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  • 26
    Apr
    2013
    4:53pm, EDT

    No more protection for gray wolves in Lower 48? Draft rule proposes that

    Macneill Lyons / AP file

    An image provided by Yellowstone National Park, Mont., shows a gray wolf in the wild.

    By John Flesher and Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

    BILLINGS, Mont. -- Federal wildlife officials have drafted plans to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, a move that could end a decades-long recovery effort that has restored the animals but only in parts of their historic range.


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    The draft U.S. Department of Interior rule obtained by The Associated Press contends that roughly 5,000 wolves now living in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes are enough to prevent the species' extinction. The agency says having gray wolves elsewhere — such as the West Coast, parts of New England and the Southern Rockies — is unnecessary for their long-term survival.

    A small population of Mexican wolves in the Southwest would continue to receive federal protections, as a distinct subspecies of the gray wolf.

    The document was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.


    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday the rule was under internal review and would be subject to public comment before a final decision is made.

    If the rule is enacted, it would transfer control of wolves to state wildlife agencies by removing them from the federal list of endangered species.

    Wildlife advocates warn that could effectively halt the species' expansion, which has stirred a backlash from agricultural groups and some hunters upset by wolf attacks on livestock and big game herds such as elk.

    Some biologists have argued wolves will continue spreading regardless of their legal status. The animals are prolific breeders, known to journey hundreds of miles in search of new territory. They were wiped out across most of the U.S. early last century following a government sponsored poisoning and trapping campaign.

    In an emailed statement, the agency pointed to "robust" populations of the animals in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes as evidence that gray wolf recovery "is one of the world's great conservation successes."

    Wolves in those two areas lost protections under the Endangered Species Act over the last two years.

    In some states where wolves have recovered, regulated hunting and trapping already has been used to drive down their populations, largely in response to wolf attacks on livestock and big game herds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reported that wolf numbers dropped significantly last year in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana for the first time since they were reintroduced in the mid-1990s.

    Federal officials have said they are monitoring the states' actions, but see no immediate threat to their survival.

    In Oregon and Washington, which have small but rapidly growing wolf populations, the animals have remained protected under state laws even after federal protections were lifted in portions of the two states.

    Between 1991 and 2011, the federal government spent $102 million on gray wolf recovery programs and state agencies chipped in $15.6 million. Federal spending likely would drop if the proposal to lift protections goes through, while state spending would increase.

    John Flesher reported from Traverse City, Mich.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    75 comments

    Keep welfare ranchers and welfare cowboys off public land! How dare these people think the public lands are there for the insidious greed they label profit-making. The ranchers who graze on public land should never, never be compensated for losing cattle. What utter audacity to whore off the public  …

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    Explore related topics: environment, wildlife, endangered-species, wolves, gray-wolves
  • 12
    Feb
    2013
    6:22pm, EST

    Lawsuit: Put gray wolves back on endangered species list in upper Midwest

    AP file

    This image provided by the National Park Service shows a gray wolf in the wild.

    By Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press

    MINNEAPOLIS -- The Humane Society of the United States and other animal welfare groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday to restore federal protections for gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region that were lifted last year.


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    The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of the Interior, said the decision to take wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan off the endangered list threatens the animals' recovery throughout most of their historic range. At one time, the animals roamed nearly all of North America.

    The Humane Society of the United States provided a copy of the lawsuit to The Associated Press before its public announcement. The other plaintiffs include Born Free USA, Help Our Wolves Live and Friends of Animals and Their Environment.

    Hunters and trappers in Minnesota and Wisconsin killed 530 wolves combined during those states' recently concluded seasons — 413 in Minnesota and 117 in Wisconsin. The Michigan Legislature voted in December to authorize wolf hunting, which could resume as early as this fall if the state's Natural Resources Commission approves.


    "In the short time since federal protections have been removed, trophy hunters and trappers have killed hundreds of Great Lakes wolves under hostile state management programs that encourage dramatic reductions in wolf populations," Jonathan Lovvorn, chief counsel for animal protection litigation at the HSUS, said in a statement. "This decision rolls back the only line of defense for wolf populations, and paves the way for the same state-sponsored eradication policies that pushed this species to the brink of extinction in the first place."

    U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswomen did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, nor did officials with the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan Departments of Natural Resources.

    It's been more than 40 years since the federal government imposed protections to prevent wolves from going extinct in the lower 48 states. Gray wolves recovered to more than 4,000 combined in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountain states by the time the government took them off the list in those areas in January 2012. That action followed several years of court battles and turned responsibility for managing their populations back to the states.

