More funds needed to save native birds

THE STAR BULLETIN
An expansive national analysis of data by the Interior Department singles out Hawaii’s native birds as facing high risks of extinction due to loss of their habitats.
While the report presents a disturbing view of the islands’ avian population, it also showed how conservation and habitat protection have been successful in saving some species.
The [...]

Yellow-billed Loon Protection Under Endangered Species Act Illegally Delayed

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
ANCHORAGE, Alaska— In response to a court-ordered deadline, the Department of the Interior concluded that the yellow-billed loon warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, rather than actually propose a regulation to protect the loon as the law requires, Interior invoked an excuse regularly used by the Bush administration to deny [...]

Global Warming Effects on Spiders May Lead to Bird Extinctions

THE A-Z of CLEAN TECHNOLOGY

Warm summers are dramatically reducing populations of daddy long legs, which in turn is having a severe impact on the bird populations which rely on them for food.

New research by a team of UK scientists spells out for the first time how climate change may affect upland bird species like the [...]

Orangutan pet trade threatening the survival of the species in Sumatra

WILDLIFE EXTRA
Illegal trade devastates Sumatran orangutan population
April 2009. Lack of law enforcement against illegal trade in Indonesia threatens the survival of orangutans and gibbons on Sumatra, a new study by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC shows.
Despite considerable investment in wildlife conservation, numbers of the critically endangered orangutans captured, mainly for the pet trade, exceeded [...]

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Wildlife biologists say a second California condor has been found with pellets embedded in its body, the second bird in a month found shot.
Ventana Wildlife Society Director Kelly Sorenson says the endangered condor was trapped on March 26 in Big Sur and is suffering from lead poisoning, likely from eating carrion that had [...]

Iran’s rare trees in threat of extinction

PRESS TV – IRAN
Environmental experts have warned about the critical condition of rare trees in Iran’s protected Nayband area in Bushehr Province.
“The 400-year-old Fig Tree of Temples, which is 20 meters thick and is believed by some to be the world’s thickest tree, is on the verge of extinction,” Fars News Agency quoted environmentalist, Ali [...]

Stick Your Damn Hand In It: 20th Birthday of the Exxon Valdez Lie

GREG PALAST
“Gail, Please! Stick your hand in it!”
The petite Eskimo-Chugach woman gave me that you-dumb-ass-white-boy look.
“Gail, Gail. STICK YOUR GOODDAMN HAND IN IT!”
She stuck it in, under the gravel of the beach at Sleepy Bay, her village’s fishing ground. Gail’s hand came up dripping with black, sickening goo. It could make you vomit. Oil from [...]

Press Release – water/pesticides

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
April 8, 2009
Contact:
· Charlie Tebbutt, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-485-2471 ext 110, tebbutt@westernlaw.org
· Charles Caldart, National Environmental Law Center, 206-568-2853, cccnelc@aol.com
· Scott Edwards, Waterkeeper Alliance 914.674.0622, x13

Conservationists Applaud EPA Decision to Not Seek Reversal of Victory Protecting Local Water Supplies, Fisheries &Wildlife.
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack asked the EPA to seek reversal of a [...]

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
April 9, 2009
Contact:
Dan Galpern, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-485-2471 ext 114, galpern@westernlaw.org
Eugene, OR – The Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) today sent an urgent letter to Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging her to speed issuance of regulations aimed at restricting greenhouse pollution and to include black carbon, [...]

MERCURY NEWS
MORRO BAY, Calif.—The killers who decapitated a sea otter and elephant seal at Morro Strand State Beach are being sought by California wardens.
Department of Fish and Game wardens say the headless mammals were found on the beach this week. An agency biologist says the decapitations took place Monday evening or Tuesday morning.
Sea otters and [...]