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A group of Sacramento-area property owners and land managers on Wednesday threatened to sue the federal government if it does not proceed with removing a native beetle from the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initially proposed removing the valley elderberry longhorn beetle from the endangered species list in 2006. But the process has dragged along and the beetle remains protected. On Wednesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento-based nonprofit law firm, said the delay may have cost its clients millions of dollars over the past five years. Those clients include land owners, levee maintenance districts and...

(CNSNews.com) – In its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would create thousands of jobs and transport 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada to Oklahoma and Texas, a State Department official said its investigation found “no significant impact to most resources” along the path of the 1,700-mile project. But the State Department also said the pipeline could adversely affect the American Burying Beetle, an endangered species. Kerri-Ann Jones, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the State Department, said during an Aug. 26 conference call...

One of the world's "most feared" pests was discovered on American soil. The Khapra beetle, in larva stage, was identified by customs officials last week in a 10-pound bag of rice that came from India. In a press release, Customs and Border Protection described the bug as "one of the world's most tenacious and destructive stored-produce pests because of its ability to damage grain." The beetles originated in South Asia but have invaded parts of northern Africa, the Middle East, and even Europe, Asia and South Africa. The Khapra beetle first invaded California in 1953. The infestation was not eradicated...

Federal officials will consider removing the valley elderberry longhorn beetle from the endangered species list, potentially lifting a significant burden from Central Valley landowners. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday there is "substantial information" that delisting the threatened beetle may be warranted. This came in response to a September 2010 petition by the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation.

3-year-old Love Bug gets flatter roof to look 'sportier' Design spearheads major assault on U.S. market by VW Volkswagen has reinvented its cult Beetle for the third time in 73 years. The ergonomic new design, which will be offered initially to U.S. customers, gives the car a flatter roof, a less bulbous shape, narrowed windows and a sharp crease along the side. It is the first overhaul of the Bug since 1998, when Volkswagen came up with the New Beetle, a curvaceous front-wheel drive version of the classic car.

U.S. customs officials said on Wednesday they had found a beetle considered one of the world's most dangerous agricultural pests in a shipment of rice arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. Agricultural specialists with U.S. Customs and Border Protection found an adult khapra beetle, eight larvae and a shed skin in a shipment of Indian rice from Saudi Arabia ... Earlier this year, border protection officials in Detroit found a khapra beetle in a shipment of tile from China.

DENVER -- This should be the golden season across the West, when aspen paint hillsides in shades of fall.But a mysterious ailment -- or perhaps a combination of factors -- is killing hundreds of thousands of acres of the trees from Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona through Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and into Canada, according to the U.S. government and independent scientists. The aspen die-off comes on the heels of a pine-beetle invasion that has destroyed millions of acres of evergreens. Foresters expect to lose virtually every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado -- five million acres of them.

Computers Researchers Remote Control Flying Beetles Via Electrodes by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Sep 27th 2009 at 3:01PM The military and researchers across the country have been working on putting tiny bots in the air for quite some time. They've talked robotic spy-bats, dreamed up cyborg crickets, dragonflies, and all matter of other bug-sized bots. In fact, they've successfully implanted electrodes into the brains of crickets, moths, and beetles to exercise some control over their movements -- they even got a beetle to briefly take flight. But until now, the amount of control over motions has been very limited....

The Dutch Hill Campground at Steamboat Lake State Park once was densely packed with lodgepole pine. But blue marks on bark now dominate the landscape, identifying the beetle-killed trees awaiting removal. The mountain pine beetle epidemic sweeping Colorado forests has taken a heavy toll on Steamboat Lake and Pearl Lake state parks, whose campgrounds were closed in October after being deemed unsafe after trees starting falling much earlier than expected... The epidemic will have a drastic impact on camping availability in the summer. Crews will begin cutting down beetle-killed and beetle-infected trees in Steamboat Lake State Park later this month,...

An experimental fire planned for beetle-killed lodgepole pines in Rocky Mountain National Park should help determine when the trees are most flammable. Officials incessantly cite the increased risk of fire danger in beetle-killed forests as the prime reason to cut and thin dead lodgepole pines. But controlled burns also could prove a useful tool in treating blighted stands of pines, especially when it comes to regenerating new stands. The risk of a crown fire is thought to be greatest in stands comprised primarily of standing dead trees with red needles than among healthy, green trees. Sometime in the next few...

