Free Republic

Battered by the worst drought on record in Texas, the world's only self-sustaining flock of migratory whooping cranes is showing vulnerabilities that raise the stakes for crane work in Wisconsin. Texas' dry conditions and booming development have heightened worries about the health of the cranes and have sparked a legal battle over whether the endangered birds are getting their fair share of fresh water. The specter of drought, hurricanes or other calamity is the reason why Wisconsin and a few other states - away from Texas - were identified as candidates for crane reintroduction. The 5-foot tall cranes that migrate...

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...

The recent killing of an aggressive Mexican gray wolf by federal agents at a ranch near Winston could lead to a reassessment of the already struggling recovery effort for that species. The wolf was reportedly shot by agents with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services division on Dec. 14, after it paced across the porch and gazed through the window of John and Crystal Diamond’s Beaverhead Ranch home. The Diamond residence is located in Catron County, although near enough to Sierra County to be in the Winston mailing area. The wolf was killed just weeks after the Arizona Game...

An endangered listing for the DSL would ruin the oil drilling industry in the Permian Basin, that area of west Texas and eastern New Mexico that produces about 20% of all the oil from the lower 48 states and 5% of total oil produced in the US. The oil produced there also constitutes 68% of all oil produced in the state of Texas.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) declared in October that the South Florida rainbow snake (Farancia erytrogramma seminola) is extinct, but the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Snake Conservation think otherwise, and have put up a $500 reward to the first person who can document that the snake is not extinct. Cameron Young, executive director of the Center for Snake Conservation said in a press release that declaring the snake extinct without adequate research is scientifically irresponsible. Young hopes that in offering a reward for valid documentation that the snake is not extinct, the proof will...

Amy Mattson of Mequon was driving south of Port Washington earlier this month when she spied an all-white buck standing in a field. The nose of the 6-point buck appears to be pink in the photos that she and a friend shot. A pink nose and presumably pink eyes - a deer bereft of any color - means the two appeared to be observing a rare albino deer, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. "It was very pretty," Mattson said Saturday, the first day of Wisconsin's traditional nine-day gun season. In the dim light of late afternoon, "it...

The Obama administration is taking steps to extend new federal protections to a list of imperiled animals and plants that reads like a manifest for Noah's Ark - from the melodic golden-winged warbler and slow-moving gopher tortoise, to the slimy American eel and tiny Texas kangaroo rat. ... With a Friday deadline to act on more than 700 pending cases, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already has issued decisions advancing more than 500 species toward potential new protections under the Endangered Species Act... Patrick Parenteau, an environmental lawprofessor at the University of Vermont. "They are moving through this large...

...turtles unexpectedly making a go of it in mangrove estuaries. Scientists have made the surprise discovery that a population of critically endangered hawksbill turtles, thought to have been wiped out in the eastern Pacific from Mexico to Peru, has survived by occupying a novel habitat — mangrove estuaries — rather than coral reefs where they have been slaughtered for their exquisite shells. The finding is particularly significant because it suggests a potentially unique evolutionary trajectory, said Alexander Gaos, lead author of a report being released Thursday in the online scientific journal Biology Letters. "We now know there are about 500...

(CBS News) The lightning-fast die-off of bats is being called the No. 1 crisis affecting mammals in this country. Scientists from more than 100 state and federal agencies are coordinating their efforts to learn why bats are dying. CBS News Correspondent Betty Nguyen noted on "The Early Show" that one of the consequences of the bats' deaths is more bugs. Wildlife officials now are pointing to a fungus they say is killing bats in unprecedented numbers. It's a desperate situation with no solution in sight. Nguyen reported bats often get a bad rap as creepy, blood-sucking night creatures. But farmers,...

PORTLAND — Oregon and Washington have been given permission to resume removing or killing California sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, a federal agency said Friday. The decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration came about six months after a federal appeals court struck down a similar permit aimed at reducing the number of threatened or endangered salmon eaten by the hungry marine mammals. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the practice last year. NOAA Fisheries officials said they believe the agency has fixed flaws the court pointed out in the original permit issued...

