In the closing days of 2011, a truly great thing happened.  The EPA issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule, an amendment to the Clean Air Act that will have a significant, positive impact on Americans’ health for many years to come.

     On December 21, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced the new rule, which will cut mercury emissions from power plants by 90%.  Coal-fired plants are one of the largest emitters of mercury, a potent neurotoxin known to damage the developing brains of fetuses and young children.  Power plants’ mercury emissions also contribute to cardiovascular disorders, cancer, and asthma.  

     “This is a great victory for public health, for the health of our children,” Jackson told reporters gathered at the Children’s Medical Center in Washington, DC.  Public health leaders agree.  The rule is ”a step in the right direction for protecting our families by limiting the amount of mercury that will enter our environment, contaminate our water supplies, and wind up in our food chain,” according to Lexington, Kentucky physician Dr. Vicki Holmberg.  The levels of mercury currently coming out of power plants, Holmberg explains, “can overwhelm the capacity of our bodies to metabolize and eliminate toxic metal pollutants.”

     Americans who live near the older, more polluting power plants will benefit the most from the new standard, with fewer illnesses and fewer asthma attacks.  The new rule is expected to result in as many as 11,000 fewer premature deaths a year, 4,700 fewer heart attacks a year, and other widespread health benefits.  In addition to mercury, the rule also targets coal plants’ emissions of arsenic, lead, chromium, and acid gases.

     While health experts and environmentalists hail the new standard, the coal industry and many utilities have been fighting for years to stop the issuance of such a ruling.  Kentucky’s Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul recently tried unsuccessfully to block the new rule through legislation, and are already calling for the rule’s repeal.  It’s too costly, they insist.

     Compliance with the ruling will cost the nation’s utilities $9.6 billion, according to EPA.    About half of the nation’s coal-fired plants are more than 40 years old and must be replaced or modernized.  And 44% of coal-powered plants have never bothered to install technology that could easily reduce emissions of mercury and other toxins.  While some coal industry jobs will be lost, Jackson notes, the ruling will actually mean a net job increase, with the creation of 46,000 short-term construction jobs and 8,000 longer term utility sector jobs.  Utilities will have up to four years to comply. 

     With this new ruling, coal-fired power plants are finally joining every other major industrial sector in dramatically reducing mercury and other air toxins.  Oil refineries, chemical plants, plastics companies, the iron and steel induustries, and heavy manufacturers have all been subject to air toxic standards for more than 10 years. 

     I applaud the EPA for issuing this very important new rule.  We can go into the new year breathing a little more easily.–April Moore

     The Kissimmee River in south-central Florida is an environmental success story.  In a way.  

     The story of the Kissimmee is an example of humans ruining a river and then working hard to restore it again.  

     The Kissimmee River originally meandered this way and that, along a wide, shallow path from Lake Kissimmee southward to Lake Okeechobee.  The river’s 50,000 acre floodplain supported numerous and diverse wetland communities–birds, fish, and a wide variety of other wildlife.

     But in the early 1960s the Kissimmee River fell victim to a program that was popular at the time–river ’straightening.’  In an attempt to avoid major flooding during hurricane events and to enable people to build homes and other buildings in a floodplain without fear of floods, many rivers during the 1960s were channelized;  they were straightened and deepened.  The Kissimmee was one such river.  Its meanders were sliced off, a deep-channel canal was dredged along the Kissimmee Valley, and the once winding, 103 mile-long river was transformed into a straight, 56-mile long, lifeless gutter.    Even the name was changed.  The former Kissimmee River became the C-38. 

     The goal of keeping the river out of the floodplain was largely achieved.  But at a great price.  Water that had once slowly wound its way southward, now shot through the trench and poured, unsettled and unfiltered,  into Lake Okeechobee.  C-38 was an inhospitable place to the many fish that had inhabited it.  The surrounding wetlands dried up and the birds disappeared.

     “The folly of ditching the Kissimmee River was recognized almost the day it was completed,” states the Everglades Foundation on its website, “and the magnitude of the ecological crisis led to a public outcry.”  In 1992, Congress approved a plan to restore the Kissimmee River.  The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct the restoration.

