With all of the talk about threatened wildlife, species extinction, and loss of habitat, I was very refreshed to stumble across an article from the Asheville Citizen-Times entitled "Survey finds new species in national park in N.C." According to the article,

"A 10-year study has found more than 6,000 species of plant and animal life previously unidentified in Great Smoky Mountains National Park."

Hopefully this new information will not only encourage folks to learn more about the importance of preserving native species, but will also provide an incentive for protecting the habitat of the Great Smoky National Park in years to come!

In an ongoing struggle between the Navy's proposed Outlying Landing Field (OLF) and many North Carolina counties in the northeast, there seems to be no end in sight. In the past week, many articles were printed regarding the most recent developments, highlighting many citizens' concerns about losing farmland and/or wildlife habitat if the land was used for the OLF. Coverage also focused on residents of Gates and Camden counties who feel an OLF would severely hurt their communities economically, despite the addition of approximately fifty jobs.

• Gates, Camden leaders say they don't want Navy landing field. County leaders representing four potential sites for a Navy jet landing field in North Carolina pleaded Thursday to stay off a new list of finalists, saying the project would harm their economies and heritage.
  http://www.journalnow.com (link suppressed)
  

• Northeast counties oppose Navy field. Residents of Camden and Gates counties said the Navy's plans to build a practice airfield would damage the rural quality of life in the northeastern corner of the state.
  http://www.newsobserver.com/news/olf/story/757958.html

• New OLF sites panned, old sites still viable. Havelock advocates: OLF needed ‘somewhere.’ Debra Vaughn’s algebra students were without their teacher Thursday. Instead, she left them with a substitute teacher and traveled to the capital to oppose an outlying landing field in her native Gates County.
  http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2007/11/03/news/news01.txt

• North Carolina panel hears pros, cons about OLF sites. A Navy admiral said in a meeting here Thursday that the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point does not need another practice landing site, and that sites in northeastern North Carolina would be closer and more economical for jets based at Naval Air Station Oceana.
  http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=136034&ran=60826

• Governor’s group studied economic impact of an OLF. Despite jobs, northeastern counties still opposed. Despite the promise of high-paying federal jobs to staff an outlying landing field, the Navy heard Thursday that counties in northeastern North Carolina still oppose an OLF at any of four sites being considered in that region.
  http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2007/11/02/news/news02.txt

Oh, the beleaguered frogs. You probably already know that amphibian species are declining around the world. You have probably seen the depressing photos of deformed frogs trying to get through life with too many (or too few) legs. You may even have seen Dr. Tyrone Hayes‘ breathtaking presentation on how the herbicide atrazine turns boy frogs in to hermaphrodite frogs.

This week the N&O ran a story about a new study that reinforces the theory that farm runoff is causing the deformed limbs. Excess nutrients in the water lead to lots more parasites in the water that turn normal tadpoles into sickly, deformed adult frogs.

One of the questions about this research is, how come the trematodes make frogs so sick? They’re not a new pathogen - they’ve always been in the frogs’ environments. It’s just that lately the frogs can’t seem to fight them off. Another stumper: if it’s one disease deforming the frogs, why does it affect so many species? Leopard frogs, bullfrogs, wood frogs, and many others have shown up with the deformed limbs, in many different parts of the U.S. and Canada.

The answer may actually lie in the frogs’ immune systems: one of Tyrone Hayes’ experiments found that wild frogs who live in pristine waters are easily able to fight off common infections, while wild frogs who live in waters containing agricultural runoff die at astonishing rates from the same exposure to disease. Distinguished researchers around the world have pointed at all sorts of explanations for the frog decline, deformities and hermaphrodism: climate change, habitat destruction, parasites, pesticides, and more. The sad answer may be that there is no smoking gun, but that an alphabet soup of environmental changes have over-burdened the frogs’ immune systems to the point of destruction. Parasites and infections that formerly posed little or no threat to amphibian populations become deadly.

Biologists like to call frogs a “sentinel species,” because they are so sensitive to their environments and serve as indicators for problems that can grow to affect other species as well. I hope we’re paying attention.

Cross-posted from PESTed's weekly news commentary, Fair Ground.

