• Energy Department Rolls Out Revised Hydrogen Plan
  
• Bison Killing Continues in Yellowstone
  
• Corps Enforcement of Clean Water Act Erratic
  
• Invasive Zebra Mussels Have Harmful Algae Side Effect
  
• New Front in the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse Battle
  
• Coalition Seeks Protection of Northern Goshawk Habitat
  
• Texas Family Praised for Protection of Rare Toad
  
• U.S. Conservationists Help Save Siberian Tiger
  

Energy Department Rolls Out Revised Hydrogen Plan

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the plan includes timelines that provide clear and scientific measures to track and demonstrate progress. "If we achieve our technical objectives, the automotive and energy industries will be in a position to begin to mass market availability of both vehicles and refueling infrastructure by 2020," he said.

Abraham said the plan integrates research, development and demonstration activities from the Energy Department's renewable, nuclear, fossil and science offices.

An integrated hydrogen program will improve the effectiveness and accountability of the department's research activities, he said, and increase the probability of success in achieving technical milestones on the road to a hydrogen economy.

Abraham touted the administration's fiscal year 2005 budget request for $227 million for research to support the hydrogen fuel initiative and its support for FreedomCAR, which provides $90 million annually for research into hybrid components and other advanced vehicle technology.

The new plan follows a report issued last month by a National Research Council committee, which questioned the timetable laid out by the administration.

The panel praised the intent of the federal hydrogen plan, but said the "extreme challenges set by senior government and Energy Department leaders" have created a "somewhat unfocused" program with unclear priorities.

The initiative has been promoted by the White House as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce dependence on foreign oil. A key goal is to make it practical and cost effective for U.S. consumers to use clean, hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles by 2020.

That is unlikely, the committee said, given the wide array of technical, economic and infrastructure challenges.

Hydrogen has long been peddled as the next great energy revolution. It can be produced by splitting water into its two component atoms - hydrogen and oxygen. When used for power in a fuel cell, the only byproducts are water and heat.

But the National Research Council committee said there is little existing capacity for hydrogen production, which remains expensive, and fuel cell technologies face challenges of storage, cost, reliability and safety.

Environmentalists are skeptical of the Bush plan and view it as more hype than substance.

Many believe the key to the environmental friendliness of the hydrogen economy is how the fuel is produced - and this is where critics say the Bush administration has got it all wrong.

The focus should be on using renewable, pollution free sources to produce hydrogen, rather than natural gas, coal and nuclear power, environmentalists say, and in the meantime the nation should adopt conservation and efficiency measures to cut pollution now.

Bison Killing Continues in Yellowstone

Corps Enforcement of Clean Water Act Erratic

The report, by the investigative arm of Congress, centers on the Corps' actions in wake of the 2001 Supreme Court ruling in the case of the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, commonly known as the SWANCC decision.

The Supreme Court ruled in SWANCC that the Army Corps had overstepped its authority under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which requires that anyone planning to discharge dredged or fill material into navigable waters must first obtain a permit from the Corps.

In particular, the Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of pollutants into "navigable waters" defined in the law as "waters of the United States" unless the polluter has a permit.

The Court ruled by a 5-4 majority that the Army Corps could not protect intrastate, isolated, non-navigable ponds solely based on their use by migratory birds.

The ruling prompted the Bush administration to issue new guidance in January 2003 that ordered the Army Corps to not to require permits under the Clean Water Act for the pollution or destruction of wetlands that are located within a single state and are not associated with any navigable waterway.

The General Accounting Office was asked to see how the Corps was carrying out that guidance.

The GAO reported an array of "differing approaches" in how criteria are applied, but could not determine the ultimate effect of these differences "in part because Corps staff consider many factors when making these determinations."

"Nevertheless, Corps headquarters officials stated that GAO had documented enough differences … to warrant a more comprehensive survey."

Conservation groups, which have been critical of the Corps and the new guidance for the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, say the GAO has only reported the tip of the iceberg.

An investigation by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), using data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with key personnel in selected Corps Districts, found that the scale of unregulated destruction and pollution resulting from the misleading guidance is escalating and could become massive.

For example, In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Corps has determined that the Clean Water Act protections do not apply to the water resources listed in at least 840 cases since the SWANCC decision. While only two-thirds of the cases document the acreage of waters to be impacted, the agency has found that at least 4,000 acres of water resources could be polluted, dredged or filled without federal authorization.

