Josh Mogerman's Blog: Saving Wildlife and Wild Placestag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//1212008-11-27T03:24:28ZMovable Type Enterprise 1.52Wildlife Services: Take some of the damage out of wildlife damage managementtag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.21732008-11-25T18:14:13Z2008-11-27T03:24:28ZJosh Mogerman
Did you know that a hefty chunk of your tax dollars go to an efficient squad of killers known to employ an array of heavy armaments and poisons to liquidate millions of targets every year?
No, it’s not the Delta Force or the CIA…
These guys are part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture!
Wildlife Services is part of the Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS). They are brought in to solve problems when human and animal activities come into conflict. But the zeal with which they address those conflicts has left them open to justifiable criticism…
…from folks whose pets have been poisoned, shot, or snared accidentally…
…from folks horrified by the idea of helicopters used as aerial gunning platforms to take out endangered wolves, bears, bobcats and more…
Yeah, those guys. They are pretty busy in Alaska right now.
In 2007, they killed 90,262 coyotes, 338 mountain lions, 511 black bears, 2,090 bobcats, and lots of vultures. Sure, those are not the most cuddly critters and it is important to address chronic predators, but couldn’t Wildlife Service handle their "wildlife damage management" duties with a bit less…damage?
In 2007, the toll came to 2.4 million animals.
NRDC and the Green Group are pushing strongly for this group to re-examine its priorities and tactics. We should not be spending millions of dollars on a carnivore killing spree. There needs to be a better evaluation of nonlethal methods, particularly in the northern Rockies where the focus has been tilted strongly to the desires of ranchers rather than an acceptance of a changing landscape, even as conflicts have not been reduced.
While we need to address chronic livestock conflicts with all the tools available, an itchy trigger finger is not a long-term wildlife management plan. It is time to see if that hundred million tax dollar price tag can be used a bit more thoughtfully.
Otherwise, maybe we could save some cash by just calling in the Orkin man...
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Fish & Wildlife Services: A change in tone could change a ton!tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.21742008-11-25T16:59:08Z2008-11-25T17:03:03ZJosh Mogerman
The Green Group transition document has a number of concrete and thoughtful suggestions for US Fish & Wildlife Services (FWS) in the new administration.
Frankly, I’d be happy with a simple change of tone…
We’ve been focused on the Bush Administration’s absolute tone-deaf response to issues around the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the last eight years. Under current leadership, the FWS has been directed towards an all-out assault on the ESA and its scientific focus.
So let’s just change the tone.Send the simple message, “Wildlife is OK.”
That one little change is a balance tipper. It allows a return to decisions based on science instead of politics. They are biologists. Naturalists. Conservationists. People who care about nature. They want to protect wildlife, not wage war on it.
That change allows FWS to start grappling with the issues that are going to be central to their work: investigate climate change impacts already being felt by our wild life and wild places, undoing some of the crazy rule changes that the administration is foisting on us as they sulk out the back door, drafting the recovery plans that are central to endangered species' population growth, revisit the process for listing endangered species and critical habitat, and increase ESA funding (because goodness knows there will be a lot going on in that arena to get caught up after the last 8 years).
There’s no way that the Service can do a 180 immediately.
And even when they do, I doubt NRDC will be in complete agreement with them on everything.
But if we are both focused on the idea that wildlife is OK---that science and the public interest are valuable in these decisions---it will be a lot easier to get at the important work that desperately needs doin’ to stave off the looming disasters brought on by climate change. We already see species like pikas, various pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, walrus, etc.), and whitebark pine trees struggling to deal with the changes. But if we can get back to the spirit that re-established wolves, California condors, and manatees I think we will be able to get this work done too.
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Dana Perino: Meet that big bird on your boss’s seal…tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.21572008-11-21T18:37:44Z2008-11-21T23:11:25ZJosh Mogerman
We expected the Bush administration's 11th hour Endangered Species Act rule changes to hit the federal register this morning. They did not. But we did get some classic stuff from the White House when Press Secretary Dana Perino had this odd exchange in yesterday's press briefing:
Q The first one is the Endangered Species Act. Could you just clarify what the administration is seeking by way of a rule change? Would it, in fact, eliminate the requirement that agencies consult with independent scientists before moving forward with --
MS. PERINO: I don't have it with me, Elaine. I mean, I know conceptually what we support, and I know that the Endangered Species Act is a tangled web that doesn't actually help support any species, including our own. So I'll refer you to Interior Department for that. (Laughter.)
Q So you're proposing eliminating the agency? (Laughter.)
MS. PERINO: No.
Perhaps the White House staff hasn't noticed that big bird pictured on the Oval Office's floor---it's a bald eagle. Besides being a national symbol and the image on the Presidential Seal (assumedly, Perino sees it all the time); the bald eagle isan Endangered Species Act poster boy.
A quick review...in the 1970's bald eagle populations dropped near extinction in the continental US. Among other things, their habitat was shrinking and the chemical DDT was destroying their population. The pesticide built up in momma eagles' systems making them either sterile or prevented them from producing eggshells strong enough to support an incubating parent in the nest.
Woah, sounds dire. What happened to save them? Rachel Carson and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Thanks to pressure coming from the outcry reaction to Silent Spring and the protections for bald eagle habitat from the new ESA, the birds were saved and regulatory action was taken to ban DDT in the U.S. The pesticide's removal helped other species besides eagles, including our own (DDT isn't too good for humans either, it is a toxic carcinogen)...
The Endangered Species Act also brought gray wolves back to the lower 48 states where they had been previously eradicated. (Check out our fantastic new video on this subject in the viewer window below.)
The American alligator, Whooping crane, Peregrine falcon, Gray whale, Grizzly bear, California condor, California southern sea otter, and an array of Hawaiian birds have all been kept from the brink thanks to the ESA's protections.
I recognize that Ms. Perino has a tough job. I have admittedly gotten carried away talking to reporters and said the wrong thing. It happens... But when your boss is pushing wildly unpopular, last minute rule changes that will expose America's most vulnerable plants and animals to an array of threats, you really should try to have a reasonable grasp of the issues... (or avoid a slippery rhetorical stance that implies you don't have that grasp....)
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Happy Halloween: Except for Bats and Wolvestag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.20562008-10-31T19:42:48Z2008-11-10T15:00:03Z "Creatures of the night... Shut up!" This Halloween, that most memorable comedic Dracula line might just hold true for two of the holiday's most iconic symbols: Bats The LA Times, Boston Globe, Scientific American, and Reuters all covered a...Josh Mogerman
"Creatures of the night... Shut up!"
This Halloween, that most memorable comedic Dracula line might just hold true for two of the holiday's most iconic symbols:
Bats
The LA Times, Boston Globe, Scientific American, and Reuters all covered a new report on white-nosed syndrome today. It's like a mash-up of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Andromeda Strain" for bats...a story about a scientific race against time to find out what is killing bats in caves throughout the eastern United States. And as if a story about a bat plague is not already perfect fodder for this holiday, how about this gag-me-with-a-spoon quote about the tell-tale sign of infection to clinch it?
"It grows slowly just like mold grows on your cottage cheese in the refrigerator," said David Blehert, director of diagnostic microbiology at the US Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin and the lead author of the report.
Paints a picture, eh? Unfortunately, it is a scary one.
Like the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder phenomenon, which we've talked about a lot on Switchboard, there are real, and damaging, impacts to you and me should bat and bee populations drop. There is significant impact to our diet. And, in the case of bats, potential for increased disease and loss of plant diversity.
Wolves
We've talked a lot about the Bush administration's attempted "do-over" on de-listing wolves in the Northern Rockies. The executive summary would be, it's a sham...
But we have not talked about the dire picture of that population that is just now starting to take shape. Wolves are dying in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. And in alarming numbers. According to wildlife officials, a disease, such as distemper, might be responsible. It has killed off most of this year's wolf pups. Adults are dying too---and expressing an unusual amount of aggression against each other. Seems a bad time to remove Endangered Species Act protections, eh?
I am sure that we will be covering this issue very closely on Switchboard in the coming months. But it shows clearly that now is not the time for slipshod, ill-conceived policies that will not help the situation for wolves, ranchers, landowners, or nature lovers any time soon. But, in the 11th hour of the Bush administration, that's what we seem to be getting.
Taken together, things look pretty dark for creatures of the night right now...
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Parting Shots: Bush administration’s 11th hour wildlife assaulttag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.20442008-10-29T21:58:59Z2008-11-21T23:15:08ZWell, you have to give them credit for persistence... The Bush administration has had a string of defeats on wildlife issues lately. But they keep trying. And trying. And trying. They lose on polar bears in Alaska, so they go...Josh Mogerman
Well, you have to give them credit for persistence...
The Bush administration has had a string of defeats on wildlife issues lately. But they keep trying.
The repeated attacks on legal protections for our nation's few remaining wild animals have been noticed by plenty of folks besides NRDC and our cohorts in conservation. I've been doing a lot of press work on these issues lately and I keep getting the same questions:
Sadly, I don't think we've seen anything yet. Last week, the Bush administration was pilloried for the way they dealt with public comments from their dangerous proposed rule changes to the Endangered Species Act. So this week, they announced a much smaller window for the public to make those troublesome comments on the sorta-revamped wolf de-listing effort.
Let's be clear folks. These are YOUR public lands. In many cases, these are YOUR animals---paid for by YOUR tax dollars. Whether or not you agree with NRDC's positions on wolves, buffalo, bears, belugas or any other wildlife issue, you should have a voice in how those resources are managed. In the waning moments of the Bush administration, that voice is being taken away from you.
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Fish Fence Failure: How the Guard, Corps, and EPA are failing to protect the Great Lakestag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.19142008-10-25T17:13:48Z2008-11-04T13:13:57ZJosh Mogerman
As if the threat of bodily damage wasn't enough, there is the threat of annihilating the entire Great Lakes ecosystem should the fish get past a jury-rigged gate from the Sanitary Ship Canal south of Chicago and into Lake Michigan. The carp are voracious predators and quickie reproducers that make short work of the native fish. They are less than 15 miles away from the lake.
Now, you would think that protecting 1/5 of the world's fresh water and billions of dollars worth of industry would spark bold action...
Dan Egan's excellent article in last Sunday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is a galling expose that sounds all-to-familiar of late. The article raises worrisome questions about the work of the Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, and Coast Guard to stave off this threat. He finds significant issues about the transparency of these agencies, bungled siting, dubious engineering, and even more dubious boondoggle spending around the fish fence that, after 2 ½ years and $9 million dollars, is not protecting anything but shipping interests.
I strongly suggest you read the article---good journalism is not dead---but here are some of the lowlights:
The fish are within a two-day swim of Lake Michigan. But federal officials won't permanently activate the barrier until they are convinced the electrified water is safe for the barge operators who make their living pushing things such as coal, sand and gravel along the rail-straight oversized ditch built a century ago to carry away Chicago's toilet water.
They can't say when that will happen.
They can't even say for sure if that will happen.
What they can say is that they need to do more testing, but their work and decisions are being done far from the light of public scrutiny.
...The fish have migrated to within 15 miles of the new barrier. The only defense for the Great Lakes for the past several years has been a smaller, weaker "experimental" barrier that has a history of failing and that biologists believe is not strong enough to repel juvenile carp, which, because of their size, are less affected by electrified water.
One question posed by shippers is whether the electrified water could be fatal to any of their crew members if they fell into the water. Fair question (though it seems odd that the charge is not strong enough to repel fish, but could knock out a sailor) but not much of an answer:
According to documents the Journal Sentinel obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Navy's Experimental Diving Unit was hired to do that job. It took $100,000 and more than a year of computer modeling and analysis, but the Navy has finally reached a conclusion: Similar to falling into icy water, you might be incapacitated and die. Or, you might not.
The Coast Guard is still apparently reviewing the study; it has not been released to the general public.
So, what genius decided to place the fence in such a precarious spot?
...To make matters worse, the barrier was built just upstream from a coal-fired power plant. To keep sparks from flying in the dusty coal loading zone, the Army Corps spent $330,000 two years ago installing a set of energy-sucking metal mats on the canal bottom to keep the electrical current from bleeding into the loading area.
...But there is a big problem with the canal site the Army Corps picked - the Des Plaines River runs parallel to it, only yards away in some places. The Des Plaines flows into the Asian carp-infested Illinois River, and biologists concede that it too will one day fill with the fish. The problem is the canal and the Des Plaines have a history of merging when big floods hit.
And, whose interest is being promoted in this process?
A letter the Journal Sentinel obtained suggests that the Coast Guard has a history of being more interested in maintaining business-as-usual on the canal than protecting the future of a system of lakes that provide drinking water for 40 million people and sustain a commercial and recreational fishery valued at more than $7 billion a year.
After a spark arced from a barge traveling across the experimental barrier, the Coast Guard sent a letter in January 2005 asking the Corps to shut it down - leaving the door wide open to the carp - while safety tests were conducted.
...The Journal Sentinel asked the Coast Guard for a copy of the barge industry's letter that was submitted as part of a public comment process on the proposal to temporarily turn on the new barrier. The Coast Guard declined, saying: "if (the barge operators) would like it released they will provide a copy if requested."
Even members of the panel that helped conceive and design the barrier say they feel left out of some of the safety discussions the Corps and Coast Guard are having with the barge industry as the matter drags out.
