The Alliance for the Wild Rockies (AWR) filed a lawsuit, on Monday, in a challenge to "the U.S. Forest Service's decision to go forward with three road-building and logging projects in occupied habitat for the endangered Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear is almost certainly going extinct and roads pose the most imminent threat to these bears."
Do these government departments / bureaus ever talk to - or listen to - each other?
Here you have the FWS - part of the Department of the Interior - whose "... mission is, working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats ..." stating that building roads through the Cabinet-Yaak area is contributing to the decimation of the grizzly population. A population, by the way, that is limited to only 5 areas in the western United States and is estimated (April, 2007) to number less than 50 individuals in what is known as the Cabinet-Yaak Recovery Zone. This zone consists of the Cabinet Mountains and Yaak Valley.
Now, we add the USFS, part of the Department of Agriculture - but funded through the Department of the Interior. Their mission "... is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations." Doesn't sound incompatible to me? And yet, in practice, the left hand certainly has different goals than the right hand (non-politically speaking).
The USFS projects, which AWR is challenging, include:
Commercial thinning on 780 acres, regeneration harvest on 398 acres, prescribed burning only on 691 acres, 5.5 miles of new permanent roads, and 2 miles of temp roads in Little Beaver Drainage;
Commercial timber harvest on 2,506 acres and prescribed fire on 3,148 acres in Miller West Fisher; and
Timber harvest, prescribed burning, pre-commercial thin, and access mgmt changes in the Grizzly Planning Subunit.
The full complaint (PDF file) can be found on the AWR website.
You know, it seems like just yesterday that I could sit here - working away on the computer - and see what I was doing, well into the evening. What happened?! Oh, yeah. Winter!
No, technically, it's not winter, yet. But this dark-at-five-pm is really annoying!
Just now, for example, I was plugging away at about a hundred online searches, trying to come up with some information I need for a product review. Suddenly, without warning, the whole room was dark! Not just getting-hard-to-see dim, but turn-on-the-lights-or-trip-over-the-furniture dark!
It doesn't help that I know it's only going to get worse until the winter solstice - December 21! That's a full 53 days from now! Fifty-three days of the days getting shorter!
Alright, the earliest sunset actually occurs about 2 weeks before the shortest day. But, that's still 39 days of less and less daylight! Egads!
I read the above-titled press release with no small measure of joy.
Issued today, by Earthjustice.org, it explains the memo sent, by the White House Chief of Staff, to the heads of all executive departments and agencies. Effective immediately, all pending regulations are stopped and the rules must be reviewed by new agency heads in the Obama administration. A good start.
However, many of what they call midnight regulations, snuck in under cover of dark, were published before Obama took office and before the Emanuel memo was issued.
There are still many in Congress who support what Bush tried to do to the environment and endangered species in this country. President Obama's administration will not have an easy time, undoing the mess that was left for them. I urge you to join me and let your voice be heard.
Take a minute, if you would, and send your message urging President Obama to act: Five Important Ways to Break with the Bush Legacy.
1. Allow gray wolves in the northern Rockies to fully recover before removing federal protections
2. Protect Appalachian streams from being buried by mountaintop removal rubble
3. Restore oversight by wildlife scientists to the Endangered Species Act
4. Keep Western public lands free from oil and gas drilling
I read an interview with soon-to-be-ex President Bush recently. He was detailing his religious beliefs. I think he missed a page or two (thousand) in the how-to-be-a-Christian manual!
Check out this press release from Defenders of Wildlife:
For Immediate Release
December 11, 2008
Contact(s) Cat Lazaroff, (202)772-3270
Bush administration takes parting shot at endangered wildlife
Last minute Endangered Species Act regulations put nation's wildlife at risk of extinction
WASHINGTON—Rushing to put in place changes it failed to secure in the past eight years, the Bush administration has finalized new Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations today, cutting huge holes in the safety net that protects animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct.
First proposed by the Department of the Interior a little over three months ago, the new regulations will eliminate the requirement that agencies seek advice from expert biologists with federal wildlife agencies in decisions about whether dams, towers, highways and other projects will likely harm imperiled species.
"This administration’s disdain for wildlife and the environment has never been more clear than it is today," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. "For 35 years, the Endangered Species Act has helped save and recover imperiled wildlife on the brink of extinction. Now, with this administration facing its last days, they are doing everything they can to cement their anti-environmental legacy before the Obama administration takes office."
The Bush administration’s last minute rulemaking has drawn heavy criticism from the public, lawmakers, conservation groups and newspaper editorialists around the country. More than 250,000 comments opposing the changes were submitted to the Interior Department in the 60 days it allowed for the public to respond to the changes.
But the massive public outcry seems to have fallen on deaf ears. In its push to finalize the rules before President-elect Barack Obama takes office, the department had only 15 people spend only 32 hours reading the comments, averaging mere seconds in reviewing each of the more than 250,000 comments. Department officials then ignored the major concerns raised by the comments, making only cosmetic changes to the original proposals.
Both President-elect Obama and key Democratic leaders have signaled that they will oppose the ESA changes. In addition, Defenders intends to take immediate legal action to stop these regulations.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has argued that the new regulations are needed to keep the ESA from being used to limit emissions from coal power plants and other polluting sources that contribute to global warming. This continues the Bush administration’s failed approach of ignoring the problem.
"Global warming presents the greatest threat this generation has seen to ourselves, our wildlife and our environment, and yet the Bush administration has dragged its feet on addressing the impacts of a warming planet for its entire time in office," Clark said. "While the ESA by itself certainly can't provide a comprehensive solution to global warming, its protections will be essential in helping at-risk species survive a changing climate. If allowed to stand, these regulations will deprive the Obama administration of a powerful tool to protect wildlife and ecosystems from the effects of global warming."
Many of the ESA regulation changes finalized today were tried before in a failed legislative effort by former Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA), whose anti-environmental record and repeated attacks on the ESA contributed to his defeat in the 2006 elections.
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are the keepers of the flame for our threatened and endangered wildlife. They are equipped to make decisions based on looking at the whole picture for a species, on what’s happening to their habitat, their health and other significant impacts," Clark said. "It seems that the Bush administration has prioritized the interests of its industry allies over its responsibility to the public for protecting our nation’s imperiled wildlife. We will work in the courts, with Congress, and with the Obama administration to overturn these damaging regulations, so that we can begin to address the environmental neglect and damage that has been done over the last eight years."
###
Thank heaven we only have a few weeks left before sanity retakes the White House. Contact President-elect Obama and let him know that these abominations need to be reversed!
I haven't had very kind thoughts about the governor of Alaska - pretty much since I first heard about her. And my opinion just keeps getting more and more negative.
For whom, exactly, does McCain think Sarah Palin has appeal? Seriously!? Oh, that's right - those who believe that humans are more important and take priority over every other species on the planet.
Despite strong scientific, ethical and public opposition to aerial hunting, Governor Palin has…
* Proposed paying a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf.
* Approved a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to promote aerial hunting.
* Introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves and bears.
From: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
I urge you to watch this shocking video. Chances are pretty good that - if McCain is elected - this woman will be President before the 4 years are out. Can our animal friends afford that?
I DON'T THINK SO!!
As much as I don't trust Obama and crew, I truly cannot abide the thought that this morally reprehensible person could ever reach a position of national power!
For anyone in doubt - the bible was written by man to control man's behavior - just ask King James. Mankind has evolved since those days - or at least some of mankind has.
Please! Stop buying into the nonsense that organized religion and questionable politics keeps foisting upon us! Think and live beyond yourself!
Help save the planet! For all the creatures who are trying to survive here!
For more than 30 years, the Endangered Species Act has protected wildlife at risk of extinction. Now the Bush/Cheney Administration wants to eliminate vital checks and balances that are crucial to protect our polar bears, wolves and other imperiled wildlife.
