Free Republic

A dead humpback whale that washed ashore at Fort Abercrombie State Park last week may be there to stay. The 30-foot, 2-year-old whale was discovered Aug. 14 and has probably been dead three-and-a-half to four weeks, said district park ranger Kevin Murphy. Murphy said Fort Abercrombie staff have two main concerns about the whale. “The Marine Mammal Protection Act, and more importantly, the Endangered Species Act protects those guys, even after death,� he said. “So collection of soft or hard parts, bone or baleen or blubber is illegal.� Murphy said tampering with an endangered species comes with a hefty $25,000...

The Associated Press reported Monday details of a proposal by the Interior and Commerce departments that would change how the 1973 law is implemented, allowing federal agencies to decide for themselves - without seeking the opinions of government wildlife experts - whether dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered species and habitats. Current law requires federal agencies to consult with experts at the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service if a project poses so much as a remote risk to species or habitats. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne defended the changes in a call...

WASHINGTON, DC, August 12, 2008 (ENS) - The Bush administration has proposed sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act, releasing a plan to give federal agencies the authority to decide without expert consultation whether their activities could harm endangered and threatened species. Administration officials contend the proposal will make the law easier to implement, but critics say the plan would undermine federal protection of imperiled plants and animals. Announced Monday by the head of the U.S. Interior Department, the proposed changes would relax the current requirement that federal agencies consult with federal wildlife experts to ensure activities they undertake or...

DAVAO, Philippines (AFP) - A farmer has been detained by southern Philippines police after he confessed to shooting and eating one of the world's largest and rarest eagles, wildlife officials told AFP on Friday...

Gray wolves in the greater Yellowstone area of the northern Rocky Mountains, which would have been fair game for hunters in three states as a result of a federal government decision in March, were again put under the protections of the Endangered Species Act by a judge in Montana on Friday. The action by the judge, Donald W. Molloy of Federal District Court, took the form of a preliminary injunction and could be reversed. But Judge Molloy’s language showed serious reservations about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove endangered species protections for the wolves. Environmental groups, including Defenders...

Residents of the Southeastern United States know what to expect from the Atlantic hurricane season, but in 2004 it arrived with particular ferocity. Hurricane Charley hit Florida, causing more than $14 billion in damage. Hurricane Frances prompted a record Florida evacuation. But Hurricane Ivan proved the champ. At peak power Ivan ripped up nearly every house on the island nation of Grenada. After causing 60 deaths and massive destruction across the Caribbean, Ivan reserved a devastating punch for Florida's panhandle, striking with 130 mph winds. That spelled trouble for Paul and Gail Fisher and other residents of Perdido Key, a...

If Secretary of the Interior Kempthorne announces that the polar bear is now officially "threatened," the impacts on the American economy will be extreme and almost certainly not anticipated or understood by the public at large.The Endangered Species Act operates in a very unaccountable fashion, and if the polar bear is listed as a "threatened" species, every federal action --the grant of a permit, the award of a grant-- that leads even indirectly to the emission of greenhouse gases will come under at least the theoretical review of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service pursuant to Section 7 of...

Thursday is the deadline set by a federal judge in Alaska for the Fish and Wildlife Service to decide whether the polar bear is a threatened or endangered species. All the evidence shows the polar bear doesn’t need his help. Environmental groups petitioned for such a listing and sued when a decision was not forthcoming by the deadline. They claimed that global warming had already diminished polar ice, would continue to do so and doom the estimated 23,000 or so bears to extinction by perhaps 2050. If the bears were listed, the service would be obliged to designate “critical habitat.”...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - An American Indian who shot a bald eagle for use in a tribal religious ceremony must stand trial, a federal appeals court has ruled. A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Thursday reversed a 2006 lower court ruling that dismissed a criminal charge against Winslow Friday, a Northern Arapaho Indian who has acknowledged shooting a bald eagle in 2005 during the tribe's Sun Dance. In dismissing the charge, U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming said the federal government has shown "callous indifference" to American Indian religious beliefs. Eagle feathers are...

