Earth Equity News

U.S. Dept. of Interior Reports a Third of U.S. Bird Species In Peril. By Mark Clayton, CSMonitor, March 19, 2009. "Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Thursday unveiled a major new report on the state of US bird populations [State of the Birds, 2009, DPF, 36 pp]. Nearly a third of the nation's 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline due to habitat loss, invasive species, and other threats. But the study may be at least as notable for its blunt statements about climate change and oil and gas development as it is for highlighting the precarious state of bird populations, wildlife experts say. With many negative references to impacts of oil spills, oil-and-gas development, and climate change on birds, the report represents one of the sharpest breaks yet between the Obama and Bush administrations on environmental matters... 'I do see this report as a major departure from what we had been seeing from the federal government in recent years,' says Darin Schroeder, vice president of the American Bird Conservancy."