No. 371, October 4, 2006

COMEBACK KID #3: LEAST BELL'S VIREO
   
WILDWEB: WEBSITE DOCUMENTS ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT SUCCESSES
   
NASA DIRECTOR: "ONE DEGREE AND WE'RE DONE FOR"
   
ROYAL SOCIETY TO EXXON: STOP FUNDING GLOBAL WARMING DENIAL
   
REACTION MIXED TO USFWS DELISTING RECOMMENDATIONS
   
ORVS BANNED ON 50,000 ACRES OF CRITICAL HABITAT
   
400,000 ACRES IN ALASKA SAVED ... FOR NOW
   
SNOWMOBILES BANNED ON 470 SQUARE MILES OF CARIBOU HABITAT

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Comeback Kid #3: Least Bell's Vireo

The Least Bell's vireo was once one of California's most abundant birds. Habitat loss and brown-headed cowbirds reduced it to just 300 pairs by the time it was placed on the endangered list in 1986. Intensive habitat restoration and cowbird control increased the population to about 3,000 pairs by 2006.


WildWeb: Website documents Endangered Species Act Successes

Though few species have been removed from the endangered list, most have seen their populations grow since being protected, and many have met their recovery goal. www.esasuccess.org documents the history and population trends of hundreds of endangered species.


NASA Director: "One degree and we're done for"

The New Scientist reports that Jim Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, says, "Further global warming of 1° C defines a critical threshold. Beyond that we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know."


Royal Society to Exxon: Stop Funding Global Warming Denial

In an unprecedented move, the Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific academy, called on Exxon to stop funding lobby groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence.”


Reaction Mixed to USFWS Delisting Recommendations

The Center for Biological Diversity supports an October 2, 2006 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommendation to remove the island night lizard from the endangered species list and downgrade the Least Bell's vireo and California least tern to "threatened" status. All three species have improved dramatically due to decades of Endangered Species Act protection. However, the Center opposes the recommendation to delist the elderberry longhorn beetle and the Chorro shoulderband snail, and downlist the Morro shoulderband snail and Smith's blue butterfly. The agency does not know how many populations or individuals of these species exist. Nor does it know whether they are improving or declining. It hasn't even established recovery criteria for them.


ORVs Banned on 50,000 Acres of Critical Habitat

On September 26, 2006, a federal judge banned the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from overturning a prior decision prohibiting off-road vehicles on 50,000 acres of the Algodones Dunes in southeast California. The judge found that the BLM management plan and the USFWS approval process were biologically flawed. She reinstituted an ORV ban until a new management plan, new critical habitat designation and new endangered species approval process are issued.


400,000 Acres in Alaska Saved ... For Now

On September 25, 2006 – two days before a planned sale – a federal judge banned the Bureau of Land Management and Department of Interior from selling oil and gas leases on more than 400,000 acres around Teshekpuk Lake in Alaska's National Petroleum Preserve. The sale was opposed by nearby Alaska Native communities and environmentalists. Earthjustice brought the suit on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups. The ban will remain in place until the Bush administration conducts new environmental studies.


Snowmobiles Banned on 470 Square Miles of Caribou Habitat

Warning that the endangered woodland caribou has only "a precarious finger-hold" on survival, a federal judge banned snowmobiles in a 470 square-mile recovery zone in the Idaho until the U.S. Forest Service develops a plan to ensure the don't endanger the nearly extinct animal. The woodland caribou is one of the few endangered species that has declined while protected by the Endangered Species Act; its population has dwindled to just 36 animals in the mountains of Washington, Idaho, Montana and southern British Columbia. The suit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Conservation Northwest and other groups.


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