• U.S. Denies Funding for Family Planning
  
• House Supports Controversial Fire Management Plan
  
• Sprawl May Threaten Wildlife in Reserves
  
• 63 Dams Slated for Removal in 2002
  
• Court Orders Bay Area Transit to Boost Ridership
  
• Shark Fin Test Can Identify Species
  
• Snakehead Fish Could be Banned
  
• Electric Barrier May Block Invasive Asian Carp
  

U.S. Denies Funding for Family Planning

Many conservation groups argue that international funding of family planning programs is crucial to stemming uncontrolled population growth that threatens the environment around the globe. UNFPA is the world's largest multilateral source of population assistance, with programs in some 140 countries to support reproductive health needs and sustainable development.

UNFPA said the $34 million would have allowed UNFPA to prevent two million unwanted pregnancies and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths. The United States is the only country ever to deny funding to the agency for non-budgetary reasons.

State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said the funds will be shifted to population programs administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The decision came after the State Department learned that China was using funds from UNFPA to support forced sterilization and abortions.

A 1985 U.S. law, the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, forbids U.S. funding to support programs that carry out "coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."

"While Americans have different views on the issues of abortion, I think all agree that no woman should be forced to have an abortion," Boucher said. "After careful consideration of the law and all the information that's available, including the report from the team that we sent to China in May, we came to the conclusion that the UN Population Fund monies go to Chinese agencies that carry out coercive programs."

U.S. officials have found no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in China, Boucher said, but they have found that UNFPA does support and work with agencies that do carry out such programs.

The head of UNFPA said that the decision will cost thousands of women and children their lives.

"The denial of these funds will, unfortunately, significantly affect millions of women and children worldwide for whom the life saving services provided by the UNFPA will have to be discontinued," UNFPA executive director Thoraya Obaid said at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York. "Women and children will die because of this decision."

According to UNFPA, the Bush Administration, in withholding funds, accepted allegations that the agency gives tacit support to China's one child policy just by working in the country.

"UNFPA has not, does not and will not ever condone or support coercive activities of any kind, anywhere," Obaid said. She stressed that the agency "remains steadfast as a leading voice for human rights" and for the principles enshrined in various international documents that condemn all forms of coercion.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said UNFPA did very essential work, "and we have made it clear that it does not go around encouraging abortions." The agency gives advice to women on reproductive health and does valuable work around the world, including in China, he said when asked to comment on the issue by CNN.

House Supports Controversial Fire Management Plan

By a voice vote, the House passed Resolution 352, expressing the sense of Congress that federal land management agencies should implement the "Collaborative 10 year Strategy for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment." The strategy was prepared by the Western Governors' Association, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, and other stakeholders in August 2001.

The controversial plan would reduce forest fuels including brush and small trees using a variety of tactics including prescribed burns and mechanical thinning. Many environmental groups oppose logging projects disguised as fire management, while supporting less invasive methods like controlled burns.

The resolution was introduced on March 14 by Representative Richard Pombo, a California Republican.

"Now, more than ever, is the time to put sound policy above election year politics and support effective and efficient ways to combat wildfires," Pombo said after Monday's vote. "We must make the tough decisions necessary to end catastrophic losses of wildlife habitat, forest resources and most importantly, human lives on our lands."

Pombo noted that the 2001 wildfire season saw 81,681 fires burn 3,555,138 acres, killing 15 firefighters and threatening rural communities across the nation. So far this year, almost 50,000 wildfires have burned 3,546,965 acres of public and private land across the nation, with the largest fires concentrated in the drought stricken western states.

The resolution passed by the House calls on federal land managers to "use an appropriate mix of fire prevention activities and management practices, including forest restoration, thinning of at risk forest stands, grazing, selective tree removal, and other measures to control insects and pathogens, removal of excessive ground fuels and prescribed burns."

"Reducing forest density and improving the ability of healthy forests to survive wildfires must be the number one priority for federal forest managers," states a summary prepared by the House Republican Conference. "Thinning practices … necessary to ensure our forests are able to survive future catastrophic wildfires must begin without delay."

Sprawl May Threaten Wildlife in Reserves

"Our findings suggest that alteration and destruction of the remaining productive habitats outside nature reserves will pose dire threats to many wildlife populations," wrote Andrew Hansen and Jay Rotella of Montana State University in the August issue of the journal "Conservation Biology."