As an avid frog-lover myself, I was excited to hear that the state was considering adopting a North Carolina amphibian to join the ranks of the a-famed state drink, state tartan, and state rock. Who would've thought though that the bill introduced into the House to pass the state amphibian as the Bull Frog would cause so much controversy?

Turns out that a group of 4th graders from Plymouth were advocating for the Bull Frog--a popular species that we've all stumbled upon occasionally (hopefully not literally). Opposition to the bill was presented by folks at the NC Herpetological Society who sent a letter to a representative in the House asking them to reconsider the choice of Bull Frog and instead consider "a species that is truly original and unique to North Carolina." Among their suggestions were the Neuse River Waterdog, Yonahlossee Salamander, Eastern Hellbender, Marbled Salamander, and Carolina Gopher Frog.

NC Herps also suggested some changes to the bill's language including adding the statement "Whereas, amphibians play important roles in the natural systems of the state and serve as indicators of environmental health." [I was glad to see them advocate to get this phrase added--it's amazing how much work has been done studying amphibians for environmental impacts of toxics, pesticides, and much more (as noted by the work of the esteemed Dr. Tyrone Hayes.)]

Anyway, the bill passed the House this last Friday (I guess it's hard to say no to a group of politically involved nine- and ten-year olds) and is moving onto the Senate for their vote. While it will be interesting to see what the final decision is, the important part is that these very environmentally-sensitive creatures are getting some press and some recognition. If in the end folks still can't decide, might I suggest Kermit or the daring Frogger (not native to North Carolina, yet worthy of praise after crossing many a busy street and alligator-infested river.)

I was reading the paper this weekend and one headline caught my eye: “Easley opposes poisoning birds.”  Now there’s a campaign position you don’t see every day.  Imagine scrolling through a candidate’s webpage and you find a list of the candidate’s positions on major issues:

Candidate John Doe on the Issues:
Lottery: Yes
Death Penalty: No
Iraq War: No
Smoking Ban: Yes
Poisoning Birds: No

If Gov. Easley runs for another office (like the U.S. Senate), do you think his opposition will try to paint him as “weak on killing birds?”  Sadly, the article is no joke. Gov. Easley has had to take a position against bird poisoning because the US Navy wants to scare, poison, or kill migratory birds so that it can build a jet landing strip right beside the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in eastern NC.

From the Raleigh N&O: 

A U.S. Department of Agriculture report done as part of the Navy's new environmental study recommends driving away birds that pose a risk by taking away the food crops they eat, scaring them with dogs and fireworks, and using poison and guns if scare tactics don't work.

There was a particular outcry from wildlife experts about the possibility that tundra swans, snow geese and other migratory waterfowl would be poisoned.  The response from the Navy:

Federal agriculture officials who wrote the report said poisons could be used if necessary on smaller species such as blackbirds, starlings, pigeons and gulls. They said if lethal measures were required to control migratory waterfowl, the birds would be shot, not poisoned.

This is one bad idea. Help speak out against bird poisoning and protect the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge by writing a letter to the Navy and your Congressional delegation.

The ongoing struggle between the Navy and environmental and community groups in eastern North Carolina over the proposed Navy outlying landing field had a big development this week as the Navy released yet another report. Not surprisingly, they are still pushing for using the space (approximately 30,000 acres) out in Washington County, despite concerns raised by environmentalists, community members, and even some media. Aside from disrupting the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge with loud, polluting jet fighter planes, the location also is home to endangered red wolves, as well as hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that would inevitably be endangered, as well as cause flight hazards for pilots using the runways.

The Navy plans to hold public hearings in March and April, followed by a final decision in the fall. For more information regarding the hearings, visit the North Carolinians Opposing the Outlying Landing Field. Do you plan to attend any of the hearings to let your voice be heard?

Our good friends over at Pamlico-Tar River Foundation are currently going head-to-head with a huge mining company, PCS Phosphate, Inc. PCS has applied for a permit to destroy over 2,400 acres of existing North Carolina wetlands and waters along South Creek and the Pamlico River in Beaufort County. The permit, if approved, would allow PCS to expand their open pit phosphate mining operations—making the proposal by far the largest wetlands impact and fill proposal in North Carolina history.

