Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

We all know what did in the bison, the millions of humped and hairy beasts that once roamed the continent: sport hunting, market hunting, and a government effort to subdue the Plains Indians by wiping out their major source of food and clothing.

A Canadian researcher now says that the final blow to the buffalo actually came from another scourge — the mindless maw of globalization. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports:

M. Scott Taylor, an economist at the University of Calgary who used international trade records and first-person accounts of the hunt, has found that European development of a cheap and easy tanning method after 1870 fueled that continent’s insatiable appetite for bison hides, which could be turned into shoe soles and machinery belts. …
(T)he bulk of the species was wiped out in the U.S. in just one decade - between the 1870s and 1880s - immediately after the foreign tanning innovation, according to Prof. Taylor.

The “early globalization” conclusion isn’t as surprising as the article’s author makes it out to be — for instance, it was European demand for felt hats that drove this country’s beaver nearly to extinction by the early 1800s. But the theory does cast a new light on an old American myth, and further points up the destructive pressure of far-flung demand for a local resource (see our earlier post “Chinese demand dead bobcats“).

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

At the risk of provoking another vitriolic round of “wolf-hater vs. wolf-lover,” here’s a research update on the effects these key predators have on ecosystems.

A new study from Oregon State University finds that the presence of wolves does indeed cause an “ecology of fear” — elk stay out of streamside areas and then aspen regenerates, beaver return, the whole “trophic cascade” of species is affected. We recently described other research in Goat, where scientists found that wolves didn’t affect elk behavior enough to allow vegetation regrowth; instead, a declining elk population helped plants recover. The new research acknowledges that both factors play a role.

Of note, they say, is that elk populations now are actually higher than they were in the mid-1960s, when aspen trees were still in significant decline. The major change from that period of time is the presence of wolves. The effect of behavioral changes “may be equal to or even greater than” lower elk population levels in allowing tree survival, the researchers said in their report.

One researcher thinks elk population levels might be the most significant; another thinks the behavioral changes may be the key. That’s how science works, folks. Definitive answers emerge slowly. One step forward, one sideways, one back, two forward …

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

That’s Latin for “when a mule foals,” the Roman Empire’s equivalent of hell freezing over. The Denver Post reports that in western Colorado, just such an improbable event occurred recently:

The Amoses, who have about 100 horses and mules at their Winterhawk Outfitters business, knew that what they were seeing (a female mule with a frisky foal) is considered scientifically impossible - as much so today as in ancient Greece. They began doing research and found that in the past two centuries about 50 cases of mules giving birth have been recorded. Only two of those were proved with genetic testing. …
Genetic testing at the University of Kentucky and the University of California at Davis confirmed that Kate is indeed a mule and that the still unnamed foal really is her offspring.

If you see any airborne hogs, let us know …

A couple of months ago Grist reported that prosecutions for environmental crimes had declined since Bush took office. Describing a report from the Environmental Integrity Project, Grist said:

The Department of Justice has filed fewer than 16 lawsuits per year against polluters since Bush took office; the last three years under Clinton saw an annual average of 52 lawsuits. Between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, polluters shelled out $81 million per year in civil penalties; between 1996 and 2000, they ponied up $107 million annually. Criminal fines have dropped 38 percent under Bush, and the number of new criminal investigations has declined by 23 percent.

Now it turns out that it’s not just Justice, but the Environmental Protection Agency, that has been slacking in its duty to the public. Forbes reported today that the number of EPA enforcement officers — real-life, gun-toting enviro-cops — is down to 174, despite a Congressional mandate of 200 and a budget that’s increased by 25 percent:

(Assistant EPA administrator) Nakayama said the EPA is reinvigorating criminal enforcement with an emphasis on pursuing high-impact cases, such as the recent felony air pollution convictions against CITGO Petroleum Corp. and convictions and fines worth millions of dollars against pipe and foundry divisions of McWane Inc. of Birmingham, Ala.

The EPA’s overall criminal caseload - investigations that could lead to prosecutions later - is declining, according to the agency’s figures. It has opened fewer investigations every year since 2002, when there were 484 new investigations and 216 agents. Last year, the number of new cases fell to 305.

(Read on …)

An energy company just did a bit of dining and dashing — except that in addition to leaving an unpaid bill, it left a wake of hazardous waste and environmental degradation.

The Rocky Mountain News reports that Texas-based natural gas producer Presco Inc. recently sold its southwestern Colorado drilling operation, on the same day the company received notices of at least eight environmental violations. Now the new owners may be stuck paying the fines and cleaning up the mess.

(Read on …)

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

Yet more bad wildlife news from Oregon … Gov. Kulongoski recently signed a bill allowing hound hunting of cougars and bears by anyone “selected, trained and supervised” by the Fish and Wildlife department. The bill ignores the will of the state’s voters, who have repeatedly voted not to reinstate a 1994 ban on hound hunting.

And all Oregon hunters can bag a mountain lion for the price of a couple six-packs of Bud. Fish and Wildlife dropped the cost of a lion tag from $50 to $10 after the ban was passed, and added the tag to its popular “SportsPac” combo of fishing and hunting licenses. The Eugene Weekly reports:

Record numbers of cougars have been shot by hunters in the past several years, according to ODFW’s website. ODFW sold almost 39,000 cougar hunting tags last year.

ODFW estimates there are about 5,000 cougars in Oregon. In 2006 284 (NOTE: original EW story says 442 but that’s not correct) cougars were killed in this state.