In Galveston, Texas, the Corps has determined that Clean Water Act protection no longer apply to more than 10,000 acres in the district. Moreover, NWF's research finds that many developers are no longer checking with the agency to see if a permit is even required.

"This overreaching guidance creates the illusion of a loophole in the law," said Jim Murphy, NWF Water Resources Counsel. "It misleads the Corps field staff into thinking that many types of waters have lost Clean Water Act protection when they have not."

Invasive Zebra Mussels Have Harmful Algae Side Effect

A new study warns they are doing something else, encouraging algae that emit a toxic substance. The research finds that inland lakes in Michigan full of zebra mussels have higher levels of algae that produce a toxin that can be harmful to humans and animals, according to a Michigan State University (MSU) researcher.

In a paper published in the current issue of the journal "Limnology and Oceanography," Orlando Sarnelle, an associate professor in MSU's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and colleagues report that lakes inhabited by zebra mussels have, on average, three times higher levels of a species of blue-green algae known as microcystis.

Those same lakes also have about two times higher levels of microcystins, a toxin produced by the algae.

"If these blooms of blue-green algae are a common side effect of zebra mussel invasion, then hard fought gains in the restoration of water quality may be undone," Sarnelle said. "Right now, it appears that the numbers of blooms in Michigan have been increasing and appear to be correlated with the spread of zebra mussels."

Initially, water samples were taken from nearly 100 inland lakes in Michigan's Lower Peninsula that had established zebra mussel populations.

Follow up experiments by Sarnelle and colleagues in west Michigan's Gull Lake showed that zebra mussels are the cause of the increase in toxic algae.

There have been documented cases in which animals, including cattle and dogs, died after drinking water with high levels of microcystins. The toxin is also believed to be responsible for liver damage in humans.

Surprisingly, zebra mussels seem to have no effect on the amount of blue-green algae in lakes with high levels of phosphorus, a nutrient that builds up in lakes and other bodies of water as a result of erosion, farm fertilizer run-off and human waste.

In contrast, zebra mussels cause an increase in toxic microcystis in lakes with low to moderate levels of phosphorus, anywhere between 10 and 25 micrograms per liter. Such lakes are not normally expected to have very many blue-green algae, Sarnelle said.

"Our data suggest that zebra mussels promote microcystis at low to medium phosphorous levels - not at very low or very high phosphorous levels," he said. "However, we are still not sure why this happens."

New Front in the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse Battle

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the species as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1998.

The species is found only in eastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming - an areas known as Colorado's Front Range - where it lives along streams and rivers.

Conservationists and agency biologists see the decline of the species as a direct result of sweeping development along the range.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has designated some 31,000 acres as critical habitat for the mouse.

But federal protection of the mouse has frustrated Western developers, farmers and private landowners, who believe the restrictions put in place to protect the mouse are ineffective and unnecessary.

In December, the Fish and Wildlife Service denied three petitions to remove the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from the endangered species list.

In its decision, the agency determined that the mouse is a "valid, scientifically accepted subspecies of meadow jumping mice."

The state of Wyoming responded to the decision by filing a new petition calling for the delisting of the Preble's mouse, and the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a Denver conservative legal center, filed suit in federal court challenging the listing of the Preble's mouse.

The conservation groups seek to intervene in that suit to defend the mouse's protected status.

"The best science clearly shows that the Preble's meadow jumping mouse needs protection," observed Erin Robertson, staff biologist for Center for Native Ecosystems. "Removing protection for the Preble's mouse would mean continued habitat destruction, more streams destroyed, more Front Range water polluted, not to mention a greater risk that the Preble's mouse becomes extinct."

Coalition Seeks Protection of Northern Goshawk Habitat

The imperiled raptor lives within mature and old growth forests in the northern Rockies, many of which have been depleted by a century of logging.

The petition was filed under the Administrative Procedures Act, a federal law that gives citizens the right to petition government agencies to issue a rule. The petition includes all national forests in Idaho, Montana and western Wyoming.

"Extensive loss of old growth forests in the northern Rockies necessitates immediate protection for the goshawk, including protection of all existing old growth forest and all road less areas over 1,000 acres," said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The petition was filed by the Center, along with Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Idaho Conservation League and Wyoming Wilderness Association.

Most other regions of the Forest Service have enacted guidelines to protect the goshawk, including national forests in the Southwest, California, Utah and Alaska.

These guidelines prohibit cutting around goshawk nest sites and limit cutting within goshawk home ranges.