     While the restoration project won’t bring the entire river back to its original health, normal flow is being returned to more than 40 miles of the river’s historic channel, and about 40 square miles of the river/floodplain ecosystem will be restored.

     Restoration efforts got underway in 1999, and the results have been inspiring.  “Recovery of wetland function was much faster than expected,” according to the Everglades Foundation, “with rapid recolonization by native plants and animals.  The Kissimmee Restoration  is a true Florida environmental success story three decades in the making.”  Almost right away,   shorebirds returned.  So did ducks, songbirds and wading birds.  Aquatic invertebrates like insects, mollusks, crayfish, and freshwater shrimp again inhabited the river, and the river became home once again to fish and alligators.  

     Unfortunately, I cannot end our story here.  While I salute former Floida Republican governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist for their strong support for restoration efforts, the current governor, Tea Partier Rick Scott, elected in 2010, has been working to slash funds for restoration efforts and has tried to get the EPA to relax clean water regulations that affect the Kissimmee River.  If the investment by the public of more than $3 billion in state and federal funds to restore the Kissimmee River are not to be wasted, we must hope that Scott (currently out of favor with his Tea Party base) will be a one-term governor. –April Moore  

 

a restored section of Florida's Kissimmee River

 

 

 

  

     The little bog turtle is threatened with extinction, but it is getting help from an unlikely source–goats! 

     This turtle, which, even when full-grown can fit into the palm of your hand, lives in sunny swamps–marshy places that are filled with low-growing plants and waist-deep mud pits.  These mud pits are actually hidden streams that the turtles use as freeways.  But the fens (spring-fed wetlands) that are home to the bog turtle are disappearing throughout the bog turtle’s range, which extends from Vermont to Georgia and as far west as Ohio. 

     A key reason for these swampy meadows’ disappearance is the rapid invasion of a non-native grass called phragmites.  Phragmites quickly grows into a dense thicket that steals the sunlight and dries out the soil.  Mowing and pulling the weeds by hand have not kept up with the spread of phragmites because it grows back so quickly.

     Now for the good news.  For several years, goats have been ‘employed’ in efforts to control the spread of phragmites in the swamps where bog turtles live.  And these animals have achieved what human efforts could not!     For example, in New York, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to bring in goats to tackle the phragmites in one of the last remaining homes of the bog turtle, the Hudson River Valley.  When the goats arrived, the swamp had become one big, dried-out weed patch, explains Jason Tesauro of EDF.  But the hungry goats ate everything in sight.  A year later, that dry patch was once again a sunny swamp.  And bog turtles returned and began to lay eggs, says Tesauro. 

     While the goats eat native plants right along with the invasive phragmites, the natives bounce back quickly, Tesauro explains.  The invasive phragmites, however, can’t stand constant grazing.  

     Prescribed grazing has successfully restored bog turtle habitat in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as well as in New York.  In addition to goats, cows and sheep have also been brought in to graze down the phragmites.  It’s a win-win situation.  The bog turtle is an obvious winner, and so are nearby farmers who gain a new source of grazing land for their livestock.

     By the way, if left alone, the little bog turtle lives about 80 years!–April Moore

 

 

a bog turtle

 

       

      

     I thank Joan Brundage for bringing the following great news to my attention:    

     Hundreds of endangered animal and plant species are soon to receive important protection. 

     Just a few days ago, a federal judge approved a legal agreement between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the independent Center for Biological Diversity.  The agreement requires USFWS to make initial or final decisions on whether to add hundreds of imperiled plant and animal species to the Endangered Species List by 2018.  The Endangered Species Act is the nation’s strongest environmental law and the surest way to save species from extinction.

     Approval of this agreement is the culmination of a decade -long campaign by the Tucson-based Center to safeguard 1,000 of the nation’s most endangered and least protected species.  “The historic agreement,” says Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center, “gives species like the Pacific walrus, American wolverine, and the California golden trout a shot at survival.”

     Spanning every taxonomic group, the agreement will protect 757 species, including 26 birds, 31 mammals, 67 fish, 22 reptiles, 33 amphibians, 381 invertebrates, and 197 plants.  Species included in the agreement can be found in all 50 states.  The states with the greatest number of endangered species to be protected are Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, with 149, 121, and 115 species respectively.  Hawaii has 70 species slated for protection, Nevada 54, California 51, Washington 36, Arizona 31, Oregon 24, Texas 22, and New Mexico has 18.

     The historic agreement includes almost all of the ‘candidates’ for protection that had been identified by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the federal agency charged with administering the Endangered Species Act.  However, 499 or almost two-thirds of the species included in the agreement were not on USFWS’s list.  This is because, according to many scientists and scientific societies, the extinction crisis is vastly greater than federal programs and budgets can handle.  

     Non-governmental organizations play a key role in identifying species that should be added to the Endangered Species list, according to Greenwald.  “The Endangered Species Act specifically allows scientists, conservationists, and others to submit petitions to protect species,” says Greenwald.  Petitions such as the many filed by the Center for Biological Diversity over the last decade have played  ”a critical role in identifying species in need, and help the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with the ever-expanding task of protecting species threatened with extinction,” Greenwald notes.–April Moore

 

the rare Miami blue butterfly, to be protected under the agreement--photo by J Glassberg

 

          

 

California golden trout, to be protected

     A very small animal has just had a very big victory. 

     In recent weeks, the Tulotoma Snail, native only to certain Alabama rivers, has been removed from the federal Endangered Species list.  This elegantly spiraled, two-inch long snail is the only mollusk ever to rebound from the brink of extinction, once listed as Endangered. 

     The Tulotoma Snail was once thought to have gone completely extinct.  And one of the main reasons for the snail’s disappearance from Alabama waters was the large number of dams that had been built on the state’s rivers.   The dams blocked water flow, necessary to carry oxygen to underwater organisms like snails.  But then in 1991, a small Tulotoma Snail population was discovered along a leaking dam in the Alabama River.  Not quite extinct after all, the Tulotoma Snail was added to the federal Endangered Species List.  

     Once it became clear that there was a chance to save the Tulotoma Snail from extinction, dedicated conservationists and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologists went to work.  Invoking the Clean Water Act, which requires the implementation of water pollution control programs, federal officials requested that the Alabama Power Company install aeration systems to release steady flows of oxygenated water into the Coosa River.  The power company, which had constructed the dams in the first place, complied with the request, and the subsequent increased flows of oxygenated water into the river helped spur the Tulotoma Snail’s rebound.

     Tulotoma Snail populations have grown so much that the animal will not go extinct if current protection efforts continue, according to Fish & Wildlife officials.  And these protections will continue, officials explain.  “The improved status of  the Tulotoma Snail is a direct result of coordinated efforts by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and its partners, including state and federal agencies, the Alabama Power Company, and the Alabama Clean Water Partnership,” says Cindy Dohner, the Service’s Southeast Regional Director.  “Our accomplishments show that the Endangered Species Act works.”

     The survival of the unassuming, mud-loving little mollusk will make Alabama’s river ecosystems healthier.  Tulotoma Snails play a key role in creating a clean river environment, explains James Randolph in his Defenders of Wildlife blog.   They are filter feeders that remove bacteria and algae from surface waters.  With all the pollutants that enter rivers from natural and human-made waste, the water would be far more mucky and grimy without the snail and the other species that sanitize these streams, he says. 

     The Tulotoma Snail is also an important food source for ducks, turtles, fish, and other animals.  Without the snails, these animals might leave the river in search of other food sources, causing a further decline in the area’s biodiversity, Randolph notes. 

     While the news of the rebound of the Tulotoma Snail and the continuation of protective efforts are great news, it should be noted that the mollusk is still vulnerable to unpredictable events like drought, floods, spills, and local changes in water quality due to human activities.–April Moore

Tulotoma Snails

  

 

 

 

 

     I recently posted a ‘good news’ piece about the Obama administration’s intention to extend a ban on uranium mining on a million acres adjacent to the Grand Canyon.  The decision to protect one of the earth’s greatest treasures from the pollution of industrialization was hailed by environmentalists and by clean drinking water advocates and water utilities of southwestern cities.  