Meanwhile, no one really knows how many cougars are in the West, or what a sustainable level of “harvest” looks like. Biologists admit that population estimates are mostly based on anecdotal evidence and guesswork, and that hunting quotas are influenced much more by politics than by science (see our earlier story ). And with 39,000 tags sold for 5,000 animals, Oregon puts no limits on lion take.

More than six years later, America knows who participated in the 2001 energy task force chaired by Vice President Dick “I’m not part of the executive branch” Cheney, thanks to the Washington Post. The Post story revealing the list shows that environmentalists were brought into the energy-policy process late in the day, after a draft of energy policy recommendations had already been drawn up. But that’s no surprise; who expected a Bush/Cheney administration to base its energy policy on what enviros have to say?

More interesting is the secrecy question, raised this way by the Post:

But while [the list] clears up much of the lingering uncertainty about who was granted access to present energy policy views to Cheney’s staff, it does not entirely explain why the Bush administration fought so hard to keep it and other as-yet-unreleased internal memos secret.

Contacted over the past week, several people who met with the task force’s staff described their meetings as part of a normal “interagency” review of major domestic policy and expressed bewilderment that the White House and Cheney labored to keep the deliberations out of the public eye.

“I never knew why they fought so hard to keep it secret,” said Charles A. Samuels, outside counsel to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which participated in a March 13 meeting to discuss the idea of tax credits for super-efficient appliances. “I am sure the vast majority of the meetings were very policy-oriented meetings — exactly what should take place.”

If there is some as-yet undiscovered reason why Cheney fought release of the list of task force participants all the way to the Supreme Court, it likely won’t remain undiscovered for very long. Given the incestuous nature of things inside the Beltway, someone on the list of participants is bound to know someone in the Washington press corps. Perhaps intimately.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

What’s 7 feet tall … costs $38,000 … gets greedy gas mileage (14 miles a gallon) … and was attacked by two masked vandals after midnight in our nation’s capital?

Of course I don’t condone it. But the way the Washington Post writes it up, it’s kind of an amusing window into 2007 society.

Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Many of us have been tempted to do what the star of this very brief video does …

I know Alaska is slightly out of our coverage area, but when a congressman threatens to bite another congressman, in the manner of a murderous mink, it’s wildlife news that can’t be ignored. Here’s the operative quote, from U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-AK (courtesy the wonderful website TPMmuckraker.com):

“If we continue this we’ll be called biting one another, very much like the mink in my state that kill their own,” Young said. “There is always another day when those who bite will be killed, too. And I’m very good at that.”

And here’s the video. Enjoy.

Oh, I almost forgot. The mink-biting threat involves a school-funding bill.

After a Portland judge sent them back to the drawing board again in an ongoing court dispute, the feds recently released another plan to save salmon in the Pacific Northwest. According to the Oregonian, an interesting battle line is being drawn along the Columbia River. Washington Governor Chris Gregoire supports the plan, while Oregon’s Governor Ted Kulongowski says it doesn’t do enough to protect fish:

Washington, siding with the Bonneville Power Administration, which distributes the hydropower, and many electric utilities that buy the power, likes the federal government’s proposal to help salmon hurt by the dams. It does a better job focusing aid on the salmon runs that need it, Washington argues.

But Oregon, siding with conservation and fishing groups and some Native American tribes, sees the federal approach as pretty close to awful. It offers no new help for fish and may illegally ignore the federal mandate to help endangered species, Oregon says in court filings.

Is this just a matter of reasonable people disagreeing over what constitutes the best science? Maybe, but the Oregonian takes a more cynical view of things. They point out that folks in Washington get hydropower from those salmon-killing dams at a steep discount, while Oregonians have to pay market rates. So Washington has more to lose if more stringent mitigation is required.

Jodi Peterson

Associate Editor

Elk like to graze along streams and in meadows, chomping on tender cottonwood, willow and aspen seedlings. When enough elk browse them, most of those seedlings don’t ever mature into trees, and in turn there go beaver, songbirds, and a host of other species in what scientists call a “trophic cascade” (see our story “Tinkering with Nature“). However, in areas where wolves have been reintroduced, the predators find elk out in the open to be easy pickings, so the ungulates learn to stay in safer, heavily wooded areas. That gives the willow and aspen a chance to regrow, and then the other creatures return as well.

But that compelling narrative, often cited to show how wolves affect entire ecosystems, may be challenged by a new study just completed in Yellowstone. The Casper Star-Tribune reports:

A University of Wyoming professor has concluded that wolves don’t cause elk to vary their behavior enough to allow aspen stands to recover, contradicting in some ways earlier studies indicating an “ecology of fear” had taken root in the big game animals.

(Read on …)

Microsoft is looking for a few hundred more software geniuses to staff its new development center. The new office will be close to its Redmond headquarters, but not too close: it will be opening in Vancouver, B.C., and Microsoft cites tough U.S. immigration laws as the reason. The company says the kind of talent it needs is in short supply in North America, and it wants to attract highly-trained workers from all over the world, including folks trained at U.S. universities who are unable to legally work here. Although skilled workers can qualify for H1-B visas, there are only so many of those visas available, and according to the L.A. Times:

The demand for H-1B visas for high-skilled immigrants has become so much greater than the supply that almost twice as many applications arrived in a single day as there were slots available for the year — 65,000, plus 20,000 for those with advanced degrees from U.S. schools.

Meanwhile, Canada’s borders are wide open to skilled workers, particularly those in the tech industry. Microsoft says this, plus Vancouver’s position as a “global gateway,” is its reason for moving north.

(Read on …)