• Feds Blame Klamath Fish Kill on Low Flows, High Fish Density
  
• Mixed Ruling on Bush Mining Law Revisions
  
• Judge Rules Against Forest Service in Goshawk Case
  
• Enviros Sue Bush to Protect Endangered Invertebrates
  
• Green Group Offers Good News On U.S. Pollution
  
• Tropical Volcanic Eruptions May Prompt El Nino Events
  
• Evergreen Needles Can Prevent Post Fire Erosion
  
• A Boost for Green Roofs in the Big Apple
  

Feds Blame Klamath Fish Kill on Low Flows, High Fish Density

The report reflects the belief of environmentalists, who say the Bush administration's decision in 2002 not to divert water from the Klamath Irrigation Project to increase flows for the fish caused the massive fish kill.

The study attributes the direct cause of death for most of the fish to an outbreak of two freshwater pathogens, Ich and columnaris.

Both pathogens are commonly found in the Klamath River, so additional factors combined to stress the fish and increase their susceptibility to the pathogens.

The Fish and Wildlife Service says the low flows collided with a high density of congregating fish, warm temperatures and a delayed upstream migration to spark the disease epidemic.

The report notes that average monthly flows in August and September 2002 on the lower Klamath River were the fifth lowest since 1978.

Hot weather left water temperatures higher than optimum for salmon, a condition exacerbated by the low flows.

The 2002 fall run of Chinook salmon returning to the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean was the eighth largest since 1978.

High densities of fish in the lower river, which allowed the pathogen outbreaks to spread quickly, according to the report.

Large numbers of fish congregated in the lower river one to two weeks earlier than normal, but a lack of rainfall or freshwater pulses left the fish with no cues to begin their upstream migration.

Bush administration officials stressed that it was multiple factors, not just low flows, that doomed the fish.

The findings are based on the best available scientific data, said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams, and "are consistent with those of the recent National Research Council report."

That report determined that diverting water from upstream farmers is not the key to protecting endangered and threatened fish in the Klamath Basin.

"As both reports make clear, the river's troubles are due to a multitude of factors, and improving the river will require a watershed effort by federal and state agencies, the tribes, and other stakeholders," Williams said.

The controversy over water flows from the Klamath Irrigation Project is certain to continue, as the supply of water that cannot meet all the demands.

The federal project, overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, provides irrigation water to some 220,000 acres of farmland, but the federal venture has played havoc with the hydrology of the basin.

The project has cut the total river flows during drought summers by as much as 80 percent compared to levels prior to construction of the irrigation project.

As a result, some 80 percent of the Klamath Basin wetlands are gone, entire lakes are drained and the salmon fishery has greatly diminished.

The Bush administration's irrigation management plan, which holds water levels at last year's levels, was found by a federal judge to be in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

The judge ordered the plan to remain in effect for 2003 while the federal agencies rewrite it, yet made no determination what should happen in 2004 if a new plan has not been finalized. This sets the stage for further controversy on April 1, 2004, when the next irrigation season begins.

Mixed Ruling on Bush Mining Law Revisions

"We lost the procedural battle, but we may have won the greater legal war," said Steve D'Esposito of the Mineral Policy Center, one of the plaintiffs in the case. "This ruling sends a strong message that mines that threaten community health and clean water can be rejected. And we think they should be."

Kennedy disagreed with the Bush administration's interpretation of federal law that the

According to the plaintiffs' lawyer in the case, Roger Flynn of the Western Mining Action Project, the court "agreed with the citizens' groups that the Interior Department has the obligation to protect public land from the most destructive mining practices."

The rules at question were issued in October 2001 by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Bush administration officials say the changes remove burdensome regulation while still protecting the environment, but the plaintiffs argued the rules substantially weaken and in some cases eliminate the agency's requirement under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to "take any action necessary to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation of the [public] lands.

Kennedy ruled that all of the revisions - bar one - did not "unreasonably implement the FLPMA … nor can the court conclude that the [Interior] Secretary acted arbitrarily or capriciously in promulgating the 2001 Regulations, such that this court may intervene."

The one revision Kennedy ordered the Interior Department to review and rewrite centers on ensuring that mining companies pay the government market value for operations conducted on unclaimed or inadequately claimed lands. Mining without valid claims is a common practice among mining companies in the western United States, according to the Mineral Policy Center.

Although he upheld most of the regulations, Kennedy noted that the administration's prioritization of the interest of miners over environmental protection "may well constitute unwise and unsustainable policy."

He cautioned the administration to ensure that the Interior Secretary follow the FLPMA's requirement that the agency prevent "unnecessary and undue degradation" to the environment by mining on public lands, although Kennedy acknowledged the statute is ambiguous on what this exactly means.

Kennedy agreed with plaintiffs that the BLM is required under FLPMA to reject mining permits that will cause "undue degradation" on public land. The administration had argued otherwise.

The plaintiffs latched onto this part of the 47 page ruling and Tom Myers of the Great Basin Mine Watch said the decision "shows clearly that the Interior Department not only has the authority to, but must deny mines that will unduly damage public lands."

Judge Rules Against Forest Service in Goshawk Case

Conservation groups filed suit in December 2000 against the agency, arguing that it had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) through its determination that logging in 8 million acres of ponderosa pine habitat in Arizona and New Mexico national forests does not have an environmental impact on the Northern goshawk.

The Forest Service goshawk management plan guiding logging operations in these areas was first implemented in 1992 in response to concerns by environmentalists and researchers that goshawks were being harmed by the logging of mature and old growth trees.

Federal and state agencies - including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Interior, Arizona Game and Fish Department, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish - criticized the plan for allowing continued old growth logging, but it was formally adopted by the Forest Service as a permanent plan in 1996.

The court agreed with the plaintiffs that the Forest Service had failed to consider or disclose to the public these concerns and extensive scientific evidence that the goshawk prefers old growth and mature forest for breeding and foraging in its development the plan.

"We find the final [Environmental Impact Statement] fails to disclose and discuss responsible opposing scientific viewpoints in the final statement itself in violation of NEPA and the implementing regulations," the court wrote.

The ruling overturns a decision by a federal district court in Arizona that determined the Forest Service had not violated NEPA.

"This suit is an important milestone in the effort to protect declining goshawk populations and the increasingly rare old growth forests that they depend upon," said Brian Segee, Southwest Public Lands director with the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the suit along with the Sierra Club. "This decision provides an opportunity for the Forest Service to develop new management direction which allows fuel reduction measures such as prescribed burning and thinning of small diameter trees to go forward while ensuring that large trees and mature forests are preserved."

Enviros Sue Bush to Protect Endangered Invertebrates

Filed by the Center for Biological Diversity on Monday, the legal action aims to force the administration to designate critical habitat for three endangered aquatic invertebrate species endemic to two counties in Texas.

The suit centers on the plight of the Comal Springs riffle beetle, the Peck's cave amphipod, and the Comal Springs dryopid beetle.

All three species were designated as endangered on December 18, 1997 under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Once a species is listed, the law requires the Fish and Wildlife Agency to designate critical habitat, which refers to specific geographic areas considered essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species.

But the Bush administration does not believe designating critical habitat helps species recover, a position that has prompted conservation groups to resort to legal action to force critical habitat designations.

The process of designating critical habitat is too time consuming and expensive, Bush administration officials say, because of litigation and because it requires the agency to prepare detailed maps of species habitats, provide time for public comment and complete economic analyses of the critical habitat designation. Officials say the average cost of designating critical habitat for a species is $400,000 and contend that they could list two species for that same sum.

Recovery of listed species, officials say, will come through voluntary cooperative partnerships, not regulatory measures such as critical habitat.

Conservationists believe otherwise and say federal data supports their view.

"Research using U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data shows that species with critical habitat are less likely to decline and twice as likely to be recovering as those without," said Daniel R. Patterson, an ecologist with the Center. "As urban sprawl and groundwater overdraft grow, the Bush administration is ignoring its legal duty to protect habitat for these unique animals of Texas' natural heritage."

The water flowing out of the four springs that supports the three species comes from the Edwards Aquifer, which extends from Hays County west to Kinney County.

The conservation group says the primary threat to these species is a decrease in water quantity and quality as a result of overdraft and other human activities throughout the San Antonio segment of the Edwards Aquifer.

And protecting these species' critical habitat will have a positive effect to humans in that it will ensure quality water for future generations and will maintain a healthy ecosystem, Patterson contends.

In addition, continuing spring flow is economically important both in the vicinity of the springs for water recreation and downstream as far as the Gulf of Mexico, where fresh water inflow to bays and estuaries is essential to recreational and commercial fisheries.

Other threats to habitat include the potential for groundwater contamination.

Green Group Offers Good News On U.S. Pollution

The analysis is available through Environmental Defense's Web site www.scorecard.org.

Scorecard is based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) most recently available Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data from 2001. A zip code search function at the Web site allows visitors to see an overall picture of the pollutants in their community.

Launched five years ago, the site translates environmental data into an easy to find and easy to understand format for the public, the organization says.

"Scorecard is the spotlight that makes industrial polluters visible to the public," said Dr. John Balbus, director of the environmental health program at Environmental Defense.

"While it is encouraging that reported releases of toxic chemicals have declined since Scorecard launched, Environmental Defense wants to make sure that the light on polluters never goes out," Balbus said. "The more people know about the health risks they face the more pressure industry will feel to reduce harmful chemicals or replace them with safer ones."

Environmental Defense reports that among the forty states that had decreases in reported releases of recognized carcinogens between 2000 and 2001, Mississippi experienced the greatest reduction, with a 2.37 million pound decrease.

Among those states showing increases, South Carolina suffered the largest increase with 315,000 pounds.

In 2001, the chemicals and allied products industries were the biggest source of airborne carcinogens, releasing over 20 million pounds into the nation's air.

The organization found that Mobile County, Alabama experienced the largest reported releases of recognized developmental toxicants - pollutants linked to birth defects and other developmental problems

Among the 42 states with decreases in recognized developmental toxicants, Tennessee showed the greatest reduction with 12.7 million pounds.

Virginia had the largest increase in recognized developmental toxicants with 429,000 pounds.

