Sure doesn’t seem like it, according to this article, “Federal Gov’t Halts Sand Berm Dredging; Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue.” It pains me to even consider the implications of this decision. What is wrong with these people? Here is the rationale:

The federal government has shut down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has concerns about where the dredging is being done. The department says one area where sand is being dredged is a sensitive section of the Chandeleur Islands, and the state failed to meet an extended deadline to install pipe that would draw sand from a less-endangered area.

And there is the justification, but is it a valid one? That is addressed more fully below, but suffice it to say, this is not the whole picture. I know, what a surprise. Still, how can this work be stopped at this critical juncture? I’m not the only one who wants to know:

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was one of the most vocal advocates of the dredging plan, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, pleading for the work to continue.

Nungesser said the government has asked crews to move the dredging site two more miles farther off the coastline.

“Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil,” Nungesser wrote to Obama. “Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.

Nungesser has asked for the dredging to continue for the next seven days, the amount of time it would take to move the dredging operations two miles and out resume work. Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday also joined Nungesser in asking for an extension.

Work halted at midnight Wednesday.

The California dredge located off the Chandelier Islands has pumped more than 50,000 cubic yards of material daily to create a sand berm, according to Plaquemines Parish officials.

Nungesser’s letter includes an emotional plea to the president.

“Please don’t let them shut this dredge down,” he wrote. “This requires your immediate attention!”

Can you just feel the immense frustration of the people in this area trying desperately to keep this oil from getting to sensitive areas, and having their own government impede their efforts time and time again? It is palpable – and I don’t blame them one damn bit:

And here is what Gov. Bobby Jindal had to say about this decision:

In New Orleans this afternoon, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal let fly with a torrent of invective in describing the red tape surrounding the federal government’s shutdown of the state’s dredging operations in the Chandeleur Islands. Jindal not only challenged the wisdom of the Interior Department’s order to stop the dredging, he noted that the management of the Chandeleur’s by the federal Department of Fish and Wildlife has been an exercise in abject failure.

“We got word yesterday that federal officials were going to shut down our dredging operations on the North Chandeleur Islands and those operations were indeed stopped under the federal government’s command at 6PM last night.

“Our request here today is simple,” said the governor. “We are again calling on the federal government to allow us to continue these dredging operations as we mobilize pipe for another two miles – which will take around just seven more days. Getting this pipe in place without stopping the dredging operations will allow us a seamless transition as we move the dredge to a new borrow site. After this pipe is in place, our dredger can disconnect and move to the next site where it can then resume dredging operations in just one day.

“We have told Col. Lee of the Army Corps of Engineers and every federal agency that we are in an emergency situation here. This is a disaster for our state. Days count. Hours count. We cannot wait for more conference calls and meetings for discussions. We need to adapt to the situation on the ground and continue our dredging operations for as long as possible until we can move to the next borrow site and continue to create sand boom.”

Over 5,000 feet of sand berm has been created in the Chandeleurs, in addition to 2.5 miles at East Grand Terre. Jindal has previously noted that sand berm can be highly effective in trapping oil, thus keeping it from coming inland into Louisiana’s estuaries and marshes.

“We have jumped through every hoop that the federal government has placed in front of us since this spill started,” he seethed. “On May 2, we submitted our initial boom plan to the Incident Command Post since there was not a plan. When BP and the Coast Guard were unable to provide the appropriate boom resources, we began developing innovative solutions like Tiger Dams, air-dropping sand bags, Hesco baskets, opening all freshwater diversions, vacuum barges and many other alternatives.

“On May 11th, we submitted a proposal to the regulatory agencies, BP and the Coast Guard to approve our sand berms. It took almost a month for the federal government to approve the plan and make BP pay for the work. Meanwhile, we had millions of gallons of oil covering our wetlands, killing our wildlife and forcing our people out of work.”

I don’t think anyone can blame Jindal for his level of frustration. I’m frustrated by the stupidity with which this has been handled by the government, especially the ridiculous delay in granting emergency permits in the first place. I can only imagine what Jindal, and the other officials in LA, MS, AL, and FL are feeling. But Jindal wasn’t done:

Jindal then took aim at the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service, which controls the Chandeleurs as a wildlife refuge. He showed a map of the erosion of the chain from 2001 to 2005 and delved into a short history of the disappearing islands.

