 Legislation
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The Greater Sage Grouse, which is the subject of a rider on the pending 2018 Appropriations Bill.
Photo: Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management
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80 Riders Still Holding On
This week Congress must AGAIN act to continue to fund the government -- the latest stopgap spending bill is set to expire on Friday. In an attempt to "legislate through appropriations," Republicans have loaded the bill with lots of special carve-outs and exemptions of environmental laws and regulations, called "riders" that have the effect of loosening the environmental laws without passing full-fledged amendments. Generally, in order to get enough votes to pass an appropriations bill, all such "riders" are stripped out because they cause controversy and cost more votes than they gain. Currently, E & E Daily reports that 80 riders are still attached to the bill -- an extraordinary number.
The Republican leadership seems willing to let some riders go through. The most troubling provisions:
- Break the hard-won compromise on protecting habitat for the Greater Sage Grouse in order to keep it from being listed as endangered;
- Permanently kill two regulations controlling methane gas emissions -- one from new wells, and the other from existing wells, and the health-based ozone standard;
- Permanently kill the Waters of the U.S. regulation under the Clean Water Act;
- Allow logging of old growth timber in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska;
- Roll back a rule protecting certain public lands from logging and other development by prohibiting the building of roads in these areas; and
- Provides funds to raise Shasta Dam in California over and above the federal share required and despite opposition from the State of California.
Democrats are hoping to get funding restored to several agencies that are being slashed, such as NOAA, which would be hit with a spending cut of 20%.
Why This Matters: Legislating on appropriations bills is never good for conservation. Trading lowering environmental standards in exchange for restoring funding to environmental agencies also seems like a bad idea. But the Republicans hold all the cards - so even that may be impossible. Presumably, they will get this done and avoid another shutdown. And then maybe -- weeks later -- we will even find out what's in the law. Of course, all of this horse-trading is done in total secret -- so there is no way to know which riders are still hanging on -- unless perhaps you are an industry lobbyist.
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 Energy
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Photovoltaic panels on the new one-megawatt power plant, meters from Chernobyl's exploded nuclear reactor Photo: AFP/Getty Images
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The Sun Shines on Chernobyl's Devasted Land
Chernobyl, Ukraine isn't a likely place for a brand new renewable energy project but as Time reported, Solar Chernobyl SPP is at the vanguard of the latest experiment to give a place synonymous with catastrophe a new life after previous efforts failed. Ukraine wants to boost solar, hydro, wind, biomass and biogas output to 11 percent of power generation by 2020, said Yulia Kovaliv, the head of Ukraine’s National Investment Council.
With a cumulative capacity of around 1.2 gigawatts of solar power by the end of 2017, Ukraine already is a “significant player” at par with European counties such as Austria, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Evans.
The idea to install a solar farm in Chernobyl began in 2016 after Solar Chernobyl, which already has a 4.2-megawatt site at the edge of the zone in neighboring Belarus, first began inquiring about operating there and started working through the Ukrainian government's notorious red tape. The government has seen the opportunity and has made it easier for solar projects like this to get off the ground. Since the land around Chernobyl isn't useful for much else, installing solar farms there makes more sense than removing existing farmland for their placement.
“The sun in Ukraine is as good as anything in Florida, Louisiana or Texas or southern California,” said Michael Yurkovich, the president of Calgary-based Refraction Asset Management, which owns the solar-panel installer.
Why This Matters: This matters to me (Miro) personally because I immigrated to America as a child after getting sick from Chernobyl-related contamination in Ukraine. This is a chance for my struggling home country to gain energy independence but it's also a symbolic victory that something good for our planet can come from such a tragedy. Especially in light of on-going natural gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine, increased solar capacity in Ukraine grants the nation energy autonomy without expensive geopolitical games.
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 People
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Native American Tribes Band Together To Restore Protections for Bears Ears
Native American tribes that banded together to petition for the formation of Bears Ears National Monument are getting together once again to call for the restoration of its protected status once again. Members of the Navajo Nation, Hopi, Zuni and Ute Mountain tribes met last Sunday near the site to share their stories of why the monument is important cultural and historical place after the Trump administration recently stripped some of its federal protections. The event was organized by Utah Diné Bikéyah, a nonprofit organization working to safeguard Bears Ears and other ancestral lands.
Bears Ears is home to thousands of Native American archaeological and cultural sites and before it was given federal protection tribes battled the rampant looting of artifacts that was happening. The monument is even home to dinosaur fossils that are helping scientists learn more about ancient ecosystems that existed in America. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has said that shrinking the monument is "an attack on the United States’ public lands and is stripping parts of, I would say, people’s souls, because the Native American population here is so connected with that."
Why This Matters: The federal government's treatment of native land has been a dark stain on American history and the will of tribes is still being ignored. In places like Washington State, Native American tribes are also battling to have their treaty rights enforced and halt fossil fuel development on sacred lands (we've also seen similar tribal resistance at Standing Rock to the Dakota Access Pipeline). What tribes are saying unequivocally is that the federal government isn't adequately consulting with them or taking seriously their apprehension to drilling and mining projects. Interior Sectrary Ryan Zinke said “all sides were represented” in his recommendation to President Trump to shrink Bears Ears but reports note that he met with tribes for a mere hour.
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 Oceans
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A sea star, an octopus, bivalves, and several individuals of the cup coral, Desmophyllum, are found in NE Canyons and Seamounts Monument Photo: NOAA
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Atlantic Ocean Monument Lawsuit Back ON Again
For more than a year, a lawsuit filed by New England fishermen challenging the creation of the first national "monument" in the Atlantic Ocean has been dormant. The judge put the case on hold after President Trump announced a review last year of this and several other monuments created by previous Presidents. But with no action imminent from the Trump Administration, E & E Daily reports that the judge decided to let the case move forward. The monument designation by President Obama prohibited certain types of fishing inside the monument borders, but allowed a lengthy transition for fishermen, and allowed recreational fishing to continue. Fishermen nevertheless challenged the monument designation as usurping the area from future fishing. The monument designation also prohibits oil and gas drilling inside its boundaries.
The first of its kind in the Atlantic, the monument, protects 4,913 square miles of marine habitat with unique geological features that have been the subject of scientific exploration and discovery since the 1970s. These features include three underwater canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon, and four underwater mountains known as “seamounts” that are biodiversity hotspots and home to many rare and endangered species. Scientific expeditions to this region have yielded new discoveries including species of coral found nowhere else on Earth and other rare fish and invertebrates. Additionally, the canyons and seamounts provide habitat for protected species such as sea turtles and marine mammals, including endangered sperm, fin, and sei whales and Kemp’s ridley turtles.
Why This Matters: Overfishing in New England has been a perennial problem. The pristine areas protected by this monument are not prime fishing spots, as the map below shows. But the fishermen believe that they should have the right to fish everywhere and they are willing to go to court to protect it, even though virtually the entire U.S. ocean territory is open to fishing. The same arguments were made when the Grand Canyon and other national parks were designated as monuments. But if we had not saved them, think what we would have lost.
To Go Deeper into the Monument: You can read the Fact Sheet about it here.
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This image shows the monument boundaries and the relatively light fishing activity occurring inside the monument. Each dot represents fishing activity. Photo: Global Fishing Watch
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 Animal Babies
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Update: New Eaglets Arrive!
The Earth Conservation Corps is Pleased to Announce the Birth of a New Baby Eagle!
ECC3 was born on Saturday, March 17 at 7:00 a.m.
ECC4 has "pipped" (started to break out of its shell) but not popped out as of our writing -- it's expected to emerge within the next 24 hours.
The babies were born at home, in this nest that Mom and Dad, named Liberty and Justice, have inhabited since 2004, high in a tree above the D.C. Metropolitan Police Academy. All are doing fine -- as you can see!
Why This Matters: These eagles are remarkable -- a huge conservation success story for the region and for our nation. It would not have been possible without the law that protects these magnificent creatures: the Endangered Species Act. Congress is busy trying to weaken the Act now, through amending the law, through special language in the omnibus appropriations bill exempting certain activities from being covered by the law, and through deep budget cuts to the Fish and Wildlife Service that implements the Act.
To See Live Pictures of Mother and Eaglets: Click here.
To Watch Video of the new baby EEC3: Click here.
To Learn More About These Eagles, visit the Earth Conservation Corps Website here.
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A feeding -- that's mom's beak sharing some food -- with new Eaglet ECC3.
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Animals
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Things Are Getting Un-Bearable in Lake Tahoe
Black bears in Lake Tahoe have mostly reached their carrying capacity as a species and because of readily available human food at ski resorts and from garbage bins, they are able to feed themselves with little difficulty. The bears, however, have moved on from breaking into dumpsters (after they started becoming secured by people) and have become adept burglars, even breaking into people's homes while they're home. Biologists say that mother bears appear to be teaching their cubs the burglary skills, ensuring the break-ins will continue year after year.
This has become a problem with some residents advocating for the removal or euthanization of persistently nuisance bears and others advocating for bears' right at all costs. As the SacBee reported, bear activists have been known to hold vigils when bears die, and they furiously lash out against those who kill them. Homeowners, on the other hand, say that if they were to allow a local government bear trapper on their properties, they’d be harassed at home or at their businesses. Death threats and vandalism are real risks, they say.
Relocation of bears doesn't work very well because they have been conditioned to crave people food and tend to make their way back to populous areas. Biologists have tried chasing problem bears with dogs and shooting them with rubber bullets in an attempt to condition the bears with associating human food with fear. Unfortunately, it seems to work best with younger bears just discovering people food whereas older bears who’ve been eating it for years aren’t fazed for long.
Why This Matters: A changing climate is putting wildlife increasingly closer to humans. Especially in California where droughts force animals to wander into neighborhoods as they search for food and water, encounters between people and wildlife is inevitable. We're going to have to think about how we approach this new balance and what the ethical solution is so that we can coexist.
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