Showing posts with label
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Showing posts with label
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Halloween's approaching and for those who celebrate "All Hallowed Eve" there's candy, costumes, and images of all things spooky - like zombies, witches, and bats. What would the world be like without those things that go bump in the night? Well, we could do without the zombies, I think. And perhaps witches, both the green Wizard of Oz kind and the ones running for political office.
Then there's bats. What would the world be without bats? As it turns out, it would be a world nearly overrun with bugs. Bats are one of the planet's great equalizers, feeding on insects and helping to keep the populations in balance. While not exactly an "apex predator" like sharks, bats serve a very similar role. Sharks and other large predators that reside at the top of the predator-prey pyramid are kept in check by a slow reproductive rate. Not so for the bat, but then it's feeding on insects that can number in the millions.
So, bats, those spooky little critters of Dracula movie fame that can congregate in caves by the thousands and make us run for cover lest we get one in our hair, are actually very important to maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
But in the eastern United States, parts of Canada, and even France, we are losing vast numbers of bats to a disease: white-nose syndrome. This syndrome manifests itself as patches of white fungus on the nose and wings of the bat. There are several suspected fungi thought to be possibly involved, although Geomyces destructans is considered the most likely culprit. It is a cold-temperature fungus that can flourish in the caves that bats inhabit. The white-nose syndrome disrupts the bats normal winter hibernation cycle and produces behaviors, like flying, that can lead to the bat's death, often from starvation (due to a combination of excessive activity combined with the winter's lack of food).
No more ugly little bats. Big deal, right? So what if there's a few more insects, right? We'll just use a rolled up newspaper or get out the bug zapper. Oh, were it that simple.
Actually, the loss of bats in the northeast all the way to the Mississippi poses a tremendous economic threat to agriculture, as bats act as a very important insecticide control agent. Without bats, insects would ravage more crops, more pesticides would have to be used (with their own inherent problems), and food prices would soar. The timber industry would also be effected.
Scientists who have been studying the condition are not exactly sure as to how it is transmitted over such a wide area. To rule out any human involvement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has strictly limited access to known caves where large number of bats live. But the condition appears to be continuing to spread, having first been reported in 2006 and now affecting 9 different bat species. Research has found that the fungus reacts to some human anti-fungal treatments but how those can be applied practically has yet to be determined.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is running a campaign to get the attention of U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to devote serious effort to the issue. Whatever initiatives and small cost that might be required (CBD suggested $10 million), that would easily be offset by the multi-million dollar savings to agriculture and the consumer.
Trick or treat. Looks like it's a trick for the bat this year.
Support the Center for Biological Diversity's petition campaign to save U.S. bats.
The wolves of Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies have won an important reprieve in the courts. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had illegally stripped the gray wolves of the northern Rockies in 2009 of their protections under the Endangered Species Act by using political, rather than scientific-based, reasoning. The judge ordered the wolves be placed back on the endangered species list, which effectively halts the hunting of wolves that was taking place in Montana and Idaho.
The ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Defenders of Wildlife and other groups, and defended by Earthjustice, a major environmental legal firm. It is a prime example of the importance of utilizing the power and effectiveness of the courts on behalf of conservation issues - as equally important a component as is generating public awareness and support.
"Yesterday's ruling will also help other wildlife because it strikes a down Bush-era policy adopted by the Obama administration allowing the government to protect only small populations of endangered species instead of the entire species. Reliance on this anti-environmental Bush policy has been one of the many low points of Interior Secretary Salazar's management of endangered species," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of CBD.
Wolves - like sharks, tigers, and other apex predators - serve an important function in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. I commented on the importance of this predator vs. prey relationship and the consequences that have transpired over the years with the on again, off again eradication of wolves. This new ruling will hopefully put the natural balance back on a steady course.
But the wolves are not totally out of the woods yet, as there are pockets of wolf populations that are at risk from reduced habitat and conflict/poaching potential with ranchers. Roger Schlickeisen, president of the Defenders of Wildlife, noted, "We must continue our on-the-ground efforts to prevent conflicts between ranchers and wolves, counter anti-wolf misinformation in the media and work with all stakeholders to ensure these wolves fully recover and can then be legitimately delisted."