"Despite similar concern for the goshawk in regions with protective regulations and the northern Rockies, national forests in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have failed to enact substantial regulations to protect the goshawk," says Jeremy Nichols, endangered species coordinator for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "This failure is resulting in continued harm to goshawks in the northern Rockies."

According to documents obtained from the Forest Service, 183 projects in the northern Rockies potentially impacted individual goshawks or goshawk habitat in just one three year period - from 1999 through 2002.

Most projects were timber sales, but also included road construction, prescribed burning, recreation development and general construction.

The projects potentially impacted at least 229 goshawk territories and as many as 252 of the birds' territories. Only 372 goshawk territories are known on national forests in the northern Rockies, suggesting the Forest Service is impacting a substantial proportion of the goshawk population.

"Without protective measures, the cumulative impacts of timber sales and other projects will lead to the continued decline and eventual extirpation of the goshawk in the northern Rockies," said Liz Howell, executive director of the Wyoming Wilderness Association. "This death by a thousand cuts is a clear violation of the Forest Service's mandate to maintain the health of our national forests and the species that depend on them."

The petition asks the Forest Service to develop guidelines to protect the goshawk in the northern Rockies, recommending pre-project surveys for goshawks, and prohibition of logging and other destructive activities within 60 percent of goshawk home ranges and in 510 acre areas around known nest sites.

The petition also recommends instituting forest-wide protections for all remaining roadless areas of more than 1,000 acres and all remnant old growth forest stands.

Texas Family Praised for Protection of Rare Toad

The federal agency and the nonprofit group praised the efforts of Robert K. Long, Sr. and his family for their partnership to create, enhance and restore habitat on the their 540 acre ranch to benefit the endangered Houston toad.

A ceremony recognizing the partnership was held Wednesday at the Long family's property, the L & L Ranch, in Bastrop County, Texas.

Environmental Defense has worked with the Long Family and the Fish and Wildlife Service over the past year to develop a Safe Harbor Agreement that outlines specific management actions designed to provide a net conservation benefit to the Houston toad.

This kind of agreement is a voluntary arrangement between the federal government and non-federal landowners that are designed to benefit endangered species while providing landowners assurances that they will not incur additional restrictions on their property due to their beneficial actions.

Conservation measures outlined in the agreement include activities to facilitate the Houston toad's reproductive success, improve the quality of foraging and other habitat areas, and enhance movement between foraging and breeding areas for the toad on the ranch.

The Houston toad was listed as endangered on October 13, 1970. The species is characterized as a small to medium sized toad that varies in color from light brown to reddish to gray. It was historically known to occur in 12 Texas counties, but is now believed to only reside in nine counties.

The most robust of the remaining Houston toad populations occurs in Bastrop County in association with the "Lost Pines" ecosystem, characterized by pine and oak woodlands and deep sandy soils.

"Partnerships such as this, where agencies and private land owners work together with common goals present true opportunities for species recovery," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Regional Director H. Dale Hall.

Several agencies such as Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Department of Agriculture, and the Natural Resources Conservation Services are also expected to participate in the implementation of the Safe Harbor program on the L & L Ranch.

U.S. Conservationists Help Save Siberian Tiger

Scientists estimate only 400 Siberian tigers remain in the wild.

Two Russian students hiking in the woods discovered the animal after they heard it roaring in distress.

After they found the snare wrapped around the tiger's body, the students notified forest guards staying in a cabin a few miles away.

A team of experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Inspection Tiger from Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Tiger Response Team, arrived on the scene and anesthetized the tiger so it could be removed from the snare.

The eight to 10 year old male tiger, which weighed about 400 pounds, had numerous abrasions from the snare, but overall appeared healthy.

As a precaution, the team moved the animal to a holding area where it could be observed to make sure it had no internal injuries.

Officials believe poachers set the snare specifically to catch tigers, which they would have killed and sold for their skin and body parts.

After the tiger was given a clean bill of health, it was fitted with a radio collar. It will be tracked by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists as part of a long term study to better understand and ultimately protect the big cats.

"The release went well," said WCS scientist John Goodrich, who participated in the animal's rescue and release. "The tiger leapt from his cage about a minute after the door was opened. He then bounded about 20 meters into the forest, stopped, turned, and growled, before walking calmly away."

The Wildlife Conservation Society's conservation efforts to save tigers in the Russian Far East and throughout their range are featured in "Tiger Mountain," a new exhibit that opened at the Bronx Zoo last May.