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January 15, 2001
Norway plans to kill  wolves
Use this link to protest slaughter of two of three wolf packs contrary to Bern Convention: http://home.no.net/ulvelist/protest_en.php3
Sweden has also voiced an objection to this planned slaughter.

December 19, 2000
Pesticide Killing Birds
Dear WWF Conservation Action Network Activist:
A pesticide used in Florida is killing thousands of birds from the Great Lakes and East Coast of the United States and putting millions more at risk. Fenthion is sprayed over two million acres in Florida each year for mosquito control, with some areas doused every few days, year round. It is toxic to birds at extremely low doses. In one instance, fenthion killed 25,000 birds of 37 different species, with migratory warblers and thrushes found dead in the greatest numbers. Dunlins, western sandpipers, black skimmers, least terns, little blue herons, and endangered piping plovers have also been found dead in areas where fenthion has been sprayed. Millions of North American birds that rely on Florida habitats to breed or spend the winter are at risk.  Within the next few months, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency will decide whether to allow the continued use of fenthion.
Please go to http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/ to send a free message urging EPA Administrator Carol Browner to prohibit its use.

The EPA has stated that some current applications of fenthion might
also endanger children, especially toddlers. And, fenthion can kill
aquatic species such as fish, shrimp, crabs, and amphibians. Most
often applied by helicopter, it remains in the air for long periods and
can drift and contaminate large areas. Birds ingest the pesticide
residues through food and water, absorb it through their skin, and
inhale it.

WWF is issuing this alert in collaboration with the American Bird
Conservancy, which is leading the campaign to end fenthion use.
Please act today.

December 18, 2000
Pesticides blamed for decline in Pacific tree frogs Federal scientists have found traces of Diazinon and chlorpyrifos in more than half of the Pacific tree frogs sampled in Yosemite National Park but in only 9% of frogs upwind of agricultural areas.  The California red-legged frog has been listed as "threatened" and the same listing has been requested for the California yellow-legged frog and Yosemite toads.  Another scientist, Carlos Davidson of University of California, Sacrament, suggested that the widespread stocking of trout may also be a factor in amphibian decline.

December 12, 2000
The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network has announced that 27% of the oceans' coral reefs are already dead and predicts that 70% will have died by 2050.  The main causes are global warming, pollution and destructive  fishing methods such as dredging which tears reefs apart.
Countermeasures to halt the decline are probably too few and too weak although there is no quick fix for global warming.  The US is responding by planning a reserve in the Tortugas and designating "no anchor" zones in addition to studies.

December 10, 2000
Update of Buffalo Field Campaign protecting Yellowstone buffalo

December 5, 2000
As the presidential election hangs in the balance so does the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  If George W. Bush prevails, as seems likely after the latest judicial decision, he will do everything he can to oen it to oil exploration which at best would

December 3, 2000
Global warming hits Sachs Harbor in Canada's Northwest Territories.  Inuits from the Northwest Territories attended the conference on global warming in The Hague last month to apprise delegates of the changes they were seeing.  (Vancouver Sun Nov. 12, 2000).  There were no ice floes in the harbor last summer and, therefore no seals, which the people depended on for food.  It is difficult to get from one island to another because the ice has a different appearance from normal.  Traditional methods of determining whether the ice is safe no longer apply.  Several hunters have fallen through the ice, which forms later and breaks up earlier.  Thunder storms are a new, previously unheard phenomenon there.  The permafrost is melting, destabilizing houses and making travel more difficult.  There are a lot more mosquitoes.  New species of animals and fish have been spotted in the area such as grizzlies, robins, barn swallows, crows and ravens.

December 3, 2000
Pacific leatherback sea turtles facing extinction in as few as five years according to an article in The Arizona Republic, June 1, 00.
Females return to the beaches where they were hatched to lay their eggs.  In 1998-8, scientists counted 1,367 nests at Playa Grande.  Ten years later there were only 117.  On one stretch of Mexican coast there were 70,000 nests in 1982 but only 250 in 1998-99.   Modern fishing operations are blamed for the heavy mortality.  Adults way half a ton and are difficult to extricate from fishing lines, nets and hooks.

December 2, 2000
Trout stocking devastates native amphibians in Sierras. The
introduction of trout by state wildlife agencies for the benefit of sport fisherman has decimated populations of the yellow-legged frog eliminating it from over 90% of its original habitat.  US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering lifting its self-imposed moratorium on new endangered species listings in order to save this frog.  Other species adversely affected by the introducing trout, according to a federal study, are the Cascades and spotted frogs and long-toed salamanders.  As usual, state wildlife agencies are more concerned with pleasing hunters and fishermen than the welfare of the wild animals they are charged with protecting.

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