• Grizzly Survival in Jeopardy Unless Habitat is Protected
  
• Yellowstone Park Opens to More Snowmobiles
  
• Appeal Filed Against New Mexico Lease Sales
  
• Olympic National Park Construction Illegal, Watchdogs Say
  
• Opponents Howl Over Alaska's Aerial Wolf Killing Plan
  
• More Tropical Rain Likely in a Warmer World
  
• Researchers Make Hydrogen From Ethanol
  
• Conservationists Honor Nevada's Mother of Wilderness
  

Grizzly Survival in Jeopardy Unless Habitat is Protected

The report, unveiled at an international conference of bear scientists in San Diego, finds that protected areas must be roadless and the majority of them must be off limits to grizzly bear trophy hunting.

To halt the decline of North America's landmark species, the report concludes that 68 percent to 84 percent of currently occupied grizzly habitat - some 360,000 square kilometers of the Canadian province - must be protected from all damaging human development, including industrial scale logging, mining, and motorized vehicle activity.

"The science in this document points to the need for the British Columbia government to end 10 years of broken promises and act immediately to protect adequate habitat for grizzlies across British Columbia," said Dr. Barrie Gilbert, lead author of the report.

Last month, the European Union suspended imports of grizzly hunting trophies from the Canadian province, after a unanimous decision by the 15 member nations that the provincial government was not acting on commitments to protect grizzly populations.

The British Columbia provincial government has proposed setting up three small coastal grizzly bear management areas, but the report's authors say these are too small to ensure grizzly survival. They warn that resource extraction would still be allowed.

The report details that the number and size of government management areas is inadequate, and will not do enough to maintain viable grizzly bear populations in the future.

Threatened U.S. grizzly bear populations in the U.S. Pacific Northwest remain heavily reliant on the crossborder movement of British Columbia grizzlies for their recovery and long term survival, the authors say.

The report notes that the United States plays a key role in protecting the destruction of grizzly bear habitat, as the chainsaws roar to supply wood to the U.S. market. Some 80 percent of all forest products harvested in Canada are exported to the United States, and almost one third of Canada's wood products are cut from British Columbia forests.

The report's authors say it is clear that habitat protection is critical for British Columbia's grizzly bears, and grizzly bears in the United States will benefit from that protection too.

Yellowstone Park Opens to More Snowmobiles

Appeal Filed Against New Mexico Lease Sales

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) sale was offered in October 2003, weeks after the Salt River Project (SRP) withdrew plans to develop the 18,000 acre Fence Lake coal strip mine.

"SRP's decision to pull the plug on the Fence Lake coal mine presented the BLM with a great opportunity to step back and carefully plan future management of this currently undeveloped area, which is rich with cultural resources and unspoiled land," said Brian Segee, Southwest public lands director with the Center for Biological Diversity.

"Instead of handing another huge area of New Mexico over to the oil and gas industry, BLM should finish ongoing planning efforts which ensure full protection of the Zuni Salt Lake and surrounding environment."

The appeal was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens Coal Council, and the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter.

Unlike many other areas of New Mexico, very little oil and gas production has occurred in the west-central portion of the state surrounding Zuni Salt Lake, in part because past exploration attempts have found few resources that could be profitably recovered.

But the recent explosion of coalbed methane production has energy corporations reconsidering such long overlooked areas. And coalbed methane creates unique environmental challenges - production involves extensive groundwater pumping, which creates pressure allowing the methane to rise to the surface.

The Bureau of Land Management's Socorro Field Office recommended that the lease parcels at issue not be sold, but that recommendation was overridden by the New Mexico state BLM office.

"Agency officials told us not to worry when we questioned them about rushing to lease this area. They said they would take care of preventing damage to the cultural and environmental resources later," said Carolyn Johnson, staff director of the Citizens Coal Council. "But BLM has earned a big, fat F and we can see what 'later' means today in northern New Mexico, western Colorado and central Wyoming."

"The agency allows the oil and gas drillers to go hog-wild, tearing up the land, polluting the water, and harassing ranchers and wildlife," Johnson said.

Olympic National Park Construction Illegal, Watchdogs Say

The two structures are three sided cabins, called trailside shelters, and they would be hoisted into the park's backcountry by Chinook helicopters.

These new shelters would replace two collapsed historic shelters that the park had allowed to deteriorate.

According to the park manager, repairing the old shelters was rejected because it would "not be healthful, productive, or esthetically and culturally pleasing to most [park] visitors or staff."

