1/3 of U.S. Bird Species Threatened or Declining
One-third of the 800 bird species in the United States are either endangered, threatened, or in significant decline, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The report, compiled by scientists within the government and from universities, found that bird populations in forests, grasslands, and arid areas have declined by as much as 40 percent in the past 40 years. At the same time, wetland bird populations have increased, as have populations of bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and other raptors whose eggs are no longer being damaged by the use of the insecticide, DDT. The report said the state with the most threatened bird populations is Hawaii, where 71 bird species have gone extinct and 31 are listed as threatened or endangered.
[Yale.edu]
Interior Inspector Devaney Rewarded With Stimulus Oversight Post
This should not go unnoticed, though it probably will.
President Obama has appointed Earl E. Devaney as chairman of the Transparency and Accountability Board for the 2009 stimulus plan.
Devaney, whose internal investigations led to downfall of political figures like Jack Abramoff and Gale Norton (and lesser-known people like Julie MacDonald)—as well as the discovery of a sex-and-drugs-for-influence scandal at the U.S. Interior Department—is a kind of folk hero to environmentalists who had given up hope during Bush’s second term.
No doubt most people haven’t heard of Earl Devaney, but he’s apparently known to Barack Obama. It’s great to see that he’s being rewarded for his integrity—even as he served an administration that tried to impose its own amorality from the top-down.
President Obama told a group of Governors this morning, “I am also proud to announce the appointment of Earl Devaney as Chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board. For nearly a decade as Inspector General at the Interior Department, Earl has doggedly pursued waste, fraud and mismanagement, and [Vice President Biden] and I can’t think of a more tenacious and efficient guardian of the hard-earned tax dollars the American people have entrusted us to wisely invest.”
[Halperin]
Bush Legacy Leaves Uphill Climb For U.S. Parks
Some National Park Service veterans say it may take decades for the agency to undo policies that tended to favor commercial interests and energy projects over conservation.
Kate Cannon gazed across the high red desert to the snowy La Sal Mountains rising in sharp relief at the horizon. That view of uninterrupted nature is what draws nearly a million yearly visitors to this remote part of southeast Utah.
[LAT]
Ten Ton Meteorite Caused the Canadian Fireball (Links)
The FDA determines the acceptable amount of poison for baby formula. The Interior Department and EPA expect radical changes under Obama to ‘erase Bush’s mark.’ Maryland officials have taken on poultry pollution. Massey Energy will be allowed to remove the top of West Virginia’s Coal River Mountain, even though an economic study endorsed wind turbines instead. Bald eagles in the Catskills are showing increasing levels of mercury. The worldwide demand for sushi will extinguish the bluefin tuna in five years. Land iguanas are joining other endangered species in the Galápagos. A new preserve in Cameroon will protect the world’s most endangered great ape: the Cross River gorilla. ‘Efficient’ drip irrigation may be worse for the environment than traditional sprinklers. A ten-ton meteorite caused the Canadian fireball.