Read press release from the Defenders of Wildlife.
Read article from Montana's Missoulian.
A young alligator lies quietly at the water's edge, momentarily oblivious to its surroundings as it basks in the warmth of the sun beating down. Moving slowly along the river's muddy sand, a boa constrictor silently approaches and then in an instant wraps itself around the gator, one coil after another. Thus begins one of nature's ageless struggles between predators deep in the tropical forest.
Except that it is not a tropical forest, but Southern Florida. And the snake is actually an invader that is disrupting the fragile ecological balance of Florida's Everglades, marshlands, and rivers.
Throughout the world, more and more we are having to contend with invasive species ranging from mussels and seaweed to lionfish, squid, and now, a laundry list of imported snakes. In the fall of 2009 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) issued a report listing a total of nine constrictors - including various pythons, boa constrictors, and anacondas - that were considered an ecological threat (5 were listed as a serious risk, 4 listed as medium risks).
An invading species is not out to deliberately hatch some devious plot to takeover new territory. They are typically introduced through the actions of man. Some species are transported in the bilges of large ships, like certain forms of algae and seaweed. Others are allowed to expand their range because overfishing of their natural predators have allowed them to do so, as with the Humboldt squid. And in some cases, the invasion was a deliberate attempt by man to control one problem, thereby starting another.
With Florida's snake invasion, it has come about from the importation, often illegally, of these snakes as pets. Either a snake escapes from its owner or is foolishly released into the wild because it has become unmanageable. While many snakes serve an important predatory role in controlling rodent populations, these tropical snakes have a much broader diet. Finding a comfortable home in Florida's wilderness, their numbers have been steadily growing - these snakes are also quite prolific; significant breeding populations of Burmese pythons and boa constrictors have been recorded in the state.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is now considering how best to approach the problem. There are several strategies on the table, a combination of which is probably called for:
- Tightening and enforcing importation restrictions of snakes from Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.
- Increasing penalties for the accidental or deliberate release of snakes currently in captivity or making certain species illegal to own at all.
- Capturing snakes in the wild and, sadly, disposing of them and any eggs found.
Unfortunately, having imposed ourselves on nature as enablers for the planet's invasive species, we are left with the task of imposing ourselves again to hopefully set things right. No easy task, but government agencies have few choices, given what can befall an ecosystem thrown out of balance when unexpected neighbors move in.
“We have a cautionary tale with the American island of Guam and the brown treesnake,” said Dr. Robert Reed, USGS invasive species scientist and coauthor of the report. “Within 40 years of its arrival, this invasive snake has decimated the island’s native wildlife—10 of Guam’s 12 native forest birds, one of its two bat species, and about half of its native lizards are gone. The python introduction to Florida is so recent that the tally of ecological damage cannot yet be made.”
Read a report summary prepared by the USGS.
Use Defenders of Wildlife's email form to voice your concern to the USFWS (5/11 deadline).
A last minute reminder from Oceana: today is the last day for U.S. citizens to submit comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the upcoming CITES convention. At the 2010 meeting, scheduled for March, several ocean species will be considered for protection under CITES' Appendix I, II, or III listings.
Under consideration are:
- Bluefin Tuna - heavily over-fished in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
- 8 Sharks - spiny dogfish, porbeagle, oceanic whitetip, dusky, sandbar, and the scalloped, smooth, and great hammerhead sharks.
- Red & Pink Corals - harvested for jewelry.
CITES has taken significant steps in the past to curb the trade in endangered species like rhino horns and elephant tusks. Here is an opportunity to make significant progress with several important aquatic species.
Again, this is the last day for U.S. public comments to reach Dr. Rosemarie Gnam, the U.S. representative for the CITES meeting. If you're a U.S. citizen, let your voice be heard!
Click here to send a message via Oceana (if the link does not work properly, go to the Oceana web site and sign up for their Wavemaker e-activist program).
