Macho B was the first jaguar radio-collared in the US, and probably the last.
He was the only jaguar documented in the US in the last ten years, and very possibly the last we will ever see. Macho was euthanized by the state of Arizona on Monday, less than two weeks after being accidentally captured in a trap set for other critters, radio collared, and released.
Staff monitoring him via the collar noticed that his movement had become severely restricted. The alarm went up, and he was tracked down in person and taken into custody.
He was euthanized after being diagnosed with acute renal failure.
Arizona Game and Fish Department officials freely admit that the stress of capture may have contributed to his kidney problems. They deny that the drugs administered could have caused the problem, claiming they were proven safe on big cats. (Notice they don't cite any studies on jaguars.)
That collar does not look particularly unobtrusive either. On the other hand, Macho B was 16 years old, advanced age for jaguars, although a few have lived to 20.
A single bird can take out a jet engine, with potentially catastrophic results. There is, however, an ingenious, humane and natural way of keeping the birds out of the path of airplanes as they take off and land.
I'm glad that President Obama is projecting optimism and leadership in mitigating the worst effects of this collapse. And I'm pleased that Democrats are focusing on at least some innovative ideas for building a new economy out of the ashes of this disaster.
But I'm afraid that blind hope and fantasies of "recovery" have their limits. At some point, we have to face the fact that there is no getting back to where we once belonged: we will not "recover" the economic conditions that prevailed for most of the past few decades, not soon, not ever.
We are facing not just a Recession or Depression, but a transformational moment in global economic history. Call it the End of the Post-Industrial Era.
Thirty-five years on from the Boldt Decision, whole new generations in the northwest are experiencing salmon war fatigue. Millions upon millions of dollars have been spent on failed mitigation, lawyers have retired after entire careers spent in futile litigation, and the wild salmon continue to slip into oblivion.
A new group is asking the Obama administration to cut through the layers of bureaucracy, shameless biostitution, and dozens of of disregarded and defied court decisions and do two things: 1) Simplify and rationalize the recovery program and especially its oversight, and 2) make science and not ideology the guide in decision making, as Obama claims he wants to do. Seeing what they have seen through the years, these old veterans have earned the right to be cynical, to throw up their hands and walk away. But they're still giving it one more try.
If it sounds a little desperate, that's because it is. Hail Mary time.
Talk about a news dump: on New Year's Eve the Bureau of Logging and Mining finalized its Western Oregon Plan Revisions to the Northwest Forest Plan.
This WOPR wasn't wanted by Governor Kulongoski, NOAA, the EPA, the Forest Service, hunting, fishing, and tourism interests (representing a significant chunk of Oregon's economy), any number of environmental groups, or the majority of citizens commenting on the proposed revision for over a year now. But this is the BLM we're talking about: you'll have it their way, or they'll cram it down your throat along with a side order of categorical exclusions.
The opportunity is before us to bring focus to [energy and global warming] across campaigns, across the United States, and make Energy/Global Warming a winning issue come November and a higher priority for serious Congressional and Administration action come January 2009.
The Energy Smart Act Blue page worked on the philosophy of supporting underdog challengers, who were not "expected" to win when added to the page. And, most importantly:
The challenger understands energy / environmental issues and will bring a radically different perspective to the Hill compared to the incumbent.
Join below the fold for a recap of the 2008 candidates and the Energy Smart list and a look forward to 2009.
It is an icon of the high country. My floating band of hikers sometimes agreed not to stop for lunch until we saw a whitebark.
And it is disappearing. There is absolutely no mystery about the individual causes or their devastating synergy.
White pine blister rust, caused by the fungus Cronartium ribicola, which was introduced to North America a century ago.
The mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae. While outbreaks have occurred before, the current one is completely unprecedented in the time it has gone on, the area affected and the number of trees killed. And there is no end in sight.
Past fire suppression efforts that have left a continuous matrix of underbrush in which insects and pathogens flourish, and contribute to catastrophic fires.
Global warming. A threat in itself and the main driver of the pine beetle's population explosion and advance into new territory. This isn't rocket science: formerly the beetles were rarely able to complete their life cycle and reproduce at the altitude where whitebark live. Now they can, not because they attained superpowers or fur coats, but because the warm season is longer. and more survive the warmer winters as well.
The amateur scientist may seem a thing of the past in the day of the LHC, the Hubble telescope, and the various ongoing genome projects.
But in certain areas trained amateurs can play an enormous role. Every so often a backyard astronomer finds something new, and the best known example of citizen science, the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, begins in a few days.
Here's a less famous example: last week the Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project released its 2008 Remote Camera Field Season Report (22-page pdf).
