Crews making progress against Quebec forest fires
By Marianne White, Canwest News Service, May 31, 2010 [here]
Firefighters made progress Monday in their battle against major forest fires surrounding the native reserve of Wemotaci in central Quebec as winds blew thick smoke hundreds of kilometres away over Montreal and Ottawa.
The province’s forest fire protection agency said 43 forest fires were raging across the province by early evening Monday, and seven were considered out of control.
The overall situation has improved over the weekend, it said, but firefighters were concerned about Wemotaci, one of the hottest spots in the province.
A fire near the reserve — which was evacuated last week — grew vigorously Sunday and firefighters were forced to retreat because the smoke was too dense.
The agency said its teams were able to return to Wemotaci Monday morning to battle the flames surrounding the reserve.
Agency spokesman Marcel Trudel, who said Monday morning they were facing a “real monster,” had more positive news at the end of the day.
“We are going to be able to control it, eventually,” he said of the fire. “We didn’t see any blazing fire (Monday).”
He noted the winds have shifted and died down, lending a hand to the firefighters. The agency was also hoping light rain forecast for the region Monday night would provide relief.
The majority of the fires are burning near Wemotaci and La Tuque, about 300 kilometres northeast of Montreal.
So far, 109,500 hectares [270,575 acres or ~425 square miles] have been scorched. To put it in perspective, one of the largest fires currently burning in La Domaine du Roy near La Tuque, is 39,000 hectares, or 80 per cent of the size of the island of Montreal.
In the aboriginal community of Manouane, 900 residents were allowed back home Monday but 300 were kept out of the town, including pregnant women and people with respiratory ailments. … [more]
May shaping up to be coldest on record
By Sean Ellis, Idaho Statesman, May 30, 2010 [here]
POCATELLO — If you think this spring has been wetter than normal, you would be wrong. If you think it’s been colder than usual, you would be spot on.
Through Sunday, three all-time record low temperatures had been set this month. Depending on what today’s average temperature is, this could be the coldest May ever recorded in Pocatello.
“It has been very cold pretty much the entire spring,” said Greg Kaiser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Pocatello.
The average temperature for May in Pocatello is 53 degrees.
With Sunday and Monday still to be factored in, the average temperature this May has been 48.1 degrees, a full 5 degrees below normal. The coldest May ever recorded in the Gate City was in 1953, when the month’s average temperature was 48.8 degrees. … [more]
Global Cold Wave May Be Looming — This Time, the Science Is Good
La Nina, a solar minimum, and a massive volcanic eruption make a threesome of cold weather events not seen for two hundred years.
by Art Horn, Pajamas Media, May 31, 2010 [here]
In a cosmically ironic twist of fate and timing, nature may be set to empirically freeze any and all anthropogenic global warming talk: a blast of Arctic cold may encase the earth in an icy grip not seen for 200 years.
This is not alarmist fantasy or 2012 babble — several natural forces that are known to cause cooling are awakening simultaneously, raising speculation of a “perfect storm” of downward pressures on global temperature. These forces let loose one at a time can cause the Earth to cool and can bring about harsh winter conditions. If they all break free at once, the effects could be felt not just in the coming winter, but year-round, and for several years to come.
On March 20, a volcano erupted on the island of Iceland. … This volcano has only erupted three times since the 9th century, the last eruption occurring in the early 1820s. In the past, it has been followed by a much larger eruption by the nearby Katla volcano. Katla has erupted many times on its own, usually every 60 to 80 years, and last blew in 1918. It’s overdue. …
If Eyjafjallajokull induces an eruption of Katla, that event alone could force global temperatures down for 3 to 5 years. But there is much more at work here.
We have just exited the longest and deepest solar minimum in nearly 100 years. During this minimum, the Sun had the greatest number of spotless days (days where there were no sunspots on the face of the sun) since the early 1800s. The solar cycle is usually about 11 years from minimum to minimum — this past cycle 23 lasted 12.7 years. The long length of a solar cycle has been shown to have significant short term climate significance. Australian solar researcher Dr. David Archibald has shown that for every one year increase in the solar cycle length, there is a half-degree Celsius drop in the global temperature in the next cycle.
Using that relationship, we could expect a global temperature drop of one degree Fahrenheit by 2020. That alone would wipe out all of the warming of the last 150 years.
