And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
CANADIAN TRIBES, UNION ANGRY OVER SALMON TREATY
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada June 7, 1999 (ENS) - The Canadian
backlash against the newly renegotiated Pacific Salmon Treaty is coming in,
and it is harsh. Canadian First Nations tribal leaders are angry that they
were left out of the negotiations while 24 United States tribes were at the
table.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun99/1999L-06-07-03.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 7, 1999
California Lawmakers Prepare to Battle Off-Shore Drilling
Forest Service Ordered to Stop Poisoning Prairie Dogs
Pesticide Use in California Killing Birds & Fish
Symposium Looks at Satellites for Coral Reef Study
Nuclear Agency Unveils Updated Inspection Program
Health Research on Farm Animals, Fish, Wildlife Online
Fair Promotes Public-Private Protective Alliances
Ted Turner Seeks Water Rights for Lake Trout
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun99/1999L-06-07-09.html
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS SET TO BATTLE OFF-SHORE DRILLING
Forty oil exploration and drilling leases off the California
coast that were put on
hold in 1993 are expected to be given the go-ahead by
federal officials this month,
but California Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, has joined
environmental
groups in opposing renewed off-shore drilling. The 40 leases
were drawn up as
long as thirty years ago, and were excluded from a federal
moratorium against
new oil leases extended a year ago by President Bill
Clinton, making them the
only sites along the California coast where drilling may be
allowed within the next
12 years. Governor Davis and other state lawmakers are
looking at ways to block
any attempt to resume drilling. The California Coastal
Commission, which has the
legal power to challenge drilling off the California coast,
meets Tuesday to review
the issue, and present a study of regional oil development
to state resource
secretary Mary Nichols. More than 30 large oil spills have
polluted coastal waters
and beaches along the state’s coast in the past 30 years,
according to the Santa
Barbara, California based Environmental Defense Center. The
forty leases could
potentially produce about one billion barrels of crude oil,
more than has been
produced from all federal waters combined in this century.
If opponents do not
succeed in blocking the leases, exploration could resume by
the end of the year,
and drilling could start by 2002. Four new oil drilling
platforms are planned by the
lease-holders, including Aera Energy, Conoco, Inc., Nuevo
Energy Co. and
Samedan Oil Corp., with construction slated to begin in 2005.
* * *
FOREST SERVICE ORDERED TO STOP POISONING PRAIRIE DOGS
Black-tailed prairie dogs can breathe a little more easily.
Gloria Manning, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) National Forest System
acting deputy chief, has
ordered her staff to immediately stop poisoning the
burrowing prairie dogs on all
lands administered by the Service. Manning was responding to
a request by the
National Wildlife Federation (NWF), which filed a petition
last July to list the
black-tailed prairie dog as a threatened species under the
federal Endangered
Species Act. NWF grasslands project director Cathy Carlson
called the decision
momentous. "It means that the Forest Service is getting out
of the extermination
business and into the business of protecting natural
resources, where it belongs."
Manning's order impacts 42,460 acres of Forest Service land
where black-tailed
prairie dog colonies are now found, but provides limited
exceptions in what the
agency calls "extremely rare situations." The prairie dogs,
also called burrowing
ground squirrels, can carry sylvatic plague. Manning's order
allows wildlife
managers to poison them if they fear the disease could enter
recovery areas for
the black-footed ferret, North America's most endangered
mammal. A second
exception would allow for poisoning if it is, "the only
reasonable alternative to
ameliorate human health or safety concerns." Black-tailed
prairie dogs have been
eliminated from 99 percent of their former land habitat due
to development,
unregulated hunting, poisoning and the plague. Other rare
species, including the
mountain plover, burrowing owl, bobcat, badger, swift fox,
and black-footed
ferret, depend on these squirrels or their burrows for
survival.
* * *
PESTICIDE USE IN CALIFORNIA KILLING BIRDS & FISH
Pesticide use on California crops and in urban settings
threatens birds and fish
throughout the state, says a new report by the Pesticide
Action Network North
America and Californians for Pesticide Reform. The groups
report that pesticides
can be found in California waters and soil at levels lethal
to zooplankton, the
primary food source for some fish. Most species of fish and
zooplankton in the
San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary have experienced dramatic
population declines in
the last 25 years, while use of organochlorine pesticides
increased by 18 percent
from 1991 to 1995. Studies indicate that the frequency and
number of bird kills in
California closely parallel agricultural activities that use
the pesticides most toxic
to birds. These toxics include carbofuran and diazinon,
which are responsible for
the majority of bird kills in California. The report reveals
that pesticides are used
routinely in national wildlife refuges, despite laws
mandating that wildlife and
environmental protection receive higher priority than
agricultural uses. The report
is available online at: http://www.panna.org
* * *
SYMPOSIUM LOOKS AT SATELLITES FOR CORAL REEF STUDY
Coral reef research using satellites is the focus of a
four-day international
workshop that opened today at the East-West Center in
Honolulu, Hawaii.
