Key dates in story of a warming planet, our Earth

The issue of climate change has been around a lot longer than most people know. I’m one of them. I listened to a cassette tape of author/conservationist Dave Foreman reading from his book “Confessioins of an Eco-Warrior” a few weeks ago and he mentions the “greenhouse effect” in the opening essay. Here’s an AP report of key dates in the issue’s chronology.

PEER: Desert tortoise funds missued in Utah

PROBE INTO MISAPPROPRIATION OF DESERT TORTOISE MONEY
Former Red Cliffs Desert Reserve Administrator Charges Utah County Commission   

Washington, DC – Federal funds to protect the Mojave Desert tortoise in Utah were misused by local Utah officials to plan a freeway and construct a building, according to a former top county employee. Those charges, detailed in correspondence released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), are under federal investigation.

For more than 14 years, William Meador oversaw the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, a 62,000-acre expanse in southern Utah set aside to provide habitat for the desert tortoise, a federally listed threatened species.  Meador, a PhD wildlife biologist, worked for Washington County, Utah, until he was removed in late 2008 in a dispute over the County Commissioners’ diversion of funds and violations of a federal permit.

Recovery of the desert tortoise has been a high federal priority, with more funds devoted to the reptile than to some more charismatic species such as the bald eagle, gray wolf and grizzly bear.  In letters sent to federal agencies and congressional appropriators, Meador outlines widespread misappropriation by county commissioners of funds for desert tortoise habitat:

• $50 million to acquire desert tortoise habitat was instead  earmarked  by the county for a freeway slated to cut through the last viable tortoise population in the state;
• $200,000 of money for a tortoise Habitat Conservation Plan was  transferred to the Utah Department of Natural Resources to construct a building in Washington County; and
• Other funds were transferred out of habitat conservation funds without public notice.

In addition, Meador struggled against official opposition to enforce county ordinances that protected tortoises from being killed.  In the complaints, Meador calls for greater public oversight and transparency in Washington County management of Red Cliffs.  His charges have been referred to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for investigation and a financial audit.

Meador’s disclosures come at a time when federal spending in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve is slated to grow.  In 2009 legislation, Congress created a National Conservation Area (NCA) within the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.  The law directs BLM  to develop a long-range management plan “to conserve, protect, and enhance …the ecological, scenic, wildlife, recreational, cultural, historical, natural, educational, and scientific resources” of public lands within the NCA.

“Conservation partnerships are an important tool but they are not a license to steal,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.  “As the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area comes into being, it is important that BLM determine that taxpayer investments are used for the intended purposes and not siphoned away for political payoffs.”
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Read a copy of Meador’s charges
Look at plans for the Red Cliffs NCA

‘Coywolves’ a product of evolution

Nicely wrapped newsppaper article on what many people refer to as the Estern coyote.

It’s getting harder to see PA’s once vast forests through their fragments

The state government’s decision to basically roll over and let natural gas drillers have their way on public land is the storyline here.

Millions of pounds of dead carp for sell in Utah

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/us/27carp.html?_r=2

Vermont ATV rule faces vote

And the Green Mountain State’s leaders should say NO to the proposal of allowing ATV traffic on state-powned public land. Period. Here’s an article about the pending vote from the Burlington, Vt., Free-Press.

Wyo. sets wildlife guidelines for wind developers

Many well-meaning people, including me, favor alternative-energy sources like wind. But there are places to put such wind farms and places not to put them. This article looks at what is taking place in Wyoming.

Aerial-gunning foes ask Obama to ban practice

This seems like a fairly cut-and-dry thing. Good luck to the petitioners. Their target (no pun intended) is the sort of thing that ex-gubbernur Sarah Palin might champion.

Seismic rumbles in the forest

The Marcellus shale drilling debacle (pollution vs. fish).

Museum of Fly Fishing claims not to be political?

Read the sordid tale here.