Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Noting that the grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone area has thrived in recent years, the Bush administration on Tuesday announced that it plans to remove federal protections for the animals in the areas around the national park. "A population that was once plummeting towards extinction is now recovered," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in making the announcement. "These bears are now no longer endangered" and should be removed from the Endangered Species Act listing. The Interior Department, through the Fish and Wildlife Service, implements the Endangered Species Act. "We are sure that these bears will have the...

Utah last month submitted a wildlife action plan to the Interior Department that charts a future course for species and habitat protection and restoration. Now, so has everybody else. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Wednesday that wildlife agencies from all 50 states and six territories have finalized similar plans to establish a national framework for species protection. The goals: to enhance habitats, and in doing so, keep at-risk wildlife off the federally managed Endangered Species List. "We all recognize that the federal government can't do this alone; it can't conserve and protect everything that needs to be protected," Norton said...

LAWSUIT: A state group seeks to have the birds of prey taken off the endangered-species list. By JENNIFER BOWLES and ADAM C. HARTMANN / The Press-Enterprise A California group on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the bald eagle from the federal endangered-species list, six years after President Clinton announced a proposal to do just that. The lawsuit comes after the recent deaths of two bald-eagle chicks near Lake Hemet east of Idyllwild, part of a small population of bald eagles that make the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains their...

To: National Desk, Congressional Correspondent, Real Estate Reporter Contact: Linda M. Johnson of National Association of Realtors(r), 202-383-7536 or lmjohnson@realtors.org SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), addressing Realtors(r) at a forum here, said the current endangered species law needs reform because it is failing the habitats and the species its supposed to protect. Cardoza also updated Realtors(r) on other federal issues at a legislative and political forum held yesterday during the REALTORS(r) Conference & Expo here, Oct. 28-31. Cardoza has cosponsored legislation with Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) that balances the need to protect endangered...

In 1973, the American bald eagle population had drastically declined. Populations of American alligators, humpback whales and other landmark species were also diminishing, and America needed to act. In response, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The law was supposed to protect imperiled species on the brink of extinction. However, more than three decades later, the Endangered Species Act has failed to live up to its noble expectations. Today, nearly 1,300 species have been afforded the law's protections, yet, just 10 species have been taken off the list due to recovery. The truth be known, not one single...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed yesterday that it will propose removing threatened-species protection from the marbled murrelet, a small seabird at the center of battles over logging in the Northwest. The proposal, to be formally made by the end of the year, will start a yearlong evaluation of the status of the bird. The marbled murrelet lives its life at sea but uses big old trees near the coast for nesting, laying a single egg in a mossy depression on a large branch. The proposal is based on the idea that the 17,000 to...

There may be a surprise in store for environmentalits - removing cattle grazing could actually be damaging to the environment. An article published in the latest issue of Conservation Biology finds that cattle grazing plays an important role in maintaining wetland habitat necessary for some endangered species. Removing cattle from grazing lands in the Central Valley of California could, inadvertently, degrade the vernal pool habitat of fairy shrimp and tiger salamanders. Cattle grazing influences the rates of evaporation which work together with climate to determine the depth and duration of wetland flooding. Cattle have been grazing in the land for...

The spread of Viagra, the wonder drug that promises to cure erectile dysfunction, is saving endangered species as many men switch from using animal parts to treat the malady, claims a new survey. William von Hippel, a psychologist from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and his brother Frank von Hippel, a biologist from the University of Alaska in Anchorage, showed that the Western treatment for the sexual problem seems to be replacing traditional medicines, including potions made from seal penises and reindeer antler velvet. In a study funded by Pfizer, the manufacturer of Viagra, the von...

USFWS Contacts: Al Pfister(970)243-2778 x 29 or Diane Katzenberger (303)236-4578 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the withdrawal of the Southern Rocky Mountain population of the Boreal Toad (Bufo boreas boreas) from the list of species being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Service has determined that listing this population of the Boreal Toad at this time is not warranted because it does not constitute a distinct population segment as defined by the ESA. Although no further action will result from this finding, the Service will continue to seek new information on the taxonomy,...

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The new version of the Endangered Species Act approved by the House is unlikely to pass muster in the Senate, at least right away. Critics worry especially about a murky provision that could pay landowners tens of millions of dollars in damages for property devalued by restrictions due to rare critters or plants. Nonetheless, sponsors' success in getting this far and winning bipartisan backing shows widespread recognition of problems in one of the nation's most venerable environmental laws. In a barometer of emotions flowing on the issue, no fewer than four Old Testament books (Genesis, Psalms,...

