Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 12, 2008
1. Top Items -
Endangered Species Act -- parts of it could become extinct: Bush wants to let federal agencies decide whether projects might harm endangered animals. New rules would cut scientific reviews.
The
Signs point to monster return for salmon
The
UCI study: Climate change killed thousands of trees: Drought, heat drive vegetation upslope in mountains east of Orange County
The Orange County
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Endangered Species Act -- parts of it could become extinct: Bush wants to let federal agencies decide whether projects might harm endangered animals. New rules would cut scientific reviews.
The
By Juliet
The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species.
The Associated Press obtained a draft of the proposal and reported its details.
Afterward, in a telephone call with reporters, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne described the rules as a "narrow regulatory change" that "will provide clarity and certainty to the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act."
But environmentalists and congressional Democrats blasted the proposal as a last-minute attempt by the administration to bring about dramatic changes in the law. For more than a decade, congressional Republicans have been trying unsuccessfully to rewrite the act, which property owners and developers say imposes unreasonable economic costs.
"I am deeply troubled by this proposed rule, which gives federal agencies an unacceptable degree of discretion to decide whether or not to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who asked for a staff briefing before the proposal was announced but did not receive one. "Eleventh-hour rulemakings rarely, if ever, lead to good government. This is not the type of legacy this Interior Department should be leaving for future generations."
Bob Irvin, senior vice president of conservation programs at the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, questioned how some federal agencies could make the assessments, when most do not have wildlife biologists on staff.
"Clearly, that's a case of asking the fox to guard the chicken coop," Irvin said, adding that the original law created "a giant caution light that made federal agencies stop and think about the impacts of their actions. What the Bush administration is telling those agencies is they don't have to think about those impacts anymore."
But Dale Hall, who directs the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the move would not apply to major federal projects and would give his agency more time to focus on the most critically endangered species, rather than conducting reviews of projects that pose little threat.
"We have to have the ability to put our efforts where they're needed," Hall said, adding that individual agencies will have to take responsibility if their projects do harm a protected species. "This really says to the agencies, 'This law belongs to all of us. You're responsible to defend it.' "
The new rules would also limit the impact of the administration's decision in May to list the polar bear as threatened with extinction because of shrinking sea ice. At the time of that decision, Kempthorne said he would seek changes to the Endangered Species Act on the grounds that it was inflexible, adding that it had not been modified significantly since 1986.
In a statement Monday, the Interior Department declared that even if a federal action such as the permitting of a power plant would lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions, the decision would not trigger a federal review "because it is not possible to link the emissions to impacts on specific listed species such as polar bears."
The draft rules obtained by the Associated Press would bar agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats.
Kempthorne said the new regulations included that language "so we don't inadvertently have the Endangered Species Act seen as a back door to climate change policy that was never, ever intended."
The new rules were expected to be formally proposed immediately, officials told the Associated Press. That would give the administration enough time to impose the rules before November's presidential election. A new administration could freeze any pending regulations or reverse them, but that process could take months. Congress could overturn the rules through legislation, but that could take even longer.
Tim Coyle, senior vice president for governmental affairs at the California Building Industry Assn., said that while his association would have to read the rules before making a judgment, he welcomed Kempthorne's statement on the polar bear because it offered "clarity on an issue that if it was left broad and ambiguous, could be a serious problem for the home-building industry here in California. . . . For home builders, clarity in the rules is always, always helpful."
Although Kempthorne said he had received "encouragement from both sides of the aisle to see if we couldn't bring about steps that would make the Endangered Species Act more effective," his proposal opened a new front in the ongoing battle between the administration and Congress on the environment.
An aide to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, said she, like Rahall, had requested but not received a briefing. The panel is drafting a letter to the Interior Department and will hold an oversight hearing.
In a statement, Boxer called the rules change "another in a continuing stream of proposals to repeal our landmark environmental laws through the back door. I believe it is illegal, and if this proposed regulation had been in place, it would have undermined our ability to protect the bald eagle, the grizzly bear, and the gray whale."#
Signs point to monster return for salmon
The
(08-09) 17:07 PDT -- An 80-pound salmon caught off Rivers Inlet this past week crowned a siege of some of the biggest salmon taken off British Columbia in years. The news could mean great things for the Bay Area coast in the future.
