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The Importance of Plants: Global Warming Threatens Plant Communities, What Life Saving Medicines Will Be Lost?

2012-01-09T17:41:00Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Environment 360 reports: "A new study says that a warming climate is having a more profound effect on the world’s mountain vegetation than previously believed and that some alpine meadows could vanish altogether within a few decades." What many people fail to realize the profound importance that maintaining a diversity of plants has for human health. Namely, finding new cures for disease.

Plants communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change, as they obviously cannot migrate as quickly as most animal species. And mountain-top species are also at high risk as they are adapted to cold whether and, often, effectively trapped on "sky islands." This vulnerablilty is well illustrated by the whitebark pine, a fast disappearing species of tree that NRDC is working to conserve.

This is no minor issue. It directly concerns every person alive today. Between 25-50% of modern medicines are derived from plants. Indeed, of the top 150 prescribed drugs in the United State nearly 60% were originally derived from plants. We're talking about drugs we all take for granted, like digitalis, which treates heart disease (foxglove), and l-dopa, which is used to combat Parkinson's (vanilla bean), as well as cancer treatments, such as taxol (derived from the Pacific Yew tree). You can read more about the medical value of plants here.

That's why when Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973 it wrote:

Who knows, or can say, what potential cures for cancer or other scourges, present or future, may lie locked up in the structure of plants which may yet be undiscovered, much less analyzed?. . .. Sheer self-interest impels us to be cautious.

Who knows, indeed? But one thing is for sure, preserving diverse plant communities is essentail to all of us.

Wildlife Roundup: The Good News

2012-01-06T20:11:00Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Here's your fix of good wildlife news from last month. Enjoy!

Pronghorns are back in Washington. The Yakima Nation, in cooperation with Safari Club volunteers (hey, credit where it's due) released 100 Nevada pronghorn on Yakima lands. After an initial period of dispersal, the herd has regrouped and started to reproduce. Plans are now in place to add additional pronhorns to the herd. And, as much as it might pain the Safari Club to hear it, you know what else helps pronghorns? Wolves. By reducing the number of coyotes (pronghorn fawn's main predator), wolf populations boost pronghorn numbers by as much as ten percent. Good thing they are back in Washington too.
Catalina Island, just off the southern California coast, is hom to a unique species of fox that, less than two decades ago, was almost extinct: only 13 foxes remained. Recent surveys now show that over 1,500 foxes call the Island home; that's more than lived on the Island before the population started to decline. Credit goes to the combination of captive breeding and vaccinations programs.
Canada has begun to seriously discuss the idea of reintroducing wild, free roaming bison populations to Baniff National Park. "The process is not just to have them captive and recovering, they need to be part of nature and interacting with nature," said Harvey Locke, Director of the Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation. "That's what Baniff park needs." That's absolutely right. Bison are a keystone species whose unique grazing habits help to nurture and regulate healthy plant communities, as well as providing a source of food for predators.
Scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society have returned a 75-pound southern river terrapin, one of the most endangered turtle species in the world, back to the Sre Ambel River in Cambodia, after it was accidentally caught by local fishermen. There are thought to be less than ten nesting females in the river today. The turtle equipped with a satellite tag, which will provide scientists with valuable data about the terrapin's habitat needs. “By identifying areas that are most utilized by the turtles, we can pinpoint our efforts to reduce the turtles being caught as fishery by-catch as well as targeted hunting,” said Heng Sovannara, Deputy Director of Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration’s Conservation Department.
IThe Columbus Dispatch is tracing the steady return of bobcats back to the Buckeye State. Scientists believe that over 1,000 bobcats now call Ohio home, and they appear to exploring more and more of the State every year.

Speaking of cats, last month I noted that return of a reproducing lynx population to New Hampshire. We can now add Idaho to our list. A Canadian lynx has been documented in Idaho for the first time in over 15 years.

Finally, because it's cool check out a story about a crow creating and using a sled--just, apparently, for fun.

Wildlife Roundup: the Good News

2012-01-01T06:33:00Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Happy New Year everyone! To start 2012 off right, here are some good news stories from the last month of 2011.

