Ted Williams Blog, 2008

2008-05-14

Polar Bear Listed

Good! About time!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/05/14/polar.bears.listing/index.html

Posted at 03:45 PM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

Vandals Destroy Shorebird Fencing

A comment from the “Red Drum Forum,” home of the ugliest, me-first, access-at-any-cost redneck ORV riders. “Anytime that a violation occurs it is automatically us ‘dumb, redneck, beer swilling, ORV riding beach ruiners?’” Well, not “automatically,” just almost always.

Park Service release:
Contact: National Park Service, (252) 473-2111
Vandalism of symbolic fencing marking a shorebird closure in the SouthBeach area of Cape Hatteras National Seashore was discovered early Saturday morning. Approximately 1.7 miles east of Ramp 49, a park ranger patrolling the area discovered and documented twelve posts with “Area Closed” signs broken off at the sand line and several carsonite closure markers pulled out at the shoreline. During the investigation,...

Posted at 09:27 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

CAP & TRADE EMISSIONS CONTROL PLANS HAVE POOR TRACK RECORDS

Three Market-Based Air Pollution Programs This Decade Deemed Failures

Washington, DC — Experience with harnessing market forces to control air pollution has not been promising, according to analyses of three recent programs. These programs are analogous to the cap-and-trade plans now being considered by Congress as the principal mechanism for reducing greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The most studied program was the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market (RECLAIM) program by the South Coast Air Quality Management District to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx) emissions through a cap and declining balance set for more than 350 of the largest polluting...

Posted at 09:26 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

OFF-ROADERS BOOTED FROM ARIZONA MONUMENT DUE TO ABUSES

— Section of Sonoran Desert National Monument Off-Limits to ORVs for Two-Years

Tucson — A large portion of the Sonoran Desert National Monument will be closed to off-road vehicle traffic for two years to help it recover from the environmental toll of growing motorized abuse, according to agency e-mails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This would be the first long-term ORV ban on BLM public lands in Arizona due to natural resource damage.

Under orders to be published this week in the Federal Register, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages the monument, will declare nearly 55,000 acres (approximately four times the land area of Manhattan) off-limits to all ORV traffic for “up to two years or...

Posted at 09:25 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

U.S. TRUSTING OIL COMPANIES TO SAFEGUARD ARCTIC WILDLIFE

Washington, DC — Federal agencies issued permits for oil exploration in vast areas of the Arctic Ocean without verifying industry claims or imposing required safeguards against damage to wildlife, according to agency e-mails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Intense political pressure to speed Arctic leasing coupled with tardy industry submission of any data resulted in official rubber-stamping of permit applications without review or plans for follow-up.

The permits relate to how much adverse effect from exploration activities may occur on marine mammals, particularly whales. The principal concern is noise from industry use of powerful seismic air-guns, high intensity sonar and explosives detonations in its search for...

Posted at 09:22 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

FWS Announces Revised Critical Habitat Proposal for Wintering Piping Plover

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a revised proposal to
add 216 acres of critical habitat to two of the four units previously
proposed in a rule to designate critical habitat for the wintering
population of the piping plover published on June 12, 2006.

With this inclusion, the Service proposes four revised critical habitat
units for the species, encompassing a total of approximately 2,043 acres in
coastal areas of Dare and Hyde counties in North Carolina.

The proposed critical habitat areas include intertidal beaches and flats
and associated dune systems and flats above annual high tide. Intertidal
areas offer foraging and roosting sites, while the areas above high tide
offer protection from high...

Posted at 09:20 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

Legendary 25-Pound Bass Goes Belly Up

http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/newshound/2008/05/legendary-25-po.html

Posted at 09:16 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

PROTECT DAMS FROM SALMON - BUY OFF THE TRIBES

The tribes have turned their back on stewardship of wild salmon recovery by agreeing to not legally enforce environmental laws associated with dam operations such as water temperature and gas bubble disease or dam removal as a necessary salmon recovery action. By joining the Bush administration salmon team, the tribes are getting $94 million for hatcheries that have already been scientifically discredited as a recovery tool, and $32 million for habitat that will not compensate for the salmon kill at the dams. This rate payer gift to the tribes can be added to the $9 billion already spent on salmon recovery with no measurable benefit. Thankfully, the Nez Perce Tribe has forbearance and not signed on to the salmon buy-out. At least not yet.

--Bill Bakke, Native Fish Society

Posted at 09:15 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments

2008-05-17

STEELHEAD GHOSTS OF THE SNAKE.

Bill McMillan is doing some deep dig research on the history of Columbia River salmon and steelhead runs and the places where they use to be. This is article is not recommended for those that are not resistant to flashes of anger and malice.

I came on an interesting historic reference from Evermann (1896) from discussions he had with commercial fishermen on the Snake River system and tributaries in 1894. The report is in a U.S. Fish Commission Bulletin, Vol. XV, for 1895, by Marshall McDonald, Commissioner, from the Government Printing Office in 1896. 2.--A Preliminary Report Upon Salmon Investigations in Idaho in 1894.

From the information provided, it appears that Snake bound sockeye, spring chinook, and steelhead all began to collapse from 1878 onward....

Posted at 09:14 AM in Ted Williams Blog | Permalink | Comments