FEDERAL JUDGE FINDS SAN FRANCISCO BAY'S GHOST FLEET POLLUTION ILLEGAL ~ COURT RULES THAT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS ILLEGALLY POLLUTING THE BAY FROM DECAYING SHIPS -- Judge Garland Burrell’s ruling handed a major victory to environmental groups Natural Resources Defense Council, Arc Ecology and San Francisco Baykeeper, the original plaintiffs in the case, and to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which joined the suit after it had been filed. The environmental groups sued MARAD, an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 2007 to force it to stop discharging toxic heavy metals into San Francisco‘s Suisun Bay and to clean up more than 50 large ships abandoned and decaying in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet site, near Benicia > read more @ http://www.nrdc.org/media/2010/100121b.asp
SAVING AMERICA'S 1,000 MOST ENDANGERED SPECIES -- In recognition that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, the Center has launched a campaign to protect the 1,000 most imperiled species in the United States by winning them a spot on the endangered list, obtaining critical habitat protections, and ensuring timely development of a recovery plan during the Obama administration. There’s no better tool for saving these 1,000 species than the Endangered Species Act. Research published by the Center found that the longer species have been listed under the Act, the more likely they are to be recovering; species with designated critical habitat are twice as likely to be recovering as those without critical habitat; and species with recovery plans are more likely to be recovering than those without plans > read more @ http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/1000_species/index.html
BIG WIN FOR BEES: BEE TOXIC MOVENTO PULLED FROM MARKET FOR PROPER EVALUATION – A pesticide that could be dangerously toxic to America’s honey bees must be pulled from store shelves as a result of a suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Xerces Society. In an order recently issued, a federal court in New York invalidated EPA’s approval of the pesticide spirotetramat (manufactured by Bayer CropScience under the trade names Movento and Ultor) and ordered the agency to reevaluate the chemical in compliance with the law. The court’s order went into effect on January 15, 2010, and makes future sales of Movento illegal in the United States > go to: http://www.nrdc.org/media/2009/091229.asp
CALIFORNIA ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROTECTION SOUGHT TO SAVE MOUNTAIN YELLOW-LEGGED FROG FROM EXOTIC TROUT, HABITAT DESTRUCTION, AND DISEASE — The Center for Biological Diversity recently petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to list all populations of the highly imperiled mountain yellow-legged frog as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act. Mountain yellow-legged frogs inhabit high-elevation lakes, ponds, and streams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Transverse Ranges of California and are on a rapid trend to extinction. Their rapid decline is due to predation by introduced trout, spread of diseases that may be exacerbated by exposure to pesticides, and habitat alterations caused by climate change, drought, and livestock grazing > source: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/mountain-yellow-legged-frog-01-25-2010.html
IMPERILED DELTA FISH ONE STEP CLOSER TO REGAINING ENDANGERED SPECIES PROTECTION — A lawsuit settlement won by the Center for Biological Diversity will require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revisit the politically tainted 2003 Bush administration decision to strip the Sacramento splittail, a critically imperiled fish species native to the Central Valley and San Francisco Bay-Delta, of Endangered Species Act protections. The Service agreed today to make a new finding on whether listing the splittail as a threatened or endangered species is warranted by September 30, 2010 > source: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/sacramento-splittail-01-22-2010.html
EMERGENCY PETITIONS FILED TO CLOSE CAVES AND SAVE BATS FROM EXTINCTION — The Center for Biological Diversity recently filed two emergency petitions with the federal government in an effort to stop the spread of a deadly bat disease and step up government action to save two rare bat species from extinction. The first petition asks federal agencies to close all bat caves under their jurisdiction and asks Interior Secretary Salazar to pass regulations restricting travel between bat caves under any jurisdiction. Such measures are necessary until it can be shown that people are not a vector for the newly emergent bat disease known as white-nose syndrome, and that measures to eliminate risk of spread are effective. The second petition asks for the eastern small-footed bat and the northern long-eared bat, both hit hard by white-nose syndrome, to be protected as endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act > source: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/bats-01-21-2010.html DEAL ANNOUNCED TO CUT STORMWATER POLLUTION IN WASHINGTON STATE