Meanwhile, PCS is releasing all sorts of propaganda, claiming that the new mining work would make good economic sense (and cents) for people in the community. The truth? The Albemarle-Pamlico Sound is one of the most productive North American fisheries, generating thousands of jobs and over $1 billion annually. While PCS may be creating jobs in the short-term, looking ahead, the mine will destroy the wetlands forever--what long-term impacts will their mining have on the community and the sound long after they're gone?

For more details and to take action to preserve the wetlands today, visit http://ncconservationnetwork1.org/campaign/save_our_wetlands and send your comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

As an Organizer for the NC Conservation Network I travel all over my home state fighting to protect our health and our environment. I meet and talk with lots of different people in my travels. Often I hear from folks that they have a hard time seeing the link between their daily life (and health) and the importance of protecting our environment. 

Making Connections, which aired this week on UNC-TV, does an excellent job of showing the links between our everyday life, our land, farms, forests, natural habitats, water usage, air quality, and tourism.

Our friends at Environmental Defense worked with the Director of NC Zoo, Dr. David Jones, to create this wonderful program.  Dr. Jones says “It is time to ask tough questions about polluted air, dirty water, and development…See why now is the time for making connections." He travels across our state exploring how our health and wealth are in danger.

Click here to watch this program online.

They have also created an informative website with lesson plans and activity guides for teachers as well as ways for folks like you to get involved.

Dr. Jones asks "What will our legacy be?" 

I have hope that our state will be a leader in the recycling industry, renewable energy field, eco-tourism and organic farming. I see these replacing the vanishing small town textile mills and farms with industry that creates jobs, saves our small towns and preserves our beautiful environment.

What about you? What do you think our legacy will be?

Yesterday, a freak accident killed Steve Irwin, the television personality known as The Crocodile Hunter.  He was filming a documentary when a stingray, a mostly docile creature, stabbed him through the heart. 

Although many knew him as the man who popularized "crikey", Erwin was also an acclaimed naturalist and conservationist (check out the foundation he started here).  Sometimes a divisive figure, he had many many fans and will be missed.

We've been talking a lot about trash lately -- landfills, in particular.  But it seems trash is also one of the leading threats to the ocean, according to a new report.

The United Nations Environment Programme issued a report last month that provides a general overview of the threats to deep sea ecosystems.  The report is fairly general in nature, but includes several pages of “fast facts” (pulled from various sources) about oceans, including the following:

• In the Central Pacific, there are up to 6 pounds of marine litter to every pound of plankton. Over 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square mile of ocean today.
• Plastic waste kills up to 1 million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish each year.
• Ballast water (from ships) often contains species that as ‘aliens’ colonize new environments to the detriment of native species and local economies.  Today 95% of the Black Sea’s biomass is made up by the Atlantic comb jellyfish, accidentally introduced by ballast water. 
• In the last 50 years, levels of human generated noise have increased dramatically in our oceans, doubling every decade for five decades running in some coastal areas.
  

Imagine this: an industrial quarry working to preserve nature on their own sites--planting trees and shrubs to attract wildlife, installing duck and bird feeders, and all the while providing educational tours of their property to show others how it can all be done.

According to a recent article from the Charlotte Observer, Vulcan Materials Co. in Lenoir County is doing all of this and more.

Tom Carroll, business development manager for Vulcan, said the Birmingham, Ala.-based construction-materials firm has long been interested in preserving wildlife and has several sites around the country with similar conservation projects, including one in Cabarrus County.

In fact, Vulcan did such a great job at working with the wildlife in the area that they were designated as a WAIT (Wildlife and Industry Together) site by the NC Wildlife Federation. For more information on Vulcan's work, check out their page on social responsibility.

I'm beginning to think we might be on to something here...industry being prosperous in their work while at the same time maintaining a stable environment for wildlife.  Kudos to Vulcan for their efforts and to our friends at the NC Wildlife Federation for acknowledging their hard work!

A federal government panel has agreed with North Carolina officials and recommended our national forests remain 'roadless'.  From the News and Observer:

A federal advisory committee has recommended that the U.S. government go along with North Carolina's request to protect nearly 174,000 acres of national forest from road development.

