• Antarctica Key To Sudden Sea Level Rise in The Past
  
• $32 Million Supports Columbia River Basin Projects
  
• Delaware's Runoff Program Earns Federal Approval
  
• Economy Shifts Throw Timberland on the Market
  
• Caspian Tern Colony Wins Reprieve
  
• Floodplain Reforestation Efforts Lack Diversity
  
• Fishing Restrictions Would Protect Turtles in the Chesapeake
  
• Alaska Fishers Charged with Dumping Oil
  
• Texas Landowners Protect Endangered Birds
  

Antarctica Key To Sudden Sea Level Rise in The Past

In less than 500 years at the end of the last ice age, sea level rose by about 70 feet. This sudden rise occurred about four times faster than sea levels were rising most of the time during this period, and at least 20 times faster than the sea level is now rising.

The new study by researchers from Oregon State University, the University of Toronto and the University of Durham in the United Kingdom pinpoints the cause of this abrupt rise, called the "global meltwater pulse 1A" since it was first identified in 1989.

Two huge Antarctic ice sheets became unstable, melting at a rapid rate and causing the 70 foot surge in sea levels in just a few hundred years. The surge that occurred during a single year of that period is more than the total sea level rise that has occurred in the past 100 years.

"This event happened near the end of the last Ice Age, a period of de-glaciation that lasted from about 21,000 years ago to 12,000 years ago," said Peter Clark, a professor of geosciences at OSU and one of the world's leading experts on glaciers. "The average sea level rise during that period was about eight millimeters per year. But during this meltwater pulse there was an extremely rapid disintegration of an ice sheet and sea levels rose much faster than average."

Today, the West Antarctic ice sheet is thought to be unstable, and if it collapsed sea levels around the world would rise almost 20 feet. The melting of the larger and more stable East Antarctic ice sheet would raise Earth's sea levels another 200 feet.

The type of melting that occurred thousands of years ago is different from recent events in Antarctica, researchers say, such as the breakup of a large percentage of the Larsen ice shelf in March. But the dramatic melting illustrates the pressing need for a better understanding of Antarctica's huge ice sheets and their stability, the researchers say.

"We can't say at this point whether the recent breakup of part of an ice shelf in Antarctica has any relevance to this type of huge meltwater event that originated from Antarctica thousands of years ago," Clark said. "We don't know yet how important these ice shelves are to stabilizing the larger ice sheets of the continent."

The global meltwater pulse 1A was also a time of increasing temperature, sea level and atmospheric carbon dioxide that is similar to current climate warming, Clark added.

The study appeared Monday in the journal "Science."

$32 Million Supports Columbia River Basin Projects

The projects address BPA's obligation to improve conditions for fish and wildlife, helping to offset to the impacts of the federal utility company's hydropower dams. They are intended to increase water quality and quantity, assist fish migration in tributaries, enhance fish habitat, and help keep young fish from straying into irrigation canals.

"Many of the efforts will benefit threatened and endangered species," said BPA administrator Steve Wright. "The level of dedication in the Northwest for recovery of endangered species is high, as proven by the number of funding proposals submitted by many sponsors and the number of projects already underway."

In March 2001, BPA and the Northwest Power Planning Council asked for project proposals to improve conditions for fish and wildlife in the Columbia Plateau Province, which includes major tributaries of the Columbia River east of the Cascades such as the Yakima, Walla Walla, Umatilla, John Day and Deschutes rivers.

Based on the proposals they received, the state of Washington and the Yakama and Umatilla tribes will receive $18 million this year to fund 14 new projects and support 25 projects now underway.

The state of Oregon and the Warm Springs and Umatilla tribes will receive more than $14 million to fund 12 new and 34 existing projects. About $9 million of the $32 million total will be shared by Washington and Oregon for projects that overlap state boundaries.

All of the projects are part of a larger, ongoing fish and wildlife mitigation and recovery effort for the Columbia Plateau Province that now includes 165 projects and more than $53 million in BPA funding.

