• Studies of Soot Pollution Were Flawed
  
• Greenpeace Maps Potential Chemical Catastrophes
  
• Gulf Sturgeon Could Get Huge Critical Habitat
  
• Diverse Plant Communities Resist Invasion
  
• Exotic Insect Prefers Native Plants
  
• Turtles Could Move From Threatened to Endangered
  
• Snowmobiles Stress Out Elk, Wolves
  
• Oceana Nets Comments Favoring Ocean Protection
  

Studies of Soot Pollution Were Flawed

Earlier this week, scientists at Johns Hopkins University revealed that the computer program they used to analyze their data regarding the potential health effects of exposure to small particle pollution contained a glitch that caused the researchers to report an inflated risk of death from breathing sooty air.

Using a corrected program to review their own data, the Johns Hopkins researchers now say the increased risk of death from breathing tiny pollution particles is about 0.2 percent - about half what they first reported in June 2000.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is now preparing new regulations to limit emissions of fine particles by diesel engines and power plants, says the error could delay the release of the new rules.

While the Johns Hopkins study is just one of dozens to link fine particle pollution to health problems, several of these studies used the same software to estimate health risks.

EPA spokesperson Joe Martyak said the agency is still analyzing the effects that the flawed studies may have on proposed new emissions rules. Scientists on the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee are expected to review the findings next month, Martyak said

Bill Buff, a spokesperson for the Diesel Technology Forum, said "correcting this error may dramatically revise the scientific community's understanding of [particulate matter's] effect on humans." Tailpipe emissions from diesel engines are often cited as a major source of fine particle or particulate matter pollution.

The Johns Hopkins researchers have posted information about their revised findings at: http://biosun01.biostat.jhsph.edu/~fdominic/research.html

Greenpeace Maps Potential Chemical Catastrophes

The maps reflect what would happen in these metropolitan areas if terrorists attacked nearby chemical plants, or if the plants had accidents. The maps are based on reports submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by each company as required by the Clean Air Act.

Greenpeace gave advance copies of the maps to the EPA's Office of Homeland Security in April. The environmental group is pushing for the EPA to adopt measures to require chemical plants to switch to safer chemicals.

"Strong leadership from Capitol Hill and the White House can prevent the kinds of disasters forewarned in these worst-case scenario maps," said Rick Hind, Greenpeace toxics legislative director. "These maps should be a wake up call to industry and government that chemical plants are ticking time bombs in the midst of large residential areas."

Greenpeace has created a map of the Kuehne plant in South Kearny, New Jersey, located within five miles of New York City. The second map covers the Dupont chemical plant in Deepwater, New Jersey, a few miles from Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A second Dupont chemical plant in Edgemore, Delaware, a few miles from Wilmington and Philadelphia, is the focus of the third map, and the Condea Vista plant in Baltimore, Maryland is featured in the fourth map.

On May 30, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that the chemical industry is opposed to sharing information with the public about the threats posed by chemical plants.

"Citizens have a right to know if they are prime terrorist targets because their homes and schools happen to be located inside chemical kill zones," said Hind. "Only by being aware of unnecessary chemical hazards, such as chlorine, can communities demand the use of widely available safe alternatives."

A bill (S1602) introduced by Senator Jon Corzine, a New Jersey Democrat, would require chemical plants to evaluate safer alternatives or show why they cannot use them. The EPA is working on regulations that would have a similar effect.

The Department of Justice is now preparing a report, now almost two years overdue, on chemical facility vulnerability to terrorism.

More information is available from Greenpeace at: http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/features/chemical_terrortext.htm

Gulf Sturgeon Could Get Huge Critical Habitat

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are consider designating critical habitat for the Gulf sturgeon along portions of rivers, estuaries, and marine coastline in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

"This proposed critical habitat designation will provide non-regulatory benefits to the Gulf sturgeon by informing the public of areas that are important to the species recovery and identifying where conservation actions would be most effective," said Sam Hamilton, southeast regional director for the USFWS.

The agencies were ordered to propose critical habitat by a federal court in Louisiana in a lawsuit brought by conservation groups. The same court order requires a final critical habitat determination by February 28, 2003.