“People used to live on these islands,” he noted. “It was a fishing community and even had some farming. From the mid-90’s until recently, the islands lost up to 300 feet per year under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service management.

“Now, this same agency has concerns that we are not being sensitive to the islands by wanting to continue to dredge for seven more days to ensure a smooth transition?

“They have not invested a penny in this area and are allowing it to erode at extraordinary rates. Meanwhile, they invest millions in other refuges in other parts of the country.

“Louisiana’s coast is one our most important resources. That is why we are fighting so hard to protect our wetlands, protect our fisheries and birds and to protect our way of life from this oil spill – with these sand booms.

Jindal then answered the concern that dredging where the state has dredged is a hazard to the islands due to currents and tides.

“We have said from the beginning that we would backfill any dredging that would adversely affect these islands. That commitment still stands. Shutting down dredging operations while oil continues to hit our shores and the oil continues to flow into the Gulf is absolutely absurd. We need to act now.

“The area where the state was dredging remains within the area permitted by the federal government. When the dredging contractor began operations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service voiced objections to the location of the dredge. In an effort to prevent delay to the project, we worked out an agreement that would provide for backfilling the dredge site and the movement of the dredge vessel to a new location. The state remains committed to moving the dredge to another location within the permitted area and backfilling the first dredge site.”

Kinda makes you wonder just what in the sam hill the problem is, doesn’t it? What is Obama really trying to gain from this? No doubt, there is something afoot:

The Governor then launched into a long riff on the Obamoratorium and the federal government’s attempts to stand it back up after U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman dismantled it with a preliminary injunction yesterday.

“The federal judge’s ruling yesterday to grant an immediate injunction on President Obama’s deepwater drilling moratorium was welcome news. We absolutely agree with the judge’s conclusion that the Administration’s six-month, or longer, shut down of deepwater drilling was ‘arbitrary and capricious.’

“Not only does the moratorium threaten thousands of direct jobs in our state, it also jeopardizes many other industries that supply our oil and gas industry and the entire communities that depend on them. It is also deeply concerning that the President’s moratorium was enacted against the judgment of the Department of the Interior’s own expert advisors and scientists.

“The Administration now says that they will immediately appeal the ruling. They just don’t seem to understand that you can’t just turn a switch on and off with these rigs. When they leave our coast to produce oil in other parts of the country or the world, the jobs that support them go too. We absolutely do not want another spill or one more drop of oil on our coast or in our water, but thousands of Louisianians should not have to lose their jobs because the federal government can’t adequately do their job of ensuring drilling is done safely.

“The federal government has an entire agency dedicated to monitoring safe drilling. It shouldn’t take them six-months or longer to ensure safety measures are in place and their laws and regulations are being followed. Instead of an arbitrary moratorium, the Administration should listen to their own experts and enact the specific recommended steps from their own experts to ensure proper oversight and safe drilling.

“As Judge Feldman stated in his preliminary injunction ruling yesterday, ‘…the Secretary’s determination that a six-month moratorium on issuance of new permits and on drilling by the thirty-three rigs is necessary does not seem to be fact-specific and refuses to take into measure the safety records of those others in the Gulf. There is no evidence presented indicating that the Secretary balanced the concern for environmental safety with the policy of making leases available for development. There is no suggestion that the Secretary considered any alternatives: for example, an individualized suspension of activities on target rigs until they reached compliance with the new federal regulations said to be recommended for immediate implementation.’”

The Governor added, “The Commission that was supposed to study the moratorium for the President for six months now says they won’t have their first meeting until mid-July and they won’t finish their report until next year.

“I want to be very clear on this point. Each month that the work of the Commission is delayed means another month that thousands of Louisiana people won’t be able to work. Each month that the work of the Commission is delayed, we expect additional energy companies to move existing deepwater rigs to other parts of the world and/or to plan new deepwater drilling capacity for other parts of the world in lieu of the Gulf – further extending and expanding job losses in Louisiana. Each month that the work of the Commission is delayed will result in the loss of approximately $65 to 135 million in Louisiana wages.