"It does seem to me that a lot of discussions have been going on between the Coast Guard, the Corps and the river carriers without the involvement of the rest of the panel," says Moy. "Maybe that's appropriate. Maybe it's not."
The article doesn't pull any punches at the conclusion either:
Now Congress is pumping tens of millions of dollars into the new system. But until it's allowed to operate, it isn't a barrier to anything.
It's just a bunch of spent money, even if the public is being led to believe the problem is solved.
"If there was an investigation by the GAO (Government Accountability Office)," says Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council, "heads would roll."
Yikes.
The article raises some frightening questions about what we can expect from the executive branch of our government these days.
And as the Great Lakes are threatened by invasive species that have completely transformed their ecosystem already, a bill that passed the house looks all the more ominous. The bill would put complete control of the fight against invasive species in the hands of the US Coast Guard. We think that this fight is too big for a single agency. And this article certainly casts further doubt on whether the Guard is up to the task on their own---after all, they can't seem to close a gate...
Mysterious diseases pop up and threaten the world's food supply. Time is running out for our hero to save the day...
But this is real.
Some of the animals most central to food production are disappearing under strange circumstances and at alarming rates recently. NRDC has been focused on the frightening phenomenon of abandoned bee hives that has come to be called colony collapse disorder (CCD). And bats are succumbing to a different mystery illness, descriptively named white-nose syndrome for the tell-tale powder found on the dead.
Sadly, there is no hero in this story. Though lately, there have been some hopeful plot twists lately:
Envirovore reports that the Farm Bill has, for the first time, money devoted to pollinator conservation. While the nearly $13 million in honeybee protections and research are a pittance compared to the $15 billion dollar role that the insects play in our food economy, it is good to see the problem gaining profile in DC.
And the EPA has been responding to our Freedom of Information Act suit to get information on a pesticide that might be contributing to CCD available to the public and researchers. We still have not gotten all the information that we are seeking, but the government has posted about half of the documents we requested on their Web site.
There are more pressing problems out there right now.
But in the long run, not many of them have the same horrific outcomes as the loss of pollinators. After all, honeybees alone are responsible for pollinating the food in one out of every three mouthfuls chomped in America.
There is hope for a heartwarming date movie ending as long as we can keep national funding and attention on these essential critters.
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No Bees. No Jack-o-Lanterns. Scary Holiday.tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.19022008-10-10T06:00:01Z2008-10-20T02:45:02ZJosh Mogerman
Ahh, Halloween. Horror movies. Trick-or-treaters. And the iconic pumpkin.
What would the holiday be without that big orange gourd?
Well, it is time to think seriously about that question. Pumpkins are pollinated by bees. And, as we've covered in Switchboard, bees are not doing too well as mysterious phenomenon of colony collapse disorder (CCD) sweeps across the country.
No bees = no pumpkins.
No pumpkins = no jack-o-lanterns or pumpkin pies = no fun...
Luckily for this year's celebrations, we have not had troubles with CCD here in Illinois, which is the leading pumpkin producing state. But I have talked to a few farmers who have noted an increase in the cost of bringing commercial beehives onto their property. And without commercial honeybee hives, you can forget about the huge pumpkin crops we see these days ($47 million in Illinois alone). Other pollinators, especially other bees, pollinate pumpkins, but not at this scale.
While he hasn't had any trouble with his bees, Lorence is worried about colony collapse disorder (CCD), which is wiping out honey bees in the United States. Scientists have yet to find the cause. CCD's impact has been felt mostly on the East and West coasts, said Steve Chard, supervisor of apiary science for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
Chard explained that in CCD, the adult bees disappear without a trace, leaving honey and immature bees behind. Large keepers who travel with hives from site to site to custom pollinate crops have been hit the hardest.
"There have been no confirmed cases in Illinois," said Chard.
Lorence is concerned because honey bees' work plays a role in at least a third of our food supply, pollinating plants humans and livestock eat.
"Our government can't wait until the 11th hour. We need to find out, or we risk losing crops and driving food prices even higher," said Lorence.
That is an understatement. Bees pollinate literally one out of every three mouthfuls that you stuff in your face.
If we don't get a handle on this, we are going to have much bigger problems than lame Halloweens without jack-o-lanterns...
We are going to have to look at the entire food supply...and that is as scary as it gets on Halloween.
