Biodiversity & Species
Section 7 status quo reinstated
Last week, Interior Secretary Salazar and Commerce Secretary Locke issued a press release announcing that they were withdrawing the Bush administration’s midnight rules relaxing the ESA section 7 consultation requirements. (Background on the Bush rules is here, here, and here.) The notice formalizing that decision has now been published in the Federal Register. As Congress …
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CONTINUE READINGThe fat lady is warming up — make that singing
UPDATE 4/28: The Secretaries of Interior and Commerce have announced that they are revoking the Bush administration’s midnight rule on ESA section 7 consultation. They apparently are not revoking the special rule on the polar bear (as they were also authorized to do under the omnibus spending bill). We will have more when the formal …
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CONTINUE READING“Nature,” not nature, makes us happier
Yale professor of psychology Paul Bloom published an essay this week in the New York Times Magazine arguing that the pleasure that “real natural habitats” provide to humans is a significant argument for “preservation” of these habitats. The essay was deeply unsatisfying to me, as it avoided all the hard questions that anyone grappling with the …
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CONTINUE READINGThe death of Macho B
Jaguars, the largest new-world cat species, are extremely rare in the United States. The US-Mexico border region marks the very northern edge of their range. They were thought to have been extirpated from the US until one was seen in Arizona in 1996. That, together with a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, prodded …
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CONTINUE READINGGetting to the root of recurring water conflicts
This post is co-authored by A. Dan Tarlock, Distinguished Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and cross-posted by permission from the Island Press Eco-Compass blog. The western United States is characterized by highly variable and seasonal rainfall patterns. To deal with the constant threat of drought, the West relies on intensively managed water …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat’s new on the Delta?
Quite a bit, and most of the news is bad. American Rivers has declared the Sacramento-San Joaquin the most endangered river in the United States. The longfin smelt has been listed as threatened by the state, but it is not going to be federally listed, at least not yet. Commercial salmon fishing off the California …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009–A Macro and Micro View
I’d like to follow up on Sean Hecht’s recent posting concerning Congressional passage and President Obama’s signing into law of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009. This massive bill designates two million acres of wilderness in nine states as permanently off-limits to development, and increases the number of river miles protected under the …
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CONTINUE READINGState of the birds
The US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, and a coalition of NGOs and state wildlife agencies have issued the first comprehensive report on the State of the Birds in the U.S. Of more than 800 species, 67 are federally listed under the ESA, and another 184 are considered species of conservation concern because …
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CONTINUE READINGTime for NMFS to lead on hatcheries
Demonstrating once again the importance of presidential elections and appointments, the 9th Circuit has upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s policy on considering hatchery fish in listing Pacific salmonids. (Hat tip: ESA blawg.) Hatchery fish can be a boon or a bane to salmon conservation. Because hatchery programs have emphasized production of fish for harvest, …
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CONTINUE READINGGood news for right whales
It’s easy for environmentalists to get depressed, given the amount of bad news about climate change, species losses, and the like. But sometimes there is unexpectedly good news. This morning’s New York Times has one of those stories. The Atlantic right whale, which not long ago was thought by many to be a lost cause, …
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