    The latest lawsuit calls the Fish and Wildlife Service's 2011 decision to take wolves off the list "biologically reckless" and contrary to the Endangered Species Act. It says "the existing regulatory mechanisms in the Great Lakes region are anything but adequate," and that allowing hunting and trapping in the western Great Lakes when wolves don't exist in 95 percent of their former range runs counter to the goals of the act.

    Minnesota had an estimated 3,000 wolves before they came of the endangered list, while Wisconsin and Michigan had about 850 and 700. The three states' management plans would allow a 50 percent decline in the region's population if hunting and trapping took it down to the minimum levels allowed under their plans, the lawsuit says.

    "This drastic population decline would not only threaten the Great Lakes population, but it would prevent this population from serving as a source of dispersing wolves that could repopulate unoccupied portions of the wolf's range," the lawsuit says.

    Environmentalists also have gone to court to try to restore federal protections to wolves in Wyoming.

    Wildlife managers predicted before the inaugural seasons in Minnesota and Wisconsin that hunters would face stiff challenges in bagging the wary predators. It turned out not to be quite as difficult as expected. Minnesota and Wisconsin slightly exceeded their hunting-and-trapping targets of 400 and 116, respectively, but officials said those were just goals, not firm quotas, so exceeding them was not cause for concern. 

    Jayne Belsky / AP file

    In this photo provided by Jayne Belsky via the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, a gray wolf is seen roaming a wooded area near Wisconsin Dells, Wis.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    72 comments

    i do not fell sorry for humans that do this kind of damage to the environment. they should be classified as pests;and dispatched

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  • 1
    Feb
    2013
    3:42pm, EST

    'Mountain devil': Feds want to list wolverine as endangered species, stop trapping, citing climate change

    Steve Kroschel / US Fish and Wildlife via Reuters

    A wolverine is seen in a 2009 photo.

    By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

    BILLINGS, Mont. -- The tenacious wolverine, a snow-loving carnivore sometimes called the "mountain devil," could soon join the list of species threatened by climate change — a dubious distinction putting it in the ranks of the polar bear and several other animals the government says will lose crucial habitat as temperatures rise.


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    Federal wildlife officials Friday proposed Endangered Species Act protections for the wolverine in the Lower 48 states. That's a step twice denied under the Bush administration, then delayed in 2010 when the Obama administration said other imperiled species had priority.

    It likely means an end to trapping the animals for their fur outside Alaska.

    But federal officials said they won't use the animal's status as a means to regulate greenhouse gases blamed in climate change. And other human activities — from snowmobiling and ski resorts to timber harvest and — would not be curtailed because they do not appear to be significant threats to wolverines, officials said.


    There are an estimated 250 to 300 wolverines in the contiguous U.S., clustered in small, isolated groups primarily in the Northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington. Larger populations persist in Alaska and Canada.

    Maxing out at 40 pounds and tough enough to stand up to grizzly bears, the animals will be no match for anticipated declines in deep mountain snows female wolverines need to establish dens and raise their young, scientists said.

    In some areas, such as central Idaho, suitable habitat could disappear entirely, officials said.

    Yet because those losses could take decades to unfold, federal wildlife officials said there's still time to bolster the population, including by reintroducing them to the high mountains of Colorado.

    "This is a species there is still time to do something about," said Mike Thabault, ecological services director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's mountain-prairie region.

    Wildlife advocates, who sued to force the government to act on the issue, said the animal's plight should be used by the Obama administration to leverage tighter restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.

    As with the polar bear, the government is sidestepping that thorny proposition with the wolverine, and said in Friday's proposal that listing the animal as threatened "will not regulate greenhouse gas emissions."

    Thabault said the agency would be on tenuous scientific grounds if it tried to draw a link between specific emission sources and impacts on wolverines.

    Advocates expressed disappointment, with Noah Greenwald from the Center for Biological Diversity saying the administration "should not be exempting greenhouse gas emissions from the Endangered Species Act."

    A Washington, D.C., attorney, John Martin, who represented the energy industry during litigation over polar bears, said he expects no change in the administration's policy against using endangered wildlife to regulate emissions.

    Friday's proposal also allows Colorado's wildlife agency to reintroduce an experimental population of wolverines that eventually could spill into neighboring portions of New Mexico and Wyoming.

