Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal government banned commercial fishing for swordfish in a large swath of the Pacific Ocean in order to protect endangered sea turtles that were being killed or injured by the hooks. The new rules, released Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, mean that longline fishing for swordfish will be prohibited in a 1,600-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean between the West Coast and Hawaii. The ban is scheduled to take effect on April 12 and will affect about two dozen fishing boats based in California, Oregon and Washington. Recreational fishing is not affected. "It's an...

Archaeologist: Jewish Relics Endangered By PETER ENAV Associated Press Writer February 3, 2004, 6:43 AM EST JERUSALEM -- An Israeli archaeologist charged that Muslim authorities are excavating a disputed holy site in Jerusalem in a way that endangers what she says may be remains of the biblical Jewish Temples. The charges were denied Tuesday by the Islamic Trust, or Waqf, which administers the holy site. "This is about politics and nothing else because of the sensitivity of Jerusalem," said Waqf director Adnan Al-Husseini. Israel's Antiquities Authority declined comment on the archaeologist's claims. The sacred hilltop in the Old City of...

County aims to protect cave spiders affected by Texas 45 construction By Laura Heinauer AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, November 19, 2003 GEORGETOWN -- Williamson County commissioners agreed Tuesday to buy caves that are home to an endangered spider to compensate for habitat the creature is losing to Texas 45 highway construction. The county already has started looking at land west of Interstate 35 near Georgetown that contains several caves inhabited by the endangered Bone Cave Harvester, a small blind spider that lives in the porous limestone formation known as karst. Neither the price nor the amount of acreage the county will...

Amber Alert Issued for 7 Month Old Texas Boy Posted: Monday 11/10/03 15:55 CST CST The Grand Prairie Police Department issued the Amber Alert after the boy was removed from his Mother's home by force. Threats were made and the child is considered to be in extreme danger. Braeden Wood was abducted from his mother's home in Grand Prairie Texas on Monday November 10. Braeden is a white male, 7 months old, last seen wearing a blue, long sleeve jumper with a "teddy bear" emblem. Police are looking for Charles Leon Wood, a 37 yrs., white male, 6', 200 lbs....

<p>A rare bald eagle egg, produced by a pair of birds in captivity at Kentucky's game farm in Frankfort, was destroyed by state wildlife officials.</p> <p>Officials said allowing the egg to hatch would violate their federal permit.</p> <p>But an official from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the state had another option — send the egg or the eaglet, once it hatched, to a facility with a permit to raise young eagles.</p>

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Defenders of Wildlife, the Species Survival Network, and nearly two dozen other organizations today called for a halt to White House plans to allow the importation of hides, hunting trophies, and live specimens of endangered animals. In official comment on the proposal, Defenders charged that this approach could lead to the extinction of any of more than 500 species around the world. "This Bush policy is truly Orwellian, encouraging killing endangered animals in order to save them," said Carroll Muffett, director of international programs for Defenders of Wildlife. "Turning these species into commodities will...

On September 4, 2003, Judge Robert E. Jones of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon released an opinion ordering the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to reconsider its denial of a petition filed by several Klamath Basin residents to remove two species of suckerfish from the list of endangered species. Walt Moden, Merle Carpenter, Charles Whitlatch, John Bair, Tiffany Baldock and Dale Cross had filed a petition to remove the fish from the endangered species list on October 19, 2001. The petition was based on the testimony of former FWS biologist David Vogel, who told...

Critics fight border power line Say TEP link to Nogales will mar forest area By Mitch Tobin ARIZONA DAILY STAR With the nation's power grid suddenly in the spotlight, Tucson environmentalists vow they'll sue to pull the plug on a 66-mile power line proposed between Sahuarita and Nogales. Tucson Electric Power says its $70 million project will improve the reliability of electrical service in Santa Cruz County. Past blackouts there and the area's dependence on a single transmission line prompted the Arizona Corporation Commission in 1999 to mandate construction of another link between Nogales and the Western power grid. TEP...

(A gentle warning, this is a humble attempt at satire.) My uninformed guess is that supporters of "smart growth" and other environmentalists wouldn't be so enthusiastic if the end result of their activism was that their neighborhoods would not be kept free of lower-income residents. I know that I'm tired of seeing the Endangered Species Act abused to limit development of affordable housing for lower-middle class people by rich do-gooders. It always seems that when the neighboring platt is zoned for single family homes some endangered toad or bird becomes Priority Number One. The end result of this is that...