And there is yet a third player in this potential global temperature plunge.
Since autumn of 2009, we have been under the influence of a moderately strong El Nino. … The current El Nino is predicted to fade out this summer, and frequently after an El Nino we see the development of La Nina, the colder sister of El Nino. La Nina’s cooler waters along the equatorial Pacific act to cool the Earth’s temperature.
The stage could soon be set for a confluence of cold-inducing forces. A La Nina, a weaker sun, and a possible major eruption in Iceland could plunge the Earth into a period of bitter cold not seen for two hundred years. … [more]
Nonprofit Enviro Group Can’t Shake $10K Bond
Courthouse News Friday, May 28, 2010 [here]
(CN) - A nonprofit environmental group cannot escape the requirement that it post a $10,000 bond to pay for costs and damages incurred by a now-dissolved order blocking logging on several thousand acres of national forest in Wisconsin, the 7th Circuit ruled.
Habitat Education Center won an injunction in January 2009 barring the U.S. Forest Service from logging that winter.
The judge required the center to post a $10,000 injunction bond to pay any costs or damages incurred if the injunction was later invalidated.
And that’s exactly what happened. The judge eventually dissolved the preliminary injunction he had granted to Habitat and dismissed the lawsuit.
Habitat did not appeal this dismissal, except to challenge the bond order. It argued that it should have been exempt from posting bond as a nonprofit group devoted to the common good of protecting the environment.
But this claim fell flat with Judge Richard Posner.
“We are not persuaded by Habitat’s argument that nonprofit entities, at least those devoted to public goods of great social value, such as the protection of the environment, should be exempted from having to post injunction bonds,” Posner wrote for the three-judge panel.
“The forest service may lose money as a result of the now-dissolved preliminary injunction, and Habitat admits that posting the $10,000 bond caused it no hardship, let alone deterred it from asking for the injunction,” he wrote.
“Obviously, dissolving this injunction bond would not materially affect the budget of the forest service,” Posner added. “But the principle that nonprofit entities should pay their way, reimbursing the losses incurred by entities whose operations the nonprofits impede by obtaining preliminary injunctions later dissolved, is general.”
Humane Society of the U.S.: The deadliest rattlesnake of all
by Richard Moore, Lakeland Times, May 28, 2010 [here]
Back when I was young and growing up in South Carolina, I was terrified of rattlesnakes, and so was everybody else I knew.
That’s because rattlesnakes are deadly.
In the South, they were everywhere. We had to be careful when we marched in the woods; we had to be careful when we played in our own back yard; our parents had to be careful when they tended flowers around the house.
Rattlesnakes were not only lethal - our neighbor across the street died after being bitten by a baby rattler - they were sneaky. They possess a natural camouflage skin tone that allows them to blend in easily with almost any surrounding.
A potential meal, or an unsuspecting taxpayer, can hardly see them, unless you’re on alert.
And so they sit on or just between rocks waiting for small mammals, not even bothering really to hide, or near berry bushes waiting for birds - and, of course, there’s always the story of the occasional human who didn’t see the snake, even though it was pretty much out in the open, and paid for the lack of awareness.
When I moved to Wisconsin, I was happy to discover there are relatively few snakes here, and even fewer rattlesnakes. There are a few timber rattlers around Devil’s Lake, I’m told, and in the southwestern part of the state, but for the most part we have been poisonous snake-free.
Until now.
Now here comes a different kind of rattlesnake slithering into Wisconsin: the Humane Society of the United States.
Many folks will probably be surprised to learn that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is a rattler (actually a collection of rattlers), but it is, and one of the deadliest of all vipers. … [more]
No global warning processes in Antarctic: Explorer
PTI, May 30, 2010 [here]
ST PETERSBURG: Allegations about global warming processes in the Antarctic have nothing to do with real facts, a Russian polar explorer has said.
“They are of opportunistic and time-serving character, and have nothing to do with the real weather and climate on the southern continent,” Head of Russia’s 54th Antarctic expedition Viktor Venderovich told Itar-Tass.
“The past summer on the south pole was cold and windy, and ice floes in the offshore water failed to melt over the entire season.
“The atmospheric air temperature near the Vostok station deep on the continent reached the customary minus 70 degrees Centigrade in the summer, and near the Novolazarevskaya station it never exceeded minus 6-8 degrees,” he said after staying at the Novolazarevskaya station for a year.
The previous winter in the Antarctic, he said, “was remarkable for its unusual severity, with blizzards and snowstorms.”
The average air temperature was 0.5 degrees lower than usual, and there were too much snow, he said, adding that a “slight warming was registered only on the Antarctic peninsula, while the rest of the continent has not been affected by the global warning and is not going to be.”
New Plans Try to Revive Carbon Trading
By JAMES KANTER, NY Times, May 24, 2010 [here]
BRUSSELS — Carbon trading was meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union by making polluting more expensive for heavy industries, encouraging them to invest in cleaner technology. But even supporters admit that the system, also known as cap and trade, is falling far short of that goal. Critics decry it as just another form of financial profiteering with little environmental benefit.
Carbon traders, for example, have been arrested for tax fraud; evidence has emerged of lucrative projects that may do nothing to curb climate change; and steel and cement companies have booked huge profits selling surplus permits they received for free. …
Under carbon trading, governments place a “cap” on emissions from certain industries, issue a set amount of permits to companies and require them to purchase more if they exceed their limit. Companies that pollute less can “trade,” or sell their surplus permits.
The permits are traded on several exchanges throughout Europe, which dominates a global industry worth about $140 billion a year. …
The global recession also has idled factories, leaving heavy polluters like the steel company ArcelorMittal and Lafarge, a cement maker, with a huge excess of carbon permits. Some have sold their permits for millions of euros.
In the United States, the cap-and-trade idea still is supported by the administration of President Barack Obama… [more]
Arctic Ice Volume Has Increased 25% Since May, 2008
By Steve Goddard and Anthony Watts, Watts Up With That, May 29, 2010 [here]
The Navy requires accurate sea ice information for their operations, and has spent a lot of effort over the years studying, measuring, and operating in Arctic ice both above and below, such as they did in the ICEX 2009 exercise.
So, if you are planning on bringing a $900 million Los Angeles class submarine through the ice, as the captain might say to the analyst after receiving an ice report: “you’d better be damn sure of the ice thickness before I risk the boat and the crew”. …
In 2008, less than half of the ice (47%) was greater than two metres thick. Now, more than 75% of the ice is greater than two metres thick. In 2008, 18% of the ice was more than three metres thick. This year that number has increased to 28%. There has been nearly across the board ice thickening since 2008. …
In 2010, 87% of the ice (by volume) is greater than two metres thick. But in 2008, only 64% of the ice (by volume) was greater than two metres thick. …
A few weeks ago, when extent was highest in the JAXA record, our friends were asking for “volume, not extent.” Their wishes have been answered. Ice volume has increased by 25% in the last two years, and those looking for a big melt are likely going to be disappointed. … [more]
Bighorns killed after mingling with domestic sheep
Great Falls Tribune, May 26, 2010 [here]
BILLINGS (AP) — State wildlife officials killed two bighorn sheep southeast of Big Timber after the yearling lambs came in close contact with domestic sheep.
Fish, Wildlife & Parks biologists worried the lambs could carry disease from the domestic animals back to the wild herd.
Biologist Justin Paugh of Big Timber says a rancher saw the bighorn sheep in his herd and contacted the department. After confirming the animals had been in close contact, the bighorns were shot Monday evening and their carcasses taken to the FWP laboratory in Bozeman.
The agency says wild sheep cannot fend off some diseases carried by domestic sheep, any potential infections could affect an entire herd.
Note: Montana officials kill two bighorn sheep because they interacted closely with domestic sheep and officials were afraid they would carry disease back to the wild sheep and infect them. Three years ago the game managers had removed all the domestic sheep permittees out of the area where they had introduced bighorns and now three years later they have allowed wolves to colonize the same area where they move freely among domestic sheep, cattle, and bighorns. How goofy is that? — Sharon B.
See also: Environmental Justice on the Payette NF [here]
U of I reinstates Marie Bulgin and finds no evidence of ’scientific misconduct’ in wild sheep controversy [here]
UI Prof Suspended for Big Horn Sheep Findings [here]
Wolves take toll on cattle during study
Livestock behavior changes as wolves move in to territory
By LEE FARREN, Capital Press, May 28, 2010 [here]
LA GRANDE, Ore. — Maintaining the wolf population at a level that prevents massive cattle predation is the key to allowing livestock and wolves to co-exist, an Idaho rancher says.