"This additional funding is only part of the regional mitigation and recovery program for fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin," added Wright. "The council recommends projects to BPA for funding based on scientific merit and the assurance that ratepayer funding is going to those projects that achieve the greatest biological benefit for the least cost."

A list of projects and their locations is available at: http://www.cbfwf.org/province.htm

Delaware's Runoff Program Earns Federal Approval

The federal approval comes with an additional $150,000 in federal funding.

The program was approved at a signing ceremony in Dover last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the two federal agencies responsible for reviewing the plan.

Polluted runoff, also known as nonpoint source pollution, is a problem throughout the nation, particularly in coastal areas and watersheds that feed into coastal environments like estuaries, the zones where fresh and salt water mix. Runoff is caused when rain picks up pollutants on land and deposits them into coastal waters, lakes, rivers and even underground aquifers.

"The strength of the Coastal Zone Management program and the non-point plan is that they are state focused and grass roots based, but still part of a larger, national effort," said NOAA administrator and retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher. "Approval and implementation of these plans shows how effectively the federal, state, and local governments can work together to really make a difference and give us a cleaner, healthier environment."

The coastal nonpoint pollution program was authorized by Congress in fiscal year 1990 as part of the national Coastal Zone Management Program, a voluntary partnership of federal and state governments that gives guidance for solving coastal runoff pollution problems. Thirty-three coastal states are participating in the program and have received conditional approval of their plans.

Each state receives funding based on a formula that factors in length of shoreline and coastal population.

Jamie Hawkins, deputy administrator of NOAA's National Ocean Service, called Delaware's coastal nonpoint program "comprehensive and a roadmap for others to follow." He congratulated Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner and the state's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control for starting a new coastal management program to keep marinas clean, and for adopting a nutrient management act to help farmers apply fertilizers without producing excess nutrients.

Delaware joins seven other states -California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia - and Puerto Rico whose runoff plans have already received final approval and a $150,000 bonus.

"Delaware has shown strong leadership in developing its coastal polluted runoff program, including a serious commitment on the part of the many state agencies and local partners," Lautenbacher said. "We understand the tough challenges of protecting America's coastal waters from nonpoint source pollution and will continue to work with the states and Congress to ensure ongoing support for this important program."

Economy Shifts Throw Timberland on the Market

The report shows that more than 14 million forest acres have been sold in the past five years, six million in southeastern states, as companies seek to lessen their tax burdens and focus on core businesses.

"Returns in the forest products industry are down, making companies really take a look at their reasons for owning and paying taxes on income generated from timberland," said Mike Clutter, professor of forest finance in UGA's Warnell School of Forest Resources. Clutter worked in the forest industry for many years as a financial analyst.

New corporate tax laws favor tax exempt entities, such as timberland investment organizations and real estate investment trusts, not the giant corporations that have held most industrial timberland. Clutter said the changes have forced many timber giants to question their assumption that they need to own land to ensure an affordable source of raw materials for their manufacturing facilities.

"Most mills, particularly in the South, get only about 15 to 25 percent of their raw materials from internal sources," said Clutter. "The traditional view of a vertically integrated forest products company is being replaced in many instances by a recognition that timberland has its own risk and return characteristics."

In the future, most private timberland in the U.S. will be owned by pension fund investors, university endowments and other entities for whom the timberland provides a tax advantage, Clutter argues.

"I think we will see many of the large timberland consulting firms continue to grow as they manage more acres for timberland investment management organizations," said Clutter. "This will certainly have an impact on future foresters, many of whom will go to work for these firms rather than traditional forest products companies."

"There has always been a connection between traditional forest products companies and the timberland they managed," Clutter concluded. "But the new tax structures mean we'll see more and more land owned by those most removed from it."

