• Wilderness Act 40 Years Old
  
• Sustainable Certification of Pollack Fisheries Challenged
  
• Native Hawaiians Oppose Telescope Construction
  
• Oregon Forests Central to Conservation Tug-of-War
  
• Riverbank Soils Filter Contaminants from Drinking Water
  
• Fewer Frost Days Forecast for End of Century
  
• Scripps to Study Ecosystems of the California Current
  
• Black Bear Hunt on Maryland Governor's Desk
  

Wilderness Act 40 Years Old

“It's inexcusable for Congress to stand by idly and watch the destruction of our precious national resources that are under attack from logging, mining, drilling, and road building,” said Wilderness Society President William Meadows.

“A wilderness bill has passed in almost every congressional session since 1968," Meadows said. "Sadly, this Congress has failed to designate a single acre of land as federally protected wilderness. We can and should expect the same vision and foresight from this Congress as most of its predecessors.”

Congress passed the Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964. "The world had never seen legislation like it," Meadows said, "a deliberate and visionary effort to protect from development vast areas of wild places, and to preserve them for the enjoyment of all Americans of every generation."

Due to this law, today more than 105 million acres of national forests, parks, wildlife refuges and western lands are designated as wilderness.

But many lands that conservationists say deserve protection are not designated under the Wilderness Act, which means they are vulnerable to development.

Colorado's South Shale Ridge, for instance, is part of a citizen proposed wilderness bill to protect Colorado’s Canyon Country. While the bill awaits Congressional action, the Bureau of Land Management is moving to open the area for oil and gas drilling, which would make the area ineligible for wilderness designation.

“Although there are currently 105 million acres of federally protected Wilderness, many uniquely beautiful wild places such as Utah's Redrocks Wilderness, the Arctic Coastal Plain, and beloved areas in Washington, West Virginia, Vermont, Virginia and Montana still desperately need permanent protection as Wilderness,” said Meadows. “Every day that goes by without wilderness protection leaves these lands at risk.”

On the new website, visitors sign the petition and also share their personal wilderness experiences and favorite wild places. The stories will be compiled into a report that will be distributed to members of Congress and other policymakers to remind them that the wilderness is more than just a political issue.

Thousands of people are participating in events ranging from group hikes and canoe trips to conferences and other events to mark the 40th anniversary. Find out more at: http://www.40WildYears.org

Sustainable Certification of Pollack Fisheries Challenged

Citing the 80 percent decline of Steller sea lions in the past few years and a drop in pollock populations, the groups filed formal objections to the certification today.

The public interest law firm Trustees for Alaska, filed the second of two objections to the certification on behalf of the Alaska Oceans Program, Greenpeace International and the National Environmental Trust.

They are objecting today to the Marine Stewardship Council's certification in July of the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery.

In their August 3 objection, which a fourth environmental group, Oceana, also joined, they oppose the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) certification in June of the Aleutian Islands and Eastern Bering Sea pollock fisheries.

These three fisheries together form the largest whitefish harvest in the world.

"These bogus certifications provide a green light for the continued destruction of the North Pacific ecosystem," said Mark Spalding, senior program officer for the Alaska Oceans Program at the Alaska Conservation Foundation.

Besides humans, at least 11 species of marine mammals, 13 species of seabirds and 10 fish species feed on pollock.

"The MSC has deliberately turned a blind eye to the impact of Alaska pollock overfishing on the Steller sea lion," said Spalding, "even though a federal court has ruled that its management has violated the Endangered Species Act by ignoring this fact."

The eco-label certification by the Marine Stewardship Council, is proudly displayed by those deemed to engage in responsible fishing practices. The independent, international nonprofit organization is based in Seattle, London and Sydney, Australia.

"The eco-label allows consumers to quickly identify the best environmental choices in seafood - fish that have not been 'overfished' or harvested in ways that harm the ocean ecosystem," according to the MSC website.

"The National Marine Fisheries Service is focused on single species management of the target fish populations when setting catch levels at the expense of other fish, wildlife and seabirds that eat pollock," said Spalding. "A federal court found that the NMFS has failed to consider pollock's pivotal role in the marine food web and the impact of fishing on pollock predators."

Native Hawaiians Oppose Telescope Construction

The Outrigger Telescopes Draft Environmental Impact Statement is found at: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Outrigger/DraftEIS.html

Oregon Forests Central to Conservation Tug-of-War

"Both Umpqua Bank and Senator Wyden greenwash their images, depicting themselves as environmentally friendly while supporting and profiting from the destruction of Oregon's native forests," says Cascadia Rising, the organization coordinating the demonstrations, an outgrowth of Earth First!.

With drumming, banners, and songs, the forest defenders delivered piles of sawdust to the Senator's office demanding Wyden stop selling Oregon's public lands to the timber industry. The protestors presented a slide show of threatened areas to educate the Senator and his aides about the on-the-ground destruction caused by their pro-logging policies.