But PEER says that regardless of the aesthetics, the proposal violates the Wilderness Act.

This law is the fundamental statute that governs how the National Park Service administers congressionally designated wilderness of the Olympic and other national parks.

It categorically prohibits erecting "structures" in wilderness, bar an exception "…as necessary to meet the minimum requirements for the administration of the area for the purpose of this Act (including measures required in emergencies involving the health and safety of persons within the area)."

The Wilderness Act also makes allowances for historic structures, but the buildings park officials want to airlift are brand new. And the prefabs cannot be considered replicas of original shelters that once occupied the sites because they differ from the historic structures in significant ways.

"Flying new buildings with heavy lift helicopters is a misguided way to manage one of our country's premier wilderness parks," said Tim McNulty of Olympic Park Associates, a conservation group that focuses on the park. "With nearly a million dollars of flood destroyed trails and bridges this winter, there has to be a better use for limited dollars."

According to its proposal, Olympic National Park has spent more than $100,000 on the prefabs, even though the environmental assessment is not final and the public comment period extends to February 27.

"Talk about buying the horse before pricing the cart, Olympic National Park went ahead and built these structures before seeking public comment," said PEER Board member Frank Buono, a former longtime Park Service manager. "Every time the Park Service uses taxpayer dollars frivolously or illegally, it undercuts the argument that the parks would be OK if we just get Congress to appropriate more funds for them."

Opponents Howl Over Alaska's Aerial Wolf Killing Plan

The Alaska plan allows the shooting of wolves either directly from airplanes or after chasing the animals to the point of exhaustion and then landing the aircraft to kill them on foot.

The Alaska Board of Game approved the plan last November and approved its first round of permits last month. Some 42 wolves have already been killed and the plan calls for up to 140 wolves to be killed by the end of April.

Alaskan state officials contend the plan is needed to boost moose populations for hunters, but that is a violation of the Federal Airborne Hunting Act, according to Joel Bennett of Defenders of Wildlife Alaska.

The 1971 law was enacted to curtail the airborne hunting of wolves in Alaska, said Bennett who contends that clearly demonstrates that killing predators to increase game populations is illegal under the Act.

The limited exception written in the statute is only for persons operating under the authority of a state "to administer or protect or aid in the administration or protection of land, water, wildlife, livestock, domesticated animals, human life or crops."

"The act clearly does not allow killing wolves to boost prey populations or for sport hunting," Bennett said. "We believe that the Alaska aerial wolf control program is therefore illegal and should be halted immediately."

Alaska is home to the largest remaining population of gray wolves in the United States; scientists estimate some 7,000 to 9,000 wolves roam the state.

But unlike wolves in the lower 48 states, wolves in Alaska are not afforded protection under the Endangered Species Act, and wolf hunting is allowed in 95 percent of the state.

The approval of the aerial wolf killing plan came despite the fact that Alaskans have voted twice - in 1996 and 2000 - to ban the practice in statewide referenda.

In response, the conservation group Friends of Animals has set up 70 "Howl-Ins" during the past two months across the country in protest of the aerial killing and to rally support for a travel ban until the wolf policy is changed.

The organization says the howl-ins have rallied all types of individuals throughout the United States and Canada, all sending the message to Alaska officials that "wolf-killing is a national disgrace, and tourism to Alaska will be boycotted until it ends."

Information about the howl-ins can be found here.

More Tropical Rain Likely in a Warmer World

New research offers early proof of a long held theory that patterns of evaporation and precipitation, known as the water cycle, may accelerate in some areas due to warming temperatures.

The new study by scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center appears in the current issue of "Geophysical Research Letters."

"We believe there is a scenario where in a warmer climate there will be more warm rain," said study coauthor William Lau, a NASA scientist. "And more warm rain will be associated with a more vigorous water cycle and extreme weather patterns."

The study cites satellite observations showing that the rate at which warm rain depletes clouds of water is higher than computer models predicted.

The rate that water mass in a cloud rains out is known as the precipitation efficiency. The study finds that when it comes to light warm rains, as sea surface temperatures increase, the precipitation efficiency increases as well.

The study claims, for each degree rise in sea surface temperature, the rate a cloud loses its water to moderate to light warm rainfall over the tropical oceans increases by eight to 10 percent.

The study found warm rains account for 31 percent of the total global rain amount and 72 percent of the total rain area over tropical oceans, showing that warm rains play a crucial role in the overall water cycle.

Light warm rains appear to occur much more frequently, and cover more area, than cold rains, even though they drop less water per shower.

