Endangered & Protected Species

 

Florida Breaks Annual Manatee Death Record In First 6 Months. According to Associated Press, “More manatees have died already this year than in any other year in Florida’s recorded history, primarily from starvation due to the loss of seagrass beds, state officials said. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that 841 manatee deaths were recorded between Jan. 1 and July 2, breaking the previous record of 830 that died in 2013 because of an outbreak of toxic red tide. The TCPalm website reports that more than half the deaths have died in the Indian River Lagoon and its surrounding areas in Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties. The overwhelming majority of deaths have been in Brevard, where 312 manatees have perished. Some biologists believe water pollution is killing the seagrass beds in the area. ‘Unprecedented manatee mortality due to starvation was documented on the Atlantic coast this past winter and spring,’ Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute wrote as it announced the record Friday. ‘Most deaths occurred during the colder months when manatees migrated to and through the Indian River Lagoon, where the majority of seagrass has died off.’” [Associated Press, 7/11/21 (=)]

 

Starving Fla. Manatees Dying At Record-Breaking Rate. According to E&E News, “Facing complications from climate change and water pollution, starving Florida manatees have already broken the record for the annual mortality rate in 2021, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. As of today, 841 manatees have died since the start of the year, 10% of the estimated total population of manatees: 8,810. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries made the decision to distinguish the increased deaths as an unusual mortality event (UME), citing compounding factors. Manatees are not just dying from boating accidents, but also from an unprecedented starvation event, according to Jaclyn Lopez, the Florida director for the Center for Biological Diversity. Lopez said the problem is twofold: Manatees need to find warm water refuge in the cold months, and that is more difficult to come by as a result of climate change. When they do find warm water refuge and eventually leave that spot to find food, that is hard to come by because of water pollution. Typically manatees’ food source is seagrass, but water pollution, including sewage and fertilizer, has killed wide swaths of seagrass and prevented some new seagrass from growing, causing manatees to starve, Lopez said.” [E&E News, 7/9/21 (=)]

 

2021 Is Already The Deadliest Year On Record For Florida Manatees. Why Are They Dying? [Treasure Coast Palm, 7/9/21 (=)]

 

2021 Marks Deadliest Year For Manatees In Florida Recorded History. [The Hill, 7/11/21 (+)]

 

Panel To Probe Tire Chemicals' Connection To Salmon Die-Off. According to E&E News, “Chemicals found in vehicle tires and linked to massive salmon die-offs will undergo scrutiny this week at a House subcommittee hearing. Members of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations are set to probe the issue and its impact on the endangered coho salmon — one of five species of that type of fish in the Pacific Northwest. Thursday’s hearing will focus on ‘mounting scientific evidence that chemicals found in car tires, artificial playground surfaces and other common sources’ are destroying those salmon populations. A study published last December in the journal Science first drew widespread attention to the die-offs. Researchers from the University of Washington, Washington State University and the Center for Urban Waters who track coho salmon migration had been curious for years about death rates among the fish. Their study linked the deaths to the ‘highly toxic’ tire rubber antioxidant, 6PPD-quinone, one of thousands of chemicals found in tires (Greenwire, Dec. 23, 2020). That preservative is meant to help tires last longer, but as the wheels shed particles, the chemical has wound up along roadways. Rain subsequently sends it into water bodies, where, the researchers concluded, it has become widespread across the West Coast — with deadly implications for coho salmon that could extend to other types of fish.” [E&E News, 7/12/21 (=)]

 

EPA Adopts Novel Risk Reduction Measures To Protect Endangered Fish. According to InsideEPA, “EPA announced July 9 that it will implement a range of risk reduction measures to minimize unintentional harm from four pesticides to endangered and threatened species of Pacific salmon and steelhead in western states, a move that environmentalists say marks the first time the agency has taken such a step. EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention issued a July 9 bulletin announcing the steps to protect 28 federally listed endangered and threatened species of Pacific salmon and steelhead in Washington, Oregon and California prompted by two Endangered Species Act (ESA) biological opinions. EPA notes that it worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and pesticide registrants to develop the risk reduction measures, including no-spray buffers, retention ponds and participation in stewardship programs, the bulletin says. The environmental group Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is praising the action but says the agency still needs to address risks posed by hundreds of other pesticides on threatened and endangered species. ‘For the first time, Pacific salmon will be protected by on-the-ground conservation measures to limit pesticide pollution into our rivers and streams,’ Brett Hartl, government affairs director at CBD, said.” [InsideEPA, 7/9/21 (=)]

