• Congress Lifts Restraint on Mining Roads Through Public Lands
  
• Critics Say Bush's Air Rule Revisions Will Harm Public Health
  
• Pressure Grows to Phase Out Flame Retardant Chemicals
  
• Ecologists Praise Wolf Reintroduction in Yellowstone
  
• Scientists Gather to Probe Arctic Environmental Change
  
• Female Wolf Spiders Prefer a Familiar Male
  
• The End May Be Near for Fuzzy, Moldy Fruit
  
• New Permit Created for Orphaned Migratory Birds
  

Congress Lifts Restraint on Mining Roads Through Public Lands

The provision was passed by the House, but is not included in the final version of the $20.17 billion fiscal year 2004 appropriations bill, which was released by the conference committee on Monday.

"This was a truly radical move," said Kristen Brengel of The Wilderness Society. "By removing their own compromise language, the House leadership has signaled that parks, refuges, and wilderness are on the chopping block and ready to be carved up by roads."

The provision would have put formal limits on how federal officials process claims under the 1866 law, which was intended to grant the right to construct and use highways across public lands that were not otherwise reserved or protected for other public use.

Although repealed in 1976, claims on right of ways prior to the repeal can still be made and critics say the Bush administration is keen to allow local and state governments to pursue claims that could turn environmentally sensitive lands into roads and developments.

Administration officials say the policy only applies to existing publicly traveled and regularly maintained roads and would not apply to environmentally sensitive areas and national parks.

But conservationists - and some lawmakers - are not convinced. The bipartisan language removed from the spending bill would have formally protected some public lands from claims by local or state governments made under the law.

Absent any language, critics believe states will line up dubious claims for highway construction.

"The loophole created by the Bush administration's new rule would sidestep these existing laws, limit the public's voice in the decision making process, and literally pave the way for the ruin of some of the most magnificent landscapes that belong to all Americans," said Randy Moorman, legislative research associate with the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice.

Critics Say Bush's Air Rule Revisions Will Harm Public Health

The report adds to a growing debate about the administration's changes to the federal air regulation that governs pollution from the nation's oldest and dirtiest industrial facilities.

The Bush administration says the changes provide needed relief to the nation's electricity generators and will not result in any significant changes in emissions.

Industry groups have supported the New Source Review changes - contending that the unwieldly language of the program prevented operators from efficiency upgrades that will benefit the public and reduce emissions.

But more than a dozen states are challenging the revised regulations in federal court and Senate Democrats have asked the EPA to investigate allegations that administration officials lied to Congress about the impacts of its changes.

PIRG's report centers on its analysis of data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on power plant emissions in 2002.

The report hones in on the nation's 542 oldest power plants, which PIRG says constitute about half the power plants nationwide, but are responsible for annual emissions of some 4.4 million pounds of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 10 million tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2).

The authors say the majority of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution can be cleaned up with readily available pollution controls and should be cleaned up under the Clean Air Act, but both would be left untouched under the rule revisions.

"It is high time to require old power plants to meet the same pollution standards that have been met by newer plants for years," said U.S. PIRG's Brandon Wu, the author of the report. "Doing so would prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths from heart and lung disease each year."

PIRG's report says failing to curb emissions from these plants will hit Americans hardest in the Midwest and Southeast.

The environmental group says the administration's new rules will allow some 7.1 million tons of SO2 emissions, and 2.7 million tons of NOx emissions to go unchecked.

Pressure Grows to Phase Out Flame Retardant Chemicals

Recent research indicates that the chemicals - developed in the 1960s - could cause neurological and development disorders in children.

PBDEs accumulate in the body, much like mercury, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls and a recent study found that North American women with the highest level of PBDEs ever recorded.

How the chemicals get into the environment is still uncertain, but PBDEs are being found worldwide in house dust, indoor and outdoor air as well as in the water and sediments of rivers, estuaries and oceans.

According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the agency is working on a voluntary agreement with Great Lakes Chemical Co. of West Lafayette, Indiana to end the manufacture and sale of penta and octa PBDE.

The company is the only U.S. manufacturer of the chemicals.

Both penta - used to make furniture flame retardant - and octa, which is used to protect casings for electronics devices, will be banned in the European Union starting next year. In August, California passed a law to phase out the two chemicals by 2008.

"Frankly, we did not expect the EPA to act so quickly, but it shows that they are taking seriously the mounting evidence that flame retardants are a threat to human health and are rapidly accumulating in our bodies," said EWG Analyst Sonya Lunder.

Lunder notes that a third form of the chemical also used to protect electronics - deca PBDE - appears not to be under discussion and says phasing that out will be "the real test."

Ecologists Praise Wolf Reintroduction in Yellowstone

The scientists found a common pattern throughout a study area within the elk's winter range along the Lamar River of Yellowstone National Park - lots of seedlings in combination with large cottonwood trees generally more than 70 years old, but little or nothing in between.

The systemic killing of wolves in the Yellowstone region was completed in 1926, coinciding with the "historical decline of cottonwoods" that has continued up to the last couple of years, says study coauthor Robert Beschta, an ecologist at Oregon State University.

Young cottonwoods, willows, and other streamside woody species are a preferred food for browsing elk during the harsh winters in northern Yellowstone, when much of the other forage is buried under snow.

While elk populations fluctuated over the decades when wolves were absent, browsing behavior appears to represent an important factor related to streamside impacts.

With no fear of wolves, the elk could graze anywhere they liked and for decades have been able to wipe out nearly all the young cottonwoods.

Other streamside species such as willows and berry producing shrubs also suffered, the ecologists explain, a development that rippled through the entire streamside ecosystem and associated wildlife, including birds, insects, fish and others.

Beschta says that with the recent reintroduction of wolves back into Yellowstone in 1995, streamside shrubs and cottonwoods within the Lamar Valley are beginning to become more prevalent and taller, and were the focus of a second study in the same area.

That study outlines how the fear of attack by wolves apparently prevents browsing elk from eating young cottonwood and willows in some streamside zones.

The ecologists say that with the renewed presence of wolves, young cottonwoods and willows have been growing taller each year over the last four years on "high risk" sites, where elk apparently feel vulnerable due to terrain or other conditions that might prevent escape.

In contrast, on "low risk" sites, they are still being browsed by elk and show little increase in height.

"In one case where a gully formed an escape barrier for elk, the tree height went up proportionally as the gully deepened and formed an increasing barrier to escape," said William Ripple, a professor at Oregon State University. "Where the fear factor of wolves is high, the young trees and willows are doing much better and growing taller."

The findings were recently published in "Ecological Applications," a journal of the Ecological Society of America, and the journal "Forest Ecology and Management."

Scientists Gather to Probe Arctic Environmental Change

The meeting, which began Monday and continues through October 30, has brought together some 400 scientists and researchers to share and discuss evidence of environmental changes occurring in the Arctic.

"We do not know the full extent or future course of Arctic environmental change," said James Morison, who heads the SEARCH Science Steering Committee. "But we think we can understand it because the recent observations of the changing environment have given us new insights into how the Arctic system functions."

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, the meeting is the first and largest scientific gathering ever held to discuss a federal interagency initiative to analyze and understand trends in Arctic environmental change.

Other federal participants in SEARCH include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Smithsonian Institution and the Interior, Energy and Defense departments.

U.S. organizers said they hope the meeting will serve as an international forum in which researchers can addresses the basic premise of SEARCH - that a complex of interrelated changes encompassing terrestrial, oceanic, atmospheric and human systems are taking place across the Arctic.

The meeting also is aimed at identifying unresolved scientific issues and future research opportunities.

"Among other things, we want the meeting to be an opportunity to hear what more our foreign colleagues think about SEARCH and how it might be implemented," said Morison. "We hope this meeting marks the start of a sustained, systematic program of large scale observation and analysis of environmental change indicators in the Arctic."

Female Wolf Spiders Prefer a Familiar Male

A new study finds that female wolf spiders prefer mates that are comfortably familiar and that a male wolf spider unlucky enough to attempt to mate with an unfamiliar female probably is doomed to be killed and eaten by the female

The finding is "really surprising," says Eileen Hebets, a Cornell University postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, whose findings were published Monday in the online edition of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The study shows that social experience influences mate choice, Hebets explained, something few would expect from wolf spiders.

"This shows that invertebrates have social recognition, and it can be maintained and remembered even through the molting process," Hebets said. "These influences affect adult behavior and possibly the evolution of traits."

Hebets studied wolf spiders because unlike other spider species, many male wolf spiders have different looks, or phenotypes.

In her research, 81 immature females were exposed to mature males of specific phenotypes. About 73 percent of the immature females were exposed to more than one male phenotype and no female was exposed to more than nine different males.

Once the females entered adulthood, the highest proportion of mating occurred with familiar males.

"These results clearly demonstrate that a female wolf spider's experience during her penultimate life stage can affect her mate choice as an adult," Hebet said. "The socially influenced origin of female mating preference could impose incredibly strong selection pressures on male maturation times, male mating strategies and, ultimately, secondary sexual ornamentation, since exposed females are choosing mates versus meals."

Hebets said that cannibalization rates among unfamiliar males are higher than she found in previous laboratory studies.

The End May Be Near for Fuzzy, Moldy Fruit

The mold is caused by a fungus - Botrytis cinerea - that often enters plant tissue through wounded or dead areas such as wilted petals, bruised fruit or at the site of pruning, according to Tesfaye Mengiste, a plant molecular biologist at Purdue.

"Botrytis affects many important crops in the field, in the greenhouse and in post-harvest situations," said Mengiste. "It attacks flowers, fruits, vegetables, bulbs, leaves and stems. It has a tremendous capacity to inflict disease and eventually cause loss of quality and yield."

Gray mold disease destroys about 10 percent of the grape crop annually and about 25 percent to 30 percent of tomato and strawberry crops in some seasons, experts report. It also infects many varieties of flowers including petunias, geraniums and chrysanthemums.

In the November issue of the journal "The Plant Cell" Mengiste and his colleagues at Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. report that the gene, called BOS1, is the first protein identified that regulates plant response to both biological and non biological stresses.

The scientists found the gene by sorting through mutations of a common laboratory research plant and studying altered plants that were highly susceptible to Botrytis.

They determined that the gene does more than restrict the growth of the pathogen, it also protects the plant from stresses, such as drought and soil salinity.

The researchers hope they can use the finding to prevent the fungus and other similar plant diseases.

"We want to understand how plants resist Botrytis, what biological events occur when plants perceive that this fungus or other necrotrophic pathogens are present," Mengiste said.

New Permit Created for Orphaned Migratory Birds

Officials say the creation of this permit offers rehabilitators a definitive regulatory framework and ensures that migratory birds removed from the wild for rehabilitative purposes will receive quality care.

"The new permit regulation for rehabilitation of injured migratory birds sets the bar for excellence in the field," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams. "Concerned citizens all over the country provide a great service to these wild creatures to help ensure their release back to their natural habitats."

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects more than 800 species of birds - possession of them is strictly prohibited unless an exemption is provided by either regulation or permit.

Prior to the new rule, wildlife rehabilitators who treated migratory birds have done so with the authority of permits issued under a miscellaneous permit category used to authorize activities not specifically covered by other existing types of permits.

Officials contend that because this was a "catch-all" permit, there were no specific regulatory provisions addressing criteria and standards for rehabilitative care for migratory birds.

The regulation creates a new permit category that specifically authorizes rehabilitation of migratory birds, including species listed as threatened or endangered. It sets out criteria to obtain the permit and standards which holders may possess and treat birds under their care.

The regulation also establishes protocol for working with threatened and endangered species and bald and golden eagles; requirements for releasing, euthanizing, and transferring birds; and restrictions on who may assist with the permitted activities; among other provisions.

For more information on the new rule, see http://migratorybirds.fws.gov