Monday, July 09, 2007 PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona wildlife-sanctuary operators are swamped with exotic animals because they say criminals who sell critters on the black market seldom face serious punishment. Of the 700 alligators, lizards and other reptiles at the Phoenix Herpetological Society in Scottsdale, for example, 120 were confiscated from poachers and traffickers, and others were possessed illegally and dropped off by owners who no longer wanted them. Of the 700 alligators, lizards...

Hosted at the Cayuga Nature Center, the three-day event brought together about 100 practitioners, teachers and new initiates for a discussion of the paradigm whose end result is usually the design of a system based on the ethics, principles and tools of permaculture. Hosted at the Cayuga Nature Center, the three-day event brought together about 100 practitioners, teachers and new initiates for a discussion of the paradigm whose end result is usually the design of a system based on the...

Its removal over several months will return the bottom to a more natural sandy base and create clearer water and better habitat for plants and wildlife. State water and wildlife managers are taking advantage of a drought by removing life-choking muck from the 730-square-mile lake, Florida's largest. The Sun-Sentinel conducted independent tests that found even higher levels, making the muck too polluted for use on agricultural or commercial lands, the newspaper reported Sunday. so we don't...

The observer stands where she can see any fish moving in the water that we might scare upstream. Dagit and her team became alarmed when the steelhead, as well as other species of fish, all began to turn yellow and their numbers continued to drop throughout the summer, down to 100 in August, then to two in October and then none in November. In large pools, the divers swim in a coordinated transect, so that we can see the entire width of the pool, and more accurately count the fish. In...

The head of the agency charged with protecting Lake Tahoe's famed water quality says his agency needs to rethink its environmental rules after the devastating Angora fire. Logging and the use of heavy equipment could release sediment into the lake, which already is losing about a foot of transparency each year from runoff and air pollution. The fire also damaged another 17 homes and caused more than $140 million in property damage as it swept through the forested subdivisions that have...

SACRAMENTO Democratic lawmakers charged the Schwarzenegger administration Friday with bullying the state's air board into softening enforcement of environmental laws, as two former top regulators testified that the governor's chief deputies routinely pressured them not to push ahead with policies that industry found objectionable. SACRAMENTO Democratic lawmakers charged the Schwarzenegger administration Friday with bullying the state's air board into softening enforcement of environmental...

China's State Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and health ministry asked the World Bank to remove the figures from a draft of the report finished last year that stated about 750,000 people die prematurely each year from pollution. Beijing successfully lobbied for the removal of a third of the report, entitled the "Cost of Pollution in China," arguing the contents could lead to social unrest, the London-based newspaper said. The published report on the Internet said "conservative"...

Mercury levels in one of Wisconsin's most prized game fish increased as much as 19 percent from 1982 to 2005 in the southern part of the state, according to a Department of Natural Resources study. The state also released new guidelines for fish consumption, recommending restricting consumption of specific types of fish and including advice for men and women. DNR toxicologist Candy Schrank said the study indicates that mercury levels in walleyes went up an average of 0.8 percent each year...

Shafland believes it's less cruel to keep the fish than release them in a canal where they'll probably meet an unpleasant end. Everyone says these fish can't be released, but nobody offers an alternative solution. In captivity, they can be long-lived, as evidenced by 32-year-old Igor, the pet pacu at the fish lab. That can start a cascade of environmental harm that could forever change Florida's natural flora and fauna and lead to adverse economic consequences. But, exotic species dumped...