Four Pacific fishers have been released into the northern Sierra Nevada mountains. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "the four stubby-legged mammals were released by California Department of Fish and Game biologists as part of an innovative effort to reintroduce the weasel family species to a region they were driven out of 100 years ago."
Bison have returned to the Missouri prairie. For the last decade, the Dunn Ranch, in Hatfield Missouri, worked to restore 3,000 acres of native tall grass prairie. But what do you need to truly restore a fully-functioning prairie ecosystem? Bison. That's right, the American bison (or buffalo) plays a crucial role in prairie health, changing the prairie in important ways as a result of their grazing habits and wallows . Now thirty-six bison can call the Dunn Ranch home.
In other Missouri news, the St. Louis Zoo and Missouri Department of Conservation announced that they had successfully bred Ozark hellbenders in captivity, a first for this species, only recently listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The new sixty-three little hellbender babies will hopefully allow scientists to successfully reintroduce hellbenders (which are a very cool, very big, species of salamander, in case you were wondering) to their Ozark mountain habitat. Here is a short video of the new hellbenders:

Summer flounder, or fluke, has been restored to a healthy population level after decades of overfishing, according to an October assessment for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Fluke range up and down the Atlantic seacoast, from Maine to North Carolina.
Breeding lynx have been found in New Hampshire. The presence of four lynx kittens were confirmed by state wildlife officials, marking a successful expansion of the the lynx's range from Maine. Lynx have not been documented in New Hampshire in ten years, much less a breeding population.
Whooping cranes, one of the rarest birds in the world, may be on the cusp of expanding its winter range to North Carolina. According to the Charlotte Observer, a male and female pair of the cranes have been documented in western North Carolina by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servce.
2011 wasn't a good year for bats, with white nose syndrome devastating bat populations by the millions. But there's a ray of hope for little brown bats, one of the species affected by the fungal disease, in Vermont: scientists report finding multiple colonies of the bats in Northern Vermont that seem to have survived the disease. They may offer hope of resistance, and survival, to the entire species.
And final, just because it's cool: scientists have discovered the pigeons can follow abstract mathmatical counting rules, a trait until now seen only in big-brained species like primates.

Midwest Wolves Recover: How To Get Wolf Recovery Right

2011-12-22T14:24:00Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Yesterday was a good day for wolves and for national wolf conservation policy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it was removing gray wolf populations in the upper Midwest from the federal list of endangered and threatened species. Even better, it also announced that it would abandon a proposed taxonomic reclassification of wolves that would have resulted in the end of protections for any wolves in the eastern United States.

On both counts the agency got it right. As I've discussed before, wolves are clearly recovered in the Midwest: we have here what wolf advocates have always said we've wanted elsewhere (yes, I'm talking to you Rocky Mountains)--a connected wolf population of 4,000 individuals stretching across a diverse landscape. And, while the states that will now manage these populations (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) could strengthen their wolf plans in some regards, overall their plans are responsible blueprints for wolf management.

This delisting also enjoys a remarkable consensus: the states, conservation groups (NRDC, Defenders of Wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation), sportsmen and hunting groups, and agriculture groups, all support the delisting.

Even better, it was accomplished without the need for Congressional meddling. Indeed, Congress just rejected an attempt to legislatively shield this delisting from judicial review, a move that is now pretty clearly unnecessary. It's not that court challenge is impossible, but with the facts I've outlined above, its odds of success are pretty slim.

And finally, best of all, the delisting preserves protection for wolves in states like New York and Maine, which enjoy a lot of potential wolf habitat. Science tells us that wolves are a crucial part of overall ecological health. I would love to restore the great northern forests of the East by seeing their return. It's now up to the Fish and Wildlife Service to map out a vision for wolf recovery there.

Oh, and one last thing. I hope Oregon and Washington are watching. Wolf recovery doesn't have to go through the acrimonious process we've seen in the Northern Rockies. There is a better way.

Giving Green This Holiday Season

2011-12-15T21:26:28Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Well, it's that time of year again. I make a list...I check it twice...and then I get a pit in my stomach.

