http://www.newwest.net/topic/main/C38/L38/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2009 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:43:18 MST Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:43:18 MST This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/quNLHe_Syho/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/ama_links_light_pollution_to_cancer_health_woes/C38/L38/ Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:13:22 MST The American Medical Association this month passed a resolution that recognizes a host of problems with light pollution, including health issues -- such as breast cancer -- that are "associated with human eye exposure to light at night." The AMA resolution (view it in full here) explains that the increasing amount of light in the world, including streetlight glare and intrusive light that "trespasses" into bedroom windows and homes, is linked to higher rates of cancer and other health woes. It harms wildlife as well, the medical group says. As the AMA puts it: "Light trespass has been implicated in disruption of the human and animal circadian rhythm, and strongly suspected as an etiology of suppressed melatonin production, depressed immune systems, and increase in cancer rates such as breast cancers." In addition, it "disrupts nocturnal animal activity and results in diminished various animal populations’ survival and health," the group says. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/ama_links_light_pollution_to_cancer_health_woes/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/n_fNrHDveDw/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/beetle_hysteria_again/C38/L38/ Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:25:39 MST Beetle hysteria has raised its head again, and I am not talking about the Fab four. A prominent article in the New York Times titled “Tiny Beetle Adds New Dynamic to Forest Fire Control Efforts” quotes many foresters and others who suggest that beetle-kill trees across the West will create larger wildfires and by implications are “destroying” our forests. For instance, Montana’s State Forester Bob Harrington said as much at conference recently, as in the article. While it may seem “intuitively obvious” that dead trees will lead to more fires, there is little scientific evidence to support the contention that beetle-killed trees substantially increases risk of large blazes. In fact, there is evidence to suggest otherwise. At the heart of this and many other media reports are flawed assumptions about fires, what constitutes a healthy forest, and the options available to humans in face of natural processes that are inconvenient and get in the way of our designs. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/beetle_hysteria_again/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/lR3P8Qdm9eI/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/can_missoula_volunteers_help_plant_1000_veggie_gardens/C38/L38/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:42:27 MST Got lawns? Yep, most homeowners do, in Missoula and nearly everywhere else. Thanks to a national lawn obsession that has roots deeper than leafy spurge, America holds about 40 million acres of lawns and turf, a vast green carpet that’s a huge source of wasted water, CO2 and air pollution (thanks to gasoline-powered mowers), and toxic run-off from pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers. Enter former Missoula Redevelopment Agency director Geoff Badenoch, who had an idea this February during a meal with Max Smith, a freshman at the University of Montana: Why not get a group of gardeners, a generous bunch at heart, to help other people grow foods instead of lawns? The notion took root and grew. By April 26, dozens of volunteers for a new group, 1000newgardens, held a “Dig Day” and helped transform 10 local backyards into food plots. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/can_missoula_volunteers_help_plant_1000_veggie_gardens/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/tz3i1f98NWM/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wild_bighorns_threatened_by_domestic_sheep1/C38/L38/ Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:27:45 MST At one point in my life I was very interested in studying wild sheep. I almost accepted a graduate research project at the U of Alaska to look at winter diet and behavior of Dall sheep in the Brooks Range. I wimped out when I realized that I’d be alone months at a time in a tiny cabin on the North Slope peering through a night vision scope to watch the animals in the near 24 hours of darkness of mid-winter forage in 50 below zero weather. It just didn’t sound like that much fun -- though definitely interesting. But for a number of years I read everything I could about wild sheep, and I continue to follow research and news about wild sheep to this date. Wild bighorn sheep were once fairly common in the western United States and Canada. Some estimates suggest as many as 1-2 million wild sheep once roamed the West. By 1900, over-hunting, habitat degradation and perhaps most importantly disease transmission from domestic sheep to wild sheep had brought the bighorns down to an estimated 15,000. Today there are about 75,000 sheep in the western US and Canada. While that is a significant growth from its low point, wild bighorn sheep populations are nowhere near their biological potential. There is no doubt in my mind that the West could easily support far more sheep were it not for one thing -- domestic livestock. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wild_bighorns_threatened_by_domestic_sheep1/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/5TZ_BqJrTXI/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/countdown_320/C38/L38/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:46:59 MST I’ve got dry bags strewn across the house and flies poking out of my carpet.  I’ve got all my shirts and shorts laid out, and I’ve been spreading out my map of the Clark Fork across the kitchen table every night after dinner.  I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to put in for the adventure of a lifetime this coming Saturday.  On Saturday, June 27th, I’m starting a float of epic proportions-- the Clark Fork 320.  