[caption id="attachment_10286" align="alignleft" width="136" caption="Steelhead trout"][/caption] A coalition of six California water districts failed to convince a federal court that there's no real distinction between endangered anadromous steelhead trout and comparatively plentiful rainbow trout. The lawsuit, brought against the National Marine Fisheries Service, sought to strip steelhead of their distinction as a separate species

Another obstacle for removing several century-old dams on the Klamath River, a waterway once teeming with now endangered salmon, has been removed by a second federal study, the Associated Press reports. As a result, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it will conduct a third examination of the sediment that has built up behind the dams to determine the consequences of dam removal. The main concern is that mercury and other toxic compounds left over from historic gold mining, plywood manufacturing, and farming would contaminate areas downstream.

Researchers at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve are working to restore the west coast’s native oyster species, the Olympia Oyster, to the slough, an estuary teeming with wildlife along California’s Central Coast between Monterey and Santa Cruz. Harvested to near extinction following the Gold Rush, efforts are now underway to restore the bivalves to parts of their historic range, reports Genevieve Bookwalter of the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

[caption id="attachment_9448" align="alignleft" width="122" caption="Pat Quinn"][/caption] For almost a year, Illinois has fought with other Great Lakes states, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Fish & Wildlife Service over what to do with Asian carp that swim up the Mississippi River:  have the Army Corps close the lock between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi? Get the Fish & Wildlife Service and local Dept. of Natural Resources to try and kill the carp? According to the Chicago Tribune's Joel Hood, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn now says he has the answer: ship up to 30 million pounds of Asian carp to China, where the fish are considered a delicacy. "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em," Quinn said yesterday.

[caption id="attachment_9061" align="alignleft" width="154" caption="Asian carp lobbyist"][/caption] A fisherman discovered an Asian Carp in Chicago's Calumet River Tuesday -- putting the species perilously close to Lake Michigan. The Chicago Tribune's Joel Hood explains that the reported carp has re-ignited the dispute between Illinois and six other Great Lake states as whether to close the locks connecting the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan. Representatives from Michigan and other Great Lake states say locks at the Chicago and Calumet rivers need to be closed. Otherwise, Asian Carp that have already swum up the Mississippi will get into the lakes and disrupt both the food chain and fishing industry. Illinois, meanwhile, says barricading the rivers will ruin its local shipping industry. So far the Obama administration has not really got involved in the inter-state dispute.

[caption id="attachment_8456" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Asian Carp"][/caption] Last Thursday the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources teamed up with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to poison Chicago's Calumet River in order to root out all the Asian carp. Well, five days later there's 100,000 pounds of dead fish -- none of which are Asian carp, reports John Flesher of the Associated Press. The idea was to prevent any carp that swam up the Mississippi River from entering Lake Michigan where they "could disrupt the food chain and devastate the $7 billion fishing industry." But apparently no carp have made the journey all the way to the river, which is just 20 miles south of Lake Michigan.

The Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are taking drastic measures to prevent Asian carp from getting into Lake Michigan.

Federal officials today announced Monday they will work together to develop a single management plan for California’s most important estuary and river system. Not far from the state capital, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers join, forming a delta

So says Valerie Fellows, spokeswoman for the Interior Dept's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in her explanation of why Interior can't use the Endangered Species Act to save the polar bear through a crack down on global warming. David Farenthold of ...

Cornelia Dean of the New York Times reports that they are 800 species of bird in the U.S. -- and 1/3 are endangered. And the problem will get worse with global warming, according to a report mainly culled from data at the Interior ...