Your input needed for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Contact both your senators asking them to oppose drilling for oil  in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.  Tell them that increasing vehicle fuel efficiency standards is a much more effective way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil supplies.  Even if you have already written, they may need to hear from you again.  Wash. DC 20510

US Fish and Wildlife Service may kill disabled raptors if new regulations are enforced that would not permit rehabbers to keep
disabled birds unable to survive in the wild.  FWS claims this would spare birds the misery of captivity and prevent people from keeping them as pets.  Rehabbers point to educational value of disabled birds.  The birds can vote by choosing whether to eat and live.

Global warming threatens polar bears and seals.  A study by William Gough of the University of Toronto predicts that polar bears will be extinct in Hudson Bay within 40 years unless something is done to halt global warming. The bay is already covered with ice for three weeks less than it was 20 years ago which has resulted in a decline in the bears' weight and the number of cubs they produce.  Polar bears prey on seals and their cubs when the bay is frozen over and store up enough fat to carry them through the summer.  The seals need the ice on which give birth and support the cubs until they are ready to swim.  The Canadian McClintoch Channel population of polar bears has declined from c. 700 to 288.  USFWS is considering banning the import of trophy polar bear skins.  Meanwhile, people in northern communities will be forced to move if the permafrost starts melting under their buildings.  Melting permafrost will accelerate global warming by releasing its stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Peary caribou also affected by climate change.  In 1993 there were 3000 Peary caribou on Canada's Bathurst Island in the high Arctic.  By 1997 there were only 75.  The problem: warmer winters during which more heavy wet snow and rain occur.   When the weather turns cold again the wet snow freezes forming a barrier the caribou cannot penetrate to obtain food..  They starve.  Meanwhile, the world's most powerful nation, which generates the most CO2, looks for ways to excuse itself from taking the necessary steps to halt global warming instead of leading the way.


Gender switch in Norwegian polar bears.  Scientists at the Norwegian Polar institute report that female polar bears are growing male genitalia.  The likeliest cause is pollutants like PCB's transported from Europe and North America.

Mysterious virus infects endangered sea turtles off Florida coast.   Dozens of loggerhead turtles were found washed ashore or floating motionless in the water last year.  The disease organism, which  renders them too weak to swim  or even blink is thought to be herpes related.  The Turtle Hospital in Marathon is feeding them Gatorade and liquified squid.  Most lie motionless under heat lamps gasping from mucous-blocked airways

Pesticide killing birds. Fenthion, repeatedly sprayed over 2 million acres of Florida for mosquito control, is highly toxic for birds including wintering northern species.  "In one instance," according to World Wildlife Fund, "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 migratory birds are at risk. The American Bird Conservancy is campaigning to stop the use of Fenthion which also threatens aquatic species such as fish, shrimp, crabs, and amphibians.  Most  often applied by helicopter, it remains in the air for long periods and disperses widely.

Good news.  Bureau of Land Management agrees to afford better protection for 24 endangered species.  Yielding to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and PEER, the BLM agreed to  improve its land management practices, notably domestic cattle grazing, to better protect critical habitat of species like the desert tortoise, desert pupfish and desert bighorn sheep.  In addition to limiting grazing, BLM would close some roads and restrict use of off-road recreational vehicles.  BLM has already closed 1,100 acres to ORVs  to protect the fringe toed lizard and a rare milk vetch. (2001) But will Bush allow this?

Wildlife Services has adopted a kinder policy to dislodge roosting crows.from cities.  Instead of trapping or poisoning them, in Albany this winter, they broadcast crow distress calls, fired flares to flush them from the trees, followed them, repeating the procedure. 

Pygmy owl shuts down urban sprawl.: Pima County, Arizona has refused to issue permits for 15 proposed building developments in habitat vital to the pygmy owl. .

Everglades airport nixed.  Environmental groups have thwarted plans to turn the former Homestead Air Force Base into a commercial airport on the grounds that it would have adverse effects on the Everglades and Biscayne Bay National Parks.

California power crisis bad for endangered salmon.  Last year, power companies applied to release more water from dams to generate more power threatening young salmon survival.  The problem is that this reserve supply is normally used to alleviate dry conditions in spring and summer when young fish are bound for the sea.  President Bush stated a policy of not allowing environmental regulation to interfere with maximum power production.. Oregon Governor John Kitshaber was of a different mind.  He advocated that  Bonneville Power Administration use money slated for debt repayment to buy  power rather than use already low water reserves in order to save  fish in the Columbia River Basin.