"We need to shift management of Oregon's forests away from the commercial timber sale program towards genuine non-commercial restoration. Yet, from the Biscuit logging project to the so-called Healthy Forest Restoration Act, Senator Wyden aggressively promotes increased commercial logging in our National Forests," said Kristen Michelson, one of the protestors.

In March, Wyden introduced a budget amendment to increase the funding for hazardous fuels projects and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act by $343 million to reach the $760 million level.

“With an above average fire risk in parts of Oregon this year and fires already scorching parts of the West, now is not the time to scrimp on the wildfire prevention budget,” Wyden said.

Only one low intensity fire is burning now in Oregon, 10 miles east of Canyonville, in timber and grass, but Wyden is worried that new large fires will break out like the Biscuit Fire that ravaged Oregon in 2002.

"Every year that hazardous fuels projects go under funded or unfunded is a year that with little to no warning, thousands of people in fire-prone communities must toss everything they can fit into their cars and flee from their homes without knowing if anything will remain when they return," Wyden told his Senate colleagues on May 7.

"The Forest Service’s inability to do all the hazardous fuels reduction projects that need to get done leads to real life danger on the ground, in people’s backyards, in their recreation areas, and in the places they gather as communities," Wyden said.

But the demonstrators say loggers take the large, fire resistant trees and leave the smaller, fire-prone trees, not reducing the wildfire risk, but enriching themselves.

"Senator Wyden presents himself as a green politician, and yet of all U.S. politicians he is the fifth highest recipient of campaign contributions from the timber industry. Meanwhile, he sponsors earth-destroying legislation with eco-friendly names like the Healthy Forest Restoration Act," says Cascadia Rising.

Umpqua Bank markets itself as a new, hip, eco-conscious bank, but Cascadia Rising calls the financial institution "StUmpqua Bank," to indicate that only stumps are left in the wake of logging operations the bank funds.

Oregon activists are gearing up for the upcoming Earth First! Direct Action Rendezvous in southwest Oregon the final weekend in August, near the massive Biscuit logging project that has been the subject of conservationist protests all this year. The National Earth First! Rendezvous will be held in Oregon in Summer 2005.

Riverbank Soils Filter Contaminants from Drinking Water

This technique, called riverbank filtration, has been used in Europe for more than 50 years to improve the taste and smell of drinking water and to remove industrial solvents.

Now, Johns Hopkins researchers have found that passing river water through nearby sediment can produce other health benefits and may cut water treatment costs.

The researchers have been studying water drawn from commercial wells located beside the Wabash, Ohio and Missouri rivers near Terre Haute, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; and Kansas City, Missouri.

Josh Weiss, a doctoral student in the university's Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, presented the team's research results on Wednesday in Philadelphia at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Riverbank filtration appears to decrease the level of bacteria and viruses, he said. Water analyses also showed encouraging, though not definitive, signs that this technique can curtail Giardia and Cryptosporidium, two waterborne microorganisms that cause serious digestive ailments.

Weiss said, "It sounds counter-intuitive to drill wells nearby when water can be taken directly from a river. But our research indicates that riverbank filtration can naturally remove pathogens and organic material that can cause health problems, including some microbes that are able to survive conventional disinfection systems."

"If you think about how much it costs to build a full scale treatment plant to make river water safe to drink, you can see how this could be very beneficial," he said.

The research has been supported by Environmental Protection Agency grants awarded to a team led by Weiss' doctoral advisor, Edward Bouwer, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, and an expert in riverbank filtration.

Bouwer said, "Riverbank filtration doesn't completely eliminate the need for water treatment. But it should lower the treatment costs and reduce the risks of mixing chlorine with the organic material that can become carcinogenic."

Weiss says the technique may not be right for some areas, such as regions of the Western United States where rivers dry up in the summer. But in communities that depend on rivers for a year-round supply of drinking water, Weiss expects riverbank filtration to become more common.

"We definitely think riverbank filtration is worthwhile," he said. "We're letting nature maintain the system, minimizing the need for external maintenance and the associated costs."

Fewer Frost Days Forecast for End of Century

The reduction in 24 hour periods with freezes - frost days - is projected to be most dramatic across the western parts of North America and Europe.

In a paper published in the August 20 online edition of "Climate Dynamics," NCAR scientists Gerald Meehl, Claudia Tebaldi, and Doug Nychka examine the factors that have led to a reduction in frost days in many areas over the last 50 years.

The authors then use the Parallel Climate Model, developed by NCAR and the U.S. Department of Energy, to simulate day-to-day temperature changes across the globe for the years 2080 to 2099.

Until now, most modeling studies of future climate change have focused on average temperatures rather than day-to-day variations, says Meehl. “For many years, a lot of the models didn’t even have diurnal [24 hour] cycles,” Meehl says.

With increased computer power and more complex software, scientists can now simulate and study changes in potential day-to-day weather events far into the future.

Meehl and colleagues found the frost-day trends over the last 50 years intensifying during the next century.