Much of the world's development is concentrated near biodiversity hotspots. This is partly because private lands are more likely to have productive habitats such as lowlands and coastal and riparian areas, which have moderate climates, ample water and fertile soil.

In contrast, reserves are often at higher elevations and have poor soil, which makes them less productive. This disparity means that species in a reserve may depend on the more productive habitat on nearby private lands, making the species vulnerable to development outside the reserves.

Hansen and Rotella studied the effects of land use and habitat type on bird populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), where rural residential development is on the rise. Development has increased more than four times since 1970 in the Montana and Wyoming parts of the GYE.

The 3,600 square mile study area ranged from a high elevation plateau in Yellowstone National Park to privately owned lowlands. The researchers assessed bird abundance and diversity at 100 sites that represented the study area's range of topography, climate and soils.

The team found 135 bird species in the study area, and sites estimated to have 60 percent or more of the maximum bird abundance and diversity were designated as bird hotspots. The researchers also assessed the reproduction and population growth of American robins and yellow warblers at two types of sites: low elevation cottonwood stands and high elevation aspen stands.

Hansen and Rotella found that most of the bird hotspots were on or near private lands at low elevations. Only about seven percent of the bird hotspots were in reserves, concentrated at higher elevations.

Rural residential development was concentrated near the bird hotspots on private lands. Home densities were almost 70 percent higher within about a mile of hotspots than elsewhere on private lands.

Hansen and Rotella found that robins may depend on the low elevation hotspots. Their results suggest that robin populations are increasing in the cottonwood but not in the aspen sites. The researchers attribute this to the fact that the robin nesting season is two weeks longer in the low elevation cottonwoods than in the high elevation aspen, giving females more opportunity to make another nesting attempt if their first attempt fails.

The researchers also found that yellow warblers may already be threatened by development. Many of the cottonwood stands where the birds tend to concentrate are surrounded by rural residential development.

Areas with denser development have more nest predators, such as magpies and crows, and parasitic cowbirds, which lay their eggs in other birds' nests. The researchers found that cowbird parasitism of warbler nests was five times higher in cottonwoods than in aspens.

"These trends cast doubt on the viability of current strategies that rely on nature reserves for wildlife conservation and ignore intervening lands. Conservation strategies to protect population source areas outside reserves are likely necessary to reduce rates of future extinction in nature reserves," wrote Hansen and Rotella.

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63 Dams Slated for Removal in 2002

The nation's aging dam infrastructure, combined with a growing appreciation of the ecological impacts of dams, provided the impetus for the growing movement to remove unneeded dams, says American Rivers, which has been tracking planned dam removals since 1999. About 40 dams have been removed since 1999 when the breaching of Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River captured national attention.

Another milestone was reached in October of 2001, when conservationists celebrated the completion of a series of dam removals that restored 115 miles of the Wisconsin's Baraboo River, the longest stretch of river ever returned to free flowing condition in America.

"It's an exciting trend for our nation's rivers," said Elizabeth Maclin, director of American Rivers' Rivers Unplugged program. "The number of voluntary dam removals is clearly accelerating as the word gets out about the ecological and economic benefits."

The dams slated for removal this year represent a small fraction of the dams in place across the country. There are about 75,000 dams taller than six feet high and many thousands of smaller obstructions. The vast majority of the dams were built to run mills, control floods and create municipal and agricultural water supplies; less than three percent generate hydroelectricity.

While dams can provide valuable services, American Rivers argues that they come at a price - dams drown valuable habitat under reservoirs, block the annual migrations of fish, and can create downstream conditions that cannot support native fish and wildlife. As dams age, their benefits often diminish while maintenance costs and safety hazards increase.

The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that about 30 percent of America's dams have reached the end of their useful lives.

"Many dams have outlived their intended purpose and no longer provide any economic benefit," said Leon Szeptycki, eastern conservation director for Trout Unlimited. "Many communities have looked at their local dams and realized the dams provide virtually no benefits. Communities that do look at dam removal soon learn that a healthy river can enhance quality of life and be a tremendous economic asset."

"In Wisconsin, dam removal is, on average, three to five times less expensive than dam repair. And if you're a small town or an individual owner, that price difference can be the straw that breaks the dam's back," explained Helen Sarakinos, small dams program manager for the River Alliance of Wisconsin.