    It would shut down wolverine trapping in Montana, the only one of the Lower 48 states where the practice is still allowed an annual quota of five animals.

    This year's trapping season was blocked by a state court order, but Montana officials hoped to restore trapping next year.

    Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said the state will review the federal proposal and had not settled on a response.

    Once found throughout the Rocky Mountains and in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, wolverines were wiped out across most of the U.S. by the 1930s due to unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns, said Bob Inman, a wolverine researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

    In the decades since, they have largely recovered in the Northern Rockies but not in other parts of their historical range.

    While reintroducing the animals further south might seem counterintuitive, Inman said Colorado's abundance of 14,000-foot mountains would make it well suited as a refuge for the animals as warmer temperatures set in at lower elevations.

    Only one wolverine currently inhabits the state, a male that wandered down several years ago from northern Wyoming's Teton Range, about 500 miles away. Inman said Colorado has enough high-mountain territory to support up to 100 more of the animals.

    "That's like a 30 percent increase in their population size," he said.

    Any reintroduction into Colorado would require approval from state wildlife commissioners and the Legislature, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said.

    Representatives of the state's ski and agriculture industries in the past have raised concerns that bringing wolverines back could hurt their industries. Hampton said no decision has been made and it could take years to work out all the details.

    Other areas where wolverines once roamed also could serve as future refuges.

    Those include portions of Utah, Oregon's Cascade Range, Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, said Shawn Sartorius, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service based in Montana.

     

     

     

    Related story: Wolverines' winter food caches at risk to warming

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    105 comments

    I'm not going to go all political. 250-300 seems like not a lot of wolverines left....one thing for sure, that is one bad a$$ looking mammal.

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    Explore related topics: environment, weather, climate, endangered-species, wolverines
  • 1
    Dec
    2012
    1:49pm, EST

    Protect rare bird? Move by US has energy backers crying foul

    U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Reuters

    The lesser prairie chicken could get listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

    By Ros Krasny, Reuters

    WASHINGTON -- A move by U.S. authorities to consider placing a small grassland bird native to parts of the oil and gas belt on the Endangered Species List has drawn the ire of some Western lawmakers.


    Follow @NBCNewsUS

    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday announced a plan to consider having the lesser prairie chicken listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

    The lesser prairie chicken is a medium-sized, gray-brown grouse, smaller and paler than the greater prairie chicken, its close relative.

    Once found in abundant numbers across much of Southeastern Colorado, Eastern New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, Western Oklahoma and Western Kansas, the lesser prairie-chicken's historical range of native grasslands and prairies has been reduced by an estimated 84 percent, the service said.

    Lawmakers in major oil and gas producing districts immediately cried foul.


    "A listing will have permanent economic consequences for the people of Texas who live and work in the Permian Basin and the Texas Panhandle," said Representative Michael Conaway, a Republican.

    Conaway's sprawling West Texas district produces much of the state's oil and about one-quarter of its gas.

    Protecting the lesser prairie-chicken "could drive ranching families and energy producers out of business," said Republican Representative Randy Neugebauer, whose district in East-Central Texas is a large agricultural area.

    New Mexico's Steve Pearce, chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, said federal species regulation was being "driven by lawyers for extreme interest groups."

    "Listing cannot come soon enough for the lesser prairie chicken," said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians, a Santa Fe environmental group that at one point sued the federal government in an attempt to protect the birds from oil and gas drilling.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service has opened a 90-day comment period on the lesser prairie-chicken and is seeking input from the public and from the scientific community before making its final decision. Four public hearings will be held in February.

    In the meantime, a number of state and federal agencies are working on a voluntary conservation planning effort to conserve the bird's habitat.

    "Regardless of whether the lesser prairie-chicken ultimately requires protection under the ESA, its decline is a signal that our native grasslands are in trouble," said Benjamin Tuggle, Regional Director for the Service's Southwest Region.

    "We know that these grasslands support not only dozens of native migratory bird and wildlife species, but also farmers, ranchers and local communities across the region," Tuggle said.

    Lesser prairie chickens are considered "vulnerable," a step short of endangered, by the UK-based International Union for Conservation of Nature, whose "red list" tracks the conservation status of various species worldwide.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

    132 comments

    Screw the energy industry!!!! Bunch of greedy no account money grubbers who will stop at nothing to make a buck. They don't care what they destroy or what they kill in the wanton pursuit of profit

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  • 27
    Nov
    2012
    2:40pm, EST

    African lions could end up on US endangered species list

    Martin Meissner / AP

    Trophy lions include this stuffed specimen at an international hunting exposition in Dortmund, Germany, in 2011.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    If wildlife activists have their way, U.S. hunters trekking to Africa soon won't be able to bring back any lion skins or skulls as trophies.


