Court ruling keeps Yellowstone grizzlies on 'threatened' list

Conservationists won a major battle Tuesday in their campaign to protect Yellowstone grizzly bears when a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erred in removing Endangered Species Act protections for "one of the American West's most iconic wild animals."

The ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the wildlife agency's 2007 decision to remove the "threatened" designation for the bears under the Endangered Species Act.

Tuesday's ruling cited climate change as having accelerated a beetle infestation destroying the bears' vital white-bark pine food source. The grizzly is only the second wildlife species, after the polar bear, to earn protection in recognition of harm caused by global warming. Both are considered "threatened."

The three-judge panel embraced conservationists' warnings that the decline in the grizzlies' fodder would likely drive them to forage in more populous areas around the park, increasing incidents of confrontation between humans and the omnivorous bears.

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Photo: A grizzly wanders through open brush inside Yellowstone National Park. Credit: James Peaco / Associated Press

Burning oil from BP spill produced carbon plumes

Chalk up another environmental impact from last summer's Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Nine weeks of burning off oil slicks from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico following the BP spill released an estimated 1 million pounds of soot into the atmosphere, according to a study released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The burns were conducted to reduce the size of the slicks and to minimize the amount of oil reaching the gulf’s coast and wetlands systems. But the study, which was co-written by researchers at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, Colo., found the plumes of smoke from the burns produced an amount of carbon equal to the total black carbon emissions normally released by all ships that travel the Gulf of Mexico during a nine-week period.

Black carbon, whose primary component is often called soot, is among the most light-absorbing particles in the atmosphere. The new study, published online in Geophysical Research Letters, provides some of the most detailed observations made of black carbon sent airborne by burning surface oil.

The study found that the soot plumes reached much higher into the atmosphere than ship emissions normally rise, and that the average size of the soot particles was larger than normally emitted from other sources in the gulf region. Researchers also found that the soot particles were almost all black carbon, unlike forest fires, for example, which produce other particles along with black carbon.

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Photo: A controlled burn on June 19, 2010, attempting to remove oil floating near the leaking BP well in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

California adopts historic cap-and-trade regulations

The California Air Resources Board, after three years of contentious debate, on Thursday approved the nation's first state-run cap-and-trade program, which will for the first time put a price on carbon emissions.

The unanimous vote paves the way for the carbon trading market, which begins in 2013 and will eventually require 85% of the state's largest polluters to either emit less carbon or purchase credits on a market that the air board will regulate.   

The market is projected to exchange about $10 billion in carbon allowances by 2016, which would make it second largest in the world behind the European Union.

The program is part of AB 23, the state's 2006 climate change law that mandates a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Said board Chairwoman Mary Nichols: "We've done something important."

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Photo: Valero Energy's Wilmington refinery in a 2010 photo.  Credit: Christina House / Los Angeles Times

Group launches online environmental accident map

The nonprofit environmental monitoring group SkyTruth on Thursday launched a real-time alert system that uses remote sensing and digital mapping to track pollution events in the United States.

The SkyTruth Alerts system shows air and water pollution, toxic spills and other incidents on an interactive map, noting the time of the event and whether toxic materials are involved. Users can track specific geographic areas and receive updates via email or RSS feeds.

The group culls satellite images, aerial photography and reporting data from federal and state emergency response agencies to compile the maps.

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Photo: Fires burn off oil near the crippled BP well site in June 2010. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

 

Aggressive wolf at Yellowstone National Park euthanized

Officials at Yellowstone National Park said Wednesday that they euthanized a gray wolf that had lost its fear of humans and had been repeatedly attempting to obtain human food.

Park employees killed the 110-pound male Oct. 8, after months of hazing the animal failed and the wolf continued to approach visitors and staff in the Fishing Bridge area of the park. Officials said the wolf was a member of Mollie’s Pack from the Pelican Valley area, and was estimated to be between 2 and 4 years old.

Wolves and bears that become conditioned to human food are usually difficult to relocate, officials said, because they continue to return to the areas where they found an easy source of food.

Authorities at Yellowstone euthanized a female grizzly earlier this month after it was determined to have been involved in at least one fatal attack on a hiker.

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Photo: A gray wolf on the near Blacktail Pond in Yellowstone National Park in 2006. Credit: Yellowstone National Park.

National Academy of Sciences to study wild-horse roundups

A National Academy of Sciences panel is set to hear official presentations and public comment to begin its independent review of the federal Wild Horse and Burro Management Program. The first meeting is scheduled for Oct. 27 in Reno.

The Bureau of Land Management last week announced a tentative calendar for its wild-horse and burro roundups.

The roundups are to begin this month and continue through next March in California and several Western states. The BLM is expected to gather about 6,000 animals via helicopter herding. Some of the horses are to be removed from the range; others -- about 2,000 horses -- are to receive a fertility-control vaccine.

The controversial program has drawn criticism from animal-welfare advocates as being unnecessary and harmful to the horses and foals. In response, the BLM has allowed the public to observe the roundups. 

The Reno meeting is to include presentations from BLM officials and wild-horse experts. Among issues the panel is expected to study are horse and burro genetics and the scientific basis for population models.

The BLM estimates that about 33,000 wild horses and 5,500 burros roam BLM-managed range lands in 10 Western states, based on data from February of this year. Wild horses and burros have virtually no natural predators, and their herd sizes can double about every four years. 

Public-lands ranchers complain that the animals compete with livestock for scarce food in the arid West.