These forests are in three of North Carolina's four national forests, two of them in the mountains and one near the coast. The land is considered roadless, though technically there are about 35 miles of dirt or gravel roads in those forests.

Unfortunately, the fight isn't over, but our prospects look good.  We should hear a final decision by the end of the summer -- and we'll let you know.

By now, you've probably heard of the administration's proposal to cut down national forests to fund rural schools.

Several forests in NC are in jepoardy, including the Croatan National Forest in the eastern part of the state.  Students there decided to take action.  Sixth graders at Broad Creek Middle School in Newport, NC, wrote to Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture and asked him, "What is the deal with cutting down the Croatan National Forest?" and "How would you like it if we cut down some trees around your house?". 

Many of you took action on our alert (now expired) and said some of the same things. But what's unusual about this story is that after he received the letter, Mark Rey flew to Carteret County to explain the proposal (and get some good press).

I doubt that he was able to convince the class that the sale of their backyard forests was a good idea.  He hasn't been able to convince Congress to support the idea, either. But according to those who know him well, he'll keep pushing until he gets what he wants.  And we'll keep pushing back.

It is not in NC, but I have been enjoying watching a live web-cam of an eagle nest on Hornby Island in British Columbia.  Two eggs are due to hatch the last week of April.  (Click on the eagle picture and then you have to get through a little advertising.)  

Do you know of other fun web-cams?  Do you see any ethical delimas with web-cams?

I was pleasantly awoken the other morning by a story on National Public Radio about a legendary turtle living in a lake in the Vietnamese capital city Hanoi. Often, waking up to NPR to reports of the Iraq war or political scandals causes me to hit snooze as fast as I can and hunker down to return to dreamland for just a little bit longer. But this turtle story was like a bridge between dreamland and reality – between legend and science.

The giant 6 foot long 400 pound turtle lives in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake, or Lake of the Returned Sword. Legend has it that King Le Loi used a very powerful sword to fight the Chinese and win Vietnam’s independence in the 15th century. One day, while sailing on the lake, a large turtle appeared and grabbed the king’s sword. After draining the lake and failing to find the turtle, the king realized that the gods must have lent him the sword to fight the enemy and appeared as a turtle to reclaim it.

The turtle is considered a supernatural animal and holds a special position in the spiritual life of Vietnamese. Biologist Ha Dinh Duc, who has been studying the giant turtles of the lake for years, says that the turtle from the legend still lives in the lake.

"I don’t know why but when I first saw him in 1991 he left a deep impression, so I went back home and marked the day on my calendar. It seems there is an invisible bond between me and the turtle. There used to be four turtles, but now there is only one."

Though the "international turtle community is skeptical," Professor Duc is lobbying for it to be recognized as a distinct species, Rafetus Leloii, named after the late emperor.

"He is part of the legend, but he is also a living thing, and all living things have to die. But when that day comes we will loose a lot, and the people will forget. Now when the turtle floats to the surface, he reminds people of our heritage and our victory in the 15th century. It is like a chain without a cut, but when the turtle dies that chain will be cut."

One visitor to the temple on the lake said:

"I don’t think it is as old as they say, but I do believe it is special – holy even. And I will be sad if he dies, because either way the legend is part of history. But even if he does die he will still live forever in our hearts."

It seems that we, in this country, focus too much on the heady work of scientific proof, ethical debates, and cost benefit analyses, and forget to honor the living creatures of this planet for what they mean to us historically, what the bring to us spiritually, and the impression they leave in our hearts.

North Carolina governor, Mike Easley, has filed a petition with the US Secretary of Agriculture to protect North Carolina National Forests from logging and road building.  Governor Easley was the second governor in the country to file such a petition. In the press release Easley said,

“These forest areas are vital not only for their natural beauty and the recreational opportunities they offer, but also for their environmental benefits, including providing clean water and wildlife habitat. They are unique places of unspoiled wilderness and beauty and must be protected and preserved.”

President Bush replaced the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule with a state-by-state petition process. Currently there are no guarantees that the Secretary of Agriculture will accept the state petitions. The formal request submitted by Governor Easley was signed by over 21,000 people and would protect almost 174,000 acres of roadless forests in Croatan, Nantahala, and Pisgah National Forests.

