of thresher sharks -- known for their scythe-like tails -- as "vulnerable globally," and moved the shortfin mako to "vulnerable today" from "near threatened." "The qualities of pelagic sharks -- fast, powerful, wide-ranging -- too often lead to...

Logging Permit Violates Protection Of Northern Spotted Owl

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:28:00 MST

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act when it approved a 22,000-acre logging project that affects northern spotted owl habitat in southern Oregon. In a case dating from 2001, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that would allow logging based on an "incidental take" statement estimating how many owls might be killed. Any landowners, companies, state or local governments with...

Wildlife Group Urges Consumers To Avoid Eating Endangered Species For Chinese New Year

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 22:34:00 MST

As people across Asia gear up for sumptuous lunar New Year banquets, an international wildlife group is calling on Chinese consumers to start the year of the pig guilt free. The activist group Traffic wants consumers to think twice about what they eat, as the food could be from endangered species. Claudia Blume reports from Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the world's largest market for live reef fish, importing about 15,000 tons a year. Around the city, restaurants feature bubbling tanks carrying...

US Campaign To Raise Environment Awareness

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:59:00 MST

Plans have been announced in the US for a major campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of climate change. The SOS campaign, short for Save-Our-Selves, will include a worldwide rock concert in July featuring major bands and artists. Announcing the campaign, former US Vice President Al Gore said he hoped to draw attention to what he called the planetary emergency and create a movement which will motivate people to take action....

Fund to benefit endangered species

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:34:00 MST

Elephant ears, the kind made with flour, sugar and butter, go for $3.75 at the Oregon Zoo. Actual elephant ears, the kind formerly attached to African elephants, sell for hundreds of dollars on the Internet. On Monday, federal authorities displayed a pair of real elephant ears, along with other endangered-animal parts seized in a series of stings last year. U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut joined zoo director Tony Vecchio and Fish & Wildlife Service regional director Ren Lohoefener at th...

Endangered Species List Just Got Shorter

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:36:00 MST

There is no reason to risk repeating history by taking gray wolves off the endangered species list. A gray wolf is a wild animal and has a place in the ecosystem. They are meant to hunt deer, elk and other woodland animals. If there are too many nature will take its course. Gray wolves are going to prey on livestock if they are given easy access to them. It is not a solution to lower the population of the gray wolves. The solution is for farmers to protect their farms with better enclosure...

Hawaii's Bird Habitats Most Threatened

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:32:00 MST

Hawaiian forests are the nation's most threatened bird habitats, according to a report released Thursday by American Bird Conservancy. "Saving these species is important but meaningless if the habitats they come from are also not protected," said Alan Lieberman, director of the Hawaiian Endangered Bird Conservation Program for the San Diego Zoo. Hawaiian forests were listed ahead of the open ocean and sea bird nesting islands, which ranked second and also includes Hawaii territory...

Fed and State Conflicts Over Endangered Species

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:48:00 MST

As we humans crowd Arizona, we're crowding wildlife out. It does not take a rocket scientist to fathom how dwindling rivers, razed deserts and oceans of fresh concrete might just push many species--from pygmy owls and garter snakes to wee top minnows--to the razor's edge of extinction. But pell-mell growth isn't the only threat. According to biologists and conservationists, turf battles between state and federal wildlife officials are also taking a toll. In particular, critics cont...

Sea Bird Tied To Logging Fight Dwindles

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:19:00 MST

The marbled murrelet, a threatened sea bird whose rare trait of nesting in old-growth forests made it a factor in logging battles in the U.S. Northwest, is also declining dramatically in Alaska and Canada, where most of the birds live, according to a U.S. government review. The review of existing population surveys by the U.S. Geological Survey was requested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the Bush administration considers whether to take the marbled murrelet off the threatened specie...

Bush Outlines '09 Arctic Refuge Oil, Gas Lease In '08 Budget

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:09:00 MST

U.S. President George W. Bush aims to open up a 1.5 million acre area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil and gas leasing by 2009, according to the administration's proposed 2008 Budget. As part of the administration's energy policy to help wean the country off dependence on crude imports, the president hopes opening ANWR's "1002" area on the North Alaska coast will tap the estimated 5.7 billion to 16 billion barrels. The administration has faced t...

Ky. Researchers Count Endangered Bats

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 18:25:00 MST

Dave Waldien stretches, shining his helmet‘s light into a limestone crevice. "I‘ve got two," he says. "One‘s a big brown ... and I‘m not sure what that one is." Stepping across a few of the cave‘s boulders, Jim Kennedy takes a look. While the annual event attracts some 700 cavers and thrill-seekers for three days of cave tours, Kennedy and Waldien traveled into darkness on a different mission. That data then gives scientists information for b...

US Urges 'Global Discussion' On UN Climate Report

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:16:00 MST

Wow... talk about being late to the party... and showing up naked, too! The Bush administration played down the U.S. contribution to world climate change on Friday and called for a "global discussion" after a U.N. report blamed humans for much of the warming over the past 50 years. "We are a small contributor when you look at the rest of the world," U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said of greenhouse gas emissions. "It's really got to be a global discussion." ...

Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:18:00 MST

Here's the report and a link the the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change....

Pennfuture Files Endangered Species Act Petition Against Bush Administration

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:25:00 MST

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) today joined environmental, sporting groups, and scientific organizations from all regions of the country in legal action to further press President Bush on global warming and the growing potential of significant wildlife extinctions this century. The diverse conservation groups - led by the Center for Biological Diversity, including California Trout, Center for Native Ecosystems (Colorado), Conservation Northwest (Washington), Friends of th...

First Endangered Fish Species Recovers

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:22:00 MST

For the first time in U.S., and probably global, history a fish identified as endangered has been shown to have recovered -- and in the Hudson River, which flows through one of the world's largest population centers, New York City. Doug Peterson, a former Cornell postdoctoral researcher now at the University of Georgia who worked with Cornell's Mark Bain on the study, holds a shortnose sturgeon, the first fish species to recover enough to be taken off the endangered species list. It now...

U.N. Says There'S No Stopping Global Warming

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:43:00 MST

In the strongest language it has ever used, a United Nations panel says global warming is "very likely" caused by human activities and has become a runaway train that cannot be stopped. The warming of Earth and increases in sea level "would continue for centuries ... even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilized," according to a 20-page summary of the report that was leaked to wire services. The summary of the fourth report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental ...

Report To Link Global Warming To Humans

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:16:00 MST

Officials from 113 countries agreed Thursday that a much-awaited international report will say that global warming was "very likely" caused by human activity, delegates to a climate change conference said. Dozens of scientists and bureaucrats are editing the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in closed-door meetings in Paris. Their report, which must be unanimously approved, is to be released Friday and is considered an authoritative document that c...

American Eels Do Not Qualify As Endangered Species, Government Decides

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:11:00 MST

I love this because it shows that in the American system under the ESA, Joe citizen can file a petition to protect a species. That's exactly what the Conservatives want to prevent. The American eel does not need protection as an endangered species, according to a two-year review prompted by a petition from a janitor who had noticed eels getting stuck at dams near his favorite fishing spots. Tim Watts of Middleborough filed the protection petition in 2004 with his brother, Doug. The re...

Grey Wolves To Leave Endangered Species List

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 10:34:00 MST

Wolves in the northern Rockies will be removed from the endangered species list within the next year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday, a move that would open the population up to trophy hunting. Federal officials are expected to announce the plan Monday, said Sharon Rose, a spokeswoman for the service. The agency also will finalize removal from the list of a separate population of wolves in the Great Lakes region. Federal officials for months have been readying a propo...

Study: Beaufort Sea Polar Bears Shift From Ice To Land For Dens

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:33:00 MST

More pregnant polar bears in Alaska are digging snow dens on land instead of sea ice, according to a federal study, and researchers say deteriorating sea ice due to climate warming is the likely reason. From 1985 to 1994, 62 percent of the female polar bears studied dug dens in snow on sea ice. From 1998 to 2004, just 37 percent gave birth on sea ice. The rest instead dug snow dens on land, according to the study by three U.S. Geological Survey researchers. Bears that continued to den on i...

$1.2 Billion Plan To Increase Puget Sound Chinook By 20 Percent

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:22:00 MST

The plan to save Puget Sound's endangered chinook salmon calls for spending one-point-two (b) billion dollars in the next ten years. Officials hope that would boost chinook runs by 20 percent. The plan calls for restoring habitat, restricting land use that affects the sound, reducing the sport and tribal catch and better managing hatchery salmon to protect the wild fish. In approving the plan Friday the National Marine Fisheries Service called it the largest and most comprehensive r...

Fishery Officials To Push For Global Tracking Of World's Tuna Catch At Japan Conference

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:35:00 MST

International fisheries officials are expected to push for a global tracking system that would certify the origin of every tuna headed to market at an unprecedented conference that convenes Monday to reverse a sharp decline in tuna catches. The conference brings together the world's regional tuna management groups and runs through Friday in the western city of Kobe. It is seen as a key step in combatting the downturn in one of the most valuable and endangered high seas fisheries. Atten...

Warmth Keeps Bald Eagles At Bay, But Species Thrives

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 12:49:00 MST

Unfolding its 7-foot wingspan, a bald eagle soared over the mist-blanketed Mississippi River, just upstream from this month's Bald Eagle Days festivities in Rock Island. There were fewer avian guests of honor at the 20th annual celebration — typically one of the nation's largest concentrations of bald eagles — because the unusually mild weather allowed the birds to winter over farther north. But the sparse turnout masks a conservation triumph: Across the country, the na...

Court Rules Rare Salamanders Were Illegally Denied Protection

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:11:00 MST

In response to a suit brought by a coalition of five conservation groups, federal judge William Alsup ruled today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally denied protection to the Siskiyou Mountains and Scott Bar salamanders as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The judge ordered the Service to issue a new 90-day finding on the petition by March 23, 2007, which will likely begin a 12-month review of the salamanders’ status. “With the worst ...

Bill lets agency lengthen special status for prairie dogs

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 22:04:00 MST

The Montana wildlife department wants the option of continuing conservation status for prairie dogs, a rodent previously a candidate for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. A proposal to erase next fall's termination of a prairie-dog law drew support Thursday from people who spoke about the creature's place in the ecosystem, and criticism from those who consider prairie dogs destructive varmints that compete with livestock for forage. The 1- to 3-pound animal in the s...

President Bush Screws Fishermen Of Bristol Bay, Alaska

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:06:00 MST

President Bush has decided to open the pristine waters of Bristol Bay, Alaska to oil drilling despite direct opposition from fishermen that fish the area. Before any drilling, there will be scope for studies and public comment said the Interior Department, which stressed the need for energy security. Home to endangered whales, the Bristol Bay is thought to contain some 200 million barrels of oil. The news comes as a trans-Alaska pipeline was shut down today after some 500 gallons of ...

Idaho Gov Wants to Make Wolves Stay Endangered

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:10:00 MST

In a hundred years, when there are no more wolves, I hope that people like "Butch" will be vilified by his own descendants. Idaho's governor said Thursday he will support public hunts to kill all but 100 of the state's gray wolves after the federal government strips them of protection under the Endangered Species Act. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter told The Associated Press that he wants hunters to kill about 550 gray wolves. That would leave about 100 wolves, or 10 pack...

MN Considers Changes to State Endangered Species List

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:59:00 MST

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resource (DNR) is seeking help from the public as it updates the state's list of species that are endangered, threatened or of special concern. Under the state's endangered species law, the DNR identifies plants and animals that are at risk of disappearing from Minnesota, according to DNR biologist Rich Baker. The list identifying those species was first created in 1984 and was last revised in 1996. "The DNR's goal is to maintain an enda...

Oregon Man Sentenced For Violating Endangered Species Act

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:38:00 MST

Van Buren man is going to jail for 21 days for possession of the pelt of a lynx, a federally protected threatened species. United States Attorney Paula Silsby says 41-year-old Ricky Learnard pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bangor. Court records say a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer recovered a lynx pelt from a truck during an inspection last January 12th. Investigators allege that Learnard had shot the lynx in Maine in November 2005. The...

Windfarm Permit "Seriously Contradicts" Endangered Species Act

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:00:00 MST

A proposed windfarm in the Karso del Sur Important Bird Area (IBA), Puerto Rico, could wipe out five percent of the global population of the Critically Endangered Puerto Rican Nightjar Caprimulgus noctitherus. The proposal, which has been strongly condemned by Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña (SOPI, BirdLife in Puerto Rico), is the latest in a series of windfarm proposals around the world which threaten bird populations of conservation importance. The Karso del Sur IBA is t...

Tiny Snail That Spawned Endangered Species Battle Still Dwindling

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:10:00 MST

After clambering down a canyon wall, ducking poison ivy vines along a switchback trail and wading chest-deep across a lukewarm stream, Cary Myler squats down near a riverbank, spies some flecks that look like pepper sprinkled on a wet rock and announces, "Found some." The pinhead-sized dots are Bruneau hot springsnails. The tiny mollusks that thrive in water as warm as 100 degrees are found nowhere else in the world but here, in the bottom of this southwestern Idaho desert canyon rid...

Canada's Ayles Ice Shelf Will Soon Disappear From The Map

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:42:00 MST

A huge portion of ice broke off from Canada’s Ellesmere Island last year, but it was not until this year that scientists, using satellite photos, realized the full dimension of the catastrophe. Ellesmere Island, lying in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the most northerly of the Canadian Arctic islands. It comprises an area of 196,235 km² (75,767 square miles), making it the world's tenth largest island and Canada's third largest island. The Ellesmere ice shelf redu...

On Thin Ice: Proposal To Designate Polar Bears An Endangered Species Is Long Overdue

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:38:00 MST

These days it's getting as difficult to be a climate change skeptic as it is to be an ice-prowling polar bear hunting seals in the steadily warming Arctic. Over the holiday season one indicator after another pointed to a growing global consensus that climate change fueled by human-generated emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is real and has deadly consequences. Scientists have documented the first inhabited island to be submerged by rising sea levels, Lohachara in the ...

Polar Bears May Join Endangered Species List

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:53:00 MST

The Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming could drive one of the world's most recognizable animals out of existence. The proposal--described by an Interior Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity--stems from the fact that rising temperatures in the Arctic are shrinking the sea ice that polar bears need for hunting. The official ...

Eagles Out Of Danger

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:23:00 MST

At extinction's door four decades ago, the American bald eagle is on the verge of completing a comeback for the ages. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has confirmed that it likely will soon remove the national symbol from the federal list of endangered and threatened species, perhaps as early as next year. The agency is complying with a court order that requires it to make a final decision on the bald eagle's status no later than Feb. 16. To that end, the Fish and Wildlife Servic...

