The Bush administration has finally released its plan to save the spotted owl, but conservationists are saying it's a prescription for keeping the bird on life support under the Endangered Species Act. Said Steve Holmer of the American Bird Conservancy:
We are definitely concerned this is not going to be sufficient to recover the owl. It does appear to have some pretty significant loopholes. It could also be detrimental to the marbled murrelet and other species we are concerned about.
This final version includes some important changes, according to this story by Kathie Durban of The Columbian: It reverses a controversial provision that could have allowed local Forest Service managers to muck with the owls' protected territories.
Spotted Owl
But if you listen to what Paul Phifer, leader of the owl recovery that developed the draft plan, it's pretty depressing:
The best we can say with confidence is that in 10 years we will probably be having the same conversation.
Here is a pretty thorough press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Here is the plan itself.
A report out this morning makes numerous recommendations for maximizing the global warming benefits associated with old growth forest including: letting trees grow longer between harvests, thinning instead of clear-cutting, retaining more dead wood after logging and reducing road systems and soil erosion.
The nonprofit group Oregon Wild released a 16-page report titled: "Climate Control: How Northwest Old-Growth Forests Can Help Fight Global Warming."
It claims to dispel myths around trees and climate change, including:
Small, blurry photo of a food composter to just barely give you a sense of what they're like. Seattle Public Utilities
A group of West Seattle restaurants, bars and coffee shops have gotten in on this too through a pilot program that's collecting food waste. "Green up the Junction" is a partnership between the city, West Seattle Junction Association, and Cedar Grove Composting.
According to a press release from Colehour + Cohen Public Relations:
As of May 13th nearly 38 tons of compostable waste have been diverted from the landfill with 30 businesses taking part in the program.
To recycle your own refuse, you can buy a:
The scientist with ties to Dow Chemical who was appointed to a state pesticide-study board over the objections of farmworker advocates is resigning.
Just moments ago, the Pesticide Incident Reporting and Tracking Review Panel agreed to recommend that Gregoire reappoint the former board member who Gregoire declined to reappoint, who had environmental leanings and championed state-funded studies of pesticide drift.
Dr. Chuck Timchalk resigned in an e-mail that arrived at the governor's office overnight, according to Pearse Edwards, spokesman for Gregoire. Timchalk did not say why he was stepping down, Edwards said. Gregoire was months late making the appointment and records show the governor's office had to go to some lengths to get Timchalk to agree to take the job.
He was rejected by PIRT's screening panel, whose chairwoman, Alice Larson, told me the choice was "a no-brainer," and that Timchalk hadn't even bothered to show up in person for the interview, doing it by phone instead.
Dr. Steven Gilbert, former PIRT member, and a friend
We heard from our colleague Joe Copeland in the editorial department that Heather Hansen, a leading voice for agriculture in the debate that has swirled around PIRT, is, as Joe put it, "Concerned about good scientists having to fear the harassment that will come with public service." I've called her but haven't heard back.
PIRT is recommending the governor reappoint Steven Gilbert, founder of something called the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders, and who also serves on the board of the Washington Toxics Coalition, which advocates for limits on pesticide use.
After initial reports that the six sea lions trapped near the Bonneville Dam were shot, government officials just announced that it was "heat prostration" or heat exhaustion that killed the poor fellows.
NOAA Fisheries, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released results from a necropsy in a very brief press release stating:
The findings for all six animals are consistent with death from heat prostration. More conclusive results may be available once studies of tissue samples taken from the dead animals are completed, in about 10 days. The investigation into the circumstances relating to the deaths of these animals continues. Necropsy reports and other documents associated with the investigation will be made public once the investigation has been completed.
Again, the animals were being trapped so they'd stop eating endangered Columbia River salmon and so that they could be sent to SeaWorld. The trapping has been put on hold until further notice. Also remember that enviros are suing to stop the government from outright killing the sea lions to cull their numbers. (We've done many posts on this, including this one from May 7, May 6, May 5 and March 18).
We believe in giving credit where credit is due, so we'll call your attention to a series that appeared this week in The Seattle Times on the challenges facing those pushing to restore Puget Sound.
Kayaking Puget Sound
Dan Delong/P-I
The series broke some new ground on the disappearance of wetlands in the Puget Sound basin, a topic we've been meaning to get to. And it got into the transfer of development rights concept more than we've seen locally in the past (but still failed to nail Seattle for devoting all its TDR effort to promoting affordable housing rather than protecting Puget Sound.) There were also pieces on stormwater and shoreline armoring, topics we've covered before numerous times and will certainly again.