Jindal also noted that the Obama administration’s claim that BP will be picking up the tab for losses suffered as a result of the Obamoratorium is spurious.

“Moreover, the $100 million set aside by BP to offset the wage losses of deepwater rig workers will cover only a few weeks of lost wages for those workers – and these funds will do nothing to offset the hundreds of millions in wage losses for workers in support industries that count on deepwater drilling activity for their livelihood. Today, BP told us for the first time that they will not pay for moratorium-related losses above the $100 million.”

I don’t recall ever seeing the Federal Government working so hard against its own citizens, or the land it is obligated to protect, as I have with this administration. Have you? The list of actions this Administration has taken since January, 2009, against its own citizens is staggering (feel free to list some, in addition to this debacle, suing one of the fifty states for trying to protect itself, and on and on). We knew it was going to be bad with Obama, but I don’t think any of us expected it to be THIS bad, did we? And the hits keep coming…

UPDATE: Sadly, BP has announced the Top Kill method is NOT working. Back to the drawing board and other possible strategies. for stemming the tide of oil oozing across the Gulf.

It is with that effort underway that President Obama made his second trip to the Gulf on Friday since the oil spill began April 20th. Obama had this to say:

Is it just me, or does Obama sound a bit petulant in his remarks? Not exactly reassuring to those who are suffering as a result of this oil spill. Gov. Jindal’s response to the lackadaisical effort by the government is spot on.

Perhaps Obama’s petulance is in response to Gov. Jindal, or perhaps he is responding to some of his supporters like James Carville (thanks, SFIndie). Carville, a native of Louisiana, is absolutely blasting Obama on his response, or lack thereof, to the Gulf spill:

Carville makes a lot of good points, especially regarding BP. I wonder how Carville, or even Obama, will respond to the news that BP bused in a bunch of people, 400 of them, to LOOK like they were involved in the cleanup while Obama was there? Are you kidding me??

But it isn’t just anger and frustration that are the hallmark emotions of this disaster. There is also great sorrow, as demonstrated by Rep. Melancon during a hearing recently:

We cannot forget how hard this is for people in Louisiana. They have suffered so much already, and this spill is nothing short of catastrophic. I know the people of Louisiana have worked hard to restore their wetlands, to bring back to life the dead area in the Gulf. To have this event, so soon after Katrina, is a hardship most of us can scarcely imagine. The need our support on both an individual and government level (talking to YOU Obama). They need our help, and they need our prayers. Let’s do anything and everything we can to help the people of the affected area, the injured and endangered wildlife, and the environment.

But first, remember this?

Oh, yeah. See if any of this sounds familiar from the mouths of Obamaphiles:

Have we mentioned lately how much we like offshore drilling? Lots more than you might have remembered — that’s how much all of us here at All Things Obama like offshore drilling. If we haven’t managed to work our positive feelings about offshore drilling into the conversation over the past few months (or even the past few years), we hope you’ll forgive us. It must have just slipped our mind, with all the excitement about Barack Obama running for the White House, and then actually winning the White House. There were so many other exciting Barack Obama topics to talk about, we just never got around to sharing our feelings about this one particular issue.

These are our feelings: We think it’s a swell idea. To be perfectly honest about it, if you’d asked us about offshore drilling a couple of years ago — or even a couple of days ago — we probably wouldn’t have been able to put our positive feelings into words. At least, not into words that most people would have heard as truly positive. The words that most likely would have stood out — to most people, anyway — would have been the words about oil spills, or the hazards to precious wildlife, or the risk of polluting beautiful beaches, or even the threat of permanent environmental damage. And we probably would have said a few words that sounded particularly churlish about the kind of energy policy you get when you put two former energy execs — those would have been George Bush and Dick Cheney, of course — in charge of things. Of course Bush and Cheney want to drill, we might have said. They always want to drill. Anyway, that’s how most people would have interpreted our comments a couple of years ago — or even a couple of days ago. Which is why we’re taking this opportunity to clarify our thinking. To let you know that deep down inside, we’re really OK with offshore drilling — even expanded offshore drilling — and that we’ve been really OK with it since at least Wednesday afternoon, which just happens to be when we heard that Barack Obama was OK with it.