North Pacific right whales could be the victims of planned gas drilling in the Bering Sea.Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission/NOAA The rising tide of global fossil-fuel prices is set to heighten the conflict between the US oil and gas industry and the interests of migratory whales, after two federal announcements both laid claim to the same piece of the chilly Bering Sea. The contested region, part of Bristol Bay off the Alaskan coast, is one of the regions that has become more appealing for oil and gas drillers in recent years despite its inhospitable location. But conservationists warn that...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon hasn't made the case for exemptions from three environmental laws or provided examples of how military operations have been impeded by them, a congressional report said Friday. The Government Accountability Office report came after the Navy lost in court over training exercises it was conducting under an exemption to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Environmentalists contended that the Navy's use of sonar could harm whales off the Southern California coast, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled March 2 that the Navy had to limit the sonar use. In a written response included in...

Two environmental groups are trying to force the Interior Department to make a preliminary finding on whether a rare southern New Mexico butterfly should be listed under the Endangered Species Act. Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians and Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Jan. 3 in federal court in Washington, D.C., to force him to make a decision on the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly — which the federal government previously proposed as an endangered species. The butterfly, with a 2-inch wingspan, is checkered with white and deep orange squares separated by black bands. It exists only...

PRAY - For rancher Randy Petrich, the removal of gray wolves from the endangered-species list - a move that would open up the animals to hunting in the Northern Rockies for the first time in decades - couldn't come soon enough. Petrich has seen fresh wolf tracks almost every morning this fall - close enough to threaten his cattle. "I believe that any wolf on any given night, if there happens to be a calf there, they will kill it," ... Just 12 years since the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park ... federal officials say the sharp rise...

NOVEMBER 02, 2007 GLENN BECK PROGRAM BEGIN TRANSCRIPT GLENN: First we wanted to spend a couple of minutes with Duncan Hunter, presidential candidate for the Republican party. Hello, Duncan. HUNTER: Hey, Glenn Beck, how are you doing? GLENN: Very good, sir. I got the lecture of my life from a friend of mine this weekend. HUNTER: Why is that? GLENN: He said to me, why are you not screaming Duncan Hunter’s name from the highest mountaintop every place you go? HUNTER: Now we’re talking, Glenn GLENN: I know. And he said, I am the biggest fan of Duncan Hunter; he...

But ironically, much of the reason California is in peril is due not to climate change, but to the very environmental policies championed by Cooper's documentary and our new Nobel laureate, Al Gore. While, in its statement praising Gore, the Nobel Committee said that global warming may "threaten the living conditions of much of mankind," the current wildfires show that the more immediate threat to man comes from the champions of the gnatcatcher, kangaroo rat, and the Delhi Sands Flower-Loving fly. Environmental mandates have made fire safety for humans take a back seat to the well-being of the aforementioned California...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge has upheld the government's practice of allowing development to proceed even if it is discovered after a project begins that the work could endanger protected species. The National Association of Home Builders praised the ruling Friday, saying its members might have had to delay some projects if U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had not agreed with the "no surprises" approach to development. "The vast majority of endangered species exist on private property, and there is no way to protect endangered species unless sufficient incentives are given to private landowners," said Duane Desiderio, the...

KEY, FLORIDA; July 19, 2007: Federal officials must retract and reconsider their designation of thousands of acres in Florida and Alabama as additional “critical habitat” for the Perdido Key beach mouse – or face a lawsuit. So warns a formal letter mailed to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service last night by attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation’s Atlantic Center. The PLF-Atlantic Center lawyers represent Florida property owners who have been unable to rebuild after their homes were destroyed by 2004’s Hurricane Ivan, because of new government land use restrictions to “protect” mice. The letter sent yesterday constitutes the “60...

ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore's green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter's wedding in Beverly Hills. Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world's most threatened fish species. Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks. The species is currently managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources, the body which introduced a catch and trade documentation scheme as an attempt to tackle...

ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore's green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter's wedding in Beverly Hills. Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world's most threatened fish species. Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks. The species is currently managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources, the body which introduced a catch and trade documentation scheme as an attempt to...

Interior Dept. Official Facing Scrutiny Resigns By Elizabeth Williamson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 2, 2007; A05 A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department who revised scientific reports to minimize protection of endangered species has resigned, officials said yesterday. Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, had been criticized by Interior's inspector general, and Congress was preparing to scrutinize her performance in an upcoming hearing. Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery confirmed MacDonald's resignation, delivered in a letter late Monday. Her departure came as the agency was discussing plans to demote her, said a...