The agencies' proposal includes portions of the Pearl and Bogue Chitto Rivers in Louisiana and Mississippi; Pascagoula, Leaf, Bowie, Big Black Creek and Chickasawhay Rivers in Mississippi; Escambia, Conecuh and Sepulga Rivers in Alabama and Florida; Yellow, Blackwater and Shoal Rivers in Alabama and Florida; Choctawhatchee and Pea Rivers in Florida and Alabama; Apalachicola and Brothers Rivers in Florida; and Suwannee and Withlacoochee River in Florida.

The proposal also includes portions of several estuaries and bays, including the Mississippi Sound, Apalachicola, Choctawhatchee and Pensacola bays in Florida, and Suwannee Sound and adjacent state waters within the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.

The proposed critical habitat area covers about 1,580 river miles and 2,333 square miles of estuarine and marine habitat.

"This critical habitat designation incorporates both historic and recent data to best describe areas occupied and utilized by the Gulf sturgeon," said Georgia Cranmore, assistant administrator for NMFS southeast region. "We continue to work with the latest information and just incorporated a May 2002 sighting into the proposed rule."

More information about the Gulf sturgeon is available at: http://alabama.fws.gov/gs/

The agencies will accept comments on the proposal until September 23 by Fax: 850-763-2177 or Email: gulfsturgeon@fws.gov

Diverse Plant Communities Resist Invasion

Exotic species have invaded ecosystems ranging from lawns and farms to prairies and oceans. Recent invaders of North America include zebra mussels, purple loosestrife and Eurasian watermilfoil.

In 1958, British ecologist Charles Elton hypothesized that communities with diverse arrays of organisms were better equipped to resist invaders. Now, a study at the University of Minnesota has confirmed the connection between biodiversity and resistance to ecological invasion in a prairie ecosystem.

Elton published a 1958 book on invasions of exotic species in which he proposed his idea, which is known as the Diversity-Resistance Hypothesis. Since then, many scientists have explored the hypothesis, said Theodore Kennedy, a graduate student in ecology and lead author of a report appearing in today's issue of the journal "Nature."

"Researchers studying sedentary marine invertebrates have found that diverse communities make more complete use of the limited space available to them, and this leaves invaders with no place to settle," said Kennedy. "But the mechanism by which diverse plant communities keep out newcomers was previously unknown."

Kennedy and his colleagues asked whether land supporting large numbers of prairie plant species would do a better job of excluding plants of Eurasian origin. They studied 147 square plots of land, each three meters on a side, at the university's Cedar Creek Natural History Area near the Twin Cities.

The plots contained varying numbers of native grassland plant species. The researchers monitored how many Eurasian invaders cropped up in each plot.

The team found that the total number of invading weeds, the number of large individual weeds, and the total amount of ground covered by weeds all decreased as the number of resident, native plant species increased.

"We found the neighborhoods of weeds were more crowded in the plots with high species diversity," Kennedy said. "We think that in addition to a lack of space, there are fewer other resources available to invaders in crowded neighborhoods. That is, when you pack more plants into a small area, you'll have more complete utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus, water, light, and other resources that will thereby limit the success of invaders."

The findings imply that losses of biodiversity could also mean loss of local resistance to invasion by species that are no longer kept out by geographical or other barriers, the researchers said. Restoration and revegetation efforts would benefit from establishing as diverse a plant community as possible.

Diverse communities should require less maintenance and monitoring because, the researchers write, "they are generally very effective at excluding undesirable invaders."

Exotic Insect Prefers Native Plants

Releasing non-native insects to control non-native plants - a technique known as biocontrol - is an increasingly common tactic that advocates claim is safe for native species. But examples of biocontrol species that have become invaders themselves are also on the rise.

A weevil from Eurasia is being released in the western U.S to control Canada thistle - despite its name, the plant is also from Europe - an aggressive weed that may threaten large areas of range and crop land.

The weevil damages thistles in two ways: the adults eat the leaves and the larvae eat developing flowers and seeds. Since a 1990 study suggested that the weevil preferred Canada thistle to native ones, the weevil has been released throughout the U.S., particularly in western national parks, forests and monuments.

But a new study by Svata Louda of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and Charles O'Brien of Florida A & M University in Tallahassee found that the weevil feeds equally on Canada and native thistles in laboratory tests, and may prefer native thistles in the wild.

