Birds acting blind when approached, dying by hundreds. Scientists don't know why.




Deon J. Hampton
Tue, June 22, 2021


Hundreds of birds are dying without explanation in parts of the South and Midwest.

Wildlife experts in at least six states and Washington, D.C., have reported an increase in sick or dying birds in the past month. The most commonly afflicted birds are blue jays, common grackles and European starlings.

“We’re experiencing an unusual amount of bird mortality this year,” said Kate Slankard, an avian biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “We have yet to figure out what the problem is. The condition seems to be pretty deadly.”

Symptoms include crusty or puffy eyes, neurological signs of seizures and an inability to stay balanced.

Experts said the birds have been behaving as if they are blind and exhibit other abnormalities, such as not flying away when people get close.

“They’ll just sit still, often kind of shaking,” Slankard said. “It’s pretty safe to say that hundreds of birds in the state have had this problem.”

In addition to Kentucky and D.C., Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia have reported similar deaths, officials said.

“We’re all working together as a multistate group to try to figure out what’s going on,” Slankard said. “Diagnosing these problems is complex because several rounds of lab tests must be done.”

Some theories about what's causing the birds to become sick and die include a widespread infectious disease, the cicada outbreak and pesticides, said Laura Kearns, a wildlife biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife. She said hundreds of birds have been found dead in the state.

Indiana wildlife officials said there have been suspicious deaths of blue jays, robins, northern cardinals and brown-headed cowbirds in five counties. James Brindle, spokesman for the state's Department of Natural Resources, said birds there have tested negative for avian influenza and West Nile virus.

The bird specimens from Kentucky were sent to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia for testing.

“This is probably a new issue,” Slankard said of what’s possibly causing the deaths.

In September, New Mexico wildlife experts said birds in the region were dropping dead at an alarming rate, potentially in the hundreds of thousands, NBC News reported.

Scientists were baffled by the deaths. Officials said they aren’t sure if the two events are related.

Wildlife experts are asking the public to report any suspicious bird deaths. They also urge bird lovers to remove their bird feeders since birds often exchange germs.

Bird feeders and baths should also be cleaned immediately with a 10 percent bleach solution, and people should avoid handling birds, officials said.

THIS IS GOOD ADVICE TO BE DONE REGULARLY 

(EVERY THREE MONTHS) OR AS REQUIRED DURING

NON INFECTION PERIODS 

Mystery illness strikes down birds across US south and midwest



Katharine Gammon

THE GUARDIAN
Thu, June 24, 2021, 


A mysterious illness is killing birds across several states in the south and midwestern US, and wildlife scientists are rushing to try to find the cause, with many victims suffering from crusty eyes, swollen faces and the inability to fly.

Wildlife managers in Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia first began receiving reports of sick and dying birds with eye swelling and crusty discharge, as well as neurological signs in late May, according to a statement from the US Geological Survey, which added: “No definitive cause of death is identified at this time.”

Related: Mass die-off of birds in south-western US 'caused by starvation'

In Kentucky, the department of fish and wildlife resources is asking the public to report encounters with sick and dead birds through a new online reporting system. They say the species affected thus far have included blue jays, common grackles and European starlings, but other species may also be affected. More than 20 samples have been sent out for testing.

In Ohio, the Ohio Wildlife Center posted on Facebook that it has been admitting songbirds with eye issues and is working with authorities to help determine what might be causing local birds to become sick. Indiana wildlife officials said they tested the birds for avian influenza and west Nile virus, and the samples came back negative.

According to the USGS, birds congregating at feeders and baths can transmit disease to one another. They recommend that people cease feeding birds until this mortality event has concluded, clean feeders and baths with a 10% bleach solution, and avoid handling birds.

While it’s not known if the mortality is linked to bird baths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in April about a salmonella outbreak linked to wild songbirds across several states. The outbreak killed eight people.

In this new disease outbreak, people report that the birds are behaving as though they are blind, and are not avoiding humans.

According to a report from NBC News, wildlife biologist Laura Kearns of the Ohio division of wildlife has expressed that infectious disease, pesticides and even the cicada outbreak are suspects. Even cicadas have been plagued this year, with their 17-year waiting period interrupted by a fungus that alters their behavior and causes part of their body to rot away.

Bird mortality events are not all that uncommon. Last year, hundreds of migratory birds dropped dead in New Mexico in a massive die-off. After analyzing samples and testing theories, the New Mexico department of game and fish eventually concluded that the birds had died from starvation and unexpectedly bad weather.

“Migrating birds entered New Mexico in poor body condition and some birds were already succumbing to starvation,” the agency wrote. “The unusual winter storm exacerbated conditions, likely causing birds to become disoriented and fly into objects and buildings. Some were struck by vehicles and many landed on the ground where cold temperatures, ice, snow and predators killed them.”

According to a 2007 study, mass mortality events are often tied to weather.

