High Ethical Standards Will Rule Interior Department, Salazar Vows
WASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 2009 (ENS) – The Obama administration’s new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has promised that high ethical standards will be the norm at the department that has been plagued with scandals under the Bush administration. In an address to thousands of Interior Department employees Thursday broadcast live by satellite to [...]
Read More »Obama Freezes Pending Federal Rules, Wolves May Benefit
WASHINGTON, DC, January 21, 2009 (ENS) – In one of his first presidential acts, President Barack Obama has ordered federal agencies to halt all pending regulations until his administration can review them. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel issued the memorandum Tuesday shortly after Obama took the oath of office at noon on the [...]
Read More »Lawsuit Challenges 11th Hour Cuts in Endangered Species Protections
SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 17, 2008 (ENS) – Regulations announced by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week that would exempt many federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act were published in the Federal Register Tuesday. But the regulations are being challenged in court by three [...]
Read More »Ecosystem Approach to Hawaii Wildlife Welcome But Not New
HONOLULU, Hawaii, October 5. 2008 (ENS) – Conservationists are expressing mixed reactions to the federal government’s proposal to add 48 species found only on the island of Kauai to the federal endangered species list and also to designate critical habitat for them. While advocates support the ecosystem approach proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife [...]
Read More »Bush Administration Peppered With Endangered Species Lawsuits
PORTLAND, Oregon, October 2, 2008 (ENS) – The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity today filed five separate lawsuits in federal court all charging the Bush administration with political interference in designation of critical habitat for six western species that are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The species include two birds, [...]
Read More »Nigeria, Cameroon Cooperate to Save Most Endangered Ape
NEW YORK, New York, September 5, 2008 (ENS) – With just 300 individuals left in the wild, Cross River gorillas have found new conservation support from the governments of Cameroon and Nigeria, the only two countries where these great apes live. Representatives from the two nations agreed last week to improve trans-boundary cooperation to protect [...]
Read More »Cameroon-Canada-U.S. Ivory Smuggler Gets Five Years
AKRON, Ohio, August 11, 2008 (ENS) – An art dealer who operated import and export businesses in Canada and Cameroon that were fronts for smuggling raw elephant ivory has been sentenced to five years in prison and a $100,000 fine for smuggling ivory from Cameroon into the United States. Canadian citizen and former Montreal resident [...]
Read More »Northern Rockies Wolves Temporarily Back on Endangered List
MISSOULA, Montana, July 21, 2008 (ENS) – A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction restoring gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains to the endangered species list and halting the indiscrimate killing of wolves for the duration of a trial in which conservationist plaintiffs contest the removal of the wolves from the protected list. [...]
Read More »California’s Delta Smelt Could Merit Endangered Listing
SACRAMENTO, California, July 11, 2008 (ENS) – The delta smelt, a small silvery fish that has come to represent the condition of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary, may be declared an endangered species under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service action announced Wednesday. The federal agency made a positive preliminary finding on a petition by three environmental [...]
Read More »Texas Tries to Clear the Air at Two National Parks
AUSTIN, Texas, June 11, 2008 (ENS) – To comply with federal air quality requirements for national parks, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is revising the State Implementation Plan, SIP, to address visibility at both Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains parks and at protected areas in neighboring states. The federal rule calls for visibility improvements [...]
Read More »Texas Boot Dealer Jailed for Smuggling Sea Turtle Skins
DENVER, Colorado, June 2, 2008 (ENS) – Jorge Caraveo of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver to serve 18 months in prison for his participation in the sale and smuggling of sea turtle and other exotic skins and skin products into the United States from Mexico. Along with the [...]
Read More »Law Would Save Half Million Acres of California Wilderness
WASHINGTON, DC, May 29, 2008 (ENS) – Legislation to protect almost half a million acres of federal public lands in California has been introduced in Congress on a bipartisan basis. The Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act will give wilderness designations to 472,804 acres of public land, the highest level of protection [...]
Read More »Forest Service Could Be Sued as Visitors Trash Arizona Creek
TUCSON, Arizona, May 23, 2008 (ENS) – The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity today filed a 60 day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Forest Service for Endangered Species Act violations at Fossil Creek in central Arizona. Addressed to Regional Forester Corbin Newman, the notice states that the Forest Service has failed to consult [...]
