NEWS ROUNDUP

Trouble in waterfowl paradise as grasslands become croplands After a short hike off a township road, Scott Stephens crested a hill in the Missouri Coteau and scanned a landscape that makes waterfowl biologists pause in appreciation. Here was the breadbasket of U.S. duck production. It folds to the horizon in a series of broad wetlands and lakes, nestled among rolling hills and interspersed among large tracts of grasslands never touched by a plow. Each spring, the skies over the Coteau hill country are filled with skeins of ducks anxious for breeding, said Stephens, a biologist for the conservation group Ducks Unlimited. With the grasslands acting as magnets for the ground-nesting birds, the Coteau hosts up to 125 duck pairs per square mile, some of the highest duck-nesting densities on the continent. But Stephens said this duck paradise is threatened by a newcomer to the hill country - genetically altered varieties of corn and soybeans that are supplanting the native grasslands....
Quivira conference explores urban-rural divide When two Sierra Club members and a rancher founded the Quivira Coalition in Santa Fe more than eight years ago, they wanted to build bridges between ranchers and environmentalists , urban and rural. “We wanted to convince the urban environmental community that ranching is sustainable ,” said Quivira Coalition executive director Courtney White. “We wanted to help the rural ranching community understand urban values and why environmentalists feel the way they do.” The coalition’s fifth annual conference, Jan. 12-14 at the Hilton Hotel in Albuquerque will explore “Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide: Reconnecting People to Land and Each Other.” Speakers will hail from across the country and Mexico, among them Sonora ranchers Iván and Martha Aguirre; scientist Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona; New Mexico Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons; Peter Forbes of Vermont’s Center for Whole Communities; and Dan Imhoff of the Wild Farm Alliance in Northern California....
Center for Biological Diversity to open new office in Los Angeles The Center for Biological Diversity opened a new Los Angeles office today in recognition of the region’s concentration of unique wildlife, plants and rich natural landscape. According to the LA Weekly (November 2002), “[The Center is] pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the most effective conservation organization in the country.” “Southern California has an unparalleled natural heritage legacy,” said Ileene Anderson, an ecologist heading the new office. “Common misconceptions paint Southern California as all asphalt and concrete. But many valuable natural lands remain – from Tejon Ranch to the Angeles National Forest to the Channel Islands to the Santa Ana River – and we plan to do everything in our power to secure their protection.” Center Conservation Director Peter Galvin stated, “We are extremely excited to be opening our Los Angeles area office and to have renowned botanist and naturalist Ileene Anderson joining the Center team.” Since its first victory protecting the Mexican spotted owl in the forests of the Southwest, the Center has gone the distance to save endangered plants and animals around the globe – gaining protection for 342 species and more than 43 million acres of critical habitat in just over 16 years....
Column: Greens vs. Alito In the midst of the holiday season, five environmentalist groups joined the ranks of liberal activists opposing the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Making a string of exaggerated and inaccurate charges, the groups allege that Judge Alito is "extreme" and "cannot be trusted" on the Supreme Court. Glenn Sugameli of Earthjustice warns that Judge Alito "would pursue his own extreme legal theories to create new barriers that prevent the enactment and enforcement of national laws that protect families and communities from pollution." Earthjustice is not alone in opposing Alito's confirmation. Friends of the Earth (FOE), the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and the National Environmental Trust have announced their opposition as well, echoing Earthjustice's alarmist anti-Alito attacks. FOE's Sara Zdeb warned, "Judge Alito threatens to drive the Court in a decidedly anti-environment direction." When the Alito nomination was announced, the Sierra Club called him "a nominee who may represent great danger to Americans' ability to protect our clean air, clean water, and special places." Move over President Bush; for the next month Samuel Alito is Environmental Enemy Number One. Of particular concern to environmental groups is Judge Alito's apparent respect for principles of federalism. They fear that Judge Alito's demonstrated willingness to enforce constitutional limits on federal power could hamstring federal environmental protections. Not only do green groups exaggerate the threat, but they misrepresent Alito's opinions as well....
