My Page: Bea Gordon
Hunting and Fishing
Groups Target Ammunition, Fishing Gear in Petition Against Lead
Environmental groups filed a petition today that puts ammunition under fire for its use of lead, a key ingredient in fishing tackle and bullets.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the American Bird Conservancy, the Association of Avian Veterinarians, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Project Gut Pile asked the Environmental Protection Agency to ban lead under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
“Over the past several decades we’ve wisely taken steps to get lead out of our gasoline, paint, water pipes and other sources that are dangerous to people,” said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity in a press release. “Now it’s time to get the lead out of hunting and fishing sports to save wildlife from needless poisoning.”
The petition follows scientific evidence pointing to the effects of chronic lead poisoning in wildlife. Its toxicity has long been recognized in humans and has been widely banned from uses leading to human exposure. However, it continues to be used in bullets, pellets and fishing tackle.
[more]Fire Season
Fire Update for the Northern Rockies
The fire report as of this morning, according to the Northern Rockies Coordination Center, is “light” but with 20 new fires burning 135 acres.
In Wyoming, the majority of fire activity is concentrated in the northwestern corner near the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park.
The 520-acre Beach Fire blaze continues to smolder with downed trees and heavy fuel in Yellowstone. To date, it has not resulted in any road, trail or facility closures, with the majority of acreage burned in the remote backcountry southwest of the Bridge Bay Campground. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The larger Bull Fire in Gros Ventre Wilderness to the east of Hoback Junction also continues to burn. The management team is concerned with public and fire personnel. Areas surrounding Rough Hollow, Bull Creek, Cow Creek and Bear Creek are closed while parts of the fire are allowed to burn. About 100 personnel are monitoring the fire, including two hotshot crews and a Type 3 helicopter.
In Montana, fire activity continues in the Bitterroot, Lolo, Helena and Flathead National Forests.
Fire season has hit the Northern Rockies and although it’s late this year, thanks to a cool, wet spring, there is plenty of fuel out there to burn.
As John Adams reports in the Great Falls Tribune today, in a briefing with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Monday, Mike Kreyenhagan, a forecaster for the Northern Rockies Coordination Center put it this way: “I view the rest of the fire season as a race between the fuels drying out and the days getting shorter and a season-ending event. I’m not sure which on is going to win.”
[more]News Brief
Groups Trade Gas Pipeline Approval for $20 Million Conservation Fund
Habitat conservation because of a natural gas pipeline? Two environmental organizations are promising just that, thanks to an unlikely partnership with a natural gas company.
The Western Watersheds Project (WWP) and the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) reached a $20 million conservation agreement with the Huston-based El Paso Corp. over its proposed installation of the Ruby Pipeline, a 675-mile transmission line that would stretch from the Opal Hub in southwestern Wyoming to Malin, Oregon.
In the deal, El Paso plans to establish a $15 million conservation fund for the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project and a $5 million fund for the Oregon Natural Desert Association over a period of ten years.
In turn, WWP’s Executive Director Jon Marvel tells the Elko Daily Free Press, both groups have “agreed not to try to delay or litigate Ruby Pipeline.”
[more]News Bite
Petition Calls for National Wolf Recovery Plan
A petition filed this week by the Center for Biological Diversity asks for tens of thousands of gray wolves to be reintroduced across the United States, including in New England, California, the Great Plains and the desert West.
The gray wolf, which was pushed to the brink of extinction with a mere 500 animals left in existence by the 1970’s, has only just begun to make significant progress in population recovery. Federal protections have brought the population up to about 6,000 wolves in the United States today.
While environmental groups cite the fragility of these recovery efforts as incentive for further protections, particularly in the Northern Rockies, opposition to increased protection has been vocal, to say the very least
The petition filed on Tuesday asks for a national recovery effort for the wolf, instead of the regional approaches the federal government has taken thus far.
[more]Endangered Listing
Whitebark Pine Could Fall Victim to Extinction, Report Finds
Under assault by the mountain pine beetle, climate change and blister rust, a new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council predicts the Whitebark pine will be functionally extinct within the next decade.
Typically, the Whitebark is the highest-elevation pine tree and often grows along the treeline in the northern Rockies, as well in the Cascade and Pacific Coast ranges.
The species is often the first to inhabit these harsh climates and provides the shade and wind-protection necessary for further colonization by other plants and animals. It also functions to regulate water runoff and stabilize soil.
Cooler temperatures at these altitudes might have insulated the Whitebark pine from the destruction it now faces with warming temperatures. According to the new report, climate change has allowed beetles increased access into formerly inhospitable regions.
[more]Rocky Mountain Fires
Hot Topic? Predictions for the 2010 Fire Season
In Montana and other parts of the Rocky Mountain West, forests are now losing the moisture stored from spring rains and drying out. The drier the material, of course, the greater potential there is for fire. Factor in lightening and campfires and summers bring a familiar haze in the mountains that surround us.
In an effort to anticipate the fire patterns, the U.S. Forest Service uses a complex set of equations that result in four predictive outputs that best evaluate the potential for fire. Usually, these outputs follow a typical pattern in any given year and, using reference points of extremely high and low seasons, the USFS is able to gather information regarding spread components, energy release components and burn indices, among others.
[more]Water in the West
Report Urges Senate to Look Critically at Water in the West
A report published this week by Western Resource Advocates and the Environmental Defense Fund details the possible effects of climate change on Western water supplies and profiles smart water-use projects.
“Of all the implications of a hotter climate, the water implications are the most dramatic or long-term,” Bart Miller, the director of Boulder-based Western Resource Advocate’s water program told Julie Sutor of The Aspen Times.
The report, which intends to capture a sense of environmental urgency, was released on Monday to coincide with the Senate’s return to Washington to begin discussions on energy and climate change, according to the report’s co-author, Stacy Tellinghuisen of Western Resource Advocates.
“Meeting the water demands of the region’s vibrant cities, burgeoning recreational industry, and agricultural sector—the bedrock of our rural communities—is already a challenge,” begins the report, Protecting the Lifeline of the West: How Climate and Clean Energy Policies Can Safeguard Water. “But scientists project that climate change will make the West both hotter and drier, with longer and more intense droughts—exacerbating today’s challenges.”
Colorado News
Two Survive Plane Crash in Rocky Mountain National Park
This morning, a father and daughter from Wisconsin walked away from a plane crash in Rocky Mountain National Park.
According to a detailed account of the crash and rescue posted by the park’s press contact, Kyle Patterson, the plane, a single engine 2009 American Champion Aircraft, went down in heavy timber near Milner Pass.
[more]Reducing Brucellosis
New Analysis of Yellowstone Bison Vaccine Plan Has Critics, Defenders
The National Park Service recently made public its analysis of a proposed 30-year $9-million vaccination program that would use air rifles to shoot “bio-bullets” at bison in Yellowstone National Park.
The proposal, designed to reduce the spread of brucellosis from bison to cattle outside the park’s borders holds the possibility of reducing legendary tensions between ranchers and bison advocates. But at what cost?
As reported by Cory Hatch in the Jackson Hole News & Guide, NPS documents show the vaccine could create a more virulent form of the bacteria that cause the disease. Also, the analysis shows that only about 25 percent of the bison that could be vaccinated would be vaccinated.
