Gerald Winegrad: Green new year resolutions baltimoresun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from baltimoresun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
COLUMBUS A federal agency is seeking public comment through Jan. 15 before it potentially authorizes the deaths of double-crested cormorants or destruction of their nests across Ohio.
The lanky, wiry bird is dark in color, but up close has yellow-orange skin paired with striking cobalt-blue eyes. The birds are known for their S-shaped necks. They can fly about 40 miles when foraging. When they find fish, they dive into the water and swim to retrieve the fish. They have powerful webbed feet that propel them. Double-crested cormorants can be extraordinarily beautiful. They are smart,
clever, really kind of funny birds, said Stanley Senner, vice president for bird conservation for the National Audubon Society. Here in the United States, they have gone through several real bottlenecks. One was the use of DDT for several decades that really greatly reduced cormorant populations.
Bald eagles are flying high again after making a comeback in Indiana southbendtribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from southbendtribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Published: Wednesday, December 30, 2020
David Bernhardt. Photo credit: Francis Chung/E&E News
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Capitol Hill in March. Francis Chung/E&E News
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt started off 2020 empowering his most controversial public lands deputy, a move that a federal judge later deemed unlawful. He s ending the year in quarantine, having tested positive for COVID-19.
In between these bleak-sounding bookends, the 51-year-old Bernhardt rewrote how the Interior Department works. While the results get mixed reviews, and in some cases may get erased by the incoming Biden administration, 2020 was undeniably consequential for the department.
Endangered Species Act rules changed. Refuge hunting opportunities expanded. The Bureau of Land Management s headquarters moved. Some environmental protections were loosened. Ethics officers were reinforced, tribal trust responsibilities were reconfigured and workers got sent home.
New Special Permit for Cormorant Management in Lower 48 States
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced a final rule and final environmental impact statement (EIS) to responsibly manage conflicts associated with double-crested cormorants in the United States.
The final rule establishes a new special permit for state and federally recognized tribal wildlife agencies in the contiguous 48 United States to undertake additional cormorant control activities when permissible under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). States and tribes must use nonlethal methods before resorting to lethal control. The activities allowed under the special permit include controlling cormorants to help reduce conflicts with wild and publicly stocked fisheries within state or tribal-jurisdictions. States also will have additional flexibility to manage cormorants at state or tribal-owned hatcheries and release sites.