Ohmygosh – how much does this sound JUST like the Obots with whom we have to contend on a daily basis?? They way they can twist themselves up trying to defend Obama’s most recent “change” would lead one to believe they work in a pretzel factory, or should, if they were still hiring, that is. There’s more twisting to be done:

Were we caught off guard when the president made his announcement? Maybe a little bit. Some of us here at All Things Obama had somehow been under the impression that the president had a somewhat different view of the matter, and that his view on expanded offshore drilling could best be summed up as follows: No way. No how. Accordingly, some of us had adopted a quite similar view, and we were only too happy to point out the many dangers, and the minimal benefits, that expanded offshore drilling would produce.

But once the president clarified his thinking — that is, once the president announced on Wednesday that he wanted to go ahead with expanded offshore drilling — we were only too happy to point out what a wonderful thing this would be. We’re also happy to point out how carefully nuanced and deeply reasoned the president’s decision was — not to mention how judicious it was, and even how politically savvy it was. All in all, in fact, we have no hesitation in saying that Barack Obama made exactly the right decision, for exactly the right reasons, and that we’re totally on board — unless, of course, he should decide to change his mind, in which case that will be exactly the right decision, for exactly the right reasons. We await further instructions (emphasis mine). (Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist. You can write to him at rickhoro@execpc.com)

“We await further instructions.” Ahahahahaha!! You KNOW that’s true! They all come here saying the exact same thing on a given topic, and no matter how many facts are laid out in black and white, they refuse to acknowledge it. They can’t, you see, because their instructions are VERY clear. No matter how convoluted an Obama position is, they MUST defend it no matter what.

Oh, dear – this cracked me up. I just had to share it with you. Talk about this, or whatever else is on your minds!

It is hard to even grasp the breadth of this wildfire – 105,000 acres is a tremendous area, and it includes a fairly substantial community:

A voracious five-day-old wildfire that has churned through more than 105,000 acres of mountainous brush across northern Los Angeles County showed little sign of slowing down this afternoon as it threatened 12,000 homes in suburban tracts and desert communities, along with a historic observatory and major array of television and radio transmission towers.

With afternoon winds picking up, the Station fire, the largest of eight burning in the state, was plowing through dense hillside vegetation and steep terrain toward residential areas of Sunland and Santa Clarita on the west.

As billows of white and black smoke danced ominously close, Chuck Horn ushered his family and his two prized collectors’ automobiles out of his home in the Sunland-Tujunga area.

“We took pictures, tax returns, insurance forms, the dog, the chicken, and that’s it,” Horn, 61, a retired L.A. County public works employee, said as he prepared to drive away in his baby blue 1931 Plymouth three-window coupe. Horn was next planning on moving his black 1911 Buick Model 33 away from the blaze.

My heart goes out to these people, trying to grab whatever they can, not knowing if anything will remain of their homes when they return:

To the east, firefighters were hoping that a concerted effort to cut fire breaks and lay down fire retardant would save the Mt. Wilson Observatory and a key complex of communications towers.

Because of the intensity and unpredictability of the blaze, which continued shifting directions, fire crews had to pull out of the mountaintop area today and wait for the firestorm to pass.

By 3 p.m. the southeastern edge of the Station fire had pushed south against the wind, into the upper west fork of the San Gabriel River drainage. This fire was near the base of Mt Wilson’s north side. Firefighters had begun back-burning brush at the juncture of California 2 and Mt. Wilson Road in order to protect structures, including an American Indian cultural center, from the advancing fire.

The drama of families having to flee their homes — or risking all to try and defend their property — played out repeatedly as searing heat and a generation of accumulated hillside growth fed the fires. In Gold Canyon, authorities scrambled to rescue five people who had refused to evacuate.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s helicopter was trying to locate the residents near Little Tujunga Road. They pleaded for help after becoming trapped by back fires set by crews trying to fight the blaze.

Sixty-five firefighters withdrew from Chilao Flats near the Chilao ranger station. “The intensity of the fire was too strong,” said L.A. County Fire Capt. Henry Rodriguez. “They were pulled off the lines and drove away in their vehicles. They’re safe and all OK.”