There are now at least 1,300 wolves prowling Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, far more than anyone imagined when the species was reintroduced in the Northern Rockies 12 years ago. The wolf population has, on average, grown by about 26 percent a year for the past decade. The latest estimates, which summarize counts completed at the end of 2006, show they aren't slowing down. "I keep thinking we're at the top end of the bubble," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I can't see that there's room for any more, but we'll see." As...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering whether to reclassify the FL manatee as a “threatened” species instead of an “endangered” species, though more of the sea cows were killed in 2006 than in the previous 30 years. The Washington Post reports that of a total population of roughly 3,200, 416 of the marine mammals were killed last year - many in collisions with boat propellers. The planned reclassification would ease restrictions on how fast boats can go (no-wake zones), as well as on waterfront development in manatee habitats. Lobbyists for boaters and developers argue that the manatee population...

The latest point of emphasis in the global warming movement is that cattle farming endangers the planet by producing too much methane. So now, steaks and hamburgers are classified as instruments of destruction, along with large vehicles, lawn mowers, and charcoal grills. It can't be much longer before cowboy movies, cigars and hockey are held to be enemies of the earth as well. This has got to be the most blatant assault on guyhood since ABC moved Coach to the same night as Roseanne, and turned Hayden Fox into Phil Donahue. It's a wonder that liberals don't cut to the...

SAN DIEGO – When the Stevens family bought a house in Mira Mesa in 1980, they were told an elementary school would be built in their neighborhood on land set aside by housing developer Pardee Homes. More than two decades later, the site sits vacant. And Mira Mesa residents are unlikely to see a school until the end of the decade, even though the San Diego Unified School District had promised to build one as part of its $1.51 billion construction program funded by a 1998 bond measure. Jonas Salk Elementary School was supposed to open off Parkdale Avenue and...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Seven years after the U.S. government moved to take the bald eagle off the endangered species list, the Bush administration intends to complete the step by February, prodded by a frustrated libertarian property owner in Minnesota. The delisting, supported by mainstream environmental groups, would represent a formal declaration that the eagle population has sufficiently rebounded, increasing more than 15-fold since its 1963 nadir to more than 7,000 nesting pairs. Bald eagles, like this one shown hunting for fish along Missouri's Wappapello Lake, have rebounded to more than 7,000 nesting pairs after their numbers fell dangerously low. (By Paul...

 NRA Members' Councils of California    Legislative Info and Contact Tools AMMO BAN Summary:  NRA opposes this measure. Issue:   LEAD AMMO BAN (Fish & Game)   Description:   The Department of Fish and Game has been sued in Federal Court for an alleged "illegal" taking of condors and golden eagles under the Endangered Species Act and various Federal rules and regs related to raptor protection. The Department of Fish and Game is considering courses of action.   Latest Info:   12/08/2006 - Dept. of Fish & Game meeting. The various condor recovery groups involved are attempting to introduce condors every year...

N.Y.'s Russian Tea room reopens, caviar and all 03 Nov 2006 21:35:21 GMT Source: Reuters NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The reopening of New York's iconic Russian Tea Room on Friday should give gourmands depressed about a U.S. ban on wild beluga caviar something to smile about. Chef Gary Robbins, who first visited the restaurant as a child while Christmas shopping with his father and grandfather, said he has been keeping a wealth of wild beluga caviar from the 2005 catch at just below freezing. The United States banned trade in wild caviar last year amid declining global sturgeon...

In new ads, ski company says global warming could dry up snow during the next century... The Aspen Skiing Co. hopes potential customers are ready for a snow job. On Wednesday, the company unveiled a new advertising campaign for the 2006-07 season that centers around the message that snow — and skiing — will disappear around 2100 if humans don’t take drastic action to slow global warming. Three full-page ads, which show a melting snowflake imposed over Highland Bowl, will run in SKI and Outside magazines in the next few months. One ad portrays a “certificate of death” for snow....

a proposed 15-foot-tall triple barrier is built between the United States and Mexico, illegal immigrants may have to take a tip from The Odyssey to get across. That's assuming measures are taken to safeguard the crossing of the endangered peninsular ranges bighorn sheep, whose survival could be threatened by the wall. In Washington earlier this month, a legislative rider attached to the 2007 defense appropriations bill by Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., calls for spending $2 billion to construct the 370-mile-long wall. The bighorns, which inhabit parts of the San Bernardino National Forest and thrive on Mount San Jacinto, migrate across...

