Back From the Dead
The ivory-billed woodpecker, a truly remarkable bird that was believed to have gone extinct 60 years ago, has been sighted again in the the Big Woods region of Arkansas. According to John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, it became known as the Lord God bird because people seeing it would exclaim "Lord God, look at that bird."
It's heartening to get a second chance at conserving a species, even though in most cases we only get one. According to a 2002 report by the Natural Heritage Program, many species in the Northwest are teetering on the brink. Here's a rundown of the most endangered species in the region:
| Species Extinct | Mammals At-risk | Birds At-risk |
Alaska | 2 | 14.6% | 5.6% |
California | 53 | 16.4% | 4.8% |
Idaho | 1 | 1.0% | 0.7% |
Montana | 3 | 1.9% | 1.8% |
Oregon | 12 | 4.0% | 2.4% |
Washington | 3 | 7.1% | 3.0% |
UPDATE: A truly first rate article in the New York Times. Here's the crux:
It wasn't a miracle. It wasn't luck. And it wasn't simply the resilience of nature, although that helped. The reason for the astonishing re-emergence of a mysterious bird is as mundane as can be. It is habitat preservation, achieved by hard, tedious work, like lobbying, legislating and fund-raising.
Bush's Latest Energy "Plan"
Approaching the summer "driving season" when gas prices often spike, President Bush has pumped up a new set of energy proposals. Even the mainstream media regard them as window dressing. (Witness the Washington Post.) But I'll take the proposals as serious and comment.
1. The Bush administration proposes to allow oil refineries on abandoned military bases, claiming that limited refinery capacity is driving up gas prices and that it's hard to get permission to build new refineries. Military bases, as federal property, are exempt from most local regulations.
Salmon Go To Court
In court now, the latest round in the fight between the federal government and the pro-salmon coalition of tribes, conservationists, and sport fisherman. The salmon advocates want to hold the feds responsible for the harm done to salmon by the Columbia and Snake River dams.
The most (unintentionally) hilarious quote from today's coverage comes from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
...the Justice Department argued that the federal agencies that control the 14 dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers cannot be held responsible for the existence of the dams...
Uh... didn't the federal government build the dams in the first place?
Of course, the real issues are much more complex than I'm giving credit for here. Much hinges on the extent to which the government is responsible for dam-induced salmon mortality and what it must do to protect the fish. Perhaps the biggest issue this summer will be whether the dam operators spill more water for fish passage, which will likely raise the cost of electricity in a drought year when rates may already be high.
BC's Growth Forests
British Columbia boasted the fastest provincial economic growth in Canada last year. A 3.9 percent increase in GDP easily outstripped the national average of 2.8 percent. The headlines in today's Vancouver Sun trumpet the forest industry as a principal cause. But therein lies a certain danger.
Just two days ago, the Vancouver Sun prominently warned that BC's forest industry would soon contract. A weakening US housing market, coupled with decreased buying power from the US dollar, will reduce the import market and drive down lumber prices by 10 percent in each of the next two years, according to economic forecasters.
BC's recent economic growth is certainly encouraging, but over-reliance on the forest industry is potentially cause for concern. Forestry has a troublesome history of being unpredictable--and that volatility can result in economic whiplash. All too often, aggressive cutting suddenly gives way to layoffs and idled mills when forest products hit the doldrums. It's wise to prevent that boom-bust effect from rippling throughout the entire province.
Article of the Day
William Saletan, always a perceptive analyst of US politics around abortion and reproductive health, has a perceptive Slate column on the alleged surge in pharmacists refusing, on conscience, to prescribe Plan B.
Like Saletan, I've been reading the news stories on this alleged controversy and finding them overblown. There's not much of a trend, and that's good news, whether you're concerned about lowering the abortion rate or protecting women's rights or, like me, doing both.
HOT Lanes, Black Boxes, and Fairy Wings
The golden boy of Northwest news reporters, Timothy Egan, ventures to southern California to compose an excellent overview of the US trend toward high-occupant/toll (HOT) lanes in today's New York Times. (Money quote: The Gubernator says, "Californians can't get from place to place on little fairy wings.") All across the United States, variable tolls-congestion pricing-are becoming the new conventional wisdom about how to do road expansions. In a few places, existing HOV lanes are up for conversion to HOT lanes.
The article shows the progress that road pricing has made in public acceptance, in part because it passes muster with both libertarians and sustainers. (Something I've noted here and here.)