    Follow @NBCNewsWorld

    Acting on a petition by those activists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday said it will study whether the species warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act.

    Born Free USA, one of the petition groups, called the review "the necessary first step toward ensuring a chance at survival for this beleaguered species."

    African lion populations have seen "a substantial decline" over the past two decades and are estimated to be around 32,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which monitors species numbers globally. 


    The threats include not only trophy hunters, but loss of habitat, humans eating lion meat, and commercial sale of their body parts, said Adam Roberts, executive vice president of Born Free USA. 

    As humans move into lion habitat, he added, that increases "retaliatory killings, including by gruesome poisoning," of lions that go after livestock.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service began a 60-day period to receive public and expert comment on whether to list the species. The Asian lion was listed as endangered in 1970.

    In their petition, the activists cited U.S. trade figures showing that more than 5,600 wild Africa lions were hunted and then exported as trophies between 1999 and 2008, with 64 percent of those trophies being imported into the U.S.

    Trophy hunters counter that while their hobby is regulated, licensed and recorded, the slaughter of lions by locals protecting livestock is rampant and largely uncontrolled. 

    Many African nations with lion populations they consider healthy allow trophy hunting as a way to bring in revenue for locals as well as to help fund wildlife programs.

    The U.S. has listed non-native animals before since the act is meant to ensure the U.S. citizens "do not contribute to the further decline of that species in its native habitat," the Fish and Wildlife Service said in its announcement.

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    83 comments

    The lions should be protected. Humans should not hunt any animal to extinction. It is our responsibility.

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  • 24
    Nov
    2012
    8:31pm, EST

    Florida woman arrested over ride on manatee

    Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

    Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 53, was arrested for riding a manatee on Sept. 30.

    By Isolde Raftery, NBC News

    Florida police arrested a woman Saturday who had been photographed riding a manatee – a violation of the state’s Manatee Sanctuary Act, the Tampa Bay Times reported.


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    Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 53, was arrested at the Sears store where she worked. She came forward in October to admit that she was the woman in the photographs, wearing a white cap, red shorts and a black bikini top as she tried to climb atop a manatee in Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas, Fla.

    Garcia Gutierrez told authorities that she was new to the area and didn’t know that touching a manatee – also known as a sea cow – was against the law.


    The manatee was not injured, but the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Acts states that: "It is unlawful for any person at any time, by any means, or in any manner intentionally or negligently to annoy, molest, harass, or disturb or attempt to molest, harass, or disturb any manatee."

    Touching a manatee is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida, punishable by up to 60 days in jail. Two of the three species of sea cows are endangered, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the third is considered threatened. They received their first government protections in 1893.

    Florida officials took the manatee-riding reports seriously and circulated the image of the woman, asking Floridians to identify her.  

    Sheriff Bob Gualtieri held a press conference and said that Garcia Gutierrez should “go ride a jet ski.”

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    345 comments

    So this happened in September, she voluntarily ID'd herself in October, and they still decide to arrest her at her job? Nice and humiliating and possibly life altering, for a second-degree misdemeanor.

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  • 4
    Apr
    2012
    4:43pm, EDT

    Wolves, no longer endangered in Wyoming, now labeled 'predators'

    AP Photo/Yellowstone National Park

    A gray wolf runs near Blacktail Pond in Yellowstone National Park. The gray wolf was taken off the endangered species list in Wyoming last week.

    By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com

    The gray wolf, soon to be off the endangered species list in Wyoming, will have a new official title in 86 percent of the state: predator. That means anyone may shoot a wolf on sight, no permit required.


    Follow @msnbc_us

    Safe havens do remain in the northwestern corner of the state -- no hunting will be allowed in Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks -- but now conservationists worry that sportsmen will be allowed to take aim at wolves traveling through the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, a 24,000-acre area that connects the two larger parks.

    The state of Wyoming wants hunting; the National Park Service does not.


    “We want to preserve wildlife for viewing and for conservation," said Bert Frost, associate director for Natural Resource Stewardship and Science for the National Park Service. "We would prefer not to have them shooting wolves on the parkway.”

