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As I write this, I can hear a cardinal trilling in the backyard. I don’t have to look out the open window to confirm the source of the sounds that come through it; I’ve come to recognize the songs and their singers. I know it’s the mourning dove whose cooing wakes me in the morning and the sparrow whose repetitive chirps complete the sunrise chorus. Watching birds perched on a branch or visiting a feeder imparts a certain connection to nature that little else does, and, for me at least, listening to their melodies alleviates stress. Birds are also the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The monarch butterfly fluttered a step closer to extinction Thursday, as scientists put the iconic orange-and-black insect on the endangered list because of its fast dwindling numbers. “It’s just a devastating decline,” said Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who was not involved in the new listing. “This is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world.” The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two steps from extinct.

At a recent community forum to discuss plans for the Obama Presidential Center, Karin Droegemueller stepped up to the microphone and introduced herself as an "angry birder." She is among a flock of birders who fear that the proposed $30 million Tiger Woods golf course and expanded driving range tied to the development of the Obama Center will ward off the millions of migratory birds that stop in Jackson Park, and displace the nearly 300 species that have helped make the park a favorite Chicago birding destination... But not all open land is equal, they say. A manicured golf course...

Tiny frogs and toads used to swarm over the Sierra Nevada. Now they’re considered endangered, and the government says they need to be protected. California ranchers say those protections are hurting their ability to make a living. So another conflict over the Endangered Species Act is going to court. The California Farm Bureau and two ranchers’ associations sued the U.S. Fish and Wildife Service on Monday, challenging a year-old decision to designate more than 1.8 million acres of rural California as “critical habitat” for three endangered species of frogs. The critical habitat designation subjects farmers “to substantial regulatory burdens that...

The Bramble Cay melomys has become more famous in extinction than it ever was in life. A mouse-like rodent, the melomys amazingly survived on a 3.6 hectare grass-covered cay (a low-lying island in a coral reef) in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef like a ratty Robinson Crusoe for thousands of years. There, it thrived off just a few plant species until human-caused climate change—in the form of rising sea levels and increasing inundations of sea water on the low-lying island—wiped it off the planet. But, while the extinction has been reported widely, articles have missed an important point: the scientists who...

Talking Colombian Parakeets (Perija) that is listed as critically endangered and is a threatened species, quoting biblical scripture and things to think about.

Animated Colombian Parakeet (Perija) that is listed as critically endangered and is a threatened species, quoting biblical scripture.

OAKLAND -- A group of people working at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in East Oakland that former President Jimmy Carter will visit next week were robbed at gunpoint, police said. The incident happened at the site of a 12-home development at 9507 Edes Ave. about 1:40 p.m. Tuesday. Habitat for Humanity staff members and AmeriCorps workers were accosted by four men who robbed them of cell phones, wallets and tools, police said. One of the robbers fired a shot into the air and pistol-whipped a man, who declined medical attention, authorities said.

A federal judge Monday upheld the federal Fish and Wildlife Service's controversial decision to set aside stretches of the Santa Ana River and other Southern California waterways as critical habitat for the Santa Ana sucker fish. A coalition of twelve Inland Empire water agencies have, for more than two years, opposed the habitat designation on the grounds that the move could jeopardize residents' access to drinking water. In an October 2011 congressional hearing in Highland, opponents of the habitat designation said Fish and Wildlife's move could cost residents 125,800 acre feet of water per year and require ratepayers to spend...

Thanks to Habitat for Humanity they have a beautiful brand new four bedroom house, a far cry from where his family used to live, camps in South Africa. Their Roslyn Drive house in Mobile also represents another milestone. It's the 2-thousandth Habitat House in Alabama. "Just shows what a really beautiful spirit of serving that our state has", saidArt Pearce, Executive Director of Alabama Association of Habitat for Humanity Affiliates. Volunteers are what built the house along with the sweat equity provided by the family who will make it a home. Councilwoman Gina Gregory says it's just good for the...

