Things related to the web of life; ecology; wildlife; endangered species
"Seven decades after the last reported sighting of the eastern cougar, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service declared it extinct Wednesday and recommended that it be removed from the nation's endangered species list."
States and territories have just been allocated about three-quarters of a billion dollars for their use in building facilities, providing services, and conducting planning and research related to fishing, hunting, wildlife conservation, and recreational opportunities. This is a gold mine for local environmental stories.
"Rising temperatures, drought and the spread of destructive insect pests will shrink the North American range of the lodgepole pine nearly 10 percent by 2020, a new study finds."
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided Thursday that wild plains bison do not deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act."
"Restrictions on water pumping that helps supply Southern California, intended to protect California's delta smelt, will be relaxed through June."
Unacceptable death rates of laboratory animals have forced a New Zealand government research agency to end its experimental program on cloning of agricultural animals.
"A federal judge [Wednesday] appeared reluctant to ask the Obama administration to reconsider whether the polar bear should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act."
"A major new survey of the world's coral reefs finds that they are in trouble. Big trouble"
"The Supreme Court declined [Tuesday] to take up whether federal regulators and courts take account sufficiently of the economic impacts of "critical habitat" designations under the Endangered Species Act."
"Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines at 10 times the normal rate of stillborn and infant deaths, researchers are finding."