Overall, Warren Cornwall, Lynda Mapes, Craig Welch and Justin Mayo did a creditable job of giving readers an overview of the biggest obstacles facing the Puget Sound Partnership, the new state agency that appears to possibly not be up to the job of saving the Sound.
One sentence in the package stuck out to us not ringing true. In an editor's note on the front page on Sunday, someone (an editor, presumably) wrote:
Polar bear at Point Defiance Zoo. Jeff Larsen/P-I
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne just declared polar bears as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, but said repeatedly that the designation would NOT lead to regulations of greenhouse gas emissions -- despite the fact that the prime threat to the bear was the loss of sea ice from climate change.
Kempthorne also took the opportunity to make clear that he didn't think any past, present or future actions by the oil and gas industry posed any problems for the bears. He called for revisions of the Endangered Species Act, which he called "perhaps the least flexible law" ever passed by Congress. He praised the Bush administration for taking action to respond to the causes of climate change. And he lamented that economics and other factors could not be taken into consideration in his decision, that he was limited to looking only at the science regarding the threats to the bears.
Again, global warming and the loss of sea ice are what's most likely to wipe the bears out, but greenhouse gas emission reductions will not follow from today's designation.
During a press conference with Kempthorne, Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was asked by a reporter what additional protections would be given to the polar bears, to which he replied: "That's a good question."
He also defended the exclusion of greenhouse gas regulations when protecting the bears:
"We have to have the science to connect the dots between and action (greenhouse gas emissions) and an impact to a species resulting in take (or harm to the bears)."
When might that science show a link between a coal plant chugging out CO2 and melting bear habitat? "That's a long time away if ever," Hall said.
UPDATE:
Apparently not all enviros are satisfied with John McCain's acknowledgment that climate change is real. Some are planning to show up for his fundraiser this evening at the Bellevue Hyatt, protesting the senator's connections with the oil industry.
A release from Fuse, a Washington "progressive public policy" group:
In December, McCain was the only Senator to miss a vote on an amendment to eliminate $12.7 million in tax breaks for the oil industry and direct the money towards developing renewable resources. The motion failed by one vote... McCain's economic plan includes another $3.8 billion in tax breaks for the country's five largest oil companies.
ORIGINAL POST
John McCain on climate change
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have offered their ideas for limiting greenhouse gas emissions emitted by U.S. pollutors. Now John McCain is presenting his strategy.
But first, how much wiggle room is he giving himself on the importance of the matter? From a speech given Monday, not much:
We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.
Listening to KUOW's Weekday this morning, we were reminded of words we wrote in 2004:
It's your wedding anniversary, so you go out for seafood. As you and your mate reflect on your years together, you're both salivating in anticipation of a fine meal of ...
Jellyfish?
Look, ma -- dinner!Paul Joseph Brown/P-I
The occasion then was Daniel Pauly's address to the World Fisheries Congress, in which the distinguished University of British Columbia researcher recounted how in Third World countries, consumers of seafood are turning increasingly to the lower trophic levels, meaning the likes of sea cucumbers and sea urchins -- "stuff that eats dirt," as Pauly noted. In the not-too-distant future, we reported in 2004, such delectables could be commonplace, according to Pauly:
When we first presented this, it was a joke -- you're going to have a jellyfish sandwich. The journalists all ate it up -- not the jellyfish, the quote. It was a joke, but now it's real.
Today on KUOW, author Taras Grescoe was flogging his new book, "Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood." And guess what he was recommending? Yep. Jellyfish.
Congressional Quarterly has picked up on the story we covered last month about what critics call a $1 billion "timber slush fund" resulting from the way the Bush administration settled a lumber trade war with Canada.
I can't find a free way to link you to Shawn Zeller's story. Someone showed me a copy, though. He recounts how the half the $1 billion went to the timber industry, $400,000 to timber-related non-profits and $100,000 to Habitat for Humanity.
The story also points out that Potlach Corp. and Sierra Pacific Industries spent some $5.7 million lobbying in D.C. over the last nine years, hiring, among others, former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, who served as President Bush's re-election campaign chairman, and former Republican Rep. Tom Loeffler of Texas.
Meanwhile Seattle laywer Peter Goldman, representing the Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation Northwest, hasn't finished up his Freedom of Information Act request poking into the deal.
Last we heard from Goldman, the government was preparing to tell the conservation groups which documents it was refusing to release, and why. However, we recently heard recently there may be some more interesting documents on the way.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE 4:42 p.m.: Just today Goldman received from the Bush administration lawyers not more documents but rather a list of documents that the government claims it does not have to divulge. The 208 documents on the list, the government contends, are protected from disclosure under two Freedom of Information Act exemptions covering "privileged" information.
