The Conservation Lands Foundation has an article out today that highlights what happens when our commitment to preserving protected lands doesn’t match the idealism with which those protected lands were established.

Sadly, since they were established a decade ago, our National Conservation Lands have not gotten the level of funding, protection, recognition, or support that they need from the federal government to step up the inventory, assessment, preservation, and maintenance of the archeological sites to be found. Even at the Canyons, which is further along in its assessment of its cultural resources than any other unit of National Conservation Lands, only a quarter of the estimated sites have been identified to date.

Many cultural resources also are increasingly threatened by vandalism and looting. Rock art is used for target practice. Boulders containing petroglyphs have been trucked away, one only recently in Arizona. Human remains are disturbed. And rock shelters and habitation sites are burrowed into, sifted through, and dug out by those searching for artifacts. Indeed, some would-be vandals and looters are using GPS tracking devices to find ruins only to deface or remove them when they do!

National Conservation Lands is a catch-all classification for all the national monuments, wilderness areas, scenic rivers, etc. that dot the landscape of the American West. That we have set these places aside as worth saving speaks to the best of our conservation efforts, that we then fail to follow up with the resources needed to actually to do so shows the flaws in the system. If we don’t fix the flaws, we’ll eventually lose all we’ve worked to save.

There’s a new opportunity this fall for hunters in Minnesota, the state’s first sandhill crane season. There’s a limited area for hunting, and a limited season from September 4 – October 10, and the state is expecting about two hundred hunters to take part. The rules for this year’s sandhill crane hunt can be found here. (pdf file)

I suspect there are more than a few Minnesota duck hunters who would like to go on a hunt where they actually see some birds.

The Environmental Protection Agency denied a petition from five environmental groups to ban lead in hunting ammunition.

The EPA said that the issue was outside of their jurisdiction. The environmental groups were critical, but it really could be they’re seeking relief in the wrong place. If it’s the effect on wildlife that has them concerned, maybe they should try the Fish and Wildlife Service.

In memory of Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring did much to ignite the modern environmental movement, the EPA is sponsoring its second annual Rachel Carson Sense of Sonder Contest.

The contest has four categories, and the public is invited to particiate by voting for their favorites. In order to see the entries, and judge for yourself which is the best photograph, poem, essay or dance presentation, click here. Voting is open until November 1, 2010.

Credit: © Prof. Indraneil Das/ Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation

For those who prefer their amphibians in small packages, Borneo has a frog for you.

One of the tiniest frogs in the world, and the smallest ever seen outside of North and South America, has been discovered in the forests of the Southeast Asian island of Borneo.

The pea-sized amphibians (Microhyla nepenthicola) were found near a mountain in Kubah National Park.

Actually, the frogs have been known for over a hundred years, but scientists and museums had assumed they were juvenile members of some other species. Instead, what we have are adult frogs that are about the size of a pea.

For frog lovers everywhere, that makes the world a little bit more of a wonderful place.

Updated Below

Here’s something that sounds a bit too good to be true, but when it comes to the Gulf oil disaster, unexpected good news has, so far, been the missing piece of the story.

A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe suddenly is flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico and gobbling up the BP spill at a much faster rate than expected, scientists reported Tuesday.

Scientists discovered the new microbe while studying the underwater dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled since the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Also, the microbe works without significantly depleting oxygen in the water, researchers reported in the online journal Sciencexpress.

The last part about not depleting oxygen levels makes this double-plus good. That helps lessen concerns about how the oil might interact with the Gulf dead Zone.

Of course, hungry bacteria suddenly emerging to save the day is a bit of a fairy tale ending. But then, it worked for H.G. Wells, why not for us?

Update: Looks like some of the oil may be too much for even bacteria to handle.

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have detected a plume of hydrocarbons that is at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The 1.2-mile-wide, 650-foot-high plume of trapped hydrocarbons provides at least a partial answer to recent questions asking where all the oil has gone as surface slicks shrink and disappear.

The researchers measured distinguishing petroleum hydrocarbons in the plume and, using them as an investigative tool, determined that the source of the plume could not have been natural oil seeps but had to have come from the blown out well.

Moreover, they reported that deep-sea microbes were degrading the plume relatively slowly, and that it was possible that the plume had and will persist for some time.

Court cases involving water use disputes are pretty common in Western states, but this one involving steelhead salmon could help set a precedent under the Endangered Species Act.

An attempt by irrigation districts to strip federal protected status from wild steelhead trout in California’s Central Valley was rejected in a ruling today from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

This Endangered Species Act case is a challenge to the decision of the National Marine Fisheries Service to list the steelhead, a type of Pacific salmon, as a threatened species in California’s Central Valley.

The dispute in this case was over the definition of species as far as the Act is concerned. By ruling that steelhead salmon are a species for the purposes of the Act, the court’s decision could affect the status of many other species. The rejection of a narrow definition of species will make it easier to protect other threatened species throughout the country.

Minnesota’s Little League team lost to Washington this evening, and became the first team eliminated in the Little League World Series. Minnesota took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but couldn’t score anymore and Washington took the lead in the fifth.

They get to play one more game, but it doesn’t count towards winning the tournament. But it lets the kids and their families enjoy one more day at the Little League World Series, and they deserve it.

There’s been a bit of happy talk coming out of the Gulf this last week or so. The leak’s contained, some fishermen are back in business, and BP and the government declared that most of the oil had been cleaned up.

If that last assertion struck anyone as a bit dubious, especially given BP’s loose affiliation with the truth over most of this disaster, then it will come as no shock that a lot of the oil could still be right where you’d expect it to be; in the water.

Scientists on Thursday reported results from the first detailed study of a giant plume of oily water near the blown-out BP well — stating that it measured at least 22 miles long, more than a mile wide and 650 feet tall.

The plume, which scientists said came from the busted Gulf well, shows the oil “is persisting for longer periods than we would have expected,” lead researcher Rich Camilli said in a statement issued with the study. “Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily biodegraded. Well, we didn’t find that. We found it was still there.”

BP has millions, if not billions, of reasons to want to declare the disaster over and the oil gone. But no one should let them off the hook that easy. It will be years before we know the true extent of the damage, and until then, BP’s responsibility and liability should remain an open issue.

There’s been a bit of happy talk coming out of the Gulf this last week or so. The leak’s contained, some fishermen are back in business, and BP and the government declared that most of the oil had been cleaned up.

If that last assertion struck anyone as a bit dubious, especially given BP’s loose affiliation with the truth over most of this disaster, then it will come as no shock that a lot of the oil could still be right where you’d expect it to be; in the water.

Scientists on Thursday reported results from the first detailed study of a giant plume of oily water near the blown-out BP well — stating that it measured at least 22 miles long, more than a mile wide and 650 feet tall.

The plume, which scientists said came from the busted Gulf well, shows the oil “is persisting for longer periods than we would have expected,” lead researcher Rich Camilli said in a statement issued with the study. “Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily biodegraded. Well, we didn’t find that. We found it was still there.”

BP has millions, if not billions, of reasons to want to declare the disaster over and the oil gone. But no one should let them off the hook that easy. It will be years before we know the true extent of the damage, and until then, BP’s responsibility and liability should remain an open issue.