Editorial: Easterners disconnected from Western realities There's obviously something liberating about leaving a government job. On the inside, one must tread carefully, mincing one's words into a politically correct mush. Once outside, one can speak more honestly, without fear of courting controversy or landing in political hot water. That's why the recent comments made by outgoing Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Rebecca Watson, who is taking a job with a Denver law firm after four years at the Department of Interior, were so interesting to read. She's saying now what she might have been reluctant to say while in government. And what she's saying is important. In an interview with the Associated Press, Watson said she believes “the urbanization of America has helped polarize beliefs about the environment, leaving many city dwellers with romanticized and often unrealistic views about wildlife and natural resources in the West.” During her years at the department, Watson encountered many Easterners who she says have “false perspectives” about public lands conflicts in this part of the country. And that understanding gap is a problem. Watson is putting her finger on a serious problem: the growing disconnect between urban dwellers and rural people, between Easterners and Westerners, on environmental and public lands issues. Were the federal government not in a position to dictate such policies from thousands of miles away, and were state and local governments given a greater say in federal land policies, this understanding gap wouldn't matter much. But until that balance of power shifts westward - and states in the region demand a true partnership with Washington - urbanites and Easterners will continue to impose their ideas of environmental virtue on Westerners....
Overhaul of Endangered Species Act taking shape After more than three decades of life with the Endangered Species Act, there is a growing indication that one of the world's most significant environmental laws is about to undergo its first major overhaul. In early autumn, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a bill by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, the House Resources Committee chairman, that would make several major changes to the landmark 1973 federal law. Then Dec. 15, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, introduced similarly sweeping legislation that will frame debate on the issue in the Senate in 2006. Meanwhile, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., chairman of the Senate Fisheries, Wildlife and Water Subcommittee, also is expected to introduce by March a proposal to rewrite the oft-criticized law, although in a manner more palatable to the environmental community. "What all these things indicate is that there is growing bipartisan support for some reform of the Endangered Species Act, which is long overdue," said Andrew R. Henderson, vice president and general counsel for the Building Industry Association of Southern California....
Tiny minnow could factor into dairy project in S.W. Minnesota The tiny Topeka shiner could have a big say in the development of a dairy operation near this southwestern Minnesota town. The minnow is the only fish in Minnesota on the federal endangered species list, and some fear it could block a 3,000-cow dairy operation near Adrian. The minnow has already delayed road building, slowed permits for water projects and raised hackles among Minnesota county officials. The shiner "has had major impact, some good, some not so good," said Doug Bos, assistant director of the Rock County Land Management office in Luverne. Lincoln County Commissioner Curt Blumeyer said concern about the minnow "holds up our (road) construction until later in the year."....
Editorial: Managing Invasive Species: Breaking open the poisons doesn't make us safer It is so easy to foul up an ecosystem. It is so hard to fix it again. In fact, it may be impossible. That's the dilemma the Bureau of Land Management faces as it drafts plans to attack some of the "invasive species" of plants that are altering the landscape of the American West. Rapidly spreading non-native flora such as cheat grass, tamarisk and Russian olive have taken over rangelands, dried up streams and made land inhospitable for animals that have lived there for centuries. As the name of their agency mandates, BLM officials seek to manage that situation by trying various means to remove those squatters from public land. But the whole concept of management, a term usually associated with directing human beings, may be just as foreign to local ecosystems as any of the offending plants. And deliberately trying to transplant that human concept to the natural world could be at least as destructive as any invading species. Proposed techniques of eliminating, or limiting, invasive species include, but are not limited to, aerial spraying of herbicides....
Mojave lake's history a bit fishy Scholars at a remote university research center in the middle of the Mojave Desert are attempting to unravel a mystery involving an endangered fish whose ancestors evolved after the last Ice Age. Scientists say the rare Mojave tui chub, found in 1.2-acre Lake Tuendae on the grounds of the Desert Studies Center operated by the California State University system, have survived in the harsh desert environment for 10,000 years. About 3,500 chub live in the lake, and another 500 are found in a nearby pool at the 80-acre center southwest of Baker in the east Mojave. "When ancient Lake Mojave began to dry up due to climatic changes, the fish found refuge at a 7-foot-deep spring on these grounds," said Robert Fulton, manager of the studies center the past two decades. "The fish were known to exist at the Mojave Narrows (near Victorville) since the turn of the past century. But most scientists believed that native chub species had been hybridized."....
