12 posts tagged “nature”
What is it that George W. has against the gray wolf? I'll bet Dick Cheney wants to kill one or something like that. So Bush continues to cement his place in history as the worst President ever.
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (January 14, 2009) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they will once again remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list in the states of Montana and Idaho, as well as the western Great Lakes region. This is the second recent attempt by the Bush Administration to remove legal protections for the species. The previous effort ended in September after the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and 11 other conservation groups won a challenge in federal court. The seemingly piecemeal exclusion of wolves in the state of Wyoming in this new effort undermines efforts to address the needs of wolves and people in the region.
“This move is not viable legally, politically, or biologically,” said Andrew Wetzler, Director of NRDC’s Endangered Species Project. “They have actually come up with a strategy that will anger everyone from ranchers and the states, to the conservation community. This simply gets in the way of finding a real solution.”
With the initial delisting in February 2008, temporary control of wolves moved to state management plans in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Wyoming’s management plan was noted as a problem from the start as wolf hunts began immediately in the state’s “predator zone”, where wolves were allowed to be shot on sight. Rather than dealing with the problem directly, Wyoming’s wolf population was simply excluded from today’s action and left on the Endangered Species List. This move is in clear opposition to previous Department of Interior policy which stated that the wolf population in the region must be considered together and could not be broken up on a state-by-state basis. Documents stating this had been available on the Department’s Web site, including this 2004 letter to the State of Wyoming.
"Wolves don’t read maps," said Dr. Sylvia Fallon, NRDC Staff Scientist whose genetic expertise was central in the initial challenge case. “We agree that Wyoming’s plan is inadequate, but you cannot have protections start and stop at state lines. We are close to having truly appropriate conditions in place to remove these animals from the list; but until the population reaches critical size and shows genetic interchange, these policies are completely counter-productive...
Government declares beluga whale endangered
By H. JOSEF HEBERT – 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 ensure 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 Fisheries Service conflict with
claims by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has questioned scientific
evidence that the beluga whale population in the waters near Anchorage
continues to decline...
Scientists: 1 in 4 mammals faces extinction
By Randolph E. Schmid
October 06, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservationists have taken the first detailed look at the world's mammals in more than a decade, and the news isn't good.
"Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide," the team led by Jan Schipper of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, concluded.
"We estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinction and that the population of one in two is declining," the researchers said in a report to be published Friday in the journal Science. The findings were being released Monday at the IUCN meeting in Barcelona, Spain...
...While the new report estimated that one-in-four mammals is threatened with extinction, the actual numbers listed were 1,141 out of 5,487 species. That comes out to 20.8 percent, closer to one in five.
However, the researchers noted that there were several hundred species about which they don't have enough data to classify. They believe that the lack of information about those animals indicates that they exist in such small numbers that many could be endangered, raising the total to 25 percent or higher, Smith explained...
...the new analysis isn't all bad news. It found about five percent of currently threatened mammals showing signs of recovery.
The black-footed ferret moved from extinct in the wild to endangered after a successful reintroduction by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in eight western states from 1991-2008. Also, wild horses moved from extinct in the wild in 1996 to critically endangered this year after successful reintroductions started in Mongolia in the early 1990s.
In addition to raising concern about mammals, new additions to the IUCN Red List include:
_ Indian tarantulas, sought by collectors and threatened by the international pet trade.
_ The Rameshwaram parachute spider has been listed as critically endangered due to habitat loss.
_ The squaretail coral grouper from the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific has been listed as vulnerable because it has become a luxury food.
_ In Costa Rica, Holdridge's toad moved from critically endangered to extinct, as it has not been seen since 1986 despite intensive surveys.
_ La Palma giant lizard, found on the Canary Island of La Palma and thought to have become extinct in the last 500 years, was rediscovered last year and is now listed as critically endangered...
The full IUCN red list report can be found by clincking here
Hurricane Kyle forms in open ocean, Maine on watch
1 hour ago
MIAMI (AP) — National Hurricane Center forecasters say Hurricane Kyle has formed in the Atlantic Ocean and it's expected to pass near eastern New England.
Kyle had top sustained winds near 75 mph Saturday afternoon. The storm is moving north in the open Atlantic at 23 mph and could make landfall anywhere from Maine to Nova Scotia.
A hurricane watch is in effect for the Maine coast from Stonington north to Eastport. Hurricane conditions are possible in that area within 36 hours.
A tropical storm warning is in effect from Port Clyde south to Cape Elizabeth, an area that includes Portland.
The North Pole becomes an island for the first time in human history.
Startling satellite pictures taken three days ago show that melting ice has opened up the fabled North-West and North-East Passages - making it possible to sail around the Arctic ice cap...
Meanwhile
Nine polar bears spotted swimming 400 Miles from nearest ice.
Struggling against the waves, this polar bear faces almost certain death after becoming lost at sea in the Arctic.
It is one of a group of nine to have plunged into the ocean after the ice float they lived on melted.
The bears were spotted miles from their normal hunting ground by U.S. government oil survey scientists flying over Alaska's Chukchi Sea.
They said the creatures' homing instinct has sent them north towards the edge of the polar cap instead of 60 miles south towards the nearest land.
However, because of global warming, the ice cap has melted so much that it is around 400 miles away - too far for the bears to reach.
Although one group of polar bears is known to have swum 100 miles, they arrived at their destination exhausted, with several drowning along the way.
Two Bigfoot hunters claim they have the body of one and plan to release a photo and what they claim is DNA evidence at a news conference in Palo Alto on Friday.
The Bigfoot is claimed to have been found in the woods of northern Georgia by Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, and the claim is being supported by a Bay Area Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi, a multiple local Democratic candidate...
Endangered Species Act Changes Give Agencies More Say
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Bush administration yesterday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.
The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day per comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species.
In a telephone call with reporters yesterday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne described the new rules as a "narrow regulatory change" that "will provide clarity and certainty to the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act."
But environmentalists and congressional Democrats blasted the proposal as a last-minute attempt by the administration to bring about dramatic changes in the law. For more than a decade, congressional Republicans have been trying unsuccessfully to rewrite the act, which property owners and developers say imposes unreasonable economic costs.
"I am deeply troubled by this proposed rule, which gives federal agencies an unacceptable degree of discretion to decide whether or not to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who asked for a staff briefing before the proposal was announced but did not receive one. "Eleventh-hour rulemakings rarely, if ever, lead to good government -- this is not the type of legacy this Interior Department should be leaving for future generations."
Bob Irvin, senior vice president of conservation programs at the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, questioned how some federal agencies could make the assessments, since most do not have wildlife biologists on staff...
Judge Donald Molloy is a man of courage.
It's the best possible news. Seven weeks after we went to court, a federal judge has ordered the Bush Administration to restore endangered species protections for wolves in the northern Rockies until the full case can be heard.
This interim victory is nothing less than a life-saving reprieve for hundreds of wolves outside Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. Since the Bush Administration stripped the region's wolves of federal protection, a total of 110 wolves have been brutally killed in as many days.
But Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "acted arbitrarily" in taking the wolf off the endangered species list and turning their management over to the states.
That means Wyoming, Montana and Idaho will be forced to abandon plans to allow the extermination of hundreds of wolves this fall as part of a massive public hunt -- the first in more than three decades.
Press Release from NRDC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Judge Reinstates Endangered Species Act Protections for Wolves
Ruling Will Protect Wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (July 18, 2008) – A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana issued a preliminary injunction today reinstating Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies. Conservation groups had sued the government, arguing that delisting the wolves was premature and that allowing the indiscriminate killing of wolves risked putting wolves back on the brink of extinction.
The following is a statement by Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):
“The federal court just offered a badly needed lifeline to wolves in the Northern Rockies,” said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Wolves have been getting killed at a rate of about one per day since the federal government stripped them of Endangered Species Act protections. Today’s ruling means the slaughter must stop.”
Simply put, the wolves of Yellowstone and the northern Rockies are much, much safer today than they were just last week.
This incredible, eleventh-hour victory never would have happened without your strong support. Your donations and online activism have fueled this campaign since day one.
Thanks to your backing, a tenacious coalition -- composed of NRDC, EarthJustice and 11 other conservation groups -- has worked tirelessly to save these magnificent creatures in one of America's best-loved places.
Make no mistake: the fight for Yellowstone's wolves is far from over. Judge Molloy's injunction is temporary. We must now wage the courtroom battle for a final ruling in favor of wolves.
Donate to the NRDC if you can. I will also post links for any future action alerts from NRDC
There isn't very much information about this yet. Here is the Reuters report so far.
Spill Closes Mississippi River from New Orleans to Gulf
Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:46am EDT
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Efforts to control an oil spill from a ship collision have closed the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said Thursday.
All 97 miles of the river from the site of the collision Wednesday to the mouth of the river are now closed to traffic, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
(Reporting by Bruce Nichols; Editing by John Picinich)
Please take a moment to sign the petition and express your outrage
106 wolves were killed in a period of just 118 days.
That's nearly one wolf killed every day. And if Wyoming, Idaho and Montana have their way, at least 900 wolves -- nearly 60 percent of the population -- could be exterminated this fall, when a massive public hunt begins.
Make no mistake: This will be the very last summer for many of Yellowstone's wolves -- unless immediate action is taken to stop the killing.
That is why I am urging you to sign the NRDC Petition to the Interior Department demanding that it restore protection for wolves now.
Tourists visiting Yellowstone have been horrified to learn that the very wolves they've traveled hundreds and thousands of miles to see are being gunned down just outside the park. Hundreds of tourists a day are signing petitions to protest the slaughter.
And as I write, our partner organization Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is circulating those Petitions in the park AND taking court action -- along with 11 other conservation groups -- to compel the Bush Administration to restore protection for the wolves.
What can you do to help the wolves of the Northern Rockies from where you live?
Be sure to sign our Petition, and urge your friends and family to do the same.
Your activism will help us broadcast the wolf's plight and mobilize America against the Bush Administration's heartless, wolf-killing policy.
Swift action is imperative since the wolf death count is rising higher every day.
Wyoming, Montana and Idaho are planning public hunts for the region's remaining 1,400 wolves this fall -- the first in more than three decades. Once the leaves fall from the trees, wolves will be easy targets for aerial sharpshooters who can gun down entire packs in a matter of minutes.
That is why we must act quickly this summer to compel the Bush Administration to restore the wolf's desperately needed Endangered Species protection.
Please sign our Petition, and help us put an end to this wolf-killing rampage and help save one of our National Treasures.