I love being with my family over the Holidays but what with Hanukkah and Christmas (not to mention a couple of December birthdays), I can never quite keep up. Add to that the often depressing ritual of elbowing my way through a crowded shopping mall and then wondering if my gift choices were good, well, let's just say that that the Internet has been a blessing.

What's even better? Green Gifts at NRDC! In the words Tony Shalhoub, don't give crap this year, give a gift that matters--hope for wildlife and the special places they call home.

Seriously, these are wonderful alternative gifts that will make you and the ones you love feel better. Plus, they come with their own beautiful e-card that you can customize and send in time for Hanukkah, Christmas or whatever.

My personal favorite, of course, is the "Den Defender" card, which lets you support our work to help polar bears around the world. But you can also help save a whale from the Pebble Mine, a songbird from tar sands extraction, honey bees from harmful pesticides, and much more.

Whatever you choose, we deeply appreciate your support.

Wildlife Roundup: the Good News

2011-12-01T20:57:08Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

This month's theme is definitely "the return," with lots of good news to be had illustrating that if we give animals room to roam they will return to suitable habitat, often traveling a lot farther and moving a lot faster than anyone has anticipated.

A two year old male wolf (named OR-7 and, no doubt, looking for love) has dispersed from eastern Oregon to Douglas County, in the State's southwest, becoming the first wolf to reach western Oregon in over sixty-five years. More wolves will almost certainly make this journey and, with any luck, there will be wolf packs throughout the State (and perhaps even in Northern California) one day.
Efforts to clean up and restore salmon-friendly habitat in Dublin's Tolka River have paid big dividends. Last month biologists confirmed that wild Atantic salmon had successfully spawned in the Tolka for the first time in over 100 years. Dublin can now boast of three different rivers (the Liffey, Dodder, and Tolka) within city limits that support wild salmon populations.
Israel's Nature and Parks Authority announced the discovery a hula painted frog in Northern Israel's Hula Valley. The frog was long thought extinct, a casualty of water diversions and efforts to draining local swamps to fight malaria. Officials believe that wetland restoration three years ago (by diverting more water to the swamps) paved the way for the frog to bounce back. Check out a video of the frog below:
The Ganges population of river dolphins (known as the Gangetic river dolphin) in the India's only dolphin sanctuary has rebounded, with recent population estimates climbing from a low of 175 individuals to about 223, according to the Vikramshila Biodiversity Research and Education Centre. The census was conducted in the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary, a fifty mile protected stretch of the Ganges Riverin Bihar. Still, there are only about 2,000 Gangetic dolphins left in India, so the species remains highly imperiled. (hat tip: This Week in Whales.)
Jaguar have returned to Arizona. More than two years after the last known jaguar in the United States southwest (a male named "Macho B") was accidentally killed in an illegal trapping incident, another male jaguar was spotted and photographed in Cochise County by mountain lion hunters.
Not to be outdone, bobcats have returned to northwest Ohio. Last month a raccoon trapper ended up catching a bobcat in Montpelier. While the elusive and shy cats are known to range in the Buckeye State's more heavily wooded southwest, this is the first confirmed record of bobcats in the northwest.
And, finally, just because it's cool: scientists announced the discovery that ravens use their wings and beaks to make communicative gestures, like pointing. This the is first documentation of this kind of behavior outside of primates.

New study confirms atrazine's effects across a range of species (including us)

2011-11-29T19:19:04Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

With every passing year the evidence of atrazine's harmful environmental and human health effects grows stronger. Now a new study, summarizing over a decade of research, has further confirmed some truly scary stuff about atrazine, the most commonly detected pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water: atrazine both "demasculinizes" and "feminizes" vertebrate male gonads. (You can read the study here.)