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Photo: Two young wild horses play while grazing on the Huffaker Hills near Reno on Jan. 13, 2010. Credit: Andy Barron / Reno Gazette-Journal

Australia moves closer to law establishing carbon tax

The Australian government's goal of implementing a carbon tax passed its toughest test today as the lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a package of bills that institutes a phased-in carbon tax, to be followed by a carbon-trading system.

The 18 bills now go to the Senate, where the law is all but assured of passage in mid-November.

According to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the system will reduce Australia's carbon emissions by 159 million tons by 2020. Australia is the largest per-capita carbon polluter, with an economy deeply dependent on coal.

The first phase of the law will tax carbon at $22.90 a ton beginning in the middle of next year. The surcharge will rise modestly until mid-2015, when the carbon-trading system will take effect. Other bills call for a national emissions caps, exempting farming and other agricultural sectors.

The tax will not extend to the price of gas for consumers, although rail, shipping and large trucking businesses will pay the tax indirectly on fuels such as diesel.

Australia’s biggest carbon emitters -- power companies, mining companies and industrial manufacturers -- immediately attacked the legislation, and the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, vowed a “pledge in blood” to repeal the law should he become prime minister.

The Australian law would go well beyond what the California Air Resources Board is considering. The board voted in August to reaffirm its cap-and-trade plan, which put the nation's first state carbon-trading program back on track.

California's on-again, off-again rules have been years in the making and are meant to complement AB 32, the state's landmark climate-change law that mandates a reduction in carbon pollution to 1990 levels by 2020. The air board adopted a preliminary carbon-trading plan in late 2008 but was sued by environmental justice groups in 2009.

The state plan calls for capping greenhouse gases at more than 600 industrial plants and allowing companies to buy and sell emissions permits. It is modeled on Europe's 6-year-old cap-and-trade system. California is considering whether to work with Canada under the Western Climate Initiative, a collaboration involving the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

California's program would be North America's biggest carbon market, three times larger than a utility-only system in 10 Northeastern states. By 2016, about $10 billion in carbon allowances are expected to be traded through the California market.

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-- Julie Cart

Photo: People walk across the frozen Songhua River near smokestacks at Jiamusi in China's Heilongjiang province in 2005. Credit: Greg Baker / Associated Press

New movie 'The Big Year' is for the birds ... and birders

Birdwatching, America’s favorite outdoor activity, is already in full flight, in the midst of one of its most important times of the year. And, with the upcoming release of "The Big Year," moviegoers may be flocking to theaters to see Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson lampoon the popular pastime's competitive side.

Now, the National Audubon Society has launched an Internet campaign in tandem with the feature film, which is based on a novel about three men who travel the country on a yearlong birdwatching adventure. Birding enthusiasts hope they can draw in new avian fans and perhaps alter the stodgy reputation of their sport.

Audubon is offering an online game in which bird watchers take expeditions and visit more than 100 websites to spot animated birds, which they add to their virtual life-lists. Players compete to win prizes.

The birds fly across homepages, perching on unexpected places, and by clicking on them the players will be directed to the Audubon Facebook page where they may collect and trade “bird cards.”

“This is about fun — but it’s also about getting more people involved in taking action to protect birds and the planet we share with them. And with this unprecedented use of social media and the web, We’re also making it clear that this is not your grandmother’s Audubon,” said the society's chief executive, David Yarnold.

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Photo: Bird watchers peer though their spotting scopes during the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society's second annual Owens Lake Spring Big Day in 2009. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Officials announce schedule for roundups of wild horses, burros

The federal Bureau of Land Management on Friday released the tentative calendar for its annual wild-horse and burro roundups.

The roundups begin this month and continue through next March in California and several Western states. The BLM is expected to gather thousands of animals via helicopter herding. Some of the horses are to be removed from the range and others -- about 2,000 horses -- are to receive a fertility-control vaccine.

The controversial program has drawn criticism from animal-welfare advocates in the past as being unnecessary and harmful to the horses and foals. In response, the BLM has allowed the public to observe the roundups. 

The BLM estimates that approximately 33,00 wild horses and about 5,500 burros roam BLM-managed range lands in 10 Western states, based on data from February 2011. Wild horses and burros have virtually no natural predators, and their herd sizes can double about every four years. 

Public-lands ranchers complain that the animals compete with livestock for scarce food in the arid West.

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-- Julie Cart

Photo: Wild horses gallop on the open range in 2010. Credit: Alan Berner / Associated Press

 

Yellowstone grizzly bear involved in attacks euthanized

 
Authorities in Yellowstone National Park have linked a grizzly sow they captured last week to two fatal maulings this summer and killed the bear Sunday, the park announced Monday.

The grizzly's two cubs, which were captured Sept. 29, were placed in a wildlife facility in West Yellowstone, Mont.

Park officials said that adult bears do not adapt well to captivity, whereas cubs may.

Genetic testing indicated that the female bear was responsible for the death of hiker Brian Matayoshi of Torrance on July 6 and that the 250-pound sow was present at the scene of a fatal attack on hiker John Wallace in August.

In the July incident park officials determined that the sow had been defending her cubs when she attacked Matayoshi and his wife on the Wapiti lake Trail. In that case, even if authorities had immediately found the bear they would not have killed it, since it had no history of interaction with humans. 

And, even though the grizzly was one of nine bears in the area where Wallace's body was found, Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said the sow was euthanized to "eliminate the risk of future interaction with Yellowstone visitors and staff."

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 -- Julie Cart

Photo: A grizzly navigates brush in Yellowstone in a 2005 photo. Credit: James Peaco / Associated Press