AmeriScan: February 21, 2001

DONELLA MEADOWS, SUSTAINABILITY PIONEER, DEAD AT 59

HANOVER, New Hampshire, February 21, 2001 (ENS) - Donella Meadows, a pioneering environmental scientist and writer, died Tuesday in New Hampshire after a brief bout with bacterial meningitis.

Meadows was best known as the lead author of the 1972 international best seller, "The Limits to Growth." The book, which reported on a study of long term global trends in population, economics and the environment, sold millions of copies and was translated into 28 languages.

"Limits to Growth" began a debate about the limits of the Earth's capacity to support human economic expansion that continues to this day. Meadows was also the lead author of the 20 year follow up study, "Beyond the Limits", published in 1992 with original co-authors Dennis Meadows and Jørgen Randers.

Professor Meadows, known as "Dana" to friends and colleagues, was a leading voice in what has become known as the sustainability movement, an international effort to reverse damaging trends in the environment, economy and social systems. Her work influenced hundreds of other academic studies, government policy initiatives and international agreements.

For 29 years, Meadows also taught environmental systems, ethics and journalism to her students at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Her writing appeared most often as a weekly column called "The Global Citizen," nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1991.

In 1981, together with her former husband Dennis Meadows, she founded the International Network of Resource Information Centers, which built avenues of scientific communication during the Cold War.

As the group's coordinator for 18 years, Meadows helped build a global process of information sharing and collaboration among hundreds of researchers and activists in the sustainability movement.

In 1997, Professor Meadows founded the Sustainability Institute, which she described as a "think-do-tank." The Institute combines research in global systems with practical demonstrations of sustainable living, including the development of an ecological village and organic farm in Hartland Four Corners, Vermont.

RECORD FINE IMPOSED ON CAVIAR SMUGGLERS

BALTIMORE, Maryland, February 21, 2001 (ENS) - U.S. Caviar and Caviar was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to pay a fine of $10.4 million dollars and serve probation for five years for smuggling caviar from protected sturgeon. This fine is the largest ever imposed in a wildlife criminal case.

U.S. District Court Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. also sentenced Hossein Lolavar, president of U.S. Caviar & Caviar, to serve 41 months in prison, pay a fine of $8,500 and a restitution payment of $81,000, for his role in the wildlife smuggling scheme.

The court also sentenced Faye Briggs, a corporate officer and the company's sales manager, to 21 months imprisonment, and Ken Noroozi, the president of Kenfood Trading LLC, to 15 months imprisonment.

U.S. Caviar, Lolavar and Noroozi smuggled black market caviar into the U.S. starting in 1995. The defendants used false documents to cover up their smuggling law, and submitted false wildlife documents in violation of federal laws.

Lolavar and U.S. Caviar also admitted to committing mail fraud and exporting caviar from the U.S. in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

In imposing the sentence, Judge Williams stated that he had never seen "such sheer lawlessness and total disregard for the laws designed to protect our precious natural resources."

Declines in sturgeon and paddlefish populations worldwide led to their protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an international conservation treaty. CITES requires permits from the country of origin or re-export that identify the species, certify that the fish were taken legally, and show that trade represents no threat to the survival in the wild.

CITES is enforced in the United States under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

SPRAWL IMPERILS CALIFORNIA SPECIES

SAN DIEGO, California, February 21, 2001 (ENS) ­ A new National Wildlife Federation (NWF) White Paper finds for the first time on the basis of quantified research that sprawl is the leading cause of species imperilment in California.

Outranking all other factors, sprawl contributes to the imperilment of 188 of the 286 California species listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, or 66 percent of the state's listed species.

"This research underscores that wildlife imperilment is not just something that's happening 'out there,' far removed from metropolitan areas, but is increasingly occurring 'right here,' where the majority of people live and work," said NWF president Mark Van Putten, who released the findings in conjunction with the formal opening of NWF's Western Natural Resource Center in San Diego.

"These findings give added urgency to developing smart growth solutions to sprawl, solutions that conserve vital wildlife habitat," he said.

The White Paper, "Paving Paradise ­ Sprawl's Impact On Wildlife And Wild Places In California," also finds that sprawl is linked to several other causes contributing to species imperilment in California. Road construction, for example, which is often driven by sprawl, contributes to the imperilment of 84 of the 188 species that are also imperiled by sprawl.

"Research established some time ago that habitat loss is by far the major contributor to species imperilment in the United States," said Kevin Doyle, director of the Western Natural Resource Center and coordinator of NWF's Smart Growth and Wildlife campaign efforts there.

"Paving Paradise adds a finer grained definition by breaking habitat loss down into its constituent parts, as well as considering other causes of species imperilment," Doyle said. "The findings are a strong signal that wildlife and habitat need to be considered along with housing, transportation, and other land use planning elements as we work for smart growth alternatives to sprawl."

SCIENCE SUPPORTS RESTORATION PLAN FOR CALIFORNIA DELTA

SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 21, 2001 (ENS) - California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has been transformed by human activities. In the past three decades, monitoring programs have documented declines in living resources ranging from plants to fish.

Recovery of the Delta ecosystem is a priority for Californians. But restoration success depends on research to diagnose the causes of the Delta's illness so that the proper treatment can be applied, says a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Speaking to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Dr. James Cloern outlined the efforts of CALFED, a federal state consortium created in 1994 to restore populations of imperiled species and the ecosystems that sustain them.

Cloern's talk was one of six presented during a symposium on "The Role of Science in the Water Issues of Northern California." Cloern described a joint USGS/CALFED supported research project designed to learn whether the Delta ecosystem is malnourished.

The study shows that the growth of zooplankton, the food base of juvenile fishes, is limited in many Delta habitats by the supply of phytoplankton, which has declined over the past 30 years.

Some habitat types support high rates of phytoplankton production while others are unproductive. Both physical factors such as water depth, turbidity and tidal transports, and biological factors such as competition with clams, shape the supply of phytoplankton, the project has learned.

This project is an example of how the ecological approaches can guide the design of ecosystem restoration programs by identifying limiting factors and critical ecosystem functions, identifying the habitats that provide those functions, and defining the potential outcomes of habitat restoration.

"Our success at ecosystem restoration will be critically dependent upon new scientific investigations to: identify the functions required to sustain diverse populations of native biota; explain how those functions are impaired by human activities; and produce action plans that will preserve or rehabilitate those functions," Cloern concluded.

FEDERAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED TO HELP FIGHT FLORIDA WILDFIRES

WASHINGTON, DC, February 21, 2001 (ENS) - Federal funds have been made available by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help fight three uncontrolled multiple wildfires that threaten populated areas in Florida.

The state's requests for federal fire suppression aid were approved over the past weekend after it was reported that Lakeland, Caloosahatchee and Okeechobee fire complexes were endangering 900 homes and had forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 people in a 12 county area.

At the time of the requests, the Lakeland Complex, consisting of 24 fires, had burned more than 11,000 acres of land in the counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk, while the Caloosahatchee Complex containing four fires had scorched more than 450 acres in the counties of Collier, Hendry and Lee.

The Okeechobee Complex, including 20 fires, had consumed another 5,000 acres in the counties of Glades, Highlands, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie.

Under the authorization, FEMA will pay 70 percent of the state's eligible firefighting costs that are above $1,520,356. The figure, called a floor cost, is derived through a formula based on the state's five year annual average cost for fighting fires.

Federal fire suppression aid is provided through the President's Disaster Relief Fund and made available by FEMA to assist in fighting fires when they threaten to cause a major disaster. Eligible state firefighting costs covered by the aid can include expenses for field camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; tools, materials and supplies; and mobilization and demobilization activities.

OREGON TOWN SEEKS PERMANENT WATERSHED PROTECTIONS

WEST LINN, Oregon, February 21, 2001 (ENS) - The West Linn City Council has passed a unanimous resolution calling for additional protections for the Clackamas River Watershed in Oregon.

The resolution asks for a moratorium on all logging, roadbuilding and associated activities in roadless areas 1,000 acres or larger in size as well as groves of ancient forests. The Council also requested that Congress enact legislation to protect roadless areas 1,000 acres or larger, roadless areas adjacent to existing wilderness, and unprotected ancient forest.

"We have taken a stand to protect our quality of life," said West Linn Mayor David Dodds, who brought the resolution before the Council. "Clean drinking water emanating from the Clackamas Watershed is critical to our community. Undisturbed forests provide our very cleanest water and it is vital that they be protected."

This resolution grants city staff and members of the council greater power to work with public land managers to modify timber sales that may damage the watershed.

The City also voted to send a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman, requesting a comprehensive review of the Eagle Creek Timber Sale. Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman agreed to conduct a review after lobbying from Oregon's Congressional delegation, but no steps have been taken to begin looking at the issues raised by conservation groups, legislators and members of the public.

"The Council sent a strong message to the Forest Service and the Bush Administration," said Jeremy Hall of Oregon Natural Resources Council. "The questions and concerns about the Eagle Creek Timber sales raised consistently by hundreds of people who drink from the Clackamas watershed, the Congressional delegation, and the timber company who purchased these sales have never been answered or addressed. It is long past time to shine light on the problems with the Eagle Creek sales."

SHARK ATTACKS HIT RECORD HIGH IN 2000

GAINESVILLE, Florida, February 21, 2001 (ENS) - The number of shark attacks in the world hit an all time high in 2000, led by an upswing of incidents in the U.S. and Florida, a University of Florida (UF) study shows.

Last year's total of 79 unprovoked attacks on humans was the largest since the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a compilation of all known incidents, began recording statistics in 1958, said George Burgess, director of the file, which is housed at UF.

By comparison, 58 such attacks were recorded in 1999 and the annual average during the 1990s was 54, he said.

Contributing to last year's world record was an upswing in U.S. shark attacks from 37 in 1999 to 51 in 2000. In Florida, the number of attacks rose from 25 to 34 in the same period.

The increase is a result of more people spending time in the water, often in remote parts of the world. Also, a greater number of human shark skirmishes now come to the attention of the scientific community, thanks to news on the Internet and victims taking the initiative to report their own attacks via e-mail, Burgess said.

"Attacks are basically an odds game based on how many hours you are in the water," he said. "Some of these attacks are beginning to pop up in far flung corners of the Earth as tourists can afford to vacation in areas they wouldn't normally have gone to in the past."

"Unfortunately, lots of these tourists gleefully enter waters that natives - who learn over the years where to swim and not swim - might choose not to go into," said Burgess, an ichthyologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus.

Among the exotic island locales where tourists encountered sharks were Kiribati, the Galapagos, Fiji and the Indian Ocean's remote Reunion Island.

More information is available at: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm

REGISTER NOW TO WATCH PRAIRIE CHICKENS DANCE

WRAY, Colorado, February 21, 2001 (ENS) - Colorado's greater prairie chickens will soon be dancing and booming on the eastern plains, and now is the time to register for a guided trip to view the action.

In conjunction with the Colorado Division of Wildlife's Watchable Wildlife program, the East Yuma County Historical Society at the Wray Museum is accepting reservations for guided trips to view the birds perform their annual mating rituals. Reservations, which include overnight lodging in Wray, are available for weekends in March and April by calling the museum at 970-332-5063 during the day and 970-332-4209 in the evening.

Each year, wildlife enthusiasts and birdwatchers come from around the world to view greater prairie chickens and their mating dance. The tours, available through the Wray Museum for several weekends in March and April, are made possible through the cooperation of private landowners. Each trip includes an evening educational program presented by Division of Wildlife staff.

Participants are treated to watching the birds claim their place within the lek, or dancing grounds, by strutting, hopping and booming. Booming is the descriptive term for the bassoon like sound made by male prairie chickens as they inflate and deflate bright orange air sacs to establish their territory and impress females.

A special viewing blind, seating 20 people per trip, allow viewers to watch the birds without disturbing their mating rituals.

Greater prairie chickens were declared endangered in 1972, but have recovered due to cooperative efforts of local landowners and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. There are now about 9,000 to 12,000 greater prairie chickens in Colorado, most of which live on private property in the sandhill region of northeast Colorado.