First, you may be wondering, what the heck is the "demasculinization" and "feminization" of male gonads? Put plainly: atrazine shrinks testicles, reduces sperm count, and can even make males grow ovaries. Or, as the authors put it, "demasculization" is a "decrease in male gonadal characteristics including decreases in testicular size, decreases in Sertoli cell number, decreases in sperm production, and decreases in adrogen production." Feminization of gonads is "the development of oocytes in the testes or complete ovarian differentiation in genetic males." Here are some more quick take-aways from this important new study:

First, this is a very robust piece of work, summarizing experimental and epidemiological data going back to 1997. The study boasts an impressive list of twenty-two authors from major research institutions in the United States, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Croatia, Argentina, Brazil, and England. These results thus represent effects "described by independent laboratories in eight different countries on five continents."
Even more impressive, these "effects on the gonads are both specific and consistent and do not occur merely across populations, species or even genera or orders, but across vertebrate classes:" that is, across fish, amphibian, reptile, and mammal species.
How does atrazine cause these reproductive effects? The study concludes that atrazine exposure interferes with and reduces the production of male hormones (androgens) while increasing the effect and production of estrogen (female hormones).
Importantly, the study points out that while changes we can actually observe in the gonads of these animals are concerning, "functional impairments are likely of greatest importance." The study goes on to note that male salmon exposed to atrazine showed decreased mating behavior and milt (sperm) production; that "nearly identical reproductive impairments were observed in amphibians"; that in rodents atrazine exposure "resulted in as much as a 50% decrease in epididymal sperm number and decreased sperm motility";
But wait, there's more: in addition to the effects on gonads, the study also notes that "there are many other documented reproductive effects of atrazine in laboratory rodents: induced abortion, impaired mammary development, the induction of reproductive and hormone-dependent cancers...impaired immune function (also observed in multiple studies across vertebrate classes) and impaired neural development."

Here's the study’s bottom line: "Atrazine" the authors write "is prevalent and persistent in the environment" and "can have dramatic effects on ecosystems, environmental health and public health."

While it would be easy to dismiss this as a problem largely confined to fish, frogs, and rats, atrazine’s impacts hit humans below the belt too. The authors point out that "low fertility, low sperm count, and poor semen quality were also associated with atrazine exposure...in humans living in agricultural areas."

It's time to ban the stuff. You can take action here.

Ranchers in Coos County Meet the Market: What Happens When Local Government Decides Not to Subsidize Killing Bears and Mountain Lions

2011-11-10T17:34:52Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

There's a fascinating article in Coos Bay Oregon's The World about some ranchers and timber companies reaction to a county budget cut, that may result in "cooperative" funding being eliminated for Wildlife Services. As a result, Wildlife Services may, in turn, eliminate two of its trapper positions in the County.*

What do these trappers do? From the article it seems like they mostly kill black bears, who sometimes damage commercial timber stands, mountain lions and coyotes, who sometimes prey on sheep or other livestock, and beavers.

The total costs of these trappers is about $153,000 a year. According to the article, right now Coos County pays about $60,000 a year of those costs, payments which are set to be discontinued. So some local ranchers decided to try to form a "'co-operative' where anyone potentially affected by animal damage -- farmers, foresters, cities, and even golf course owners -- will be asked to loosen their purse strings" and make up the missing funds.

But a funny thing happened on the way to this plan. It turns out that when faced with the prospect of shouldering a significant share of the costs of animal control themselves, a lot of businesses just don't think it's worth the money.

"It doesn't work that great, because some people pay and some people don't. If they don't want to pay, that's their decision," cranberry farmer Bob Donaldson said. "There's one big timber company, off the top of my head, who just doesn't think it's worth their time and money."

Despite this, Wildlife Services continues to insist that their trappers are totally worth the money:

Mike Burrell, district supervisor for Southwestern Oregon [Wildlife Services] and a member of Waterman's committee, said bears are a hugely expensive problem for local timber companies.

"We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars alone in timber [damage] just from bears. If I remember, just in Southwestern Oregon we are talking a million dollars a year in just bear damage."

But, look, here's the thing. If, when push comes to shove, a private co-op can't raise $60,000 to pay for animal trappers (even when they are still being subsidized by the American taxpayer to the tune of another $93,000) then maybe the benefits of trapping just aren't as great as Wildlife Services makes them out to be.

It's just a matter of economics.

You can take action here.

