New bird-friendly windmill technology gets a spin
When one thinks of bird killers, predators like cats probably come to mind. But it appears there’s another scourge to our feathery friends and it comes in the form of wind turbines.
Strengthening property rights protects endangered fish
Can strengthening private property rights help protect our streams, rivers and endangered species? Well if the Upper Colorado River Basin is any example, the answer is “yes.”
Zombies and bone flies
When you think of a mythological creature coming back from the dead, probably a zombie or mummy come to mind. But believe it or not, scientists have recently discovered a real life creature that has done a similar thing, and it comes in the form of a fly.
Wind energy’s bird and bat butchery
By Craig Rucker and Paul Driessen This article originally appeared in the National Journal. In 2009, the federal government fined ExxonMobil $600,000 for the unintentional deaths of 85 birds in five states during a five-year period. Meanwhile, well over 500,000 birds and countless bats are killed annually by wind turbines, according to the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and other experts. The slaughter “could easily be over 500” golden eagles a year in our western states, says Save the Eagles International biologist Jim Wiegand. Bald eagles are also being butchered. The two species body count could soon reach 1,000-per-year. Supposedly [...]
Time to terminate Big Wind subsidies
Unprecedented! As bills to extend seemingly perpetual wind energy subsidies were again introduced by industry lobbyists late last year, taxpayers finally decided they’d had enough.
Charles Manson energy
Wind turbine companies, officers and employees, however, are immune from prosecution, fines or imprisonment, regardless of how many rare, threatened, endangered or migratory birds and bats they kill. In fact, FWS data show that wind turbines slaughter some 400,000 birds every year. If “helter-skelter” applies to any energy source, it is wind turbines, reflecting their Charles Manson effect on birds.
Wind power’s feathery problem
What is a federal government to do? On one hand the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking to declare the sage grouse an endangered bird. Yet on the other hand, the Obama administration would like to expand the use of wind power to generate electricity – on sage grouse habitat. The dilemma, as you might expect, is that the two priorities simply don't match. The wind turbines remind sage grouse of predators ready to swoop down on them. But the grouse habitat, according to wind energy advocates, also happens to be near an opening in the Rocky Mountains [...]
Hunting animals to save them?
How can we save endangered species like tigers and black rhinos? Terry Anderson, executive director of the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, believes in an innovative solution, and here explains how it can work: “The free market can be endangered species’ best friend. Unfortunately, landowners in most countries have no right to wildlife, but do have their land use regulated to provide habitat. Such regulations make endangered species a liability. Some southern African countries, however, allow landowners to profit from wildlife, even through hunting endangered species such as rhinos. This makes animals an asset and gives [...]
Did the government save the Maguire daisy?
A perennial herb with dime-sized white or pink flowers, the Maguire daisy, was added to the endangered species list in 1985 when it was believed there were only 7 of them remaining in Utah. Since that time, government efforts to reestablish them were said to have been so successful that they were able to be delisted in January. But did the Endangered Species Act actually save the Maguire daisy? Perhaps not, at least according to a Fish and Wildlife official interviewed by the Salt Lake Tribune, who recently said that shortly after the daisy was listed, botanists examined the [...]
Wolves’ comeback in western Great Lakes poses challenges
Once hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 by the middle of the 20th century, the majestic grey wolf is now on a roll in the Upper Midwest. And the growing number of wolf packs roaming the forests near the western Great Lakes is having an impact on local communities.
New Congressional initiative to create ‘wildlife corridors’
Two Democratic lawmakers – one from the East, the other from the West – have introduced a bill to create a vast network of wildlife corridors crisscrossing the entire country. Introduced by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) to commemorate Earth Day 2010, the legislation would “protect” wildlife corridors through grants, management plans, and a new federal information program within the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The bill’s sponsors say their legislation will give wildlife the necessary freedom to roam, contribute to the hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation economy, and combat “threats” from urban sprawl and climate change. [...]
Tiny fish threatens to turn California’s Central Valley into Dust Bowl
Consumers around the country may soon be facing steeper prices for fruits, vegetables and nuts thanks to an obscure three-inch-long fish, called the Delta smelt, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In California’s storied Central Valley, for decades one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, an estimated 250,000 acres of prime farm land are lying fallow or dying. The parched area bears all the signs of a prolonged drought, but the acute water shortage confronting farmers and growers is largely manmade, the result of the Interior Department’s rigorous enforcement of the ESA. Responding to a lawsuit brought by the [...]
The po’ouli: Saying ‘aloha’ to this rare Hawaiian bird
Small and stocky with a partial black face described as a bandit’s mask, the Hawaiian bird known as the po’ouli has peaked scientists interest since it was first discovered in 1973. Known only to exist near the slopes of the Haleakala volcano in Maui, the bird’s numbers have always alarmed conservationists, and now, tragically, the species seems destined for extinction. The demise of the po’ouli can be attributed to predators like rats and mongoose, as well as diseases being spread by mosquitos. Efforts to save the last three po’ouli were dashed when one died in captivity and the other [...]
Dismal failure of Mexican Gray Wolf recovery program
Eleven years after the Clinton administration launched an ambitious plan to reintroduce the Mexican gray wolf in the desert Southwest, the plan is in shambles -- with dead wolves and cattle attesting to the failure of government biologists and bureaucrats to save the “lobo.” Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which administers the Endangered Species Act (ESA), originally projected that, as a result of their recovery efforts, some 100 wolves would be thriving in the area by 2006. But, today, the number of wolves in the designated recovery area in the Gila National Forest along the Arizona-New Mexico [...]
Red Rock Wilderness Bill
Environmentalists and their congressional allies are renewing legislative efforts to have over 9 million acres in Utah designated as wilderness.