 

Colorado’s 1st Gray Wolf Pack Since 1940s Now Has 6 Pups. According to Associated Press, “Colorado’s first litter of gray wolf pups since the 1940s has grown to include six pups. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said Thursday that staff spotted the pups living in a den with two collared wolves known as John and Jane in northern Colorado, KCNC-TV reports. The agency first announced June 9 that staff had spotted three pups in the pack. The discovery comes after Colorado voters narrowly approved a ballot measure last year that requires the state to reintroduce the animal on public lands in the western part of the state by the end of 2023. Gray wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned into extermination in Colorado in the 1940s. Officials last year confirmed the presence of the small pack of wolves in northwestern Colorado after a number of sightings since 2019. The animals were believed to have come down from Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park.” [Associated Press, 7/9/21 (=)]

 

Conservation Groups Continue To Fight Bull Trout “Extinction” Plan. According to CounterPunch, “It’s well known and scientifically documented that bull trout, Montana’s largest native salmonid, require clean, cold, and connected rivers and streams to survive. That’s why, in the midst of a record-breaking hot and dry summer, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Wild Swan, and Save the Bull Trout are challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s inadequate Bull Trout Recovery Plan in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The illegal Bull Trout Recovery Plan would allow the federal government to remove bull trout from Endangered Species Act protections as long as only 147 individual populations go extinct out of 611 total populations. Yes, that’s right. Even though bull trout had already lost 60% of their range when listed under the Endangered Species Act 20 years ago, the plan is to allow another 147 populations to go extinct. As the National Park Service noted in public comments against the plan, ‘Bull trout are a species that has already lost 60% of its historic range. Delisting after losing up to another 10% of that range is not a recovery plan.’ Instead, it is an extinction plan.” [CounterPunch, 7/12/21 (=)]

 

Wildlife

 

Illegal Pot Invades California’s Deserts, Bringing Violence, Fear, Ecological Destruction. According to Los Angeles Times, “As law enforcement attempts to grapple with the explosive growth of desert pot farms, conservationists say the environmental damage caused by numerous farms growing a water-intensive crop may take decades to repair. ‘Large-scale marijuana grows can inflict tremendous damage on desert lands and resources,’ said Cody Hanford, deputy executive director of the nonprofit Mojave Desert Land Trust. ‘In preparation for growing, parcels are often scraped of vegetation, killing both plants and wildlife, including desert tortoise. Deep depressions are dug into the earth, and wells are dug to draw water from aquifers.’ Chemicals such as rodenticides and herbicides, which can be harmful to humans, plants and wildlife, are used with no regulatory oversight, he said. Recently, state wildlife authorities reported that the bodies of two black bears were found at desert pot farms — victims of such poisoning. Biologists are especially worried about pot farms surrounded by designated ‘areas of critical environmental concern’ and managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.” [Los Angeles Times, 7/11/21 (=)]

 

Wisconsin Wildlife Officials Worried About Bird Illness. According to Associated Press, “Wisconsin wildlife officials are asking people to be on the lookout for sickly birds. The Journal Sentinel reports the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources made the request after seeing signs of illnesses that have affected birds in the eastern United States since May. That month, wildlife managers in Washington, D.C, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky began receiving reports of sick and dying birds with eye swelling and crusty discharge. The DNR has received ‘a few scattered’ reports of birds with swollen, crusty eyes. The illness affecting birds in the East has not yet been identified by scientists or linked to observed bird mortalities in Wisconsin that have occurred since June. It is unknown if the illness is being transmitted from bird to bird. Juvenile or fledgling blue jays, common grackles, European starlings and American robins have been the species predominantly associated with mysterious illness.” [Associated Press, 7/11/21 (=)]