Expecting to be fed, boreal toads at an Alamosa hatchery turn toward the photographer. Scientists say they now won t have to get special permits to study the creatures, speeding research on a fungus decimating the population. (Special to The Denver Post / Mark H. Hunter) Colorado's boreal toad was removed as a candidate for the federal endangered-species list Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That could be good news for ski-slope developers - and maybe even for the toad itself. An exotic fungus that is hammering the warty, high-elevation amphibian made it a candidate for endangered-species protection...

STOCKTON -- A group of environmentalists, farmers, and fishermen gathered in Stockton Monday to protest legislation by Rep. Richard Pombo that it says tears holes in the federal safety net for wildlife living on the brink of extinction. The group, following a brief news conference, hand-delivered to Pombo's Stockton office the signatures of 3,000 Californians objecting to Pombo's revised version of the Endangered Species Act. Former Rep. Pete McCloskey -- a Republican like Pombo -- co-authored the original 1973 law and stood nearby when President Nixon signed it into law. McClosky said he's so angry about Pombo's bill, he is...

Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A group of congressmen proposed bipartisan legislation yesterday to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, a measure that environmental groups say would gut the landmark 1973 law. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee, scheduled a hearing tomorrow on the measure. He and Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., argued that it is time to return to the original goal of the act: increasing the populations of threatened or endangered species to the point that they can be removed from the list. The bill was unveiled at a Sacramento news conference at the same time...

A lizard known for its dinosaur-like features is back in line for endangered species protection, according to backers of the tiny, desert reptile. A federal judge in Arizona on Tuesday ruled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erred when it dropped the Flat-tail Horned Lizard from consideration as a "threatened" species eligible for special legal protection. In a 15-page ruling, District Court Judge Neil Wake said the government "violated the Endangered Species Act" by failing to evaluate the impact of habitat loss on the species when it withdrew a proposal to list it as threatened. The ruling, according to environmentalists...

Tracy Republican Richard Pombo plans to introduce a comprehensive rewrite of one of the nation's strongest environmental laws in the coming weeks, a move that is expected to be the most significant attempt to revamp the Endangered Species Act in nearly a decade. As chairman of the influential House Resources Committee and a fierce, career-long critic of the nation's foremost wildlife law, Pombo has the ability to put some wind behind the sails of his bill. But attempts to change the endangered species law have always proven difficult, and Pombo's efforts in the past have been particularly controversial. The 1973...

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Beer drinkers in this college town will have to settle for bottles or cans, as more than a dozen liquor stores have quit selling kegs. The stores are hoping to ditch low profits from kegs, compared with beer sold by the case. Some say they also hope the move will help cut down on alcohol-related violence and accidents. "The majority of students are very angry because they don't get why we're doing this," said Chris Johnson, manager of Muncie Liquor. All six of the chain's stores have been no-keg zones since last weekend. At one store,...

The Bush administration violated the law when it dropped efforts to bring back gray wolves in the Northeast, a federal judge in Vermont ruled yesterday. A coalition of environmental groups had challenged the 2003 decision to reduce Endangered Species Act protection for gray wolves across the lower 48 states; while the species has rebounded in the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies, gray wolves are almost nonexistent in the Northeast. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha noted that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said there would be " 'extensive and significant gaps' in the wolf's range without...

Firing ranges can have more wildlife than national parks.Military exercises are boosting biodiversity, according to a study of land used for US training manoeuvres in Germany. Such land has more endangered species than nearby national parks. The land is uncultivated, but also churned up by tank tracks and explosions. This creates habitat both for species that prefer pristine lands and those that require disturbed ground, explains ecologist Steven Warren of Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Military land can host more species than agricultural land, Warren told a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Montreal. What's more, its...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Scientists beware: Don't count your extinct bird species because one of them may hatch. Several supposedly extinct birds have recently been "rediscovered," raising hopes that others not seen for ages may still be taking to the skies. "The real message of rediscoveries is that we didn't look hard enough in the first place," said Nigel Collar of UK-based conservation group BirdLife International. "We think we've explored the planet when we haven't. We have this assumption that we know it all but we don't," he said. The most recent reported rediscovery that has ornithologists in a flap was...

Karen Krebbs had an armed escort while she was out nights last week at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. She's not a law-enforcement agent and she doesn't dabble in anything illegal. She's a conservation biologist with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, studying an endangered population of nectar-feeding bats. Researchers along Arizona's border these days must balance their desire to study wildlife in the Sonoran Desert - where the chance to observe long-protected desert-dwelling populations proves an irresistible lure - with a growing fear of theft by desperate border crossers or violence from drug and people smugglers. The fears are fueled by...