     But I’m afraid we’ll have to set down our champagne glasses.  The administration’s decision to protect the Grand Canyon may soon be buried deep beneath a tsunami environmentalists have dubbed “the Great Outdoors Giveaway.” 

     This giveway, also known as the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2012, is a corporate polluter’s dream come true.  And it’s a nightmare for wildlife and for those of us who care about maintaining the earth’s treasures for our children.  

     If passed, this appropriations bill would override that administration decision.  It would open up  those million acres adjacent to the Grand Canyon to uranium mining, along with millions of other now-protected acres to mining and other industrial activities.  

     But it gets worse. 

     This appropriations bill is loaded with special interest provisions that would:

• enable the timber industry to pollute the waters of America’s national forestlands–lands that provide water for more than 60 million Americans.
• Slash funds to the Legacy Roads and Trails program that has ensured forest watershed restoration and recreational access while protecting drinking water supplies and fisheries’ health.

     The bill even takes aim at modest federal efforts to address global warming.   Despite record-breaking drought, fires, and flooding, all of which are expected to worsen with climate change, Republican Members of Congress are using this appropriations bill as an opportunity to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency.  The bill would prohibit the EPA from acting to reduce the emissions that are driving extreme climate events.  And in what seems like sheer madness, the bill would even prohibit the EPA from following the accepted science of climate change!

     Additionally, this horrifying piece of legislation would cut $83 million in funding that could help our national parks, national forests, our wildlife refuges, and conservation lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management address the worst impacts of climate change.  

     Republicans in Congress have been working for quite some time to give wealthy corporate polluters a free hand to do as they please to increase their profits, without having to respect our natural treasures, not to mention the very air we breathe and the water we drink. 

     But this 2012 appropriations bill now making its way through the U.S.  House of Representatives is one of the worst onslaughts against the environment we have seen yet.  And it must be stopped.

     Many national environmental organizations are calling on citizens to contact their Member of Congress and to urge their Representative to defeat the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY 2012.

     You can help by calling the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 201-224-3121.  Ask for the office of your Representative by name.  When you reach your Congressperson’s office, I suggest not leaving a voice message but rather asking to speak to the staff member who handles environmental issues.  And let that staff member know how strongly you feel that our environment must be protected, not degraded, that you want your Representative to speak out against this extremely damaging bill and to vote against it.–April Moore

 

  

    

     Great news for the Grand Canyon and for all who care about this great treasure:  the Obama administration intends to extend for the next 20 years a ban on mining on a million acres that border the Grand Canyon.

     A mining moratorium was put in place two years ago in response to a giant spike in the number of uranium mining claims placed on these Grand Canyon border lands.  The number of new uranium mining claims had jumped 2,000% in the last seven years as a result of higher prices for uranium.  

     Environmentalists hailed the decision.  “Mining would have affected the watershed, disturbed critical wildlife habitat, industrialized the perimeter of the Grand Canyon,” said Roger Clark, air and energy director for the Grand Canyon Trust.  “It’s kind of like locating a meat packing house next to the Vatican;  it’s an incompatible use of the land.” 

     In addition to the large coalition of environmental groups that worked for the 20 year extension of the about-to-expire two year moratorium on new mining claims, the water utilities of Los Angeles and other southwestern cities advocated for a continued ban.  They feared a contamination of the Colorado River watershed as a result of mining.  

     The burst of mining claims at the Grand Canyon are among thousands that have been filed along the borders of many national parks and wilderness areas.  In the past seven years, mining companies have filed claims to the rights to uranium, copper, gold, and other metals on land around Mount Rushmore, Joshua Tree National Park, and other refuges.  Critics explain that an outmoded 1872 law is driving the rapid increase in claims in sensitive places.  That law allows corporations to stake out rights to federal lands for mining without a competitive bid and to extract resources without paying penalties.