Another fire in San Bernardino County was spreading completely out of control and threatening 2,000 homes near Yucaipa.

Tragic. Just tragic, in so many ways, isn’t it? It encompasses a loss of life, loss of home, and loss of environment on a grand scale.

I have a neighbor who works for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. On more than one occasion he has gone out West to help fight these fires. It is amazingly hot, dirty, exhausting work, and the people who risk their lives to get these raging wildfires under control deserve our respect, and our thanks.

My heart goes out to all of the families who have had to leave their homes. I hope and pray this wildfire will be under control soonest…

And then there is what happens in the time after. You know, the time after the wildfire has done its damage, after it has been contained, after nature has had a chance to regroup.

This article was in my paper on Monday, From The Ashes. You probably didn’t hear about a huge (for us) fire in the Myrtle Beach area last year. But it was big, people lost their homes, things seemed bleak. But no more:

The bugs never stood a chance. Insect-eating plants were waiting.

Beetles came out like plague in the cinders of the Myrtle Beach fire earlier this year. They were so thick that if you stood in the forest you could hear them eating the trees, said Deanna Ruth, S.C. Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist.
But the scorched forest was ready for them, little more than a month after one of the worst fires in the state’s history.

An astounding profusion of horror-movie-looking Venus fly traps emerged, opening their carnivorous, teethy spikes in a spectacular display of a plant so rare it grows nowhere else in the world natively. They came out in ribbons like runway carpets stretchingfor a half-mile at times along the edge of bogs in the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve.(Photo by Just Caroline)

They were so thick biologists found six colonies they didn’t know existed.

Isn’t that incredible? It gets better:

Alongside the fly traps bloomed sundews, even tinier bug-eating plants that look like something you’d see in the Hubble telescope. Pitcher plants emerged, tulip-shaped bug eaters. They bloomed with white fringed orchids and indigo in an almost fantastic reclaiming of more than 7,000 burned acres in the preserve.

And the animals came out in numbers that the biologists hadn’t seen in years — deer grazing on the tender new shoots of grasses, quail and wild turkey, whose young feed on insects.

The April blaze that consumed 30 square miles of mostly pine stands and coastal swamps, or bays, didn’t kill the longleaf pine savannahs. It rejuvenated them.

“It burned. There was plenty of open daylight. (The plants) weren’t being droughted out. All the conditions were perfect for these plants to come back and thrive,” Ruth said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Amazing, indeed! It is incredible how the planet is designed. That wildfires help to cleanse the area, to renew it. But not without a price:

The fire did $25 million damage to some 70 homes in subdivisions cut into the edges of those thick-growing, flammable wilds. Residents still are struggling to rebuild, but the woods already are recovering. And there’s a lesson in that for the Lowcountry, which also is home to miles on miles of “fire adapted communities,” woods and plants that evolved partly because of occasional wildfires.

“We need to make sure we burn periodically here,” said botanist Richard Porcher, a professor emeritus with The Citadel. “You have a normal fire, and everything comes right back. If you don’t (burn), when you do have a fire you have a holocaust.”

The recovery hasn’t been unaided. The nearly 10,000-acre preserve has been closed all season while logging crews tried to remove some 1,800 acres of burned trees so ruined that timber companies didn’t want the wood; the majority were sent to the chippers then sold overseas. The loggers managed to cut about two-thirds of that acreage.

Natural Resources plans to re-open the preserve to the public Sept. 16. Guided tours of the fly traps are held in the spring. The plants are a state species of concern, illegal to pick in the wild, Ruth said. Cultivated fly traps can be bought in specialty shops or online.

The fly trap is the piranha of the plant world, eerie and voracious looking. But the plants are so small that Ruth had to point out to a searching preserve visitor that he’s standing on them.

They are a wonder found natively only on the rims of isolated coastal wetlands in North and South Carolina, one of a number of rare plants that thrive at the edges of Carolina Bays. The bays themselves are an enigma — oval-shaped wetlands that pock the entire coastal plain in clusters with an eerie symmetry, each turned northwest to southeast. They are thought to be as old as 100,000 years, and nobody knows how they formed.