*Quick Review: Wildlife Services is a federal agency that spends tens of millions of dollars a year killing bears, mountain lions, coyotes, and wolves, across the west; generally the costs of their operations are split between local, state or private "cooperators" on the one hand and federal funds on the other.

So much for fiscal responsibility: federal lawmakers push to increase budget of widlife-killing agency

2011-11-02T17:01:44Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

We've written a lot about Wildlife Services, a little know agency within the federal Department of Agriculture that spends tens of millions of dollars a year killing wildlife such as mountain lions, bears, wolves, and coyotes in the name of "livestock protection" at taxpayer expense. Their favored methods include gunning down animals from helicopters, trapping, and poisons.

These practices are often unnecessary, environmentally destructive, and poorly studied. So back when folks were concerned about cutting federal spending (remember those days?) I hoped that Wildlife Services would have their money trimmed or redirected to more socially useful activities, such as dealing with invasive species. There was even a bi-partisan amendment introduced to the Department of Agriculture appropriations bill that would have cut the agency's budget. Alas, that bill went down to defeat.

But I am, quite frankly, flabbergasted that now it appears the livestock industry is pushing for an increase to Wildlife Service's budget, an increase they hope will be spent to subsidize the killing of even more coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions, across the American landscape. The sad thing is, it looks like they may get it, to the tune of $4 million dollars.

I can think of few worse places to be spending federal dollars. But that's some people in Congress for you these days: they want to cut money to protect your health and safety and spend it to subsidize the killing of wildlife.

Wildlife Roundup: The Good News

2011-10-30T15:10:14Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Happy Halloween everyone! Wildlife conservation activists know, however, that the world is usually scary enough for the endangered animals and plants. So here is some good news from October:

Despite ongoing controversy over wolf control actions in Oregon, a new wolf pack has formed near the Snake River. The new pack is in Wallowa County and consists of five members, including at least one pup. That brings the total number of wolf packs in Oregon to four and the State's total wolf population to twenty-three.
Speaking of wolves, Mexico has followed-through on its plan, which we reported last month, to release wolves in the Sierra San Luis Mountains. Five wolves, three females and two males, were released in the Mountains near the New Mexico boarder. Let's wish them luck.
After a decade of clean-up efforts, the Environmental Protection Agency has officially declared its work to remediate the Ocoee River, which suffered from decades of pollution from one of the largest Copper mines in the world, to be at an end. The river's recovery has been already led to the return of fish and native vegetation to the once lifeless stream. (Hat Tip: Environmental Law Professors Blog )
Well, it wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't include a bat story and, although the situation for U.S. bat populations remains grim, there is good news for bats in the United Kingdom. According to the group British Waterways, an annual survey of wildlife along the UK's canals and rivers, have shown that bat populations have increased about nine percent from last year.
Good news for the Boney tail chub, as state biologists recently released the fish into the Upper Colorado River. The fish were reintroduced by the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife as part of an effort to restore native endangered species to Colorado River. You can check out a cool video of the release here.
There are no more than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, so it was great to hear that a tiger mom at Medan Zoo on the Indonesian island of Sumatra recently gave birth to healthy tiger triplets. The birth of the triplets follows a successful birth of Sumatran tigers in the Atlanta zoo earlier this year.

Dispatch from the North--Some Weak Sauce Served at the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears

2011-10-28T16:06:17Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

This week I attended a meeting of the parties to the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, which was held in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to visit Nunavut and to meet people from across the region (particularly representatives of Inuit communities) and to exchange views.

The meeting itself was important--bringing together representatives from the five polar bear "range states" (Russia, the United States, Canada, Greenland/Denmark, and Norway) to discuss polar bear conservation--and I think some real progress was made.

One of the highlights of the meeting was a compelling presentation from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "Polar Bear Specialist Group," the Agreement's formal scientific advisor. The presentation was made by Dr. Steven Amstrup and Dr. Ian Sterling, two of the foremost polar bear scientists in the world.