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Beaches in Brazil: Bikinis, Lifeguards, and…Penguins?tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.18822008-10-03T22:47:26Z2008-10-13T18:56:38ZJosh Mogerman
Life guards are unfairly lampooned. Who hasn't seen the image of the know-nothing burly guy imperiously looking down from the guard chair with zinc-oxide slathered on their nose?
But it turns out these are highly trained folks. They know first aid. They use a variety of flotation devices. Here in Chicago they wrangle dogs that are used to scare off gulls and protect water quality. And in Brazil, they are becoming penguin EMTs.
Stories of penguins washing up on warm Brazilian beaches have been coming in for the last few years. But the frequency of Argentina's Magellanic penguins waddling onto the beaches 2,000 miles away from their homes has increased to a level of significant concern. Over 1,000 of the tuxedoed birds have swum north towards the equator. When they show up on Copacabana, they are exhausted and emaciated.
What's the problem? We don't know.
South America's chilly western currents are finicky, with regular disturbances that have far reaching impacts on the continent. But climatologists are noticing increasing rates of warm El Niño and colder La Niña currents. And this year, the penguins are encountering unusually cold Benguela waters that would normally form a warm barrier to the birds' movement. Climate change is likely a factor, but this has not yet been proven.
The only thing for sure is that penguins are in peril.
Populations all over the world are shrinking. Some due to a loss of food resources due to overfishing. Some due to a loss of habitat and the ice they rely on to live and breed. Adelie and Emperor penguins, for example, rely on very small sliver of Antarctica where they can breed and brood chicks---frozen sea ice in an area smaller than L.A. As climate change advances, that ice is going to shrink and disappear leading to more tourist penguins visiting the beaches all over the world for a while...and then none.
In the meantime, United States is considering adding numerous penguin species to the Endangered Species Act's list of threatened and endangered species.
And maybe our lifeguards should start boning up on penguin anatomy...
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Zombie Trees and Bear Attackstag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.18432008-09-27T22:45:15Z2008-10-22T17:58:55Z From the landing approach to the airport in Jackson Hole, WY with the dramatic Tetons exploding from the flat plains below, my first visit to the northern Rockies was both exhilarating and depressing. I was in Wyoming to join...Josh Mogerman
From the landing approach to the airport in Jackson Hole, WY with the dramatic Tetons exploding from the flat plains below, my first visit to the northern Rockies was both exhilarating and depressing.
I was in Wyoming to join journalists, academics, a Nobel Prize winner, and NRDC experts on a trip to explore the impacts climate change is already having on the wilderness around Yellowstone National Park. Coming from the flat urban canyons of Chicago, the towering rugged beauty of real mountains is always a rush but it was quickly tempered by the sobering view of vast red forests blanketing the panorama during most of the drive to Dubois 75 miles away.
We had come to see those red forests.
This is not the picturesque beauty of the northeast's fall foliage. In Wyoming and the rest of the Greater Yellowstone wilderness red trees are dead trees. One species in particular, the white bark pine, is dying at alarming rates and putting the entire ecosystem at risk---but especially the resident grizzly bears and neighboring human communities.
What is killing the trees?
Many scientists believe that drought and warmer temperatures caused by global warming are major contributors to the escalation of the die-off by opening the door to an array of new threats.
As the west heats up a fragile balance that has existed for millennia is quickly falling apart. Those changes are noticeable at higher elevations where small changes have huge impacts. And as a foundational species, Whitebark pine are likely heralds of problems we will see throughout the U.S. The trees are being assaulted by mountain pine beetles which are able to move into higher elevations and attack in greater numbers due to milder winters that no longer kill off their larvae. This threat is exacerbated by the increasing rate of infection by a non-native pathogen, white pine blister rust. Over 50% of the whitebark pine forests in the Northern Rockies have been lost in the last 40 years as a result of the new infection. The trees have no defense for the invaders and are now in danger of being functionally eliminated in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in the next 10 years.
"So what," you might say. "There are plenty of other trees to take their place."
Actually, no. These are trees with a special knack for colonizing new spaces and making them available to other species. Without whitebarks, you won't see new trees in this ecosystem.
Besides, whitebark pines have a special relationship with one of the region's most iconic species. Yellowstone grizzly bears face an uncertain future without these trees. Females rely on caches of white bark pine cones and their high fat content when preparing to hibernate. And since the pines are an important food source; fewer whitebark pines probably translates into fewer grizzly bears.
For folks living in the region, there is a far-more compelling concern---the clear correlation between whitebark pine cone production with human-bear interactions. When there are a lot of cones, bears do not venture as far for food. Fewer cones means more bears out foraging and coming into contact with people. Those contacts are bad for both parties. Bear/human conflicts rarely end pretty...