 

Rhode Island Bans Large Balloon Releases To Protect Wildlife. According to Associated Press, “Rhode Island has banned the release of large numbers of balloons in a move to protect wildlife. Under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Dan McKee, the state will prohibit anyone from intentionally releasing 10 or more helium or other lighter-than-air balloons outdoors. Supporters say balloon releases are an environmental nuisance that poses a serious threat to birds, marine animals and other wildlife that ingest or become entangled in balloon litter. Violators face a fine of $100 when the new rule takes effect in November. The new law won’t impact hot-air balloons, indoor balloon releases, or scientific and weather research.” [Associated Press, 7/9/21 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: Why It Matters That Climate Change Is Shrinking Birds. According to an op-ed by Brian Weeks in The Hill, “Many of the benefits that humanity derives from the natural world, like the provisioning of oxygen, are priceless. Those ecosystem services that can have a dollar value assigned to them, for example the pollination of crops, generate far more value for humanity each year than the entirety of the global economy. Climate change can threaten these services through the loss of species or shifts in species’ size or abundance. For example, warming temperatures have reduced the size of many birds over the last four decades; this is emblematic of the scale of climate change impacts on the world’s biological diversity. There is an urgent need for action. Scientists have long predicted that increasing temperatures would drive reductions in body size across the tree of life, but testing this requires huge amounts of data collected consistently over decades. This type of data is only available for a tiny fraction of the world’s species, including some North American birds. Recently, a study based on over 70,000 North American bird specimens found that warming temperatures have been shrinking birds for the past 40 years. Because size determines organisms’ behaviors, survival and contributions to the functioning of natural systems, widespread shrinking of birds has important implications for the ecosystem services that birds provide to people.” [The Hill, 7/9/21 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: What It Means If 'Ecocide' Becomes An International Crime. According to an op-ed by Jojo Mehta in The Hill, “Last month an expert panel of top international criminal and environmental lawyers, convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation, proposed a legal definition of the term, suitable for adoption into the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a fifth crime alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. Responding to the explicit call of climate-vulnerable island nations Vanuatu and the Maldives, directly impacted by rising sea levels and heavy tropical storms, such a move would criminalize, ‘unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.’ The warmth of response to this legal definition has been remarkable. Sparking articles in over 100 global publications in the first week, from the Financial Times to Der Spiegel and from Bloomberg to Le Monde, it has also prompted political action. From Bangladesh to the Caribbean to the UK (where an amendment to the government’s Environment Bill includes the newly released definition in full), diplomats and politicians are joining a conversation which already includes EU states such as France and Belgium and has the support of public figures as influential and diverse as Pope Francis and Greta Thunberg.” [The Hill, 7/10/21 (+)]

 

Wildlife Corridors

 

Op-Ed: Florida Wildlife Corridor Is Worth Celebrating In Bleak Legislative Year. According to an op-ed by Nathan Crabbe in The Gainesville Sun, “But the governor did sign another unanimously approved bill into law that should benefit Floridians for generations to come. The measure officially establishes the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which connects parks, preserves and other undeveloped land to allow passage for wildlife and protect natural resources as the state’s growth gobbles up so much greenery. The Florida Wildlife Corridor, as envisioned, would total 18 million acres from the Panhandle to the Keys — about 10 million acres of which are already protected The wildlife corridor, as envisioned, would total 18 million acres from the Panhandle to the Keys — about 10 million acres of which are already protected. The newly signed law requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to encourage and promote ways to connect the remaining land through state acquisition, conservation easements and public-private partnerships. Creating a statewide corridor of connected land keeps endangered animals such as the Florida panther from being cut off from each other and helps maintain their genetic diversity. People also benefit from having natural lands prevent the further decline of groundwater and other natural resources as well as getting more opportunities for recreation on state-owned land.” [The Gainesville Sun, 7/9/21 (+)]

 

 

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