Scientists Predict Earth Becoming Barren Wasteland, Here’s How Long We Have
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Biden makes decision that will impact more than 10 million acres of land
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‘It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of today’s announcements’
Story by Tina Deines •2h
There is renewed hope© Provided by The Cool Down
In a win for wild lands and wildlife, President Joe Biden recently moved to protect more than 10 million acres of Alaska’s North Slope from oil development. The action permanently bans drilling across large swaths of this region.
In a separate move, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland also canceled drilling leases, which were issued under the Trump administration, inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
These new policies didn’t come without criticisms from some lawmakers, like Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, who threatened to sue.
On the other end of the spectrum, some environmentalists said the new protections were not enough to erase the administration’s March approval of the controversial ConocoPhillips Willow project, which is predicted to produce 576 million barrels of oil over the next 30 years.
This remote landscape in Alaska’s far north is home to polar bears, a porcupine caribou herd that is 200,000 strong, at least 36 types of fish, and more than 400 species of plants.
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The Arctic Refuge is also a traditional territory for the Gwich’in, Athabaskan, and Iñupiat people. The Gwich’in call the refuge’s coastal plain “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins” and rely on its caribou herd for clothing and food, as well as to maintain a spiritual connection to the land, according to the environmental group Protect the Arctic.
“Drilling and climate change threaten the future of these vibrant communities and the environment they rely on,” notes the group’s website.
By and large, environmentalists praised the administration’s recent actions.
“Conservation is a very long game and takes decades,” Chris Wood, president of the conservation group Trout Unlimited, told The Washington Post. “It’s rare to have these big-stroke opportunities. So it’s terrific and heartening to see the administration demonstrate they have a bit of a bold streak when it comes to protecting our lands and waters.”
Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society, told AP News, “It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of today’s announcements for Arctic conservation. Once again, the Arctic Refuge is free of oil leases. Our climate is a bit safer and there is renewed hope for permanently protecting one of the last great wild landscapes in America.”
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Meet Peanut, the world’s oldest living chicken
- Published: Oct. 01, 2023, 8:00 a.m.
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CHELSEA, MI – Marsi Parker Darwin lives on a small farm with her husband Bill Darwin that’s filled with ducks, peacocks and plenty of hens.
And one very old chicken named Peanut.
Around 21 years ago, Darwin was checking on her hens when she found an egg that had gone cold. She thought the chick inside had died, and went to the pond outside of her home to toss the egg in.
Before she could throw it, however, she was interrupted by a noise – a small chirp.
“I held it up again closer to my ear and it chirped again, and I couldn’t believe my ears,” Darwin said.
She realized the chick was likely born without an egg tooth, which is part of a chick’s beak used to get out of the egg. So, she gently helped peel the chick out of the egg, and was met with a brown, speckled bird she named Peanut.
Little did Darwin know, this bird was going to stick by her side for many years. In fact, Peanut is now a world record holder.
In January, Peanut was crowned as the world’s oldest living chicken by Guinness World Records. She was 20 at that time and turned 21 in May.
“I really wasn’t paying attention. I just knew she’d been around a long time,” Darwin said.
The average lifespan for a bantam hen is roughly five to 10 years, according to officials at Michigan Allied Poultry Industries. Darwin doesn’t know what to attribute Peanut’s long life to, but her best guess is love, she said.
Experts seem to agree.
“While there have been significant advances in animal health management, Peanut’s story far exceeds that of any other hen that we are aware,” MAPI Executive Director Dr. Nancy Barr said. “Major kudos can be attributed to the family who takes care of her. It is clear that she has received great housing, considerable attention and decreased stress, which has likely contributed to her lifespan. Peanut is an inspiration to us all.”
Darwin raised Peanut, as she was abandoned by her mother once she hatched. She was cared for inside the home, where she received lots of blueberry yogurt and hugs from Darwin.
While she stopped laying eggs when she was 8 years old, Peanut had plenty of her own chicks. She has outlived most of them. One named Millie is still alive at 15 years old, however, Darwin said.
Peanut did eventually live outside with the other chickens, but after a decade she decided she wanted to return to her life as a house chicken. Today, she lives inside a living room coop with Millie.
While Peanut looks more ruffled than she used to, she’s still the same little chick. She loves to sit on Darwin’s lap and play outside.
Darwin describes her as sassy and independent. Peanut is never shy, especially when it comes to chirping and posing for a camera, Darwin said.
“Some (chickens) are real aggressive, and some are real shy, but she’s just always been a fun, pleasant little chicken,” Darwin said.