When I first started scuba diving over 25 years ago, I became fascinated with all kinds of underwater life - but often for all the wrong reasons. I tried spearfishing, game collecting, shell collecting - a variety of activities that I no longer engage in as I now view sealife as an important but threatened resource.
But in my more naive days, one of the things I fell in love with was the intricacy of the Chambered Nautilus shell. This fascinating living fossil still captivates me to this day, but I wince at some of the shell specimens I collected in my less-conservation minded past from various shops and dealers.
Several years ago, I asked a friend who was an aquarist at a local major aquarium if they planned to acquire any Nautiluses for exhibition. He scrunched up his nose, "I hope not. They're too boring." Well, he had a point. A Nautilus will simply hover in an exhibit and remain so still, you could replace it with a rubber facsimile held down by a weight; its only telltale sign to the visitor being the monofilament line running down to the weight.
But the shell collecting/gift shop and exhibition trades are apparently taking their toll on this incredible, ancient mollusk. Dead or alive, a combined 579,000 were imported to the U.S. alone between 2005 and 2008. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is considering proposing that the Nautilus receive an Appendix II classification with CITES. CITES defines the Appendix II rating this way:
Appendix II lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. It also includes so-called "look-alike species", i.e. species of which the specimens in trade look like those of species listed for conservation reasons. International trade in specimens of Appendix-II species may be authorized by the granting of an export permit or re-export certificate. No import permit is necessary for these species under CITES (although a permit is needed in some countries that have taken stricter measures than CITES requires). Permits or certificates should only be granted if the relevant authorities are satisfied that certain conditions are met, above all that trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild.
Such a rating with CITES would have international implications and could go a long way to protecting the Nautilus population (typically found in the South Pacific). The Humane Society International is conducting an email letter campaign to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, urging them to make the proposal to CITES.
You can add your voice to this campaign by clicking here. Do it today.
The US military does not exactly have a sterling record when it comes to balancing the concerns of military training and wildlife conservation issues. The controversy over Navy sonar tests and the effects on ocean mammals is still ongoing. And we also have one brewing in California involving the endangered desert tortoise.
The Army wishes to expand its tank training operations in the Mojave desert outside of Ft. Irwin and this encroaches on the federally designated critical habitat for the desert tortoise, a reptile technically listed as threatened by the IUCN. In 2008, under the previous administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted permission to move 650 tortoises as part of a phase approach; the total number to be moved was to be 2000.
So far, the results have not been promising for the tortoise as many have died from predation by coyotes. Nature establishes habitat boundaries in several ways: sometimes through restricting vegetation/food sources, sometimes through geological limits - like temperature ranges, and sometimes through bio-dispersion based on predation. Move an animal out of its normal locale and anyone of these or other factors can have disastrous effects.
While the results of the first phase have not been all together successful, the Army is still pushing ahead with their plan. But they are meeting resistance from several conservation organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity - that perennial environmental watchdog that seems unafraid to take government agencies to task in the courts.
One of the oldest residents in California is faced with what could be a fatal eviction for the sake of developing more deadly artillery. You can read more about this in the Los Angeles Times and at the Center for Biological Diversity, which is running both a public awareness campaign and a legal battle.
My apologies for my not keeping up with new postings. I have been immersed in some video & editing assignments. So let's see what's been going on lately . . .
Some good news:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has placed the wolves of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin back on the endangered species list. Once protected, these wolves of the Great Lakes were demoted from endangered to threatened by the Bush Administration and then all protection was removed in 2007. Following legal action by several NGOs, protection was reinstated but then it was removed by the new administration just this past April. New legal action again by NGOs has now once again reinstated the wolves endangered status.
It could continue to seesaw back and forth as the anti-wolf lobby, headed by cattle ranching interests, fights back. But the potential loss of these wolves has consequences, as seen in the past when open hunting of wolves caused a spike in the deer population and throughout a wide range of small animals and rodents. Cattle ranchers, in protecting their herds, now had a whole new set of problems to deal with as deer grazed on the lands and small animals ran amok in numbers. Nature demands that we keep our top predators to insure a balanced ecosystem.
Hawaiian Monk Seals have long been considered one of the most endangered of all marine mammals. Their existence in the Hawaiian Island chain, particularly in the northern islands, has been tenuous at best.