Warming Climate of American West Pushes Pika to Extinction The American pika, a small mammal related to the rabbit, appears to be facing extinction in the Great Basin, new research has found. The pikas, pronounced pie-cas, are sensitive to high temperatures, a characteristic that makes them an indicator species for global warming in the western United States where they live high in the mountains. Pikas live in rock-strewn talus slopes that provide them with relief from hot temperatures and protection from predators. A University of Washington archaeologist who has examined fossil records covering the past 40,000 years says his work shows that the pikas are being pushed upward in their mountain habitat and are running out of places to live. Archaeologist Donald Grayson says climate change and human activities appear to be the primary factors jeopardizing the pika, Ochotona princeps. Roads and livestock are encroaching on pika habitat, he says....
Fears grow over small fish Tanana fisherman Charlie Campbell doesn't need scientific studies or empirical data to prove Yukon River chinook salmon--the mighty king of the species--are getting smaller. All he has to do is walk into his smokehouse. "I'm noticing I have a lot more headroom in the smokehouse than I remember," said Campbell, a subsistence fisherman who uses a fishwheel in The Rapids area of the Yukon between Tanana and Rampart. "Long salmon strips hang in your face and you have to duck to get underneath them. I'm 6-2, so it's an issue for me. With these shorter fish, shorter strips." Campbell hasn't been alone in his hypothesizing. Dozens of fishermen along the middle and upper reaches of the 2,300-mile Yukon have been claiming for years that smaller kings are returning from the ocean to spawn. A pair of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists released a study earlier this month that lends some scientific weight to that suspicion....
Something's growing at Redwood National Park America's pre-eminent redwoods showcase, Redwood National Park, will begin 2006 significantly larger, and not just because the massive trees there grew taller. The formerly 112,000-acre park in Humboldt and Del Norte counties -- home to the tallest living things on Earth -- grew by about 26,000 acres after President Bush signed a law to expand the park's boundaries on Dec. 21. The law, written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., added the 25,000-acre Mill Creek property, a vast expanse of redwood and Douglas fir forests six miles south of Crescent City, to the park's northern flank, along with a few smaller parcels. The Mill Creek property, roughly equal in size to the city of San Francisco, was heavily logged over the past 150 years, but remains home to bald eagles, black bears and some of California's best salmon streams....
Column: ANWR oil opponents ignore critical issues Did you know that the National Audubon Society has earned more than $25 million in royalties by allowing oil and natural gas production in Louisiana's Rainey Wildlife Refuge and Michigan's Baker Sanctuary? In fact, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey commissioned by U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in 2001 reported that 77 of 567 wildlife refuges in 22 states had oil and gas activities on their land in 2000, according to Arctic Power, the Alaskan group pushing for ANWR oil exploration. Ironically, the Rainey refuge is the winter habitat for snow geese migrating from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), while the Baker Sanctuary, a 900-acre wetland, provides hundreds of Sandhill cranes with a critical nesting area. If drilling and exploration are safely done in existing wildlife refuges, why would it be an "environmental apocalypse" if a tiny portion of ANWR were opened to exploration? It would not....
Git along little dogies, or minicows If you're a suburban cowboy hankering to raise a herd and short on ranch land, mini-cattle may be for you. New breeds of pint-sized heifers and bulls are making it easier for small farmers to raise cattle for milk, meat or just fun. On Bill Bryan's 50-acre spread on Maryland's Eastern Shore, he sold seven calves last year. "We've sold the vast majority of our calves to people who have these little 3- to 5-acre farmettes and they'll fence in an acre, buy a calf and more or less keep 'em for pets," Bryan said. Two minicalves stood nearby, contentedly munching on grass in a small fenced-in area, skittering away if visitors got too close. Bryan is among a group of pioneering breeders raising miniature cattle that can be as little as a third of the size of the larger breeds. The reasons are many, they say. You don't need the back 40 acres to raise these breeds; the back four will do. Minicattle eat about a third as much as a full-sized steer, are less destructive of pasture land and fencing, and are easier to handle. While each animal may be smaller, more meat can be produced overall from each acre, breeders say. And the smaller size of each animal also has its benefits....