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Sunshine State BoundOn Wednesday, I arrived in Miami with Secretary Salazar for the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalism. I got lucky this year; it was the first time the conference has ever been held in a place with a subtropical climate. When you think Miami (and Everglades country down in southern Florida) you think sunshine, but when we landed it was raining and cool. Trouble in the Bat Cave: An L.A. Times Op-EdToday, we feature Dan's Los Angeles Times op-ed on a deadly bat disease called white-nose syndrome. The disease is killing bats, seriously affecting the economy and the environment. You can find more information on white-nose syndrome at http://www.fws.gov/whitenosesyndrome. You can get regular updates about white-nose syndrome on Facebook and on Twitter October 12, 2011 By Dan Ashe It's October, which means that bats are once again having their annual star turn, popping up on classroom bulletin boards and store windows across America. But this year, actual living bats in North America aren't so abundant. They are being decimated by a deadly health epidemic.
The Recovery of the Wolf and What's NextWith more than 1,650 wolves, 244 packs, and 110 breeding pairs, the gray wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountains has biologically recovered. As a result, we've proposed to remove the gray wolf population in Wyoming from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. The proposal to delist wolves in Wyoming hinges upon the State's commitment to a revised wolf management plan, which now contains sufficient protections and safeguards to ensure that wolves never again end up on the list. The road to recovery hasn't been easy. Many people have worked hard to make sure recovery goals have been met, and we've been happy to see those goals exceeded for eleven straight years. We understand that there may be an emotional reaction among some wolf advocates to the prospect of wolf hunting under state management. But an examination of this plan, in light of what we know to be true about the wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountains, supports our conclusion that wolves are no longer threatened or endangered in Wyoming and that management should be returned to the state.
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