Endangered Species

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has identified eight current and historical rare, threatened and endangered species of animals in Howard County. Listed by their scientific and common names, they are: Etheostoma vitreum, or glassy darter, a member of the perch family that is endangered in Maryland, although it is secure in its range globally. Gallinula chloropus, or common moorhen, a duck-like bird that the state considers likely to become extirpated, although it is secure in other parts of its range.

Trapped in a steel cage barely big enough to hold her, the large squirrel was not happy, pawing at the bars and trying them with her teeth. Matt Whitbeck and Cherry Keller of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were glad to see her, though. The furry gray prisoner, released after being weighed and checked, offered yet another sign that the Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel, once vanishingly rare, has come back. This supersized, reputedly shy member of the squirrel family now is considered fully recovered, according to federal wildlife officials.

FOR THE FIFTH YEAR in a row, Talbott Springs Elementary School pupils have raised money to help the National Zoological Society in its efforts to save threatened animals.Under the direction of Gifted and Talented Program resource teacher Carrye Jones, the pupils sold art and crafts on the theme of endangered animals at an Endangered Species Bazaar at Chatham Mall in March.Sales of items such as tote bags with hand-painted gorillas, emperor penguin hand puppets, Indiana bat bookmarks and an Atlantic green turtle tea set brought in more than $2,000.

State lawmakers pass budget The General Assembly gave its final approval Friday to a $36.9 billion state operating budget for next year that whittles down Maryland's long-term revenue shortfall without raising taxes. The House and Senate signed off on a compromise reached by a conference committee. Their approval of the budget bill, which does not require Gov. Martin O'Malley's signature, came with little drama — a stark contrast with last year's passage of a budget in the session's final hours.

The Patuxent Research Refuge -- North Tract, Bald Eagle Drive in Laurel, will offer "Indangerus?" for children ages 4 to 6 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Sunday.The program will look at endangered species and why they are nearing extinction.The giant panda will be discussed in particular, and children will make panda masks.Registration is required in advance. Information: 674-3304.POLICE LOG* Laurel: 9500 block of Lynnbuff Court: Someone attempted to steal a 1991 Jaguar and a 1994 Dodge Stealth from the Route 1 Wholesale Auto shop between Aug. 31 and Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- The bald eagle is about to soar off the endangered species list.The majestic national bird was emblematic of how America poisoned its environment when it nearly disappeared from the lower 48 states 35 years ago. Now its recovery symbolizes how the nation can solve its ecological problems, experts said.With hoopla befitting a national symbol's recovery, the Clinton administration will announce its proposal to take the bald eagle off the critical list on or near the Fourth of July, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said.

The federal government is no longer considering listing the Eastern oyster as an endangered species, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said yesterday. A spokeswoman for NOAA said the agency dropped the idea because the petition to list the oyster, which is native to the Chesapeake Bay, was withdrawn by the Maryland-based environmental consultant who proposed it in January. The consultant, Wolf-Dieter N. Busch, a fisheries biologist who retired in 1999 after 35 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said he backed off because the proposal was causing fear of a federal crackdown on oyster harvesting in other parts of the country, such as the Gulf of Mexico.

President Clinton's proposed budget for fiscal 1998 includes a $1.3 billion budget for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with significant increases in funding for endangered species, wildlife habitat restoration, refuge operations, fisheries and migratory bird management."

WORCESTER, Mass. - In the winter chill in January, a mountain goat named Celia was wandering through the rocky highlands of northern Spain when a tree fell and crushed her to death. With that, another species vanished from the Earth. Celia was the last remaining bucardo, a goat known for thick fur and extravagant horns, a species that had dwindled because of hunting, habitat destruction and landslides in its home high in the Pyrenees. But now, in a project that has sparked debate over how best to save endangered animals, U.S. and Spanish researchers are preparing to create a new Celia by cloning one of her cells.

That tortoise shell bracelet may be appealing, and those ivory bookends might seem like a great buy, but federal authorities are warning that such items are subject to confiscation at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. They come from endangered animals.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have set up a new exhibit at the airport that warns travelers against buying animal products as souvenirs. Wildlife Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark said she wants to stop vacationers from wasting their money and fueling the illegal wildlife market.

When researcher Erik Patel hiked into the mountainous rain forest of northeast Madagascar in 2001, he was a doctoral student embarking on a quest for basic scientific knowledge about one of the rarest primates in the world: a snow-white lemur called the silky sifaka. More than a decade later, Patel, who was profiled by The Baltimore Sun in 2006, remains dedicated to the acrobatic animals he affectionately calls silkies. Only today much of his work is devoted to preserving the species from an array of powerful forces, such as poaching and destruction of habitat.

Just as it can with human couples, sharing a good meal apparently sparks thoughts of love among whooping cranes. The stately, endangered birds at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel are being primed by their keepers for another season of carefully orchestrated mating with a "special breeder diet. " No chocolate or oysters, though, just subtly enriched pellets of the cranes' usual prepared bird food. "We give them a little more calcium, a little more protein," said Jonathan Male, who supervises the center's whooping crane propagation effort.

Sometimes I forget I am a radical. Maybe because I'm a middle class, home-buying, taxpaying, meat-eating, gun-owning Methodist, proud veteran of the Boy Scouts, public schools and the United States Army — I'm lulled into thinking I'm a mainstream American. Recently, I was set straight by a well-stated letter to the editor from a reader (let's call him Gentle Reader). My first reaction was to dismiss it as a rant. The headline said: "Environmental education will radicalize our youth.

I won't waste time telling you how to vote in the upcoming elections, but I will provide some history and context on politics and the environment. The choices for environmental voters used to be harder — and that was a good thing. I began writing about the Chesapeake Bay almost 40 years ago, and for the first couple of decades I don't recall that the environment was a partisan issue. A short list of leaders who were instrumental then in working to restore the bay will make my point.

Another Labor Day has passed with the usual celebrations of the hero of the American middle class — "the working stiff. " President Obama attended one in Milwaukee, but he was preaching to a diminished choir in terms of the organized labor movement. According to the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 12.3 percent of the nation's work force today belong to a labor union. And last year only 7.2 percent of private-sector workers were union members, compared to 37.4 percent in the public sector at the local, state and federal levels.

Several Harford County residents are protesting a proposed gas pipeline that would run beneath their land by refusing to allow environmental surveyors hired by a natural gas company onto their properties. "This pipeline might be coming, but I am not going to help them," said Lisa Schneider of Fallston. As a condition of its approval of the project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission required AES, the Virginia company planning to run an 88-mile pipeline through Maryland, to conduct an environmental survey to locate endangered species along its path.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama overrode the Bush administration on a key step in administering the Endangered Species Act yesterday, restoring a requirement that federal agencies consult with experts on threatened species before launching construction projects that could affect their well-being. Environmentalists said reinstating the requirement blocks the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service and others from "nibbling away" at critical wildlife habitat. Business and industry groups, on the other hand, warned that it could hamper road-building and other projects that would help jump-start the economy.

If you think the Bush administration has done all the damage it can to the rules that protect our health, environment and personal rights, think again. In coming weeks, the lame-duck team is expected to issue last-minute rules that could gut the legal protections of the Endangered Species Act, give the FBI greatly expanded powers to spy on ordinary Americans and limit access to care for women seeking abortions, among dozens of other controversial new interpretations of federal law that are being rushed through required administrative reviews with extraordinary haste.