Habitat program on endangered list

This article explains the situation in good detail. I once hiked across some of the terra firma highlighted in this piece, like the sandhill crane stopover point along the Platte River in central Nebraska. Campaign contributors will make out fine, while our natural heritage suffers — again.

Water managers in West brace for more dry times

The restoration work along Sandia Pueblo’s section of the Rio Grande is just the latest effort by tribal, state and federal water managers as they grapple with persistent drought across the West, the uncertainties of climate change, endangered species concerns and growing demand for a limited resource. Add non-native invasive plant species to that mix, as well. Like water-sucking tamarisk. Read the whole report here.

Muddy situation in Illinois for soil and water conservation districts

It’s that same old tired “budget woe” we’re hearing a lot from the loud mainstream media these days. An open note to all politicians: There can be no economy at all if natural land is kissed goodbye for strip malls, etc.

In Maine, conservation groups to vie for $9.7 million

It’s the Land for Maine’s Future program. Read about it here.

N.Y. State weighs in on lawsuit challenging public use of Adirondack waterway

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110225/NEWS10/102250328/State-weighs-Adirondack-canoeist-rights-lawsuit?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Lake Champlain and conservation

Great essay here from a Lake Champlain and Vermont conservationist. We need more, not fewer, people who think like this, who know and appreciate the fact that economic health depends on environmental health.

Quote of the week

“In the long term, the economy and the environment are the same thing. If it’s un-environmental, it is uneconomical. That is the rule of nature.”

– Vermonter Mollie Beattie, director U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during Clinton administration

Regulation lax as gas wells’ tainted water hits rivers

History is repeating itself — again. Here’s the deal: The more holes are punched into terra firma, the Earth, to extract natural gas, the greater the chances are of something going wrong. This article explains. And this trouble spot isn’t limited to gold oil fields in Oklahoma are elsewhere in the Midwest, it’s here in Pennsylvania and elsewhere as newfangled drilling technologies take hold.

Suspension of pollution rules for drilling sought

And the administration of newly enthroned Gov. Tom Corbett is ready to cave in, as this article explains. The polluters are about to win again.

Friends of polluters moving to stop EPA’s Chesapeake Bay plan

The Farm Bureau, predictably, is among the crowd speaking out against the EPA’s cleanup plan for the Chesapeake Bay. This polluter-friendly attitude is the sort of obstacle that has prevented any substantial progress in the cleanup for decades now. Read more.