To send a quick thank you to Governor Easley, click here.

What do you like best about North Carolina's National Forests?

In January 2005, at least 37 whales of 3 different species beached themselves on the NC coast. Two hundred miles away the Navy had been using powerful sonar as part of a deep-water training mission off of the coast.

Sonar technology is important to the Navy because it is used to detect submarines or other dangers in the water. According to a Washington Post article from last year, "Although the Navy says any connection between the strandings and its active sonar is "unlikely"...it is cooperating with other federal agencies probing a possible link." However, many questions surrounding the sonar used still exist a year later. Government fisheries officials and other activists suggest that sonar may have caused the beachings because it is rare for so many whales of different species to become beached at once.

The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) is organizing a global campaign against the unnecessary use of marine sonar, a problem we are currently facing in our own backyard. The US Navy is hoping to establish a 500-square-nautical-mile underwater sonar testing range off of the NC coast, previously discussed here. The effect of this proposed range on whales, fisheries, and sea turtles is not well understood. What other effects might this proposed testing range have on our state?

We'll continue to follow this story and give you the latest information on how you can help protect marine wildlife.  For more information on this issue, check out a short video, entitled Lethal Sounds, narrated by Pierce Brosnan or take a look at an in-depth report written by the NRDC, Sounding the Depths II: The Rising Toll of Sonar, Shipping and Industrial Ocean Noise on Marine Life.

Scientists from Conservation International found what they are calling a "Lost World" in the mountains of Indonesia.  According to the Environmental News Nework:

The expedition found a new type of honeyeater bird with a bright orange patch on its face, known only to local people and the first new bird species documented on the island in over 60 years. They also found more than 20 new species of frog, four new species of butterfly and plants including five new palms.

And they took the first photographs of "Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise" (pictured at right), which appears in 19th century collections but whose home had previously been unknown.

The expedition also spotted a rare tree kangaroo and found that many of the animals were unafraid of humans.  For more details on the trip and the scientists' discoveries, read Conservation International's press release. 

The Charlotte Observer has just published a fantastic multimedia series on urban wildlife -- the wolves, bluebirds, salamanders, owls, and other creatures that live in our neighborhoods. 

Many of these animals are being pushed to their limits due to rapid growth:

Growth is tilting Mecklenburg County's balance of nature, creating wildlife winners and losers.

The human footprint: A third of the tree cover toppled in two decades. Nearly three-fourths of the streams polluted.

Yet wildlife hangs tough. As anyone whose garbage has been raided by raccoons knows, many of the county's 558 known animal species get used to asphalt.

It's what you don't see that worries biologists.

Slipping away are animals -- salamanders, mussels, grassland birds -- that are early alarms of a sick environment.

Just another reason to stop sprawl. 

The studies done over the past decade regarding amphibian declines and deformities worldwide have sparked an enormous amount of discussion regarding what the cause or causes could be. The most common theories point to ultraviolet radiation, pesticides, parasites, disease, and loss of habitat. But what if the cause is not so one-dimensional? What if the deformities and disappearances are due to second-hand, harder to trace causes...like the combination of chemicals affecting immune function?

A new study at UC Berkeley has shown that perhaps pesticides do play a role in this "amphibicide"...but not in the traditional sense. They propose that it is not merely the effect of one chemical at a time that harms frogs and other amphibians, but the combination of the effects of multiple pesticides from agricultural runoff that leads to the weakening of the organisms' immune systems. According to a January 24 article from the Oakland Tribune, the findings showed that frogs treated to a mix of pesticides at a relatively low testing level (a level similar to what the frogs might actually deal with in the "wild") had the following characteristics:

• [were, on average], 10 to 12 percent smaller than the untreated control group.
• nearly 70 percent...succumbed to a common pathogen that the control group successfully fought off.
• developed holes, or plaques, in their thymus, an organ crucial for suppressing disease.
• had high levels of corticosterone — a hormone, similar to one also found in humans, associated with stress and known to decrease growth and retard development.

Just what does this mean for human pesticide health-related issues? What if the testing we've been doing, applying high amounts of a single chemical directly to test animals, has not been an accurate representation of what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis...which is, basically, dealing with a mix of pesticides that affects us in ways we never knew were possible?