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May 5, 2008

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Urge Border Governors to say NO to the Border Fence! 
The natural recovery of
Mexican black bears in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park would suffer a major setback if a fence is built on the U.S.-Mexico border.  The bear population on the US side is very small and dependent on bears being able to cross back and forth across from Mexico.  Photo courtesy Tom Bean.

A major disaster for wildlife and parks along the U.S.--Mexico border may soon become reality if concerned citizens can not rally enough support to stop the construction of 700 mile fence.  On April 1, for the fourth time in the past 2 years, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff used his authority to waive more than 30 environmental laws to expedite building 370 miles worth of new fencing along the U.S. Mexico border, including 57 miles of continuous wire mesh fencing and 21 miles of high-powered lighting from El Paso downstream along the Rio Grande.  Being faced with growing and unexpectedly fierce opposition, DHS is cutting every corner in an attempt to complete 700 miles worth of fencing before the Bush Administration is out of office.

More
 

National Park Service hires nearly 10,000 employees

Since its founding in 1916, the National Park Service has been dedicated to the preservation and management of the country’s outstanding natural, historical and recreational resources.  Today, the NPS encompasses more than 391 sites across the United States and in Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. 

Every year, millions of people visit our beloved national park areas.  To meet the needs of visitors and help manage and protect park resources, the NPS hires approximately 10,000 temporary and seasonal employees annually.  While temporary positions are available in a range of career fields, most jobs available are in the following categories: 

Some seasonal positions are advertised and filled centrally (call 1-888-279-9193).  Many others are advertised directly by NPS Human Resources Offices around the country.  Either way, all job openings can be found on http://www.usajobs.gov, the official job site for the United States Federal Government.  Just go to the site, click on Basic Search and type in “NPS” to find a complete listing of job opportunities and application procedures.  Hint: Check back often, as new positions open regularly.

Yellowstone Bison Update

May 1, 2008.
This week on the Yellowstone National Park's western  boundary, the largest buffalo slaughter since the 18th century continues, even after Montana governor Brian Schweitzer promised two weeks ago that no more buffalo would be killed this season. The Montana Department
of Livestock blatantly ignored the governor's statement, capturing
three bull buffalo at the Duck Creek trap on Monday and shipping them to slaughter without testing on Tuesday morning.

The continuation of the buffalo slaughter this week by the Department of Livestock adds insult to injury, with more than a third of the Yellowstone bison population having been eliminated since November, with no signs of stopping. The "historic announcement" issued by governor Schweitzer on April 17th, allowing buffalo more room to roam outside of the park boundaries, apparently has no merit along the
park's western boundary.

More

Rare leopards found in Siberia’s Kedrovaya Pad Reserve

April 25, 2008.  A camera trap in Kedrovaya Pad reserve has captured rare footage of one of the world’s most endangered cats.

Eight Far Eastern (Amur) Leopards were photographed in the reserve, located in the Primorsky Krai, during a census being conducted by WWF-Russia and the Institute for Sustainable Use of Nature Resources.

For Pavel Fomenko, coordinator of the biodiversity conservation program at the Armur branch of WWF-Russia, “the confirmed stability of the leopard population living in the territories of Kedrovaya Pad biosphere reserve and Barsovyi wildlife refuge warm our hearts and give hopes.”

“But this is only a small part of the leopard’s habitat in the southwest Primorsky. The remaining 70 per cent of leopard’s habitat are in precarious conditions.”

“The goal of utmost importance to create a unified federal protected area for the Far Eastern leopard has not yet been achieved in Primorsky”, said Fomenko.

Over the past years, scientists have been monitoring the rare cat’s plight using camera traps to develop effective measures to its conservation.

As tigers and leopards’ coloration is individual, the pictures are a way to compare and identify specimen. “The information we receive from camera traps can be processed through mathematic methods. So, by comparing the different photographs taken at different intervals, we can estimate the real number of leopards living in a certain area”, said Vladimir Aramilev, Head of the Institute for Sustainable Use of Nature Resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Loaded Guns in National Parks?

May 5, 2008. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been pushing hard to allow loaded guns in America’s national parks. At the NRA's behest, a number of Senators wrote to the Secretary of the Interior demanding that existing regulations requiring guns in parks to be unloaded and put away be overturned. Later Senator Coburn (R-OK) introduced an amendment to a public lands bill directing that the regulations be ignored.  Senator Coburn's tactic didn’t work, but intense, NRA orchestrated political pressure forced Interior Secretary Kempthorne to announce that the Administration will re-open the National Park Service's firearm safety regulations and put forward a new draft regulation on April 30, 2008. At that time, the public will be able to comment on what the Secretary has proposed.

More Information

Invasive Species Bill helps protect parks  

April 24, 2008.  ANN ARBOR, MICH.—The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition today applauded Congress for passing a bill to prevent aquatic invasive species from entering the Great Lakes and other U.S. waters.

“We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for passing a strong invasive species bill that protects our lakes, our national parks, our economy, our public health and our way of life,” said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association and co-chair of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “We urge the Senate to pass its bill and President Bush to sign into law these strong protections from invasive species, because the longer we wait, the problem will only get worse and more costly.”

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2007 (H.R. 2830) by a vote of 395 to 7.

Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) followed through on a commitment he made when he became chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure to pass strong ballast water legislation. Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), Ron Kind (D-Wisc.), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) were instrumental in adding key amendments to the bill.

All eyes are now on the U.S. Senate to pass the Coast Guard Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (S.1892). The two bills must then be reconciled in conference before heading to President Bush’s desk to be signed into law.

“We need the Senate and President to complete what the House started and finally shut the door on invasive species introduced through ballast water discharge,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. “If this effort sinks, all of our nation’s great waters will suffer devastating and irreversible damage.”

The Coast Guard bill contains provisions to stop the introduction of invasive species via ballast water discharge. The bill:

-Establishes for the first time strong ballast water treatment standards;
-Requires ballast water treatment technology on board commercial vessels in 2009 using an interim standard;
-Establishes an aggressive time line for new, stronger U.S. treatment standard starting in 2012; and
-Sets a national goal that ballast water discharged into U.S. waters contains no living organisms by 2015. 

“This bill contains the strong, national protections that people, businesses and cities have been seeking for years,” said Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes and co-chair of the Coalition. “It’s time that Congress and the President seal the deal, sign this bill into law, and provide the millions of people who rely on the Great Lakes and our nation’s other great waters with the security of knowing that we have finally slammed the door on invasive species introduced by ballast water.”

The 185 invasive species in the Great Lakes cost citizens, businesses and cities hundreds of millions of dollars per year. A new invasive species is discovered, on average, every 28 weeks.

The No. 1 pathway for invasive species like the zebra mussel to enter the Great Lakes is through ballast water discharge from ocean-going vessels. Such ships have introduced more than 70 percent of the non-native invaders since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959.

For more information visit
healthylakes.org

Free Wildlife DVD

Take action to help save Virunga National Park and the mountain gorillas and receive a free Favorite Wildlife Encounters DVD.    More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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