Read More »U.S. Lists Polar Bear as Threatened But Balks at New Protection
By J.R. Pegg WASHINGTON, DC, May 14, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration reluctantly declared the polar bear a threatened species today, concluding that the loss of Arctic sea ice has put the future of the iconic species in peril. But the administration also took steps to ensure the decision will not require new efforts [...]
Read More »Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout Now Endangered Species Candidate
WASHINGTON, DC, May 14, 2008 (ENS) – The Rio Grande cutthroat trout is declining and its conservation status is “cause for concern” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said today. After a review of this native fish’s situation, the Service is recommending that the subspecies be formally proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. [...]
Read More »Miami Woman Honored for Saving Puerto Rican Coastal Wetland
MIAMI, Florida, May 7, 2008 (ENS) – Mildred Ramos Majoros of Miami has been named the winner of the 2008 National Wetlands Award for Conservation and Restoration. The award honors her multi-year effort as a project manager with the Trust for Public Land to preserve 270 acres of critical coastal habitat in Puerto Rico that [...]
Read More »Survey Finds Bush Administration Interfering with EPA Scientists
WASHINGTON, DC, April 24, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration has frequently meddled with scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a survey released today by a scientific advocacy group. The Union of Concerned Scientists reports that nearly two-thirds of the 1,586 staff EPA scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained of recent [...]
Read More »Corps Hears Missouri Flood Concerns, Neutralizes Spring Rise
OMAHA, Nebraska, March 27, 2008 (ENS) – The Army Corps of Engineers announced today that it will adjust releases from five tributary dams in Missouri and Kansas to eliminate the spring pulse, also called the spring rise – the release of millions of gallons of water on the Missouri River below Kansas City. The 48 [...]
Read More »Red Knots Get to Feast on Horseshoe Crab Eggs
TRENTON, New Jersey, March 26, 2008 (ENS) – Governor Jon Corzine Tuesday signed legislation imposing a moratorium on harvesting horseshoe crabs in New Jersey so that starving shorebirds can feed. Horseshoe crab eggs at Delaware Bay are a primary source of food for red knots on their way north to breed in the Canadian Arctic. [...]
Read More »Crush, Don’t Flush Campaign Launched
SAN DIEGO, California, March 18, 2008 (ENS) – The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Monday signed a formal agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the American Pharmacists Association, APhA, to help protect fish and aquatic resources from the improper disposal of medication. The campaign – tagged “SMARxT DISPOSAL” – informs people [...]
Read More »Judge Orders Renewed Protection for Desert Bald Eagle
PHOENIX, Arizona, March 14, 2008 (ENS) – The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon have won a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue Endangered Species Act protection for the desert nesting bald eagle, found mostly in Arizona. The groups challenged the Service’s 2006 rejection of their October 6, 2004 [...]
Read More »Groups Press Legal Action on Behalf of Polar Bears
SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 11, 2008 (ENS) – Three conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration on Monday for missing the legal deadline to issue a final decision on whether or not to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense [...]
Read More »Canada Lynx May Win Back Critical Habitat
WASHINGTON, DC, February 28, 2008 (ENS) – Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released revised plans to establish critical habitat for Canada lynx in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming. The new habitat protection plan is in response to an investigation that found that a Bush administration political appointees interfered with the scientific [...]
Read More »Groups Seek Emergency Endangered Listing for Red Knot
WASHINGTON, DC, February 28, 2008 (ENS) – Emergency protections are needed to prevent further declines in numbers of a small migratory shorebird called the red knot, warns a letter submitted to federal officials Wednesday by the American Bird Conservancy and eight other conservation groups. The red knot makes one of the longest yearly migrations of [...]
Read More »Conservationists Serve Notice of Lawsuit Over Wolf Delisting
WASHINGTON, DC, February 27, 2008 (ENS) – Eleven conservation groups fighting to protect wolves in the northern Rockies today notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the agency has violated the Endangered Species Act by removing the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf population from the federal list of endangered species. The groups put the [...]
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