On the same morning the 80-pounder was caught, an angler on a nearby boat caught a 71-pounder. At least one 50-pound salmon has been caught every day this week out of Rivers Inlet Resort, according to Ron Shapland, co-owner of the resort.
"The fish this season are unbelievably huge."
The story of the decline in salmon populations on the
But this spring and early summer, powerful winds out of the northwest returned, and with it, upwelling jump-started the marine food chain.
With plenty of food again in the ocean, yet far fewer adult salmon this summer, the fish that are out there are gorging and getting huge.
That is why what is happening now off
"It's hard to believe how big the salmon are up here right now," said field scout John Beath, who reported the story from
More info: (425) 226-4600 or riversinletresort.com.
Danger, danger: Remember the fish kill in the Delta when the water from a flooded island was pumped out and Fish and Game didn't have a fish salvage plan? Here's a warning: The same thing could happen when
Frog versus trout: Another plan is advancing to remove trout from Sierra lakes in order to protect pollywogs, this time in Desolation Wilderness.
Ladybug swarms: If you're lucky and you spend a lot of time hiking, you might see the migration of millions of ladybugs once or twice in your life. Jessica Franklin had such a lucky day at Muir Woods in Marin last month.
Deer season: Amid afternoon temperatures 90 degrees and up across much of the Coastal A Zone, deer season opened along the central coast of
Boater driver's license: The two recent deaths of drivers of personal watercraft in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has added another pressure point in the fight to require boat drivers be educated and licensed, as is proposed in the Legislature in AB 2110 and is already required in several states, including New York and New Jersey.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2008/08/10/SP1B127626.DTL’
UCI study: Climate change killed thousands of trees: Drought, heat drive vegetation upslope in mountains east of Orange County
The Orange County
By PAT BRENNAN
Climate change has killed thousands of trees and forced native plants to retreat to higher elevations on a
And while it remains unclear whether localized changes in climate or global warming is to blame, the study paints an ominous picture of what might be in store as planetary temperatures continue to rise.
The findings could have profound implications for many outdoor activities, and for the management of
"It's hard to say what this wouldn't impact," said Anne Kelly, the study's lead author and a UC Irvine graduate student in Earth System Science. "Recreation, land management, fire abatement: anything that has to do with nature is going to be affected by this."
Drought and warmer temperatures pushed trees such as Jeffrey pines and white firs an average of 213 feet upslope on the
"I was really surprised to see the signal was so strong and so clear across the entire mountain range," Kelly said. "Drought is a huge, huge problem."
Kelly, an ecophysiologist, and Earth System Science professor Michael Goulden examined trees, shrubs and other native vegetation on the north face of the Santa Rosas.
Other scientists have noted shifts in the ranges of birds and other animals, as well as plants, as a result of changes in climate.
But in one of the first studies of its kind, the scientists compared ground-based observations and direct measurements of plants over a 30-year period. They focused on a 7,300-foot, vertical cross section that spanned a variety of plant communities, from desert scrub at the bottom to pine forests at the top.
The area had been covered by another scientist in a 1977 plant survey; Kelly and Goulden returned to the same area for a detailed resurvey of the plants in 2006 and 2007.
Nine out of 10 species on which the researchers focused most intensively died at lower elevations and moved upslope.
But Kelly said the scientists saw essentially the same effects on all the 141 plant species they examined, from sea level to 8,400 feet.
"That was the shocking thing about this study," she said. "It was consistent with desert plants down at sea level as well as conifers up in the mountains."
During the same period, mean temperatures in the area increased by more than a degree Fahrenheit; severe drought also struck the area from 1999-2002.
A recent European study yielded similar results, Goulden said.
Because the scientists focused on the
Measurements of carbon dioxide in the area showed a lack of air pollution that would have toxic effects on plants. And unlike in many
While such effects complicate the picture in other
The climate change in question might be the "heat island" effect observed throughout
And while it is not possible to establish a firm connection between the scientists' findings and global climate change as a whole, the results are consistent with the predictions of computer models that take global warming into account.
"The best thing about this study is that, regardless of why there's warming, regardless of why there are more droughts, this is kind of a preview of what global warming could do in other places in the world," Kelly said.
The study will be published this week on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Web site.#
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/study-climate-plants-2121243-scientists-kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment