EPA silences employees The Environmental Protection Agency is telling its pollution enforcement officials not to talk with congressional investigators, reporters and even the agency's own inspector general, according to an internal e-mail provided to The Associated Press. The June 16 message instructs 11 managers in the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the branch of the agency charged with making sure environmental laws are followed, to remind their staff members to keep quiet. "If you are contacted directly by the IG's office or GAO requesting information of any kind . . . please do not respond to questions or make any statements," reads the e-mail sent by Robbi Farrell, the division's chief of staff. Instead, staff members should forward inquiries to a designated EPA representative, the memo says. The EPA, in an official statement, said Monday the e-mail was aimed at making agency responses to the press, EPA's inspector general and Congress' General Accountability Office more efficient, consistent and coordinated. The EPA also said officials could still talk to investigators as long as they checked in with the appropriate representatives. About 900 lawyers and technical support staff are employed by the division at EPA headquarters in Washington....I'm surprised EPA hasn't done this before. It's SOP for most agencies.
Black churches urge action on global warming For the first time, one of South Carolina’s largest alliances of black churches has spoken out, warning of the dangers of human-caused global warming. Global warming is real and poses different threats including drought, larger storms like Katrina and forest fires, leaders of the state’s African American denominations of the National Council of Churches said Monday. It represents some 2,000 churches in South Carolina. “We are called as Christians to get involved in the climate debate,” said Dr. Benjamin Snoddy, president of the South Carolina Baptist Education and Missionary Convention. Speaking at a Columbia news conference, Snoddy said God made the earth, and humans must be stewards of creation. Global warming unduly impacts African Americans, whose lower incomes make it harder for them to avoid health problems and other ill effects, leaders said....
Survey Cruise Records Second-Largest "Dead Zone" in Gulf of Mexico NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium found the size of this year’s Gulf of Mexico dead zone to be 7,988 square miles, slightly smaller than the predicted record size of 8,800 square miles and similar to the area measured in 2007. Scientists think Hurricane Dolly’s wind and waves may have added oxygen to the zone to reduce its size. The research cruise, led by LUMCON’s Nancy Rabalais, PhD., found this year’s dead zone is the second largest on record since measurements began in 1985 and is larger than the land area of the state of Massachusetts. The average size of the dead zone over the past five years has been 6,600 square miles, much larger than the interagency Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task force goal of reducing the Zone to 2,000 square miles....
A Country At Mercy Of Environmentalists Let's face it. The average individual American has little or no clout with Congress and can be safely ignored. But it's a different story with groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy. When they speak, Congress listens. Unlike the average American, they are well organized, loaded with cash and well positioned to be a disobedient congressman's worse nightmare. Their political and economic success has been a near disaster for our nation. For several decades, environmentalists have managed to get Congress to keep most of our oil resources off-limits to exploration and drilling. They've managed to have the Congress enact onerous regulations that have made refinery construction impossible. Similarly, they've used the courts and Congress to completely stymie the construction of nuclear power plants. As a result, energy prices are at historical highs and threaten our economy and national security. What's the political response to our energy problems? It's more congressional and White House kowtowing to environmentalists, farmers and multibillion-dollar corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland....
Feds indict 3 in Wis. attack on US Forest Service Three environmental activists were indicted on charges that they helped vandalize a U.S. Forest Service research station in northern Wisconsin, prosecutors said Tuesday. A recently unsealed indictment said members of the Earth Liberation Front and Earth First damaged the property in Rhinelander in 2000 because they erroneously believed that scientists were performing genetic research on trees. Katherine Christianson of Santa Fe, N.M., Aaron Ellringer of Eau Claire, Wis., and Bryan Rivera of Olympia, Wash., were charged with conspiring to damage government property and damaging government property. They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said Christianson, Rivera and two others cut down 500 research trees and used spray paint and etching cream to vandalize government vehicles with ELF references, including: "ELF is watching the U.S. Forest Service." The indictment noted $500,000 in damage....
Forest Service pulls Smokey Bear ad Smokey Bear was unfair. The Forest Service said Tuesday it has canceled a public service ad in which the iconic bear warned that sparks from off-road vehicles could start a wildfire. Off-road groups had complained that the ad sent the wrong message that riders operating ATVs in a legal manner can start forest fires. "The mutual goal of the Forest Service, National Association of State Foresters and the Ad Council is to spread Smokey's enduring message of preventing wildfires to all forest users," the Forest Service said in a statement Tuesday. Because the ATV ad was interpreted as unfairly targeting off-road riders, the Forest Service has requested that TV stations and other media outlets that had broadcast the ad discontinue it, the Forest Service said. The BlueRibbon Coalition, an Idaho-based group that advocates for off-road vehicles, hailed the ad's withdrawal....
