The
Island Marble Butterfly was believed to be extinct for a hundred years until rediscovered in 1998 on Washington's San Juan Island.
One Of Nation's Rarest Butterflies Closer To Protection Under the Endangered Species Act
(photo courtesy USFWS - click to enlarge)
Responding to a petition from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the San Juans, and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) today issued a positive 90-day finding for the Island Marble Butterfly, determining that protection may be warranted and initiating a status review of the species. Today's decision resulted from a settlement agreement between the groups and USFWS. At the time of the settlement, USFWS agreed to coordinate with multiple state agencies to fund surveys and research on the species.
So nice of you to flutterby. More below.
The following is of special interest to me because I once saw one of these creatures in the Pasayten Wilderness, near where this one was captured. Mine was a good 100 yards away, which is probably a little too close.
(photo courtesy USFWS -- Click to enlarge, and note the claws)First wolverine radio-collared in Pacific Northwest
The wolverine is a Federal Sensitive Species and a Washington State Candidate Species for protective listing. Since the mid-1990s, biologists have documented the presence of wolverines in north-central Washington via aerial surveys, remote cameras, and winter tracking.
"What we learn about wolverines from this effort will help us determine the species' status and management needs," said Rohrer, who is the project field coordinator for the Methow Valley Ranger District in Winthrop.
The capture is the culmination of several years of survey work in north-central Washington to document wolverine presence to begin to understand their habitat needs. "We know so little about these rarely seen animals that this is an exciting opportunity to learn more about their general ecology in the north Cascades," said Fitkin of WDFW.
(The Wolverine Foundation)
The study will be interesting, if funding for it isn't cut in the name of funding war and only war. And the wolverine should be fine in the Pasayten, as long as it stays roadless. Woops! Despite the clear wish of the people of the state to keep this and other areas roadless, Bush keeps fighting us:
Washington State Will Join Lawsuit to Protect Roadless Areas (Reason # 439,271 I hate the regime.)
Governor Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, says Washington State will join California, New Mexico and Oregon in a lawsuit that challenges the Bush administration's repeal of the roadless rule.
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On February 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied Governor Gregoire's petition to create an expedited process in which states could choose to obtain the protections of the 2001 roadless rule. The petition would have simplified the process and saved administrative costs to the state.
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"The people of Washington spoke overwhelmingly - twice - in support of protecting our roadless areas," said Governor Gregoire. "Joining this lawsuit is our last effort to defend Washington's quality of life and our economy. This protection is the right policy for Washington citizens and vital for those areas of our state where the economy is dependent on tourism, fishing, hunting and hiking."
Gregoire also thanked
Jay Inslee (WA-01) and Senator Cantwell for their leadership on the issue. I am frankly tired of the incessant bitching on this site to the effect that this or that Democrat made a bad vote and must be crucified, or doesn't do anything at all because we haven't heard it on the nightly news. Support your Dems when they do the right thing.
Conservation Group Seeks Endangered Species Act Protection for California's Tricolored Blackbird
(photo courtesy USFWS)
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court today for violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to act on a petition to list the tricolored blackbird (Agelaius tricolor) as an endangered species. Recent state and federally sponsored surveys documented that the population of tricolored blackbirds plummeted at an alarming rate during the past decade, indicating the species is in dire need of protection under the Act.
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Much like the now-extinct passenger pigeon, the colonial nature of the tricolored blackbird makes it particularly vulnerable to extinction. Because the birds instinctively congregate into the largest breeding colonies possible as a defense again predation, a small number of individual colonies can contain a high proportion of the overall population. Thus, human impacts on these colonies can have devastating results. In fact, recent surveys documented about half the entire population nesting in just two colonies in the Central Valley - both in dairy silage fields - in which thousands of nests containing eggs and hatchlings were mowed down during harvest.
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The tricolored blackbird once numbered in the millions; one biologist in the 1930's reported 1,105,000 individuals in the Sacramento Valley alone. In the petition, the Center described five major studies that estimated the population size of tricolored blackbirds from the 1930's to 2000. These studies - representing the best recent estimates of tricolored blackbird abundance - indicate that the global population had dropped to about 370,000 by 1994. Six years later the population had declined by another 50 percent to 162,000 individual birds. While the sheer size of some individual colonies can make the species appear abundant, the overall population clearly has declined dramatically over the past 70 years.
The CBD is everywhere at once these days. In league with some heavyweight friends, they are taking to the UN their case that US policy (if you can call it that) on global warming threatens Waterton-Glacier International Park, a World Heritage site the US is treaty-bound to protect. Beeb rundown: Legal case against US on climate
The petitioners listed at the CBD page:
Center for Biological Diversity, David Suzuki Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Defenders of Wildlife-Canada, Green House Network, ForestEthics, Humane Society International/Human Society of the United States, Montana Wilderness Association, The Pembina Institute, Wildlands CPR, and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
Jeb's scientists press ahead with plans to move the manatee off the endangered list. The animals, meanwhile, are dying at a record rate.
