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Alberta Energy Minister Calls Pandemic ‘a Great Time’ to Build Pipelines Due to Protest Restrictions
26 May
Politics
Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage in Edmonton on Friday, April 24, 2020. Chris Schwarz / Government of Alberta / Flickr
Anti-pipeline protests work.
That's the implication behind comments made by Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage Friday on how coronavirus social distancing requirements could ease the construction of Canada's controversial Trans Mountain Expansion project.
<p>"Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you can't have protests of more than 15 people," Savage said, as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/pipelines-alberta-protests-physical-distancing-1.5584025" target="_blank">The Canadian Press reported</a>. "Let's get it built."</p><p>Savage made the comments while speaking on a Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors podcast. After the remark, the interviewer laughed, but Savage did not.</p>
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<p>Savage also argued that the political and economic climate caused by the pandemic would not favor protesters.</p><p>"People are not going to have tolerance and patience for protests that get in the way of people working," she said on the podcast. "People need jobs and those types of ideological protests that get in the way are not going to be tolerated by ordinary Canadians."</p><p>The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which would nearly triple the amount of oil carried from Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day, has faced fierce opposition from environmental groups, the B.C. government and some <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">indigenous</a> communities along its route, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52804344" target="_blank">BBC News reported</a>. Pipeline opponents cite the risk of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-spill" target="_self">oil spills</a>, the threat to endangered orcas off the B.C. coast and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> as reasons the project should not be expanded.</p>
<p>Construction on the project began in December, but in the podcast Savage acknowledged that protests had been a major hurdle.</p><p>"The activists have been so effective because the industry has been so ineffective," Savage said, as <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/alberta-energy-minister-pipeline-protest_ca_5ecc1dc5c5b6fd5bd57f1215?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACZLberJaRiI3IUecNLxlObw0VUGa0voqOClhc59lw9R-GhSH90WGTBduckFaRR4tyjBO1Bhszp82L6E5sFRFZcpb2bnc7_SK6oGNl-396Mv68dfczXkeJhu6UohURTawVCYUJH8S9LGdDjwZvethwPJqnzrwqIZah4_enMre5cn" target="_blank">HuffPost reported</a>. "They outsmarted the entire industry […] they got ahead of everyone."</p><p>Both Alberta and British Columbia have actually increased their upward limit on outdoor gatherings to 50, according to The Canadian Press. But while protesting in person against a pipeline might be more difficult because of the coronavirus pandemic, the outbreak has actually given environmental groups and frontline communities another reason to oppose them. Because <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> has been designated an "essential service" by the Alberta government, work camps have spread the new disease to rural areas, HuffPost pointed out. In one April incident, an outbreak at Imperial Oil's Kearl mine led to more than 100 cases in Western Canada. Another outbreak at the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Horizon oilsands mine generated at least five new cases last week.</p><p>"Can't believe we have to say it but it absolutely is NOT a 'great time' to build a pipeline," <a href="https://350.org/no-cgl/" target="_blank">350 Canada</a> tweeted in response to Savage's comments. "We are in the midst of a health and climate crisis. And setting up man camps will endanger the lives of Indigenous and rural communities with already strained healthcare systems."</p>
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<p>Savage's spokesperson Kavi Bal acknowledged that she spoke on the podcast but denied that social distancing measures were good for the industry.</p><p>"We respect the right to lawful protests," Bal told The Canadian Press. "I would note that the limitations to public gatherings … have benefited no one – including project proponents and any opposition groups."</p><p>Irfan Sabir, the Opposition New Democrat energy critic, denounced Savage's remarks and Alberta's ruling United Conservative Party (UCP), led by pro-<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil-fuel</a> Premier <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/keystone-xl-pipeline-construction-2645607020.html" target="_self">Jason Kenney</a>.</p><p>"These comments do not come as a shock," he said. "The UCP have already used the pandemic as an excuse to suspend environmental monitoring. When combined with the minister's latest comments, this will harm the reputation of Alberta's energy industry and inhibit our ability to attract investment and get our product to market."</p>
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A rescued coral from Key West settles in for a feeding at an intermediate holding facility before being shipped to a long-term aquarium. Tiffany Duong / Ocean Rebels
Six years ago, during a global coral bleaching event and after the Port of Miami was dredged, endangered corals on Florida's coral reef began rapidly wasting away and dying. Their "mystery killer," whose exact pathogen still remains unidentified, is referred to as the "Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease" (SCTLD).
<p>In response, scientists launched an unprecedented, "Hail Mary" rescue effort to save the corals from local extinction. The first phase of the groundbreaking project concludes next week.</p><p>SCTLD is different and more devastating than other coral diseases because of how quickly it can kill an entire coral colony, how many different species it infects, how long it has lingered and how much remains unknown about its origins, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine Science professor Andrew Baker told EcoWatch.</p><p>"Corals affected by SCTLD lose tissue really fast," he said. "Unlike many other coral diseases that can take weeks or months to pass over a coral's surface, SCTLD can kill a colony within a few days under 'ideal circumstances.' Some species, principally the brain corals, have almost disappeared from local reefs within a period of about six months."</p>
<p>The coral biologist also noted that SCTLD was particularly difficult to eradicate because it affects almost half of Florida's coral species, which has allowed it to persist in reef communities for a long time because it has so many different hosts it can inhabit.</p><p>SCTLD now threatens the entire Florida Reef Tract (360 linear miles), which is the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world, decimating important reef-building and endangered corals in its path.</p><p>"It's really sad. Some of these corals that have been growing for tens to hundreds to possibly thousands of years are disappearing in months," said <a href="https://myfwc.com/" target="_blank">Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)</a> coral caretaker Allan Anderson. "We're talking about corals that have literally built this reef now dying, and it's pretty scary that something we can't yet identify is destroying everything."</p>
<p>For the past two years, Anderson and his FWC Coral Rescue Team colleagues have taken matters into their own hands — literally — by using hammers and chisels to remove healthy, at-risk corals from the reefs before the disease reaches them.</p><p>"At first I was kinda sad about collecting corals off the reef," said Tanya Ramseyer, FWC Coral Rescue project coordinator. "Your whole life, you're told not to touch the corals, and here, they tell us, 'Here's a hammer and chisel. You're gonna go down and take these off the reef.' But we're saving these corals in the nick of time. That's how I work myself up to it. We're rescuing these corals."</p><p>Scuba diving off charter and research vessels, the Coral Rescue Team identifies, collects, measures and samples corals susceptible to SCTLD that would likely perish if left on the reef.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMDI0Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDk1NzI4NH0.Y6fB3laqCkwEsEIqE3_YKNj_sHync2lcosDM4MUU8Fg/img.jpg?width=980" id="90df6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="47d7c05140729b39be59860a6960acb1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