Colorado's roadless forest plan to get review As a federal advisory panel starts reviewing Colorado's plan to manage about 4 million acres of roadless areas in national forests, calls are growing for the state to scuttle the proposal and stick with a Clinton-era policy that's tougher than the policies of both the state and the Bush administration. State and U.S. Forest Service officials in Colorado traveled to Washington for an open house Tuesday and a hearing Wednesday before the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee. Last week, the Forest Service issued a draft environmental impact statement and rules for managing the roadless areas scattered across several national forests in Colorado. Public hearings starting Aug. 18 will be held on the rules and public comments will be taken until Oct. 23....
Why US parks put land purchases on hold Threats to wildlife, open space, and cultural treasures – not to mention the prospect of a hotel popping up to despoil a natural vista – exist on up to 1.8 million acres of privately held parcels that the National Park Service would like to buy but cannot, according to a recent study by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a nonprofit advocacy group. That huge backlog, which includes private land awaiting purchase inside parks (called “inholdings”) as well as neighboring parcels, is partly due to the glacial rate at which they’re being acquired. That reflects a lack of funds for land purchases – and a shift in priorities, observers say. Despite their potential historical value and proximity to parks, these inholdings and adjacent land are often unregulated and, many fear, vulnerable to development. Park Service land-acquisition budgets were cut from $147 million in 1999 to just $44 million this year, a 70 percent drop. Most parks have had little funding for land acquisition for years. Yet there’s a limit to how long even public-spirited land-owners like Fitzgerald are willing to wait....The Feds already own over 653 million acres, most of which is non-spectacular. According to a 2004 report, 5.1 million acres are classified as "vacant" with "no definable purpose". Instead of just acquiring more and more land (they currently own 29% of all acreage within the US), they should enter into land exchanges to acquire environmentally sensitive lands. Congressional appropriations for land acquisition are unnecessary and a waste.
Lenado landowners challenge use of Forest Service road The owners of 96 acres of land above Lenado have told the U.S. Forest Service that a federal road leading up to Larkspur Mountain and Kobey Park is crossing their private property without a legal easement. The owners of Last Chance Number 2 Inc., Daniel Delano and Frank Peters, want to leverage that claim to get the Forest Service to stop permitting commercial winter snowmobile use on Forest Development Road 103 (FDR 103). And they want the Forest Service to develop another access point to the Kobey Park area. “Snowmobile use was the genesis for our problems with the road use,” said Peters, “and most specifically, Howard Vagneur’s commercial snowmobile operation in Lenado, which we think was illegally established.”....
Oregon's Sandy River successfully reinvents itself after dam removal As dams go, Marmot Dam on the Sandy River wasn't huge. But now that it's gone, its impact is turning out to be enormous. The removal of the nearly 50-foot-high dam by Portland General Electric in October gave scientists perhaps their best chance to watch as a river digested a vast amount of rocks, sand and gravel collected over many decades in a reservoir. Some had worried that sediment piled behind the dam would suffocate salmon and block tributaries downstream. It did nothing of the sort. In fact, the river has since digested the equivalent of about 150 Olympic-size swimming pools full of sediment -- without a hiccup. "Never has this much sediment been released at once into such an active and hungry river," said Gordon Grant, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. He has studied the dam removal and given presentations on the results at conferences from Sacramento to Venice, Italy. The river has so far removed about half the material backed up behind the dam. It's difficult to tell that a dam once blocked the popular salmon stream. The river shoves and piles gravel and cuts into the shore the way a healthy river should. Scientists were especially impressed with how rapidly the river scoured the sediment away. Some models predicted the river would need two to five years to carry off half the sediment pile, but it did so in months....
Peppers Pride's record bid rained out Peppers Pride's bid for history will have to wait. Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico was forced to cancel its entire card on Sunday after being hit with more than six inches of rain as part of the Hurricane Dolly storm system. Peppers Pride was to have run in the $55,000 Lincoln Handicap, a race in which she was attempting to win her 17th straight race and set a modern record for consecutive wins by a Thoroughbred. Her next start is to be determined, said her trainer, Joel Marr. 'I'm not making any plans today," he said. Ruidoso had scheduled 10 stakes worth a cumulative $1 million for Sunday, and those races will be brought back for Saturday, according to Robbie Junk, the racing secretary at Ruidoso. Whether Peppers Pride runs depends on what happens over the course of the next week, said Marr. He said he has never seen the extent of rain at Ruidoso that it was hit with on Sunday. "It's all going to depend on what we can do with her," he said. "I can guarantee you we're not training for several days." Marr said the next stakes option for Peppers Pride on the New Mexico calendar is the $50,000 Carlos Salazar for statebred fillies and mares at The Downs at Albuquerque on Aug. 17....