Group claims political meddling over grazing data in western US

Group claims political meddling over grazing data in western US

The whistle-blower group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has filed a scientific integrity complaint against the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), because, it says, the agency is excluding grazing data from an ecological study of the American West for political reasons.

Using fossil leaf veins to reconstruct past climates

Using fossil leaf veins to reconstruct past climates

You can’t understand the global carbon cycle without understanding the activities of leaves. Leaves turn CO2 into sugar during photosynthesis, emits it during respiration and releases it when it rots. Leaf shape, size and structure is influenced tradeoffs between how many resources you spend to build the leaf, how quickly the leaf turns CO2 into sugar, and how long the leaf operates. Pluck a leaf from a tree and examine its underside.

Let’s go crazy…in the garden

Let's go crazy...in the garden

Sometimes we don’t give our neighbors enough credit. There’s a common trope in eco-nerd circles, the story of the exuberant, wild, ecologically vibrant garden attacked by neighbors for failing to conform conventional aesthetic standards. These unenlightened lawn worshipers complain to the city, dismiss the native plants as weeds and fret about vermin. But the research doesn’t necessarily support this familiar story. Today, at the Ecological Society of America meeting in Austin, Texas, conference-goers heard another story. Petra Lindemann-Matthies of the University of Education Karlsruhe, in Karlsruhe, Germany presented 250 people with photographs of a subset of 36 Swiss gardens, some  … Read more

Two bats, an owl and a polar bear

Two bats, an owl and a polar bear

Things are hopping these days at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that implements the Endangered Species Act. Yesterday, longtime FWS staffer Dan Ashe was finally confirmed as the new head of the agency, more than six months after he was nominated. He was sworn in this morning. Ashe has long championed proactive conservation in the face of climate change, and this focus was part of the reason a handful of Republican senators who held up his confirmation. But David Vitter, a Louisiana senator, held Ashe in limbo just because he was handy. Vitter was protesting the lack  … Read more

Agency director defends US climate service proposal

Agency director defends US climate service proposal

Jane Lubchenco, head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was on Capitol Hill this morning, pleading for permission to reorganize her agency. NOAA is the parent agency to the National Weather Service, and Lubchenco would like to pull the various climate research and forecasting parts of the agency together under a similar National Climate Service. But what might seem like a housekeeping measure—reorganizing within the agency, and with no change in overall funding levels—has become politically hot. The reason? The word ‘climate,’ which in Washington DC this summer is hotter than the hottest potato. In April, an  … Read more

Big bucks for 15 plant scientists

Big bucks for 15 plant scientists

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has appointed 15 new investigators to its club of well-funded whizzes—all of them plant scientists. What is a medical research organization doing funding plant science? Well, first off, they have joined forces with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which has funded a broader range of scientific fields. The two will pony up a combined $75 million for the 15 investigators over 5 years.

North Carolina pelicalamity sign of end times?

North Carolina pelicalamity sign of end times?

Recently, someone brought to my attention a wave of “mysterious pelican injuries and deaths” in North Carolina. Dozens of brown pelicans have washed up on the shore with broken wings and other injuries, according to the American Bird Conservancy. A local news report from WECT Wilmington has video and interviews with understandably concerned local residents.  Read more

Budget deal dumps wolf from endangered list

Budget deal dumps wolf from endangered list

One side story prowling in the background of last week’s US federal budget showdown concerns a policy initiative or ‘rider’ tagged on to the fiscal debate that would summarily remove the North American gray wolf from the endangered species list. Sponsored in the US House of Representatives by Republican member Mike Simpson of Idaho, the initiative differs from most other policy riders that were in contention last week (such as a proposal to curtail the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions), because it survived the hard negotiations that allowed Congress to avoid a government shutdown at midnight  … Read more