FWC biologist Ananda Ellis uses a hammer and chisel to remove a healthy coral from the reefs off Key West as part of FWC's Coral Rescue Project. Tiffany Duong / Ocean Rebels
<p>"The rescue mission is exactly what it sounds like," FWC Coral Program research assistant Ananda Ellis told EcoWatch. "We're trying to collect these corals and take them out of their natural environment before they get hit with this disease. Most of the individuals we're collecting would have been affected and dead within X amount of period, depending on the species, so we're definitely at that last stage. We do need to collect these corals."</p><p>To date, the team has completed six rescue cruises, and their last cruise is scheduled for May 27, Ellis shared. They have collected nearly 2,000 individual corals from 22 target species. Genetic sampling ensured they had enough unique genotypes of each species to preserve genetic diversity during the next phase of the rescue mission — coral propagation for future restoration activities, said Stephanie Schopmeyer, a main FWC coordinator for the rescue cruises.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMDI1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzI0MDQ0OX0.X7sDW_p1y934cvZ5BwINVPlB00AIvnr5au1Hx8yrhB4/img.jpg?width=980" id="95f6e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e7220f3ec8d031b952d463e54b6d4a51" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
FWC biologists Allan Anderson and Ananda Ellis take genetic samples and measurements of rescued corals at an intermediate holding facility. Tiffany Duong / Ocean Rebels
<p>Rescue corals are shipped to partner universities, non-governmental organizations, zoos and aquaria around the country for study and safekeeping. The corals will remain in these new homes indefinitely. Many have never been observed in captivity before, and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/florida-aquarium-coral-reefs-2639990687.html" target="_self">researchers have already successfully experimented</a> with sexual and asexual propagation techniques to create new "coral babies."</p><p>"Over time, we should be able to breed or propagate or grow enough coral to repopulate the entire reef tract," Schopmeyer said. "That is the actual goal."</p><p>The final phase of the rescue project will occur when it is safe for the original rescue corals and their offspring created in holding facilities to be reintroduced to the wild in numbers that will hopefully help restore what the disease has ravaged.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMxMDI0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTU0Mzk0MH0.cIwjx_BuejQunRIPL-h5t1ztE-8pHTmJBo4ei1EkkUE/img.jpg?width=980" id="1921e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b68e5ad89f78e890c38f8e01ee04cfb8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Rescued corals acclimate to life outside of the ocean in an intermediate holding facility before being shipped to longer-term aquaria for safekeeping. Caroline Dennison / University of Miami
<p>The Coral Rescue Team is part of a broader, extensive, multi-agency effort to track the spread of SCTLD, identify the pathogen, develop methods to lessen the effects of the disease on reefs and to rescue corals for safekeeping in zoos and aquaria around the country.</p><p>Lessons learned are being applied in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/mysterious-disease-caribbean-reefs-2639164702.html" target="_self">Caribbean and other reefs</a> where the deadly disease has possibly been <a href="https://safety4sea.com/uscg-preventing-potential-spreading-of-stony-coral-tissue-loss-disease-from-ballast-water/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=4b4c6e774965065c21c60c807eb673bad1622c5d-1590144282-0-AevbNTlctVvPtYUNecZo3kOK9fI48Dc2XlfjQEMfynvwuFF4dsT54sPf-GCVbUtUjGWWM0UA9q67XX3TlUHvopZoG3JvWsyumIfJgadeazKe3Q3JpyChDKwhVT9e8_w8VyGTLauXYLi5nd1kb0ctvI0whw0spp2ww4okWIsCEBJaDFOe9cR4VsV_VFFz_bLANUSjeISYVFjWp6i7XedKoXSj2mlxBxuN3zWUTTtipBpsHrjiMzMilQPHRUzv3rSSbGDdPl8ksygzY4dbIW-J3lOjxp69OYLm9nhDxkmwyKpz2pStHf7Sh7mKMhDP6OkZcdI1NBsJG3UgtwCzmbZH_JEK-kjTkfw4GZrl2pxyBxz2EH4VCJZomjQGJGGpHjEnbgxVsXaLwlW90yXtYAkHuF8" target="_blank">transported in ballast water from ships</a>.</p><p>"It's a brave new reef out there," Baker said. "It's an exciting time to be a coral biologist because these interventions have never been tried before, and we're in a position where we have to start trying them."</p><p>"If you aren't trying," Ellis said, "then you've already determined the outcome. We don't know what the outcome is yet, because we're still trying. That in and of itself should keep people moving forward."</p>The FWC Coral Monitoring Dashboard includes the number and species of corals rescued and the facilities currently housing them. It is updated bi-weekly and can be viewed <a href="https://myfwc.com/research/habitat/coral/disease/dashboard/" target="_blank">here</a>.
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The Ebo Forest in Cameroon, Africa, is a biodiversity hotspot, home to an amazing range of wildlife, including forest elephants, gorillas, drills, chimpanzees, grey parrots and the goliath frog. San Diego Zoo Global
By Lamfu Fabrice Yengong and Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue
Biodiversity loss is a global crisis. In May last year, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned that over 1,000,000 species are threatened with extinction worldwide. On May 22, the International Day of Biodiversity, it is important to recall the silent victims of our country's obsession for industrial growth at the expense of our forests.
<p>Tropical rainforests are estimated to harbor more than half of the world's plant and animal species. They are also essential for access to water, regulating temperature and preventing soil erosion. It's time to return the forests to indigenous and local communities. </p><p>In our country, Cameroon, the conservation of biodiversity, global climate goals and human rights of indigenous and local communities are all put at stake for industrial exploitation of the rainforest, driven by short-sighted thinking. Biodiversity hotspots are put at risk by industrial logging and agriculture, as trees are cut for the tropical timber market and entire forests cleared to make room for oil palm and rubber plantations. The government tries to assure conservationists that some space will be reserved for the wildlife in the forest it trashes, but even protected areas are not truly safe. </p><p>Companies, usually foreign-owned, are rapidly destroying rainforests that have existed for years. Local communities are left poorer after their traditional source of livelihood is desecrated. The only ones getting rich are a small group of beneficiaries that are close to the circles of power. </p><p>Some low-income countries that are rich in forests are resorting to quick solutions like logging and industrial agriculture. But industrial logging concessions and rubber and palm oil plantations are never the job-creating mechanism they promise to be. That has been demonstrated over and over again in forest countries around the world.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/407/" target="_blank">the Dja Faunal Reserve</a>, a UNESCO world heritage site in the South of Cameroon, is home to more than 100 species of mammals, including at least 14 primates, such as the endangered western lowland gorilla, chimpanzee, and white-collared mangabey, as well as species such as the endangered forest elephant, and the African grey parrot, bongo antelope and leopard.</p><p>The Dja Faunal Reserve is adjacent to the Sudcam rubber plantation, mainly owned by rubber giant Halcyon Agri. Sudcam has cleared more than 10,000 hectares (approximately 25,000 acres) of dense tropical rainforest in the South region of Cameroon – an equivalent of 10 football pitches a day – to make way for a rubber plantation between 2011 and 2018. The rubber plantation has rattled the lives of several indigenous communities, namely the Baka, but it has also aggravated the lives of those numerous protected species in the Dja Reserve.</p><p>To indigenous and local forest dependent communities, the rainforest serves as a source of nutritious foods and traditional medicine, much of which science has yet to explore. The forest is also the foundation of their social life, from recreational to ritual practices. Furthermore, biodiversity loss itself is a direct and immediate threat to the livelihood of indigenous peoples like the Baka next to the Sudcam plantation.</p><p>Upon the arrival of rubber company Sudcam, the indigenous community has lost access to its forest and specifically to the animals and plants they rely on. As Sudcam gets richer, it leaves entire communities in impoverishment, abjectness and destitution. </p>
<p>That is the fate which the chiefs of the Banen people of the Littoral region in Cameroon are trying to avoid <a href="http://www.cameroon-info.net/article/cameroun-denonciation-le-peuple-banen-du-littoral-soppose-a-la-confiscation-de-ses-terres-371484.html" target="_blank">in their current struggle</a> against the destruction of large parts of the Ebo forest. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.globalwildlife.org/blog/ebo-forest-a-stronghold-for-cameroons-wildlife/" target="_blank">Ebo Forest</a> is a biodiversity hotspot, one of the intact forest ecosystems in the Gulf of Guinea, stretching over 2000 square kilometers (approximately 772 square miles). Ebo Forest is home to an amazing range of wildlife, including forest elephants, gorillas, drills, chimpanzees, grey parrots and the goliath frog – the largest living frog on the planet. Accordingly, it was designated over a decade ago by the Cameroon Government as a National Park. </p><p>However, on February 4, the same government of Cameroon authorized two logging concessions (<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P8O3pc1JeLaAnDF1ERXvRrIAzjnw09SG/view" target="_blank">UFA07005</a> and <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n2cgvavirDdYmApiTd5vLV0hQRova6Ed/view" target="_blank">UFA07006</a>) inside the area of Ebo Forest. The planned concessions are enormous – about the size of London. Again, the government of Cameroon wants to convince us that conservation can be done with chainsaws. </p><p>Biodiversity loss doesn't only mean our children would get to see some of the world's most marvelous creatures only in documentary films. The consequences are far greater and more tangible.</p>
<p>The extinction of forest elephants, for example, small relatives of African Savanna elephants, might also reduce the number of large trees that they support, trees that excel at storing carbon. In the Congo Basin forest, the disappearance of forest elephants might mean a loss of about three billion tons of carbon – equivalent to France's CO2 emissions over more than 25 years, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/science/elephants-climate-change.html" target="_blank">New York Times article</a> on recent research published in the journal <em>Nature Geoscience.</em> </p><p>Cameroon's government has made public commitments to preserve and protect biodiversity. Positive declarations and ambitious plans may win applause and some international funding, but all eyes should be on implementation. <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/press/8593/we-were-told-not-to-go-into-the-forest-anymore-greenpeace-investigation-exposes-human-rights-violations-by-halcyon-agri/" target="_blank">Field investigations by Greenpeace Africa</a> and others clearly show how far we are from protecting biodiversity. </p><p>In Cameroon's government, as well as in the meeting rooms and corridors of development agencies, decision makers often hold outdated views. Too often we hear that only through rapid and massive removal of the rainforest in favor of large-scale logging and industrial agriculture plantations can the country emerge out of poverty. </p><p>Yet that model has repeatedly failed the people, as short-term high profits always remained accessible only to a small circle of beneficiaries. On the contrary, local communities who have lived in harmony with nature for many generations are likely to face poverty, abuse, hunger and alcoholism <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-sustainable-development-ravaged-the-congo-basin/" target="_blank">wherever</a> forests are suddenly destroyed. It is becoming increasingly clear that the best solution for both human rights and the planet is for forests to be managed by local communities. They do so much better than the industrial loggers or plantation owners. </p>
<p>The Cameroonian government needs to realize that trashing forests is not the way to make the economy grow. Rapid and intensive exploitation of nature has more far-reaching consequences than short-term economic growth. To prevent the extinction of fauna and flora species, indigenous communities that live among them need the rights to manage their forest.</p>
<p>Standing for biodiversity means communities should get the rights to manage their forests, instead of the corporations that destroy them. </p>
<p class=""><em>Lamfu Fabrice Yengong is a Congo Basin researcher. </em></p><p><em>Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue is a forest campaigner for Greenpeace Africa.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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More than 45 transportation and energy companies, as well as dozens of private landowners, have agreed to create or maintain monarch butterfly habitat along "rights-of-way" corridors across the United States. DebraLee Wiseberg / Getty Images
By Liz Kimbrough
The side of the road isn't usually thought of as ideal habitat. But for insects, such as butterflies and their caterpillars, the long expanses of land along roads and utility corridors add up to a considerable amount of home turf.
<p>More than 45 transportation and energy companies, as well as dozens of private landowners, have agreed to create or maintain monarch butterfly (<em>Danaus plexippus</em>) habitat along "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_way" target="_blank">rights-of-way</a>" corridors across the United States.</p><p>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have signed a historic <a href="https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ref=historic-agreement-will-conserve-millions-of-acres-for-monarch-b&_ID=36540" target="_blank">agreement</a> that allows participant landholders to dedicate a percentage of their lands to monarch conservation management in exchange for regulatory flexibility on the rest of their enrolled lands.</p><p>Populations of both <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/number-of-monarch-butterflies-wintering-in-mexico-down-by-more-than-half/" target="_blank">eastern monarchs</a> and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/western-monarch-butterfly-numbers-critically-low-for-second-straight-year/" target="_blank">western monarchs</a> have declined by more than 80% over the past decade and are nearing a <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/western-monarch-butterfly-numbers-critically-low-for-second-straight-year/" target="_blank">tipping point</a> for migratory collapse. In light of these declines, the USFWS is set to decide in December 2020 if the monarch butterfly will be classified as a federally endangered species under the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/" target="_blank">Endangered Species Act</a>.</p><p>Land managers and businesses expressed concerns that if they voluntarily created monarch habitat and the monarch was then listed as federally endangered species, the resulting regulations to protect monarchs could complicate their operations or subject them to additional permitting requirements.</p>
<p>"Some companies wanted to wait to see how the listing would play out," Iris Caldwell, a program manager at the Energy Resources Center at UIC, told Mongabay. "But if you are following what's happening with the butterflies you know we really can't wait. We need to be creating habitat on a variety of different landscapes, as much as we can."</p><p>This led Caldwell and her colleagues in the <a href="http://rightofway.erc.uic.edu/" target="_blank">Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group</a> (a group of 200 transportation, energy, government, and nonprofit organizations) to ask what kinds of tools existed to eliminate these regulatory uncertainties faced by landowners.</p><p>"How can you incentivize a regulated entity or a utility to do this voluntary proactive work," Caldwell asked, "and still give them kind of the flexibility and the certainty that they need and be able to, in fact, invest in that work without kind of a fear of repercussion?"</p>
<p>The group decided to make use of the USFWs Candidate Conservation Agreement (CCA) and Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA). Both are formal, voluntary agreements between participant landowners and the USFWS aimed at conserving and protecting at-risk species.</p><p>In the CCAA, the USFWS provides assurance that the landowner participants will not be required to take additional conservation measures on their enrolled lands if the monarch butterfly later becomes listed as an endangered species.</p><p>"So they can just kind of go about business as usual. And if they happen to accidentally kill monarchs in that process, they won't be subjected to the under the endangered species laws," Tara Cornelisse, a senior scientist at the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, an organization who submitted comments on the agreement, told Mongabay. "So, in turn, what they're supposed to do is give a percentage of those enrolled lands over to conservation."</p><p>Some of the conservation actions available and recommended to the landholder participants are: adjusting the timing of mowing practices to avoid periods when the monarch larva will be present; moving away from broadcast herbicide spray to targeted herbicide applications; replanting after a construction project on their right-of-way; and using a native seed mix across their system that help promote beneficial plants.</p>
<p>"Some of these organizations manage hundreds of thousands of acres of land and implementing some of these actions across a system of that scale is no small feat," Caldwell said. "I think that kind of learning curve early on and rolling out and implementing some of these conservation measures at scale, may present a challenge for some."</p><p>This is why the role of UIC in coordinating efforts among all the partners who are involved will be really important, Caldwell says. UIC will serve as an intermediary between the landowner participants and the USFWS. The participants will be required to monitor certain data and self-report annually to UIC. UIC will follow up on any discrepancies or concerns and will then submit an annual report summarizing all of the overall work and efforts and any findings across the agreement to the Fish and Wildlife Service.</p><p>This is the largest and first nationwide CCAA in history, and Caldwell said she's hopeful that the data collected will lead to insights to inform best management and adaptive management practices for the conservation of monarchs.</p>
<p>"The elephant in the room," Cornelisse said, "is if this would preclude the listing of the species [as a federally endangered species]."</p><p>Monarchs have a much wider range of habitat and potential habitat than rights-of-way corridors. Up to 75%, of potential monarch habitat is on agricultural lands. Over the past few decades, urban sprawl, pesticide and herbicide‐intensive agriculture, and climate change have contributed to the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/insects-decline-on-land-fare-better-in-water-study-finds/" target="_blank">global declines of insects</a>, including monarchs. An ESA listing would afford the species greater protection across their range.</p><p>"The enrolled lands outside the adopted acres [areas managed for conservation] cannot be credited with benefiting monarchs," the Center for Biological Diversity said in written public comments to the USFWS. "It is important that when the Service weighs the value of these lands in other contexts, such as the [Endangered Species Act]‐ listing decision, that not all enrolled lands be considered to be providing habitat for monarchs."</p><p>"I think anybody who knows the science behind the monarch's decline, and the extent of it would say, yes, this [agreement] could provide some benefits, but it cannot preclude the listing of the species," Cornelisse said.</p>
<p>The USFWS anticipates that between 2 million and 26 million acres (809,000 to 10.5 million hectares) of land may be enrolled in the CCAA and CCA agreements, but the percentage of the enrolled land that will be managed for conservation is still to be determined.</p><p>"What is striking to me is so often we just don't think of these [rights-of-way] as conservation landscapes," Caldwell said. "Oftentimes, we don't think of them at all. We're just driving past thousands of miles of roadsides and utility corridors. And so, the whole idea of being able to maximize these landscapes to create habitat for species that really need it, I think, is really exciting."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/historic-agreement-gives-monarch-butterflies-the-right-of-way/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A blue bee on a firebush in Palm Beach, Florida on Sept. 10, 2016. Bob Peterson / CC BY 2.0
Scientists have "rediscovered" a rare blue bee that they feared was extinct.
<p>Until this spring, the "ultra-rare" blue calamintha bee (<em>Osmia calaminthae</em>) had only been observed in four locations in central Florida, and it hadn't been seen at all since 2016. So when <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/" target="_blank">Florida Museum of Natural History</a> research team Chase Kimmel and Jaret Daniels set out to document the bee's population status and habits, they weren't sure what they would find.</p><p>"I was open to the possibility that we may not find the bee at all so that first moment when we spotted it in the field was really exciting," Kimmel, a postdoctoral researcher, said in a museum <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/floridas-rare-blue-calamintha-bee-rediscovered/" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
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<p>Kimmel first spotted the bee March 9, he told <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/16/rare-blue-calamintha-bees-spotted-lake-wales-ridge-florida/5207086002/" target="_blank">USA TODAY in an email</a>. Since then, he has spotted the elusive pollinator in three of its previous locations and six additiona locations, according to the museum.</p><p>The research could have important implications for the bee's chances of survival. Florida's State Wildlife Action Plan lists the bee as a species of greatest <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> need, and the study will help determine if it warrants <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species-act" target="_self">Endangered Species Act</a> protections.</p><p>The bee is so vulnerable in part because it is thought to rely on a threatened plant called Ashe's calamint and live only in Florida's Lake Wales Ridge region, a hotspot of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a> that the museum calls "one of the nation's fastest-disappearing ecosystems."</p>
<p>The ridge hosts so much unique life because, when most of Florida was underwater, it was raised above the waves in high sand dunes that acted like islands, giving isolated ecosystems a chance to flourish. Now, these habitats are islands of pine scrub in a sea of orange groves.</p><p>"It's one thing to read about habitat loss and development and another to be driving for 30-40 minutes through miles of orange groves just to get to a really small conservation site," Kimmel said. "It puts into perspective how much habitat loss affects all the animals that live in this area."</p>
<p>The bee also exhibits unique behaviors. It gathers pollen by bobbing its head side to side to collect it on its facial hairs. The very first time he saw the bee, Kimmel got a chance to see this in action.</p><p>"We observed a shiny little blue bee grabbing the flower and rubbing its head on the top portion of the flower two or three times before moving on to another flower," <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/16/us/florida-blue-calamintha-bee-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">Kimmel told CNN</a>. "In reading about this unique behavior we were pretty shocked to see it."</p><p>Kimmel and Daniels' research is set to last two years and determine the bee's feeding and nesting habits. So far, the team has found another plant the bee will use if it can't find Ashe's calamint.</p>
<p>The research has been hampered somewhat by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, since travel restrictions mean Kimmel is in the field alone during the bee's flight season from mid-March to early May.</p><p>"It's a very time-limited flight. Now is when the bulk of that activity has to take place," Daniels, who is acting as Kimmel's adviser and is also the director of the museum's <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/index.php/mcguire/home/" target="_blank">McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity</a>, said in the press release. "Chase is doing a fantastic job and we're getting a lot of great data, but if it wasn't for the COVID-19 virus we would have had more people in the field, so it has definitely scaled back what we're able to do."</p>
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Trump Admin Denies Endangered Species Protections to Pacific Fishers Across Most of Their Range
15 May
Animals
A Pacific fisher. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Today is Endangered Species Day but the Trump administration isn't giving one imperiled critter much reason to celebrate.