The dune sagebrush lizard is a 3-inch critter that lives only among stands of shinnery oak, which itself is a somewhat rare tree that lives only in the sandy soil on something like 4 million acres spread between Roswell, New Mexico and Midland, Texas. The area around Midland is known as the Permian Basin, and is one of the oldest and most prolific crude oil regions in North America.

COEUR D'ALENE -- Deer and pheasant hunting seasons kicked off in North Idaho this last weekend. While wolves were also hunted last season, they’ve been put back on the endangered species list and are now officially off limits. There are two camps at polar opposite ends of the debate over wolf hunting. There are the hunters who believe wolves should be fair game and there are the environmentalists who want wolves left alone. One of those that was looking forward to wolf hunting this season is William Rutherford, who hoped to land his first wolf tag this season. “I didn't...

Idyllwild, Calif. (AP) -- Researchers have released dozens of tadpoles into a Riverside County stream in hopes of reviving a frog species endangered in the region. San Diego Zoo officials say zoo researchers bred the 36 mountain yellow-legged frog tadpoles that were released Tuesday into a stream near the town of Idyllwild. The mountain yellow-legged frog is on the federal Endangered Species List in Southern California and has recently been proposed for listing under the California Endangered Species Act.

Wildlife officials have killed a grizzly bear in Wyoming and a grizzly bear in Montana to head-off potential lawsuits. The Montana grizzly killed and partially consumed Kevin Kammer at a Gallatin National Forest campground near Cooke City, Mont. on July 29. The Wyoming grizzly killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert on June 17 on the Shoshone National Forest near the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The circumstances were quite different, but the decision to kill the bears was undoubtedly influenced by a 1996 court case over the terrible bear mauling of 16 year-old Anna Knochel at a U.S. Forest...

Work on a West Virginia wind power project has been halted by a federal judge who sided with environmentalists' claim that the project would harm an endangered bat. U.S. District Judge Roger Titus issued the order Tuesday, citing potential harm to the federally endangered Indiana bat. John Stroud, co-chairman of one of the environmental groups that filed the lawsuit, Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, said group members were "really delighted with the ruling." "We've been working on this for a while and the judge saw things our way, and we're really pleased," said Stroud, a rare book dealer who owns...

Friends of the missing Virginia Tech student will be walking in the Vinton Christmas parade, which starts at 7 p.m......The 20 year old disappeared after going to a Metallica concert in Charlottesville on October 17.....Harrington was well known at the Roanoke office of Mental Health America, where she was a volunteer with the Forgotten Victims Group, which helps children of domestic violence. Harrington started volunteering there when she was in the eighth grade.....Some of the very people Harrington helped will be marching in the parade and passing out fliers about her disappearance. The group plans to pass out about 2,000...

Conservation Groups Again Seek Endangered Species Protection For Giant, Spitting Worm In Wash. (AP) Fans of the giant Palouse earthworm are once again seeking federal protection for the rare, sweet-smelling species that spits at predators. They filed a petition Tuesday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting the worm be protected as an endangered species.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - It's called a white-crested laughing thrush and it's bringing smiles to zookeepers in Syracuse. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo greeted a new bird March 7. The chick is named Zephyr.

Whoever said that money doesn’t grow on trees was dead wrong. For years, my grandfather harvested and sold old-growth Redwood timbers to saw mills scattered throughout California’s Santa Cruz mountains. But that was before environmentalism went mainstream and the state introduced some of the world’s toughest rules and regulations to govern the logging industry. Gone are the monstrous bulldozers of my grandfather’s years that dragged felled virgin trees over the forest floor, destroying habitats and neglecting streams and rivers in their paths. Today, California’s timber harvest operations rely on a system of checks and balances. Registered foresters, technology-savvy loggers and...

The Sumatran Striped Rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri), also known as the Sumatra Short-eared Rabbit or Sumatran Rabbit, is a rabbit found only in forest in the Barisan Mountains in western Sumatra, Indonesia. It is listed as a critically endangered species — its rarity may be due to deforestation and habitat loss.

The Perija Parakeet is listed as critically endangered and is a threatened species. The area of forest in Colombia were the bird was sighted in 2005 was declared an Important Bird Area. Redone with wife's voice!