This new disease-fueled die-off comes at a time when birds are facing unprecedented challenges. The US has lost more than a quarter of bird populations in just the last 50 years, according to a 2019 study. The study authors write: “This loss of bird abundance signals an urgent need to address threats to avert future avifaunal collapse and associated loss of ecosystem integrity, function, and services.”

What’s next for grizzly bears in Idaho, surrounding states? Managers say it’s complicated



Rob Chaney
Wed, June 23, 2021, 5:00 AM·4 min read

To understand the “Interagency” in the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, consider Bear 863.

Also known as Felicia, Felicity or the Togwotee Sow, this female grizzly has been a roadside attraction on Highway 26 east of Grand Teton National Park for several years. This spring, so many tourists have stopped along the road to watch and photograph her that both the bear and people face safety risks.

But figuring out who can do what for whom isn’t obvious.

The confusion extends to social media. The website Change.org has gathered more than 40,000 petition signatures opposing presumed plans by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for “murdering this bear and her two cubs.” The “let bears be bears” petition added 12 signatures in the time it took to write the previous sentence.

“The bear hasn’t done anything wrong, but it’s so visible, it’s causing traffic jams and people are not behaving appropriately,” FWS Grizzly Recovery Coordinator Hilary Cooley said at last week’s IGBC summer meeting. “The problem has gotten bigger as more and more people are coming over the pass to the parks. It’s a multi-agency response.”

Wyoming Game and Fish Department bear managers have primary jurisdiction of wildlife at Togwotee Pass, but grizzlies have threatened status under the federal Endangered Species Act, which ropes in Cooley’s office. The Wyoming state agency has gotten help from a Yellowstone National Park bear hazing specialist who’s halfway through a 14-day attempt to discourage Bear 863 from the road corridor.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol does not have enough personnel to dedicate someone to all-day Togwotee Pass management, and Game and Fish wardens don’t have traffic violation jurisdiction. Grand Teton National Park as well as the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests also have personnel trying to help.

“If nothing happens on day 15, we won’t swoop in with traps,” Cooley said. “We’ll evaluate and see what happens next. People believe we’re going to move in and kill her. We have no plans to do that unless something drastic changes with her behavior.”

Expanding grizzly populations, burgeoning tourist activity and increasing conflicts with livestock producers this year have the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee rethinking its work plan for the coming years. For example, a new requirement by the Montana State Legislature ordering the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks to pre-approve relocation sites for captured grizzly bears will set off a complex series of conversations with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which shares oversight of wildlife in the Bitterroot Grizzly Recovery Area on the Montana-Idaho border.

Moving bears into those mountains would also involve the IGBC subcommittees of the Bitterroot, Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide recovery areas, each of which encompasses a half-dozen or more agencies.

“We know bears are coming to the Bitterroot,” Montana FWP Wildlife Division Manager Ken McDonald said. “Our goal is to get ahead of them for once.”

The Montana Legislature passed several grizzly-management laws and resolutions aimed at getting the bears removed from federal Endangered Species Act protection and reducing penalties for killing them, McDonald said.

FWP advisers warned that such moves might actually make the U.S. Department of Interior less likely to delist the grizzly, he added.

“That was pretty much dismissed, based on the track record of not getting delisting,” McDonald said. “It didn’t have much weight, which is a message for all of us.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tried twice, in 2007 and 2017, to delist grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem around the intersection of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. About 750 grizzlies inhabit that area, which includes 9,209 square miles of Yellowstone National Park, multiple national forests and private property.

Both efforts were rejected by federal court judges. And neither effort would have affected grizzlies in the other five recovery areas. The Northern Continental Divide Area has about 1,000 grizzlies, while the Cabinet-Yaak Area in northwest Montana and the Selkirk Area in northern Idaho each have about 50. The Bitterroot Area and North Cascades Area in Washington have no known resident grizzlies.

A recently completed review of grizzly recovery in the Lower 48 states found the bear needed to retain its ESA “threatened” status, in large part because of the struggling or non-existent populations in the smaller recovery areas, Cooley said.

“We have a new administration,” Cooley said, referring to the installation of new Department of Interior staff under President Joe Biden. “We’re still seeking guidance on what our next steps will be.”

Plants in deserts are dying off due to climate change ‘and nothing is replacing them’

THE GREAT DRYING LEADS TO THE GREAT DYING

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Tue, June 22, 2021

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has become less green as the years have gone by. (Getty)

Plants in California’s deserts are dying off due to climate change, and the land is being left bare, a new study has shown.

“Plants are dying, and nothing’s replacing them,” said Stijn Hantson, a project scientist in University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) Department of Earth System Science and lead author of the study.

The research shows how desert areas – where researchers had hoped plants might be more resilient – can be blighted by climate change.

Researchers used data from the Landsat satellite mission to measure vegetation in an area of nearly 5,000 square miles surrounding Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The researchers found that between 1984 and 2017, vegetation cover in desert ecosystems decreased overall by about 35%, with mountains seeing a 13% vegetation decline.

Watch: India's desert salt farmers feel the heat from climate change

Read more: Why economists worry that reversing climate change is hopeless

The decrease has been caused by rainfall which has varied from year to year, along with climbing temperatures caused by climate change.