    But here's the catch: The parkway, managed by the National Park Service, has allowed elk hunts to reduce their population. Legislators in Wyoming say that means wolves are also fair game.

    Most agree this is a somewhat symbolic argument, as only one or two wolf packs use the parkway. But for many, the gray wolf has come to embody the symbol of the federal government meddling in state affairs.

    Poll: Should wolves be hunted on National Parks land in Wyoming?

    Among the comments submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the Endangered Species Act, was one from Earl Crawford, a Cheyenne resident, who said, according to the Casper Star-Tribune, "wolves kill to just kill.”

    Crawford continued: “Let the state game & fish control and manage the wolf population along with the other game animals of the state. Most bureaucrats back East haven’t the foggiest idea of how life is out west.”

    1995: Wolves return to the Rockies
    In the early 1900s, bounties were paid on more than 20,000 wolves, viewed then as killers of livestock. Twenty years later, the gray wolf became extinct in the Northern Rockies.

    In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arranged for 66 gray wolves from Canada to be released in Yellowstone and Idaho. The wolves, to the delight of conservationists, repopulated as quickly as they disappeared. Now about 1,650 roam the Rockies.

    “The big picture of the whole thing is that the recovery of the gray wolf is one of the most amazing success stories of the Endangered Species Act,” said Derek Goldman of the Endangered Species Coalition.

    The plan was so successful that in 2009 the gray wolf was removed from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho. Wyoming, however, refused to produce a wolf-friendly plan.

    “Basically, Wyoming flipped the middle finger to the federal government,” Goldman said.

    Despite government promises to repay ranchers for livestock losses, pressure mounted.

    Data show that domestic dogs kill more cattle than wolves; weather kills cattle at 25 times the rate of wolves. Mike Jimenez of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that wolves were just one more variable eating at an already small profit margin.

    “You have to understand that the ranchers are raising animals by the pound,” said Jimenez, the coordinator for wolf management for the Rocky Mountains. “If they run around, they abort, or they lose weight. The profit margin is not huge to begin with.”

    Although wolves were delisted in Montana and Idaho without as much political wrangling, wolf hunting in those two states is as controversial.

    In February, U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents killed 14 wolves from an aircraft in Idaho, heeding a request from that state, according to the Missoulian newspaper.

    And the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization founded by hunters to promote elk habitat to “be hunted or otherwise enjoyed,” announced it would give $50,000 to help government agencies afford killing wolves that chase after livestock, the Missoulian reported. David Allen, the president of the foundation, said he wants fewer black bears, mountain lions and wolves.

    “We can’t have all these predators with little aggressive management and expect to have ample game herds,” Allen told the Missoulian.

    Wolves delisted
    Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed a new version of the wolf management plan into law last month. This one demands that Wyoming manage 10 breeding pairs outside of Yellowstone. An area in the northwestern part of the state would protect wolves from Oct. 15 to March 1, so they may breed with wolves from other states and avoid inbreeding.

    Whether hunters will be able to take aim at wolves in the parkway is unclear. Hunting is allowed in Alaska national parks, and culling of elk has been allowed in the parkway and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

    Back in Washington, D.C., Bert Frost said the National Parks Service has plans to work with the state of Wyoming. He hopes those conversations won’t become politicized.

    “I hope nothing gets resolved in Washington,” Frost said. “There are the biologists on the ground, and they know the situation better than anyone else.”

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    320 comments

    There are only about 350 wolves in Wyoming. This is crazy, and wrong.

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  • 22
    Mar
    2012
    9:00pm, EDT

    An endangered fish may mean less water for California farmers

    What the drought in California means for agriculture and one endangered fish, with CNBC's Jane Wells.

    By msnbc.com staff

    A drought in California’s San Joaquin Valley has farmers boiling mad over how much water they should be allowed to draw from the Sacramento Delta.  

    A court-ordered protection of the Delta smelt, an endangered sliver of a fish, has reduced the amount of water farmers may use to 30 percent of their contracted amount. This means an estimated half million acres could be unplanted next season – the equivalent size of Rhode Island.


    Watch the report by CNBC’s Jane Wells (above).

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    13 comments

    silly comments like these show people don't understand the food chain at all. when the bottom of the food chain is gone so too will go the top. drawing so much water from rivers that fish can not survive seems pretty stupid to me. thank goodness we have rules in place to prevent this. the farmers ca …

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  • 3
    Mar
    2012
    1:29pm, EST

    Man convicted of creating sculptures out of endangered wildlife

    Department of Justice

    Federal authorities say Enrique Gomez De Molina used pieces of wildlife carcasses to create "sculptures" like the one shown here.