<p>The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced Thursday it would deny <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species-act" target="_self">Endangered Species Act</a> protections to the weasel-like Pacific fisher throughout most of its West Coast range, only protecting a subset of its population in the California Sierras.</p><p>"The Trump administration's denial of protection for fishers is an unwarranted gift to the timber industry that ignores key science on these at-risk animals," <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> (CBD) <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> director Noah Greenwald said in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-administration-denies-endangered-species-protection-for-pacific-fisher-across-most-of-species-range-2020-05-14/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "These awesome forest weasels face huge threats, including the logging of their old-growth forest homes, rodenticide poisoning and a warming world. They absolutely should have been granted much broader safeguards."</p>
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<p>Tens of thousands of Pacific fishers once lived in the woods from Southern California to British Columbia, but, beginning in 1900, their numbers started to decline as trappers sought them for their pelts and loggers destroyed their habitat, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fishers-endangered/u-s-denies-full-protection-for-pacific-fisher-relative-of-the-weasel-idUKKBN22R06U" target="_blank">Reuters explained</a>. In recent years, they have also been threatened by rodenticides used to protect illegal marijuana farms and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>There are now only two populations: 100 to 500 in the southern Sierra Nevadas and around 3,000 in Northern California and Southern Oregon. Studies have shown that they are genetically distinct, the <a href="https://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/23439-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-to-protect-the-southern-sierra-nevada-population-of-fisher-as-endangered" target="_blank">Sierra Sun Times reported</a>. It is the first and smaller of these populations that FWS <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-09153.pdf" target="_blank">announced</a> Thursday it would protect as endangered.</p>
<p>The Sierra population does face unique threats, <a href="https://defenders.org/newsroom/us-fish-and-wildlife-service-announces-endangered-species-listing-of-sierra-nevada-fisher" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife explained</a>. It was listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act of 2016 and is partly at risk from climate-related <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trees" target="_self">tree</a> loss. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires" target="_self">Wildfires</a> burn through its habitat, and a drought from 2011 to 2015 combined with warmer temperatures led to a rise in native bark beetles, which killed more than 130 million trees in the Sierra Nevada region.</p><p>FWS argued that the larger population did not need protection because it was not in danger of extinction, "nor likely to become so in the foreseeable future," Reuters reported.</p>
<p>The agency also determined that existing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> efforts were already ensuring the success of the northern population.</p><p>"Voluntary conservation efforts by state and private timber owners have contributed to the Northern California-Southern Oregon population of fisher appearing stable within a large range of suitable habitat," Paul Henson, state supervisor for the FWS Oregon office, told the Sierra Sun Times. "Over two million acres of private land have been enrolled under six conservation agreements protecting existing and promoting new fisher habitat, with three additional applications in process. The heavy lifting done by our partners greatly alleviates the need for regulation."</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> advocates disagreed.</p><p>"While the decision to list the Sierra Nevada fisher is a great step towards the recovery of this critically imperiled population, it is disappointing to see the West Coast population left without protections," Pamela Flick, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife, said in a press release. "Both populations face a wide variety of threats and need federal protections in order to survive and thrive."</p>
<p>Even this much protection has been the result of a long fight, as CBD explained:</p><blockquote>The Center for Biological Diversity, along with Sierra Forest Legacy, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and others first petitioned for endangered species protections for fishers in 2000. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found they warranted protection in 2004, but that such protection was precluded by listing of other species. Following further litigation, the agency proposed protection for the fisher in 2014, but again reversed course in 2016 denying protection. Represented by Earthjustice, the groups sued and the decision was remanded resulting in the species again being proposed for protection in 2019 and then finally again partially denied today.</blockquote><p>Greenwald told Reuters that CBD was looking at Thursday's ruling to decide whether to bring another court challenge.</p>
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In the wake of news about "murder hornets" invading the West Coast, the Southeast has its own scourge to contend with: an invasive, South American lizard that can grow up to 4 feet in length. The lizard has been spotted for the third year in a row, according to a Facebook post from the Orianne Society, a reptile conservation group, as The Associated Press reported.
<p>The Argentine black and white tegus was first spotted in Florida, but they have now migrated north to establish themselves in Georgia's Toombs and Tattnall counties, said John Jensen of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Conservation in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkRNMUhG4Hw" target="_blank">YouTube</a> video.</p><p>In the video, Jensen explained, "Many of the public that encounter these often report them, thinking that they look like a baby alligator well away from the water. They eat just about anything they want, plant and animal matter."</p>
<p>"Tegus will eat the eggs of ground-nesting birds—including quail and turkeys—and other reptiles, such as American alligators and gopher tortoises, both protected species," according to the <a href="https://georgiawildlife.com/tegus" target="_blank">Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Conservation's website,</a> as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/14/us/georgia-invasive-lizard-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. The lizards will also eat fruit, vegetables, pet food and small animals—including grasshoppers and gopher tortoises.</p>
<p>The tegus' voracious appetite means it poses a threat to native <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a>, especially protected species like American alligators and gopher tortoises. The black and white tegus have been seen hiding in gopher tortoise burrows and eating tortoise and alligator eggs, as well as baby tortoises, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/b20aadfb5ac8e25953ebe38743983504" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>"Established from escaped or released pets, these large lizards are voracious predators that have been found consuming a variety of native wildlife in the longer-established Florida populations," the Orianne Society <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OrianneSociety/posts/2948053241909425" target="_blank">wrote on Facebook</a>.</p><p>The society said it believes tegus are able to survive the state's winters, which means it has the potential to spread quickly. "It is critical to remove invasive species early in the invasion process to have the best chance of success," the society said, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tegus-lizard-giant-invasive-lizards-4-feet-long-georgia/" target="_blank">CBS News</a>.</p>
<p>The lizards weigh about 10 pounds and live up to 20 years. They are black to gray with white, speckled bands across their bodies. They also multiply quickly, with females laying about 35 eggs per year. They also thrive since they do not have many predators," according to the <a href="https://georgiawildlife.com/tegus" target="_blank">Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Conservation's website,</a> as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/14/us/georgia-invasive-lizard-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>In the video, Jensen asked for people to help Georgia officials stop the lizard from gaining ground in the state. Jensen encouraged locals to report any <a href="https://www.gainvasives.org/tegus/" target="_blank">tegu sightings online</a>, to help officials' efforts in tracking and removing them. "If you're able to safely and humanely dispatch of the animal, we encourage that and we want that information, too," Jensen said, as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tegus-lizard-giant-invasive-lizards-4-feet-long-georgia/" target="_blank">CBS News</a> reported.</p><p>The lizards are legal as pets in Georgia, so Jensen added that anyone who has kept a tegu as a pet and no longer wants it should give it to a reptile adoption group. "Releasing it into the wild is the absolute worst thing to do, it will affect our native species and we can't have that," he said.</p>
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Federal Judge: Pipelines Must Not Cross Streams Without Considering Endangered Species
12 May
Energy
Gnats hover near a barn equipped with solar panels and a wind turbine on Oct. 11, 2014 in Polk, Nebraska. The barn was built directly in the path of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline by Bold Nebraska, an organization opposed to the pipeline. Andrew Burton / Getty Images
A federal judge upheld his April 15 ruling Monday, tossing a key permit required by the Keystone XL and other pipeline projects to cross streams and wetlands.