Manatee deaths in January set record
(photo courtesy USFWS - click to enlarge)
Statewide, 48 of the endangered animals are known to have died in January, 12 more than in January 2005. Half of the fatalities stemmed from unknown causes while six were due to cold stress. Eight were killed by watercraft, four died from natural causes, and six were calves that died naturally or as a result of some other cause unrelated to human contact.
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Ken Arrison, a biologist with the state's Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab in St. Petersburg, said wildlife officials were surprised by the increase because January's weather was moderate.
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The bad start to 2006 for manatees follows a year in which some 396 sea cows were known to have died. The record was set in 1996 with 415 fatalities.
You know you are in Bushworld when a government panel persists in its plan to make life easier for commercial interests in clear defiance of reality. They are downgrading this creature's status following a year in which 12% of the known individuals died. Is there anyone who really thinks the manatee's chances have improved?
The Herald of Bradenton Florida editorializes: Save the manatee
It's the wrong time to consider taking away this layer of protection.
Two from the other WA
Following the agreement by New Zealand fishing interests to set aside large parts of NZ's waters as a preserve, their counterparts in Western Australia are taking steps to save their own industry: Conservation conscious fishers to cut catch
Kimberley scale fishers have agreed to reduce their catch by about one third in order to ensure the future viability of the Northern Demersal Scale Fishery.
The fishery extends out from the north Western Australian coast, covering about 250,000 square kilometres.
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However, the president of the Kimberley Professional Fishermen's Association, Alan Fraser, says illegal fishing poses a threat to the fishery's future.
Success in the effort to start a new colony of Australia's most endangered species. 40 individuals. Now there's one more Gilbert's Potoroo (right - click to enlarge).
Researchers celebrate baby potoroo discovery
Meanwhile disaster was averted when a lightning fire threatened Two People's Bay, home of the main colony: Water bombers praise for saving nature reserve A little too close for comfort.
Terra Preta
(We started with a butterfly's wings. Where'd you think we'd end up? I present the following as food for thought as much as anything else. I heard something about this long ago and forgot about it. Advance word of the article below got me to thinking. I had planned to do a great deal of reading on this, but alas, the world hasn't been cooperating the last few days. An idea: maybe other kossacks can do a little research on the subject along with me. Hell, maybe some of you already know all there is to know. If so, let's hear it now.)
Reproducing the Amazon's black soil could bolster fertility and remove carbon from atmosphere, says Cornell biogeochemist
The search for El Dorado in the Amazonian rainforest might not have yielded pots of gold, but it has led to unearthing a different type of gold mine: some of the globe's richest soil that can transform poor soil into highly fertile ground.
That's not all. Scientists have a method to reproduce this soil -- known as terra preta, or Amazonian dark earths -- and say it can pull substantial amounts of carbon out of the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, helping to prevent global warming. That's because terra preta is loaded with so-called bio-char -- similar to charcoal.
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Slash-and-burn, which is commonly used in many parts of the world to prepare fields for crops, releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Slash-and-char, on the other hand, actually reduces greenhouse gases, Lehmann said, by sequestering huge amounts of carbon for thousands of years and substantially reducing methane and nitrous oxide emissions from soils.
"The result is that about 50 percent of the biomass carbon is retained," Lehmann said. "By sequestering huge amounts of carbon, this technique constitutes a much longer and significant sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide than most other sequestration options, making it a powerful tool for long-term mitigation of climate change. In fact we have calculated that up to 12 percent of the carbon emissions produced by human activity could be offset annually if slash-and-burn were replaced by slash-and-char."
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"In other words, producing and applying bio-char to soil would not only dramatically improve soil and increase crop production, but also could provide a novel approach to establishing a significant, long-term sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide," said Lehmann. He noted that what is being learned from terra preta also can help farmers prevent agricultural runoff, promote sustained fertility and reduce input costs.
Terra Preta Web Site
The Terra Preta Network Links, and more.
The Secret of El Dorado Lest the title frighten you away, this is a good article from the BBC.
There are some extraordinary claims here and I have not digested them yet. I urge you to help me. We have sober researchers suggesting that the Amazon rainforest is at least in part a human creation. That large amounts of carbon can be sequestered by adopting 2000 year old techniques we don't fully understand. Healthy skepticism is in order here. On the other hand, a lot of people were surprised by the underground canals of the Nazca. But there they are.
Strip away the most grandiose claims. What is left? For one thing, a society without a waste stream as we know it. It more resembles the vision of Cradle to Cradle: waste as nutrients. (If you haven't read it, do. Nature as our model.) When these people left an area, the soil was better than when they arrived, more productive, higher in nutrients, and more retentive of water. And more carbon was sequestered.
Just up from the Columbia River, we have an enormous landfill. It is filled with garbage from as far away as Alaska, shipped down, offloaded, and trucked in from the coast. When it's full of everything under the sun, it will be covered over and another one dug on site. And nothing is nourished. We don't need to invent a new paradigm: they're a dime a dozen, lying all around, in the terra preta and in McDonough's book. We just need the political will.