Dr. Amstrup focused on the overall trend of climate change in the region and the likely effect of warming on sea ice patterns in the Arctic and bear populations; Dr. Sterling talked specifically about effects that were already being felt by bears in specific areas, such as western Hudson Bay. While the presentation acknowledged that climate change would not effect all bears at the same time and could even temporarily benefit some bear populations (by, for example, making seals more accessible to them), both he and Dr. Sterling were very clear that, ultimately, climate change poses a mortal danger to polar bears as a species. If we don't do something about climate change, Dr. Amstrup warned at the end of his presentation, we all risk becoming nothing more than "polar bear historians."

Having heard this powerful message, I was a bit stunned when, after being excluded from much of the meeting's debates (as were all observes), I saw the final report of the meeting, which says this about the specialist group's presentation:

As noted in the 2007 and 2009 reports of the Range States Meetings, climate change continues to have a negative impact on polar bears in portions of their range and remains the most important threat to their long-term range-wide security. The PBSG noted that changes in sea ice are not expected to affect polar bears in all portion of their range at the same time or in the same ways and that polar bears in some portions of their range may see transient but significant benefits from a milder climate. Conservation plans for polar bears must consider highly variable transient effects as well as predictable ultimate effects of the global warming challenge.

This is a very carefully worded paragraph. Note that the language never uses the word "survival" (instead substituting the somewhat inappropriate word "security") and goes out of its way to emphasize the "transient but significant benefits" that climate change may give some bear populations (implying, of course, that harvest levels could perhaps be increased for these populations). Also, notice that while the language refers to the "predictable ultimate effects" of global warming on polar bears, it doesn't actually recount what those are--i.e., massive range-wide declines with a significant probability of total extinction.

While subtle, much of this language represents a very real resistance on the part of some range states to acknowledging the full and likely scope of global climate change on polar bear populations specifically, and the Arctic in general. Why? Well, I can only speculate since I was not present to hear the language negotiated, but fully acknowledging the plight of polar bears would call into questions some of the harvest levels set for bears (as well as the continuing wisdom of ongoing commercial trade in polar bear parts). It would also, and perhaps even more uncomfortably, put pressure on the Canadian federal government to, you know, do something about climate change. That's an agenda Canada has not been very receptive to in the past and is blatantly at odds with its continuing efforts to open up and exploit tar sands in Alberta, a potentially huge new source of global warming emissions.

A big win for a little fish: new critical habitat designation gives added protection for the tidewater goby and California's coast

2011-10-21T12:00:00Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Little critters can have a big impact. Take the tidewater goby. Only a few inches long with large, dusky fins, the tidewater goby is unique. It is the only species in its genus and it can only be found in the brackish salt marshes, lagoons and streams along California's coast. These are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the Golden State. Thanks to the tidewater goby, some of them just got a new lifeline. That’s because on Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a new “critical habitat” designation for the little fish. In making the decision, the Fish and Wildlife Service also set an important precedent.

After the tidewater goby was protected by the federal government under the Endangered Species Act, scientists put together a "recovery plan" for the fish. The plan recommended that tidewater gobies be introduced to suitable habitat up and down the California coast. It recommended this approach because the tidewater goby exists in dispersed "meta-populations”--depending on the weather, food availability, and a host of other factors gobies in individual streams and lagoons periodically disappear when times are tough and then reappear when conditions become more favorable. The problem for the goby is that their distribution has become patchy and gobies have lost the ability to naturally recolonize all of their former habitat (the little guys can't survive for very long in the ocean).

When the federal government originally proposed designating critical habitat for the goby, however, it refused to protect any unoccupied goby habitat. We thought that was a problem, not only because it was directly contrary to the recovery plan's recommendations, but also because protecting unoccupied habitat is one of the principal benefits of identifying "critical habitat" under the Endangered Species Act (at least, in theory). In practice the Fish and Wildlife Service has rarely designated unoccupied habitat as critical. Added to all this was the fact that climate change, and the rising sea levels that will accompany it, pose an obvious threat to the goby, which lives in low-lying lands where salt and fresh water mix.