Court Orders Bay Area Transit to Boost Ridership

Monday's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson marks the conclusion of a lawsuit filed by community and environmental groups against the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in February 2001.

The groups filed to force implementation of TCM 2, a transportation control measure adopted 20 years ago by MTC to meet its Clean Air Act obligations to reduce air pollution by shifting people from their cars onto public transit. Transit ridership today is only slightly higher than it was in 1983, despite a 30 percent increase in the region's population.

Last November, Judge Henderson found that MTC is required by law to achieve and maintain the 15 percent ridership increase under the Clean Air Act and that it has failed to do so. In Monday's ruling, the court also "rejected MTC's arguments that TCM 2 is not linked to public health and that 'public health is simply not a factor in this case'."

"I'm glad to see that the court is going to hold MTC's feet to the fire to improve transit in the Bay Area," said Olin Webb of Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, lead plaintiff in the case. "We are going to make sure MTC spends the taxpayers' money wisely by providing reliable transit service in every Bay Area community, especially those neighborhoods who most depend on transit."

Besides ordering MTC to boost ridership, the Court also ordered the agency to amend the 25 year Regional Transportation Plan and Transportation Improvement Program adopted last winter "to include a section specifying how it will achieve full implementation of TCM 2."

"The extent to which MTC fought against implementing its own measure is disturbing," said Deborah Reames, the Earthjustice attorney representing the plaintiffs. "Bay Area commuters deserve fast and reliable transit options to choose from rather than being forced to sit in their cars for hours each day. It's MTC's job to provide those options. Complying with this measure by 2006 is not, after all, a particularly impressive goal - in fact, in terms of per capita ridership, our ridership will still be well under 1983 levels."

AC Transit and San Francisco MUNI were also named as defendants in the case, but both reached settlements with the plaintiffs. Under these settlements, they have agreed to produce plans that, if funded by MTC, will increase ridership.

"Public transit will finally be given the share of MTC's discretionary money required to meet its Clean Air Act requirements," said Richard Drury, attorney for Communities for a Better Environment.

Shark Fin Test Can Identify Species

Shark finning - chopping off the fins and tossing the rest of the animal back into the sea - is increasing worldwide to satisfy the demand in Asian markets for shark fin soup. The National Marine Fisheries Service has banned shark finning in federal waters of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

Tracking the practice where it still occurs is hard because isolated shark fins from different species often look the same.

"We have developed an efficient way to achieve accurate and rapid identification of shark body parts, including dried fins," said Mahmood Shivji of Nova Southeastern University's Guy Harvey Research Institute in Florida, who presents the work with five coauthors in the August issue of the journal "Conservation Biology."

Existing genetic tests that identify sharks from their body parts are too slow and expensive to be practical for monitoring the shark trade.

"Reliable quantitative assessment of the current level and impact of the shark fin harvest on the status of individual pelagic shark species is impossible," write Shivji and his colleagues.

The researchers have developed a new genetic shark identification test that is quick, accurate and less inexpensive. So far, they have developed tests for six shark species that are caught in the North Atlantic, either on purpose or as bycatch in the tuna and swordfish fisheries.

These sharks - blue, dusky, longfin and shortfin makos, porbeagle and silky - are also common in the global fin market.

Shivji and his colleagues evaluated the six shark tests on samples from 33 related species and found that they were almost 100 percent accurate. The one exception was that the dusky shark test was also positive for the oceanic whitetip shark sample. While both of these sharks are common in the North Atlantic fishery, they can be told apart because the whitetip shark has larger paddle like fins with rounded white tips.

To make the screening more efficient, the researchers combined the shark tests to see if they could analyze for six species at once. The combined test was also almost 100 percent accurate, again with the exception of the dusky/oceanic whitetip false positive.

Shivji and his colleagues then used the combined test on 75 dried fins from the Hong Kong commercial market. The results showed that the traders did not always identify the fins accurately: 10 of the 55 fins designated as silky sharks were from other species.

Shivji and his colleagues plan to develop genetic tests for the 35 or so major species of exploited sharks. They also envision panels of tests to target groups of shark species that are characteristic of different parts of the world.

