In a rare success story, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton is announcing today that the Aleutian Canada goose, once thought to be extinct, has recovered and no longer needs to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The goose population has grown from only hundreds in the late-1960s to 37,000 today. Norton attributes the recovery to cooperation between state and federal agencies and private landowners in Alaska, Oregon, and California. In another boost for endangered species, a federal court in New Orleans last week struck down a federal regulation that loosened habitat protections for endangered species. The ruling, which came in a case involving sturgeon living along the Gulf Coast, may make it easier for enviros to block development in areas where endangered species live.