The Eurasian weevils on a thistle head. (Photo courtesy Conservation Biology)

Louda and O'Brien discovered that the weevil feeds the native Tracy's thistle, an uncommon species found in western Colorado and eastern Utah. In 1992 and 1993, the U.S. Forest Service released the weevil on the edge of Gunnison National Forest, near Almont, Colorado.

In 1999, the researchers found the weevil after collecting 30 Tracy's thistle flower heads from a roadside stand near the weevil release site. In 2000, the researchers double checked their find by collecting 185 Tracy's thistle flower heads from the same stand and 166 from another stand that was further away, as well as 375 Canada thistle flower heads from three nearby stands.

Louda and O'Brien found that the weevil fed "extensively" on Tracy's thistle. More than 75 percent of the flower heads they collected either contained weevil larvae or had signs of larval damage.

The weevil reduced the seeds in infested flower heads by 98 percent. Infested flower heads produced about one viable seed each while undamaged flower heads produced about 45 seeds each.

The researchers also found that the weevil had little effect on the non-native thistle it was supposed to control. There was no evidence of weevil feeding in any of the three stands of Canada thistle they studied, even though the Canada thistle is the more common species in the study area.

Louda and O'Brien call for reevaluating the release of non-native insects to control non-native weeds in natural areas.

"Current practices involving such introductions of exotic insects into nature reserves and national parks rely on incomplete assessments of ecological risk," they warn.

Turtles Could Move From Threatened to Endangered

Responding to a petition filed by environmental organizations, NMFS determined there is enough new scientific evidence to warrant a "review of the status of the species" to ascertain whether northern and Florida panhandle populations of loggerheads warrant the listing change and a critical habitat designation.

The Turtle Island Restoration Network, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service to reclassify the two loggerhead populations from threatened to endangered in January 2002. When the agency failed to act within the required 90 day period, the organizations filed a notice of intent to sue, after which the agency announced its determination that a review was warranted.

The finding begins a detailed review, including a public comment period, with a final determination to occur within one year or less.

The petition by the environmental groups argues that the northern population, stretching from North Carolina south to northeast Florida, and the Florida panhandle nesting population, found at Eglin Air Force Base and beaches near Panama City, Florida, are distinct from other populations. If their numbers continue to decline, the populations will disappear, regardless of the status of other loggerhead populations, the petition states.

The petition is available at: http://www.seaturtles.org/pdf/ACF82E.PDF

"Like salmon, loggerhead sea turtles return to their natal birth sites to nest and have thus evolved distinct genetic and behavioral traits," said Todd Steiner, director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. "Unfortunately, the government has not taken the necessary actions to protect these distinct populations, which are necessary to recover the species and are required under law."

"History and new genetic data show that when one of these populations go extinct, it can take 10,000 or more years for a population to re-colonize," Steiner added. "We are confident that we have presented the necessary data to reach one and only one conclusion, that these populations are clearly in danger of extinction and deserve the highest status of protection."

Sea turtles are threatened by commercial fishing, coastal development on nesting beaches, marine pollution and dredging activities. A 1990 National Academy of Sciences study found that in coastal waters "the most important human associated source of mortality is incidental capture in shrimp trawls, which accounts for more deaths than all other human activities combined."

"The plight of the northern loggerheads has been known for years," said Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Hopefully the agencies responsible for protecting this species will now move quicker to protect these majestic creatures."

Snowmobiles Stress Out Elk, Wolves

Snowmobile lovers say the noisy machines do not harm wildlife, but many conservationists fear they do. Until now, however, there has been little solid evidence for either side.

"Elk and wolves show physiological stress responses to snowmobiles and that the response is stronger when the intensity of snowmobile use is heavier," said Scott Creel of Montana State University in Bozeman, who presented the research with five co-authors in the June issue of the journal "Conservation Biology."

The annual number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park has increased about 25 times since the mid-1960s. In 1997, the Fund for Animals sued the National Park Service over snowmobile use, and in 2002 the Department of the Interior decided to ban snowmobiles from most national parks by the winter of 2003-2004.

When the ban was challenged in a lawsuit by the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association, the Bush administration lifted the ban and began to consider new compromises.