Snakehead Fish Could be Banned

The move came after at least two adult and several young snakehead fish were found last month in a Maryland pond near Washington DC.

"These fish are like something from a bad horror movie," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said today.

"A number of these species can survive in the wild in freshwater almost anywhere in the United States. They can eat virtually any small animal in their path," Norton added. "They can travel across land and live out of water for at least three days. They reproduce quickly. They have the potential to cause enormous damage to our valuable recreational and commercial fisheries. We simply must do everything we can to prevent them from entering our waters, either accidentally or intentionally."

Norton's proposal would add the family of snakeheads, which includes 28 species native to Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Africa, to the federal list of "injurious wildlife" under the Lacey Act.

The proposed rule would give the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (UFSWS) and U.S. Customs inspectors the authority to stop and seize shipments of live snakehead fish or their viable eggs. Violations of the rule could carry penalties of up to six months in prison and fines as high as $5,000 for individuals or $10,000 for organizations.

Almost 17,000 snakeheads are known to have been imported in the U.S. between 1997 and 2000 for use as aquarium fish or food. Snakeheads are considered a delicacy by some Asian natives, and because snakeheads are air breathers, they can be shipped via air freight, reducing shipment costs.

Three species of the fish have been found in open waters in California, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and at least two have been established as reproducing populations, in Florida and Hawaii. Thirteen states already prohibit possession of live snakeheads, but many are still brought into these states illegally.

Scientists from the USFWS and the U.S. Geological Survey's Florida Caribbean Science Center began conducting a risk assessment of snakehead species in 2001, following the discovery of snakeheads in Broward County, Florida.

"Regrettably, the information we have collected - and certainly our recent experience in Maryland - indicates that snakeheads are very likely to escape or be released into the wild and possibly become established," said USFWS Director Steve Williams. "They will feed on native fish, amphibians, crustaceans, birds, small reptiles, and small mammals; they are likely to compete with our native species for food; they may spread parasites or pathogens to native species; and they will be extremely difficult to eradicate. They could pose a serious threat to some of our own endangered and threatened species."

Williams said there are no known limiting factors to the potential spread of snakeheads. While some of the tropical and subtropical species require warmer waters, the northern snakehead can survive even in cold water.

Comments on the proposal will be accepted for 30 days by Email at: snakeheads@fws.gov

Electric Barrier May Block Invasive Asian Carp

Preliminary research results show that more than 99 percent of bighead carp were deterred by a simulated electric barrier modeled after the actual one.

Using fish raceways to do controlled experiments, John Chick and Mark Pegg of the Illinois Natural History Survey are testing the effectiveness of the electric barrier, and exploring additional barrier technologies that could prevent the spread of Asian carp.

Two species of Asian carp, bighead and silver, are migrating closer to the actual barrier site, located near Romeoville, Illinois, and have been spotted as close as 25 miles from Lake Michigan.

The study monitored 381 attempts by bighead carp to pass through the simulated barrier, and found that just two of those attempts were successful. Only one fish went through the barrier, and in fact, did it twice.

"This was a smaller carp, which was not surprising. Smaller fish are less susceptible to the electric current," said Pegg.

Asian carp, which can grow to 50 pounds, were brought here for use in aquaculture in the 1970s, and escaped into the Upper Mississippi River System, where they have flourished.

"Asian carp consume zooplankton, which all fishes typically feed on in their juvenile stages, so they have the potential to adversely affect every species of fish in the Mississippi River and Great Lakes," added Pegg.

The electric barrier was turned on in April in an effort to stop non-native fish from moving between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin. The idea is that as fish pass through the barrier, they feel increasing levels of electricity, which leads them to turn around.

"Because the 60 feet wide barrier is not as strong higher up in the water column where Asian carp are typically found, there has been some concern that the electric field may not effectively repel the fish," said Pegg.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has asked Congress for funding to strengthen the electric barrier and to study other ways to keep invasive species from entering the Great Lakes.

Chick and Pegg plan to explore different scenarios using the present electric barrier technology, varying the strength and width of the electric pulse within the recommended safety guidelines. They will also experiment with other barrier methods including fish guidance systems that use sound and a wall of bubbles.

"We will test the effectiveness of these technologies and then try them in combination. Perhaps the fish can become used to one or the other, but in combination, they may prove successful," added Pegg.