The researchers had hoped that desert plants would stand a chance against climate change, as they come equipped with drought-tolerant features.

Read more: A 1988 warning about climate change was mostly right

The researchers say that the plants exist right on the edge of what’s habitable, so any environmental shift toward greater extremes is likely to be detrimental.

“They’re already on the brink,” Hantson said.

Landsat satellite imagery, Hantson says, is ideal for gauging vegetation cover shifts because it supplies spectral data for surface areas of about 90 square meters – fine enough to track changing spectral signal patterns across large study areas.

Read more: Melting snow in Himalayas drives growth of green sea slime visible from space

The data provide a sense of how “green” a landscape is and helped the UCI team discern shifts across the study’s 34-year time window.

Long-term plant monitoring is now underway in Anza-Borrego so that researchers can see what happens to vegetation cover as the years unfold.

Changes in plant communities can affect many things, from how well soils retain water to how much food there is for desert animals.

Supreme Court conservatives just 'undid one of César Chávez's greatest accomplishments'


Tim O'Donnell, Contributing Writer
Wed, June 23, 2021, 

Cesar Chavez
Civil rights activist

In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the Supreme Court struck down a California law that gave union organizers access to farm sites. The decision means people seeking out farm workers for unionization purposes going forward will be violating the property rights of agricultural landowners and food processors, who can now legally keep them off their land.

Critics lamented the result. Niko Bowie, a professor at Harvard Law, wrote that the regulation "was the product of a years-long campaign by César Chávez" and the United Farm Workers "to force agribusiness to respect the dignity and workplace rights of agricultural workers." Slate's Mark Joseph Stern agreed, tweeting that the high court's "conservative supermajority just undid one of César Chávez's greatest accomplishments." He called it "a complete and total blowout against unions" that marks "an incredibly dark day for organized labor."

Chief Justice John Roberts, who penned the majority opinion, said the regulation is "not germane to any benefit provided to agricultural employers or any risked posed to the public," while it "grants labor organizations a right to invade growers' property," which "constitutes a per se physical taking." Read more at The Los Angeles Times.

WATER IS LIFE

Enbridge’s Lake Pipeline Tunnel Faces Long Environmental Review




Enbridge’s Lake Pipeline Tunnel Faces Long Environmental Review


Robert Tuttle
Wed, June 23, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Enbridge Inc.’s embattled plan to build a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac for its Line 5 oil pipeline will need a more thorough review from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the latest setback for the project opposed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

The Army Corps said Wednesday that the project will require an environmental impact statement, which is lengthier than a simple environmental assessment. The EIS is appropriate because it could “significantly” affect the quality of the “human environment,” Jaime Pinkham, acting assistant secretary for the Army for Civil Works, said on the agency’s website.

The requirement is a victory for environmentalists and indigenous groups that now will gain more time to oppose Line 5. The Canadian pipeline giant is facing mounting opposition and hurdles for its two key projects to upgrade conduits that haul crude from the oil sands to U.S. refineries. They are crucial for producers in Alberta that have struggled for years with a shortage of export pipelines, and have seen projects such as TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL get scrapped.

The decision “will lead to a delay in the start of construction on this important project. Enbridge will continue to work with the USACE on its review of our application and towards a successful conclusion to this process which began when we filed our permit application in April 2020,” Calgary-based Enbridge said in a statement.

Earlier this month, more than 200 protesters were arrested in Minnesota after they clashed with law enforcement at a pump station for Enbridge’s Line 3, which the company is expanding.

For Line 5, Enbridge is seeking to construct a tunnel under the lake bed as it fights off an order from Whitmer to shut down the pipeline entirely. The governor says that the line is a threat to the Great Lakes, but Enbridge and the government of Canada argue that Line 5 is an essential conduit of light crude for refineries in the U.S. Midwest, as well Ontario and Quebec.

Last year, Whitmer revoked an easement for the line and ordered it shut by May 12, which Enbridge defied, arguing that the governor didn’t have the authority to shut the line. The dispute is currently before a federal judge and in court-ordered mediation.

The fight has soured relations between the U.S. and Canada months after President Joe Biden, a Whitmer ally, angered Canadians by revoking a permit to the build cross-border Keystone XL pipeline. While the Keystone decision was disappointing, the continued operation of Line 5 is “nonnegotiable,” Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan has said.

“Governor Whitmer stood with the people as she raised the alarm on the risks associated with the Line 5 pipeline,” Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and founder of the Bold Alliance, said in an email. “It is our hope Pres. Biden applies the same standard to reviewing and ending the KXL pipeline to other pipelines that are all risk and no reward.”

The Line 5 tunnel project received a permit in January from the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy. Other state and federal permits are still under regulatory review.

In both cases, Enbridge has argued that the pipeline upgrades will make the lines environmentally safer. Line 3 was built in the 1960s, and Line 5 in the 1950s.

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MNI WICONI  WATER IS LIFE
Racism, drought and history: Young Native Americans fight back as water disappears

FARMERS GROW FOR PROFIT GROW A DIFFERENT CROP HYDROPONICALLY AND RECYCLE THE WATER

Anita Chabria
Wed, June 23, 2021


A worker checks sprinklers on an onion field, part of the Klamath Project, a federal irrigation district in Oregon where tensions have mounted over water and imperiled fish. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)More

The Native Americans who have lived here for thousands of years say that a giant serpent once menaced them from the high-desert hills that surround Upper Klamath Lake, a marshy expanse of water north of the Oregon-California border.

It slithered down from remote crags to hunt people until the creator, G’mok’am’c, butchered it with an obsidian blade. He cast the pieces into the lake, where they became c'waam, a variety of suckerfish that can live up to 50 years and has become the ecological and religious heart for the tribes that call this place home. G'mok’am’c told the people that their fate was tied to the fish — if it perishes, so will they.

For decades, an agonizing war over a scarce resource — water — has divided Indigenous people and the descendants of settlers of this region, which like much of the American West, is now plagued by drought.

Family farmers often describe the conflict as one that pits them against federal bureaucrats who protect the suckerfish, imperiled as the lake grows more inhospitable. That portrayal, say members of the tribes, dismisses a tougher truth.

Just under the surface, they say, the real fight is about race, equity and generational trauma to a people whose history includes slaughter, forced removal of children, federal termination of their tribal status and loss of land — but not loss of the shared culture they hold sacred.

"Our water crisis still exists in part due to racism, and racism toward the tribes still exists in part due to our water crisis," said Joey Gentry, a tribal activist who moved back to the area three years ago after living in Portland.

Klamath tribal member and activist Joey Gentry surrounded by signs used in a recent demonstration in Klamath Falls. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

"I fear that I've been vocal, and somebody could be angry and take it out on me," she said. "I personally fear certain parts of town amongst certain types of people."

This year, the conflict is more intense than before, with a faction of far-right activists threatening to use force to take control of the irrigation gates that determine how much water stays in the lake, and how much goes to farm fields. The lake, about a hundred miles around, received little snow melt and is shallow enough to walk across in places. Later this summer, as in past years, it is likely to be too hot and toxic for the c'waam and another variety of federally protected suckerfish, the koptu, to spawn and survive.

To ward off extinction, federal regulators have cut off every drop that normally flows from the lake to fields — but are still providing huge pulses of water to help another protected variety of fish, a salmon, down river. Native Americans don't control the water but hold senior legal rights to it through a treaty that guarantees them the ability to hunt, gather and fish on the land of their ancestors. They've long argued that poor lake conditions are decimating the fish and their government-given rights.

With no irrigation water, farms are dying along with the near-ghost towns with names like Keno, Tulelake and Dairy, that surround them. Young people who once may have taken over family concerns are now looking elsewhere as their parents leave dry dirt unplanted. Those who inherited farms homesteaded generations ago are furious, and frightened.

On all sides of the debate this much is clear: There is no compromise to be found. This season, there will be winners and losers. Since the last water shut off two decades ago, global warming has worsened conditions, bringing the region to a breaking point — of climate, belonging and patience.

"There is just too many people and the water is not available for everybody," said Don Gentry, chairman of the Klamath Tribes and Joey's older brother. "It's just not there."

"Our water crisis still exists in part due to racism, and racism toward the Tribes still exists in part due to our water crisis."
Joey Gentry, a tribal activist

Tribal leaders long have discouraged calling out discrimination, in daily life and in water policy, for fear of making the situation worse, they said. They say they've faced increasing acrimony as they've successfully defended their water rights in federal courts.

"We've kind of kept to ourselves for a lot of years. That's probably been the safest thing to do," Don Gentry said.

When farmers last lost their water during the 2001 drought, the situation grew so ugly that the elder Gentry felt uncomfortable visiting Klamath Falls from Chiloquin, a rural area about 10 miles north, where many tribespeople live. A person spat upon one of the tribal leaders. When tribal members went into restaurants, they sometimes were not served water, he said.

A bumper sticker with a c'waam being urinated on appeared on vehicles, with the tag line, "Here's your water, sucker" and a group of men drove through Chiloquin firing weapons. For years, BB holes pocked the sign at the elementary school.

Recently, Gentry has seen signs of that era returning. A few weeks ago, a nonnative man with a gun pulled up to his grandson's car, he said, threatening him.

Klamath tribal member and activist Charlie Wright. 

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland arrives to testify before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on June 16. 

(Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag)

"We are so far out west in the Klamath Basin, it's so back in the old times ... like nothing ever changes," said Charlie Wright, a tribe member and receptionist at a health center.

For younger tribes members, the energy of Black Lives Matter has helped embolden them and led to a shift in tribal policy. While it once was taboo to go public with racial grievances, Wright this spring led one of the largest public actions in support of her people in decades — her first foray into activism.

Wright, who has three young sons, says the "ripple effect" of the civil rights movement sparked by George Floyd's death has reached the Klamath.

"I'm not going to put up with this for my kids," she said. "I don't want them to have to put up with this. It's bull crap."

Both Wright and Joey Gentry are cautious to note they are expressing personal opinions and not speaking for the tribes — which is forbidden under tribal law for anyone except leaders.

Tribal leaders are aware of the internal frustration and say they support what younger members are doing. Tribal leaders also understand what it means to have more support from Washington than they did under the previous administration.

President Biden appointed the first Native American secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, earning praise from California tribes. She recently supported dam removal in the Klamath region, saying it would "deliver environmental justice" and "fulfill the federal government's trust and treaty responsibilities"

Extreme anger

Highway 97 separates farmland from the Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon. The federal government has cut off annual water flows to family farms.

 (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

The Upper Klamath Lake feeds a vast web of federally built canals that sustain fields of alfalfa, onions, mint, potatoes and more on land the U.S. government provided to military veterans beginning after World War I. It's an area known as the Klamath Project, or just "the project" to locals, made up mostly of neat rectangular plots meant to provide sustenance for families of five on drained lakebeds.

Each year, at the southern end of the lake, a crane hoists six massive concrete gates weighing about 5,600 pounds each into the air, allowing water to gush through the complicated irrigation system. The water ultimately passes through wildlife refuges — providing sanctuary to water fowl such as pelicans and egrets that once thrived in the marshes — before returning what remains to the Klamath River many miles downstream. Courts have deemed that irrigators have a usufructuary right — a type of property right that allows use of something in the public domain — to the top six feet of water in the lake.

The project is a feat of engineering but also an illustration of the federal government promising more than nature can deliver. In past years — those wetter than the last two — the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has forged deals that please no one but kept a fragile stability for the people and entities with rights to the water.

Now, a red-striped circus tent sits ominously just feet from the concrete gates, set up by a far-right fringe aligned with anti-government activist Ammon Bundy, known for his conflicts with federal authorities, including the armed 2016 occupation of the Malheuer National Wildlife Refuge. Bundy has long preached that the federal government lacks the right to own or regulate public lands, a message that resonates with farmers who argue they were sold binding state water rights when they purchased their farms.

Many Native Americans see Bundy and his crowd as a threat. When Joey Gentry saw the tent go up, she remembers thinking it was the "end of all possible solutions," she said.

"You start bringing in white supremacy, militia, anti-government, extremist groups, there goes any hope for solutions," she said.

Dan Nielsen inside a circus tent he set up on land adjacent to a canal gate that controls water flowing into the irrigation canals of the federal Klamath Water Project. He is threatening to remove the steel plates that block the water's flow.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)More

One protest organizer, Dan Nielsen, is living in an RV at the site. Nielsen is a small-time farmer and truck broker who has little hope of getting water from the canals this year, but says he does have access to a crane to remove the gates if need be. The water, he says, is his by right and law — Nielsen was among those who set up a similar protest in 2001 dubbed "the bucket brigade" that drew about 18,000 participants.

In July of that year, activists broke into the head gates and turned the water on. They voluntarily left, under the watchful eye of federal marshals, after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York in September.

If force is required to take water again this year, said Nielsen, he is ready. He and another protester purchased the land they are occupying, giving them private property rights to be there.

"They illegally seized our water without due process of law, no court order, no nothing," Nielsen said standing inside the tent, lined with banners extolling the 5th Amendment of the Constitution. "The government promised [the tribes] water that's not theirs. The government doesn't have any water rights. ... That's just the federal government bullying the frickin' people."

On his cell phone, Nielsen has text messages between himself and Bundy, including the militant's promise to support the farmers.

Dread of Bundy's intervention has been a powerful bargaining chip with federal authorities.

"They fear Bundy," Nielsen said.

Last fall, Nielsen visited Bundy in Idaho and joined him when he stormed the state Capitol to protest coronavirus restrictions, Nielsen said. Afterwards, he spent the night at Bundy's house talking about the Klamath situation. In the morning, Bundy made him pork chops and eggs for breakfast while Bundy's wife taught Scripture to their children, he said. They talked about the need to educate people on Bundy's ideas. Most people, said Nielsen, are "like sheep. ... They don't even know what's going on. I mean, they are headed down the slaughter chute right now, getting ready to get their heads chopped off."

The visit left Nielsen convinced he had an ally in the renegade cowboy.

"He will stand up," said Nielsen.

Tulelake Irrigation District Manager Brad Kirby is known as "the bringer of doom" to constituents who often hear from him that water allocations are shrinking fast. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Pragmatic middle

Between the tribes and the people in the tent are the majority of Klamath Project farmers, anxious not just for this season, but their ability to hang on past it.

"It's scary," said Tulelake Irrigation District Manager Brad Kirby, who is known as the "bringer of doom" for often informing constituents just how little water will flow their way. "If there's no willingness — and a reasonable approach from the tribes in particular, to work with us right now — I don't know what happens to my own town."

Once considered the most thriving of local farm towns, with a bakery along the main drag and Jock's Supermarket on the corner, Tulelake feels abandoned. The family that owned Jock's sold out, and it's mostly a liquor store now, shelves stocked with Hamburger Helper and beer. Main Street is nearly empty of stores. The population has dropped to about 800 people.

Farmer Paul Crawford picks a healthy wheat stock from a friend's farm to show what a properly irrigated plant looks like. He has had to fallow some of his fields to conserve dwindling water rations. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Crawford prepares to run his hay bail retriever. 

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Paul Crawford is one of the few younger farmers to try to make a go of it. In 2011, he returned from an Army stint in Afghanistan and bought land from his best friend's dad — he now owns about 585 acres that he works with his wife and kids, Heston, 9, and Paisley, 7.

Recently, after a good year in 2016, he and his wife bought a white farmhouse with 40 acres of alfalfa out back and goats on the side. A new barn is being framed out, but he's not certain he'll still own the place by the time it's done. Only about 40% of his land is planted this year.

Like many farmers, he believes that federal fish science is flawed and unnecessarily holding back lake flows that should be used for fields. For years, despite keeping water in the lake, the sucker fish have not recovered. Neither have the downstream salmon. He thinks it's time to try a different approach.

"I feel like I'm not fighting a fish. I feel like I'm not fighting the tribe," he said. "I feel like I'm fighting bad science."

Crawford says he doesn't want violence and doesn't want Bundy in town, but recognizes the anger that led Nielsen to erect the tent. "Everyone's kind of backed into their own corner," he said.

Even moderates — those unwilling to take the law into their own hands — are frustrated by the tribes' hardline stance, and some accuse them of "playing the race card" in a bid for more political power.

"The problem is the attitudes have changed and it's not all about fish anymore," said Scott Seus, a third-generation farmer. "It's about retribution, it's about colonialism, it's about a whole bunch of things that are buzzwords right now in our society."

Council member Clayton Dumont, left, and tribal Chairman Don Gentry stand next to the Sprague River, which flows to Upper Klamath Lake. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Clayton Dumont, a tribal leader, said he understands the farmers are hurting and appreciates irrigation leaders who've tried to distance themselves from Bundy. But his sympathy goes only so far.

A few miles from the tribal headquarters, Dumont recounts some history of the tribes, including Native Americans hanged after waging warfare against white settlers to protest removal from their lands. Their leader, Kintpuash, was decapitated and his head sent to a medical museum.

The Klamath Tribes were also involuntarily subjected to the Termination Act of 1954, which eliminated their recognition as a tribe and turned their reservation over to the federal government, much of it becoming the Fremont-Winema National Forest.

Dumont's grandparents, plagued by alcoholism, sent his father to a brutal boarding school, he said, as the U.S. government attempted to pressure Native Americans into Western culture. The Tribes, he said, are working to overcome "generational disaster" that can't be separated from the fate of the lake or the sucker fish.

"Our memories are really long. You know, they talk about being fourth-generation farmers. I like to say we have gossip that's older than that," Dumont said. While he doesn't blame current farmers for past wrongs against Native Americans, he said the current fight is a continuation of "this struggle over that privilege that they don't believe they have."

"I don't think it's unreasonable to want to protect our home," he said. "I like to say every living thing protects its home."

The Gone Fishing complex is home to thousands of endangered sucker fish that will eventually be released back to the Upper Klamath Lake. 

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Elephants' 500km-trek across China baffles scientists

THEY ARE RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES!

A herd of endangered elephants in China has completely dumbfounded scientists globally

Suranjana Tewari - BBC News
Wed, June 23, 2021

Elephants are by nature fiercely intelligent beasts and experts who study them day in day out already know a great deal about them.

And yet a herd of endangered elephants in China has completely dumbfounded scientists globally, while captivating an entire nation in the process.

It's not unusual for elephants to move small distances. But this herd has been lumbering its way across China for more than a year now. The elephants have now strayed almost 500km (310 miles), a mammoth trek from their original habitat.


It's thought that they started their journey last spring from Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in the southwest of the country, near the border with Myanmar and Laos.

They began moving north and in the last few months, the elephants have popped up in a number of villages, towns and cities.

Map

They've been seen smashing down doors, raiding shops, "stealing" food, playing around in the mud, taking a bath in a canal and napping in the middle of a forest.

They've also been spotted hoovering up crops in their wake and moseying into people's houses - on one occasion, lining up in a courtyard to drink water, successfully turning on a tap with their trunks.

It is thought they have started to move south again, and were last spotted in Shijie - a town near the city of Yuxi.

It's unclear whether they are headed back, or why they even embarked on this journey in the first place - the farthest known movement by elephants in the country. Or what might come next.
Scientists baffled

"The truth is, no-one knows. It is almost certainly related to the need for resources - food, water, shelter - and this would make sense given the fact that, in most locations where Asian elephants live in the wild, there is an increase in human disturbances leading to habitat fragmentation, loss and resource reduction," Joshua Plotnik, assistant professor of elephant psychology at Hunter College, City University of New York, told the BBC.


The 500km elephant trek captivating China


China's trekking elephants take well deserved rest


Mr Plotnik added that the movement might have something to do with the social dynamics of the group.

Elephants are matriarchal with the oldest and wisest female leading the group of grandmothers, mothers and aunties along with their sons and daughters.

After puberty, males break off and travel alone or link up in groups with other males for a short time. They only congregate with females temporarily to mate before leaving again.

However, this herd set out as a group of 16 or 17 elephants, including three males.

Two males peeled off a month later, with one male moving away from the group earlier this month.

"It's not unusual, but I'm surprised he stayed that long. It was probably because of unfamiliar territory. When I saw them walking into a town or village, they were moving closely together - that's a sign of stress," said Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, professor and principal investigator at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden.

Elephants are closer in behaviour to humans than other mammals, experiencing a range of emotions like joy in birth, grief in death and anxiety in unfamiliar territory.

Researchers were also taken by surprise when two of the female elephants gave birth on the journey.

"Elephants are very habitual and very routine driven, it's unusual for them to move to new areas when they're about to give birth - they try to find the safest place they can," Lisa Olivier at Game Rangers International, a wildlife conservation organisation based in Zambia, told the BBC.

Drone pictures of the elephants sleeping went viral in China and around the world

Ms Olivier says the famous pictures of the elephants sleeping together are unusual too.

"Normally the babies are sleeping on the ground and the big ones lean against a tree or a termite mound. Because they're so big, that if there is any sort of threat it takes too long for them to get up and lying down puts a lot of pressure on their heart and lungs," she said.

"The fact that they were lying down suggests that they were all exhausted - totally wiped out - it all must be so new to them. So much of their communication is infrasonic sound - the vibration of their feet - but in the towns and cities they are hearing the sounds of vehicles."

Running out of space

Scientists are unanimous that this is not migration because it does not follow a fixed route.

However, China is one of the few places in the world where the elephant population is growing thanks to extensive conservation efforts.

China has cracked down hard on poaching and, as a result, the wild elephant population in Yunnan province has gone from 193 in the 1990s to about 300 today.


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But urbanisation and deforestation have reduced habitats for elephants and so, say experts, they could be looking for a new home with better access to food.

These giants of the jungle are mean eating machines, slaves to their gut, and so spend much of their lives looking for the 150 to 200kg of food they need every day.
Watched from the air

Experts are pleased the journey hasn't caused any dangerous confrontations with humans, and there are other positives.

The drones that authorities have deployed to monitor the elephants have given researchers a huge amount of quality information without disturbing the animals.

And provided an excited public with unforgettable photographs.

Ms Olivier also highlights the co-operation between government, local authorities and conservation projects to protect the herd.

China has deployed drones to monitor the elephants

In recent months, officials have been laying food bait and blocking roads with trucks to redirect the elephants to safety.

"I'm pleased that the approach is not very intrusive. A very common mistake is trying to tell elephants what they should be doing. Elephants aren't evolved to be told what to do. When we try to tell them what to do over long distances, it can create lots of aggressive behaviours," Mr Campos-Arceiz said.

Chinese media have been checking in on the group of elephants daily. And the herd has become a social media hit with internet users.

All the attention has increased awareness and sensitivity to the plight of the endangered elephants in the country, and the global interest is likely to have far-reaching effects.

"This attention and exposure will help conservation the world over," according to Ms Olivier.

Congo seizes gold worth $1.9 million in Okapi* wildlife reserve


FILE PHOTO: A general view shows miners at an artisanal gold mine near Kamituga

Hereward Holland
Tue, June 22, 2021

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese authorities have seized 31 kg of gold, worth around $1.9 million, in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the country's northeast, in a rare loss for smugglers who fraudulently bring tonnes of Congolese gold into the global market each year.

Lieutenant Jean de Dieu Musongela, head of the military prosecutor's office in Mambasa, said on Tuesday the gold came from Muchacha, which he described as a mine in the Okapi reserve.

Mining in the reserve - a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to okapi, forest elephants, and other endangered species - is illegal, but the Congolese mining registry shows Okapi covering a smaller area than on UNESCO's maps.

Three Congolese men were arrested, Musongela said, but another two men, who were Chinese, fled. The three suspects were taken to the provincial capital Bunia for further questioning.

"Not only are these people mining gold, they are also melting it," said Musongela, adding the authorities did not know the extent of the operation.

In a report last week, the United Nations Group of Experts on the Congo said Muchacha is on mining concession PE7657, owned by MCC Resources. The report said, citing photographic evidence, that members of the Congolese armed forces were on the Muchacha site, in contravention of Congolese law.

MCC Resources did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The mine is around 200km from the Ugandan border, through which most of the province's gold is smuggled, Danny Munsense Muteba, head of investigations at the Ituri mines ministry, said.

The UN experts, who have reported Kampala is a trading hub for smuggled gold from Ituri, said large-scale smuggling along this route continued in 2020.

Uganda's ministry of energy and mineral development did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Guillaume de Brier, a researcher at International Peace Information Service (IPIS), said estimates show Congo produced between 15 and 22 tonnes of gold last year, worth more than half a billion dollars, but levied just $72,000 of taxes.

"This means than 99% of the gold extracted in DRC is smuggled to neighboring countries," he said.

(Reporting by Hereward Holland and Helen Reid, Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema and Erikas Mwisi Kambale; Editing by Alison Williams and Barbara Lewis)

* THE OKAPI IS A CRYPTID FIRST DISCOVERED IN 1901 HAVING BEEN DISMISSED BY EARLIER WHITE IMPERIALIST EXPLORERS IN THE REGION

Okapi - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Okapi

The okapi also known as the forest giraffe, Congolese giraffe, or zebra giraffe, is an artiodactyl mammal that is endemic to the northeast Democratic Republic of ...

Species: O. johnstoni

Order: Artiodactyla

Genus: Okapia; Lankester‎, 1901‎

Phylum: Chordata

‎Etymology and taxonomy · ‎Characteristics · ‎Ecology and behaviour · ‎Status

A 600-foot 'garbage belt' has taken over a Chinese UNESCO world heritage site and is overwhelming local herders tasked with cleaning it up

Matthew Loh
Mon, June 21, 2021

Piles of garbage in northwest China's Hoh Xil nature reserve could threaten wildlife in the area, including the near-threatened Tibetan antelope. Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images


Garbage has piled up for years in spots around UNESCO World Heritage site Hoh Xil, reported The Economic Observer.


Hundreds of herders were made to clean up a particularly bad stretch of trash.


The garbage could endanger the 230 animal species in the area.


Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Huge piles of garbage threaten to destroy the Hoh Xil nature reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northwestern China, reported The Economic Observer on Sunday. The site, sometimes dubbed "The Third Pole," is the highest and largest plateau in the world.

One particularly ravaged spot is a 656-foot long and 65-ft wide 'garbage belt,' filled with anything from plastic, cans, and paint buckets to sheep and yak carcasses, said the Beijing-based newspaper.

The garbage belt runs along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, a national road used heavily by tourists and long-distance truckers.

Hundreds of local herders were called in by officials to aid with the clean-up, but are struggling to finish the job due to the sheer amount of trash, reported the South China Morning Post.

A local herder who was enlisted to help, Tsering Kunbu, told the Post that only around 200 people live in the area near the garbage belt and that the waste there has accumulated for years because there are no landfill sites nearby.

He added that petrol stations, restaurants, and car repair shops in Hoh Xil are also plagued with immense amounts of litter.

Independent geologist and explorer Yang Yong told the Post that the garbage situation in the area "has not improved for many years."

The swells of trash have raised concerns for wildlife in the nature reserve - a 32,000 square-mile area that hosts over 230 animal species, including the Tibetan antelope.

Li Junsheng, a deputy director of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, told The Global Times that the garbage could poison animals and humans and pollute water in the region.

He called for laws that regulate human activity in the region to be amended and published as soon as possible.

Hoh Xil's frigid climate sees sub-zero temperatures all year round, which can reach as low as -49°F (-45°C).

The reserve, which is mostly uninhabitable, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2017.

It's part of China's first national park, the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve, which covers 47,500 square miles in total.

Read the original article on Insider

Carbon tax ‘risk’ already driving down emissions, San Francisco Fed says

Abby Smith

WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Tue, June 22, 2021

SINCE IT IS THE RIGHT WING EXAMINER THE IDEOLOGICAL SUBTEXT HERE IS

NO NEED FOR A CARBON TAX, THE THREAT IS ENOUGH


The prospect of a carbon tax being enacted in the next year is already driving companies to make decisions that reduce overall capital and emissions, even before the fee is in place.

“Our findings suggest that the risk of the United States adopting a climate policy in the future causes businesses to shift current investment to less carbon-intensive capital and reduce overall investment,” wrote a group of researchers in a report released Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

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SAID YEARS BEFORE HE JOINED TRUMP INC.

                                      CARBON TAX IS ALREADY PRICED IN AT $50 


“This response leads to lower emissions, even though no actual climate policy is in place,” the researchers add. The report was authored by Stephie Fried, senior economist with the San Francisco Fed; Kevin Novan, associate professor at the University of California, Davis; and William Peterman, chief of the Federal Reserve’s fiscal analysis section in research and statistics.

In their report, the researchers found that a 10% chance of the U.S. government adopting a $45-per-ton carbon tax in the next year prompts one-tenth of the emissions reductions the bank would expect to see if the actual carbon fee was enacted.

Similar to enacting a carbon tax, the risk of such a fee on emissions puts pressure on companies to shift their investments toward cleaner energy and away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels, according to the researchers. Such a risk also leads to a decrease in total capital, which drives down emissions.

In fact, the researchers find that the risk of climate policy drives a larger decrease in total capital and output than the actual enactment of a carbon fee. “This makes climate policy risk a relatively costly way to reduce emissions,” the report notes.

The researchers also note the effects of climate policy risk on business decisions and emissions will grow as the odds that governments will impose climate policy, such as a carbon tax, increase over time.