In the context of climate change, our energy appetite has shoved us into a corner. We’ve gotten used to a diet of cheap, energy-packed fossil fuels, and it will probably be impossible to find an alternative that doesn’t bring along its own set of environmental impacts: Solar arrays will damage deserts, wind farms decimate birds […]
Wildlife
Posted inRay
Watch falcons nesting high in downtown Boise
This is a cool window into the wild — make that, the downtown wild. Two peregrine falcons are trying to hatch four eggs on the 14th story of a bank building in downtown Boise. The Peregrine Fund and Fiberpipe have set up a webcam so we can all watch the falcons. The camera provides a […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
And window seats for all
Thanks to geolocators the size of a dime — small enough for a bird to bear — scientists have documented that songbirds such as thrushes can cover as many as 311 miles in a day. One female martin flew an incredible journey of 4,660 miles in only 13 days, all the way from the Amazon […]
Posted inGoat
Of Gods and Sea Kittens
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world — the paragon of animals! ~ William Shakespeare In the Sacramento Bee today, Republican Rep. George Radanovich of California’s 19th District accused environmentalists […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
So, this bobcat walks into a bar…
A different breed of cat starred in a barroom saga in Cottonwood, Ariz., that’s “sure to become legend,” reports the Arizona Republic. The tale begins with a woman stopping her car at 10:30 p.m., after thinking she’d hit something. She had — a bobcat — which proceeded to pounce on her and rake her face […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
The cat’s meow
In Spokane, Wash., Vickie Mendenhall thought she’d gotten a great deal by paying only $41 for a used couch. But then she and her boyfriend Chris Lund kept hearing a strange, high-pitched noise when they sat down on it to watch television, reports the Spokesman-Review. After a couple of days, Lund finally lifted up the […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Conservation or cop-out?
Lack of participation could scuttle voluntary efforts to protect species
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Columbia Basin (Political) Science
An investigation into the Bonneville Power Administration’s influence on salmon research
Posted inHeard Around the West
Prickly P.R.
Porcupines have gotten such a bad rap lately — and yes, some of them do girdle and kill backyard trees in pricy subdivisions — that it’s time to make amends to these thorniest of large rodents, says Colorado Outdoors, the colorful publication of the state’s Division of Wildlife. Porcupines are handsome in an outlandish way, […]
Posted inGoat
A fine feathered re-do
Over the years, we’ve run a lot of stories about the spotted owl (most recently, Spotted owl or red herring? and Hostile Takeover). The threatened raptor, which depends on old growth forests, was blamed for the decline of logging in the 90s, and timber companies have continually pushed to reduce the bird’s protection. Both enviros […]
Posted inRay
Sage grouse robot video!
Even though today is April Fool’s Day, I think this is not made up. Scientists studying sage grouse behavior in Wyoming have built an amusing but useful grouse robot. The robot looks like a grouse, if you have bad eyesight. It runs on a little railroad track that goes into a lek (mating ground). The […]
Posted inRay
Was our last wild jaguar euthanized by mistake?
Until today, this was the sad story of Macho B, the last known wild jaguar in our country: The jaguar was snared by accident south of Tucson Feb. 18. Wildlife agents decided to strap it with a radio collar to study its movements. Then they noticed the jaguar behaving strangely for 12 days, so they […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
The death of No. 6
A bull elk famous for his magnificent set of antlers — and his nasty temper — died recently in Yellowstone National Park after a freak accident. The animal (known as No. 6 because of his ear tag) apparently tripped crossing a fence and somersaulted onto his back, reports the AP. “Pinned between large rocks with […]
Posted inGoat
Salmon and pesticides
Research conducted by NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Washington State University has discovered that common agricultural pesticides which attack the nervous systems of salmon can turn more deadly when they combine with other pesticides. This development is likely to underscore requirements for no spray buffer zones along salmon waterways – a requirement which agricultural […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Cactus carnage
YouTube.com recently fired up people who love the Southwest’s iconic saguaro cactus. All it took was a startling video of a tractor chowing down on a 15-foot-tall plant in the desert near Phoenix, reports the Arizona Republic. Within seconds after the tractor’s mower grabs the cactus at the top, it smashes it down until nothing […]
Posted inGoat
Paper exercise or real progress?
In words typical of claims by environmental organizations, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently trumpeted “a big step forward for polar bear protection” when the Bush Administration agreed to designate critical habitat for the Polar Bear as part of a settlement with the group and its allies (Nature’s Voice, Jan/Feb 2009). Based on my […]
Posted inGoat
Fatal Attraction?
The bats of America are in dire straits. In the Eastern U.S., hundreds of thousands of hibernating bats have died from the mysterious fungal affliction known as white nose syndrome. To make matters worse, tree bats are getting whacked by wind turbines. Bats live up to 30 years and have one of the lowest reproductive rates among […]
Posted inGoat
Endangered Species Act restored
Gray wolves and other endangered species will be happy about President Barack Obama’s decision on Tuesday to bring back the original rules of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In December 2008, as a parting gift, the Bush administration introduced rules to allow federal projects to bypass a mandatory review from either the U.S. Fish & […]
Posted inGoat
Requiem for a jaguar
On Feb. 20, we wrote that for the first time ever in the U.S., scientists had trapped a jaguar and fitted it with a radio tracking collar. Just 10 days later, though, the big cat was dead. Known as Macho B, he had prowled 500 square miles of the U.S.-Mexico border region for more than […]