Announced earlier this week, the Bush/Cheney proposal would severely limit scientific review by the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service of projects that could harm imperiled wildlife. And it would explicitly limit the ability of these expert agencies to consider how greenhouse gas emissions from such projects could impact polar bears, wolverines and other wildlife that may go extinct due to global warming.
Instead, agencies proposing projects such as highways, dams, mines, oil or gas drilling and virtually any other activity would be allowed to decide for themselves whether a project is likely to impact any of the nearly 1,400 species currently protected by the Endangered Species Act -- without the crucial independent review now provided by scientific experts at the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Many of these agencies do not even have biologists or other qualified staff to make such a determination.
Even worse, the new regulations would impose a brief 60-day review period, making it even less likely that anyone involved in the process will have the time or expertise to fully evaluate the potential harmful effects of a given project on sensitive wildlife or the habitat it needs to survive.
There are less than 160 days left in the Bush/Cheney Administration -- and even less time for your Members of Congress to act. Please take action now to help stop the Bush/Cheney Administration’s last-minute attempt to eliminate effective protections for the wildlife that you and I love.
Sincerely,
Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife
P.S. Two years ago, Defenders led the fight that stopped Congressional legislation that would have gutted the Endangered Species Act. Now we need your help to stop the Bush Administration from trying to do the same thing. Please take action now!
Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities.
Defenders of Wildlife can be contacted at: 1130 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036
Experts differ in opinions as to the cause. Some blame overfishing, which is forcing the penguins further out to find food and leaving them vulnerable to stronger ocean currents. Another theory, that global warming has altered ocean currents, created more cyclones, and made the seas rougher. As most of the birds are newly out of the nest, either of these make a great deal of sense.
So many animals are at risk these days, thanks to global warming and pollution, it's so sad to see the young ones in trouble.
As you can imagine, I was outraged when gray wolves were delisted in March, with several states planning wolf hunts for this fall. With a population of only about 2,000 in the area, the species is not nearly sufficient to withstand 'culling'. As the judge pointed out, the genetic diversity in the Rockies wolves is far from where it needs to be.
The order isn't permanent, and government attorneys may yet appeal the decision. Let us hope that it becomes and stays permanent.
I have a great interest in protecting the environment, helping animals, and just trying to do the right thing. Sadly, I don't have a bank account that allows me to financially support all of the causes in which I believe.
Thanks to the Greater Good Network, and their sponsors, I don't have to be the Sultan of Brunei in order to help.
One of the easiest ways to help is by resetting the home page on your browser. Simply pick one of the websites in the network - I chose The Animal Rescue Site - and every time you visit the Internet, simply click on the "Click Here to Give" button on the main page. It doesn't cost you a dime, but the sponsors will take that 'click' and donate to the cause that you've chosen.
Every time I visit my homepage, I give .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. And I am not alone! Yesterday, July 10, 2008, 303,764 clicks contributed 182,258 bowls of food; in 2007, actions at The Animal Rescue Site funded the value of 42,724,313 bowls of food for animals in need.
I know that I couldn't, personally, contribute enough to make a drop in the bucket. But, working with The Greater Good Network, I - and you - can do wonders.
Although I'm not a big science buff, I am a sucker for archaeology and paleontology. Learning how people and animals lived, thousands or even millions of years ago is absolutely fascinating.
Just look at the latest Utah find. It contains a combination of dinosaurs, petrified trees, animal burrows, and freshwater clams that is incredibly well-preserved. Sounds almost like a display at a museum of natural history.
Found in the channel of an ancient river and dating to the late Jurassic, this is going to give scientists something to think about and study for years to come.
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear is almost certainly going extinct and roads pose the most imminent threat to these bears."
Now, we add the USFS, part of the Department of Agriculture - but funded through the Department of the Interior. Their mission "... is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations." Doesn't sound incompatible to me? And yet, in practice, the left hand certainly has different goals than the right hand (non-politically speaking).
