August 2010

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive energy bill on July 30 that includes full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act of 2010, H.R. 3534, which includes provisions from the Oil Spill Accountability and Environmental Protection Act (H.R. 5629), is intended to address safety and liability issues revealed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the bill includes onshore drilling reforms, abolishes the Minerals Management Service...

The first general sign-up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) since 2006 currently is underway, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began taking CRP enrollment applications on August 2 and will continue accepting them through August 27.

USDA expects to enroll more than 4 million acres in the program as a result of this sign-up. Demand to participate is expected to be strong and will be enhanced because USDA updated soil rental rates since the 2006 sign-up, which, in most cases, will increase payments to program...

In the perpetual yo-yo of wolf management in the Rocky Mountain region, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled on August 5 that wolves should once again be listed as an endangered species. The judge ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) decision to turn management over to the states of Idaho and Montana but to keep Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in Wyoming was a political rather than a biological decision.

"The Endangered Species Act does not allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list only part of a ?species' as endangered or to protect a listed...

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) recently certified the R. E. Burger power plant as a renewable energy facility. This action has significant implications for wildlife in the area, according to the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI).

The Burger plant is owned and operated by FirstEnergy Corporation and is located on the Ohio River just south of the village of Shadyside. ?Formerly fueled with coal, it is a relatively small plant but will be one of the largest biomass-fired facilities in the country. It has been estimated that the plant will need nearly 3 million tons...

Remember Tom and Huck, those two free-spirited scallywags last seen rafting down the Mississippi River?? Well, they showed up again, a century later, canoeing on the Connecticut River, going under different names and disguised as over-the-hill voyageurs. Preferring not to spend their evenings on the river under the stars, the two were considerably older and maybe a little wiser than the Hannibal, Missouri boys, in fact, "too old to be sleeping on the ground, cooking over an open campfire and crapping in the woods." But their sense of adventure hadn't diminished over...