     I cheer the Obama administration’s decision to protect the Grand Canyon.  But I will rest easier after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issues his final decision on the moratorium this fall.  No doubt mining interests will be pressuring the administration to scale back its protection.–April Moore

 

 

 

 

    

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-0621-grand-canyon-20110620,0,1196854.story

Grand Canyon, preserved! With a uranium-mining ban about to expire in the area surrounding the famous U.S. landmark, Arizona resident Suzanne Sparling led the charge to extend it. She collected 50,000 public comments from Change.org members, and last Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced his support for another 20-year ban on the dangerous practice.

     This is just the kind of news I love to report!

     Nearly two million acreas of Canada’s boreal forest has received permanent legal protection.  The provincial government of Manitoba took action recently to protect this dense, northern forest from mining, road building, large scale logging, and transmission lines.  The protected land is about the size of Yellowstone and will be managed for wilderness values by a native group that has inhabited the region for thousands of years.  The group, the Poplar River First Nation, will also have access to the dense woods for sustainable community development.

     This decision by Manitoba’s government is a victory for the whole world.  Encircling the globe just south of the treeless polar region, the boreal forest is similar to the Amazon rainforest in the natural services it provides to the planet.  The boreal forest’s trees and peatlands, for example, comprise one of the world’s largest carbon sinks.  Boreal wetlands filter millions of gallons of water daily.  And vast reachess of intact forest, along with thousands of lakes, act as a nursery for 40% of North America’s migratory waterfowl and about 30% of the continent’s land birds, including our common backyard songbirds.  The dense forest is also an important refuge for gray wolves and caribou.

     Manitoba’s decision is the result of hard work by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Canadian First Nation groups, and others.  And these boreal forest advocates do not consider their work complete.   Neighboring First Nation communities are working to win similar protection for boreal forest near the protected area.  And that broader area will soon be nominated as a United Nations World Heritage Site.  If established, the World Heritage Site would encompass 10.6 million acres of boreal forest in Manitoba and Ontario, two provincial parks, and the traditional territories of involved First Nations. 

     As a World Heritage Site, this large segment of Canada’s boreal forest would receive international protection.   Currently, less than 8% of the boreal forest is protected, and large swaths of the forest have already been devoured by clearcutting timber operations, mining, and massie hydroelectric projects.

     Historically, the Canadian government has not included indigenous peoples in the management of areas where they have lived for many generations.  The success of indigenous people, along with conservation advocates, to get a provincial government to allow First Nation people to manage the protection of the heart of the boreal forest is a breakthrough, with positive implications for such efforts in the future.–April Moore

     The Seychelles Magpie-Robin is a great success story. 

     Coming back from the brink of extinction, with fewer than 25 birds living on a single island in the Indian Ocean, the species now numbers almost 200, with stable populations on five islands in the 115-island Seychelles archipelago east of Africa and northeast of Madagascar.  This large, glossy black bird with white wing splotches has been downlisted from “critically endangered” to “endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Animals.

     The Seychelles Magpie-Robin had been in decline since the nineteenth century.  The clearing of forests greatly reduced the bird’s habitat.  And the introduction of such alien species as cats and rats meant further devastation.  Then, once the bird became truly rare, museums around the world began collecting specimens of the rare bird, making further inroads into a very fragile population.

     By 1990, fewer than 25 of the birds were left.  And they all lived on Fregate Island, just one of the seven Seychelles islands where the bird had once thrived.  The plight of the Seychelles Magpie-Robin led to a well-organized, international effort to save the bird from extinction.  And today’s increased population is the result of years of determined conservation efforts by a handful of organizations and individuals.

     To save the bird from extinction, many things had to be done.  Efforts to restore habitat and to control invasive species were made on several of the islands where the bird had been extirpated.  Reintroduction efforts were carefully planned.  When 20 birds were reintroduced to Denis Island, for example, they were fed with food on tables before being released.  The table feeding was done so that the birds would be used to eating from tables in case their diet needed supplementation later, after they were released.  Also before release, the birds were trained to respond to whistles that indicated feeding times.  It was necessary that the ornithologists be able to attract the birds, in order to monitor them for health and well-being.  