I’ll be putting in at Racetrack near Butte, Montana, for a 20-day float of the entire length of the Clark Fork River.  http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/countdown_320/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/9mf-blK4vcs/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wyomings_national_elk_refuge_on_ten_most_imperiled_list/C38/L38/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:42:21 MST A grim future is predicted for the 25,000-acre National Elk Refuge in Wyoming unless the sprawling home to elk and bison gets an infusion of new policies and resources, according to a new report from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The group ranks the wildlife sanctuary -- which has one of the largest concentrations of elk in the world -- as one of America's Ten Most Imperiled Refuges. The refuge was established in 1912 in the wilderness south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks in an effort to resuscitate elk herds, which had faced mass starvation after bitterly cold winters and human encroachment, PEER notes. The results have not been good. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/wyomings_national_elk_refuge_on_ten_most_imperiled_list/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/WtOCBbHfbYg/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/libby_citizens_react_to_helping_hand_from_government_at_last/C38/L38/ Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:22:29 MST Details and relief are arriving in Libby in the wake of the the Environmental Protection Agency's decision this week to declare the town a federal public health emergency, paving the way for millions of dollars of health and cleanup funds to arrive. The federal government has announced it will provide $6 million to Lincoln County health authorities to help Libby and Troy residents get medical care for asbestos-related illnesses such as asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs, and mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer. Of the estimated 1,200 people in Libby who have serious asbestos-related lung problems, about 70 percent of them never worked at the mine, according to the government's criminal indictment against W.R. Grace & Co. Residents inhaled asbestos fibers during everyday activities, stirring it up when they swept the floor, jogged on the local running track, played in local ball parks, or simply did the wash -- since Grace allowed employees to go home covered in dust. The legacy of the exposures will be felt in the community for years to come, as there is often a long latency period before illness strikes. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/libby_citizens_react_to_helping_hand_from_government_at_last/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/ZnB6euk2G4M/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/doing_density_right/C38/L38/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:25:30 MST Stand in the shadow of any giant residential megablock in Seattle and you can't help but wonder: Isn't there a better way to do this? The reality of massive buildings now being auctioned off at fire-sale prices seems proof that bigness alone is neither necessary nor a sufficient condition for successful development in Seattle. Developers have long crowed — and local politicians have cowed to — the notion that "we can't make money in Seattle unless we build six-story buildings." After a round of developer-driven up-zoning we now behold the post-bubble result: fleets of full-block behemoths standing half-empty, unsold, even half-built. What will we make of this enforced economic pause? Will we carve out urban and mental space in which to think about growing smartly and sustainably instead of just bigger and faster? Or will we simply wait for the banks to resume shoveling debt so the bulldozers can resume shoving dirt? A few blocks from the lively Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill is a place that could change our thinking about Seattle urban density. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/doing_density_right/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/wiCx9TN3eMI/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/tom_tidwell_is_new_forest_service_chief/C38/L38/ Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:50:26 MST The new Chief of the U.S. Forest Service will be Tom Tidwell, the Region 1 Forest Supervisor, according to a Missoulian news story by reporter Rob Chaney. In February 2007, the U.S. Forest Service promoted Tidwell to regional forester for the Northern Region, which includes more than 25 million acres of public land in Montana, Idaho and North Dakota. Prior to the promotion, Tidwell had been deputy regional forester in the Pacific Southwest Region. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/tom_tidwell_is_new_forest_service_chief/C38/L38/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/topic/environment/~3/9O6kmG1W85c/ http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/long_time_coming_epa_declares_public_health_emergency_in_libby/C38/L38/ Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:23:40 MST Nearly 10 years after government cleanup crews first arrived to deal with asbestos contamination that has killed hundreds of people, the EPA has announced that a public health emergency exists in Libby, Montana. The declaration -- the first of its kind -- was made today by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson at a joint press conference with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. 

The announcement acknowledges the dire medical needs of Libby area residents, who are suffering an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases. Libby residents die from asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs, at a rate 40 to 80 times normal, according to government studies. The public health emergency declaration paves the way for medical assistance money to arrive in Lincoln County for Libby and nearby Troy. The EPA, in connection with the Department of Health and Human Services, announced it will provide a short-term grant to the area to help provide asbestos-related medical assistance for screening, diagnostic and treatment services. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/long_time_coming_epa_declares_public_health_emergency_in_libby/C38/L38/