<p>Montana U.S. District Judge Brian Morris affirmed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot use a blanket water-crossing permit to approve new <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> pipelines without considering their impacts on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a>.</p><p>"The court rightly ruled that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a> can't continue to ignore the catastrophic effects of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> pipelines like Keystone XL," <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> (CBD) senior attorney Jared Margolis said in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/federal-court-upholds-ruling-blocking-permit-critical-keystone-xl-other-oil-and-gas-pipelines-2020-05-11/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "Constructing pipelines through rivers, streams and wetlands without analyzing the impacts on imperiled species is unconscionable. We'll continue to fight to protect vulnerable species, our waters and the climate from this kind of reckless development."</p>
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<p>At stake is a permit called Nationwide Permit 12, which the Army Corps uses to fast-track approvals for construction across waterways, <a href="https://apnews.com/2664f71668c4961a90000f74e3567921" target="_blank">The Associated Press explained</a>.</p><p>Morris ruled in April that the Army Corps did not consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service as to how these crossings would impact endangered species when it renewed the permit in 2017, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipelines-court/montana-judge-upholds-ruling-that-canceled-keystone-xl-pipeline-permit-idUKKBN22O07T" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Morris' April ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups focusing on the approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline specifically. However, the ruling blocked the use of Nationwide Permit 12 for all projects, CBD explained.</p><p>Utility groups and the government asked Morris to alter his ruling, arguing that it interfered with thousands of construction projects, according to The Associated Press. In response, Morris said that the permit could be used for electrical lines or pipeline repairs, but not the construction of new oil and gas pipelines.</p><p>"To allow the Corps to continue to authorize new oil and gas pipeline construction could seriously injure protected species and critical habitat," Morris wrote, according to The Associated Press.</p>
<p>The ruling does not actually block construction work on Keystone XL or other pipelines, but it is another setback for the long-delayed project, since it now cannot build across streams without further environmental review.</p><p>The Keystone XL pipeline would carry around 830,000 barrels of oil a day along 1,200 miles from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, where it would connect with pipelines traveling to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast. It was first <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/breaking-president-obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline-1882117930.html">blocked by President Barack Obama</a> over fears it would contribute to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, but President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/state-department-approve-kxl-2326597009.html" target="_self">resuscitated</a> it in 2017.</p><p>Pipeline owner TC Energy said it would "promptly" appeal the ruling, according to Reuters.</p>
<p>Other members of the fossil fuel industry also plan to appeal.</p><p>"Arbitrarily singling out certain new projects only prolongs the highly disruptive nature of this order," Amy Conway of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America told The Associated Press.</p><p>But environmental advocates thought the law was on Morris' side.</p><p>"Our courts have shown time and time again that the law matters," <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) attorney Cecilia Segal said in the CBD Press release. "Today's ruling makes clear that climate-busting pipelines like Keystone XL cannot be built until the federal government does its job and properly analyzes these projects' devastating effects on their surrounding communities and wildlife. If that analysis is based on science and facts, pipelines like Keystone XL will never see the light of day because they remain, and always will be, a dire threat to our water, wildlife and climate."</p>
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Trending
A crossing sign in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, alerts motorists to the threatened Mojave desert tortoise. tobiasjo / Getty Images
A solar and battery storage project large enough to power the residential population of Las Vegas received final approval from the Department of the Interior on Monday, despite concerns from some conservationists about the project's impact on the threatened Mojave desert tortoise.
<p>The $1 billion project is expected to produce 690 MW of electricity coupled with a 380 megawatt AC battery storage system, enough to power about 260,000 homes and businesses. Located on federal land near Las Vegas, the 7,000-acre project was opposed by local and regional environmental groups, who say construction activity could harm wildlife and biological soil crusts which sequester large amounts of carbon. "The solar industry is resilient and a project like this one will bring jobs and private investment to the state when we need it most," Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, told the AP. </p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/3182e2ca95d3f2cbfff23ebec3c36f55?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=87782018&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--TNVauhW3bvDHKpcc7GzS09_vXwDgTZ1ok8ohBT7dEKo4yo_-GOJeQxLtP5ZVk4pJVt4Y4QHQZWtAUpYbnAyjiPb-xVUTAkSMs9abNMrNgYCbQ_UM&_hsmi=87782018" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-solar-gemini/u-s-approves-massive-solar-power-project-on-public-land-idUSKBN22N2P5?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=87782018&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--TNVauhW3bvDHKpcc7GzS09_vXwDgTZ1ok8ohBT7dEKo4yo_-GOJeQxLtP5ZVk4pJVt4Y4QHQZWtAUpYbnAyjiPb-xVUTAkSMs9abNMrNgYCbQ_UM&_hsmi=87782018" target="_blank">Reuters</a>,<a href="https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2020/05/11/stories/1063110217?_hsenc=p2ANqtz--TNVauhW3bvDHKpcc7GzS09_vXwDgTZ1ok8ohBT7dEKo4yo_-GOJeQxLtP5ZVk4pJVt4Y4QHQZWtAUpYbnAyjiPb-xVUTAkSMs9abNMrNgYCbQ_UM&_hsmi=87782018&utm_content=87782018" target="_blank"> E&E</a><a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/c/*W6wqWGb612wS0W3MgKP-8D6mSH0/*W1xY6kF3mBhVvW8J7kf219QTcL0/5/f18dQhb0SnGT9hxT-0N834vY8HyjJqVSb6rH2z8ZTqW3hHhdB5Cgxh0VnQ9Qq8--HBkW8-26D_31mwXwW8T6tqx1dJ7VzN4zWTR36VH71W4B8hJG8h2GfsW7v7S-92scYGXW2sKvQt2t4VqFW5mNLNv7bqTzMW7vp5Qy5g52c3W1h4tF02gM92MW47YlYy4bfcHbW47Xx4z3C810nW1Df0XL6yBPHzW1ddcKh3bPyFLW3BJxLZ2tmClsW2z_scn6x2RKSW5-lMJc5tl0j8W3v6Jdy2By0x2W5CZGW32p7fx5W4wlTN33KdYx-W6NCvtb5qNrHbW2y6mkX4_gW3NW4ngcxD4F3n03W6_xLPs4V1GWRW3SRtwW2J1KFRW50Vw295Tf6K0W4pRM8M2p1grHW3F6gmx2mpXbyW3drBFm4l9WM9W3K2cdw44784vW60tCnj4yZMmgV3pPQn72HXKfW95qTPX8csGDVVD2JF57xMbdcW3hD1rm2HB7SVW2hYG_h69_rhCW8w-L5g1nPLyCW1Ngx1f51b4yWW98fqV44w_5djW1TK5lc9g5KWYW4ngR1M1QfFKMW4ztWX-2dpqD7McTSRKcSpjWf4F-02p02" target="_blank"></a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-approves-giant-solar-project-in-nevada-11589216400?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=87782018&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--TNVauhW3bvDHKpcc7GzS09_vXwDgTZ1ok8ohBT7dEKo4yo_-GOJeQxLtP5ZVk4pJVt4Y4QHQZWtAUpYbnAyjiPb-xVUTAkSMs9abNMrNgYCbQ_UM&_hsmi=87782018" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-11/buffett-backed-solar-project-near-vegas-wins-trump-blessing?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=87782018&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--TNVauhW3bvDHKpcc7GzS09_vXwDgTZ1ok8ohBT7dEKo4yo_-GOJeQxLtP5ZVk4pJVt4Y4QHQZWtAUpYbnAyjiPb-xVUTAkSMs9abNMrNgYCbQ_UM&_hsmi=87782018" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The North Carolina Zoo announced the birth of five critically endangered American red wolves as part of its American red wolf breeding program. North Carolina Zoo
The population of the most endangered canid in the world just got a little bit bigger.
