THREAD: This rare butterfly lives on a military bomb range. Read and watch the latest installment of AP's WhatCanBeSaved series:
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — In the unlikely setting of the world’s most populated military installation, amid all the regimented chaos, you’ll find the Endangered Species Act at work.
In some ways, the tiny butterfly is an ideal example of the more than 1,600 U.S. species that have been protected by the Endangered Species Act. Alive, but not exactly doing that well. “Species will remain in the Endangered Species Act hospital indefinitely. And I don’t think that’s a failure of the Endangered Species Act itself,” Li says.The Endangered Species Act “is the safety net of last resort,” says Gary Frazer, assistant director of ecological services at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the law. “We list species after all other vehicles of protection have failed.
The law caused all sorts of environmental showdowns in the 1970s and 1980s — most notoriously, the fight over the construction of the Tellico Dam in Tennessee, which threatened the tiny snail darter fish. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the fish, but Congress exempted the dam from the law.
The small woodpecker is a member of the original class of 1967. It may soon fly off the endangered list or, more likely, graduate to the less-protected threatened list. In the 1980s and 1990s, efforts to save the woodpecker and their trees set off a backlash among landowners who worried about interference on their private property.
By the 1980s, the red cockaded woodpecker population was below 10,000 nationwide, says Virginia Tech scientist Jeff Walters, a woodpecker expert. Biologists built boxes to serve as nests, attaching them to trees. The woodpeckers weren’t interested. Meanwhile, Army officials were convinced to start setting fires to burn away the scrub. Now about a third of the area burns every three years or so.
Over that period, more than $7 billion went to two species of salmon alone. Seven species, mostly fish, ate up more than half of the money expended under the act, according to the annual accounting figures.Nick Haddad — the world’s leading expert on the St. Francis Satyr, a Michigan State University biology professor and author of the book “The Last Butterflies” — got permission to go to the butterfly’s home, the artillery range.
The butterfly appears only twice a year for two weeks each time. When it does, Haddad rushes to Fort Bragg and joins a team of Army biologists to count the butterflies and improve their habitat. They install giant inflatable rubber bladders that mimic beaver dams; they produce the minor floods that the butterfly needs.
Among them: a change in the rules for species that are “threatened,” the classification just below endangered. Instead of mandating, in most cases, that they get the same protection as endangered species, the new rules allow for variations.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
Butterfly on a bomb range: Endangered Species Act at workFORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — In the unlikely setting of the world’s most populated military installation, amid all the regimented chaos, you’ll find the Endangered Species Act at work. There, as...
Lire la suite »
Newsom administration sends mixed signals on delta endangered species protectionsSending mixed signals, California said it will sue to block Trump rollback of endangered species protections but also proposed delta water operations that partially echo Trump plans.
Lire la suite »
A Businessman’s Second Act Upends Giuliani’s Ukraine Work for TrumpIgor Fruman was considered an avid networker who found a niche in catering to Ukraine’s newly rich. He was enlisted by President Trump’s personal attorney to help press Ukraine to launch investigations into Joe Biden's son. Today, there is little left of his Ukrainian business empire, and he is facing campaign-finance charges in the U.S.
Lire la suite »
Serbia's president accuses Russia of spying on Balkan countrySerbian intelligence agencies have uncovered a wide-ranging intelligence operati...
Lire la suite »
China’s nuclear arsenal was strikingly modest, but that is changingChina is wary of giving away too much information. For now, its parades are doing the talking
Lire la suite »
China will not resort to competitive yuan devaluation: PremierChina will keep its yuan currency basically stable within a reasonable range and...
Lire la suite »