This video is created from a rare photo of the Perija Parakeet (Pyrrhura caeruleiceps) in the wild is one of the first ever. The colorful parakeet species has a distinctive blue nape and white breast, is threatened by illegal bird traders and habitat disturbance and loss, according to the American Bird Conservancy. The Perija Parakeet is listed as critically endangered and is a threatened species.

It is time, says a U of T biologist, that we began 'to think of humans as part of the natural world' July 13, 2008 Murray Whyte Staff Reporter Consider the Jefferson salamander. About average-finger length, its grey skin mottled with black. Amphibious, spawning in Southern Ontario's quickly vanishing woodland vernal pools. Prognosis: Dying. Now, the urban raccoon. Plump and furry, not so adept at fishing as its rural cousins, perhaps, but expert at garbage-tipping. An adaptable squatter in buildings both abandoned and, as homeowners near High Park well know, occupied. Prognosis: Thriving. The tiny Jefferson, its numbers dwindling to...

SPECIES STATUS: Unreliable data, threat to energy development cited. By DAN JOLING The Associated Press The State of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday. She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts.

PITTSBURGH - To the list of simple childhood pleasures whose safety has been questioned, add this: eating snow. A recent study found that snow — even in relatively pristine spots like Montana and the Yukon — contains large amounts of bacteria. Parents who warn their kids not to eat dirty snow (especially the yellow variety) are left wondering whether to stop them from tasting the new-fallen stuff, too, because of Pseudomonas syringae, bacteria that can cause diseases in bean and tomato plants. But experts say there's no need to banish snow-eating along with dodgeball, unchaperoned trick-or-treating and riding a bike...

Interior Department Removes Northern Rocky Mountain Wolves from Endangered Species List Contacts Ed Bangs (406) 449-5225, x 204 Joan Jewett (503) 231-6211 Sharon Rose (303) 236-4580 Joshua Winchell (703) 358-2279 The gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountains is thriving and no longer requires the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett announced today. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove the species from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. "The wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery goal and continues to expand...

The state Fish and Game Commission made the longfin smelt a candidate for the state's endangered species list Thursday, setting off alarms statewide among both water agencies and construction contractors. The three commissioners voted unanimously to list the tiny fish that ranges from California to Alaska as a candidate species for one year. After a year of study, the fish could be added to the state's list of endangered or threatened species. During that year-long study, however, the commission will limit the amount of water that can be pumped south out of the fish's habitat in the San Francisco Bay-Delta...

Good Neighbor Forum is proud to announce Mr. Lyle Laverty, US Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, will speak at the: 2nd Annual Good Neighbor Forum Topic: Food in the 21st Century How policies including conservation easements, ESA, Water, Roadless, EU, precautionary principles and trade will impact your food supply. March 15, 2008 9:00 am - 4:00 pm For more information contact: Roni 970-284-6874 Featured Speakers include Mr. Lawrence Kogan, Esq. - N.J. Will address Precautionary Principle, European Union and more. Dr. Corey Ciochhetti - CO Will address Ethics and Essence of being a...

DHAKA (AFP) — An extremely rare river dolphin has been beaten to death by fishermen in southern Bangladesh. Fishermen at Mongla, near the Sunderbans mangrove forest, netted a Ganges river dolphin on Monday and beat it to death as they had not seen this kind of creature before, the state-run BSS news agency said Tuesday. A group then tried to sell it as a rare fish, before giving up and dumping it outside a museum. The Sunderbans area straddles the borders of Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state and lies on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. According to the World Wildlife Fund,...

This striped rabbit is critically endangered. When being raised as a child I hunted and ate many rabbits. I feel I should take a plight for the endangered and God given beautiful creatures. Revski

This photo video of the Perija Parakeet (Pyrrhura caeruleiceps) in the wild is one of the first ever. The colorful parakeet species has a distinctive blue nape and white breast, is threatened by illegal bird traders and habitat disturbance and loss, according to the American Bird Conservancy. The Perija Parakeet is listed as critically endangered and is a threatened species.

PRAY - For rancher Randy Petrich, the removal of gray wolves from the endangered-species list - a move that would open up the animals to hunting in the Northern Rockies for the first time in decades - couldn't come soon enough. Petrich has seen fresh wolf tracks almost every morning this fall - close enough to threaten his cattle. "I believe that any wolf on any given night, if there happens to be a calf there, they will kill it," ... Just 12 years since the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park ... federal officials say the sharp rise...

Governor Sarah Palin on Friday called on Congressman Brad Miller to use scientific information, not political rhetoric, to set important public policy issues. Miller recently tried to undermine the State of Alaska's April 2007 comments on the proposed listing of polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. He attempted to discredit one of 54 studies the State had cited. The study was one of many supporting Alaska's position that polar bears should not be listed. The State concluded the best available scientific and commercial data do not demonstrate that the polar bear is likely to become endangered in...

They're common in other parts of the country. But in New Jersey, the lowly corn snake and northern pine snake are rare enough to get state protection, and the ability to halt development projects in an already crowded state. The mere sight of the snakes _ common elsewhere in the country, and even kept as pets _ spurs government bureaucracy into action when it involves a piece of Garden State land slated for development. The sighting of three corn snakes caused enough additional requirements from the New Jersey Pinelands Commission that Bob Meyer recently gave up plans to develop a...

DENVER—A 20-year government effort to restore the population of an endangered native trout in Colorado has made little progress because biologists have been stocking some of the waterways with the wrong fish, a new study says. Biologists called the finding a setback and a potential black eye but said there is still hope for restoring the greenback cutthroat trout because at least four pure populations of the fish have been identified. The three-year study was led by University of Colorado researchers and published online in Molecular Ecology on Aug. 28. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is heading the...

A Swiss zoo has provoked public dismay by culling two endangered Namibian lion cubs because it did not have space for them. In June, Basel Zoo proudly announced that a five-year-old lioness, imported from Namibia, had given birth to four cubs; three males and one female. However, last week the zoo decided to put two of the male cubs to sleep and feed their carcasses to other animals. It explained that the lion enclosure was not big enough for them and said it could not find another zoo to adopt them.Thomas Jermann, a curator, said that if the cubs had...

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2007 – After almost disappearing from the American scene, the bald eagle’s comeback is complete, thanks in part to the Defense Department. Challenger, a bald eagle, takes flight during the Bald Eagle Recovery and Final Delisting ceremony held at the Jefferson Memorial, June 28, 2007, as Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (right) stands with his hand over his heart. Defene Dept. photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and other officials made the announcement today at a ceremonial event held at the Jefferson Memorial...

I would like to ask you if you would consider helping Bay Families with Dogs, a grassroots organization in Panama City, FL. We have been enjoying for decades a stretch of beach on a barrier island with out family dogs. Recently, however the Florida State Park system has been buying up the few remaining private parcels and charging visitors to the island with SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANORS if they have their dog with them (or if they drink an adult beverage) on state lands. This has been a huge controversy in our community. I am personally asking if you will consider...

There are now at least 1,300 wolves prowling Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, far more than anyone imagined when the species was reintroduced in the Northern Rockies 12 years ago. The wolf population has, on average, grown by about 26 percent a year for the past decade. The latest estimates, which summarize counts completed at the end of 2006, show they aren't slowing down. "I keep thinking we're at the top end of the bubble," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I can't see that there's room for any more, but we'll see." As...

EPHRATA, Wash. � Most of a group of 20 endangered rabbits that were reintroduced to the wild with great fanfare last month have been killed by predators, state officials said. Only four of the rabbits released on March 13 remained at the Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area as of Tuesday, said David Hays, pygmy rabbit coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Hays said two males were removed earlier this month and will be returned at the end of April. The other 14 rabbits are believed to have fallen victim to predators, mainly coyotes, but also hawks and owls,...

Source: International Rice Research Institute Date: March 21, 2007 Protecting Rice: The Planet's Most Important Food Source Science Daily — An unprecedented new agreement --part of an aggressive move to safeguard the world's food production - aims to protect thousands of the world's unique rice varieties. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust announced the historic new agreement at a special dedication ceremony at IRRI's Genetic Resources Center, which houses more than 100,000 samples of rice, the biggest and most important such collection in the world. The funding agreement is expected to help conserve...