<p>The North Carolina Zoo <a href="https://www.nczoo.org/news/north-carolina-zoo-announces-birth-five-critically-endangered-american-red-wolves-0" target="_blank">announced</a> the birth of five American <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/red-wolves" target="_self">red wolf</a> pups on Friday. This is an especially big deal because there are only 15 to 20 red wolves left in the wild, in eastern North Carolina.</p><p>"Congratulations to the North Carolina Zoo for playing an essential part toward helping this critically endangered species recover," North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources secretary Susi H. Hamilton said in the birth announcement. "It's yet another example of the Zoo doing amazing work to conserve <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and wild places."</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1258728698137792512" id="twitter-embed-1258728698137792512" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1258728698137792512&created_ts=1588939282.0&screen_name=NCZoo&text=We%27re+thrilled+to+announce+the+birth+of+5+American+red+wolves+as+part+of+our+red+wolf+breeding+program%21+Born+April%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FiQqimKwwmq&id=1258728698137792512&name=North+Carolina+Zoo" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="76a0485bff4b1c43ba330f0489158b4d"></iframe>
<p>The pups were born April 21 to a mother named Piglet and a father named Jewell. This is the couple's first litter.</p><p>"The pups and their mother are all healthy and doing well," the zoo said.</p><p>The new babies were all named for plants found in North Carolina, the zoo explained:</p><blockquote>The names for the males are Oak (Appalachian Oak), Cedar (Red Cedar) and Sage (Azure Sage). The females are named Lily (Carolina Lily, the state's wildflower) and Aster (Piedmont Aster).</blockquote><p>American red wolves have struggled in the wild in recent years, as <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com/news/state/north-carolina/article242592926.html" target="_blank">The Herald-Sun reported</a>. They were declared extinct in the wild in 1980 due to hunting and habitat loss, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) began efforts to reintroduce them to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge as part of the American Red Wolf Recovery Program. Their numbers swelled to more than 130 by 2006, but then began to decline between 2013 and 2015 after FWS introduced a policy allowing landowners to shoot and kill wolves, as EcoWatch <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/red-wolves-extinction-fws-judge-2618251132.html" target="_self">previously reported</a>.<br></p><p>In 2018, a federal judge ruled that the killing violated the endangered species act and had to stop.</p><p>In zoos, however, the species has fared better. There are around 240 red wolves in breeding programs across the U.S., the zoo said.</p>
<p>The North Carolina Zoo has been part of the American Red Wolf Recovery Program since 1994 and has bred 34 wolves since the program started. The birth of the new pups brings the zoo's wolf population up to 25, meaning it has the second-biggest red wolf pack in U.S. after the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington.</p><p>Six red wolf babies were also born at the The Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina in April 2019, The Herald-Sun reported. However, most of the museum's red wolves were moved to Virginia in January, and no babies were born there this spring, <a href="https://www.wral.com/baby-news-nc-zoo-welcomes-five-red-wolf-pups/19090065/?fbclid=IwAR0mA9K6ZKRXwUZKMB0uM4HpB8qQiGU4t91XkNBi9qUyt4J50K-luh80d1Q" target="_blank">WRAL reported</a>.</p><p>The North Carolina Zoo is currently closed to visitors because of the coronavirus pandemic, though you can still <a href="https://www.nczoo.org/virtual-visit" target="_blank">visit</a> virtually. However, the new arrivals won't know the difference right now.</p><p>"The pups are being kept in a quiet, non-public viewing area of the Zoo and have minimal contact with staff and keepers," the zoo said. "This allows their mother to raise the pups with the least amount of stress in a natural habitat."</p>
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The green sea turtle's range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world. Constanza S. Mora / CC BY 2.0
By Tara Lohan
Most of us have never been to the world's immense last wilderness and never will. It's beyond the horizon and often past the limits of our imaginations. It contains towering underwater mountain ranges, ancient corals, mysterious, unknown forms of life and the largest seagrass meadow in the world.
<p>Yet it begins just 200 nautical miles off our shores. Technically referred to as "areas beyond national jurisdiction," these remote expanses are known to most people simply as "the high seas."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/high-seas-treaty/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p>
<p>Their vast, dark waters encompass roughly two-thirds of the ocean and half the planet and are the last great global commons. Yet just 1 percent are protected, leaving these <a href="https://therevelator.org/ocean-outlaw-book-urbina/" target="_blank">vital but relatively lawless expanses</a> open to overfishing, pollution, piracy and other threats.</p><p>That could change soon.</p><p>In 2018, after more than a decade of groundwork at the United Nations, negotiations officially began for a new treaty focused on conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in the waters beyond national jurisdiction.</p><p>The proposed treaty is being developed under the <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm" target="_blank">U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea</a>, which was signed in 1982 and defined nations' rights and responsibilities for use of the world's oceans. The Convention itself is a landmark agreement that established many key environmental protections and policies, but over the years it's become obvious that some gaps in its governance policy have left the ocean's ecosystems open to ongoing and emerging threats.</p>
<p>The new treaty is intended to help fill those gaps, although, as with any international agreement, that presents challenges. Representatives of world governments gathered in 2018 and 2019 for three rounds of negotiations, but many parts of the key issues remained unresolved. Among them are plans to establish a framework for evaluating and implementing area-based management tools, which include marine protected areas, since no such systems exist now for the high seas.</p><p>Other items requiring agreement include establishing uniform requirements for conducting environmental impact assessments; how benefits from marine genetic resources may be shared among nations; and capacity building for management and conservation.</p><p>Many experts hoped the fourth negotiation session, originally scheduled to begin March 23 at the U.N. headquarters in New York, would lead to the finalization of the treaty's text, but the meetings were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>That pause gives us an opportunity to understand what's at stake a bit better.</p><p>"This is the first time that there's been a treaty process devoted to marine biodiversity in the high seas and the first ocean treaty really to be negotiated in over 30 years," said Peggy Kalas, director of the <a href="http://www.highseasalliance.org/" target="_blank">High Seas Alliance</a>, a coalition of more than 40 environmental nonprofits and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "It's a big deal, and it's been a long time coming."</p>
<p>But this historic opportunity is also one that could be squandered if the treaty fails to enact protections strong enough to actually safeguard ocean life.</p><p>"It has the potential to be a gamechanger for the oceans," said Douglas McCauley, a professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology at U.C. Santa Barbara and director of the <a href="https://boi.ucsb.edu/" target="_blank">Benioff Ocean Initiative</a>. "But it's still to be determined whether it will be just the treaty version of lip service."</p>
The Need for Protection