Tortoises Wait Out Winter At N.M. Ranch

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:16:00 MST

Mexican gray wolves, black-footed ferrets, and aplomado falcons are among the endangered species who have found homes and a chance for survival on Ted Turner's ranches in New Mexico. Now, Turner's Armendaris Ranch is doing the same for a group of bolson tortoises. Thirty-seven bolson tortoises, at up to 18 inches the largest tortoises found in North America, arrived in New Mexico earlier this year from a ranch in Arizona. Most of them are waiting out the winter in deep burrows on Turn...

Appeals Court Tosses Out Bush Smog Rules

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 10:12:00 MST

A federal appeals court on Friday struck down the Bush administration's strategy for reducing smog, which impacts the health of more than half the nation's population, mostly those prone to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The Environmental Protection Agency rules for forcing state cleanups of smog don't meet Clean Air Act requirements, a three-judge panel rule in a suit brought by a Southern California clean-air agency, environmental groups and some mid-Atlantic and East...

Lawsuit Filed To Protect Sea Otter Habitat

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:26:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today in federal district court in Washington, D.C., challenging the Bush administration's refusal to designate critical habitat for imperiled Sea Otters in Alaska. Sea Otters in the Aleutian Islands and southwest Alaska were listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in August 2005 following declines of up to 90 percent in many areas. With that listing, federal law requires that their critical habitat be protected as well. ...

Echo From The End Of A Dolphin Species

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:23:00 MST

The baiji, a freshwater dolphin, has used sonar to find fish in China's Yangtze River for some 20 million years. Last week, scientists declared it basically extinct. Can the end of a nearly blind cetacean help humans see the need for greater species conservation? Five events in Earth's history have caused extinction waves, including the asteroid thought to have slammed into the Yucatán and ended the dinosaur age. Whether the planet is on the verge of a sixth wave of extinctions,...

Free Endangered Species Ringtones

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 12:01:00 MST

Calling all cell phone users: Now you can personalize your ringtones with the mesmerizing, heartfelt, and – dare we say? – operatic calls of the Blue-throated Macaw, Beluga Whale, Boreal Owl, Mountain Yellow-legged Frog, Yosemite Toad, or any one of 40 other endangered wildlife species. And it’s absolutely free. The endangered species advocates at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity are offering ringtones of the croaks, chirps and songs of dozens of rare and endang...

Biologists In Pursuit Of Exotic, Voracious Foe

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:26:00 MST

"SNAKE!" Hearing this shout, Skip Snow slammed on the brakes. When the off-roader plowed to a halt, he and his partner, Lori Oberhofer, leaped out and took off running toward two snakes, actually -- a pair of 10-foot Burmese pythons lying on a levee, sunning themselves. After slipping, sliding and tumbling down a rocky embankment, Snow, a wildlife biologist, grabbed one of the creatures by the tail. The python, Oberhofer says, did not care much for that. "It made a sound like D...

Gray Wolves Taken off Endangere List in Idaho and Montana

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:59:00 MST

In a matter of weeks the grey wolves once brought to Idaho as endangered species will be removed from that list. Governor Jim Risch says he has received a promise that the wolves will be taken off the federal register to be managed on a state level with other big game animals. In 1995 32 wolves were introduced into the Idaho wilderness. Now their population has grown to more than 600. Wolves were listed as endangered species in 1975. The reintroduction process started in 1995. The...

Endangered Cactus

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 20:24:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will study whether a rare Utah cactus should be protected as an endangered species, a move that could affect oil drilling in the state's Uinta Basin. Fish and Wildlife is taking the action _ the first step toward deciding whether to list the plant as protected _ in response to a 2005 lawsuit by conservation groups asking for emergency help for the Pariette cactus. The groups say a proposal to double the number of oil wells in the area where the cactus...

Lawsuit Charges Official Interfered With Endangered Species Process

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:08:00 MST

A coalition of environmental groups and scientists filed suit Wednesday against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency's refusal to conduct a full review of the Gunnison's prairie dog for possible listing under the Endangered Species Act. The suit charges that Fish and Wildlife biologists were forced by Deputy Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald, a Bush administration appointee, to change a finding that the prairie dog is endangered to one that instead said it does not mee...

In Forest Plans, No Environment Analysis

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:00:00 MST

Long-term management plans for national forests will no longer go through a formal environmental impact statement, the U.S. Forest Service announced Tuesday. The Forest Service said writing the 15-year plans has no effect on the environment, making the impact statements unnecessary. That conclusion was based on changes to forest planning rules made last year and a past U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says a plan is a statement of intent and does not cause anything to happen. Individual proj...

Opinion: A Good Deal On Oil Drilling

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 23:56:00 MST

Hmm... something to think about... A few months ago, a bipartisan compromise on offshore drilling worked out by Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez appeared to be the best outcome for the state. The Republican-led House wanted less protection for Florida beaches and refused to accept the Senate's offer. Then a funny thing happened in the recent election. Republicans lost control of the next Congress, so House leaders were suddenly ready to deal. Despite objections from some Democr...

Discovered: The Self-Boiling Shrimp And 500 Other Extreme Sea Creatures

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:20:00 MST

Creatures thriving at the hot and cold extremes of the marine environment have amazed scientists who are celebrating the discovery of 500 previously unknown species in the oceans in the past year. They have been found beneath ice shelves, in the darkest, deepest abysses and in scalding water around hydrothermal vents on the sea bed. In a year of discovery, animals living in and around the oceans have smashed records for distance, numbers and sheer tenacity in the most inhospitable habitats i...

Poachers In West Hunt Big Antlers To Feed Big Egos

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 17:02:00 MST

Should poachers simply be shot? I think so... A bighorn sheep lay in a field not far from here, its head missing. In nearby Elko, three elk and five deer died from gunshot wounds, their carcasses rotting in the hills. And in the distant mountains, game wardens searched for another elk that a tipster said had been killed by illegal hunters apparently just for the thrill of it. The reports keep coming in — elk, deer, antelope, bighorn sheep and other big-game animals — killed in ...

Farm Bureau Supports Endangered Species Reserve Act

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:54:00 MST

The Endangered Species Reserve Act of 2006 is a win-win for private landowners, as well as endangered and threatened species, the American Farm Bureau Federation voiced today. In a letter to U.S. Senators, AFBF President Bob Stallman said it is imperative to include farmers and ranchers in efforts to preserve and enhance habitat for endangered and threatened species. "With private lands housing 80 percent of listed species, we are absolutely convinced that cooperation with private landown...

California Butterfly 1, Developers 0

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:13:00 MST

The Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority Wednesday denied a proposal by developers to eliminate a reserve inhabited by two of the region's most endangered species - the Quino Checkerspot butterfly and a tiny, long-tailed bird, the California gnatcatcher. Southern California's Inland Empire, which encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino counties, is experiencing constant development pressure. In December 2005, the County of Riverside and the City of Murrieta req...

Boxer on the Attack

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:09:00 MST

.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, has placed a hold on the nomination of Alex Beehler to be Inspector General of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Boxer placed a hold on the nomination after the committee voted to approve it on Wednesday. Beehler was nominated for the position by President George W. Bush earlier this year. In blocking the nomination, Boxer prevented it from coming to the Senate floor during this short lame duck session of Congress. Since she w...

Leave Bristol Bay Alone

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:16:00 MST

President George W. Bush is thinking about rescinding a longstanding presidential order that specifically prohibits oil and gas drilling in Alaska's pristine Bristol Bay. He should resist doing so, no matter how powerful the entreaties from his friends in the oil business. Drilling in Bristol Bay would threaten one of the nation's most productive fisheries without appreciably strengthening the nation's long-term energy security. Bristol Bay occupies over 33 million acres of open s...

Landmark Agreement To Save Endangered Species In Hawaii

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:21:00 MST

Hearings begin today on a landmark agreement to save five endangered birds in Hawaii that could serve as a national model for helping private farmers and ranchers recover endangered wildlife in any state where private lands provide vitally important wildlife habitat. The Hawaii agreement marks the first time that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and local Resource Conservation District staff are taking a leadership role in helping private landowners restore endangered species throughout...

Concern Over Bush Plan to Begin Drilling in North Aleutians

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:56:00 MST

Word spread like wildfire through Alaska's environmental community Nov. 28 of alleged Bush administration plans to lift a presidential moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration in the North Aleutian Basin. The area includes the commercial fishing grounds of Bristol Bay, described by Rick Steiner, a professor with the University of Alaska's marine advisory program, as 'the breadbasket of entire Bering Sea.' Reports circulating through environmental groups were that Alas...

Illegal Reversals of Endangered Species Decisions

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:08:00 MST

A few weeks ago, the media uncovered illegal reversals of endangered species decisions. These reversals were ordered by Julie MacDonald, a political appointee in the Department of Interior. What's more surprising is that the Rocky Mountain News has twice printed MacDonald's claims that "there was no proof she ordered researchers to change findings" ("Groups sue over plover protection," Nov. 21), and MacDonald's challenge to "come up with a document that shows she ...

"Extinction Vortex" Could Result From Endangered Species Alerts

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 23:34:00 MST

Humans prize rare objects--be they paintings, coins or rare species of amphibians. This proclivity toward the hard-to-find led researchers at Paris-Sud University to hypothesize that the overexploitation of species--via trophy hunting and exotic pet collecting, for example--can lead to their extinction. (Standard economic theory predicts that extreme exploitation will not actually lead to a species's extinction, because the cost of obtaining it will be greater than its value in hand.) The au...

Michigan Considers Possible Wolf Hunt Before Assuming Oversight Of Species

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 00:12:00 MST

Amazing how the first thing we want to do with wolves after we spend a bunch of money to restore them is... SHOOT 'EM! Argh... Michigan's federally protected population of gray wolves could migrate to state oversight by spring, and a group charged with developing a management plan is divided between allowing the reclusive animal to be hunted or keeping it safeguarded. The Michigan Wolf Management Roundtable is charged with offering advice to update the state's management plan...

Judge Rules On Road Ban In Forest

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 10:02:00 MST

A federal judge has ruled that a Clinton-era ban on road construction in national forests applies to hundreds of oil and gas leases sold by the Bush administration. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte's ruling Wednesday means that holders of more than 300 leases that permit oil and gas exploration in national forests cannot build roads to access those areas. Laporte's order follows her September ruling that reinstated the 2001 "roadless rule" prohibiting logging, mining ...

Endangered Species 'Can't Afford To Wait'

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:54:00 MST

Animals such as woodland caribou are about to disappear from Ontario while the province stalls on endangered-species legislation, environmental groups said yesterday. "We simply can't afford to wait," said Aaron Freeman, policy director for Environmental Defence. "The woodland caribou, wolverine and the spiny soft-shell turtle — these are species literally on the verge of being lost forever. These are species that can't afford to wait." Natural Resources Minis...

High Court To Hear Greenhouse-Gas Case

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:59:00 MST

Twelve states and a coalition of environmental groups sued the Bush administration in 2003 for refusing to issue regulations limiting carbon emissions from cars and power plants. On Wednesday, the case reaches the Supreme Court, where justices will hear the arguments on both sides. Soon after President Bush took office, his EPA administrator, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, traveled to Europe to meet with the top eight European industrial powers and came to an agreement to cap ...

U.S. Petitioned To List 12 Penguin Species As Endangered

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:58:00 MST

The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal petition with the U.S. government today requesting that 12 species of penguins worldwide be added to the list of threatened and endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with protection of species under the act, must respond to the petition within 90 days. Each of the penguin species named in the petition faces threats that include global warming, introdu...

Big Win For Enviros

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:27:00 MST

There's no question that America's environmentalists won big in the midterm elections. "We picked up twenty new environmental votes in the House of Representatives and five in the Senate, plus four governorships," says Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, who called 2006 "the most successful midterm election in the environmental movement's history." Whether the victory is big enough to change government policy during the last two years of the Bush pre...

Slow Talks Could Leave Climate Deal in Tatters

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:49:00 MST

A new global agreement to tackle climate change may be scuppered by cumbersome international bodies and a lack of political will, David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, fears. He warned that politics was now lagging dangerously behind the science on global warming and feared that negotiations on a new deal might drag on so long that there would be a "gap" in 2012 when the Kyoto protocol's first stage runs out. To ensure deeper cuts in carbon emissions from then, he said, a...

Evangelicals Press Bush, Congress On Environment

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:37:00 MST

Evangelical leaders, including a new corps of young activists, called Thursday (Nov. 16) for President Bush and the new Democratic leaders of Congress to pay greater attention to concerns over climate change. "Our allegiance to Jesus Christ demands that the threat of climate change no longer be ignored," states a letter to Bush, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that was read at a news conference at a Baptist church here. > &qu...

Pombo, Green Anger And The Endangered Species Act

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:31:00 MST

The Endangered Species Act is like a wolf, one of the species it strives to save. Wherever the Act goes, controversy follows. In fact, is there an environmental law on the books more controversial? I doubt it. Now, even before the January changing of the guard, the Blue Congress is sending out positive signs that the approach to the ESA will change -- and change for the good. > During the Red Congress recently sent home to lick its wounds, enviros barely fought back many attempts to &ld...

White House Sued For Not Doing Report On Warming

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:21:00 MST

Environmental advocates sued the Bush administration Tuesday for ignoring a 2004 congressional deadline to report to lawmakers and the public on the latest research on global warming. A 1990 federal law requires the government to produce a scientific report every four years on climate change and its effects on the environment, including land, water, air, plant and animal life and human health. The Clinton administration issued the first report in October 2000, warning of severe effects o...

The Environment Should Be A Top Priority For New Congress

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:28:00 MST

When Congress returns to work, the environment should be high on the list of unfinished business. Much of the work unfortunately requires stopping proposals that would harm national forests and other natural resources. Lawmakers should turn down legislation that would: _Allow the timber industry to fell healthy trees remaining after forest fires. _Exempt large Forest Service logging projects from the requirements for public comment and environmental impact analysis. _Allow oil and ga...

Chafee, Friend of the ESA, Goes Down

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:22:00 MST

There's a lot of celebrating going on by many enviros today with Richard Pombo out, but also missing from the 110th Congress will be Lincoln Chafee, the Republican who single-handedly stood in the way of Pombo's push to undermine the Endangered Species Act. Radio reports I heard had something like a third of the voters saying Chafee thinks "too much like President Bush," apparently oblivious to his stalwart defense against numerous would-be incursions on environmental protect...

Officials Propose California Endangered Species Act Exemption For Klamath

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 10:01:00 MST

In the Klamath River Basin these days environmental news is dominated by talk about dam removal and, occasionally, new restrictions on fishing. But now another issue is poised to compete for the headlines. The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) announced late last month that it plans to give a hundred or so farmers and alfalfa ranchers in Siskiyou County just south of the Oregon border an exemption from the California Endangered Species Act. Released without fanfare, the announcement ...

First Lady Touts Pombo's Enviro Record?!?!?

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:15:00 MST

This is just too outrageous... Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, who has faced of wave of attack ads from national conservation groups, is an "enthusiastic steward" of the environment and a friend of wildlife, first lady Laura Bush told GOP supporters Friday. The first lady defended the environmental record of the seven-term congressman, seeking to give him a boost in his unexpectedly tight re-election campaign. Environmental groups have spent heavily to defeat Pombo, angered by what ...

Georgia Adds 121 Species To Protection List

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:10:00 MST

The rare Altamaha spiny mussel, known to exist only in southeast Georgia's Altamaha River and its tributaries, is one of 121 species being added to the state's new list of protected species. Resembling a rock with catfish spines, the mussel has been has been detected in only 14 of 120 sites checked since 2002, said Brett Albanese, a state wildlife biologist who helped prepare the first comprehensive revision of Georgia's protected species list since 1992. The state's Wildli...

Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048, Study By Ecologists, Economists Predicts Collapse Of World Ocean Ecology

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:07:00 MST

The apocalypse has a new date: 2048. That's when the world's oceans will be empty of fish, predicts an international team of ecologists and economists. The cause: the disappearance of species due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change. The study by Boris Worm, PhD, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, -- with colleagues in the U.K., U.S., Sweden, and Panama -- was an effort to understand what this loss of ocean species might mean to the world. Th...

Fish Group Sues Department Of Water Resources For Taking Endangered Salmon

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:07:00 MST

An alliance of sportfishing groups recently filed a lawsuit against the State Department of Water Resources (DWR) to compel them to comply with a state law requiring them to protect endangered Delta fish species, opening a new front in the battle to save the California Delta. The lawsuit charges DWR for violating the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) by capturing and killing threatened spring-run chinook salmon, endangered winter-run chinook salmon and threatened Delta smelt at its So...

Activists Say Rulings Imperil Species

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:02:00 MST

An Interior Department official has come under fire from environmental groups for disregarding a series of recommendations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect as many as eight threatened animal, fish and plant species - including several in Utah - under the Endangered Species Act. Julie MacDonald, a deputy assistant secretary, has rejected the findings of Fish and Wildlife biologists and reversed or altered agency findings on the Gunnison sage-grouse, the white-tailed prairi...

Saving Endangered Species

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:00:00 MST

This is a great article about WildAid. According to the State Department of China, the United States is the second largest importer of illegal wildlife in the world. Knights attributes this to the countries' wealth and ethnic diversity: "A lot of these trades are derived from specific areas and peoples of the world," says Knights, "So while smuggled Russian caviar may be a rich Caucasian delicacy, shark fin soup is largely an East Asian dish. Rhino horn, tiger bone, bear bladd...

State Adds 121 Species To Protection List

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:08:00 MST

Mirror Test Implies Elephants Self-Aware

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:17:00 MST

If you're Happy and you know it, pat your head. That, in a peanut shell, is how a 34-year-old female Asian elephant in the Bronx Zoo showed researchers that pachyderms can recognize themselves in a mirror - complex behavior observed in only a few other species. The test results suggest elephants - or at least Happy - are self-aware. The ability to distinguish oneself from others had been shown only in humans, chimpanzees and, to a limited extent, dolphins. That self-recognition may und...

Global Warming Will Devastate Economy: UK Report

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:06:00 MST

Global warming could devastate the world economy on a scale we haven't seen since the world wars and the Great Depression, a major report by a British economist says. Sir Nicholas Stern, the report's author and a senior government economist, said unchecked global warming could shrink the global economy by 20 per cent -- and cost a whopping $7 trillion in lost output. However, taking action now would cost just one per cent of global gross domestic product, Sterns says in his 700-p...

Bush Appointee Said To Reject Advice On Endangered Species

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:41:00 MST

A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has rejected staff scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act at least six times in the past three years, documents show. In addition, staff complaints that their scientific findings were frequently overruled or disparaged at the behest of landowners or industry have led the agency's inspector general to look into the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy assis...

EPA To Study Effects Of Pesticides On Frog Species

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:36:00 MST

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether 66 pesticides used in California harm the endangered California red-legged frog, and it will limit the use of those chemicals while it conducts that research. The EPA's decision comes 13 months after a federal judge in San Francisco, ruling on a lawsuit filed by the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, said the agency violated the Endangered Species ...

Endangered Amphibian Species Leaps To A Minor Legal Victory

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:24:00 MST

A species of endangered amphibians, the Sierra Nevada Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, leapt to a legal victory in a federal appeals court yesterday, but advocates for the frog warned that the advance could be short-lived. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Interior Department's decision to defer formally listing the frog as an endangered species. However, the three-judge panel left the door open for the agency to stall the listing again if it meets certain procedural requirements....

Canon Helps Save A Species In Aid Of WWF

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:02:00 MST

Canon is helping to preserve endangered species across the world with a Christmas promotion in aid of WWF – the global conservation organization. From late October 2006 through to Christmas Eve, purchasers of selected PowerShot Digital Cameras or PowerShot/Selphy promotional hard bundles will receive a free WWF Retail Adoption Box worth £29.99 (€44.99). The Adoption Gift Boxes offer the purchasers a chance to adopt a wild animal (dolphin, tiger, panda or orang-utan) in i...

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne Likely Will Seek ESA Changes

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:25:00 MST

Conservation groups expect Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to seek major changes next year to a federal law that protects plants and wildlife from extinction, picking up where he left off nine years ago when he was in the U.S. Senate. In 1998 as a senator from Idaho, Kempthorne nearly pushed a bipartisan bill through Congress that would have updated the now 33-year-old Endangered Species Act. The measure would have given landowners an incentive to work with federal authorities to help enda...

Texas Bighorns Obtain Goal of Being Trophy Hunted Again

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 09:30:00 MST

Bighorn sheep had all but disappeared about 50 years ago from the West Texas mountains where they once flourished. Now there are so many that they're being hunted. Years of restoration efforts have proven successful and now there are at least 822 of the agile animals, said Mike Pittman, who directs wildlife management areas in the Trans-Pecos region. A helicopter survey in late August tallied the desert bighorn sheep numbers, he said. "And we know we're not seeing them all, n...

Targeted Vaccination Could Save Endangered Species

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:35:00 MST

Targeted vaccination against rabies and other infectious diseases could save from extinction threatened animals such as the Ethiopian wolf, the world's most endangered member of the dog family. Instead of immunising entire populations, which is difficult with wild animals, researchers said on Wednesday they have shown that vaccinating about 25-30 percent of Ethiopian wolves could reduce the number of animals dying from rabies. "You really can vaccinate animals like the Ethiopian wo...

Flaw Limits Hatchery Fish in the Wild, Study Says

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 10:23:00 MST

Hatchery-bred fish have long sliced through Northwest rivers along with wild fish, raising the question: What's the difference? An intensive study of steelhead in the Hood River has verified the difference. Fish bred for generations in hatcheries do little besides fill fishing nets, because they have slim hope of producing young that reach adulthood. The finding, by Oregon State University and federal researchers, stands out because the difference between hatchery and wild fish lies ...

Law Helps Endangered Species

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:09:00 MST

It's a tactic from the developer's playbook: If you disagree with the findings, question the method, call it "junk science" and poison the well. Developer Tony Symmes did just that when he demeaned the research that led to listing of the valley elderberry longhorn beetle by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1980. "The science behind the listing of the beetle was faulty from the beginning," he told writer Heather Hacking. A quarter century-plus of scientific re...

Unique, Rare And Endangered Species Of Florida Everglades Highlighted On Stamps

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:23:00 MST

To raise awareness of the diverse species inhabiting the fragile environment of the world's largest subtropical marshland -- the Florida Everglades -- the U.S. Postal Service dedicated the Nature of America: Southern Florida Wetland stamp pane and stamped postal cards today. The stamps and cards depict strikingly beautiful images of 21 plants and animals found in southern Florida wetland areas. The stamp pane, which can be used as a "flash card," has information on the back listing c...

Committee Assigned To Help Endangered Species On The Missouri

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:45:00 MST

There's a new approach to helping endangered species on the Missouri River -- a committee with members from all levels of government, as well as environmental groups and industries that depend on the river. Its mission will be to advise regulators on efforts to restore the river for federally-protected birds and fish. During a meeting in Omaha this week, Army Corps of Engineers project leader Rose Hargrave said the group will try to move beyond years of conflict and litigation. "...

Gains By Endangered Species Cited

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 09:29:00 MST

More than half of the imperiled species recently reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are doing well enough to be removed from the Endangered Species Act list or downgraded from endangered to threatened status, the agency recommended yesterday. The 13 species studied are from California, including three birds with habitat in San Diego County. In the coming months, hundreds of similar reviews to be conducted nationwide could lead to the first large-scale reduction in the number...

Local Endangered Species So Plentiful Now It Is Removed From List

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:04:00 MST

The federal status of bird that lives in the Coachella Valley was downgraded from endangered to threatened, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday. The least Bell’s vireo was among six species that had their status changed by the service. Environmentalists supported two of the changes, including that of the vireo. Overall, the service competed the review of 12 species and came back with six recommendations to downgrade or delist six. “Some endangered species are...

Analysis: Climate Action 'Boosts Economy'

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:42:00 MST

When President Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol as one of the first acts of his presidency, he did so largely on the basis that it would damage the U.S. economy and cost millions of jobs. But as clean energy becomes one of the world's fastest-growing industries, many are now wondering whether that decision was not somewhat shortsighted. Speaking at the British Labor Party conference last week, former President Clinton said the vibrancy of the British economy was in...

FWS Refuses to Protect Mexican Garter Snake

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:05:00 MST

Responding to a petition and lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced today that the Mexican Garter Snake does not warrant protection as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In its determination, FWS recognized that the garter snake is extirpated from 85-90 percent of its range in the U.S., declining, and severely threatened by multiple factors in both the U.S. and Mexico. However, the agency still concluded tha...

World 'Warmest For 12,000 Years'

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:04:00 MST

The world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of rapid warming over the past 30 years, a study has suggested. Nasa climatologists said the Earth had warmed by about 0.2C (0.4F) in each of the last three decades. Pollution from human activity was pushing the world towards dangerous levels of climate change, they warned. As a result, plant and animal species were struggling to migrate fast enough to cooler regions, they said. "The evidence implies that...

Endangered Turtle Species Is Studied

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:39:00 MST

A marine park is joining U.S. researchers in studying methods to conserve the Hawaiian green sea turtle, an endangered species. The park joins a collaborative study between the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to help conserve the Hawaiian green sea turtle by adding a pool of already captive turtles to the project. 'The nice thing is that we can do the study without having any impact on the threatened wild population,' said UAB Biol...

Water Flea May Be Added To Endangered Species List

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 00:24:00 MST

A tiny Southern Oregon water flea is among the species that would be protected under a draft plan released Friday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Agate Desert water flea — a mere six-hundreths of an inch long — is among the federally listed threatened and endangered species found in vernal pools near White City and in wet meadow areas in the Illinois Valley. The recovery plan recommends the sites be protected from development and managed or restored to maintain or im...

Branson Commits $3B To Fight Global Warming

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:10:00 MST

Billionaire Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson Thursday committed an estimated $3 billion over the next 10 years, or all of the profits from his airline and rail businesses, to combating global warming. "We are very pleased today to be making a commitment to invest 100 percent of all future proceeds to the Virgin Group from our transportation interest, both our trains and airline businesses, into tackling global warming," Branson told a news conference at the Clinton Global Initiat...

Day Fire Threatens Endangered Species

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:46:00 MST

Ventura County has declared a state of emergency as the Day fire grows to more than 98,000 acres. A big concern is the endangered species threatened by the flames. One of the species is the red-legged frog, made famous in the writings of Mark Twain. Also in danger is the habitat of the California Condor. 19 of the state's 61 birds live in the Los Padres National Forest, wildlife experts are doing what they can to protect these animals. "We gave the forest service the GPS loca...

Wilderness Road Rule Overturned

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:11:00 MST

A federal judge has overturned a Bush administration rule that would've allowed states to build roads through millions of acres of federal wilderness. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte, in a decision released Wednesday, ruled that the administration ignored both the National Environmental Policy Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act in formulating its plan for roadless areas on federal public lands. The ruling reinstitutes a policy drafted during the Clinton administration a...

No Border Wall: Make Mexico Take Care of her Own

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:35:00 MST

Letter opposing border wall... As a supporter of Defenders of Wildlife and someone who cares about the national parks, refuges and wildlife along our borders, I am deeply concerned about Secure Fence Act, H.R. 6061. The bill would authorize construction of hundreds of miles of fencing right across these lands, including areas essential to the jaguar and other endangered species. We don't have to sacrifice America's natural heritage to ensure national security. Unfortunately, ...

NOAA To Discuss Whale Entanglement

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:20:00 MST

Saving the whales is no job for amateurs. On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will give a public presentation at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories on what -- and what not -- to do when a whale is seen in the water dragging nets or lines. "For both the animals' welfare, as well as human safety," said Dr. Teri Rowles, NOAA Fisheries Service lead marine mammal veterinarian and director of its Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, "it...

Shark That Walks On Fins Is Discovered

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:28:00 MST

Scientists combing through undersea fauna off Indonesia's Papua province said Monday they had discovered dozens of new species, including a shark that walks on its fins and a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis. The team from U.S.-based Conservation International also warned that the area — known as Bird's Head Seascape — is under danger from fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide to net their catches and called on Indonesia's government to do more to protect it....

USFWS Seeks Public Comment on Endangered Species List Candidates

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:41:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s updated list of species being considered for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act is now available and the public is asked to comment. The updated list of 279 native plant and animal species has been published in the Federal Register. Hawaii leads the nation with the greatest number of candidates on the list at 103 species. An additional 12 candidate species are from other Pacific islands, including the Pacific sheath-tailed bat, w...

Endangered Species Make Their Home In Saratoga County

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:40:00 MST

Up until three years ago, scientists didn't think the Blanding's turtle lived in Saratoga County. Now the turtle, considered a threatened species by New York state, is on the verge of getting a 132-acre home on Edie and King roads in the towns of Northumberland and Wilton through grants from Saratoga County and The Nature Conservancy. 'The turtles are smiling,' said Northumberland Supervisor Bill Peck, smiling Wednesday after the county portion of the grant was approv...

No Endangered Species Listing For New England Cottontail

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:44:00 MST

The New England cottontail may need some extra protection -- but it's not getting any help from the federal government. The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service has chosen not to pursue protection for the rabbit under the Endangered Species Act. A spokeswoman says a 12-month review found enough evidence to support pursuing federal protection for the cottontail, but the agency has chosen to put its resources elsewhere for the time being. The New England cottontail will remain a candidate fo...