In Idaho, that hasn’t occurred, said Casey Anderson, manager of the OX Ranch near Council, Idaho.
He talked about his experience as 28 wolves took up residence near his ranch. Anderson and other ranchers in Idaho and Oregon took part in a two-year study that tracked cattle and wolf interactions with GPS data.
“The way it started for us is cattle behavior started changing, their habits were changing. I jumped on the bandwagon and agreed to participate in this study,” Anderson said.
Anderson documented the movements of 10 GPS-collared cows out of a herd of 450 and one collared wolf during the summer and fall of 2009.
“The researchers were thinking of those 10 collared cows, only two or three would come into contact with the collared wolf, but in fact all 10 cows came into contact with that wolf 784 times during that period,” Anderson said. “You can understand how many times all the cows in that herd are coming into contact with wolves, and why we are really noticing cattle behavior patterns and cattle distribution problems.”
In another herd of 317 mother cows, Anderson weaned only 255 calves in 2009. He attributes most of the missing calves to wolf predation. The ranch had 18 confirmed wolf kills last year, and lost at least 45 calves, five cows and two yearlings.
Two wolves roaming Boise Foothills kill 11 sheep
By Jennifer McGraw, KLEW TV, May 27, 2010 [here]
BOISE - The foothills are the backyards to many bikers and joggers. Mike Sheppard covers several miles of trail daily and was surprised to hear wolves were moving in.
“Typically not a whole lot to see as far as animals and wildlife goes,” says Sheppard.
Idaho Fish and Game found the sheep carcasses near the 8th Street gate known as the Hulls Gulch upslope. After identifying the kills there was no doubt they were wolf killings.
These sheep belonged to a rancher from Wilder who says year after year the wolves are killing even more.
“We’re just moving onto the forest foothills, this of course is a little early to get hit, I think last year we had two kills on the Boise front side and this year I think we’ve already been hit four times,” says Frank Shirts.
And like many ranchers they feel the numbers are growing.
“We’re going to lose 150-200 head this year,” says Shirts.
He also says keeping track of hundreds of sheep is hard enough without adding wolves to the equation. … [more]
Agency cancels meeting over protest fears
By TIM HEARDEN, Capital Press, May 28, 2010 [here]
A California state official cited fears of “armed civil disobedience” as a reason for canceling a meeting with ranchers about special permits required for water diversions.
One of the ranchers called the explanation “despicable” and said it’s “another example of how bureaucracy has lost touch with the person who’s putting the food on their table.”
The tempers are flaring over the state Department of Fish and Game’s plan to implement a watershed-wide permitting program in two remote valleys of Siskiyou County near the Oregon state line.
Mark Stopher, the department’s acting regional manager, canceled a workshop in Etna, Calif., on March 27 because he couldn’t be there and didn’t want to expose subordinates to what he heard would be a vocal protest, he said.
“I’ve stood up in front of angry crowds,” said Stopher, who is based in Redding, Calif. “I’m a little hesitant to put some of my biologists out there who haven’t had the same experience. … It became likely that we were not going to be able to achieve the purpose of our meeting.”
Stopher said he received several calls about people discussing armed rebellion and that “I tend to discount that,” but “there’s a possibility that somebody would do something to get arrested.”
When told of Stopher’s remarks, Etna rancher Jeff Fowle said ranchers in the Scott and Shasta valleys have always acted civilly and professionally with Fish and Game officials but were bothered by the way the agency was approaching the permits.
“I know there are a multitude of people and families who are upset with this entire process and upset with the way that Fish and Game has gone about informing the public,” Fowle said. “They have been very bold and distasteful in the process and I know that that has negatively influenced probably the majority of the residents of this valley.”
Ranchers in the Scott and Shasta river watersheds have been told they could face fines or jail if they don’t participate in a watershed-wide permitting program or obtain streambed alteration and incidental take permits on their own. The state is trying to preserve populations of threatened coho salmon.
