Court says federal agency doing little for endangered sturgeon The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not doing enough to help the Kootenai River white sturgeon, a fish on a "slow train to extinction" as females age and reproduction idles, a federal judge says. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula set a Dec. 1 deadline for the agency to redraw the white sturgeon's "critical habitat," a protected area with the features necessary for survival of North America's largest freshwater fish. It has been on the federal endangered species list since 1994. The present critical habitat is an 11-mile stretch of the Kootenai River in Idaho with a sandy bottom. Under Molloy's order, Fish and Wildlife must extend the protected habitat to include river bottom rocky enough to support spawning by sturgeon, a fish that can weigh hundreds of pounds and live 80 years or longer....
Wolf Kills Dog in Munising The successful comeback of the grey wolf in the UP may have pleased DNR officials, but some residents in Munising are anything but thrilled. Ann Dolaskie says her 7 year old dachsund Teeka was killed by a wolf Tuesday night. "I heard a funny yip," she said. "Something bit her is what it sounded like so I ran back outside and she was in the mouth of a wolf. She had her in a choke hold by the neck." The wolf disappeared into the woods with the dog and hasn't been seen since....
Editorial: Best available science should not be limited It seems like every time you turn around these days, there is an assault on science in America. It's not good for the country, its people, its political system or its economy. The latest attack is right here in Albuquerque, where the Southwest Region director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has arbitrarily decided to limit the use of genetics in making official decisions on protecting endangered animals and plants. Fortunately, scientists and other Fish and Wildlife officials are not taking Director Dale Hall's anti-science, pro-development edict lying down. They are complaining - and well they should. So are environmental and conservation organizations, which at the first opportunity should challenge Hall's decision legally....
Can billionaire philanthropy save the earth? A few days ago, I was commiserating with a friend about the sad state of environmental affairs. We were talking about the infamous "death of environmentalism" paper and its call for the environmental movement to connect more to issues involving social justice. My opinion, I told my friend, is that it's not environmentalism that's dead. There's just no future in regular work. The future lies in capital, connections to it and then wielding that power. I concluded: "Billionaire philanthropy is the only thing that can save the earth." I thought my argument made sense. Our national and international economic systems increasingly support massive aggregations of wealth. And now, it is mainly by the benevolence of a small portion of all those millionaires and billionaires that most environmental organizations stay funded. Think Rockefeller, Hewlett-Packard, Ford and of course, Ted Turner. And now, Wal-Mart....

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