Dead lodgepole pines turned into products from pellet fuel to pens. millions of beetle- kill pines in the nearby hills and mountains could explode into a fire ... But locals also realize that using the wood for beetle-kill products is just a start - and not a silver bullet. "There's little stuff going on, but not near what we need," ... But, still, he's grateful. "Small steps lead to big trips," ... Dead and dying lodgepole acreage in Colorado has grown to 1.5 million since the first signs of the mountain pine beetle outbreak in 1996... homes, property and lives...

The remains of a burnt beetle found in a grain of wheat about 3,500 years old provided a group of researchers from Bar-Ilan University with a key to a question the Bible left without a definite answer: How did Joseph the Dreamer, who became the viceroy to the king of Egypt, succeed in preserving the grain during the seven lean years and prevent Egypt's population from starving? According to the description in the book of Genesis, during the seven years of plenty in Egypt, Joseph had all the wheat collected in silos. "And he gathered up all the food of...

Crews will cut trees on more than 200 acres around Vail this summer in their continuing efforts to battle the pine beetle epidemic. This summer’s work will continue to create a ribbon of “defensible space” around the town that seeks to prevent the spread of fire... “It’s to protect lives, homes and property from the effects of catastrophic wildfire,” ... The work is part of the Vail Valley Forest Health Project, a multi-year effort coordinated by the Forest Service that seeks to combat the pine beetle infestation from East Vail to Edwards. The mountain pine beetle epidemic has killed up...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A beetle imported from Asia is spreading around the southeast United States, leaving dead and dying redbay trees in its wake. The redbay ambrosia beetle is believed to have entered the country through Savannah, Ga., in 2002, probably in a wood pallet or packing case. It has spread into the Carolinas and south to Florida, where it was spotted for the first time last summer in Brevard County in central Florida, Florida Today reports.

Almost half of Colorado’s lodgepole forests are infested. Amid mountains covered by ailing, rust-colored pines, about 100 people pored over maps and discussed priorities Thursday in the battle to slow the spread of forest-killing beetles and clean up the destruction already wreaked. The Colorado Bark Beetle Cooperative is helping shape the U.S. Forest Service’s strategy for dealing with more than 1,000 square miles of trees infested by the bugs that burrow beneath a tree’s bark and sap its life. The result has been huge swaths and, in some cases, entire mountainsides of brown trees. The Forest Service, state agencies and...

An unstoppable wave could devastate 3 million acres of lodgepole pines. Mountain pine beetles are obliterating a forest that stretches from British Columbia to Mexico, and in the process are creating a hazard for fire, public safety and water supply. “What we’re looking at is an entire lodgepole pine forest dying right before our eyes,”... Severson described the problem to the Colorado Water Congress at its convention last week.... More than 22 million acres eventually will be destroyed in the American West. Meanwhile, the beetles are making their way across Canada toward the Atlantic Ocean as well. The lack of...

A frog with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles were among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus of eastern Suriname, scientists said Monday. The expedition was sponsored by two mining companies hoping to excavate the area for bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum, and it was unknown how the findings would affect their plans. Scientists discovered the species during a 2005 expedition led by the U.S.-based nonprofit Conservation International in rainforests and swamps about 80 miles southeast of Paramaribo, the capital of the South American country, organization spokesman Tom Cohen said.

(Portland, CT) DEP likely to reject proposal after deciding rare insect would be threatened.

A beetle thought to be extinct in the UK since the 1940s has been rediscovered in south Devon. The short-necked oil beetle was found by an amateur entomologist during a wildlife survey on National Trust (NT) land between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail. The beetles were last recorded at Chailey Common, Sussex in 1948. Up to 40 of the insects, which survive by hitching rides on miner bees as larvae and then eating the bees' eggs, were found at the Devon site. It's great that this oil beetle has survived against all the odds David Bullock, National Trust The beetle,...

The U.S. Forest Service has not developed national guidelines to assess the risks communities face from wildfires and is unable to ensure that the most important fire prevention projects are funded first, an independent government audit has found. And while the majority of catastrophic wildfires occur in the West, nearly 58 percent of the total acres treated in fiscal year 2004 were in the southeastern states, the report said. "The Forest Service cannot clearly identify the level of risk to communities from wildfire," it said. "It cannot demonstrate to stakeholders its accomplishments in reducing those risks with the funds provided."...

Logging trucks are again rumbling through town after a nearly 15-year hiatus. The Forest Service has reopened - or has plans to reopen - numerous drainages south of Eagle Ranch to logging... There are currently two active sales south of Eagle, with another in the works, said Cary Green, the White River National Forest's timber management assistant for the Eagle area. The 60-acre Beecher Gulch salvage timber sale, on Hardscrabble Mountain, sold in 2005, and about 500,000 board feet of timber is currently being harvested... A typical 2,000-square foot, single-family home requires about 27,000 board feet of framing lumber, paneling...

The fight to reduce fire hazards associated with beetle-killed lodgepole pines may have gained a little traction this week, as U.S. Department of Agriculture officials announced a $1 million funding boost for the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S. Forest Service, covering Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. Republican Sen. Wayne Allard announced the funding Sept. 5, shortly after top administration officials flew over some of the hardest hit areas in Eagle, Summit and Grand counties to view the insect infestation first-hand. “I am pleased that the administration has responded to my repeated requests for additional funding,” said Allard,...

A mountain pine beetle infestation that has already killed off billions of trees in British Columbia is threatening to take over Alberta's jack pine, marking the start of a deadly cross-country trek. Each mountain pine beetle is the size of a grain of rice, but the voracious insects have already devoured an area of B.C.'s forest the size of Iceland. Another two million hectares in Alberta are now at risk, and the infestation could spread to Canada's boreal forest. "It likes all pine species and we've recently discovered this includes jack pine, which is a component of the boreal forest,"...

Millions of mountain pine beetles are swarming the Rocky Mountains...looking for new trees to destroy. The Colorado State Forest Service wants residents to help stop the spread of the devastating pest before the Pike and San Isabel national forests take on a brown cast like those in Summit and Grand counties. "It's currently at an epidemic level," ... Dead trees are a sign the forest is unhealthy; they also pose a fire risk. The U.S. Forest Service... Trees are succumbing by the millions. "If the beetle is successful in getting underneath the bark of the tree, mama mates and burrows...

Experts and emergency management officials in Grand County worry that a large stretch of forest devastated by pine beetles may be waiting to burn in a massive wildfire. At least a quarter million acres of lodge pole pines are either dead or dying because of the mountain pine beetle. They've turned once green forests into large areas of dead, red colored trees. "Some of these county roads are very thin," Billy Sumerlin, director of Grand County's Natural Resources department said. "It makes it very difficult for fire apparatus to get in, especially if we're in the process of trying to...

Experts paint grim picture for local trees, eye future forest.. It seems there’s just not much good news for trees these days... Pine beetles decimating lodgepole pines across the West ...foresters are already looking ahead to what the landscape will look like in the future. “This mature pine forest is a goner,” said Cal Wettstein, district ranger for the Holy Cross and Eagle ranger districts. “We’re focusing on the next forest.” Asked what the future holds...Wettstein said simply “large fires.” Over the next two decades, the beetle-killed trees will shed their needles and their branches, then fall down and contribute...

This ski town has stepped up its campaign to battle pine beetles, which have killed countless trees and threatened others in the surrounding valley and nearby counties. Everyone including residents, local government and giant resort operator Intrawest Corp. has been footing the bill to blunt the bugs’ impact on a swath of the state whose economy depends heavily on its scenic lands. “The situation will get worse. It’s one of those things that grows exponentially each year,”... During a Front Range outbreak in the 1970s, the government launched a $20 million program to control the beetles. But now, perhaps more...

Up to 3,000 lodgepole pine trees, newly infested by pine beetles are being cut down... trying to slow the spread of the beetles that have infested forests in the valley, turning trees purplish and rusty brown. “Like our neighbors to the north on Vail Mountain and elsewhere, we are committed to being good stewards of the land,” ... “We want to slow the infestation to help preserve habitat and mitigate the fire hazard caused by the dead lodgepoles.” Trees 7 inches in diameter and larger will be cut down with a mechanical harvester. Pine beetles kill trees when their larvae...

The U.S. Forest Service says that Monday's late season wildfire near Breckenridge underscores a major challenge facing Colorado's forests - the spread of the bark beetle. Bark beetles burrow into a tree between the bark and woody part, ultimately killing it. While they've been in Colorado forests for a long time, rangers say... The Forest Service says the extent of the infestation is beyond what they predicted, and what they've seen before in Colorado. "I think there are places where we just can't economically treat enough forest to do any good,"

My son went away to Iraq with the Illinois National Guard, last week. I, the proud papa of one of our brave men in uniform, stood in the bleachers at the General Richard L. Jones Armory in downtown Chicago on the morning of July 3rd watching as the boys of the 178th Infantry battalion (MPs) presented themselves to their relatives and Chicago’s media for the last time before they leave for duty in Iraq. Republican candidate for governor, Judy Barr Topinka, was present and stayed for a while shaking hands and wishing the soldiers well. Every single TV news outlet...