And so, with that in mind, the words of Dr. Jesse Logan hung in the air very eerily for me and the rest of the folks on the tour. We were hiking high in the Wind River Mountains when we heard him state, "These trees are dead. They don't know it yet, though. I guess they are zombie trees..."
The image was apt.
Tree after tree we saw were pocked with hundreds or thousands of tiny holes bored by the mountain pine beetles. The trees looked healthy aside from the small mounds of red saw dust, or "frass," which you cannot spot until you are right up on the tree. Underneath, the beetles had carved galleries---little bark hallways where larvae had already hatched and would eventually emerge as adults ready to colonize another tree. The trees without red leaves would have them soon.
Red is dead.
But all is not lost. Dr. Logan and NRDC's own Louisa Willcox have put together a team that is monitoring the Yellowstone ecosystem, all 20 million acres of it eventually, to establish a data set of infection via bush plane over flights. The flyover data is augmented by a growing community of interested hikers, naturalists, and outdoorspeople who are also capturing information on the spread of the beetles and pine rust in the tree species. Hopefully, that information will help to get some stronger protections for the species in the future---and save the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
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EPA Buzz Kill?tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.16542008-08-28T22:31:16Z2008-09-07T19:30:03ZJosh Mogerman
I’ve always found bees to be fascinating. Their dancing. Their behavior. Their amazing chemical communication.
And, that element of danger. I am allergic to bee stings---so despite my fascination, they kinda scare me too.
And, hey, I am not alone. There are plenty of folks at NRDC who care about bees. That is part of the reason for the suit announced last week to help get to the bottom of one aspect of a vexing and scary issue facing scientists today. Bees are disappearing, literally. Nobody knows for sure why. But there are lots of theories on what is behind the phenomenon that has come to be known as colony collapse disorder (CCD).
We are far from alone in our concern. The bee and science communities have been ringing alarm bells over abandoned hives and die-offs for years. But the central problem is that NOBODY knows the cause of CCD for sure. Not the researchers working feverishly. Not the media. Not the beekeepers. And not NRDC.
Now is the time for more information, not less, about the potential causes of CCD.
According to the USDA, one out of every mouthfuls of food that you stuff into your face likely has a connection to bees and their industrious pollinating efforts. Despite their impact on the American diet, food supply, and economy (bees pollinate $15 billion in American crops); the federal government has been slow to move on this issue.
That’s why NRDC is suing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to get a look at some documents that might shed light on one of the factors that many believe are part of the scary CCD equation. In 2003, EPA granted a conditional registration to a new pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience, with the condition that Bayer submit studies about their product’s impact on bees. These studies should be public records, but EPA refused to disclose the results of these studies. In fact, they wouldn’t even say whether the studies had even been submitted at all.
The pesticide in question, clothianidin, was temporarily taken off the shelves in Germany due to concerns about its impact on bees. A similar insecticide was banned in France years ago. In the US these chemicals are still in use despite lingering fears among bee specialists that pesticides, including clothianidin and its chemical cousins, are a possible factor in CCD. And just this week, a group in Germany filed suit to permanently ban the chemical from their shores. I’ve heard that a British group is looking to do the same in the UK.
Since we announced the suit, it has gotten a lot of coverage. The EPA sent a letter expressing frustration over the suit, but at the same time they have quietly posted a lot of previously unavailable information online. Since last week, a good chunk of the documents we requested have been posted on EPA.gov. It is not all of the information that NRDC is asking for, but it does represent a nice start. It’s unfortunate that we had to sue for EPA to start making this information available. We would have preferred keeping this out of the courts.
Are pesticides really connected to CCD?
In discussions of colony collapse disorder, there are some things that seem to pop up on everyone’s radar and these pesticides are among them. We want to see that all the info is out there so it can contribute to the ongoing research into the causes of CCD. And, we want to see whether the science being used to evaluate these critical regulatory decisions is being scrutinized appropriately once it is received. Because if we don’t work together to get this thing figured out quick…
No tomatoes.
No almonds.
No cucumbers.
No apples.
No cheese.
No onions.
No broccoli.
No squash.
No carrots.
No cashews.
No cherries.
No avocadoes...
...No bees. And that might be the scariest thing of all...
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Creatures from the Deep Are Invading!tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.16012008-08-14T14:41:11Z2008-08-24T10:45:04ZJosh Mogerman
We are slowly being infiltrated. Creepy, crawly, slimy little creatures are invading. Aliens are taking over.