     Birds being reintroduced to Denis and other islands were released in pairs in suitable habitats.  Fortunately, the birds established themselves quickly in their new homes, and within months, several pairs bred successfully.  “This translocation is a fantastic example of how bird keeping expertise, developed through captive management, can be highly beneficial when applied to the conservation of endangered species in the wild,” notes Gary Ward, Senior Bird Keeper with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, one of the organizations working to save the Seychelles Magpie-Robin.  “Organizations working in unison are bringing different skills together on a project such as this is how many species recovery programs are moving forward,” he adds. 

      Although still rare, the Seychelles Magpie-Robin’s population is stable.  And it is growing.  But growth will never be rapid with this bird.  The female lays but one egg at a time.  And once a young bird has left the nest, it flies poorly and is very vulnerable to predators.  In fact, both parents continue to feed their vulnerable young offspring for 2-3 months after it leaves the nest.  The Seychelles Magpie-Robin is a long-lived bird, living about 15 years when conditions are favorable. 

     I say a heartfelt thank you to those in the international conservation community whose skill, dedication and determination saved the Seychelles Magpie-Robin from extinction.–April Moore

     Back in the early 1990s, the magnificent Florida panther was nearly extinct.  But thanks, in part, to a creative initiative on the part of scientists, governmental agencies, and conservation organizations, the animal’s numbers have more than tripled.

     Twenty years ago, only 20-30 panthers remained in south Florida.  Explosive human population growth and all the construction that goes with it had destroyed most of the panther’s forest and swamp habitat.  With so little of their natural range left, most of the wide-ranging panthers could not survive on the remnants of land left to them.  And with so few of their species remaining, panthers suffered the problems associated with inbreeding–heart problems, fertility issues, and genetic defects.  

    Then the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), working with many partner agencies and organizations, introduced a bold effort to help the Florida panther survive.  In 1994 the Plan for Genetic Restoration was launched.  To strengthen the health of the remaining Florida panthers and to improve their chances of population growth, scientists added genetic diversity to the population.  Eight female panthers from a Texas population of the same species were introduced into the Florida panther population.

     Scientists hoped that the addition of the Florida panthers’ Texas cousins would reduce the health problems inbreeding had caused in the Florida panthers by adding genetic variety to the population.  The scientists’ hopes have been realized.  ”Now, panther kittens of mixed-state background have about half the mortality risk of pure Floridian kittens, and adults face lower risks too,” Susan Milius reports in Science News  (October 23, 2010).  Today, the Florida panther numbers about 100.  And while this figure represents steady growth over the last 20 years, it is hardly high enough to mean the Florida panther is out of danger.  The Florida panther remains on the Endangered Species List.

     “We are excited by the success of this project,” states Dr. Dave Onorato, a FWC biologist.  “We now have a larger, healthier population that more closely resembles what we would have expected to find in the once-widespread Florida panther population before it became reduced in numbers and isolated in south Florida.”  

     The success of genetic restoration efforts with Florida panthers is a model that offers hope for other endangered carnivores, many scientists believe.  But of course genetic restoration is only part of the answer.  Providing sufficient habitat is also essential.  And while Florida panthers today occupy only about 5% of their original range, the species’ success has been aided greatly by the establishment of such land preserves as Big Cypress National Park, Everglades National Park, and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.

     So just who is this animal that scientists and conservationists are working hard to save?  The Florida panther is a large, sleek, tawny-colored cat.  An adult male weighs about 160 pounds.  Panther kittens are darkly spotted on a buffy background.  Panthers thrive in a variety of Florida terrains–swamps and freshwater marshes, pine forests, and hardwoods.  The panther’s ability to hide and its habit of seeking dense cover make spotting it difficult.  Biologists must rely on such signs as tracks and scat to confirm a panther’s presence.  A subspecies of the North American Cougar, the Florida panther evolved to eat deer.  But in today’s changed environment, panthers also eat wild hogs and smaller animals.  The panther does not have the ability to roar, but its sounds are distinct–whistles, chirps, growls, hisses, and purrs.   

     The Florida panther was designated Florida’s state animal in 1982.–April Moore