Happy 10th Birthday to the Yellowstone Wolves!
On March 21, 1995, federal biologists finally opened the acclimation pens holding 14 gray wolves, sometimes called timber wolves, brought from Alberta. Earlier that year an additional 14 wolves had been set free in central Idaho's mammoth wilderness. And the following year, 17 more wolves were released into Yellowstone and 20 more into Idaho.
A decade later, Yellowstone's wolf population has grown more than five-fold and expanded into adjacent areas of Wyoming and Montana. Idaho's wolf population expanded even more spectacularly--by thirteen-fold--with an estimated 452 animals in the Gem State at last count in 2004. All told, over 850 wolves now roam the US Rocky Mountains
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...and Wyoming will not be allowed to indiscriminately kill wolves
Wyoming has experienced a major setback in its efforts to implement a state wolf management plan that would have allowed unregulated killing of wolves throughout most of their range in the state.
Last year, the State of Wyoming and a coalition of groups representing livestock and hunting interests filed suit to compel federal approval of a state management plan to allow the shooting, trapping, baiting, and poisoning of wolves. On Friday, federal district Judge Alan B. Johnson issued an order dismissing all claims by the state of Wyoming and the livestock industry.
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Palm Sunday is for the birds
22 churches in the United States are for the first time using environmentally sustainable palm from Guatemala and Mexico for their Palm Sunday services this year. [...] More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year for U.S. consumption alone -- most of them for Palm Sunday.
The plan is to buy certified palms from communities using sustainable forestry practices and improve the communities' profit margins, giving them more incentive to protect the rainforest instead of clear-cutting it.
The Colombian initiative has a special urgency, because the survival of a species is at stake. There are only 540 or so yellow-eared parrots left on the planet. They exist only in Colombia. Their sole habitat is the wax palm, which grows on the misty flanks of the Andes Mountains to heights of 225 feet (70 meters), making it the world's tallest palm tree.
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New program lets SUV drivers offset emissions
As a class project late last year, Wharton students helped develop TerraPass, a Web-based business that lets drivers of dirty vehicles wipe their consciences clean. TerraPass pools its subscribers' money to help pay for renewable energy projects such as wind farms and biomass energy. Those no-emission and low-emission projects cleanly create electricity that would have otherwise been produced at polluting, coal-fired power plants.
Here's how the system works: A motorist goes to the company Web site, (www.terrapass.com) and signs up for a year's worth of "offset" emissions. The price, paid online via credit card or a PayPal account, depends on the type of vehicle -- $29.95 for hybrids; $39.95 for compact cars; $49.95 for larger cars; $79.95 for sport utilities and gas-guzzling sports cars.
Link Terapass website
Australians giving up plastic bags
Australians are trying to stop using so many plastic carry bags, and according to two reports issued by Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell Saturday, they are succeeding. The plastic bags litter the landscape, block drains and creeks, and injure wildlife on land and at sea. Overall, Australians have reduced bag use by around 21 percent since 2002, the reports show.
The Australian Retailers Association is implementing the voluntary Code of Practice Target for the Management of Plastic Bags. Agreed in 2003, the Code aims to reduce plastic bag use by 50 percent by the end of 2005. If the targets are not achieved, Australian Retailers Association says "it is highly likely that a ban or tax of 25 cents per plastic bag will be applied."
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500 miles per gallon? Believe it!
Hybrid electric cars such as the Toyota Prius, which run on both electric motors and gas engines, already get more than 50 miles per gallon. Coming soon are hybrids that can be plugged into a 120-volt outlet to recharge like a cellphone. They'll get even better mileage.
Add in "flexible fuel" options that already allow many cars to run on a combination of petroleum and fuels like ethanol (derived from corn) and methanol (from natural gas or coal), and you could build vehicles that could get - drum roll, please - 500 miles per gallon of gasoline. That's not science fiction; that's achievable right now.
Link See this diary, too
And, finally, the uplifting quote of the week.
The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
- John Muir
A rare burst of color is softening the stark landscape of Death Valley, with clusters of purple, pink and white wildflowers dotting the black basalt mountainsides and great swaths of golden blooms bordering the blinding white salt flats on the valley floor.