BEIJING — China is to auction licences to foreigners to hunt wild animals, including endangered species, a newspaper said on Wednesday. The government would auction licences based on types and numbers of wild animals, ranging from about $200 for a wolf, the only carnivore on the list, to as much as $40,000 for a yak, the Beijing Youth Daily said. The auction, taking place on Sunday in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, would be the first of its kind in Chinese history, it added. "Some animals are from the first and second category of national wildlife protection,...

The Smoking Gun Web site reported yesterday on the federal lawsuit filed by a New York man seeking to sunbathe nude with his service dog. Plaintiff Mark DelCore says that since 9/11 he has suffered from traumatic stress and a skin condition that requires full-body dosing by sunlight--with his animal for emotional support.

Endangered Evidence Ever wonder how all those animals, plants and bugs get on the Endangered Species List? It’s more than an academic question though that is where the answer has its roots. When a critter gets on the ESL, nothing can be done to its “habitat,” even if it is just a candidate for the list whose endangerment remains undecided. Proscribed acts include, of course, drilling for oil. Thus as gas prices soar, no refineries. Oil companies have not built a refinery in the United States in 30 years. That’s almost as long as the ESA has been, effectively, the...

MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Florida's wildlife commission voted Wednesday to remove the manatee from the state's endangered species list, a move environmentalists fear could erode safeguards for the popular sea creature. State officials said the "downlisting" to threatened from endangered would have no impact on protections afforded the massive, lumbering marine mammal often called the sea cow. Manatees inhabit Florida's canals and coastal waters, where they are frequently killed or injured by boats. A survey this year found about 3,100 remaining manatees. State officials say manatees no longer qualify for endangered status, which is reserved for creatures that face extinction....

The federal government again has decided not to protect the California spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act. After almost a year of study, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied a petition by environmental groups to list the owl, saying population numbers don't warrant such a shield. It was the second time in three years the wildlife service has said Endangered Species Act protection is unnecessary. "The current population of the spotted owl is stable or increasing" in the state, said Steve Thompson, manager of the wildlife service's California and Nevada Operations office. Cousins of the California spotted owl...

Elm Mott- Enemies of the Trans Texas Corridor in Central Texas are combing their forces. About a hundred of them met together in Elm Mott on Thursday night. Residents inside the 10 mile-wide study area are being encouraged to file claims against the T.T.C.'s environmental study. Any archaeological sites or endangered species on their land may keep it from being used. Mike Glockzin, the mayor of Hallsburg is considering the idea closely. His city falls inside the study area. He wants his residents to take that kind of action, to prevent any damage to their town. "We feel like you...

DESTIN, Fla. - A beach restoration project in the Florida Panhandle has been shut down until next fall after an endangered sea turtle was killed, authorities said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stopped the work after the Kemp's ridley sea turtle was killed during dredging Sunday. It was the third endangered sea turtle killed since the project began...

Prospects are fading for a rewrite of the nation's endangered species protection law this year as key senators hesitate to move anything that would have to be meshed with legislation written last fall by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. Some senators have expressed concern that any bill they pass, even if it gains bipartisan consensus, would still have to be blended with Pombo's aggressive rewrite. And Pombo's bill goes way too far in easing environmental protection, according to many critics. For example, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., the chairman of a key subcommittee, has said he fears any Senate bill might be...

Cattle ranchers in the Paradise Valley say shipping weights have declined since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995. They say their cattle stay close to gates instead of grazing entire pastures. Wary animals tend to eat less than relaxed animals.

ATLANTA - As monkeys go, sooty mangabeys aren't cute. Big-fanged, gray and hairy, they simply stare when threatened. Few zoos stock them. Some animal rights advocates can't even spell the species' name. Nevertheless, the sooties are at the center of a precedent-setting debate over whether researchers should be allowed to experiment on an endangered species. Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta have nurtured a group of these primates for decades. But after Yerkes started the colony, federal officials listed sooties as endangered. The result: Yerkes has the world's largest collection of captive sooties, but with little...

A bipartisan group of senators trying to craft an Endangered Species Act rewrite bill has failed to reach consensus, signaling dwindling prospects of Senate action in the wake of House passage of an endangered species bill last year. Although talks continue, the stalemate is welcome news for environmentalists. They viewed the House-passed bill as dangerously extreme and feared that no matter what the Senate produced, the final product could be unacceptable because of the need to combine the two efforts. "If I cried it's probably crocodile tears," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. "It's hard to see, with...