So we sued and the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to take another look. On Wednesday the Service went a long way towards fixing both these problems. First, the agency expanded the amount of habitat protected by the goby by 20% (from about 10,000 to 12,000 acres--mostly small sections up and down the coast). Second, the agency included 10 currently unoccupied lagoons and creeks, stretching from Los Angeles to Marin counties, which will now get added protections. Finally, the Fish and Wildlife Service justified its protection of unoccupied habitat in part because of the threat posed by climate change, writing: "We have determined that the specific areas within the geographical area occupied at the time of listing are not sufficient to meet the recovery goals for the species because...(3) We anticipate a further loss of habitat in the future due to sea-level rise resulting from climate change." As far as I know, that's the first time the Service has ever protected unoccupied habitat at least in part in response to climate change.

That's a big deal, and a big win. And it means places like Bolinas Lagoon (pictured below) will get some added protections.

Below is a complete list of the areas where unoccupied habitat will be protected. If you want to look at the designation in an interactive Google Earth Map, click here:Tidewater Goby Proposed Critical Habitat Google Earth Map.kmz

Arroyo Sequit (Los Angeles County)
Zuma Canyon (Los Angeles County)
Aliso Creek (Los Angeles County)
Oso Flaco Lake (San Louis Obispo County)
Arroyo de la Cruz (San Louis Obispo County)
Salinas River (Monterey County)
Pomponio Creek (San Mateo County)
Waddell Creek (Santa Cruz County)
Walker Creek (Marin County)
Bolinas Lagoon (Marin County)

Polar Bear Trophy Hunters in the U.S. Lose Case--But International Help Still Needed

2011-10-20T15:11:14Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

As I’ve discussed before, after climate change, the biggest immediate threat to polar bear conservation is overhunting, which is fundamentally driven by the demand for polar bear products (rugs, boots, jewelry) and the desire of trophy hunters to bring back a prize.

In Canada alone, where roughly two-thirds of the world’s polar bears can be found, over three hundred bears are legally hunted each year, mostly to feed the commercial and trophy hunting trades. Many of the populations these bears are taken from are listed as declining already (often, to be fair, because of climate change) and some are recognized as overhunted.

Until polar bears were listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, much of this demand for polar bear trophies came from the United States. At one point, nearly 60% of trophy hunters, who would pay tens of thousands of dollars for the opportunity to kill and take home a bear, were Americans.

But the Endangered Species Act listing changed all that. Once polar bears were protected by the Act, it became illegal for U.S. hunters to import their trophies back into the United States under another law, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). That didn’t sit well with U.S. based trophy hunting organizations, like the Safari Club International, who went to court, claiming that listing the polar bear shouldn’t automatically ban trophy imports under the MMPA. NRDC and other conservation and animal welfare organizations intervened to defend the polar bear’s protections

On Monday, the Safari Club lost. In a lengthy opinion U.S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan found: “Sport hunting is not among the narrow, enumerated exceptions to the MMPA’s ban on taking and importing depleted marine mammals [like the polar bear].”

Despite this win, however, trophy hunters continue to flock to Canada from Japan and Europe and, as the price for polar bear hides keeps climbing, commercial demand for bears is stronger than ever. Even the protections secured in U.S. courts are not set in stone. Indeed, a Safari Club case challenging the very idea of protecting polar bears under the Endangered Species Act at all is on appeal right now and the Club may well appeal their loss this week.

That’s why we need new, more powerful, international regulation of both the commercial and trophy hunting trade. The United States can be a leader here, too, as can other polar bear “range states.”

It’s important to note that, in our view, this has nothing to do with the subsistence use of polar bears. NRDC supports the sustainable subsistence use of polar bears and other wildlife by native peoples. But selling polar bear tags to a big game hunter isn’t, we think, a subsistence use. And it certainly hasn’t proved itself sustainable.

NRDC will be traveling to Canada next week for a meeting of the 1973 Convention on Polar Bears, where we will be reaching out to the international community on this issue. We’ll keep you posted.

Department of Interior Finds Atrazine and Other Pesticides Is Causing Local Frog Extinctions

2011-10-07T15:03:32Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

On Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would not protect the northern leopard frog under the Endangered Species Act. Hidden in that announcement was the admission, however, that pesticides (particularly atrazine) "has likely contributed to northern leopard frog population extirpations throughout their range."

