"Wind Farms Considering Detection Systems To Prevent Bird Deaths"
"Adding bird detection systems could protect wind farms from litigation in case of deaths of threatened species."
Source: LA Times, 05/29/2012
Wildlife
FWS Plan To Share Bison Refuge Management With Tribes Sparks Lawsuit
"The Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pen d'Oreilles tribes consider Montana's National Bison Range part of their heritage, a link to the animals their ancestors once hunted and worshipped."
Source: Greenwire, 05/23/2012
Canada Cruising for Major Oil Spill Crisis in the Arctic, Expert Warns
"One of Canada's top experts on Arctic issues is warning of the 'near-inevitability' of an Exxon Valdez-scale oil spill at a fragile choke point in Alaskan waters if Canada ends up shipping oilsands fuel to China via pipeline terminals on the British Columbia coast."
Source: Postmedia, 05/22/2012
SEJ Member Spotlight: Wendee Holtcamp
Houston-based freelance writer and photographer Wendee Holtcamp has covered conservation, adventure travel, environmental issues and science for magazines and websites since 1997. She offers an online writing class, teaching aspiring and established writers everything from improving one's writing through observation journaling to crafting killer queries to the business end of building a successful and lucrative freelance career. Next class starts June 2.
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"Rocky Mountain Cave Closure Sought Over Bat Disease"
"SALMON, Idaho -- The U.S. government is seeking to close caves in national forests in the Northern Rockies to stem the spread of white-nose bat syndrome, a disease that has killed an estimated 5.5 million bats in 19 states and is spreading westward, officials said on Wednesday."
Source: Reuters, 05/17/2012
How Muzzling Scientists Helps the Chemical Industry
A Chicago Tribune investigative series on flame retardant chemicals helps illustrate how federal agency control of what scientists say to reporters can help the chemical and tobacco industries. By reporter Michael Hawthorne.
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SEJ Member Spotlight: William Souder
Freelance writer William Souder has reported on a wide variety of environmental subjects and is the author of three books, including the forthcoming On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson, marking the 50th anniversary of Carson's Silent Spring — and, by extension, a half century of environmentalism.
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What is Going on With Peru's Dolphins and Pelicans?
"Something awful is happening in the waters off Peru's northern coast, where some 3,000 dolphins have died and washed ashore since January. This rates as one of the worst, if not the worst, Unusual Mortality Event (UME) ever recorded. ...
Source: Mother Jones, 05/08/2012
"Polar Bears Can Swim Vast Distances, Study Finds"
"Polar bears are capable of swimming vast distances, a potential survival skill needed in an Arctic environment where summer sea ice is vanishing, a study led by the U.S. Geological Survey showed on Tuesday."
Source: Reuters, 05/02/2012
"Pacific Reef Sharks Have Declined by More Than 90%, New Study Says"
"Pacific reef shark populations have plummeted by 90 percent or more over the past several decades, according to a new study by a team of American and Canadian researchers, and much of this decline stems from human fishing pressure.
Quantifying the decline for the first time, the analysis, published online Friday in the journal Conservation Biology, shows that shark populations fare worse the closer they are to people — even if the nearest population is an atoll with fewer than 100 residents.
Source: Wash Post, 04/30/2012
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