While beetles at low levels always exist on Grand Mesa National Forest, some foresters worry the area may be on the verge of a beetle disaster. “It’s at the edge of possibly blowing up and killing a lot of trees,” said forester Kitty Tattersall of the Paonia and Grand Valley ranger districts. “We’re worried it could become a problem.” Mostly, foresters are concerned about the spruce beetle, whose outbreaks are normally triggered by blowdowns. Last October, violent winds toppled trees near the Alexander Lake area on the mesa, creating the potential for a spruce beetle epidemic. Spruce beetles usually emerge...

ITHACA, N.Y., April 14 (UPI) -- A pair of scientists has named three species of slime-mold beetle after three of the United States' leading Republicans. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have each had a species of slime-mold beetle named after them. The scientists, Quentin Wheeler of London's Natural History Museum and Kelly B. Miller, a post-doctoral fellow at Utah's Brigham Young University, said Thursday they named the beetles after the Republicans out of admiration for their moral courage. "We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and...

An upmarket Hong Kong grocery store is being prosecuted after a customer allegedly discovered 575 beetles in a jar of cereal, officials and media reports said today. The customer, lawyer Philip Dykes, said the breakfast cereal was “too organic for my liking”, according to the South China Morning Post. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has charged the grocer store with providing “food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser”, said Emily Mak, a department spokeswoman. The lawyer allegedly found the beetles and 17 larvae in the plastic jar, which he bought in 2003, it was...

A long time ago National Lampoon magazine had an ad on the back that was satire. It had a VW BUG in the water floating. The ad read "if Ted Kennedy had been driving a Beetle he would be President today." VW Bugs were supposed to float. Does anyone have that ad?

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

This Australian beetle really is a gem: the greenish scales on its back are identical to opal. Andrew Parker, a former researcher at the Australian Museum, was amazed when he examined the internal structure of the scales under a powerful microscope and realised it was the same as that of the precious stone. "This is the first time opal has been found in animals," said Dr Parker, who is now at Oxford University in Britain. The find could lead to a new method for synthesising opals, not only for use in jewellery, but as components, known as photonic crystals, for...

10 Jul 2003 21:57 BST End of the road for iconic Beetle By Alistair Bell PUEBLA, Mexico (Reuters) - Conceived by Hitler but adopted by the hippie generation, the old-style Beetle has spluttered toward the sunset with the unveiling by Volkswagen of a final special edition of the much-loved car. The company will stop producing the classic old Beetles on July 30 at its plant in the central Mexican city of Puebla, the only factory in the world still making the "Bug". With more than 21 million units sold, Volkswagen boasts the Beetle is the most popular car ever made...

Out on the African savanna, a fresh and moist pile of fine-grained antelope dung is a nutritious treasure aggressively fought over by a melee of critters. The spoils go to those with the craftiest strategies to snatch and stash a piece of the pie. To gain an edge in this battle for the poop, the African dung beetle Scarabaeus zambesianus orients itself by the polarized light pattern cast by the moon to make a straight, nighttime escape with its morsel, according to Marie Dacke, a biologist at the University of Lund in Sweden. "There are so many beetles at the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. BERLIN (AP) -- Volkswagen said Friday it will stop making the original rear-engine Beetle later this year, bringing the curtain down on the nearly 70-year history of the classic "bug." Production of the last old Beetles at the VW plant in Puebla, Mexico, will "end this summer," spokesman Fred Baerbock said, adding that an exact date was not set. He said there had been sinking demand for the original model, manufactured only in Puebla since 1978. The first version of what would become known as the Beetle was developed in 1934...

Curtain to Fall on VW Beetle, Icon of Flower Power Fri June 6, 2003 09:09 PM ET FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - The original Volkswagen Beetle, the ubiquitous German car born in the Nazi drive for a "people's car" and later an icon of the hippie revolution, will roll off a production line for the last time this summer. Europe's largest auto maker Volkswagen said Friday the last of its factories still producing the bulky little car -- in Puebla, Mexico -- would close its assembly line after nearly 50 years. In the model's 70-year history, 22 million air-cooled Beetles were...

Volkswagen of America Inc. on Friday offered the first official glimpse at the convertible version of its New Beetle. Volkswagen hasn't yet released pricing for the convertible Beetle, but it features the same rounded looks as its hardtop siblings, but with a fabric roof, and uses the same four-cylinder engines. Volkswagen has sold more than 320,000 New Beetle sedans in the United States since the car's 1998 North American launch. Built at the company's Puebla, Mexico, assembly plant, the Beetle convertible is expected to arrive in dealerships by the end of the year.