Caspian Tern Colony Wins Reprieve

The agreement, finalized last week, was reached in a federal law suit brought by American Bird Conservancy, National Audubon Society (Audubon), Defenders of Wildlife, and Seattle Audubon Society against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Rice Island, created from dredge material in the Columbia River Estuary on the Oregon-Washington border, had been home to the northwestern tern population. The National Marine Fisheries Service and state fisheries agencies argued that the terns were hampering the recovery of threatened and endangered salmon.

The Corps, with a permit from the USFWS, attempted to remove 18,000 of the birds and destroy their habitat. Critics argue that there is no sound scientific data supporting the theory that the terns' fishing habits are harming salmon.

"Caspian terns were made into convenient scapegoats for the decline of Columbia River salmon, simply because they eat juvenile salmonids, over 90 percent of which are hatchery reared," said Gerald Winegrad, vice president for policy at the American Bird Conservancy. "There is no sound evidence that terns are in any way responsible for salmon declines."

The lawsuit called on the Corps to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before disturbing the tern colony. In August 2001, a federal district judge ruled that the federal agencies provided almost no information as to whether reducing tern predation would affect the number of salmon returning to the estuary, and ordered a comprehensive EIS.

Under the settlement, the federal agencies will prepare an EIS and a long term management plan that focuses on establishing additional nesting sites for terns outside the Columbia River Estuary, and reviews the science of tern predation.

Floodplain Reforestation Efforts Lack Diversity

Traditional floodplain forest restoration calls for planting common tree species, and waiting for nature to restore rarer tree species. But a new study suggests that some types of trees may not recover on their own, putting some bird species at risk.

"Birds tended to prefer uncommon tree species - one bird, the yellow throated warbler, was a virtual specialist on bald cypress," said Aaron Gabbe, who did this work while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is now at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Floodplain forests in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley have been reduced almost 80 percent by agriculture, urbanization and flood control. The Nature Conservancy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been restoring bottomland hardwood forest in the Cache River watershed, which is in the southern tip of Illinois in the floodplain of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

To help guide bottomland forest restoration, Gabbe and his colleagues studied the tree preferences of 13 species of insect eating birds that breed in forests in the Cache River floodplain. The researchers determined the birds' preferences for 19 tree species in seven forest fragments ranging from about 55 to 6,000 acres. Each study site had three forest types: swamp that is inundated year-round, swamps that are wet in certain seasons, and wet floodplain forest.

Gabbe and his colleagues found that many birds preferred to forage in particular types of trees and that birds that were uncommon on the study area tended to be more selective. For instance, yellow throated warblers preferred bald cyprus, cerulean warblers preferred kingnut hickory, and yellow billed cuckoos preferred silver maple.

The three trees preferred by most of the birds - kingnut hickory, bitternut hickory and silver maple - were also uncommon in the study area.

Two of these three most preferred trees are hickories, which are heavy seeded and slow to recolonize restored forests. Previous research has shown that restored floodplain forests have few heavy seeded trees even 50 years after replanting with common oaks.

"Forest restored by planting of only common oak species may not be adequate for restoration of a diverse avian community," write Gabbe and his colleagues in the April issue of "Conservation Biology."

The team recommends also replanting floodplain forests with the heavy seeded and rare trees that many birds prefer.

The researchers point out that restoring natural flood cycles may also be critical to restoring bottomland forests. Otherwise, bald cyprus and other water loving trees may be replaced by upland species.

"Ultimately, the diversity of flora and fauna in the floodplain may rely on preserving and restoring natural flood cycles to the river system," Gabbe said.

Fishing Restrictions Would Protect Turtles in the Chesapeake

The agency is seeking comment on its proposal to restrict the springtime use of a device that directs fish into traps known as pound nets. A pound net is a trap for catching fish, consisting of a system of nets staked upright in the water and a rectangular enclosure or "pound" from which escape is impossible.

Pound net fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay target bait fish, croaker, menhaden, mackerel and other fish species.

But the devices also entangle and drown endangered sea turtles in Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay during their spring migration. Sea turtles can become entangled in the leaders that direct fish into the pound nets.