Here are some of the specific findings by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

While northern leopard frogs may be exposed to pesticides in a number of ways, they are most significantly exposed to pesticides when run-off from agricultural and urban areas reaches occupied habitats. Exposure to pesticide run-off can influence parasitic community structure and seasonal recruitment in northern leopard frogs (King et al. 2008, p. 20). Berrill et al. (1997, p. 243) found that tadpoles (including northern leopard frog tadpoles) are extremely sensitive (i.e., they experience analysis and death) to exposure of one pesticide at a time; pesticides in combination likely have more severe effects. Ouellet p. 97) examined northern leopard frogs in agricultural and non-agricultural ponds in Quebec and found that rogs in the agricultural ponds had a variety of hind limb malformations. The authors identified agricultural pesticides as a potential causal agent. Pesticide exposure not only can cause malformations in frogs (Lannoo 2008, pp. 142–144), but contact with pesticides has been found to increase amphibians vulnerability to Ribeiroia (trematode) and other parasitic infections, which are also known to cause frog malformations (Kiesecker 2002, p. 9903; Lannoo 2008; Rohr et al. 2008, p. 1237). In addition, increased nitrates from fertilizers can also result in adverse effects to amphibian development and survival (Marco et al. 1999, p. 2837; Rouse 800–802).

EPA has repeatedly put off completing a new review of atrazine's environmental effects, which it began nearly three years ago, after reports revealed atrazine spiking to extremely high levels in rivers and streams, particularly in the Midwest. Is this yet another example of the Obama Administration backpedaling on environmental protections? Will the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's findings spur them into action?

You can send EPA a message about the importance of phasing out atrazine use in the United States--not just for the frogs, but for us all--here.

Wildlife Roundup: The Good News

2011-10-03T15:11:41Z

Andrew Wetzler, Director, Land & Wildlife Program, Chicago

Here is this month's roundup of good news stories in the world of wildlife conservation. Enjoy.

The Solomon Islands has decided to ban the export of live dolphins, beginning in January. Until the ban was announced, the Islands were exporting about fifty dolphins a year to zoos and aquaria around the world. Speaking of dolphins, scientists have identified a new species of dolphin, Tursiops australis (locally known as Burrunan dolphins) in Australia. Numbering only about 150 animals, the dolphins are found off the coast of Melbourne.
The Mexican government, working with The Nature Conservancy, will reintroduce American bison (buffalo) to the grasslands of the El Uno Ecological Reserve in Janos, Mexico. Selective grazers who help fertilize the soil and create unique vernal wetlands with their wallows, buffalo are a keystone species for grassland ecosystems.
Mexico is also planning on releasing five endangered Mexican gray wolves in the Sierra San Luis Mountains, in northeastern Sonora. The Mexican gray wolf has been subject to a troubled reintroduction effort in the United States. Hopefully, this reintroduction will go more smoothly. Like buffalo, healthy wolf populations are crucial for a region's overall ecological health.
The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute has successfully hatched two Micronesian kingfishers, one of the rarest birds in the world. Now extinct in the wild, the Micronesian kingfisher was once common on Guam, until invasive brown tree snakes wiped them out. Efforts to eradicate the Island's snakes continue. In the meantime, the new chicks bring the worldwide population of these beautiful little birds to 131.
Vancouver's Howe Sound has roared back to life. Once an environment highly contaminated from years of copper mining and its aftermath, the Sound has recently seen record herring spawns, which has attracted gray whales, killer whales, and hundreds of white-sided dolphins. Salmon have also returned to spawn to Britannia Creek, which is in the Sound and runs near the former mine site, for the first time in a century.
The removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams from the Elwha river began this month. The damn removals is a crucial step to restoring healthy salmon and steelhead populations to the river and marks a triumph for the Lower Elwha Kallam tribe, which has advocated against the dams since their construction, although controversy swirls around the tribe's plan to introduce hatchery fish into the river once the removals are complete. You can see a slide show about the dam removals here.