The chemical and allied products industries were also the largest source of airborne developmental toxicants, releasing over 22 million pounds.

The mining and electrical power generation sectors were the top sources of reported toxic chemical releases in the United States.

Tropical Volcanic Eruptions May Prompt El Nino Events

The scientists explain that when a volcano erupts in the tropics, its aerosol emissions spread into the stratosphere across the northern and southern hemispheres. This reflects some of the sun's heat back toward space and thereby cooling the Earth's atmosphere.

The cooling alters the interaction between the oceans and atmosphere, the scientists say, possibly encouraging a warming response in the Pacific Ocean as the massive body of water attempts to restore an initial equilibrium.

"Our results suggest that the atmospheric cooling from an eruption may help nudge the climate system towards producing an El Nino event," said study coauthor Michael Mann, an assistant professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia.

The results of the study will appear in the November 20 issue of the journal "Nature."

Mann says that some scientists had previously noted that during the 20th century, El Nino events - the periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific - tended to follow the eruption of volcanoes in the tropics.

But that 100 year period, the only time span for which reliable instrumental records had been kept, was considered too short a duration to substantiate a link between the two phenomena.

Mann and his colleagues turned to the paleoarchives for a longer history, looking back over a 350 year period.

The paleoclimate records are called 'proxy records', because they are not direct measurements of current climate and ocean conditions, but instead are reconstructions of past conditions gleaned from the physical, biological, or chemical records or, "signatures," stored in natural archives in the environment.

"We actually did not expect the relationship to hold up in the long run," Mann said, but the scientists found credible evidence that volcanic activity in the tropics may play a significant role in the occurrence of El Nino events.

Mann and his colleagues report that when they counted - year by year - the separate events and brought them together for comparison, they found that there was a nearly one in two chance that an El Nino event will occur after a volcanic eruption in the tropical zone, roughly double the normal probability.

"I would not call this a tight connection - it is not a one to one relationship," Mann said, "but it appears that the eruption of a tropical volcano nudges the climate towards a more El Nino like state."

The scientists say the findings could help better understanding of how El Nino responds to changes in natural factors and to more recent human influences on climate.

Evergreen Needles Can Prevent Post Fire Erosion

In a report to appear in the American Geophysical Union's "Water Resources Research," researchers explain that ponderosa pine needles were effective in reducing erosion caused by water running over the soil, and Douglas fir needles were effective in reducing erosion caused by rain hitting and splashing into soil.

These findings could help post fire rehabilitation teams decide where to apply treatments to reduce erosion.

"If you see brown needles in the trees, then let us take advantage of Mother Nature and not add any treatments to that area of the forest," said study coauthor Peter Robichaud, who has been studying and modeling erosion after prescribed and wildfire for 13 years, directs several treatment effectiveness projects in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Washington.

Robichaud and his colleague explain that wildfires usually burn in mosaics, with patches of low, moderate, and high severity.

In areas of low or moderate severity, needles from partially burned conifer trees fall to the ground within a few months after the fire.

Robichaud noticed that needle cover seemed to reduce erosion on forest soils after a fire and used an artificial rain laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forestry Science Laboratory in Moscow, Idaho, to see how much burnt needles could reduce erosion.

The study revealed that a 50 percent ground cover of Douglas fir needles reduced water flow erosion by 20 percent and rain induced erosion by 80 percent. A 50 percent ground cover of ponderosa pine needles reduced water flow erosion by 40 percent and rain-induced erosion by 60 percent.

A Boost for Green Roofs in the Big Apple

The project - GreeningGotham.org - has been created by Earth Pledge, a New York based environmental nonprofit organization, in order to raise public awareness and support for green roof development.

Created with support from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Web site's goal is to accelerate the development of green roofs in New York City by raising awareness about the many benefits of vegetated rooftops. The resource aims to provide visitors with clear, actionable steps they can take to promote, support, and implement high quality, ecologically sound green roofs here and throughout the country.

Earth Pledge developed the Web site as part of its Green Roofs Initiative, which is committed to accelerating implementation of a citywide green roof infrastructure as a solution to the city's pressing environmental and human health problems.

"We wanted to really communicate what green roofs would mean for the city, aesthetically and functionally," said Leslie Hoffman, Earth Pledge executive director. "Greening Gotham.org provides tools and projects that will help achieve the development of a citywide infrastructure of vegetated rooftops."

Along with Bloomberg, Speaker of the City Council Gifford Miller, NYC Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Chris Ward, U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel, and several environmental groups have signed onto support the project.

Greening Gotham.org offers up to date news on NYC's environmental issues and green roof projects in the metropolitan area, providing critical, neutral information about green roof technology and function.

Supporters say green roofs - lightweight engineered roofing systems - can be planted with succulents and native flowers that thrive on little more than rain water, providing thousands of acres of new green space for city dwellers of all species.

They note that green roofs can ameliorate a number of serious environmental challenges facing New York City and other urban areas choked by dense development. Green roofs can improve air quality, mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce storm water runoff pollution and combined sewage overflow, preventing the release of contaminants and raw sewage into local waterways.