Greenpeace on Wednesday accused global fastfood chain KFC of using paper packaging made using wood from Indonesian rainforests which it said was endangering the habitat of the Sumatran tiger. The environmental group said the chain's trademark chicken buckets and French fry boxes contained timber products from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which it described as the country's "notorious forest destroyer". To illustrate their cause, activists placed a giant KFC French fry holder depicting company founder Colonel Sanders holding a chainsaw in his hand and the words "KFC junking the jungle" written below on deforested peatland in Rokan Hilir, Riau province...

It's wild times in the watershed. The most happy-go-lucky denizen of Bay Area creeks is back, after a hiatus of at least three decades: the river otter. "They look like they're having a wonderful time out there. It's really exciting to see," said Steve Bobzien, a wildlife ecologist for the East Bay Regional Park District. "Plus, it's a really good biological indicator of the health of the ecosystem." From Antioch to Tomales Bay, park visitors have reported otters rolling in mud, gnawing on crayfish, sliding down rocks and generally partying on the creek banks. A Marin group has even created...

NEW ORLEANS — For more than a year, the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity has insisted there were no defects in the Chinese drywall it used to build nearly 200 houses for victims of Hurricane Katrina, including many in its heavily publicized “Musicians’ Village’’ development in the Upper Ninth Ward.But a house-by-house canvas of Musicians’ Village by reporters from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and ProPublica found several homeowners who reported serious problems and one who said she had complained to Habitat for more than a year about corrosion and electronics failures believed to be related to her drywall.The reporters’ interviews...

Gadget Dan reports we have removed another 1595 pounds of litter from Public Lands, as of April 17. 2010 and a total of more than 47,600 pounds since starting the litter removal program. Kingfish and Dan have been making repairs to damaged range fencing due South of Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosa's Memorial Cross. So far, they have repaired about 200 yards of damaged range fencing. They have about 100 yards of additional fencing to monitor and repair to complete the project.

LONG BEACH - What's to be done with California's offshore oil rigs once they have outlived their usefulness? One option: Remove them entirely from the ocean floor and restore the marine environment to its original state, as is California's current policy. But marine biologists at Cal State Long Beach say it might make more environmental sense to actually leave at least some of each defunct oil rig intact. Although originally foreign to the marine environment, since their installation, the oil platforms have been co-opted by species of fish who have made the rigs their habitat, even preferring it in some...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Marine biologist Milton Love drives a hybrid car, displays a banner of leftist icon Che Guevara on his laboratory wall — and has backing from big oil. The reason is his finding that long-maligned oil platforms off California's Central Coast may be a haven for overfished stocks of groundfish. The research is good news to oil executives, who are looking for reasons not to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to remove the platforms once the oil stops flowing.

Global Warming: The Alaskan governor who knew polar bears weren't endangered says the planet isn't either and challenges the oracle of climate change. Al Gore says despite the CRU e-mails, the situation is of the utmost gravity. In a Dec. 9 Washington Post op-ed, Sarah Palin noted that the Climate-gate e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia "reveal that leading climate 'experts' deliberately destroyed records, manipulated data to 'hide the decline' in global temperatures and tried to silence their critics from publishing in peer-reviewed journals." This did not sit well with Gore. "The entire North...

The oil platforms provide an unusual artificial reef for advanced divers.

Ecology: The administration creates the mother of all protected habitats for a species whose numbers have increased since Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." It's our hopes for energy independence that are drowning. When filmmaker Phelim McAleer, whose documentary "Not Evil Just Wrong" takes apart the myths of global warming, got to ask Gore a question at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, McAleer brought up the nine critical errors in Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth." A British court two years ago listed them and said they must be righted before the film could be shown in schools...

Michelle Obama: It's a 'sacrifice' to travel to Europe to pitch for the Olympics. For Oprah and the president, too. But we're doing it for the kids. By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent09/30/09 5:12 PM EDT In her speech in Copenhagen today, First Lady Michelle Obama said her trip to Denmark, along with the travel of her "dear friend" and "chit-chat buddy" Oprah Winfrey, as well as tomorrow's visit by President Obama, is a "sacrifice" on behalf of the children of Chicago and the United States. "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or...