But the National Marine Fisheries Services has recently agreed to extend protection for the seals across the entire chain with federally protected habitat, thereby hopefully improving the seals chances for survival. This particularly important in the northern islands where the seals have had the greatest difficulty due to starvation, disease, and entanglement with fishing nets and gear.
Populations of tuna have been decimated worldwide as market demand for this seafood continues to grow. Realizing their future industry is at stake, several of the world's leading tuna processors have formed the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). Included in the foundation are Bumble Bee, Starkist, and Chicken of the Sea.
The foundation's goals are to commit to processing only tuna that:
- Comes from well-managed, non-depleted stocks
- Can be verified as to being legally caught
- Has not been caught using methods that generate unacceptable levels of bycatch
- Has not been transshipped (offloaded) at sea
All of these news items are good news but will require vigilance on the part of NGOs and government watchdog agencies or organizations to insure that they are properly carried out.
Still, it's nice to start the week on an optimistic note.
So recently, I put up two postings (Fri. 2/20 & Sat. 2/21) on different conservation organizations, commenting on the different strategies or tactics taken by groups who feel their efforts would be best served by either educating the next generation or partaking in eco-terrorist activities. In the end, nature is best served when there are concrete results.
One organization that I have mentioned in the past, is gaining more and more influence and attention by focusing on the strategy of legal engagement, through legal petition or law suit. The Center for Biological Diversity has been affecting change through legal means and their results to date have been impressive. Cases in point, from their latest e-newsletter:
For the threatened Canadian Lynx, its federally protected habitat in the U.S. was increased from 1,841 to 39,000 square miles. CBD, along with Defenders of Wildlife, filed suit to protect the lynx under the Endangered Species Act (it's limited protection was initiated by a now disgraced former official influenced by commercial timber interests).
CBD and other organizations filed numerous suits regarding the 11th hour moves by the previous administration to gut the Endangered Species Act. A bill has now been introduced in Congress that will allow the Obama administration to more quickly rescind those moves - in particular those that denied the use of global warming as a cause for listing a species, like the polar bear, as endangered.
Even the little guys get some attention: the Northern Rockies Fisher, a rare relative of the weasel whose numbers have dwindled due to logging and trapping is receiving CBD support with a scientific petition filed to gain protection under the Endangered Species Act.
CBD, along with over 20 other groups, submitted a petition with over 19,000 signatures in support of measures to protect Arizona's Verde River from proposed pumping for new large development projects. Petition requests the consultation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine and counter potential negative ecological effects.
The Center for Biological Diversity is one of a growing number of organizations that are taking a decidedly proactive position and do so not by fighting the legal system but by getting it to work for them. The challenges can be clearly identified, the actions can demonstrable, and the results can be clearly measured. Now that's progress.
Go get 'em, CBD!
Halloween's approaching and for those who celebrate "All Hallowed Eve" there's candy, costumes, and images of all things spooky - like zombies, witches, and bats. What would the world be like without those things that go bump in the night? Well, we could do without the zombies, I think. And perhaps witches, both the green Wizard of Oz kind and the ones running for political office.
But in the eastern United States, parts of Canada, and even France, we are losing vast numbers of bats to a disease: white-nose syndrome. This syndrome manifests itself as patches of white fungus on the nose and wings of the bat. There are several suspected fungi thought to be possibly involved, although Geomyces destructans is considered the most likely culprit. It is a cold-temperature fungus that can flourish in the caves that bats inhabit. The white-nose syndrome disrupts the bats normal winter hibernation cycle and produces behaviors, like flying, that can lead to the bat's death, often from starvation (due to a combination of excessive activity combined with the winter's lack of food).
Scientists who have been studying the condition are not exactly sure as to how it is transmitted over such a wide area. To rule out any human involvement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has strictly limited access to known caves where large number of bats live. But the condition appears to be continuing to spread, having first been reported in 2006 and now affecting 9 different bat species. Research has found that the fungus reacts to some human anti-fungal treatments but how those can be applied practically has yet to be determined.