Air Bubbles From Antarctica Ice Core Tell A Scary Environmental Story

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:37:00 MST

Evidence from an 800,000-year-old ice core in the Antarctic shows unprecedented atmospheric change due to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, according to scientists who participated in the 10-nation European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica. They say air from the oldest ice core has confirmed increase in greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to levels not seen for hundreds of years. The scientists had tested samples of these bubbles of air locked in this ice core af...

Report Links Global Warming, Storms

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:31:00 MST

Scientists say they have found what could be the key to ending a yearlong debate about what is making hurricanes more violent and common -- evidence that human-caused global warming is heating the ocean and providing more fuel for the world's deadliest storms. For the past 13 months, researchers have debated whether humanity is to blame for a surge in hurricanes since the mid-1990s or whether the increased activity is merely a natural cycle that occurs every several decades. Employin...

Recovery Plans Essential for Endangered Species

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:03:00 MST

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today finds that recovery plans play an important role in the successful delisting of endangered species, reinforcing a position Defenders of Wildlife has long taken that emphasizes the need for comprehensive, science-based recovery strategies tailored to specific plants and animals. "As the GAO report shows, recovery plans are vital tools that help biologists, stakeholders and landowners understand what needs to be done to recover...

Hawaii's Endangered Species

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 10:08:00 MST

Hawaii has more native species on the brink of extinction than any other state -- and should get federal funding to match that need, conservation workers told White House officials yesterday. But many endangered species programs are based on state population or land area, leaving Hawaii shortchanged, several people said at a Cooperative Conservation Listening Session. "Because we're isolated geographically, Hawaii is home to plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet,"...

Fear Of Global Warming Unites Evangelicals, Environmentalists In US

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 10:07:00 MST

Tending to your soul at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Boise, Idaho, involves recycling old cell phones and printer cartridges in the church lobby, pulling noxious weeds in the backcountry and fixing worn-out hiking trails in the mountains. This is part of the ministry of Tri Robinson, a former biology teacher whose rereading of the Bible led him to the belief that Christians focused on Scripture need to combat global warming and save the Earth. "All of a sudden Boise Vineyard ...

Gore Predicts Shift In Bush Climate Policy

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 09:23:00 MST

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore predicted on Tuesday that President George W. Bush would shift to do more to fight global warming, under Republican pressure from California to New York. "I think there is a better than 50-50 chance that President Bush will change his policy in the next two years," Gore told an audience in Oslo after showing his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" about global warming during a tour of Europe. "Many of his strongest supporters are chang...

Trafficking Of Tiger Bones Is Buying Death For The Species

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 15:46:00 MST

Despite an official ban, the trafficking of tiger bones in China, particularly for use in traditional medicine and health tonics, remains robust and poses a serious threat to the highly endangered species, international conservationists said Thursday. According to a recent study, there are only about 5,000 wild tigers left in the world. Because of illegal poaching, habitat loss and commercial exploitation, the tiger population in China has dwindled to less than 50. Illegal trading in tiger...

Tests Show Promise For New Environment Friendly Technologies

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 15:45:00 MST

Emissions of the most potent greenhouse gas, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), could be history in less than four years, according to results of pilot tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the magnesium industry. Preliminary results show that alternative technologies have the potential to replace SF6, which is used to prevent oxidation and burning of molten metal. By investing in innovative technologies our country=s environmental well being will improve,@ said Bill Wehrum, EPA...

Canadian Groups to Push to Keep Orcas On Endangered Species List

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:51:00 MST

A group of Canadian environmental groups will rally to keep the endangered status for orcas in the U.S. Representatives of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, the Georgia Strait Alliance and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee will join American groups to protect the southern resident orcas as an endangered species. The Northeast Pacific southern resident orca population is protected in Canada under the federal Species at Risk Act, which lists them as endangered. They are protected under th...

Farr Urges Patience In Sea Otter Funding

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:02:00 MST

Rep. Sam Farr came to Cannery Row Tuesday looking for ammunition from experts for the next battle for the California sea otter. Members of the Otter Recovery Project who met with the Carmel Democrat at Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary headquarters were told not to expect much legislation out of Washington, D.C., for the remainder of this year. Farr said he hopes to come back under a new Democratic House majority leadership in January, when the nation's conservation priorities might ...

Weather Prevents Whale From Being Freed From Fishing Gear

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:00:00 MST

Officials say poor weather prevented them from removing fishing gear from a humpback whale. Federal officials say the whale has moved into unprotected waters near Chatam Straight. And seas were too rough for a Marine Mammal Stranding Network team to remove fishing equipment that is trailing the whale. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries spokeswoman Sheila McLean says the whale is not in imminent danger. The humpback was first spotted in Stephens Passage last week. Crews...

Marine Patrol Rescues Whale

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 10:00:00 MST

Maine Marine Patrol officers rescued a 22-foot whale Saturday that was tangled in lobster gear, according to the state Department of Marine Resources. The entangled 22-foot minke was reported by Division II Marine Patrol Sgt. Jay Carroll. Carroll and Capt. Troy Dow spotted the whale around 12:25 p.m. while aboard the department's patrol vessel Dirigo, just southeast of Northeast Harbor. Stephen Robbins, the DMR's whale take reduction gear specialist, is part of the team responding ...

Fish & Game Plays Dumb Over New Salamander Species

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 09:52:00 MST

A coalition of conservation groups filed suit in California state court today, challenging the refusal of the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to protect the recently discovered Scott Bar Salamander under California’s state endangered species law. Rather than herald the new species—a rare subset of an already threatened species—DFG stripped the salamanders of protection, subjecting them to immediate threat from logging operations. Joseph Vaile, campaign director of the Kla...

Bush Administration Pesticide Rules For Endangered Species Are Illegal

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:15:00 MST

A federal judge in Seattle today overturned new Bush administration rules that made it easier for pesticide makers to ignore the effects of their products on endangered plants and animals. The court set aside the administration's rules, and restored prior standards that provided greater protection to protected wildlife and plants. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by a coalition of national and regional wildlife conservation and pesticide reform organizations. "Pestici...

Environmental Issues Bring Out Differences In MI Governor's Race

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:11:00 MST

Michigan's businesses have thrived over the decades in part because of the state's vast array of natural resources: abundant water for fishing, recreation and manufacturing; timber for construction, fuel and woodworking; iron for steelmaking; fertile land for farming. But the state also has struggled to balance the protection of its environment with the needs of business. Decades of pollution dumped on the ground and into waterways has cost billions of dollars for lengthy cleanups....

U.S. To Lease 8 Million Acres In Alaska For Drilling

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:27:00 MST

Despite strong opposition from environmental groups, the Bush administration Wednesday said it would offer energy companies next month the opportunity to search for crude oil and natural gas on 8 million acres in Alaska's western Arctic region. The acres to be leased will be on 696 tracts in the northeast and northwest areas of the National Petroleum Reserve. Environmentalists are especially concerned because 373,000 acres north of the reserve's wetland-rich Teshekpuk Lake will also be...

Service Denies Petition To List 16 Insect Species Under Endangered Species Act

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:45:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that a petition to list 16 insects in the Algodones Dunes area of southern California under the Endangered Species Act does not contain substantial information to warrant adding the species to the Federal list of threatened and endangered species. The negative finding on the petition was published in the Federal Register on August 18, 2006. The petition to list the insects was submitted to the Service by the Center for Biological Diversity, P...

Arizona Must Confront Threat Posed By Non-Native Species

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:37:00 MST

It appears the No. 1 threat to Arizona native wildlife and fish in these imperiled biotic communities continues to be the introduction, perpetuation and expansion of non-native sport fish, baitfish, crayfish and bullfrogs throughout Arizona's river systems. This primary threat remains the "800-pound gorilla in the room" that nobody wants to talk about. Most of the vertebrate species (i.e., native fish, amphibians and reptiles) listed or considered for listing under the Endangered...

Environment Emerges As Central Issue In PA Race

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:36:00 MST

Many House Republicans, particularly in the Democratic-leaning Northeast, are touting their political independence at a time when the party affiliation they share with President Bush increasingly appears a political liability in this volatile election year. A case in point is two-term Pennsylvania Rep. Jim Gerlach, who hopes that the centrist image he has sought to cultivate will enable him to fend off a vigorous rematch challenge by Democratic lawyer Lois Murphy. Their contest appeared de...

Prize Puts Focus On Endangered Species

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:33:00 MST

African elephants, Humpback whales and American wolves all have something in common. They're in trouble, and they appear on the "red list" as a threatened, or endangered, species. But a unique award and prize, started in Indianapolis, will soon be given to a scientist who is helping to stop their extinction. Kids visiting the Indianapolis Zoo may not know it but they're the future to saving thousands of endangered species. Scientists expect at least 11,000 types of animals to d...

Lampricide Puts Endangered Species at Risk

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:44:00 MST

Some scientists are concerned that a chemical used to kill sea lampreys in a tributary of Lake Champlain could put endangered species at risk. The sea lampreys are being targeted in Lewis Creek because the eel-like parasites attach to trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon. The lamprey wound and sometimes kill the cold-water fish, which tend to occupy deeper reaches of Lake Champlain. "The lamprey go to the cool, deep water along with the trout," said Brian Chipman, a biologist with ...

Living On Earth: Killing Endangered Species To Save Them

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:09:00 MST

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this... Thirty years ago, it seemed that the magnificent bighorn sheep of the western mountains were headed for extinction. The bighorn is the most prized trophy of the four North American wild sheep species that hunters consider a grand slam. So, the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep came up with a program to save the endangered animals by killing just a few of them. Now, saving an endangered species by hunting them sounds like an oxymoron, but ...

Georgia Governor Testifies On Endangered Species

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:59:00 MST

My question is... how can humans survive in the long run without placing strong emphasis on species and resource protection? Governor Sonny Perdue today testified before the U.S. Senate Committee of Environment and Public Works to detail Georgia’s efforts to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect Georgia’s water resources and protect endangered species downstream. “I cannot believe Congress passed the Endangered Species Act with the intention of providing ...

China To Let Tourists Hunt Endangered Species

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:49:00 MST

This is despicable... China is to auction licenses to foreigners to hunt wild animals, including endangered species, a newspaper said on Wednesday. The government would auction licenses based on types and numbers of wild animals, ranging from about $200 for a wolf, the only carnivore on the list, to as much as $40,000 for a yak, the Beijing Youth Daily said. The auction, taking place on Sunday in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, would be the first of its kind in ...

Colorado-Born Lynx Gives Birth; Milestone In Reintroduction Plan

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:43:00 MST

A lynx born in Colorado has given birth to two kittens, a major milestone in the state's ambitious attempt to reintroduce the elusive cats, researchers said Tuesday. It was the first documented case of a Colorado-born lynx giving birth since the reintroduction program began in 1999. The cat, born in 2004, gave birth to two males in mid-June. The news was tempered, however, by a dramatic reduction in the number of births this year. Colorado Division of Wildlife researchers found fou...

Feds Asking For Public's Thoughts On 'Cooperative Conservation'

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 22:00:00 MST

Sounds like some BS to us... Leaders of the Bush administration's "cooperative conservation" effort will hold their first public meeting in Spokane on Wednesday to gather ideas on how disparate groups can work together to protect the environment. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will attend the meeting, dubbed a "listening session" that is intended to foster cooperation on thorny environmental issues. The Bush administration, which held a conference on the topic la...

Senate Vote For Triple Border Wall Will Destroy Endangered Species And Ecosystems

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 13:43:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity blasted this week's U.S. Senate vote to fund the construction of a massive triple wall over 370 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, calling the plan a colossal environmental disaster and declaring that it will not stem the tide of illegal immigration. More border walls, militarization, low-level aircraft and roads would further damage already-stressed wildlife and places, such as the Cactus Pygmy Owl and Sonoran Pronghorn in Arizona, Flat-Tailed Horned ...

Congress Shoots Down Taxidermy Tax Scam

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 13:52:00 MST

The Humane Society of the United States today praised the U.S. Senate for including a provision in the Pension Reform Act, passed last night by the Senate and last week by the House of Representatives, to close a loophole in the tax code that has been exploited by trophy hunters and allowed them to unfairly deduct the costs of their hunting excursions across the globe. The HSUS uncovered the scam and brought it to the attention of Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), who shepherded the taxidermy ta...

Bush's Grade On Environment Falls

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 08:36:00 MST

More Americans than ever disapprove of President Bush's handling of the environment, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, which also has found that spiraling fuel costs are altering household spending habits. Fifty-six percent of respondents in the national poll said the Bush administration was doing too little to protect the environment. The negative rating was up considerably from The Times' last major survey on the environment, in 2001, when 41% said he wasn't doing...

3 Million Fish Suffocate In Salton Sea Die-Off

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:59:00 MST

Some 3 million fish suffocated in the Salton Sea's largest tilapia die-off since 1999, clogging a harbor with rotting fish that is driving away boaters and fouling the air in the Coachella Valley desert. "The whole Salton Sea is full of dead fish," said Bryan Brinegar, part of the Environmental Recovery Systems cleanup crew wading into the smelly mess to scoop dead fish into barrels. The battle for oxygen among booming tilapia population contributed to the heavy die-off, an...

UK and CA on Global Warming

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:18:00 MST

In California this week UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Stage Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have been discussing the scope for co-operation on climate change. This could be good news for UK companies hoping to tap into the US market for renewable energy technology. The agreement aims to tie both California and the United Kingdom to a list of measures: - The United Kingdom will share best practices on emissions trading and lessons learned in Europe. California and the United Kingdom w...

Lebanon Oil Spill Makes Animals Casualties Of War

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 09:19:00 MST

The Bush administration's lack of action in intervening in the current Middle East conflict is now complicit in contributing to the delay in environmental cleanup after a major oil spill caused by Israel. Add bluefin tuna and green turtles to the casualties in the Hezbollah-Israel conflict. Green groups are calling an oil spill along Lebanon's Mediterranean shore the largest environmental crisis in the country's history. The spill came after Israeli planes struck a Lebanes...

FL Manatees No Longer Endangered

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 08:43:00 MST

In a move embodying the success of recent protection efforts and new state standards regarding species in decline, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously on June 7 to remove the manatee from the state's endangered species list. The commission also voted that day to remove the bald eagle from a list of "species of special concern." Manatee Numbers Climbing In public hearings prior to its vote, the commission noted more than 3,100 manatees now liv...

Court Overturns Ruling On Endangered Species

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 08:34:00 MST

The Bureau of Land Management does not have to get input on impacts of water diversions and ditches built before 1976, a federal appeals court has ruled. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on July 24 overturned a lower court decision that would have required the BLM to "consult" on water transmissions over rights of way on BLM-administered land—input that would provide ways to mitigate actions and minimize effects to protect endangered species. In the case of Western Watershe...

Turtles, Tourists At Loggerheads

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:26:00 MST

An interesting article that reminds us that we must be conscious of our impact on the environment even as we attempt to observe and learn more about it... Yakushima island has the largest spawning grounds for loggerhead turtles in the North Pacific and is the northernmost landfall in Japan for green turtles. Last year, about 4,000 loggerhead turtles came ashore on the island. Even taking into account the possibility that some of the turtles landed more than once, it is believed the island ...

CA-UK Clean-Air Alliance

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:21:00 MST

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger paid a visit to the Port of Long Beach on Monday to announce an agreement between Great Britain and California to combat global warming. The announcement, which seeks to lower the amount of greenhouse gases released into the air by two of the world's largest economies, comes amid a widening split over environmental policies between the Bush administration and Blair's and Schwarzenegger's governments. "We see t...

Reporting on Environmental Issues Down

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:09:00 MST

People who look to TV’s broadcast networks for news on the environment have likely been disappointed for several years. An ongoing study shows environmental coverage, after picking up dramatically in the first several months of the Bush administration in 2001, pretty much vanished after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that same year. That’s not a surprise to me, and if you’re found you way to Watchdog Earth, it’s probably not a surprise to you. But on Friday, at journali...

Whale Lover Spouts Bad News About Ocean Pollution

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:35:00 MST

Toxic metal content in whales seems to be off the chart according to a famed whale biologist who just complete a round-the-world trip to study whales and pollution. Read the article for more information....

Souvenirs Add To Decline Of Endangered Species

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 10:38:00 MST

Holidaymakers are being urged not to buy souvenirs abroad which will contribute to the decline of endangered species. A charity has now released an online guide to what not to buy on holiday. ARKive bills itself as an "online Noah's Ark" which collects and catalogues images, films and audio recordings of the world's species. It has launched a holiday guide to endangered animals that are commonly offered to tourists. "When you are abroad, there's a natural temptation...

Animals Scramble As Climate Warms

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:39:00 MST

Alarming anecdotes — such as polar bears drowning as they swim farther in search of scarce Arctic sea ice — dramatize the issue. But a recent flurry of scientific reports, field observations and official actions suggests nature's struggle with rising temperatures is well underway: As Earth and its atmosphere grow warmer, the planet's wild inhabitants take cover where they can: cooler waters, deeper forests and canyons, higher slopes or nearer the poles, north and south. B...

Hottest Destination In 2100: Aspen

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:36:00 MST

A study released by the city of Aspen says the town could be as hot as Texas by 2100. The study released yesterday by the Aspen Global Change Institute says the average temperature in Aspen has increased by three degrees in the past 25 years. Besides eliminating skiing, it will be difficult to find enough water to deal with the growing population and higher temperatures. The report says hay fields and other crops will require more water. Rafting seasons and fishing seasons will be ...

Misleading Press About Pombo's Endangered Species Changes

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:08:00 MST

The article linked below is an example of misleading press regarding Richard Pombo's proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act. The biggest misnomer is the concept that 'science' or 'scientific analysis' will be applied under his changes. The federal government already uses science to determine endangered species habitat and species numbers. The problem is that the Bush administration has appointed political officers to supervise all scientific research done by the fed...

Feds Reject Wyo Wolf Petition

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 09:15:00 MST

Wyoming's dispute with the federal government over wolf management appears headed back to court. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Monday denied the state's plan to manage endangered gray wolves inside the state, culminating a yearlong agency review of the plan. In addition to almost certainly sparking a return to the federal courtroom, the action means further delays in the delisting of wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, including in Montana and Idaho, even as the wolf popul...

Senate To Debate Drilling For Oil, Gas

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:27:00 MST

The Senate is expected to decide this week whether to open vast areas off the coast of Florida to oil and gas drilling, a debate with billions of dollars in energy royalties at stake that could affect the ability of coastal states like California to prevent drilling off their shores. Senate Republicans want to allow drilling in Lease Area 181, a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico south of Florida's Panhandle that is believed to contain one of the nation's largest untapped reserves...

Gila Trout No Longer Endangered Species

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 23:02:00 MST

After 40 years on the federal endangered species list, the Gila trout may soon go from endangered to threatened, opening the possibility for catch-and-release fishing of the species. A final ruling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected Aug. 17. "The species is no longer in danger of extinction," according to a Fish & Wildlife news release, The species, believed to have come from a common ancestor of the rainbow trout, was first officially classified in 1950 and r...

Helping Species That May Not Be There

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 22:29:00 MST

As many regions of the United States rapidly urbanize, multispecies conservation plans have become a popular method for trying to balance development and ecological needs. The basic idea is to let builders develop a certain area in exchange for setting aside biologically important land elsewhere for open space and habitat. The arrangement appeals to government agencies and developers because it allows them to consolidate the protection of numerous species into one agreement instead of dealin...

Steve Israel Marks Endangered Species Day

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:53:00 MST

Congressman Steve Israel (D-Huntington) today spoke on the subject of environmental protection and conservation to 100 students at Huntington’s J. Finley Middle School. Other speakers were John and Adriana Vater, co-owners of Spa Adriana, Beth Fiteni from the Neighborhood Network, and Katherine Edelen from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The purpose of the event was to mark Endangered Species Day and to draw attention to the Endangered Species Act, which the Congressman claims is under ...

Steve Israel Marks Endangered Species Day

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:52:00 MST

Senate Reaches Deal On Offshore Drilling

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:17:00 MST

Senators who want to open new areas of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas production heralded what they called a historic compromise Wednesday. The agreement was supported by a key Florida senator, Republican Mel Martinez, who previously had vowed to block anything he perceived as a threat to the state's multimillion-dollar beach-related tourism industry. The deal, promoted by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and several Gulf Coast lawmakers, would open an 8 million-acre segmen...

Signonsandiego.Com > News > Business -- Mercury Higher In Some Canned Tuna, Study Finds

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:55:00 MST

Canned tuna from Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico can contain mercury levels 30 percent to 50 percent higher than the federal limit, according to a study released yesterday by an environmental group. Defenders of Wildlife said that it found the highest concentrations of the toxic substance methylmercury in tuna from Tuna Real of Ecuador, Calmex of Mexico and Sardimar of Costa Rica. Canners in Ecuador and Mexico typically buy from fishers who drop their nets near schools of dolphins to nab th...

Proposal Could Jump Start Wolf Collaring & Helicopter Hunting

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:18:00 MST

A federal plan for handling cattle and sheep predators in designated wilderness areas could breathe new life into a proposal to land helicopters in millions of acres of pristine forest in Idaho for the purpose of tracking gray wolves, environmentalists say. A proposal before the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Division, which traps and shoots wild animals known to prey on livestock, would tweak a 1993 agreement between the two agencies. Th...

Endangered Species Wolf Killed, New Pack Released

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:08:00 MST

So... Five cows are more valuable than saving an endangered species? A female endangered Mexican gray wolf targeted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permanent removal from the wild has been killed, according to the agency and the Center for Biological Diversity. Officials were seeking to remove the male and female that made up the Nantac pack because the animals had been involved in the killing of at least five cows. The male was killed in June by the wolf recovery team under a pe...

Bald Eagle Success Story

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:27:00 MST

At a time when the country's feathers are frequently ruffled by military and diplomatic challenges to its global dominance, one classic American symbol is stronger than it has been in a long time: the bald eagle. Declaring the last few decades of recovery efforts a success, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is poised to release the bald eagle from the federal list of endangered species. Last century, the species had a close call with extinction in the country that has considered it a ...

Endangered Right Whale Gets Assist

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:20:00 MST

Thousands of square miles off Alaska have been designated as critical habitat for North Pacific right whales, considered the most endangered whale in the world. The federal rule published last week designates some 36,750 square miles in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska as critical habitat for right whales. The rule takes affect Aug. 7. At least 11,000 of the slow-moving whales -- prized by commercial whalers for their oil and baleen -- once swam the waters of the North Pacific. The wha...

Navy to Use Active Sonar During Exercises

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 07:50:00 MST

The Navy said it will use active sonar during warfare exercises off Hawaii as early as this weekend, after reaching an agreement with environmentalists who claimed it poses a threat to whales and other sea life. The settlement reached Friday prevents the Navy from using the sonar within 25 miles of the newly established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument during its Rim of the Pacific 2006 exercises. It also imposes a variety of methods to watch for and report the presence ...

Bottled Water Isn't Healthier Than Tap, Report Reveals

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:09:00 MST

Looks like bottled water can be environmentally expensive and not necessarily better for you than tap water......

Croplife America Seeking ‘Modernization’ Of Endangered Species Act

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 09:12:00 MST

We don't agree with the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act or the proposed 'modernizations' to the Endangered Species Act, but the following article has an interesting discussion of pesticide application, indemnification for the EPA (which it probably needs to some extent), and the practical impacts of the ESA. The Endangered Species Act is like a nagging backache for many farmers. They know it’s there, but it’s not going to stop them from doing a day’...

Whalers Kill Prey In Front Of Shocked Tourists

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:16:00 MST

Norwegian hunters shocked a boatload of Arctic tourists during the weekend by harpooning a whale in front of them. About 80 tourists were aboard the trawler Reine, which was heading for areas off the Arctic Lofoten Islands known for their abundance of whales, when the incident happened. The area is popular with Norwegian whale-hunters, who have killed more than 400 of this year's quota of 1,052 minke whales....

Conservation Planning Loopholes Threaten Imperiled Species, Researchers Say

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 05:46:00 MST

Widely used multispecies habitat conservation plans that permit the incidental "take" of threatened or endangered species often include species that are not confirmed to be present in the planning area, according to a Forum article in the July 2006 issue of BioScience. The plans frequently fail to provide adequate conservation measures for such species, the article argues, and as a result, species that are present but not confirmed to be are placed in increased danger. Habitat cons...

Pollution And Its Effect To The Enviornment

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 21:20:00 MST

Intersting international Environment blog from Bangladesh....

Gov. Jeb Bush Praises Offshore Drilling Bill, Florida Delegation Split

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 20:20:00 MST

Gov. Jeb Bush welcomed the passage Thursday of a bill by the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow oil and natural gas drilling 50 miles off Florida's shores, but he promised to ask state lawmakers to keep the rigs 100 miles away. The vote split Florida's House delegation 14-11 in favor of the bill, which passed 232-187. Both of the state's senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez, have said they would filibuster to try to prevent it from passing in the ...

16 Species Will Be Considered For Maine's Special-Protection Lists

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:16:00 MST

There's literally only a handful of them along the Kennebec River. One of them was seen in the river's waters, and a couple more in its tributaries. "That doesn't mean there couldn't be more," said Beth Swartz, a state wildlife biologist. The brook floater, like 10 other species of freshwater mussels in Maine, was part of a thorough, almost decadelong investigation in the 1990s that "pretty much covered the whole state," Swartz said. Some of Maine'...

Killing the ESA with Budget Cuts

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:12:00 MST

Massachusetts would lose a quarter of its $1 million annual budget for protecting endangered species under a spending plan approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last month. The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations is expected to vote Thursday whether to go along with the budget cut, which is included in the country's fiscal 2007 budget, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. In Massachusetts, the budget cut would target programs that monit...

Supreme Court To Hear Bush Environment Case

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:39:00 MST

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the Bush administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global warming, setting up what could be one of the court's most important decisions on the environment. The decision means the court will address whether the administration's decision to rely on voluntary measures to combat climate change are legal under federal clean air laws. "This is the whole ball of wax. This will determine whether the Environmental Protect...

Bush's Move On Hawaii Laudable

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:32:00 MST

President Bush has not acted often to save the environment, but when he did the other day it was a whopper. He created the largest marine reserve in the world - more expansive than Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park - by declaring almost 140,000 square miles of uninhabited Hawaiian islands, ocean and coral reefs a national monument. The designation will end commercial fishing in the area over the next five years and protect more than 7,000 species, a quarter of them unique to the ...

Beach Trash Harming Endangered Species

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:29:00 MST

Folks trying to protect sea turtles say the beach strand is littered worse than ever this year and the trash is harming endangered species. Volunteers of the Sea Turtle Project at Wrightsville Beach walk the strand every morning to pick up trash. Nancy Faye-Craig said, "And it is much worse this year. And I believe it is just because we have more visitors than we have had in the past." Martha Eggleston said, "We're here -- we spent the money to park -- we shouldn't...

Clean Water Act Saved But Limited

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:44:00 MST

The U.S. Supreme Court limited the reach of the Clean Water Act, saying it applies only to wetlands with a close connection to a river, lake or some other major waterway. The justices, voting 5-4, ordered a new round of hearings for two sets of Michigan landowners whose efforts to build on their property have been stymied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The majority was divided in its reasoning, with Justice Anthony Kennedy refusing to join four other justices in putting even more restr...

Fish and Wildlife OKs plan to help Platte River species

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:42:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has signed off on a plan to help endangered species using the Platte River in Nebraska. The federal agency has determined that the plan - involving two federal agencies, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, water users and environmentalists - won't jeopardize the endangered species. Those species include the whooping crane, pallid sturgeon, interior least tern and piping plover. The plan to help the species calls for increased flows on the Platte and mo...

Parklands: The New Endangered Species

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:19:00 MST

The ice-covered mountain tops are shrouded by fog. A stream gushes against the rocks on a headlong rush to the lake. High above the deserted visitors' parking lot, an elk stares at a lone hiker. Glacier National Park is an island, a sanctuary from the outside world. But for how long? To the west, subdivisions and vacation homes march toward its borders. To the north, bulldozers push deeper through the forests to a planned coal mine in the Canadian Flathead River Valley. To the south,...

Japanese Whaling Agenda Harpooned

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:43:00 MST

Australia has vowed to fight Japan's one small victory at the International Whaling Commission -- a non-binding pro-whaling resolution which has no effect on existing bans on commercial whaling. The non-binding resolution follows four more important votes held at the four-day IWC meeting, all lost by Japan. These including a vote which would have allowed Japanese coastal communities to hunt a limited number of whales. Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell stressed yesterday...

Japan Welcomes Vote Against Whaling Ban

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:24:00 MST

Japan was jubilant today after the International Whaling Commission voted to oppose the 1986 ban on commercial whaling, a move that conservationists fear could lead to a resumption of large-scale hunting and bring whale populations to the brink of extinction. Though Japan and other pro-whaling nations fell well short of the 75% of votes they need to overturn the IWC moratorium, a foreign ministry spokesman in Tokyo hailed the passage of a resolution critical of the ban as "a significant s...

Redford Tells Liberals To 'Forget Bush' On 'Global Warming'

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:42:00 MST

Actor/activist Robert Redford told liberals attending a political conference on Monday to "forget Bush" when seeking solutions to "global warming" because "you can't reason with a stone." During one of the opening events of the three-day "Take Back America" conference, Redford also blamed what he called an inadequate response to "serious climate change issues" on "a lack of leadership at the top" of the federal government. "They're not ...

Florida Removes Manatee From Endangered Species List

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:00:00 MST

Florida wildlife officials on Wednesday removed the manatee from the state's endangered species list in a move both momentous but in practical terms meaningless for now. It was the most hotly debated issue in a daylong meeting of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which also added the gopher tortoise to the list of threatened species and dropped the previously threatened bald eagle from its classifications. In their unanimous vote on manatees, the commissioners emphasized...

An Inconvenient Truth

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 20:19:00 MST

This is the link to the site for Al Gore's new movie. Check it out!...

Timber Industry Gets Exemption From Endangered-Species Law

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:27:00 MST

For the next half-century, Washington's timber industry will be shielded from Endangered Species Act prosecutions for harming salmon and four dozen other types of water creatures, the federal government declared Monday. In exchange, the industry pledged to take steps to help salmon, such as leaving forests alongside streams on 9.3 million acres. That's one-fifth of the state, making it the largest such deal in the West. But as speaker after speaker at a signing ceremony cited that figure...

FL Should Revise Imperiled Species Classification

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:51:00 MST

Conservation and animal welfare groups from Florida and around the nation have petitioned the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, urging the state to revise its imperiled species classification system. Using this flawed system, the FWC has already downlisted the red-cockaded woodpecker, despite opposition from many scientists. If the current classification system is not changed, many of Florida's at-risk species, such as the manatee, northern right whale, Florida panther an...

Corporate America Warms To Fight Against Global Warming

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:26:00 MST

Corporate leaders don't normally invite the federal government to raise their taxes. But that's exactly what Paul Anderson is doing. Anderson, the chairman of Charlotte-based Duke Energy, wants the federal government to fight global warming by taxing companies based on the "greenhouse gases" they pump into the atmosphere — just the sort of big-government remedy the Bush administration says would hobble the economy. For his efforts, Anderson has been excoriated by conservat...

Group Wants FL To Reassess Endangered Species Process - Orlando Sentinel : News Group Wants State To Reassess Endangered Species Process

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:56:00 MST

An environmental coalition, led by the Save the Manatee Club, filed a petition with state wildlife officials today, asking that they rework Florida's system for classifying endangered species, just days before the state considers changing that status for manatees. The petition asks the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to change the system, arguing that it is flawed and could cause species to lose protections. The coalition of 10 organizations also fear that for animals tha...

Species On Endangered List Challenged

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:47:00 MST

Ever since a 3-inch fish protected by the Endangered Species Act stopped construction of a dam in Tennessee in 1978, the law has been known as one of the toughest environmental laws on the books. Environmental groups have used it to halt development in pristine lands across the nation. Today, the law designed to protect animals such as the manatee from extinction also has become a legal tool of property-rights groups and developers. In a counterpunch to environmentalists who have filed lawsuits ...

Tough Challenge Confronts Pombo

Tue, 30 May 2006 15:23:00 MST

After several fairly easy attempts to clinch the incumbency, Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, is facing perhaps his most challenging quest to hang onto his congressional seat. Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee, has found himself on the receiving end of attacks and allegations from numerous groups — namely environmental — that question his integrity and ties to special interests and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "The primary has been more high-profile than it has i...

Exotic Animal Park Races To Save Endangered Species

Fri, 26 May 2006 17:41:00 MST

An exotic animal park in Garvin County is running out of money and time to save the lives of nine endangered animals. The GW Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood is trying to rescue the animals from a ranch in Kansas, because exotic animal ownership laws there have recently changed. KTEN's Andrea Kurys has the story. Volunteers at the park say that if they can't raise the funding to save these animals, they will be euthanized because people in Kansas can no longer own exotics as pets. An eme...

Too Bad for the DOI: Senate Confirms Kempthorne For Interior

Fri, 26 May 2006 16:11:00 MST

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne won Senate approval as Interior secretary on Friday after confirmation proceedings that highlighted the administration's policy on offshore energy exploration. Kempthorne, a former senator, was confirmed on a voice vote to succeed Gale Norton as the steward of one-fifth of the nation's land _ including tourist magnets as diverse as Yellowstone National Park and the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, Pa. The confirmation of Kempthorne, 54, was never in doubt...

ME Wants To Update List Of Endangerd Species For First Time Since 1997

Thu, 25 May 2006 20:25:00 MST

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife wants to add a dozen animals and insects including New England's cottontail rabbit and an owl to the state list of endangered and threatened species. Maine's list, created by the Legislature in 1975, includes 49 animals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and insects at risk of extinction in the state. The last time it was updated was in 1997, when insects were offered state protection for the first time. The state's list is similar to t...

Another Bill to Open ANWR to Drilling

Thu, 25 May 2006 20:24:00 MST

The chairman of the House Resources Committee has filed another bill to accomplish what so many prior bills have failed to do: open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Recent strategies to get an ANWR bill through a reluctant Senate have involved mixed marriages _ ANWR and the budget, or ANWR and the defense bill. Rep. Richard Pombo's latest proposal, on the other hand, is a standalone bill dealing only with ANWR. That leaves it wide open to filibuster in the Senate. "Th...

Platte River Plan Accommodates Water Users, Endangered Species

Thu, 25 May 2006 16:46:00 MST

plan to accommodate both endangered species and the growing number of cities and farmers tapping the Platte River was released Tuesday with recommendations that water flows be increased and land set aside for wildlife. The final environmental impact statement represents years of legal wrangling and negotiations among the three states the Platte flows through: Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. The plan's release comes as hundreds of farmers in northeastern Colorado are scrambling to keep their...

Judge: Idaho Plan Violates Endangered Species Act

Thu, 25 May 2006 16:45:00 MST

In a ruling that reaches deep into Northwest farm country, a federal judge on Tuesday found that a salmon-management plan for a network of Idaho irrigation and water-storage dams violates the Endangered Species Act. Judge James Redden found that the current plan for the upper Snake River drainage is "arbitrary and capricious," and involves a "fatally flawed" analysis that must be reworked. That plan calls for the release of water to aid salmon in downstream migration. But Redden ...

Endangered Species Act Misconstrued

Sun, 21 May 2006 22:31:00 MST

It is a myth that with the Endangered Species Act, landowners "lose" their property rights. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, out of 429,533 projects considered under the act between 1998 and 2004, less than 1 percent was halted, and all but one of these projects were implemented after modifying the project to address concerns about listed species. The act guides responsible development; it does not stop it. Further, the letter writer says the Endangered Species Act is la...

FL Offshore Drilling Ban Upheld - Barely

Fri, 19 May 2006 17:27:00 MST

The U.S. House narrowly preserved a decades-old ban on offshore drilling late Thursday night. But the tight vote offered further proof that Florida's ability to keep energy exploration far off its shores forever is growing more tenuous. By a vote of 217-203, the House accepted an amendment by Florida Reps. Adam Putnam, Jim Davis and others to strip a provision from the Interior Department spending bill that would have lifted a 23-year-old congressional moratorium on drilling for natural gas ...

Senate Declares First Endangered Species Day: May 11

Thu, 18 May 2006 03:34:00 MST

In 1972, habitat loss and a poison campaign had decimated Utah's prairie dog population to a mere 3,300. The species was so devastated that United States Fish and Wildlife Service predicted extinction by the year 2000. Instead, today the Utah prairie dog population has flourished to an estimated high of 11,700. Although still considered endangered, the Utah prairie dogs made this significant recovery after the 1973 listing as a Federal Endangered Species. Signed into law over 30 years ago b...

Aircraft Carrier Sunk In Gulf Of Mexico

Wed, 17 May 2006 20:35:00 MST

As hundreds of veterans looked on solemnly, Navy divers blew holes in a retired aircraft carrier and sent the 888-foot USS Oriskany to the bottom of the sea Wednesday, forming the world‘s largest deliberately created artificial reef. Korean and Vietnam War veterans on charter boats watched from beyond a one-mile safety perimeter as the "Mighty O" went down in 212 feet of water, about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach. "I‘m a little stunned. It‘s a little hard to take,&...

WI Allowed to Kill Problem Wolves

Wed, 17 May 2006 20:31:00 MST

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has received a permit for control of problem wolves from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The permit allows both the lethal and non-lethal trapping of wolves that are killing livestock and domestic animals. A preliminary count of Wisconsin’s gray wolf population for the winter of 2005-2006 shows that there are from 450 to 520 wolves in the state. “The wolf population apparently increased slightly from last year’s levels,̶...

Number Of Nests Shows Turtles Making Comeback

Wed, 17 May 2006 01:18:00 MST

Last year's record of 51 Texas coast nestings of endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles could be topped this weekend, and an unprecedented number of ridley hatchlings are expected to be released into the Gulf of Mexico in the next couple of months, experts said. With 50 nestings recorded and more than 4,000 eggs recovered for incubation as of Thursday, sea turtle preservationists are growing more and more optimistic that a nearly 30-year project to save the ancient species from extinction ...

Bush Border Plan Faulted For Impact On Environment

Wed, 17 May 2006 01:18:00 MST

President Bush's plan to station National Guard troops along the Mexican border is being criticized for failing to take into account the proposal's effect on the environment. Bush announced Monday that he plans to order up to 6,000 National Guard troops to the border in support of the Border Patrol. But the Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity said Tuesday that more border walls, roads and low-flying aircraft will harm already stressed wildlife and the environment in the f...

Lawsuite Filed to Protect American Samoan Species

Mon, 15 May 2006 14:53:00 MST

A US federal judge has allowed a lawsuit charging the US Fish and Wildlife Service with unlawfully delaying protection for 263 wildlife species, Radio New Zealand International reports. The lawsuit is being filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and Forest Guardians All 263 species are currently listed as candidates for protection as threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Two of the species, the Na’ena’e, a rare...

AZ Endangered Species' Success Tales

Sat, 13 May 2006 21:08:00 MST

Thursday was Endangered Species Day as declared by the U.S. Senate, the first-ever national celebration of America's commitment to protecting and recovering our nation's endangered species. Local environmental organizations celebrated by talking about success stories. Nationally, these included the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the humpback whale and many other plants, fish and wildlife. "In Arizona, we celebrate the return of some important species including the Mexican gray wol...

Pygmy Owl To Be Removed From Endangered Species List

Fri, 12 May 2006 19:13:00 MST

Conservation groups have gone to court in Tucson to try to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from removing the pygmy owl from the endangered species list. The owl is scheduled to officially be taken off the list Monday. The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife filed suit in federal court Thursday challenging that decision. They also are requesting a temporary restraining to block Monday's action. Fish and Wildlife is removing the pygmy owl from the endangered spe...

Delaware Is Home To 15 Species Of Turtles

Fri, 12 May 2006 15:26:00 MST

Delaware has 15 species of turtles -- five sea turtles, eight freshwater turtles, one brackish-water turtle and one land turtle. The sea turtles and one freshwater turtle (the bog) are classified as "threatened" on the federal threatened and endangered species list. All the species face habitat loss and alteration as Delaware continues to lose open space to development, says Jim White, associate director of land and biodiversity management at the Delaware Nature Society. Sea turtles Sea ...

Did Congress Celebrate 'Endangered Species Day?'

Thu, 11 May 2006 22:27:00 MST

By the time these words are placed in print a very significant day should have faded onto yesterday’s page of the calendar. Yes, today, May 11, 2006 the United States Senate issued a proclamation naming this 24-hour span of our lives “Endangered Species Day”. This is a special time to celebrate and honor those rarities, the more than 1,800 life forms now listed as threatened and endangered. The big question is...Did Republicans find the time this day to celebrate those endange...

12 Species Of Flies Get Federal Protection

Wed, 10 May 2006 14:30:00 MST

Twelve species of rare flies known for their elaborate courtship displays and found only in the Hawaiian Islands are now protected under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the protected status for the highly valued picture-wing flies Tuesday. The Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity sued the service in March 2005, accusing it of violating the Endangered Species Act. The center said the agency did not move ahead fast enough on listing the flies as en...

Recovery of Some Species Plotted on Website

Wed, 10 May 2006 03:25:00 MST

The U.S. Senate declared May 11, 2006 Endangered Species Day to “encourage the people of the United States to become educated about, and aware of, threats to species, success stories in species recovery, and the opportunity to promote species conservation worldwide.” To help celebrate and educate, the Center for Biological Diversity has created a website (www.esasuccess.org) detailing the conservation efforts that caused the populations of 100 endangered species in every U.S. state a...

20 Tools for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from ME

Tue, 09 May 2006 17:42:00 MST

Transportation is the leading source of global warming pollution in New England, responsible for more than one-third of the region’s emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading global warming pollutant. Worse, transportation-sector emissions have been rising for decades and are projected to continue to increase if trends toward more vehicle travel and less fuel-efficient cars and trucks continue. For the New England states to follow through on their historic commitment – made in concert...

US scientists reject Bush scepticism over global warming

Tue, 09 May 2006 17:41:00 MST

An American government report on climate change has undermined a key claim of Bush administration hard-liners and sceptics who have long disputed a link between carbon emissions and global warming. The study by the federal Climate Change Science Programme concluded that the atmosphere was growing warmer and that there was "clear evidence of human influences". Its critical finding was that there was no significant difference between rates of warming on the Earth's surface and in the a...

HI Whale Collision Reports at Record High

Tue, 09 May 2006 17:35:00 MST

More and more boaters are having collisions with whales in Hawaii waters and experts say the accidents are at a record high this year. This season seven whale collisions were reported. Among those documented cases, a calf that was hit by a boat propellor in March. That was the only case where the boat responsible did not report it. In past years, the state has confirmed an average of only two to three collisions. Experts say several factors are contributing to the increase. "We have more wha...

Georgia To Revise Protected Species List

Tue, 09 May 2006 14:52:00 MST

The robust redhorse, a mystery fish that dropped off the scientific radar screen for 121 years until it was discovered in the Oconee River near Dublin, would become a rare, rather than endangered species, under a proposed new list of Georgia's protected species. In the first comprehensive revision of the state's protected species lineup since 1992, there are proposals to change the status of some species, such as the redhorse, a sucker fish that can grow to 17 inches and weigh 30 pounds....

While Washington Slept, the World Sank

Mon, 08 May 2006 15:56:00 MST

Ten months before Hurricane Katrina left much of New Orleans underwater, Queen Elizabeth II had a private conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair about George W. Bush. The Queen’s tradition of meeting once a week with Britain’s elected head of government to discuss matters of state—usually on Tuesday evenings in Buckingham Palace and always alone, to ensure maximum confidentiality—goes back to 1952, the year she ascended the throne. In all that time, the contents of t...

Hands Off ANWR

Sat, 06 May 2006 17:42:00 MST

WHAT'S MORE cynical than offering Americans $100 each to soothe the pain of high gasoline prices? The proposal by some in Congress to open the nation's last, best wild place to exploring and drilling for oil. Most of us can see the $100 offer for what it is: pure political pandering. And we should be equally skeptical of the latest rush to industrialize the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. President Bush and some members of Congress will do just about anything to drill in the A...

Two Coral Species Listed as Threatened

Fri, 05 May 2006 14:26:00 MST

The U.S. government said on Thursday it would list two coral species as "threatened" under federal species protection laws after damage to them increased last year as the Caribbean warmed to record levels. The two species, Elkhorn and Staghorn coral, are threatened by bleaching, caused by high temperatures; disease; and physical damage from hurricanes, said Jennifer Moore, a natural resource specialist with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, in a telephone interview. Corals form...

New Interior Pick To Make Case To Senate

Thu, 04 May 2006 19:30:00 MST

He is a pro-development Western governor and former U.S. senator who some say is not to be trusted with protecting the country's national parks, mountains and other natural resources. But supporters say that portrayal is not the full picture of Idaho Republican Dirk Kempthorne, President Bush's nominee for secretary of the Department of Interior. They describe Kempthorne, also a former Boise mayor, as a true "urban Westerner" with "a pro-states-rights agenda." He is more ...

Where's the Environment?

Thu, 04 May 2006 19:29:00 MST

With the presidential race heating up, candidates are broadcasting where they stand on the issues that they think matter most to the American people issues like the economy, jobs, health care, and national security. But one issue has been strikingly absent from the debate: the environment. When my campus environmental group started planning a voter registration drive, we realized that the question was not so much “How can we get students to vote for the most environmental candidate?...

No Reprieve For MTBE in MD

Wed, 03 May 2006 16:09:00 MST

In his quest to convince Americans he was doing all he could to ease their pain at the gas pump, President Bush announced last week he would grant delays in the transition to safer fuel-cleaning additives. For Maryland, at least, he was too late. The changeover to ethanol from MTBE as an additive to make gasoline burn cleaner is essentially complete. Except for a straggler here or there, supplies should be available at Baltimore-area service stations that sell specially blended summertime fu...

An Unsuitable Appointment At The EPA

Tue, 02 May 2006 14:34:00 MST

It might be possible to find a worse candidate than William Wehrum for a key Environmental Protection Agency post, but it wouldn't be easy. Wehrum and his former boss, Jeffrey Holmstead, have repeatedly rewarded big polluters by rewriting - or simply bending - rules to relax standards and reduce enforcement. In 2003, for example, they helped craft new standards for mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. As the rules were being written, career EPA staff members were told by Holmstead...

Hippopotamus among 26,000 new species on endangered list

Mon, 01 May 2006 04:50:00 MST

More than 26,000 species of animals, birds, plants and fish will this week be added to the list of those in serious danger of extinction. Thousands of species including the common hippotamus are to be added or moved up the so-called "red list" drawn up by The World Conservation Union (IUCN). The alarming study by the union, one of the most authoritative pictures of world flora and fauna, will make clear that global warming and human activity is responsible. The report will confirm that ...

Wildlife Monitors Help Protect Endangered Species

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 23:52:00 MST

As night turns into dawn, a man's shadow rises on a rugged desert butte. His gaze slices through the morning light looking for his target. It is hard to hunt down the fastest land animal in North America, but he is good at stalking this elusive ghost of the Arizona desert. But, Erik Stenehjem is not looking for a hunter's trophy from his perch among the cactus. In fact, he is not a hunter at all. He is a guardian, only one of a few select protectors of the Sonoran pronghorn antelope, an...

37 Facilities Go Beyond Legal Requirements To Improve The Environment

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:16:00 MST

Whether they are large or small, public or private, the newest members of EPA's National Environmental Performance Track program all have one thing in common: protecting the environment. The program welcomed 37 facilities that have agreed to demonstrate strong environmental performance beyond their existing legal requirements. "America's leading companies are not just making beverages or tractors - today they are also producing real environmental results," said EPA Administrator...

10 States Sue Epa Over Global Warming

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:07:00 MST

Ten states fired a new legal salvo at the federal government Thursday in a long-running court battle over global warming and pollution from power plants. The states, joined by environmental groups, sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its decision not to regulate carbon dioxide pollution as a contributor to global warming. New York, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for t...

Genetics May Affect Regulatory Reach Of Species Act

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:38:00 MST

The outcome of a struggle between the lumpers and the splitters could determine the future regulatory reach of the Endangered Species Act. Are these angry gangs of unemployed loggers, fighting over the carcass of a spotted owl? No. These are biologists — experts in the esoteric field of DNA identification. And whether the lumpers or splitters gain the upper hand in deciding which species gain protected status will mean the difference between an ESA that tries to do the impossible, by pr...

Bob Cesca: Bush Punishes Gas Companies By Punishing The Environment

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 19:29:00 MST

Way to stick it to the man, Mr. President. Making life easier for Big Oil by easing regulations will really hit them where it hurts. We all know how much oil executives hate it when you take away their regulations. Especially the environmental ones. They must be really mad now! It's no surprise that President Bush expects us to believe that by suspending environmental regulations on Big Oil -- this is funny -- gas prices will go down... sometime. Not this Summer, but sometime. Meanwhile...

Interior Nominee Kempthorne Worries Environmentalists, Florida

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 19:03:00 MST

Two weeks before the start of his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Dirk Kempthorne, the nominee to take over the Department of the Interior, has environmentalists worried. Nowhere is that concern more acute or the stakes over who runs the Interior Department greater than in Florida, the front line in the fight to expand offshore oil drilling. With $75-a-barrel oil and prices at the pump exceeding $3 a gallon, whether and where America boosts its oil production is arguably the most complex and...

Corals Falling to Global Warming

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:30:00 MST

Warmer sea temperatures could worsen the widespread destruction of coral reefs that hit the Caribbean in 2005, scientists fear. In the waters around the US Virgin Islands, as much as 40 percent of coral died in some reefs last year, and the coral that survived probably isn’t healthy enough to survive another hot summer, said Caroline Rogers, a US Geological Survey biologist. “It worries me. It’s looking so similar” to last year, said Rogers, who has studied coral in the V...

A Stark Message In Deathly White Coral

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:29:00 MST

SOMETHING TERRIBLE happened last summer beneath the startlingly blue Caribbean seas off the island of Tobago, where we have just been staying. The Buccoo coral reef, home to one of the richest marine ecologies in the world, turned a brilliant white. “It looked as if it had been bleached,” said my brother-in-law, a marine biologist. “It was a strangely beautiful sight, but in fact it was sick, so sick that we wondered whether it could recover.” We inspected it from our gl...

Wildlife Service Keeps Tiny Shorebird On Endangered Species List

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 03:18:00 MST

Federal wildlife officials have rejected two petitions to remove the Western snowy plover from Endangered Species Act protections, but they proposed easing penalties for harming the tiny shorebirds in areas where the population seems to be recovering. The birds live on Pacific coast beaches, laying their eggs in depressions in open sand where they are vulnerable to predators and people. That has led since 1999 to the closure of the dry sand portions of many miles of beaches during the March-thro...

When Will James Dobson See The Light?

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 03:13:00 MST

In her smart Los Angeles Times op-ed, "E-Gitator" Laurie David (as she was dubbed in a lavish spread in Vanity Fair's current "Green Issue,") observes that "the issue of global warming is finally catapulting toward a tipping point. With the debate firmly behind us, the focus is turning to solutions....the dots are finally being connected and global warming is fast becoming recognized as the most critical issue of our time." David goes on to note that "the only pl...

Bush's Pollution Of Science Threatens Our Future

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:59:00 MST

When we talk about pollution on the celebration of Earth Day tomorrow, we usually mean smokestacks fouling our air or waste tainting our water. This year it's worth considering a different kind of pollution: the scientific pollution spilling out of the White House. The federal government spends billions of dollars each year on science. At our national labs, federal agencies, universities and elsewhere, we call on some of the world's best scientists to help us protect our health, economy...

Man Sentenced For Selling Skins Of Endangered Species

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:57:00 MST

A Port St. Lucie man has been sentenced to 25 months in prison for selling the skins of endangered animals. Federal authorities said Kevin McMaster pleaded guilty to selling a gorilla skull and tiger, snow leopard and jaguar skins through his Internet business. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised probation for selling or offering to sell more than $200,000 worth of endangered species in violation of the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act. McMaster operated a Web site called ...

Senate Must Dump Air Quality Nominee

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:56:00 MST

This is one presidential nomination that needs to be rejected. If not, citizens of Connecticut and its neighbors in the Northeast could be breathing much dirtier air in future years. President Bush recently nominated former industry lawyer William Wehrum to be the nation's top air-quality official in the Environmental Protection Agency. That's distressing news. As chief counsel and then interim assistant administrator at EPA since 2001, Wehrum has played key roles in trying to dismantle ...

Endangered Species Act keeps America's promise to the future

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:51:00 MST

Interesting commentary discussing the commitment of the American people and the government to preserving our natural resources far into the future....

Mystery Mouse Takes Centerstage In Endangered Species Drama

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:53:00 MST

The outcome of a struggle between the lumpers and the splitters may determine the future regulatory reach of the Endangered Species Act. Are these angry gangs of unemployed loggers, fighting over the carcass of a spotted owl? No. These are biologists - experts in the esoteric field of DNA identification. And whether the lumpers or splitters gain the upper hand in deciding which species gain protected status will mean the difference between an ESA that tries to do the impossible, by protecting ev...

Mojave Fringe-Toed Lizard Moves Toward ESL

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:52:00 MST

On April 10th, The Mojave fringe-toed lizard (Uma scoparia) moved closer to protection as the Center for Biological Diversity and Ms. Sylvia Papadakos-Morafka petitioned the Bush Interior Department to list the Amargosa River Distinct Population Segment (DPS) as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. "The Mojave fringe-toed lizard is a fascinating creature, but it is being wiped out by off-road vehicle impacts and poor BLM management," said Daniel R. Patterson, ...

GAO Study: Pombo Endangered Species Act Claims Misleading

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 04:35:00 MST

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., has repeatedly asserted that the Endangered Species Act has failed because only 1 percent of the 1,300 species under its care have fully recovered and been removed from the endangered list. Scientists have roundly denounced this claim as gibberish because endangered species have been protected for an average of only 16.5 years, while the average federal recovery plan predicts that 35 to 50 years will be needed restore them. In a report released April 6, 2006, the Go...

No Spot On Endangered Species List For Gunnison Sage Grouse

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:56:00 MST

The Gunnison sage grouse is running out of room in its native habitat due to energy exploration, drought and disease. The southwestern Colorado bird won’t find any room on the endangered species list, either. Wildlife officials say the bird’s future is good enough for government work. The Denver Post reports that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has decided not to put the Gunnison sage grouse on the endangered species list. That has environmentalists (get ready for it) grousing t...

U.S. To Delist Of Pygmy Owl From Endangered Species List With No Rationale

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:55:00 MST

The federal government will announce this afternoon that it is taking the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl off the endangered species list, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman said Thursday morning. Delisting the owl would end nearly a decade of federal regulation that has slowed, although hardly stopped, the pace of development on Tucson's Northwest Side - once this region's fastest-growing area. The owl's listing in March 1997 also kicked off a period of intense scrutiny of re...

Global Warming Can Cause Extinction Of Thousands Of Species, Says New Study

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:38:00 MST

Thousands of animal and plant species may disappear from earth's surface as a direct result of global warming, warns a joint study by Australian, Canadian and U.S. scientists. Global warming today is one of the most serious threats to earth's biodiversity and may even rival or exceed risks due to deforestation, say the scientists who have summed up their findings in an article in the latest issue of the journal Conservation Biology. The study carried out by scientists from the Univers...

No Fine For BP In Past Spill

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 06:02:00 MST

Last week, Alaska's top pollution regulator, Kurt Fredriksson, said the state might hit BP with a "sizable" fine for a pipeline leak last month that caused the largest oil spill ever on the North Slope. A top Alaska manager for BP, Maureen Johnson, said in the days immediately following the March 2 discovery of the spill that the London-based company anticipated punishment. "If you mess up, you expect to be penalized for that," she said. But if the spill investigation plays...

Running Out of Fish to Catch

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 06:00:00 MST

It's common knowledge that we are running out of oil. What's not so well known is that we are also running out of big fish. The harsh realization that catches of big fish-marlin, sharks, swordfish and tuna-are declining rapidly is beginning to sink in. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization considers about 75 percent of all fish fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted. The crisis can be seen most extremely across the Pacific, the world's largest source of tuna, where catches ar...

Great News! Prospects Dimming For Senate Passage Of Endangered Species Bill

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 15:39:00 MST

A bipartisan group of senators trying to craft an Endangered Species Act rewrite bill has failed to reach consensus, signaling dwindling prospects of Senate action in the wake of House passage of an endangered species bill last year. Although talks continue, the stalemate is welcome news for environmentalists. They viewed the House-passed bill as dangerously extreme and feared that no matter what the Senate produced, the final product could be unacceptable because of the need to combine the two ...

Green Sturgeon in Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay Listed as Threatened

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 21:51:00 MST

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) today protected a population of an imperiled migratory fish that has survived since the Pleistocene, the North American green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris), as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). NMFS listed the southern population, comprised of green sturgeon in the San Francisco Bay and Delta that spawn in the Sacramento River basin. Because of the threatened rather than endangered listing, NMFS must now issue a special r...

Most Americans Say Government Doing Too Little For Environment

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:19:00 MST

Gallup's annual poll on the environment finds most Americans saying the government is doing too little to protect the environment. A majority also says that President George W. Bush is doing a poor rather than a good job protecting the environment, with a substantial minority accusing the Bush administration of weakening the country's environmental policies. Democrats and independents are mostly critical of Bush and the country's environmental policies, while Republicans are mostly p...

Calaveras, CA, Rancher Jumps To Support Endangered Species Act

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:18:00 MST

It took a frog to make Calaveras County rancher Danny Pearson hop on an airplane. Pearson runs cattle on his family's ranch near Burson, off a dirt road east of San Andreas. In his 42 years, he has never found occasion to fly. He's never registered with any political party, and he's certainly never lobbied Congress. Until now. This week, incited by his regard for the California red-legged frog and his concern over the future of the Endangered Species Act, Pearson has become the qu...

One Drilling Hearing to be Held in Florida

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 00:00:00 MST

A federal agency developing a plan for oil and natural-gas drilling off Florida's coast will hold a public meeting from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. The meeting is the only one scheduled for Florida. The Minerals Management Service, part of the Interior Department, has been holding a series of meetings around the country on its next five-year Outer Continental Shelf leasing program, which would include a huge area in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Pan...

