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PACIFIC ISLANDS CREATE WHALE SANCTUARIES  September 12, 2002
From GREENlines In response to Japanese efforts to expand commercial whaling, South Pacific island nations and territories have "begun creating a patchwork of whale sanctuaries to protect the giant mammals" says the S.F. Chronicle 9/10. The Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Niue have already "banned whaling in territorial waters," some of which encompass huge areas of
ocean "1.9 million square miles, more than half the size of the U.S.," and conservationists are pushing other nations such Fiji and the Solomon Islands to "follow suit."

GRIZZLIES MOVING SOUTH:  GREENlines August 23, 2002
Endangered Species Coalition http://www.stopextinction.org
"Grizzly bears have expanded their range outside of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem into the Wyoming range, "the furthest south the species has been documented for over 50 years" says the Billings Gazette, AP 8/20. The latest evidence of the expansion was provided when a grizzly was killed for "raiding a sheep herd on a Bridger-Teton N.F. grazing allotment. Biologists estimate that the grizzly bear population is "expanding about 3 to 4 percent a year" mostly to the south and southeast of Yellowstone into the Wind River, Wyoming and Salt River ranges."
This item is another example of the misuse of public lands for private interests--in this case grazing.  If bears cannot inhabit public land, where can they live?  Either grazing allotments should be curtailed or wildlife interests should be given priority over human interests.

August 22, 2002
BUSH ADM. SEEKS TO OVERTHROW ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT
according to an article by John-Michel Cousteau and Joel R. Reynolds in today's
Los Angeles Times.  The National Environmental Policy Act requires a public review before potentially harmful activities like offshore oil drilling, waste dumping can be undertaken.  The US Navy is currently proposing that the act not be enforced farther than three nautical miles from our shores.  It currently apples to our exclusive economic zone extending 200 miles from our shores.  Given the severely depleted fish populations particularly off the east coast, ceasing to enforce the act could only lead to further depletion.  The impetus behind the navy's proposal is probably its desire to continue testing its low frequency active sonar submarine detection system in spite of the fact that every test conducted so far has killed whales, a fact even the navy acknowledges.

HABITAT INVASION BRINGS ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS  August 21, 2002
By Wayne A. Hall     The Times Herald-Record     waynehall@th-record.com

People can expect more encounters with wild animals as development
slithers into what used to be the wild kingdom, says a Colorado university
biologist who's just written a book called "Minding Animals."
"Animals are getting pushed around like dominoes by human encroachment of
habitat, so there's really no place for them to go," says the biologist,
professor Marc Bekoff. So humans, he said, have to make concessions.
Where he lives, Bekoff and his Rocky Mountain neighbors erect fences,
carry a bear spray (like mace) and hang bells and flashing red lights on
their dogs' collars. That helps discourage mountain lions and black bears.
"We don't put garbage out until right before the morning pickup."
There have been plenty of man-animal encounters in the mid-Hudson:

Hundreds of vultures defecate on the porch, rip up the roof and peck at
the dog at a Gardiner family's house in 2000.

A fence goes up near a Town of Woodbury development to protect threatened
timber rattlesnakes and their new neighbors in 2001. A West Point cadet
kills a rattler and serves community service punishment.

Coyotes now are well-established in the woods, sparking so-far
unsubstantiated stories about dogs being eaten.

While there's a whole group of benign animals living in the shadow of
humans, like the mouse trap barn owl, runaway development means "bumping
into each other sooner or later," said Bekoff. "Sooner or later, Leo the
lion or Joe the bear ends up in someone's back yard."
Especially if you leave garbage out or "put out birdseed, because that's
also bear food," said David Cree, a senior wildlife technician with the
state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Said Bekoff, big predators are "being forced into interactions they'd
rather not have."
"We can kill the bear but have we solved the problem? Of course not."
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SECRETARY NORTON THREATENED WITH CONTEMPT:    Aug. 8, 2002
Judge scolds government for refusing to protect manatees  A federal judge is threatening to hold Interior Secretary Gale Norton in contempt of court for refusing to designate new sanctuaries to protect endangered Florida manatees from boaters. The Interior Department agreed nearly two years ago to designate new protection areas throughout Florida to settle a lawsuit by Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental groups, but Norton has refused to comply. Meantime, boat collisions are killing more manatees than ever before. Already this year, 71 manatees have died in boat collisions, only 10 fewer than the record number killed during all of 2001.Norton is asking Judge Emmet Sullivan to set aside the agreement to protect manatees. But at a hearing last week, Sullivan called the government's arguments "ludicrous" and said the Interior Department "is not above the law." He said the government is showing "total
insensitivity to the manatee." Powerful special interests, including the boating industry, are against new sanctuaries for manatees, and the judge suggested that the Bush administration is refusing to act as a political favor to the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. MORE information and PETITION AT http:www.helpmanatees.org

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