wolves

Critical List: $6 billion ethanol subsidy to end; Wyoming wolves screwed by Senate politics

The Senate is ending a $6 billion subsidy program for ethanol; anti-ethanol food and environmental groups say it's "not a perfect comprise" but that they're "encouraged" by the step.

Carbon captured from coal plants can feed biofuel-producing algae. Which is awesome because nobody else wants to eat it.

Put that tuna burger down! Overfishing could extinguish five out of eight tuna species.

Critical List: Teens throw a tantrum, Prince Charles puts his dukes up

Teenagers are suing the federal government for failing to protect the atmosphere. One plaintiff explains why. A recovery team went inside the Fukushima No. 1 reactor for the first time since the quake. The United Nation's climate change panel issued a preliminary report that says 12.9 percent of global energy came from renewables. Firewood in […]

Everyone’s apparently psyched to kill some wolves now

Well, Sarah Palin will like this one: Congress has quietly removed wolves from the endangered species list in almost every state, leading hunters in the Rocky Mountain states to gear up for an unprecedented wolf-slaughtering party. Wolf numbers have grown to 1,700 since 1994, and proponents of the delisting say the new healthier population of […]

Endangered wolves sacrificed for budget deal

Although Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama stood firm against Republican attempts to repeal clean air and clean water protections, wolves (such as the famous Limpy) in the Northern Rockies weren’t so lucky. Under pressure from ranching interests in Montana and Idaho, as well as anti-wolf zealots in those states, Reid and Obama […]

White House approves solar for roof and California desert

Facing criticism over its environmental record, the Obama administration announced it will reinstall solar panels on the White House -- and approved California solar projects.

It’s time to end the practice of shark finning

This post is co-authored with Discovery Channel GM & President John Ford. —– Photo: Willy VolkEvery half-second a shark is killed for its fins, so in the time it takes you to read this post, hundreds of sharks will die. “Finning,” as the practice is known, is decimating shark populations world-wide. Every year up to […]

10th birthday for Yellowstone’s wolves

Next Monday will mark precisely 10 years since wolves re-appeared in Yellowstone National Park, from where they had been absent since the 1920s. The re-introduction program was a smashing success, far exceeding even optimistic predictions.

On March 21, 1995, federal biologists finally opened the acclimation pens holding 14 gray wolves, sometimes called timber wolves, brought from Alberta. Earlier that year an additional 14 wolves had been set free in central Idaho's mammoth wilderness. And the following year, 17 more wolves were released into Yellowstone and 20 more into Idaho.

A decade later, Yellowstone's wolf population has grown more than five-fold and expanded into adjacent areas of Wyoming and Montana. Idaho's wolf population expanded even more spectacularly--by thirteen-fold--with an estimated 452 animals in the Gem State at last count in 2004. All told, over 850 wolves now roam the US Rocky Mountains. It's only a matter of time until they begin returning in numbers to Washington and Oregon, where they are now only rare visitors. [Click on the chart at left for state-by-state trends.]