Some ranchers assert the state is violating their water and property rights by requiring the permits, which would involve inspections of their land and cost an estimated $100 to $200 a year for each cubic foot per second of water to which a landowner is entitled. … [more]
Another Wallowa County calf killed by wolves
Capital Press, May 28, 2010 [here]
Joseph area rancher Karl Patton has lost a calf to wolves, federal and state wildlife authorities confirmed today, May 28.
Patton discovered the dead calf late Thursday and a wolf attack was confirmed by federal wolf hunter Marlyn Riggs the same day and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials today.
That brings to three the number of wolf predations confirmed in Wallowa County within three weeks by ODFW, which ranchers thought met the state’s definition of “chronic” depredation. A finding that the kills are chronic would permit the ranchers to shoot wolves found harassing cattle as well as actually attacking.
But rancher Rod Childers, wolf committee chairman for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said ODFW also requires that the kills be on adjacent lands. He said the ranchers are appealing to ODFW officials in Salem for a variance.
Earlier this week, ODFW issued permits to five ranch owners and employees to shoot wolves but only if they are caught in the act of attacking.
Two other calf kills had been confirmed by Riggs and ranchers say they suspect more calves missing earlier are due to wolf activity. Patton earlier had spotted wolves in his pasture.
“We know these wolves will keep killing,” Childers said.
“While everyone is enjoying a three-day holiday, the ranchers of Wallowa County will be out looking for dead calves.”
Gray Wolves Rebound, To Neighbors’ Unease
Close Encounters, Animal Killings Worry Wisconsin Town; Federal Government Pushes to Allow Hunting, Trapping
By JOE BARRETT, WSJ Online, May 29, 2010 [here]
HARRISON, Wis. — David Schoone, a farmer in this lush region of northern Wisconsin, says a lone gray wolf sneaked up on his school-age daughter three years ago as she bounced on a trampoline in his backyard.
More recently, Mr. Schoone was chased into his pickup truck by a wolf, and his cousin’s wife had to run from two wolves that descended on her from opposite sides of a shed. This month, he lost two young steer to wolves.
“We gotta watch all the time,” said Mr. Schoone, 43 years old, who carries a loaded rifle when he works in his fields or goes for a walk, even though he can only legally shoot a wolf in the act of attacking a human. “They don’t show any fear of us.”
Gray wolves, which resemble tall, lean huskies and can weigh more than 100 pounds, were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by 1950. Since being placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in 1974, they have made a dramatic comeback, with some 4,000 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and nearly 1,700 in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. … [more]
Alaska sues feds over predator control
By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press, May 28, 2010 [here]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The state of Alaska sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday, seeking a court order allowing it to go ahead with a controversial predator control program.
At issue is the state’s plan to kill wolves to preserve a caribou herd inside the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge on Unimak Island, beginning as early as Tuesday.
Last week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced it would begin shooting some wolves on Unimak, the eastern-most island in the Aleutian chain, to protect caribou calving grounds as part of its aerial predator control program.
While the program is in place in at least six locations around Alaska, it would be the first time in recent history that aerial predator control would be used inside a national refuge in Alaska.
The department planned on using two biologists and four pilots to kill wolves.
The feds responded Monday, cautioning the state that killing the wolves without a special use permit would be considered “a trespass on the refuge” and immediately referred to the U.S. attorney.
The state has interpreted that as federal officials blocking the program. The lawsuit, which names U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Director Rowan Gould, his agency and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, seeks a court order allowing the state to kill seven wolves while the litigation continues. …
Caribou are an important subsistence food for approximately 62 people living on the island, but the animal numbers have been declining. In 2002, there were more than 1,200 caribou. Last year, fewer than 300 were counted. The state has an unofficial estimate of up to 30 wolves.
The state says the killing of wolves is imperative to protect this year’s caribou calves. …
“The actions of Fish and Wildlife have set the stage for the worst possible outcome - the potential disappearance of this caribou herd and a total loss of subsistence opportunity in the area for the foreseeable future,” Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd said in a prepared statement.
“We pushed as hard as we could, recognizing that time was running out fast, but I wasn’t going to put my employees into a situation in which the federal government prosecutes them for carrying out their state responsibilities,” he said.
The lawsuit claims Fish and Wildlife is violating the Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and a memorandum of understanding with the state. … [more]