NEWS ROUNDUP

Jumping Frogs: Hopping Into Oblivion? It was a momentous day last December when the children of a California ranching family found a red-legged frog in one of their cow pastures. The three-inch, greenish-brown amphibian is widely considered Mark Twain’s inspiration for “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” and it had been 35 years since the species was last spotted within Calaveras County. Now surviving in scattered areas around California, the red-legged frog was declared threatened in 1996 under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Three years later, environmentalists won a court decision ordering the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to draw the required critical habitat boundaries. The resulting effort produced the second-largest critical habitat area ever mapped—4.1 million acres—and since then, the frog has transformed from a treasured icon of Gold Rush California into a symbol of the ongoing fight over federal species protection....
State agencies, conservation groups debate impacts of states’ grizzly management plan Protecting and managing Yellowstone-area grizzly bears will continue long after they are removed from the endangered species list, said Christopher Servheen, a United States Fish and Wildlife biologist in Missoula. “People think that delisting a species means that protection does not exist,” said Servheen, who’s been working with bears in and around Montana for the past 29 years. Servheen supports the proposed 2005 delisting of the population in and around Yellowstone National Park. Critics argue that it’s premature and not enough of the habitat would be protected under the proposed plan....
Group intends to sue USFWS over trout habitat A local environmental group has threatened to sue the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service if it doesn't designate more critical habitat for bull trout in the Northwest. "We're happy not to file (a lawsuit) if they agree to follow the law," said Michael Garrity, director for the Montana-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies. Jack Tuholske, a Missoula lawyer for Garrity's group and Friends of the Wild Swan, sent the Fish and Wildlife Service a letter last week outlining their intent to file a lawsuit in 60 days, if the recent decision on critical habitat designation wasn't changed....
Frozen DNA may help preserve endangered species If Noah were still around, he'd surely give his blessing to an international science project called the Frozen Ark - an attempt to preserve the DNA of thousands of the world's endangered species before they go extinct. As Noah saved doomed creatures from the biblical flood on his wooden ark, so the scientists' goal is to salvage the rapidly shrinking biological record of life on Earth. In the distant future, they may even try to resurrect vanished creatures. DNA, the genetic code for building all living things, theoretically could be used to reconstruct a simple animal like a beetle or a jellyfish, but likely not a ``Jurassic Park''-style dinosaur....
Life under one tree's rule? Now, Whitham and colleagues in the US, Canada, and Australia are on the trail of a more ambitious proposition - that a gene or a set of genes from a single species can lay the foundation for an entire ecosystem. That idea borders on heresy for many biologists, who argue that any one gene plays only a small role in the complex interactions of ecosystems. But if the researchers are right, then the genetic diversity of one dominant species can have a huge impact on the biological riches of its surroundings. And conservationists may have to take a new look at everything from preserving endangered species to evaluating the effects of genetically modified crops. The test subjects for the theory: cottonwoods in the American West. Previous experiments by Whitham and his collaborators suggested that a single cottonwood gene could influence thousands of organisms in the larger ecosystem....
Habitat proposal deemed critical for bird's survival Federal wildlife officials on Tuesday proposed to designate more than 100 miles of creek-side forests in San Bernardino County as land critical for the survival of an endangered bird. Such a critical habitat designation, if finalized, could restrict activities on the heavily used waterways, which include the Santa Ana River, to protect nesting and breeding grounds for the southwestern willow flycatcher....
Tests on Flats deer show little radiation Tests on deer culled at Rocky Flats show scant uptake of radioactive materials into the animals' bodies, preliminary tests show. The finding supports the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's plans to allow limited hunting on the property when it becomes a wildlife refuge. All but about 1,000 acres of the roughly 6,300-acre site of a former nuclear-weapons plant will be turned over to the Wildlife Service to create the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge....
BLM and States Develop Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategies The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is collaborating with state wildlife management agencies to create the first nationwide approach to wildlife management. Under legislation passed by Congress in 2001, all states and six U.S. territories must complete comprehensive wildlife conservation strategies for species found within their borders in order to remain eligible for Federal funding through the State Wildlife Grant (SWG) program. The legislation directs states to gather input for their plans from Federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, conservation groups and other state agencies. The BLM is working at both the national and State Office levels to make recommendations on species and habitats that should be addressed in each plan, to identify threats to these species and habitats, and to recommend conservation actions....
Park Service Sticks With Biblical Explanation For Grand Canyon The Bush Administration has decided that it will stand by its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Despite telling members of Congress and the public that the legality and appropriateness of the National Park Service offering a creationist book for sale at Grand Canyon museums and bookstores was “under review at the national level by several offices,” no such review took place, according to materials obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act. Instead, the real agency position was expressed by NPS spokesperson Elaine Sevy as quoted in the Baptist Press News: “Now that the book has become quite popular, we don’t want to remove it.”....
Running on regulation? In the mid-1990s when Republicans in Congress were pushing to make regulations harder to enact, consumer, labor and environmental groups sought an ally committed to government oversight and capable of grasping the complexity of the rules. Their choice was John Kerry. Since coming to Congress in 1985, Kerry had advocated the stricter regulatory agenda that liberal groups say will protect consumers, workers and the environment but that businesses charge hurt the economy. Now as Kerry runs for president, many close advisers come from those special-interest groups, and his platform supports some of their causes....
Military tries to exempt acres from environmental laws When soldiers from the Army National Guard show up here for artillery training, they fire their howitzers indoors — on simulators. The EPA ordered a halt to live artillery training at Edwards in 1997 because munitions chemicals were leaching toward the aquifer that provides drinking water for all of Cape Cod — more than 500,000 people in summer. Now the restrictions here are the Pentagon's Exhibit A in a controversial campaign for legislation that would exempt more than 20 million acres of military land from key facets of the Clean Air Act and the two federal laws governing hazardous-waste disposal and cleanup....
States, government agree on Klamath Basin The Bush administration and the governors of California and Oregon said Wednesday they have agreed to work together to resolve water issues in the drought-starved Klamath Basin. The new Klamath River Watershed Coordination Agreement expands on a 2½-year-old effort among federal agencies that deal with Klamath issues. A Cabinet-level working group, headed by Norton, includes representatives of the Interior, Commerce and Agriculture departments, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency. Leaders of all four agencies have pledged to work together to ensure that farmers in the Klamath Basin have access to sufficient water, while complying with Indian trust obligations and protecting salmon and other threatened fish....
Fla. Steps In to Speed Up State-Federal Everglades Cleanup Florida Gov. Jeb Bush plans to announce an ambitious plan Thursday to accelerate the flagging $8 billion effort to restore the Everglades ecosystem, shifting a great deal of power over the largest environmental initiative in history from his brother's federal government to his own state government three weeks before Election Day. Gov. Bush's plan -- dubbed "Acceler8" because it aims to complete eight major projects to expand water storage, improve water quality and restore water flows by 2010 -- would speed up the current 30-year effort to revive South Florida's subtropical wilderness while enhancing flood control and water supply for cities and farms....
Valuable Willamette Valley wetlands get protection A $1.4 million, 165-acre conservation easement purchase will safeguard valuable Willamette Valley wetland habitat forever. The agreement is between the Bonneville Power Administration and The Nature Conservancy. The cooperative effort also includes the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and the City of Eugene. BPA purchased a conservation easement on four properties totaling 165 acres just west of Eugene, Ore. The acquired lands will become part of the West Eugene Wetlands/Willow Creek Wildlife Mitigation Area, which includes an existing 340 acres for a total of 505 acres of protected wetland managed by The Nature Conservancy....
Wind farm attorneys fight lawsuit 'filed by' animals The motion came in response to the complaint by the plaintiffs - Robert Bittner, a bald eagle, an Indiana bat, a northern harrier and numerous migratory birds - that the 33-turbine wind energy project will violate several endangered species acts and has been misrepresented to the public as environmentally sound. The second motion, to be filed today, hinges on plaintiffs' attorney Geoffrey Baker's legal standing to practice law in the state. Michael Blazer, an attorney representing the $60 million Crescent Ridge project already under construction southeast of Tiskilwa, argued the non-human plaintiffs have no standing to file suit....
Senate approves conservation funding fix Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) joined with Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) to sponsor and obtain Senate approval of a bill that aims to correct the way USDA manages technical assistance for farm bill conservation programs. They say the bill would achieve the intended effect of the 2002 Farm Bill, which was to provide funding for conservation technical assistance directly from the funding provided in the farm bill for each of the programs. Over the past two years, Harkin says, the Bush administration and USDA have denied farmers, ranchers and landowners more than $200 million in conservation funds provided in the farm bill for specific programs because the funds were transferred to pay for technical assistance for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP)....
'Will Rogers' filled with humor, inspiration With the nation in the middle of a presidential election that is as vicious and polarizing as any in living memory, America needs Will Rogers. With the two political parties tearing each other to pieces, America needs the common sense and smart humor of Will Rogers, the cowboy philosopher whose comic wisdom helped the country weather the worst years of the Depression. Rogers died in a tragic air crash in 1935, but his memory is so precious, his laughter, at Congress and presidents and human foibles, so strong and honest that it still lives....