Nearly all of the United States and Canada show losses in frost days in 2080-2099 compared to 1961-1990.

The cause of this pattern, the authors say, is a shift in atmospheric circulation.

In northwestern North America, low-level winds are projected to blow more frequently from the Pacific, bringing relatively mild air during the winter.

Eastern North America is projected to receive more wintertime flow of cold Canadian air. This partially cancels out the decrease in frost days that results from overall climate warming.

A similar pattern produces greater reductions in frost days across western and northern Europe than over northeast Asia.

“In general, there is a gradient from west to east across the continent, with greater decreases in frost days in the western regions,” says Meehl. The biggest decrease is from the Great Plains westward, where the model produces more than 20 fewer frost days in a typical year by 2080-2099.

More than 40 fewer frost days per year are projected along and near the Pacific coast from Washington State north into British Columbia.

Scripps to Study Ecosystems of the California Current

A grant of nearly $5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will establish the Scripps Institution's California Current Ecosystem (CCE) site, a program that will peer into the California Current as never before.

CCE, one of two newly established sites, is part of NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, a network that focuses on ecological research over long time periods in different terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The NSF has now established 26 LTER sites.

CCE will benefit from more than 50 years of research conducted by the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) - a unique partnership of Scripps Institution, the California Department of Fish and Game and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Originally founded to understand the plummeting harvests of the Pacific sardine, CalCOFI is one of the world's longest-running multidisciplinary field programs. CalCOFI scientists study the California Current, the eastern portion of the large, clockwise circulation of the north Pacific Ocean that travels just off California's shores.

"We are fortunate to be standing on the shoulders of the scientific giants who built the CalCOFI program over more than five decades, enabling us to see further into the workings of pelagic ecosystems here in the California Current than is possible anywhere else in the ocean," said Mark Ohman, a professor of biological oceanography at Scripps Institution and lead principal investigator of CCE.

Ohman said the scientific findings established through CalCOFI have uncovered multiple, interacting processes that influence the California Current system, including an ocean warming trend, El Niño events, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

More than 26 scientists involved in the CCE site will work to understand how these climatic influences modify marine ecosystems. They hope to understand how these phenomena affect changes in food webs, predator-prey relationships, the movement of organisms into and out of the region and the transfer of groups of organisms along the California coast.

"The California Current is a highly productive upwelling ecosystem that sustains a variety of fish, invertebrate, marine mammal and kelp populations of importance to the people of California. It also helps to modify the climate of much of the western United States," said Ohman. "This new LTER site will enable us to understand how climate change affects the California Current ecosystem and to build this understanding into mathematical models that will, eventually, help us forecast the effects of climate change on living marine resources."

"The California Current system sustains active fisheries for a variety of finfish and shellfish, modulates weather patterns and the hydrologic cycle of much of the western United States, and plays a vital role in the economy of myriad coastal communities," said Phil Taylor, director of NSF's biological oceanography program.

Ohman said it is tough to tell the differences between human and naturally produced changes in the marine environment because of the widely variable forces interacting there.

"With this new LTER site we have a rare opportunity to tease out the causes of the natural sources of variability," said Ohman. "This will prove invaluable in managing the living marine resources of importance to California."

Participants in CCE include scientists from Scripps, the Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Duke University's Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

Black Bear Hunt on Maryland Governor's Desk

The bear hunt is set to begin in October, and Governor Robert Ehrlich, a Republican, now must decide whether to respect the decision of the committee, which has jurisdiction over state agency regulations, or to allow the trophy hunt over its objection.

”This lopsided vote sends a strong signal to Governor Ehrlich that his administration’s effort to hunt bears is way out of step with the wishes of Marylanders,” said Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals, which has been campaigning against the hunt.

“Rather than thumb his nose at the science and the public process, Governor Ehrlich should put the brakes on this misguided attempt to reverse a bear protection policy that has been a Maryland tradition for more than fifty years.”

The Maryland black bear population, once hunted to near extinction, is now estimated by the DNR to be between 266 and 437 bears.

Governor Ehrlich and the DNR have proposed a trophy hunt of 30 bears to take place this fall, despite a lack of scientific studies on how the hunt would impact the bear population and a lack of analysis of black bear habitat needs.

A poll conducted by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies revealed last week that Maryland voters – including voters in western Maryland where bears are present – oppose the bear hunt.

“The responsibility now rests squarely on Governor Ehrlich’s shoulders, and he has two choices,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States. “He can support the National Rifle Association and the trophy hunting groups that want to kill bears for their heads and hides, or he can choose to respect the wishes of Maryland citizens and legislators and address bear problems with humane, constructive solutions.”

The Fund for Animals and The HSUS have appealed to the Governor and the DNR to call off the bear hunt and have offered $75,000 to augment the state’s educational programs teaching people to solve bear conflicts, and to compensate farmers fully for agricultural damage caused by bears. The offer has not been accepted.