Mountain gorillas hanging in there. Despite a decade of warfare between at least 6 African armies, the "world's largest group of mountain gorillas has grown" from 320 to 355 individuals according to a Reuters report. (2001). One of just two groups, that inhabit the mountains between Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo the great apes have survived in spite of habitat encroachment, a lack of conservation resources, poaching, and a war in which at least 15 gorillas have died.

B.C. imposes moratorium on grizzly bear hunts,  British Columbia declared a 3-year moratorium on the hunting of grizzly bears. in response to citizen petitions and biologists' warnings.  The species is depleted in the province.  The decline in salmon populations, a major food source for grizzlies, has put more pressure on this species.  Guides and outfitters for trophy hunts are not pleased.  The three years will give biologists time to ascertain how many grizzlies  live in the province.  Present estimates vary widely.

England and Wales, and now Scotland (88 to 7 with 6 abstentions), have voted to  eliminate fur farming after 2002.  .

Manatees get some help from the US Navy.  (2001) Acoustic sensors used to detect mines under water are being employed to protect manatees from being crushed by canal lock gates.  Seven manatees have been saved from being crushed to death since the sensors were installed on the Port Canaveral gates.  145 of the animals were killed in this manner during a 25 year period ending in 1999.  There are plans to install the devices at nine other canals.

New gill nets may help birds and dolphins.  A new material in gill nets that reflects dolphins' echolocation sounds offers hope of reducing the estimated 80,000 cetaceans killed in these nets every year.  Incorporating a blue die in the invisible net material promises to reduce the number of sea birds who are trapped and drowned.  The nets, aptly called "curtains of death" can be over a mile long and remain as lethal as ever for fish.

Washington installs new protection for elk and autos.  Residents of  Sequim WA were concerned about collisions with wintering elk when a new freeway was completed in their vicinity.  Biologists  responded by  fitting herd leaders with radio collars that activate flashing warning lights along the highway when elk approach as close as a quarter of a mile.  Forewarned, motorists slow down and everybody lives to see another day.

Outgoing Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt on a final official visit to Yellowstone National Park had this to say:  "The grazing of livestock will and must be subordinated to the natural values, including the bison and the predators, who will and must have first place in the ecosystem."  He further stated that the American public will not stand for wolves and bison to be forced from public lands and predicted the beef industry would lose if it forced a confrontation.  Too bad this statement was made at the end of his administration rather than the beginning.
Norway has started killing a pack of nine wolves (2002) despite opposition from conservation groups who contested the kill on the grounds that the wolves are a legally protected species.  Two other wolf packs remain unmolested.  Another reason besides Norway's  escalation in marketing whale parts to boycott Norwegian products.
Orangutans decimated by illegal logging and poaching.  Their numbers have fallen from 12,000 in 1993 to just 6,000 today.  The illegal logging is backed by both the Indonesian military and police.  At the present mortality rate, the orangs will be gone in a decade.
Wisconsin plans to kill 500 deer to determine the incidence of chronic wasting disease.  This action is in response to finding that three deer killed in Vermont township were infected with the cervine spongeiform encephalopathy, a close relative of bovine spongeiform encephalopathy or "mad cow" disease.  The deer will be killed in the area where the infected deer were found.  One wonders how many hunters may have brought home infected deer to their families.
The Buffalo Field Campaign continues to brave subzero cold to monitor slaughter.  The Montana Department of Livestock (DoL) has killed 26 bison so far this winter.  Instead of driving  the animals back into Yellowstone National Park with their snowmobiles as agreed, it has driven some as much as five miles, using up fat needed for survival, into its trap in the Horse Butte area.  Some of the captured animals are sent to slaughter, others are set free.  DoL claims it is protecting domestic cattle from brucellosis carried by some of the buffalo but fails to acknowledge that no cattle are present in winter and there is known case of disease transmission from bison to cattle.  As the disease is spread from afterbirth tissue, male bison are no threat at all, but 19 of the 26 bison killed were males.  The cattle industry wields more power than most people realize.