Good environmental news of the week

Has anyone else noticed that pratically all the environmental news we get here on dKos (or anywhere else, really) is negative?  Sure, there's a lot of bad stuff going down, but good things are happening, too.  So, to keep everyone's spirits up, I give you this week's Good Environmental News.  (I expect this will become a regular weekly feature, assuming I manage to keep up with it)

Endangered Falcon coming back in New Mexico

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes reintroducing northern Aplomado falcons in southern New Mexico, where there have been only sporadic sightings of the endangered bird.  The agency plans to release as many as 150 captive-bred birds annually beginning in the summer of 2006.  The falcons would be released for 10 or more years until a self-sustaining population is established, the agency said Wednesday.[...]

The Peregrine Fund of Boise, Idaho, which is breeding the falcons, would handle the falcon releases in southern New Mexico and most of the costs. The group has released northern Aplomado falcons on national wildlife land in Texas.  The number of birds in the United States has increased from zero in 1994 to at least 39 pairs producing at least 179 youngsters by 2004, the agency said.  
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/021005falcons.php

Grazing on public lands will be more expensive this year

The fee for grazing livestock on federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service is going up to $1.79 per animal unit month, the BLM announced Monday.  The new fee is up from $1.43 in 2004. It goes into effect March 1.
article
Commentary: the U.S. government subsidizes grazing on public lands, so any fee increase is good news

New treaty protects African rain forests

Seven Central African countries signed a landmark treaty Saturday to establish cross-border partnerships to help save the world's second largest rain forest.  The treaty concluded a two-day summit of Central African heads of state to address threats to the great Congo Basin forests, a 500 million-acre region that makes up the very heart of Africa.  The Congo Basin forests stretch through 10 countries and are home to more than half Africa's animal species, including the world's entire population of lowland gorillas. Nearly 20 million people depend on the forests for food and shelter. [...]

The treaty will make it easier for countries to jointly track and combat poachers, who easily slip across Africa's remote borders. It will also help provide funds for training and conservation, and harmonize laws in different countries that regulate logging.
http://enn.com/today.html?id=7082

Israelis and Palestinians work together to clean up rivers, save turtles

Even as ... violence raged between the sides for more than four years, local Israelis and Palestinians cooperated to clean up the Alexander River -- which drains into the Mediterranean Sea -- and its main tributary, the Nablus River.  They hope not only to save the rivers and the life they support, but also the underground aquifer the people share.  Soon, with German aide, a treatment plant will be opened in Tulkarem, cleaning up pollution from olive oil presses, car garages and sewage that flows into the Nablus River, officials said. [...]

"Even during the toughest times we always found a way to meet," said Israeli architect Amos Brandeis, chief planner of the Alexander River restoration project. The officials often met in secret places on either side, even a hospital, so as not to antagonize opponents, Brandeis said.  The Alexander River sustains between 70 and 100 Nile soft-shelled turtles, the largest remaining population in the world of the species, listed as "critically endangered" by the World Conservation Union.
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7092

Coral protected from trawling off Alaska

Commercial fishing nets that drag the sea floor will be banned from more than a half-million square miles of ocean near the Aleutian Islands under a government plan to protect the deep-water corals and sponges that help nurse Alaska's fishing grounds.

In what easily will be the largest trawl-fishing ban in the United States, the governing body that oversees commercial fishing in the North Pacific yesterday proposed a whole new approach to protecting the rocky, colorful seafloor habitat. Scientists believe the coral may help incubate a fertile fishing area that helps supply a significant portion of U.S. seafood.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002177305_coral11m.html