SAN DIEGO – When the Stevens family bought a house in Mira Mesa in 1980, they were told an elementary school would be built in their neighborhood on land set aside by housing developer Pardee Homes. More than two decades later, the site sits vacant. And Mira Mesa residents are unlikely to see a school until the end of the decade, even though the San Diego Unified School District had promised to build one as part of its $1.51 billion construction program funded by a 1998 bond measure. Jonas Salk Elementary School was supposed to open off Parkdale Avenue and...

Comments sought on eastern cougar Catamount, puma, painter, panther, mountain lion are just some of the names given to a large but elusive will-o’-the-wisp cat that once haunted . . . or perhaps still haunts . . . the forests of the eastern United States and Canada. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is beginning a review of scientific and commercial information to determine the status of the endangered eastern cougar, the first review the Service has done since publishing a recovery plan in 1982. The Service placed the eastern cougar on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in...

Interior Department Approves Plans by 56 U.S. States and Territories to Keep Species from Becoming Endangered Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved wildlife action plans for all 56 states and territories, marking the final phase of an important step in conservation history. For the first time ever, all state and territorial fish and Wildlife agencies have established comprehensive conservation plans that, together, provide a nationwide blueprint of actions to conserve imperiled species and prevent them from becoming threatened or endangered. "The states possess a wealth of knowledge about the conservation issues...

Endangered Crane Survives Florida Storms Monday February 5, 2007 2:01 AM By CARRIE ANTLFINGER Associated Press Writer MILWAUKEE (AP) - A whooping crane was spotted alive on Sunday after it was believed killed with 17 others in severe Florida storms, according to an organizer of a migratory project. Organizers received a signal from a transmitter on the young male crane on Saturday night and again on Sunday near where the endangered birds were kept in Citrus County, Fla. Later Sunday, they saw the survivor with two sandhill cranes, said Rachel Levin, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service....

WASHINGTON – Polar bears are in deep trouble because of global warming and other factors and deserve federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration is proposing Wednesday. Pollution and overhunting also threaten their existence. Greenland and Norway have the most polar bears, but almost 5,000 live mainly in Alaska and travel to Canada and Russia. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne plans to announce later Wednesday that polar bears should be listed as a "threatened'' species on the government list of imperiled species, a department official confirmed Wednesday. The "endangered" category is reserved for species more likely to become...

In new ads, ski company says global warming could dry up snow during the next century... The Aspen Skiing Co. hopes potential customers are ready for a snow job. On Wednesday, the company unveiled a new advertising campaign for the 2006-07 season that centers around the message that snow — and skiing — will disappear around 2100 if humans don’t take drastic action to slow global warming. Three full-page ads, which show a melting snowflake imposed over Highland Bowl, will run in SKI and Outside magazines in the next few months. One ad portrays a “certificate of death” for snow....

FORT HUACHUCA — A federal judge has approved a lawsuit settlement in which the post and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will renegotiate a biological opinion. “Fort Huachuca’s proactive decision to re-initiate consultation was instrumental in the Center for Biological Diversity and the Army agreeing to settle the lawsuit involving activities at Fort Huachuca and the impact of these activities on the San Pedro River basin,” post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said Tuesday. Jeff Humphrey, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman in Phoenix, said the settlement was signed Friday by U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson, who is assigned to...

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. Did someone in this wine-country town illegally plant an endangered flower to sabotage a proposed housing development? That is the question at the center of a quarrel that some here have dubbed "Foamgate." Bob Evans, a 72-year-old retired elementary-school principal, said he was walking with his dog last year when he came upon the tiny white flowers of Sebastopol meadowfoam poking from shallow pools of water in a grassy field. The former bean farm happens to be the site chosen for the 20-acre Laguna Vista housing development. Evans and other opponents seized on the discovery of meadowfoam, a...

Did residents of this idyllic wine country town illegally plant an endangered flower to sabotage a proposed housing development? That's the question at the heart of a quarrel folks here have dubbed "Foamgate." Bob Evans, a 72-year-old retired elementary school principal, says he was walking with his dog last year when he came upon the tiny white flowers of Sebastopol meadowfoam poking from shallow pools of water in a grassy field. The former bean farm happens to be the chosen site of the 20-acre Laguna Vista housing development. Evans and other opponents seized on the discovery of the federally protected...