The proposal would affect 11 fishers fishing in about 24 pound net sites in Virginia waters from May 8 through June 30. The fishers could continue to use pound nets as long as they have mesh smaller than 12 inches.

Sea turtles migrate north along the mid-Atlantic coast in the spring as water temperatures rise. During May and June when turtles migrate into Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay, it is becoming common to find dead turtles.

All sea turtles in U.S. waters are classified as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

During the spring of 2000 and 2001, many live and dead sea turtles were documented in pound net leaders along the Virginia shoreline.

Between 1995 and 2001, 958 threatened loggerhead turtles, 59 endangered Kemp's ridleys, 17 leatherbacks, one green turtle and 32 unidentified turtles were found on Virginia's shores in the month's of May and June. The majority of the dead turtles were juveniles.

The Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network documented 265 dead turtles on Virginia beaches in 2001.

A variety of other fisheries operate in the spring in the Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay and in nearby ocean waters. NMFS is studying these other fisheries to determine whether they are contributing to sea turtle mortality in May and June.

Alaska Fishers Charged with Dumping Oil

Both vessels are registered in Panama and are used for the shipment of frozen seafood to Asia.

Doo Hyon Kim, the captain of the motor vessel Khana, and its chief engineer In Ho Kim, were arrested in Anchorage on March 14 along with Min Gwen Go, the chief engineer of another motor vessel, Sohoh.

The three men were charged with falsifying oil record log books, obstructing a federal investigation and witness tampering regarding the alleged dumping of oil and sludge into ocean waters in and around Alaska.

In February, the U.S. Coast Guard detained the vessels in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for possible violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

During Coast Guard inspections, inspectors found oil laden bypass hoses on the two ships which they believed were used to circumvent on board oil water separators, required pollution control devices which prevent ships from discharging oil into the sea and thus prevent harm to fish and other aquatic life.

The defendants are charged with interfering with the investigation by telling crew members to lie to investigators about the bypass hoses and by maintaining false oil record books.

If convicted on all charges, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison and/or fines of up to $500,000.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Division, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Texas Landowners Protect Endangered Birds

The vireo and the warbler are small, colorful song birds that nest in central Texas in the spring and early summer and spend the rest of the year in Mexico and Central America.

In a ceremony last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the conservation group Environmental Defense honored the families as the first two landowners to enroll in Environmental Defense's Safe Harbor Program, which provides incentives for private landowners who try to make their property hospitable to endangered species.

"For too long in Texas the philosophy about endangered species on private lands has been 'Shoot, shovel and shut up,' " said Melinda Taylor, senior attorney for Environmental Defense. "The Safe Harbor program has created a new philosophy, and these two families have made a commitment to conservation that should be a model for landowners across the state."

The two landowners - Cal and Hobby Porcher from Somervell County and the Russell Family from Williamson County - have agreed to remove excess brush, exclude cattle from the bird's nesting areas, and plant oak trees, shrubs and other plants used by the birds for nesting and as food sources.

In return, the families will be covered by Environmental Defense's Safe Harbor permit. Issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the permit gives participating landowners the flexibility to manage their lands for endangered species for a set period of time, and then undo the habitat improvements in the future without incurring legal liability.

"The flexibility of this program made this a much easier decision," said Kerry Russell, one of the owners of the Russell Family Trust property in Williamson County. "We hope that by participating in the Safe Harbor Program we can demonstrate to other landowners that endangered species management can be compatible with good ranch management."

Representatives from Environmental Defense and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hope the Safe Harbor commitments will encourage similar action from other Texas landowners.

"Texas has an amazing amount of biodiversity, with more than 7,000 documented plant and vertebrate animal species," said David Wolfe, senior scientist for Environmental Defense. "Virtually all of that biodiversity occurs on private lands. This program illustrates that land acquisition is not our only option for conservation, and that private land owners, given an incentive, want to help preserve our environment."