Workshop participants are assessing current remote sensing
and considering
presentations on remote sensing of ocean surface
temperatures and winds, coral
bleaching, ocean color and the use of data from Landsat and
SPOT satellites.
Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of Hawaii’s
coral reef
ecosystems is on the agenda. Workshop groups will draft
recommendations on
international reef-monitoring programs using satellite data,
making data available
for reef management, and proposing new research and sensors
to study reefs.
Representatives of the Australian Institute of Marine
Science and the Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park Authority will discuss details of their
collaboration with
scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA)
and others on coral reef assessment and monitoring projects.
The workshop is
sponsored by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data,
and Information
Service; NOAA's Coastal Support Center; and the
International Center for Living
Aquatic Resources Management, based in the Philippines.
Check it out online at:
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/coral_reefs/index.html
* * *
NUCLEAR AGENCY UNVIELS UPDATED INSPECTION PROGRAM
A new pilot inspection and assessment program for the
Prairie Island Nuclear
Power Station near Red Wing, Minnesota, will be unveiled at
a public meeting
Monday, June 14, by officials of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC). The
Prairie Island plant, operated by Northern States Power
Company, is one of nine
in a pilot program which began June 1 to test and adjust the
new inspection
program. Following a six-month trial, the program is
expected to be extended
next year to all 103 U.S. commercial nuclear power reactors.
The NRC developed
the new reactor inspection and assessment program to reflect
improvements in
nuclear power plant safety performance over the past 20
years. Plants that
perform well will have less regulatory oversight than plants
that have problems. A
core inspection program will continue for all nuclear plants
with NRC resident
inspectors on site supplemented by specialists from one of
four NRC regional
offices. If performance declines at a plant, the NRC will
step up its regulatory
activities for that plant. More information on the new
program is on the NRC's
website at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/primer.htm
* * *
HEALTH RESEARCH ON FARM ANIMALS, FISH, WILDLIFE ONLINE
The "Healthy Animals" website, sponsored by the U.S.
Department of
Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), compiles
information from the
ARS news feed and other resources on the health of
agricultural animals and fish,
as well as related research on deer and other wildlife. The
site gives contact
information for more than 25 ARS research groups that
conduct studies aimed at
protecting the health of farm animals. The premiere issue
highlights a live fish
vaccine for catfish, a new test to detect a respiratory
disease in swine, and a
discovery that may lead to better Salmonella detection
methods in poultry. The
site features the four ARS national programs devoted to
keeping animals healthy
and productive: Animal Health, Animal Pests and Parasites,
Aquaculture, and
Animal Well-being and Stress Control Systems. The web site
is online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/ha
* * *
FAIR PROMOTES PUBLIC-PRIVATE PROTECTIVE ALLIANCES
The fifth annual Partners Outdoors Fair, highlighting
public-private alliances to
protect natural resources and serve outdoor recreationists,
will be held in
Washington, DC from June 7 to 11. The fair provides visual
displays of federal
agency partnerships with the private sector to improve
recreation resources
across the country and is part of Great Outdoors Week,
sponsored by 30
recreation companies and associations. Special receptions
and press briefings will
be held on scenic byways; skiing and other outdoor pursuits
are featured. On
June 10, Washington, DC, will kick off a WOW - Wonderful
Outdoor World -
program offering DC inner-city youths a chance to
participate in outdoor
recreation activities. Washington, DC, will become the fifth
city with a WOW
program, following Los Angeles, California; Denver,
Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona;
and Tucson, Arizona. The U.S. Senate will hold a hearing
June 10 on a recently
released study of National Recreation Lakes to coincide with
other events. A
seminar marking the 15th anniversary of the Aquatic
Resources (Wallop-Breaux)
Trust Fund administered by the U.S. Coast Guard to enhance
boating and fishing
is planned.
* * *
TED TURNER SEEKS WATER RIGHTS FOR LAKE TROUT
Media mogul Ted Turner is trying to restore his 578,000-acre
Vermejo Park
Ranch in northern New Mexico, once owned by the Pennzoil Co.
of Houston, to
its natural state. Turner has removed introduced plant and
animal species,
reintroduced bison and is breeding endangered black-footed
ferrets in hopes of
reintroducing them to the wild as well. His latest move is
to seek the transference
of 125-year-old water rights from farmland irrigation to six
lakes on the ranch
that are prime trout habitat. Turner still plans to irrigate
on the ranch, as he is
watering wildlife foraging areas in hopes of reestablishing
native plants. But the
avid fisherman also wants to ensure that his lakes remain
stocked with trout.
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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