To help resolve the debate over whether snowmobiles harm wildlife, Creel and his colleagues measured glucocorticoids - hormones released during stress - in the feces of elk and wolves in several national parks. When elevated over a long period of time, glucocorticoids can reduce the ability of animals to reproduce and survive during difficult times.

The researchers collected fecal samples near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park during the snowmobile season and right afterwards, when wheeled vehicles use roads in the park. The researchers collected wolf fecal samples from three national parks: Voyageurs, where snowmobiles are common; Isle Royale, which is closed to public during the winter and so has no snowmobiles; and Yellowstone's northern range, which is closed to snowmobiles but open to wheeled vehicles.

After accounting for snow depth and age, Creel and his colleagues found that elk glucocorticoids were higher when snowmobile use was higher. The results also suggested that elk glucocorticoids were higher when snowmobiles were present than when wheeled vehicles were present.

The researchers also found that wolf glucocorticoids were higher in Voyageurs, which has snowmobiles, than in Isle Royale, which does not. The stress hormone increase paralleled the intensity of snowmobiling: wolf glucocorticoid levels increased by almost a third in 2000, when snowmobile use was light, and doubled in 1999, when snowmobile use was heavy.

Wolf glucocorticoids were intermediate in the Yellowstone area that was snowmobile free but had wheeled vehicles.

Creel and his colleagues found no evidence that current levels of snowmobile use are harming the populations of elk or wolves studied - both are stable. However, they caution that their results do not mean that snowmobile use in national parks is benign.

"The populations we studied apparently can compensate for the current level of stress, under current ecological conditions, but the physiological effect is there to be seen," said Creel. "The question facing managers will be to evaluate how much weight to place on data related to stress. Managers might decide to rely on simple changes in population size, birth and death rates, or the glucocorticoid data could be treated as an early warning signal."

More information of the Park Service's plans to limit snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks is available at: http://www.nps.gov/grte/winteruse/seis/vol1.htm

Oceana Nets Comments Favoring Ocean Protection

Oceana, a new international ocean protection group, submitted the first installment of 60,000 public comments demanding that the federal government enforce current laws designed to halt the destruction of ocean life.

In February 2000, Oceana filed a petition calling on NMFS to implement a program that would count, cap and control wasteful bycatch in U.S. fisheries and fulfill its responsibilities under current laws. Oceana petitioned the agency after releasing a report that estimated that about 25 percent of the world's catch of fish is wasted. NMFS will collect comments related to Oceana's petition through June 17.

"The unprecedented number of comments demonstrates that the public believes that our oceans, and our coastal economies and communities, are at risk from the wanton loss of marine life," said Carolyn Hartmann, Oceana's vice president for policy. "The government needs to act now."

Carolyn Hartmann, Oceana's vice president for policy, delivers more than 60,000 public comment letters draped in a fishing net to NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher. (Photo by Heather Weiner, Medialink Photography)

Industrial fishing operations use vast fishing nets that strangle, drown and crush billions of other fish, sea turtles, whales, dolphins and other marine species. Other fishing gears, such as bottom trawls, bulldoze the ocean floor, scraping up everything in their path.

In U.S. waters each year, more than three billion pounds of fish are caught and discarded, about one pound of fish wasted for every four pounds kept. Last year, the U.S. government admitted that 31 fish species in U.S. fisheries are on the brink of commercial extinction, and about 40 percent of all U.S. fisheries are being overfished.

On the East Coast, less than two percent of fishing trips carry scientific observers required to record data on bycatch.

Oceana delivered comments collected through the group's website: http://www.OceansAtRisk.com. Oceana would have preferred to save the reams of paper, but NMFS did not accept e-mail comments for this public comment request.

"We are grateful to Vice Admiral Lautenbacher for accepting the comments in person and for allowing the public to weigh in on this important environmental issue," Hartmann said. "We look forward to working with him in the future to find solutions to the needless waste of marine life and expect the agency to do more to protect oceans."

In the next few weeks, U.S. Congressional committees are planning to vote on bills to amend the nation's principal ocean fish management law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Last month, a House Subcommittee voted on legislation that weakens current law, blocking efforts to rebuild U.S. fisheries to sustainable levels.