MORE FUNDING FOR HIGHWAY RETROFITS, CLOSER OVERSIGHT OVER NEW PROJECTS ~ STEEP SLOPE ON A HIGHWAY; STORMWATER RUNOFF FROM HIGHWAYS CAN THREATEN FISH -- State officials and conservation advocates agreed to a plan expected to reduce stormwater pollution threatening Puget Sound and the rivers, streams, estuaries, and bays in western Washington. The agreement settles a legal challenge to the state's highway stormwater permit brought by Puget Soundkeeper Alliance against the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), and the Washington Department of Ecology > source: http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/2010/deal-announced-to-cut-stormwater-pollution-in-washington-state.html AMERICAN HUMANE -- Protecting Animals American Humane has worked to protect animals since 1877, providing a voice for the nation's most vulnerable. All efforts of our Animal Protection Division are focused on preventing cruelty, neglect and exploitation of animals and assuring that their interests and well-being are fully, effectively and humanely guaranteed by an aware and caring society > go to: http://www.americanhumane.org/protecting-animals/
HUMAN-ANIMAL BOND -- American Humane's Human-Animal Bond Division examines and addresses the complex relationships -- both positive and negative -- between people and animals. Through their programs, they advance society's understanding of the power and the implications of those relationships. They promote humane values and the beneficial aspects of human-animal interaction, and work to understand the causes of -- and thus prevent -- cruelty, abuse and neglect > go to: http://www.americanhumane.org/human-animal-bond/ <>
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A GOOD DAY FOR POLAR BEARS! -- Victory for Polar Bears! The Department of the Interior recently agreed with more than 6,000 Care2 activists who supported a proposal to end the international polar bear trade. That means the U.S. will take the lead in getting stronger polar bear protections at an upcoming meeting of the international body that regulates internationally endangered species > go to: http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/a-good-day-for-polar-bears/
URANIUM VICTORY: FEDS ORDERED TO RELEASE HIDDEN DOCUMENTS -- In a big win for water and wildlife, a federal judge ruled the Center for Biological Diversity and allies can obtain previously protected records relating to a 42-square-mile uranium leasing program in the Dolores and San Miguel rivers in western Colorado and eastern Utah. In July 2008, the Center and three partners sued the U.S. Department of Energy and Bureau of Land Management for approving the uranium program without fully analyzing its environmental impacts -- which would be substantial. In fact, uranium mining and milling from the program will deplete Colorado River basin water and threaten to pollute streams and rivers with toxic and radioactive waste products -- in turn threatening wildlife and human communities downstream, as well as four already endangered Colorado River fish species: the razorback sucker, Colorado pikeminnow, and humpback and bonytail chubs. Because of last week's ruling, the Center will now be able to get inside information on individual uranium leases to use in our suit against the entire program > go to: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/uranium-01-15-1020.html
SOUTHWEST SONGBIRD WILL GET PROTECTED HABITAT -- In response to a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit, last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to increase habitat protections for the southwestern willow flycatcher after a Bush-era decision wrongly denied help for the species. The small, quick-winged, highly endangered songbird has been robbed of more than 90 percent of its historical habitat in the Southwest due to grazing, dams, sprawl, and other threats -- and it has suffered more than a century of steady decline. But after an industry lawsuit and years of inaction, in 2005 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made a politically tainted decision to protect very little designated "critical habitat" for the bird: more than 250,000 acres less than the area originally proposed for protection. Adequate habitat protections will give the bird a chance at recovery throughout the remaining Southwest streamside forests it calls home. The Center has been working to save the southwestern willow flycatcher since 1993, when we first filed the scientific petition that won it Endangered Species Act protection > source: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2010/salt-lake-tribune-01-14-2010.html <>
A BIG TREAT FOR THE AMAZON -- Fast on the heels of victories with Nike and Timberland, another major victory’s been won for climate and forest protection. Four of the largest players in the global cattle industry joined forces to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of the Brazilian Amazon from their supply chains. This boo-tiful news follows Greenpeace's call for zero deforestation in the rainforest > source: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/amazon-gets-a-break-from-cattl