This isn’t a sci-fi movie. It’s the Great Lakes and it is happening now. But just like in all the scary flicks, bringing the army, navy, coast guard or marines into the fray is not going to solve the problem…
The Great Lakes ecosystem, which holds one-fifth of the world’s fresh water supply, is continually threatened by invasive species---a new organism finds its way into the lakes every six months. Sea lampreys decimated fish stocks. And now the giant Asian carp, threatens to devour all remaining fish species if it can find a way out of the Sanitary Ship Canal. The zebra mussel played havoc with our water intake systems in the 80’s. The quagga mussel is now one of the most plentiful animal species in the lakes and is fundamentally changing the ecosystem.
Lake Michigan’s formerly dark and rocky floor is rapidly transforming. In less than five years, the murky waters have been cleared of the plankton and microscopic critters that are central to the food chain by the ceaseless and voracious filtering by some of the new lake residents.
The quagga mussels have become so prevalent, and are such efficient filterers, that the lake water is crystal clear. Admittedly, that sounds good---the crystal clear waters and sandy beaches of Lake Michigan. But this is no tourism pitch; and while our beaches on the third coast have always been great this is not an improvement.
For the first time, sunlight can now make it all the way to the lake bottom. As a result, algae has exploded covering everything at on the floor. Now, gobies, another invasive species, that feed on the algae are the most plentiful fish species in the lake; beaches are fouled by stinking layers of muck (dead algae); and there is some indication that this contributes to the high levels of E. coli noted in our recent Testing the Waters report.
The Mother Ship
Ballast water dumped from ocean-going vessels is the number one source of new species entering the Great Lakes. The big ships expel the water they use to stabilize their loads, often dumping foreign plants, animals, and viruses with it. The problem is not new. In fact, Michigan, has aggressive laws in place to address the problem already and other states are considering legislation.
But a new federal bill is attempting to streamline the legal landscape around this issue by putting enforcement into the hands of the Department of Homeland Security via the U.S. Coast Guard.
Despite the good intentions, this bill will make it harder to tame the rogue’s gallery of foreign species that have taken up homes in our inland waters. By shifting responsibility away from the EPA and states, the bill puts enforcement in the wrong hands, eliminates states' abilities to ratchet up protections, takes the Clean Water Act out of the picture, and creates a three-to-nine year delay in ending the procedures that are largely responsible for opening the lakes up to invasive species in the first place. That’s too little, and too long to wait.
With multimillion dollar industries, not to mention the quality of life and drinking water of 60 million at stake, this is not the time to toss the baby out with the ballast water and start with a new oversight regime. Let’s let the Coast Guard protect our shores. But leave the mussels with the folks who know them best at the EPA.
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Chuck D Would Probably Hate Oil Shaletag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.15212008-07-23T20:43:23Z2008-08-02T17:03:32ZJosh Mogerman
I hit the Pitchfork Music festival this weekend in Chicago. A blissful weekend of indie rock that included a stellar live performance from Public Enemy.
Chuck D, Flava Flav, Terminator X, and the S1Ws ripped through their classic album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” which includes a song that would be the perfect sound track for the Department of the Interior this week…
"Night of the Living Baseheads,” was PE’s angry reaction to the impacts crack cocaine had on their community in the early 90’s. Nothing good comes from burning rocks.
The connection? Tuesday the Department of the Interior announces their intention to draft regulations for a commercial oil shale industry on 2 million acres of public lands out west.
Not familiar with the weird, hair-brained scheme that is oil shale? Let’s review.
Apparently, there are chunks of the countryside where the rocks have some petroleum in them. The idea is that if you heat these rocks, literally, for years at a time…eventually they will ooze a low-grade oil that might be refined into gasoline.
I am not kidding. That’s the new Bush administration energy policy: slow-cook rocks. We will literally melt some of our most picturesque landscapes for gasoline. It sounds more sci-fi than Soylent Green, but that is the state of our oil addiction.
We don’t even know if this is even a viable option---but we do know it is very bad one for the environment.
How bad? Four times the climate changing emissions of standard petroleum products. And it really sucks up water…which is problematic considering the rocks in question sit in the thirsty states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Water is actually more valuable than oil in that region. State leaders in Colorado and Wyoming have their reservations about moving forward with this until the environmental impacts are assessed and mitigated. Hopefully, they will recognize that there has to be a better way to deal with the energy crunch than swapping the water for oil (incidentally, it is estimated that a commercial oil shale industry would use well over twice the amount of water as the population of Denver every year---yikes!).