    By Karen Franklin, NBCMiami.com

    A Miami man who was involved in trafficking animal parts and skins, which he incorporated into sculptures, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, authorities said Friday.

    Enrique Gomez De Molina, 48, of Miami Beach, was found guilty of illegally trafficking in endangered and protected wildlife, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

    Authorities said he used the parts for taxidermy sculptures, which he created in his downtown Miami studio. De Molina attracted the attention of the art world for combining parts of different species and turning them into fantastical creations. In an interview De Molina gave to Thrillist -- he is seen gluing beetle wings to a rhino bust to create an irridescent sculpture. He sold his products over the Internet and in galleries for as much as $80,000.

    Read original story on wildlife 'sculpture' at NBCMiami.com

    In December 2010, he sold a sculpture at Scope Art in Miami, which was illegally exported to Canada, authorities said.


    According to court documents, De Molina imported parts of snakes, birds and orangutangs from places as far away as the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

    He would find the protected wildlife online and select certain animals from photographs. Some were alive at the time and then shipped to him dead, authorities said. This included a wooly stork, a slow loris and a hornbill.

    "I am not a criminal; I am an artist. I have never committed a crime before. I accept this judgment because its brings attention to the destruction of animal species and the dangers of genetic manipulation in our food," he said to NBC 6 in a statement. "I supported the government's work in pursuing the sellers of illegal animal parts through EBay and contacts in foreign countries. Let this judgment bring awareness to my cause. I stand by my art."

    See more photos from this endangered wildlife case

    De Molina's crimes took place between 2009 and 2011. During the three years, he did not make proper declarations to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or obtain proper import and export permits. In some cases, his transactions were completely illegal, the department said.

    U.S. and international law requires the valid licenses under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which is a treaty to prevent over-exploitation of wildlife.

    “Trafficking in endangered and threatened species, whether for personal profit or under the guise of art, is illegal," said U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer. "Together with our law enforcement partners, we will strictly enforce the laws that protect our environment and our wildlife.”

    In addition to his prison term, he will be fined $6,000.

    Authorities want De Molina to turn over all art work that may be comprised of protected or endangered species.

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    313 comments

    Maybe we can have him and his conspirators stuffed and put on display...

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  • 27
    Jan
    2012
    7:38pm, EST

    8 sea lions found shot to death near Seattle

    By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

    SEATTLE -- At least eight sea lions have been found shot to death in the Puget Sound region in recent weeks, wildlife officials say.

    The bodies of seven sea lions were recently found on the Nisqually River, south of Tacoma, all apparently shot, NBC station KING 5 of Seattle reported. On Monday, a mature male California sea lion was found dead on West Seattle's Lincoln Park beach.

    During a necropsy, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife removed a bullet from the left lung of that sea lion, according to the animal protection group Seal Sitters, which keeps watch over baby seals left on the beach while their mothers are foraging.

    State and federal authorities are investigating, but they said they don't know who killed the sea lions. The penalty could range from fees to possible jail time.

    California sea lions are a protected species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Stellar sea lions are a federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

    Almost two years ago, five sea lions were found shot to death on West Seattle beaches. In that instance, the Humane Society offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to an arrest.

    Sea lions have proved to be pests in some parts of the Puget Sound. Extensive efforts have been used to prevent them from devouring salmon schooled at the ship locks that lead from Puget Sound into Seattle's Lake Union. Authorities have tried to scare those away with firecrackers, fired rubber bullets and bean bags at them, even captured and trucked them all the way to California. Sea lions that refused to take the hint have been killed by authorities.

    A photograph taken recently and published in the Seattle Times showed dozens of sea lions on an old barge near the north end of the Nisqually Delta, where the seven sea lions were found shot. 

    "This is the most sea lions I have ever seen at once in south sound," Pete Topping, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist, told the Times.

    Msnbc.com's Gil Aegerter contributed to this report from NBC station KING 5 of Seattle.

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    120 comments

    I hate to say it, but I'm sure it was a commercial fisherman/woman or more likely a commercial crabber, this time of year. And no, I am not prejudiced against commercial fishermen, just the opposite. I lived in Humboldt county in Northern California for 20 years in Eureka and Trinidad (a small fishi …

    Show more
    Explore related topics: endangered-species, sea-lions, marine-mammals
  • 2
    Dec
    2011
    1:51pm, EST

    Whale activists sue to free Lolita from captivity

    Nuri Vallbona / AP

    Trainer Marcia Hinton with Lolita during a performance at the Seaquarium in Miami in 1995.

    By The Associated Press

    Supporters have offered $1 million for her release. Annual demonstrations have demanded her return to the Northwest. Over the years, celebrities, schoolchildren and even a Washington state governor have campaigned to free Lolita, a killer whale captured from Puget Sound waters in 1970 and who has been performing at Miami Seaquarium for the past four decades.

    Activists are now suing the federal government in federal court in Seattle, saying it should have protected Lolita when it listed other Southern Resident orcas as an endangered species in 2005.

    "The fact that the federal government has declared these pods to be endangered is a good thing, but they neglected to include these captives," said Karen Munro, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who lives in Olympia, Wash. Plaintiffs include two other individuals, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

    The lawsuit filed in November alleges that the fisheries service allows the Miami Seaquarium to keep Lolita in conditions that harm and harass her and otherwise wouldn't be allowed under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit alleges Lolita is confined in an inadequate tank without sufficient space and without companions of her own species.

    The agency is still reviewing the lawsuit, said Monica Allen, a spokeswoman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose fisheries service oversees marine mammals.

    Lolita, who is estimated to be about 44 or 45, is the last surviving orca captured from the Southern Resident orca population during the 1970s. She is a member of the L pod, or family. Female orcas generally live into their 50s though they can live decades longer.

    Wallie Funk / AP

    In this Aug. 8, 1970, photo provided by Wallie Funk, members of a pod of orca whales are held captive in Penn Cove, off Whidbey Island, Wash. Seven of the dozens of whales captured, including Lolita, who has been performing stunts for Miami Seaquarium for the past four decades, were sold to marine parks around the world. Five whales drowned during the capture.

    The J, K and L pods frequent Western Washington's inland marine waters and are genetically and behaviorally distinct from other killer whales. They eat salmon rather than marine mammals, show an attachment to the region, and make sounds that are considered a unique dialect. The whales, with striking black coloring and white bellies, spend time in tight, social groups and ply the waters of Puget Sound and British Columbia.

    When the National Marine Fisheries Service listed the Southern Resident orcas as endangered — in decline because of lack of prey, pollution and contaminants, and effects from vessels and other factors — it didn't include whales placed in captivity prior to the listing or their captive born offspring.

    They're "not maximizing opportunity to protect the species if you exclude captive members," said Craig Dillard, litigation director for the Animal Legal Defense. Lolita should have the same protections as other wild orcas, he added.

    He noted that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently considering whether to give all captive chimpanzees the same protection as wild chimpanzees.

    'She remembers'
    The Miami Seaquarium declined to comment on the lawsuit. It issued a statement saying Lolita is active, healthy, well-cared for and plays an important role in educating the public about the need to conserve the species. Lolita has learned to trust humans completely, the statement says, and "this longstanding behavioral trust would be dangerous for her if she were returned to Puget Sound, where commercial boat traffic and human activity are heavy, pollution is a serious issue and the killer whale population has been listed as an endangered species."

    Howard Garrett, co-founder of the nonprofit Orca Network based on Whidbey Island, Wash., said returning her to Northwest waters is the right thing to do. It would be healthier for her, and allow her to rebuild family bonds with the L pod.

    "She remembers where she came from. I think she will remember her water and her family," said Garrett, who has spent years advocating for her release and whose group plans to help Lolita transition back to Northwest waters.

    Munro joined the lawsuit because she believes Lolita deserves to retire and return to the Puget Sound, where she can swim naturally and attempt to reunite with her family.

    She became an advocate for the majestic creatures, after witnessing a "very violent, distressing scene" of orcas being torn from their pods while out sailing in 1976. The captors used explosives, boats and seaplanes to chase the animals into shallower waters and netted them, she said.

    "They were taking these orcas away purely for money and profit, because they make huge amounts of money from whale shows. They (orcas) don't belong in these aquariums," she said, adding "Lolita deserves to come back."

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    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    87 comments

    You morons! Any animal that has been hand fed for 40 years is not capable of fending for itself in the wild! Further, this whale would expect that kind of treatment from a boatload of murderers with harpoons.

    Show more
    Explore related topics: act, whales, endangered-species, lolita, orcas, miami-seaquarium

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