An open space promise: Let’s make it work, finally

Two U.S. senators, as this NY Times editorial notes, have introduced legislation to make the Land and Water Conservation Fund work the way it was supposed to when set up decades ago.

Wind industry faces ‘prairie rebellion’

As this NY Times article explains.

Boar hits Prius on N.H. highway

Geez, I see white-tailed deer carcasses all the time while traversing Pennsylvania highways. Here’s a different roadkill story.

Officials confirm cougar sighting in Michigan’s UP

This is a neat story

Why walk when you can drive?

Here’s a good answer, thanks to a New York City resident’s essay in in today’s NY Times.

A legacy of society’s addiction to coal

This is the Jeddo Mine Tunnel, dug a century ago to dewater deep underground mine shafts in the middle anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania. This is the same region of the Keystone State which chambers of commerce and related bidness interests have taken to calling “upstate” Pennsylvania. The Jeddo drains about 35 square miles of anthracite coal shafts in the Hazleton area and discharges an average of 40,000 gallons a minute of acid mine drainage (AMD) into the Nescopeck Creek watershed, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, the largest single source of freshwater for Chesapeake Bay. This is just one of many such AMD sources in “upstate” Pennsylvania. AMD, of course, is lethal to aquatic life.

Quote of the week

“That’s how developers work,” she said. “If people are protesting something, they just go bulldoze it and that stops the problem.” — A student, in speaking out about the cutting down of mature cottonwood trees to make way for building construction at the El Rito campus of Northern New Mexico College.

Oil shale inqiry opens

The L.A. Times offers this article.

NY Times opines on Marcellus drilling

Read it here. Good opinion piece. And timely.

Another warning sign: Walruses trampled to death

Here is the sad news from the National Wildlife Federation. The culprit? Disappearing sea ice caused by global warming.

The walrus typically spends much of its time resting on sea ice. But, as global warming melts its icy habitat, it has no place else to go but to land. It’s not uncommon for walruses to gather on shore in the fall months, but they are currently gathering in alarmingly large numbers and arriving much earlier than in previous years.

In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reported that 131 walruses, mostly calves and yearlings, were trampled to death in Alaska by
other walruses. This is a clear and urgent signal that
the sea ice is nowhere to be found.