This article is little more than a hit piece on Congressman Pombo who is desperately trying to reform the 32 year-old Endangered Species Act. When will the liberal press investigate the $5 billion environmental movement? Maybe environmentalists like to see endangered species vanishing under current legislation since it gives them an issue to rally behind. What's their secret agenda?

The bald eagle, the national bird which only a few decades ago appeared headed for extinction in the continental United States, is soaring once again.  A 40-year campaign to rescue the bald eagle from the deadly clutches of chemical poisoning has been, by all accounts, a remarkable success. The majestic bird had all but disappeared from the lower 48 states in the mid-1960s but is now flourishing -- so much so that the federal government is considering removing the bald eagle from its list of endangered species.Nowhere has that comeback been more dramatic than in New Jersey. The annual mid-winter...

Some ranchers say the wolves in the Madison Valley have grown increasingly brazen and are apparently unafraid of people. State wildlife officials say such behavior is to be expected, given the federal protection the predators have had in the decade since being reintroduced in the Yellowstone National Park. Jack Atcheson Jr. said he was spooked on a recent hunting trip, when three men and three mules got within 47 yards of a wolf that was staring right at them. The Butte hunting outfitter, who books international trips, said he had never seen wolves in Alaska, Asia or other places act...

Congress is going through the process of trying to fix the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Why do they think it needs fixing? Because, quite simply, the ESA is the worst law ever to be enacted by Congress.

From barely visible fairy shrimp to highly visible black bears, we share our Napa Valley home with a rich diversity of animals, birds, fish, insects and plants. Some of them are listed as threatened or endangered. As our houses and vineyards press outward from the valley floor, we are moving deeper into our wild neighbors' spaces, and discovering that sharing habitats is not always easy. The recent killing of four black bears at a Pope Valley vineyard drew attention to a critical question: How do we balance the need for protecting our agricultural land and crops while also preserving critical...

Madison: The shy, retiring, and threatened Wood Turtle [Glyptemys insculpta], easily overlooked and facing an uncertain future as its habitat is developed, appears to have driven a stake into the heart of plans by Chatham Borough and Chatham Township to develop two playing fields on the Woodland Park property off Woodland Road, adjacent to the Independence Court neighborhood in Madison. In a long-awaited decision released Monday, December 12th, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) classified a portion of the site as "exceptional" wetlands for their habitat value, requiring a 150-foot buffer from any development, and effectively blocking the plan...

RUMSEY - During his career in politics, Pete McCloskey has gone up against the likes of Shirley Temple Black, Richard Nixon and Pete Wilson. Now the former environmental lawyer and Republican congressman from the San Mateo area is seriously pondering doing battle in the GOP primary next June against Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy, whom McCloskey regards as an affront to the Republican principles of his day. McCloskey also is taking aim at a Pombo ally, GOP Rep. John Doolittle of Roseville, by financing acerbic billboard ads and scouting for primary election challengers. (snip) He has been increasingly irritated with...

BAUMHOLDER, Germany – If you want to increase biodiversity and protect endangered species, bring in tanks and soldiers. Not to shoot hunters and poachers, but simply to maneuver and train. That’s the finding of a new environmental study done for U.S. Army Installation Management Agency—Europe (IMA-E) by researchers at the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. Those researchers reached a surprising conclusion — certain threatened and endangered species fare far better in the huge Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels military training areas in Bavaria, where thousands of troops train, firing tanks and...

WASHINGTON - Noting that the grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone area has thrived in recent years, the Bush administration on Tuesday announced that it plans to remove federal protections for the animals in the areas around the national park. "A population that was once plummeting towards extinction is now recovered," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in making the announcement. "These bears are now no longer endangered" and should be removed from the Endangered Species Act listing. The Interior Department, through the Fish and Wildlife Service, implements the Endangered Species Act. "We are sure that these bears will have the...

Utah last month submitted a wildlife action plan to the Interior Department that charts a future course for species and habitat protection and restoration. Now, so has everybody else. Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Wednesday that wildlife agencies from all 50 states and six territories have finalized similar plans to establish a national framework for species protection. The goals: to enhance habitats, and in doing so, keep at-risk wildlife off the federally managed Endangered Species List. "We all recognize that the federal government can't do this alone; it can't conserve and protect everything that needs to be protected," Norton said...