The preserve is dominated by one of them, the 786-acre Lewis Ocean Bay. Carolina Bays extend into Georgia, but Venus fly traps are found only as far south as the Santee River.

“Why they never came across the Santee, nobody knows,” Porcher said. “If you knew the answer to that you’d be a famous biologist.”

Isn’t this just incredible? I grew up in NC, and have lived in SC for a while. I never knew that the Venus Fly Trap grew in just this one, relatively small, area. That’s just cool. (I should add, I am a member of our local aquarium, and it has an exhibit on Venus fly traps. But I don’t remember it saying that the locale was so limited.)

It may be hard for those in the midst of this extreme wildfire in CA to even consider that now, and rightly so. They have far more pressing issues at hand, I hope and pray that this fire will be contained quickly, with no more loss of life, and little loss of home.

From the ashes indeed, comes incredible beauty, both flora AND fauna. Down the road, in time, Mother Nature will have the opportunity to work her magic. And if it is anything like what has happened in my state, it will be amazing indeed…

Who do you want making decisions as to which animal species remain protected and which will become endangered or let to go forever?

You have two choices:

(1) Scientists who understand ecology and the balances in nature, or

(2) Bureaucrats with urgent project agendas.

Well, guess what? In his few remaining days in office using “Midnight Resolutions”–the opportunity to sneak last-minute in changes before leaving office that Congress is not fast enough to deal with with so they pass right into law–President Bush has pounded another nail into the Endangered Species Act.

This time he removed a provision that requires Fish and Wildlife Service scientists to make sure that endangered species won’t be harmed by federally approved logging, mining, and road-building projects. So now the fate of any critters “in the way” will be decided by other federal agencies, like the Army Corps of Engineers or the Federal Highway Administration.

However, I have to be realistic and admit the anguished reality that not every living creature is going to survive the human takeover of the environment, including some forms of positive progress. Creating alternative energy sources, for example, will endanger some species. That’s just a sad fact. As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lamented on a recent 60 Minutes, environmentalists are upset with a solar project in the year-round hyper-sunny federally-owned land in California’s Mojave Desert. Why? Because the Mohave ground squirrel and the desert tortoise, both protected by state and federal law, may be adversely affected.

Here’s the problem. Many worry that non-scientists will tend to make decisions based only on moving along the agenda at hand. Build that road. Take down that forest. Strip that land. I like to believe that scientists would be more circumspect as they are trained to be—seeking truth rather than the answer someone else wants.

And here is where the big rub comes in. What can save lives and can keep our habitat balanced allowing for a sustainable planet is not always as it seems at first blush to the rest of us, including those now empowered to make decisions about which critters remain protected and which ones we will soon never see again, such as the lovely creatures portrayed in my toon.

Let me offer a couple of examples as to why non-scientists should not be making these decisions.

What is the most disgusting living thing you can think of? My choice is maggots. Without knowing more, people would probably be OK if they were extinct because they are ugly, useless and cause problems. Turns out they can greatly enhance the healing of burn wounds by attacking only dead tissue, and are especially useful when patients cannot tolerate antibiotics. MDT (Maggot Debridement Therapy) is saving lives.

Other critters that many see as disgusting or scary or annoying are essential and beneficial to our planet. Although not endangered (yet?), bats (unfortunately portrayed as frightening and evil, thanks to vampire fantasies in unending variety) provide an excellent example of critters that many see a unlikable and might not care if their numbers were reduced to zero. But bats are natural enemies of night-flying insect pests, and protect animals and us from such diseases as malaria, equine infectious anemia, and heartworms. Bats are pollinators of plants and are agents of seed dispersal, both of which contribute to the health of the environment. Bats guano is a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Other examples include bees, worms, and bottom feeders of any sort that have their place as keeping planet life in balance. Even flies are second only to the bees and wasps, in the useful function of pollination.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has issued the warning: “Biological diversity provides food, fiber, medicines, clean water, and many other products and services we depend upon every day. Yet nearly one-third of native species in the United States are at risk of disappearing.”

Not good news for critters–or for us and our planet.