Americans Pessimistic About Future Health Of Environment

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:06:00 MST

Most Americans are pessimistic about the state of the environment and want action taken to improve its health, according to a new national survey conducted by Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment. Fifty-five percent of Americans surveyed said they expect the world's natural environment to be in worse shape in 10 years than it is now, and an additional 5 percent said the environment is currently in "poor" or "very poor" shape and will not improve, acco...

EPA Faces Internal Outcry On Airborne Emissions Plan

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:01:00 MST

More gifts to industry buddies by the Bush administration... A proposal to revise how the Environmental Protection Agency regulates airborne toxic emissions from industrial plants has sparked an outcry from the agency's regional offices, with a majority suggesting that the change would be "detrimental to the environment." The proposed rule, whose wording was disclosed yesterday by the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), would change the emissions standards for oi...

Breakthrough Plan To Cut CA Greenhouse Gases / Goal Is To Reduce Carbon Dioxide 25% By 2020

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:51:00 MST

A landmark plan for reducing greenhouse gases in California beginning in five years moved forward Monday with the backing of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders. The plan, drawn by administration advisers, would put in place a series of groundbreaking programs including a requirement that companies keep track of their greenhouse emissions and report them to the state. Even before the ink was dry, key legislative leaders announced their embrace of the plan's ambitious goals a...

Forest Plan Folly

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:34:00 MST

We commend U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler for calling foul on the Bush administration's playing fast and loose with rules designed to protect forest watersheds. Theiler recommended last week that U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez include in his ruling that the administration was in error in dropping wording from the Northwest Forest Plan that required certain projects to be evaluated for their impact on the watershed before approval. The magistrate's reasoning is simple. Fed...

More Endangered Species Reviews Planned

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:03:00 MST

Status reviews of more than 50 species listed under the Endangered Species Act started this month. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a 60-day public comment period on March 22, the first step in the review process that s designed to update the need and status of endangered species listings. The public comment period covers 56 listed species in California and Nevada, including several shrimp species such as the vernal pool fairy shrimp. The reviews came as part of a settlement finalized ...

Jeb Bush Stops Polluted Discharges from Lake to Rivers

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:32:00 MST

Kudos to Jeb. The mayors of Southwest Florida got what they were after from Gov. Jeb Bush a letter urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take immediate steps to reduce damage caused by polluted water discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Five mayors from coastal communities met with Bush on Thursday, asking him to help with the environmentally damaging releases that have clogged the Caloosahatchee River, estuaries and Gulf waters with pollution. "We got what we wanted right when we walke...

Florida House Panel Oks No Drilling Policy

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:31:00 MST

Florida lawmakers Thursday took the first step toward enacting their own ban on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico when a House committee unanimously approved a bill that proponents claim would force the federal government to bend to the state's will. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, called his bill a "no way" policy that would state Floridians "don't approve of oil or gas drilling and associated activities in our waters and we will do everything we can under state and fede...

Endangered Species Act Should Be Protected

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 16:22:00 MST

The recovery of the bald eagle is excellent news, as this is the symbol of American courage and leadership. Other examples of recovered species include the American peregrine falcon, the American alligator and the green sea turtle. The success of the Endangered Species Act is well documented and has been instrumental in helping prevent the complete and irrevocable extinction of well more than 1,000 listed species. These accomplishments reinforce that the legislation is working. We need to mainta...

Bush Budget Selling Environment

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 16:22:00 MST

After six years of undermining protections for public lands and forests, President Bush's fiscal 2007 budget proposes to sell more than a quarter of a million acres of public lands. This is another example of the Bush administration's loyalty to the logging, oil and gas industries. According to the New York Times, the Department of Interior's budget documents show that they plan to allow companies to pump about $65 billion in oil and natural gas without paying royalties. A total of ...

5,738 Scientists Decry Attempts To Weaken Endangered Species Act

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 18:04:00 MST

Leading scientists recently released a letter signed by 5,738 biologists across the United States urging the Senate to stand by scientific principles that are crucial to species conservation in the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The letter-representing scientists from all 50 states and more than 900 institutions-asks Congress to stop efforts to weaken the ESA. "Thanks to a strong scientific foundation, for 30 years the Endangered Species Act has protected wildlife, fish and plants on the brin...

ESA Intervention Helps Save Two Wyo Species

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 20:50:00 MST

Thanks to Wyoming and its captive breeding efforts, two endangered species -- the Wyoming toad and the black-footed ferret -- have made successful comebacks after being reintroduced into the wild. That's good news for Missouri schoolchildren, who for more than a decade have been lining up at the St. Louis Zoo to see the zoo's exhibit on the Wyoming toad. They look at graphics and pictures, and hear talks about species including the Wyoming toad that are highly endangered. A lucky few get...

Water Woes Hit Development

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 22:52:00 MST

South Florida has run out of natural sources of drinking water and will likely experience halted development due to the problem. Major real estate projects in the tri-county area must be curbed until alternative sources of water can be developed, according to the state. Already, it has told Miami-Dade County to reject 17 large-scale projects because of drinking water scarcity. And the creation of alternative water sources will not happen soon. The work will cost of hundreds of millions of dolla...

Rewrite of ESA Under Consideration in Senate

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 17:34:00 MST

A rewrite of the Endangered Species Act could be too polarizing to negotiate a compromise. That scares environmentalists who say the proposal would gut the current version. A House version of the bill passed easily in September. A Senate version co-sponsored by Loveland Republican Sen. Wayne Allard could be heard in committee next month. Opponents of both versions say they strip protection for critical species habitat while paying developers and private property owners to comply with the law. B...

Global Warming And Public Policy

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 14:14:00 MST

What does the federal government's response to current research on global warming tell us about the relationship between science and public policy? Click the link and listen to the NPR report....

Eminent Domain versus Endagered Species Protection in Colorado

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 14:25:00 MST

Here in Colorado, the hottest political issue of the day may not be the war in Iraq or the out-of-control federal budget, but rather the plight of a tiny mouse. Back in 1998, a frisky eight-inch rodent known as the Preble's meadow jumping mouse gained protective status under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA). What has Coloradans hot under the collar is that some 31,000 acres of local government and privately owned land in the state and stretching into Wyoming -- an area larger than the D...

Extinct Bird Returns, Feathers Fly In Woodpecker War

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:32:00 MST

A top bird expert is pecking away at the reported sighting of an Ivory-billed woodpecker in an Arkansas swamp. The bird was thought to be long extinct. The controvery took wing in the Friday's issue of the journal Science, with one set of researchers arguing that the bird videotaped last year probably was a common pileated woodpecker and another group stoutly defending the identification as an ivory-bill. Identification of the bird in the videotape as an ivory-billed woodpecker "rests on...

Court Strikes Down Bush Administration Coal Plant Rules Changes

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 00:00:00 MST

In a big win for environmentalists, a federal appeals court on Friday struck down a Bush administration rule that would have made it easier for coal-burning power plants to make equipment changes without installing controls to fight the pollution that would result. The court shot down an Environmental Protection Agency rule that said power plant owners would only have to install modern pollution fighting controls if equipment changes cost more than 20 percent of the replacement cost of the plant...

Officials Consider Ban On Commercial Salmon Fishing

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 17:25:00 MST

After meeting last week in Seattle, federal regulators are considering an unprecedented ban on the fishing of Chinook salmon along 700 miles of the California and Oregon coasts. It's a reaction to plummeting populations of salmon that spawn in the Klamath River....

An Excellent (Species) Act

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 21:07:00 MST

Congress is debating whether the Endangered Species Act should be modified. Since 1973, the law has stood as part of American environmentalism's Holy Four. The National Environmental Policy Act (1969), the Clean Air Act (1970), and the Clean Water Act (1972) have been periodically revised over the years, so some in Congress are asking why the Endangered Species Act shouldn't also be. They have a point; nothing in legislation should be held sacred. Yet care must be taken in addressing thi...

Scientists Push Senate To Safeguard Endangered Species Act

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:54:00 MST

As a Senate committee prepares to take up revisions to the Endangered Species Act, nearly 6,000 biologists from around the country signed a letter Wednesday urging senators to preserve scientific protections in the landmark law. The House passed an Endangered Species Act rewrite last year that many scientists and environmentalists viewed as extreme. Interest groups are lobbying to ensure that legislation expected soon from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will be an improvement....

Tomorrow's Endangered Species: Act Now To Protect Species Not Yet Under Threat

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:27:00 MST

Conservationists should be acting now to protect mammals such as North American reindeer which risk extinction in the future as the human population grows, according to research published today. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals areas with the potential to lose species that are not presently in danger. Species in these 'hotspots' have a latent risk of extinction; that is, they are currently less threatened than their biology would su...

Wild Salmon Stocks Face Wipeout

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:06:00 MST

WILD Atlantic salmon stocks will be wiped out within decades because of interbreeding with escaped farmed stocks, leading scientists have warned. New research has revealed that the unique genetic identity of the king of fish is rapidly being eroded by escaped fish from farms around the Scottish coast. The world's most influential salmon conservation organisation fears that in as little as 50 years the ability of the fish to navigate thousands of miles across the ocean and then back to thei...

Pacific Northwest Salmon Fishing May be Scuttled

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:04:00 MST

Imagine a summer without a fresh-caught local salmon to toss on the barbecue. It might be the summer of 2006. Sharp declines in recent Klamath River salmon runs have federal officials poised to ban salmon fishing this year along a 700-mile stretch of the Pacific from Point Sur north. It would come even as biologists say the Sacramento River this year should enjoy one of the more abundant salmon runs since 1970, with nearly a million chinook alone expected to return to spawn. But because in t...

Otter Rebound Causes Problems In Illinois

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:03:00 MST

Clearly some species recovery plans are working well. This article documents the case of river otters in Illinois, which may have recovered too well for their own good. Sounds like a good opportunity for a community-wide management plan that could leave otters, their fans, and farmers happy....

Study: Endangered Species Act Is Effective

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 07:39:00 MST

Tucson-based, Center for Biological Diversity has released a report praising the effectiveness of the federal Endangered Species Act. The landmark environmental law has recently been criticized by some politicians as wasting taxpayers` money, producing lawsuits and doing little to help endangered species. But the CBD says it found no endangered species have gone extinct in the Northeast and 93 percent have increased their population size or become stable since coming under the protection of the ...

Wolves in Colorado

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 23:13:00 MST

Wolves from Wyoming may be migrating south to Colorado. The Colorado state government has set up some guidelines for managing and protecting the species that was eradicated from the state in the 1940's....

License To Kill Endangered Species

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:09:00 MST

The federal government is handing out licenses to kill endangered species. Hundreds of exemptions to the Endangered Species Act have been issued nationwide since the mid-1990s, covering some of the nation's most sensitive lands. The deals being cut are perfectly legal. Many last for decades. And they are helping push creatures to the brink of extinction, conservation biologists and other critics say. ...

Pesticides and CA Endangered Species

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:25:00 MST

The Center for Biological Diversity today released a comprehensive 53-page report detailing the risk toxic pesticides pose to endangered species in the San Francisco Bay Area and the failure of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate pesticides harmful to imperiled species. The report, Poisoning Our Imperiled Wildlife: San Francisco Bay Area Endangered Species at Risk from Pesticides, documents that at least 30 of the 51 federally endangered or threatened animal species that o...

Metrowestdailynews.Com - Local / Regional News: Endangered Species Act Under Discussion

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:59:00 MST

Environmentalists concerned about a congressional attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act gathered at Garden in the Woods yesterday to discuss a new report detailing the law s success protecting plants and animals in the Northeast. A bill pending in Congress would eliminate critical habitat protections, reduce oversight of pesticides and give polluting industries a role in species recovery planning, according to Peter Galvin, a Framingham native who is director of conservation at the...

Study: Endangered Species Act Effective

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:19:00 MST

The Endangered Species Act has been "remarkably successful" in the Northeast, a New England Wild Flower Society report said Tuesday. The society examined the 53 species listed under the act for more than six years and found that 93% had increased or stabilized their populations, including the Eastern gray wolf and the Atlantic leatherback sea turtle. Nationwide, more than 1,300 species are listed under the act, which was created in 1973 and requires protections to prevent extinction. The...

Accounting 101 for Endangered Species

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:18:00 MST

Even if they never do hold steady jobs and pay back what they rightfully owe us taxpayers, protecting and restoring endangered species is worth the price. Endangered species are unique in geography and history and they are irreplaceable emblems of the nation's wildness. To protect endangered species, Americans spent $4.77 per person in 2004, not counting the returns on that investment. In the context of protecting species from coast to coast--Florida manatees to Northwest salmon--$1.4 billi...

Security Plan Imperils Endangered Species

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 22:45:00 MST

An area just north of Tijuana and south of San Diego -- the last refuge for many endangered species -- is being threatened by a fence. The National Estuarine Research reserve -- all that remains of the wilderness that once was common in southern California -- is home to more than 350 species of birds, as well as 20 kinds of fish and a plethora of other endangered animals and plants. Now, in the name of national security, the Department of Homeland Security wants to build 15-foot-high fencing j...

Endangered Species Act is More About Offset than Recovery

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:00:00 MST

One of the most persistent criticisms of the ESA is that few species have been pulled back from the brink of extinction after 30 years. Yet a look at the ESA makes it clear that its primary thrust is not to bring about species recovery, but to slow or stop human actions that are contributing to extinction....

Whales In North Sea At Risk Of Beaching

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:31:00 MST

The Natural History Museum says the number of whale, dolphin and porpoise strandings in Britain has more than doubled over the past decade, from 360 in 1994 to 782 in 2004. Conservationists say the "industrialization" of the sea and the use of sonar equipment damages the whales' communication and navigational systems, the newspaper said. ...

Groups Seek Endangered Species Protection For MI Prized Fish

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 20:09:00 MST

Two groups are asking the federal government to declare the coaster brook trout an endangered species, which could place an additional obstacle in the path of a proposed nickel and copper mine in the Upper Peninsula. The Sierra Club and the Huron Mountain Club, a hunting and fishing preserve in Marquette County, said Thursday that they had petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to add the fish to the federal endangered list. The coaster, prized for its large size, is distinct from other b...

Canada Endangered Species In An Alarming Decline

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:26:00 MST

A new study finds polar bears, barn owls, monarch butterflies and other endangered animals and plants are in an alarming state of decline in Ontario, Canada. And the report by a coalition of environmentalists blames outdated provincial legislation for doing little to reverse the trend. The analysis finds more than three-quarters of species identified as endangered receive no legal protection in the province. ...

Perils to Endangered Species are Not Removed by Recovery and Delisting

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 20:34:00 MST

IN PROPOSING to lift endangered-species protections from bald eagles and some grizzly bears, the Bush administration is heralding two triumphs of resilience and recovery. Fair enough, up to a point. We're happy to join the applause for these two icons of American wildlife. But the stories of their restoration also raise serious questions about the future, not only of these creatures but of species protection in general. By the numbers, bald eagles have been ready to fly free of Endangered S...