<p>We're all connected to the high seas, even if we never actually see them, says Morgan Visalli, a project scientist at Benioff Ocean Initiative at U.C. Santa Barbara. "It's incredibly important for helping to regulate the climate, for providing oxygen, food and jobs."</p><p>Even on land we depend on a healthy ocean. Phytoplankton in the ocean <a href="https://therevelator.org/phytoplankton-climate-change/" target="_blank">generate half our oxygen</a>, and the ocean plays a key role in mitigating climate change — absorbing 25 percent of our CO2 emissions and 90 percent of heat related to those emissions. It's also home to a rich diversity of species, some of which we're still discovering.</p><p>But marine ecosystems face grave threats from an onslaught of abuses: chemical, plastic and noise pollution; deep seabed mining and other kinds of resource extraction; increased shipping; overfishing and illegal fishing; and <a href="https://therevelator.org/ocean-climate-change/" target="_blank">climate change</a>, which is altering both the temperature and chemistry of the waters.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI2ODY4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDA2MDM1N30.-ljbryulwGu6Xug0ADHXyDtXz747eqw65fTq7fTy4uY/img.jpg?width=980" id="26d57" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4db6779cc8a42ec188116ac51f7968a9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Cargo ship at sea. Bernard Spragg / public domain
<p>Numerous strategies are needed to tackle these problems, including the bedrock component of reducing greenhouse gases.</p><p>But a key tool that scientists have identified to help restore biodiversity is establishing reserves, often referred to as ocean parks or marine protected areas.</p><p>We know pretty well how to do this in national waters — there are <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/02/22/how-much-of-the-ocean-is-really-protected" target="_blank">more than 15,000</a> of them already in places like Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Florida Keys. But few such protected areas exist in the high seas because there is no international framework to guide the process. One such effort to establish a marine protected area in Antarctica's Ross Sea took years of research and diplomacy to implement.</p><p>It's simply not feasible to scale the process — especially in the time we'd need to do it. That's why creating such a framework for marine protected areas in waters outside of national waters is a key part of the new high-seas treaty negotiations.</p><p>And that fits into a larger global vision.</p><p>The participant nations in another international treaty, the Convention on Biological Diversity, are set to convene this fall. The agenda includes a goal of enacting an international framework to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030.</p><p>It's a goal that scientists call a bare minimum. And it's one that may be impossible to meet without the high-seas treaty.</p><p>"The science is clear, if we're going to sustain a healthy, functioning ocean ecosystem, we need to be protecting at least 30% of the world's oceans," said Liz Karan, who leads <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/protecting-ocean-life-on-the-high-seas" target="_blank">efforts to protect the high seas</a> for Pew Charitable Trusts, a member of the High Seas Alliance.</p><p>In anticipation of the treaty's passage, scientists like Visalli and McCauley have already started modeling how new <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X19309194#!" target="_blank">priority areas could be identified</a>.</p><iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1247637692298309632" id="twitter-embed-1247637692298309632" lazy-loadable="true" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1247637692298309632&created_ts=1586294980.0&screen_name=UCSBenioffOcean&text=The+high+seas+are+our+last+global+commons+%26amp%3B+essential+to+life+on+earth.+As+the+UN+weighs+a+groundbreaking+%23HighSeas%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FRZM4DToxhU&id=1247637692298309632&name=Benioff+Ocean+Initiative" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="2be6714cacbdb1a5a33ef1e44e7b6e2d"></iframe><p>The other parts of the treaty, including environmental impact assessments and genetic resources, remain vital areas of discussion, but conservation groups have stressed the importance of protected ocean reserves for protecting the planet.</p><p>"If we want the ocean to continue its role in climate adaptation and being able to absorb the excess heat that it does, we need to create areas of resilience for the ocean," said Kalas. "And the best way to do that is marine protected areas."</p>
The Challenges
<p>Of course the devil is in the details.</p><p>While thousands of marine protected areas already exist, they come with varying levels of protections — much like we see with public lands. Some can be very restrictive, like national parks, or continue to allow extractive activities, such as in national forests.</p><p>Current marine protected areas range from no-take reserves that ban all extraction to areas allowing multiple uses — the latter are more common. Not surprisingly, though, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/75/3/1166/4098821" target="_blank">scientific studies</a> have shown that the no-take reserves do a much better job at protecting and restoring biodiversity.</p><p>Whether the treaty will be a landmark conservation effort or enshrine the status quo has yet to be determined, said Karan. "Both potential pathways are currently reflected in the draft treaty text" at this time.</p><p>From a scientific standpoint, McCauley says, marine protected areas should actually protect the wild character of the area and that means no activities — like mining or bottom trawling — that would disturb habitat. And the protections need to extend down from the ocean's surface, through the water column, to the seafloor.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI2ODY4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzg3OTEzMH0.44V4UQHFCCVNqSVetbbgJ9SxA6Ahs1MizLc4PQmJqlw/img.jpg?width=980" id="c7ad5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="147defbdf27fe8adf69b6db35a7d1d04" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A kelp forest in a marine protected area off the coast of California. Camille Pagniello / CC BY 2.0
<p>To do that means figuring out how the new treaty would fit with a tangle of more than 20 existing governance organizations that regulate seabed mining, fisheries management and shipping regulations.</p><p>"One of our hopes is that this treaty would knit those pieces together and provide a little bit more coherence and compatibility with those issues, particularly with regards to conservation and sustainable use," said Karan.</p><p>There would also need to be a process for scientifically evaluating areas proposed for protections, and how the established reserves would be managed, and the restrictions enforced.</p><p>"The whole process, the whole vision and opportunity to think about doing something smarter and better — for the ocean, for biodiversity, for us — ends if we don't get strong language in the treaty and get that treaty to pass," said McCauley. "There's historical potential for the oceans, but we need to make sure people on the outside are watching the people on the inside [at the United Nations] in New York."</p>Road Ahead
<p>Even though official treaty negotiations are on hold awaiting a decision on rescheduling the talks, work continues among governments as they review and refine their positions on numerous proposals submitted by states and NGOs.</p><p>The United States has been a participant in the talks, but the treaty process has largely flown under the radar among the general public so far. Given President Trump's position on <a href="https://therevelator.org/environment-deregulation-trump-two-years/" target="_blank">environmental protections</a> and distain for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/climate/trump-paris-agreement-climate.html" target="_blank">multilateralism</a> (like the Paris climate agreement), that's been pretty intentional on the part of environmental NGOs.</p><p>But as efforts may be nearing the finish line, this is starting to shift. Karan says there's more interest from legislators about high seas governance and more need to have an engaged public who can advocate for strong conservation protections.</p><p>Things are complicated, though, by the fact that the United States never ratified the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, widely considered a "Constitution" for the ocean.</p><p>There is hope from some of the participants that the United States could ratify the high seas treaty if it comes to fruition, say Karan. But no one is holding their breath for that. Kalas says the goal is that the treaty, once completed, would be widely supported, although it remains to be seen how many countries will sign on. "If only 40 countries ratify it, that wouldn't make it as strong of an agreement as if all the United Nation's 193 nations ratified the agreement," she said.</p><p>But there's a fine line between having an agreement that's universally supported and one that establishes concrete conservation actions and protections.</p><p>"Our concern is that in trying to get everyone in the tent as it were, we're going to wind up with a status-quo agreement," said Karan. "As much as we want a treaty, we want one that will make concrete change on the water."</p><p>And it's worth remembering, we're talking about a lot of water. When the next session convenes, she said, "states will decide the ocean's fate."</p>
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