The idea that Peanut was a Guinness World Record holder for being the world’s oldest chicken never crossed Darwin’s mind. But some friends pushed her to apply.
Darwin spent several months digging up old photos and getting witness and veterinary statements before Peanut was proclaimed the record holder.
Darwin also has written a book about Peanut’s life entitled “My Girl Peanut and Me — On Love and Life from the World’s Oldest Chicken,” which can be purchased on her website.
Darwin hopes she has many more years with Peanut. She also hopes people are inspired by her story. Darwin believes Peanut asking for help out of the egg has led to the chicken’s longevity.
“I mean, what a great lesson, if we all would take that to heart,” Darwin said.
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Endangered red wolf can’t make it in the wild without ‘significant’ help, study says
A long-awaited viability study says the endangered red wolf can survive in the wild, but it’s going to take “substantial management efforts beyond many of those currently implemented.”
ByALLEN G. BREED AP national writer
September 29, 2023, 4:08 PM
WAKE FOREST, N.C. — The endangered red wolf can survive in the wild, but only with “significant additional management intervention,” according to a long-awaited population viability analysis released Friday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also released an updated recovery plan Friday for “Canis rufus” — the only wolf species unique to the United States. It calls for spending nearly $328 million over the next 50 years to get the red wolf off the endangered species list.
“This final revised recovery plan will help the conservation and survival of the Red Wolf, ensuring these endangered canids endure in the wild for future generations,” Interior Department Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz said in a news release.
But the announcement comes with a lot of caveats. The viability analysis says it will take drastic reductions in gunshot and vehicle deaths, stepped-up efforts to prevent wolf-coyote mixing, and creative methods to increase reproduction in the wild and captive wolf populations.
As of August, Fish and Wildlife said the known and collared wild population was 13, with a total estimated wild population of 23 to 22 — all on and around two federal reserves on the North Carolina coast.
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“Despite active current management of this very small population, declines in abundance will likely continue in the face of persistent threats including high anthropogenic (human-caused) mortality and continued hybridization with coyotes,” the study said.
If releases from the captive breeding program were to cease, extinction of the North Carolina population will likely take place in two to three decades.
The red wolf once roamed from central Texas to southern Iowa and as far east as Long Island, New York. But generations of persecution, encroachment and habitat loss reduced them to just a remnant along the Texas-Louisiana border.
Starting in 1973, the year Congress passed the Endangered Species Act, the last wolves were pulled from the wild and placed in a captive-breeding program. In 1980, they were declared extinct in the wild.
But in 1987, the agency placed four breeding pairs in the 158,000-acre Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Another “non-essential experimental population” was later planted in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but was declared a failure in 1998.
The Alligator River population thrived, growing to as many as an estimated 130 wolves by 2012. But gunshot deaths and a 2014 decision to cease releases from the captive population, among other factors, caused the numbers to plummet to as low as seven wild wolves in recent years.
According to the recovery plan, the first update in around three decades, additional wild populations “are necessary for redundancy and, therefore, Red Wolf viability.” But that will need to include federal, state, municipal and private land.
“We have not yet identified locations for establishing new Red Wolf populations,” the report said.
In early August, Fish and Wildlife settled a federal lawsuit by a coalition of conservation groups, promising regular releases of the wolves from the captive population — which currently stands at around 270 — over the next eight years.
But the viability study cautioned that such releases be done very carefully, so as not to reduce the genetic diversity within the captive-bred population. If the program could be expanded to 300 to 400 animals and the reproductive success can be increased by 15%, the authors said, “gene diversity loss in this valuable source population can be reduced.”
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Two of the biggest hurdles to wolf recovery are gunshot deaths and interbreeding with coyotes.
The viability study authors suggest a target of reducing gunshot and vehicle deaths by half, if possible, and an annual sterilization rate of 10% of the “intact coyote population each year for up to 25 years.” Fish and Wildlife has fitted the wild wolves with orange reflective collars to help distinguish them from coyotes, and has been working with locals to capture and sterilize coyotes.
They also recommend splitting up unsuccessful breeding pairs and breeding the wolves younger.
“The analytical results presented here suggest that recovery of red wolves in the wild can be achieved – and can perhaps be realized in 40 to 50 years if conditions are right,” the population study said. “However, success will likely require substantial management efforts beyond many of those currently implemented …”
Ramona McGee, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the recovery plan “remains very high level and lacks detail about specific short-term actions. “ But, she added, “we are encouraged the Service took to heart our concerns about better identifying recovery criteria.“
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