SHRUB DELISTED: The Truckee barberry, a small shrub that was once
believed to grow only on a 280-yard stretch of the Truckee River, has
been removed from the endangered species list says the San Jose Mercury
News, AP 10/1. The shrub was listed in 1979 and the USFWS that new
information indicates that the shrub is not "distinct from a type of
barberry found widely from Southern California into Canada and east to
the Great Plains."

COYOTE SNARING SUSPENDED: Maine's Dept. of Inland Fisheries and
Wildlife has suspended its coyote snaring program "until a federal
permit is issued absolving the department of liability under the
federal ESA" says the Bangor Daily News, 10/1. Since the early 1980s,
the state has trappers to "kill hundreds of coyotes each winter" to
protect the deer herd but conservationists in the NoSnare Task Force
threatened to sue the agency for violating the ESA should protected
bald eagles or lynx be caught in the snares. The DIFW said that "at
least two eagles and one lynx were killed in snares set for coyotes
during past seasons" but opponents believe "the number of protected
species deaths to be much higher than the department admits" and could
put threatened gray wolves at risk as well.

SERVICE PULLING BACK BULL TROUT CRITICAL HABITAT: The USFWS has "found
a new ally" among central Oregon irrigators after it apparently
withdrew Oregon's upper Deschutes Basin from a November 2002 critical
habitat proposal says the Bend Bulletin 10/6. A revised draft recovery
plan for the bull trout now classifies the area as a "research need
area," substantially reducing the likelihood that a final critical
habitat designation could impact federal irrigation projects and
logging. Work on the recovery plan and critical habitat designation
has resumed after it was stopped in April when the money ran out.

RAKE THAT MUCK
Senators Wheel and Deal on Climate, Energy, and the Arctic Refuge

What does it take to buy a senator's support for drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? How do things work deep inside the
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee? How much would it
cost the average U.S. family for the nation to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions to 2000 levels by 2010? Where does the word "muckraker"
come from?
NUCLEAR HOLLER COSTS
Nuclear Weapons Facilities Vulnerable to Terrorists, Whistleblower Says

Nuclear weapons facilities in the United States are vulnerable to
terrorist attacks, according to a whistleblower who recounts his tale
to reporter (and Grist contributor) Mark Hertsgaard in the November
issue of Vanity Fair. Until September 2001, federal employee Rich
Levernier was in charge of coordinating simulated attacks on weapons
facilities. The results of those simulations reveal just how
unprepared the U.S. is for the real thing: During more than half of
the staged attacks, Levernier's teams of faux terrorists successfully
stole plutonium and escaped unscathed. Levernier, who made his
claims public for the first time in the article, is suing the
Department of Energy for gagging him and removing him from his duties
without sufficient cause. The DOE's National Nuclear Security
Administration, which oversees weapons facilities, calls his claims
"simply untrue."

straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 08 Oct 2003

COLD, HARD KASHMIR
Kashmir Gets an Amusement Park, but Enviros Are Not Amused

The war-torn Indian province of Kashmir is hardly a place you'd go
for amusement -- but now, you can go there for an amusement park.
That's right: On Sunday, a private bank unveiled a brand-new
amusement park in the town of Pahalgam in the Himalayan foothills, to
the delight of many locals, who have been deprived of ordinary
entertainment by the ongoing conflict in the region. But
environmentalists are not amused in the least; they fear that
Pahalgam, long famed for its natural beauty, could become a hotspot
for money-hungry developers. They accuse the park of having no
facilities to treat its waste products, of not blending in with its
surroundings, and of leaking dyes into a nearby river, and they say
that the area development board was not consulted about the project.

straight to the source: Terra Daily, Agence France-Presse, 07 Oct 2003

DOLLARS WITHOUT SENSE
Privatizing Forest Service Jobs Would Cost More, Study Finds

A Bush administration plan to privatize hundreds of U.S. Forest
Service jobs, from wildlife biologists to safety officers, would cost
taxpayers more than continuing to pay federal employees, a new agency
study has found. Under the Bush plan, as many as one-fourth of all
40,000 USFS jobs would be outsourced in the interest of "improving
the cost-effectiveness" of the agency -- but according to a study
that looked at jobs in New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Texas and
Oklahoma, private contractors would cost more than federal employees.
The study's authors found, among other things, that federal employees
were a better bargain because they're used to wearing many hats and
working with tight budgets. The Bush administration is also studying
the possibility of privatizing jobs within the Bureau of Land
Management and the National Park Service.

straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, 07 Oct 2003

CAN'T GET A PIECE OF THE ROCK
British Insurance Companies Would Not Cover Farmers Growing GM Crops

The general public in the U.K. is deeply opposed to genetically
modified crops, and now British farmers have yet another reason not
to grow them: No one will insure them. A study by the agricultural
organization Farm found that none of Britain's five major insurance
underwriters would be willing to insure farms that were growing (or
thinking about growing) GM crops. Nor would they insure non-GM
farmers trying to protect themselves against crop contamination. All
the companies said too little was known about the long-term effects
of GM crops on human and environmental health. Comparing the crops
to the likes of asbestos and Thalidomide (the drug that caused gross
birth defects in babies), one company said, "There is a real feeling
that GM could come back and bite you in five years."Related solar panels

ENDANGERED FISH GET BROTHELED WATER: The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe has
acquired water rights once owned by Nevada's Mustang Ranch bordello to
improve habitat for the threatened Lahontan and endangered cui-ui fish
in the Truckee River and Pyramid Lake says the Reno Gazette-Journal, AP
10/1. Irrigation diversions have dropped the lake's water level to the
point where the fish cannot move upstream to spawn in most years. The
transfer of water rights is part of the Truckee River Water Quality
settlement brokered by Senator Harry Reid "end a century of water wars
along the river."