There is a better way. We can use the resources we already have more efficiently, such as doubling the fuel economy performance of our vehicles which would be the same as cutting gas prices in half. And let’s get away from this false choice of dirty oil or dirtier oil. As we say again and again, it is time to invest in clean, renewable energy.
Because nothing good comes from cooking rocks. Chuck D’s words hold true whether you are talking about crack or oil shale:
“How low can you go?”
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Can you scapegoat a bison?tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.14692008-07-10T19:35:03Z2008-07-20T16:03:46ZSadly, outbreaks of the cattle disease brucellosis have popped up in Montana and Wyoming recently. Though there has never been a documented case of the disease being transmitted from buffalo to cattle in the wild---and the geography of the outbreak...Josh Mogerman
Sadly, outbreaks of the cattle disease brucellosis have popped up in Montana and Wyoming recently. Though there has never been a documented case of the disease being transmitted from buffalo to cattle in the wild---and the geography of the outbreak meant that the buffalo could not have been involved in these outbreaks either---some saw an opening to advance their anti-wildlife agendas.
In response to the disease outbreaks, the California-based Cattlemen's Association said that the federal government should reduce elk and bison populations in Yellowstone National Park to keep the animals separated from domestic livestock. This is after Montana and federal wildlife officials have already reduced the numbers of America’s last wild buffalo by more than half through a winter campaign of senseless slaughter.
The herds were needlessly reduced by over 1,600 animals in the name of protecting cattle…even in places, like the Horse Butte peninsula, where no conflict or disease transmission was even possible.
How many buffalo would the cattlemen like to see in the park? I shudder to think of what their answer would be…
As we have stated in this blog repeatedly, and petitioned the federal officials on multiple occasions, it is time to revisit the rules used to manage the America’s last free-ranging buffalo herds in and around Yellowstone. It is time to address the cattle and wildlife conflict---to find a way to bring together all the concerned parties to address their issues in a reasonable and democratic fashion. It is time for the adults to sit down to the table…
…my guess is that the Cattlemen’s Association won’t choose to attend…
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Flood 2008: The Sponge That Saved Gurneetag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/jmogerman//121.14412008-07-03T16:16:39Z2008-07-13T12:38:40ZJosh Mogerman
While reading coverage of the current Midwestern flood disaster, I was floored by this headline: 'Giant sponge' saved Gurnee from flooding.
Had the wise residents of this northern Illinois town erected a loofah levee?
Or rigged a mound of porous kitchen cleaners to fight off the rising Des Plaines River?
What was this amazingly absorbent technology that saved the town from the watery fate that has doomed so many other towns in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri of late?
The answer, it turned out, was much simpler.
While severe flooding plagued communities on nearby waterways, the Lake County News-Sun reported that Gurnee’s Mayor Kristina Kovarik credited her town’s dry streets to the natural protections afforded by nearby wetlands:
She attributed this to preventive flood mitigation measures that were initiated by county officials and municipalities more than a decade ago. She particularly praised the effectiveness of the Des Plaines Wetlands Demonstration Project upriver in the Wadsworth area.
"These wetlands serve as a giant sponge for us in controlling the flow of the Des Plaines River. They are an excellent shock absorber," Kovarik said.
The wetlands project dates back to the 1970s when the state commissioned a feasibility study to determine how wetland and river restoration can increase flood control, improve water quality, expand wildlife habitat and encourage recreational use, instead of just building more concrete dams. The 550-acre site along the Des Plaines River is owned by the Lake County Forest Preserve District and managed by Wetland Research Inc. The project has achieved many of its objectives and has saved millions of dollars by preventing flood damage.
As the mayor noted, streams and wetlands are natural flood protections. They act as a sponge to clean and hold water in heavy rain events. Unfortunately, we have ripped out roughly half of our wetlands in the lower 48 states.
Yesterday, I took part in a news conference to make the public aware of the fight over legislation that could make a difference in this area. The Clean Water Restoration act is an effort to clarify and reaffirm the original intentions of the Clean Water Act. In the light of Midwestern floods, the legislation is necessary to reinforce protections for our natural flood buffers---particularly since so few remain.
The federal government has recently released studies that show a likely increase in violent weather patterns, such as flooding. Instead of developing in oft-drenched flood plains, perhaps it is time to heed the lessons learned in Gurnee. A return of some land to the original flood-absorbing wetlands might make sense in many places. But let’s make sure that the few that remain are afforded the maximum legal protections.
After all, Gurnee is not the only sponge-worthy town around!
