Author Archives: MadelineBodin

WNS Found in Another KY County

Posted on by
Reply

Green = 2011 WNS finding; Red = 2012

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced that it has confirmed white nose syndrome in three caves in the state. Three common bat species in those caves were found to have the syndrome.

Read the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife press release, here.

The caves are in a different county than the one where bats with WNS were found last year. (On our map, last year’s outbreak is in green; this year’s in red.)

The US Fish and Wildlife Service map had not yet been updated at the time we published this, so the map here is our own. Check the official WNS map, here.

Federal News Roundup

Posted on by
Reply

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has extended the public comment period on the draft policy defining the phrase “significant portion of its range” in the Endangered Species Act, to March 8.
Read the USFWS press release announcing the extension, here.
Read our previous coverage of this topic, here.

The first week in March (March 5) is also the deadline to comment on the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy.
You can visit the NFWP Climate Adaptation Strategy website, here.
You can read the entire 115 page public review draft document, here. (PDF)
Or just read the executive summary, here.
Read a Miami Herald article on the subject, here.

Forest Service shieldAt the USDA, the Forest Service has released a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for land management planning for the National Forest System. McClatchy Newspapers article says that the new plan is stronger is some ways, but has a key provision that weakens protection for wildlife. This rule expected to become final in early March.
Read the McClatchy article, here.
Read the Forest Service’s material on the new plan, here.

WNS Expands in Ohio, New Brunswick

Posted on by
Reply
White nose syndrome in Ohio map

Green = 2011 detection; Red = 2012 detection

While it is still early in white nose syndrome detection season, so far in 2012 white nose syndrome has not been found in a single new state or province. However, it has been found in new locations in Ohio and New Brunswick, Canada, where white nose syndrome was first found last winter.

In Ohio, most news reports have merely reprinted the Summit County Metro Parks press release. Read it here.

This article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer adds that the disease was first detected in Ohio in March, in an abandoned mine in Wayne National Forest. Read the entire Plain Dealer article, here.

White nose syndrome was also first detected in the Canadian province of New Brunswick in March 2011. This winter, an article in The Epoch Times reports, it has spread to three new sites in that province. (I found it a little worrisome that I couldn’t find other articles on this, but at least here is the press release from the New Brunswick Museum.)

Perhaps there is a quantum link between white nose syndrome in Ohio and New Brunswick. We also covered its discovery in both places in a single post last year. Read that post here.

Map: courtesy US Fish and Wildlife. Find entire map here.

Bosses say: Don’t Talk; Don’t Conserve

Posted on by
Reply

A bit of irony: "Prepared in Mind and Resources"In South Carolina, a member of the state’s wildlife commission has told a member of Department of Natural Resources to stop participating in the state’s Savannah River Maritime Commission, which is charged “to represent this State in all matters pertaining to the navigability, depth, dredging, wastewater and sludge disposal, and related collateral issues in regard to the use of the Savannah River.” (See full text of S.C. state code, here.)

It’s also one of several entities suing to stop the dredging of the Savannah River, The State newspaper of South Carolina reports.

Read all the details in The State article, here. (As well as some details about the sudden retirement of the state’s DNR chief after 37 years on the job.)

In Alaska, the commissioner of the state’s Department of Natural Resources wants to remove the words “conserve,” “enhance,” and “future generations” from the department’s mission statement, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

Since the the old mission statement said (according to KSKA, Alaska public broadcasting) that the department’s mission is: “To develop, conserve and enhance natural resources for present and future Alaskans,” That leaves, “To develop natural resources for present Alaskans.”

The change was proposed on Jan. 17.

Lynx in Idaho and Other Lynx Links

Posted on by
Reply

lynx in snowThe first Canada lynx in Idaho in over 15 years was inadvertently caught in a leg-hold trap, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said on Tuesday.

Read the article in the Chicago Tribune, here. The Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game release is here.

Elsewhere in the West, The Denver Post says that:

“Federal lawyers have backed away from fighting a federal judge’s ruling that favors lynx, clearing the way for possible broader protection of the quick-pawed predators in Colorado and other Western states.”

The article goes on to say that the Colorado Division of Wildlife didn’t wait for the federal critical habitat designation. They’ve already reintroduced lynx to the state.

Read the whole article in The Denver Post, here.

Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, there is evidence that the state’s lynx population is growing. (Growing from zero to something, maybe.) Read the blog entry in the Concord Monitor, here.

In Maine, they have so many lynx (600-1,200) that keeping them out of bobcat traps is becoming a problem. Recently, six lynx were trapped and another was killed. Read the story in the Bangor Daily News.

Lynx photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Pythons Devouring Everglades

Posted on by
Reply

Small mammals have been almost completely wiped out in the Everglades by invasive pythons, a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said Monday.

