• U.S., Panama Sign Second Debt for Nature Swap
  
• Medical Research Firm Guilty of Importing Baby Monkeys
  
• Alabama Man Jailed for Hazwaste Dumping
  
• Public Prevented From Appealing Nuclear Plant Restart
  
• Wind Pollination Find Could Lead to Cordgrass Control
  
• Grants Offered for California Habitat Restoration
  
• San Juan Orcas Bothered by Boat Noise
  
• Rare Sea Turtle Released, Cured of Bone Infection
  

U.S., Panama Sign Second Debt for Nature Swap

The U.S. Treasury Department said the funds will be used to conserve the biologically rich forest resources of the Darien National Park, bringing to $21 million the total funds made available to Panama for conservation purposes under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act.

The agreements were signed by U.S. Ambassador to Panama Linda Watt, Panamanian Finance and Economy Minister Norberto Delgado, and Nature Conservancy Panama Program Director George Hanily.

The agreements were made possible through a grant of $6.5 million from the United States government and a contribution of $1.3 million from The Nature Conservancy.

The first debt for nature swap with Panama, signed in 2003, will generate $10 million over 14 years to conserve Chagres National Park in the Panama Canal watershed.

The forests of Darien National Park contain a unique biological land bridge where North and South America meet. Covering nearly 1.4 million acres (579,000 hectares), the park is an exceptionally rich area of the American tropics, sheltering a diverse range of plants and animals and forming an essential part of bird migration routes.

The park contains such rare species as the jaguar, harpy eagle, wild dog and tapir.

High annual rainfall provides a flow of sediments to the Gulf of San Miguel, which nourishes the productive mangrove coastal forests of Punta Patino.

The agreements will help protect these resources by funding grants to nongovernmental organizations and by creating a permanent endowment to provide sustainable funding for park management.

Medical Research Firm Guilty of Importing Baby Monkeys

Shipment of infant animals violates U.S. law, and in addition the monkeys are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, officials said.

IPPL obtained documents showing that not only baby monkeys were included in the April and May 1997 shipments, but that wild-caught adult monkeys had been shipped on fraudulent captive-born documents.

For years, McGreal and IPPL members deluged prosecutors and wildlife agents with letters, postcards, and petitions demanding "Justice for the baby monkeys!"

On Wednesday, the monkeys, no longer babies, got justice. A South Carolina breeder and seller of monkeys for medical research pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Chicago, to misrepresenting the shipment of monkeys as having been bred in captivity when in fact many had been captured from the wild.

Labs of Virginia Inc. pleaded guilty to one felony count of submitting false records when it imported monkeys from Indonesia in 1997.

The original deal covered a breeding colony of 1,312 macaques that were consigned by the Indonesian firm Aquatics Export CV, known as Inquatex, to the firm Labs of Virginia, which breeds monkeys for research in Yemassee, South Carolina.

The case was prosecuted in Illinois because the monkeys were imported into the United States at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

On April 3, 2002, indictments were unsealed charging the company Labs of Virginia, along with three company officers. The individuals were David Taub, president of Labs at the time of the shipments; Charles Stern, chairman of the board of Labs, and board member Curtis Henley.

They were charged with submitting false records in connection with the four shipments, four felony counts of an importation violation, one misdemeanor count of trafficking in wildlife in violation of a foreign nation's - Indonesia's - law, and three misdemeanor counts of shipping nursing mothers and unweaned young in violation of federal regulations. Stern and Henley were each charged in the one misdemeanor count alleging trafficking in violation of a foreign law.

According to a plea agreement between the defendant and the U.S. attorney's office entered Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo, the company faces two years of probation, a fine of $500,000 and forfeiture totaling $64,675. Sentencing is set for November 16.

The company admitted guilt in connection to a shipment of 220 macaques, 80 of them caught in the wild. That shipment was the first of four totaling 846 primates, 327 of which were wild, not captive bred.

Alabama Man Jailed for Hazwaste Dumping

Public Prevented From Appealing Nuclear Plant Restart

Davis-Besse is now operating at full power after it was restarted in March. The plant was shut down in February 2002 for replacement of a damaged reactor vessel head and other safety improvements. The plant is operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company.

During a refueling shutdown in February 2002, staff discovered corrosion the size of a football on the reactor's pressure vessel head caused by boric acid leakage. It was the worst incident of corrosion ever found at the U.S. nuclear plant.

Upgrades at the plant have been subject to repeated inspections by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, most recently in July when only two minor safety violations were found.

But the Washington, DC based watchdog group Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) says it still has concerns about the legality and safety of the Davis-Besse restart.

"We attempted to raise documented Davis-Besse fire protection violations and public safety concerns to NRC’s restart panel back in December 2003, months before the restart," said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project for NIRS.

"Reminiscent of the same regulatory malfeasance that led to severe reactor corrosion and a near miss accident, the agency sunset its own Sunshine Law to circumvent serious public safety questions," he said.

Gunter says that an NRC meeting that denied the group's appeal of the NRC licensing board’s decision to deny a public hearing on the fire safety issues was supposed to be a public meeting, but it was held on Tuesday with less than an hour's notice to the NIRS attorney's office in Cleveland, Ohio hundreds of miles from the meeting location at the NRC's headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.

"When serious safety allegations didn't fit the agency’s restart script, NRC omitted them from any restart considerations," said Terry Lodge, NIRS' Toledo attorney.

"The grand jury investigating wrongdoing around Davis-Besse's hole-in-the head is public safety’s last chance for any justice," said Lodge.

NIRS and local plaintiffs pointed to publicly disclosed NRC documents where pre-restart NRC inspections of Davis-Besse records discovered "pretty outrageous" violations of mandatory fire protection for reactor safe shutdown equipment.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board dismissed plaintiff's contentions, claiming that the plaintiffs had sought a hearing on actions beyond the scope of the NRC restart order. The plaintiffs then sought an appeal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"This is simply contempt for public participation in the reactor safety process," said Michael Keegan, a plaintiff in the Davis-Besse restart decision. "These rogues masquerading as regulators must be called out on the Congressional Oversight Carpet."

Wind Pollination Find Could Lead to Cordgrass Control

"People think, because they get hay fever, there is always plenty of pollen in the air," said Heather Davis, lead author of the study. "But pollen is fragile, like sperm. It has a very short life."

Davis and colleagues at the University of California at Davis focused their research on Atlantic cordgrass known as Spartina alterniflora, which is invading wetlands on the Pacific coast.

Working in the salt marsh of Willapa Bay, Washington, the researchers studied wind pollination at two stages of a Spartina invasion - early, when plants are spread apart, and late, when plants form a solid meadow.

They found that wind pollination worked well for late-invasion meadow plants, causing high seed production.

But the wind worked poorly when plants were spread further apart, and early-invasion plants received little pollen and made very few seeds.

Davis said this may explains why Spartina covers only 60 of Willapa Bay's 230 acres, despite having been present in the bay for a century.

The study's findings are helping biologists devise new strategies to eradicate invasive species, said Davis, who added that inefficient wind pollination could also speed the extinction of rare plants.

The findings were published Monday in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

Grants Offered for California Habitat Restoration

The Nature Restoration Trust – through federal funds and PG&E Corporation shareholder funds – will provide up to two-thirds of a project’s cost. Grant applicants must be able to secure the remaining one-third through non-federal sources, including cash contributions and donated goods and services.

This year, PG&E will grant $170,000 and the foundation will provide up to $150,000. "This program is a creative partnership that engages young people and communities in the protection and restoration of fish and wildlife habitats in the places where they live," said National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Executive Director John Berry.

The partnership has already delivered nearly $280,000 in federal dollars, $280,000 in PG&E Corporation dollars, and nearly $647,000 raised by the grantees for a total investment of over $1.2 million for 24 habitat restoration projects in California.

"This unique public/private partnership has restored natural habitat from Humboldt to Santa Barbara counties and from Bay waters to the Sierra foothills, with sites as varied as an urban salt marsh, creek side vineyards and a national forest," said Robert Harris, PG&E’s vice president of environmental affairs.

"These restoration projects were implemented through a collaborative process that brought together the business community, local residents, schools and colleges, nonprofit organizations, and government agency resource professionals," Harris said.

Grants are available for projects within the northern and central California service area of Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Nonprofit community-based organizations, local governments and school districts are encouraged to apply.

The grants are targeted at projects that involve local middle or high schools, include multiple partners, help promote diversity, and involve lands that are accessible to the public. Eligible projects include native habitat restoration, conservation, and environmental education programs.

Applications must be submitted through the foundation’s online application process. Applications and a detail of proposal guidelines are available at: http://www.nfwf.org/programs/grant_apply.htm. The deadline to submit proposals is October 15, 2004.

San Juan Orcas Bothered by Boat Noise

The Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance (ORCA) and residents of San Juan Island say this year there are at least 83 commercial whale-watching boats following the 83 orca whales in the San Juan Islands.

The concerned citizens point to studies conducted by ORCA that show the harmful effects of the loud motors which surround the orcas 12 hours a day - all summer long. They say underwater boat noise is harming the whales and changing their behavior.

Orca Relief and its supporters are installing 10 large banner signs on private home properties on San Juan Island today. The signs are aimed at educating people aboard commercial boats that you can watch whales from shore without disrupting the whales’ environment. The signs read, "Protect Whales, Watch From Shore!"

During the past decade, the Orca population in the San Juan Islands has declined from 96 whales in 1994 to 83 whales in 2004.

Most people believe that you can only see orca whales from a boat, when in fact, the whales can be seen at a close proximity almost daily from the rocky shore of Lime Kiln State Park, nicknamed "whale-watch park," the residents say.

Their banners will be displayed on the grounds of 10 private homes on the west side of San Juan Island between Lime Kiln State Park and Cattle Point all weekend.

Rare Sea Turtle Released, Cured of Bone Infection

The rare turtle was released at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, which fronts onto the Atlantic Ocean and also onto the Matanzas River.

The turtle, suffering from a bone infection in its right front flipper, arrived at Disney’s Epcot Center on June 16 after being rescued by Boston’s New England Aquarium.

Over the past decade, the New England Aquarium has provided life saving critical care to several hundred endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles.

This turtle was transferred to the Living Seas Animal Care Center as part of an ongoing rehabilitation program at the facility, which has nursed more than 200 endangered sea turtles back to health since 1986. These efforts are in partnership with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle is an endangered species with only around 1,000 nesting females in the world. Kemp’s Ridley, the smallest species of sea turtle, has been listed as endangered throughout its range since December 2, 1970. Today, under strict protection, the population appears to be in the earliest stages of recovery.

"We are honored to release an endangered turtle to the wild from the shores of one of our state parks," said Florida State Parks Director Mike Bullock. "The pristine waters of the Atlantic at Washington Oaks are perfect for this occasion."