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.

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

During Texas’s last drought, 23 whooping cranes died while wintering in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, says an Associated Press story in the Tampa Bay Times. With another drought this year, wildlife managers can only watch and wait to see what happens.

The total population of wild whooping cranes is about 400. The only self-sustaining wild population is the one that migrates between Aransas in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada.

Read the story in the Tampa Bay Times, here.

In Colorado, St. Vrain State Park sits in the middle of a productive oil field. The state is short on funds. Oil companies are eager to expand into the park, which is home to bald eagles, American white pelicans and the state’s largest blue heron rookery.

Read about the conundrum in the Denver Post: This news story lays out the facts. This columnist explains the dilemma.

What’s a state to do? In Colorado, they said yes to limited drilling on 1/12. Read about the decision in the Denver Business Journal.

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

During Texas’s last drought, 23 whooping cranes died while wintering in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, says an Associated Press story in the Tampa Bay Times. With another drought this year, wildlife managers can only watch and wait to see what happens.

The total population of wild whooping cranes is about 400. The only self-sustaining wild population is the one that migrates between Aransas in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada.

Read the story in the Tampa Bay Times, here.

In Colorado, St. Vrain State Park sits in the middle of a productive oil field. The state is short on funds. Oil companies are eager to expand into the park, which is home to bald eagles, American white pelicans and the state’s largest blue heron rookery.

Read about the conundrum in the Denver Post: This news story lays out the facts. This columnist explains the dilemma.

What’s a state to do? In Colorado, they said yes to limited drilling on 1/12. Read about the decision in the Denver Business Journal.

Photo: Whooping cranes in Aransas NWR, by Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

The Bi-State Wildlife Hotline is a non-profit organization in St. Louis, Missouri that answers questions about troubled or troubling wildlife for area residents, an article in the St. Louis Beacon reports. The hotline, answered by trained wildlife rehabilitators, aims to cut admissions to wildlife rehab centers in half by being available to quickly answer questions about what to do about squirrels in the attic, baby birds that have fallen out of the nest or a coyote chasing the family cat, the article says.

State wildlife agencies often lack the funding to answer these types of questions, the article notes.

Similar hotlines exist elsewhere, all operated by groups of wildlife rehabilitators, notably in Marin County (a suburb of San Francisco), Rhode Island, northern Virginia, and Westchester County (a suburb of New York City).

The Bi-State Wildlife Hotline serves Missouri and Illinois.

It’s amazing how information can prevent small problems from turning into bigger ones. Can a wildlife hotline solve any of your state’s problems?

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