Lau and his team say that in a warmer climate, it is possible there will be more warm rain and fewer clouds.

If the amount of water entering into clouds stays constant and rainfall efficiency increases, then there will be less water in the clouds and more warm rains.

The researchers say more study is needed to better understand the relationship between increased warm rain precipitation efficiency and a rise in sea surface temperatures, and to determine how cold rain might be affected by an increase in warm rain and a decrease in cloud water amounts.

Researchers Make Hydrogen From Ethanol

When coupled with a hydrogen fuel cell, a unit small enough to hold in your hand could generate one kilowatt of power, almost enough to supply an average home, the researchers say.

The work will be published in the February 13 issue of the journal "Science" and the researchers say the technology is poised to remove a major stumbling block to the hydrogen economy - no free hydrogen exists, except what is made at high cost from fossil fuels.

Hydrogen is now produced exclusively by a process called steam reforming, which requires very high temperatures and large furnaces.

Hydrogen produced that way is unsuitable for any application except large scale refineries, said Lanny Schmidt, a University of Minnesota chemical engineering professor and the leader of the ethanol reactor study.

"The hydrogen economy means cars and electricity powered by hydrogen," said Schmidt. "But hydrogen is hard to come by. You cannot pipe it long distances. There are a few hydrogen fueling stations, but they strip hydrogen from methane - natural gas - on site. It is expensive, and because it uses fossil fuels, it increases carbon dioxide emissions, so this is only a short term solution until renewable hydrogen is available."

The researchers say ethanol is easy to transport and relatively nontoxic. Ethanol produced from corn is used in car engines today.

If ethanol were used instead to produce hydrogen for a fuel cell, the whole process would be nearly three times as efficient, Schmidt and his team say. A bushel of corn would yield three times as much power if its energy were channeled into hydrogen fuel cells rather than burned in a mixture with gasoline.

The invention rests on two innovations: a catalyst based on the metals rhodium and ceria, and an automotive fuel injector that vaporizes and mixes the ethanol-water fuel.

The vaporized fuel mixture is injected into a tube that contains a porous plug made from rhodium and ceria.

The fuel mixture passes through the plug and emerges as a mixture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and minor products.

The reaction takes only 50 milliseconds and eliminates the flames and soot that commonly accompany ethanol combustion.

In a typical ethanol-water fuel mixture, one could ideally get five molecules of hydrogen for each molecule of ethanol; reacting ethanol alone would yield three hydrogen molecules. The Schmidt team has so far harvested four hydrogen molecules per ethanol molecule.

Conservationists Honor Nevada's Mother of Wilderness

The former high school math teacher has been working to protect wilderness since the early 1950s, and has held nearly every volunteer leadership position in the Sierra Club's Toiyabe Chapter.

Her long history of dedication to conservation is being recognized this month by the Campaign for America's Wilderness, the Sierra Club, and The Wilderness Society.

"For more than 40 years, Marge Sill, Nevada's Mother of Wilderness, has been the rock of Gibraltar to the wilderness movement," says Roger Scholl, board member of Friends of Nevada Wilderness.

"Whether lobbying for the 1964 Wilderness Act, feeding and housing dozens of activists, hosting hundreds of wilderness strategy meetings in her living room, lobbying a long line of senators, congressmen, governors, and agency managers, writing a wheelbarrow full of testimony, or attending hundreds of meetings, she has simply always been there, working tirelessly and successfully to protect Nevada's magnificent wild places," Scholl said.

The Wilderness Heroes program is part of a yearlong countdown to the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act passed in 1964. Conservationists are using it to highlight the work of ordinary people making a difference in protecting the nation's public lands.

Sill and her husband, a long time national Sierra Club leader, have been wilderness activists wherever they have lived - in California, New Mexico, and for the last 45 years, in Reno, Nevada.

"I have always been a political creature - politics is really important to me," Sill said. "We would not get anywhere protecting wilderness unless we involved ourselves in political action."

During Sill's golden era of activism, the Wilderness Act was being debated in Congress and hotly denounced in Nevada.

The Act protected just one area in Nevada - the 64,667 acre Jarbridge Wilderness. Sill deserves much credit for helping to change that, conservationists say, in part by rallying support for the Nevada Wilderness Protection Act of 1989.

"Marge's tireless dedication to protecting the special places she loves in Nevada serves as an inspiration for a new generation of activists working to protect the wilderness in their backyards," said Carrie Sandstedt, conservation organizer with Sierra Club working on Nevada Wilderness issues.