Forest Service shifts focus By Allison Fashek Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE – Logging is no longer the major issue facing national forests, officials from the U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday. Instead, the Forest Service is focusing on reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires, containing the spread of invasive species, reducing unmanaged recreational use and reducing the fragmentation of habitat and the loss of open spaces. In Wyoming, that means looking at invasive species such as spotted knapweed and cheatgrass and the use of off-road vehicles beyond trails and designated areas, said Jack Troyer, regional forester for the Forest...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Rep. C. L. "Butch" Otter (R-ID) has proposed a bill that would require scientific proof that land should be restricted before the Endangered Species Act can be applied to public land. This bill, called the Scientifically Identifying the Need for Critical Habitat (SINCH) Act, or H.R. 2602, would let the secretary of Interior decide whether the habitat that holds these limited species is threatened or endangered. Under the Endangered Species Act, a critical habitat includes any area where an endangered species lives as well as any territory that it decides to migrate to in order to...

Ranchers worry about mouse habitat decision By Allison Fashek Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE – Days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, landowners and officials expressed concern about the decision’s potential impact. While Ralph Morgenweck, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s mountain-prairie region, said in a statement last week that the effects would be minimal, others are not so sure. “The problem is this is our first critical habitat designation in the state,” said Matt Hoobler, agricultural coordinator for the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. “We haven’t gone through...

<p>It is 17 months before the next national elections, and Republicans already smell victory in the air. In Capitol Hill watering holes and the halls of congressional office buildings, members and aides are whispering about the prospects of a major power shift in favor of the GOP come November 2004. Senate strategists are daring to predict a possible six- or even seven-seat pickup, which would strengthen the majority party's currently undependable 51 votes. More Republican senators would make significant changes in policy possible exponentially, and prevent legislative logjams, such as the stalling on President Bush's tax cuts. At this early date, however, it is prudent to keep in mind that everything would have to go right to bring about such a lopsided outcome.</p>

Rare toad finds unlikely ally in Republican preacher BASTROP, Texas (AP) - Bob Long describes himself as a "gun-toting, redneck, Texas Republican preacher." So it came as a surprise to some when Long, the local GOP chairman for two decades, emerged as a savior for the endangered Houston toad, a rare resident of Bastrop County that has disappeared from much of its native range in southeast and Central Texas. "I couldn't spell environmentalist," Long said in Sunday editions of the Houston Chronicle. "Now I am one." Long, working with Austin-based Environmental Defense, has volunteered to make his 550-acre ranch...

Democratic Party Heads To Endangered Species List May 29, 2003 Donald Lambro writes in the Washington Times that there is growing fear among Democratic strategerists that George W. Bush is making gains in their party's base, especially with minorities and labor. Now, this an interesting story, coming on the heels of Wednesday's program which evolved The Big Theory as to what Bush is doing with the domestic agenda portion of his presidency. Bush and Rove are literally taking Democrat issue after Democrat issue away from them by implementing a small percentage of each of these issues, from education to prescription...

All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth in their military chests; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in the trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we...

<p>SACRAMENTO - The federal government decided today that the California spotted owl, a symbol in the battle over old-growth forests, does not need protection under the Endangered Species Act at this time.</p> <p>Environmental groups immediately said they will sue to overturn the ruling.</p>

Rep. Pombo pursues key resources post Tracy Congressman seeks to head panel on water, logging, mining WASHINGTON -- He hasn't been there the longest. He hasn't pushed through the most bills. But Rep. Richard Pombo is mounting what insiders call the most aggressive campaign in Congress to become the next Republican in charge of steering the nation's mining, logging, endangered species and water use policies, along with a host of other divisive land use issues. A former rancher from Tracy who is perhaps best known for the cowboy hat he wears in congressional photographs, Pombo is the popular favorite among...

<p>A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Rio Grande will keep flowing to an area inhabited by an endangered minnow, saying federal agencies had proposed an "arbitrary and capricious" plan that failed to fully consider alternative water sources.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge James Parker said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological plan for protecting the Rio Grande silvery minnow was flawed because it overlooked water supplies stored at Heron Reservoir about 20 miles south of the Colorado state line.</p>

"State wildlife officials decided Friday to put coho salmon found along a portion of the California coast on the state's endangered species list. But the Fish and Game Commission did not extend that protection to a coho population farther to the north. With a 4-1 vote the commission listed the coho from San Francisco to Punta Gorda in Humboldt County as endangered. The commission found that from Punta Gorda north to the Oregon state line the endangered listing wasn't warranted and instead listed the coho as threatened there. The commission put the listing in a 90-day suspension so interested parties...