If this sounds like journalistic exaggeration to you, it did to me too. Doubting the news reports, I went straight to the open access PNAS paper (in early release). Surveys from 2003 to 2011, the paper says, saw a:

“…99.3% decrease in the frequency of raccoon observations, decreases of 98.9% and 87.5% for opossum and bobcat observations, respectively, and failed to detect rabbits.”

Why should you care? Check out this map of potential python habitat in the U.S. Though many doubt pythons will spread out of south Florida, the risk is there.

Read the PNAS paper here. (A PDF)

Read the US Geological Survey press release here.

A story in the Washington Post is here. Google says that there were over 700 news reports on this. Here’s another from The Atlantic Magazine’s blog AtlanticWire.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently banned the important and interstate transport of pythons and other constrictors. Read more about that here.

Photo by Mike Rochford , University of Florida, used courtesy of the US Geological Survey

Fox Distemper Study Details

Posted on by
2
Desert kit fox

Collared desert kit fox, courtesy California Department of Fish and Game

The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is investigating the death of seven desert kit foxes from canine distemper in eastern Riverside County (which is in the southeastern part of the state, inland of Los Angeles, abutting Arizona) according to its own press release. (Read it here.)

Sometimes canine distemper cycles through wild canine populations, and sometimes dogs pass the infection along, the press release reminds us.

Generally, the death of such a small number of animals is not notable, but what I really like about the press release is the detail given about the methodology of the follow-up study — in which researchers tagged 39 foxes and collared 12.

A few more details, about the susceptibility of various canine species to distemper is found in a ProMED announcement.

Rethinking Rattlesnakes

Posted on by
Reply
coiled timber rattlesnake

Courtesy Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

In 1967 a young man was bitten by a rattlesnake in Evans County, Georgia, and survived. Despite the happy outcome, the locals still thought there were just too many rattlesnakes in the region. In February 1968 a Rattlesnake Roundup was organized, and 48 rattlesnakes were turned in. There’s been an annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Claxton, Georgia ever since.

This year, however, there is a change. It’s no longer the Rattlesnake Roundup, but the Rattlesnake Festival, according to the Claxton-Evans County Chamber of Commerce website and WTOC.

Rattlesnakes will be celebrated, but not bought and sold. Part of the reason is that pharmaceutical companies no longer buy rattlesnakes to milk for venom antidotes, says an article on the Care2 website. That article helpfully includes a link to a list of rattlesnake roundups nationwide (with a rattlesnake race and rattlesnake derby thrown in for good measure, find it here).

This is good news for rattlesnakes, whose numbers have been declining.

A 2009 paper in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology found that rattlesnake roundups do indeed impact local rattlesnake population levels. The Claxton roundup was one of those studied.

Rethinking Rattlesnakes

Posted on by
Reply
coiled timber rattlesnake

Courtesy Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

In 1967 a young man was bitten by a rattlesnake in Evans County, Georgia, and survived. Despite the happy outcome, the locals still thought there were just too many rattlesnakes in the region. In February 1968 a Rattlesnake Roundup was organized, and 48 rattlesnakes were turned in. There’s been an annual Rattlesnake Roundup in Claxton, Georgia ever since.

This year, however, there is a change. It’s no longer the Rattlesnake Roundup, but the Rattlesnake Festival, according to the Claxton-Evans County Chamber of Commerce website and WTOC.

Rattlesnakes will be celebrated, but not bought and sold. Part of the reason is that pharmaceutical companies no longer buy rattlesnakes to milk for venom antidotes, says an article on the Care2 website. That article helpfully includes a link to a list of rattlesnake roundups nationwide (with a rattlesnake race and rattlesnake derby thrown in for good measure, find it here).

This is good news for rattlesnakes, whose numbers have been declining.

A 2009 paper in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology found that rattlesnake roundups do indeed impact local rattlesnake population levels. The Claxton roundup was one of those studied.

Wetlands Are Not (Re)Created Equal

Posted on by
Reply

A study by a Stanford ecologist recently published in PLoS Biology says that restored wetlands are 25 percent less productive than natural wetlands, even 100 years later.

The study is a meta-analysis of 621 natural and restored wetlands from 124 previously published studies. Wetland restoration and the creation of artificial wetlands has been a popular method of mitigating wetland development for decades.

The study found that wetlands with a higher flow of water (think rivers and tidal areas) recovered faster, as did areas with warmer climates. Smaller wetlands recovered more slowly than larger ones. Woe to the prairie pothole on the northern plains and to the New England bog.

Read the open access paper in PLoS Biology, here.
A detailed report in The New York Times Green blog is here.
You can find the press release from Stanford on EurekAlert, here.

Photo: Small wetlands in colder climates with limited water flow, like this Vermont wetland, recover their productivity more slowly. Courtesy Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation