Furry Critters and Chanel No.5

  • Jeff Wilson and Dan Haskell are trapping pine martens in Minnesota for relocation to northern Wisconsin. (Photo by Barbara Jean Johnson)

There are places where some wildlife
that once thrived, are now gone. In
Wisconsin, the Pine Marten has been
wiped out. The shy animal looks a bit
like a ferret. Pine Martens are members
of the weasel family. Barbara Jean Johnson
went out with researchers to see how
they’re bringing Pine Martens back to
northern Wisconsin:

Transcript

There are places where some wildlife
that once thrived, are now gone. In
Wisconsin, the Pine Marten has been
wiped out. The shy animal looks a bit
like a ferret. Pine Martens are members
of the weasel family. Barbara Jean Johnson
went out with researchers to see how
they’re bringing Pine Martens back to
northern Wisconsin:

You probably have never seen a pine marten. But I’m spending the day with two guys who spend weeks at a time looking for them. They work for the Wisconsin DNR. We’re actually in a county in northern Minnesota. We’re crammed into a Ford Ranger pickup, driving on the back roads to check trap lines. We’re looking for Pine Martens in Minnesota that will be released in northern Wisconsin.

Pine Marten’s were wiped out or extirpated in Wisconsin over the last hundred years. The Marten’s were in trouble once European settlers moved in. A combination of forest fires reduced animal habitat. Already too many of the animals were trapped for their pelts. But then the Great Depression hit.

“Trapping was a valuable commodity. Fur prices were high and many farmers and farm boys feed their families off their trap lines, and given that there’re weren’t many regulations, or limited regulations, and the high value, I don’t doubt that they over harvested, as well.”

That’s Jeff Wilson. He’s on the frontlines of this varmint capture mission. He and his partner Dan Haskell are seeking to right some of the past wrongs. Dan and Jeff are fun guys. They love the wilderness and they like to chat. The only downside to our little expedition is the smell that permeates the cab. I didn’t say anything, but it smells like skunk.

“Now you do admit, you do smell a little skunk essence in here, do you not? We do our best you know. we shower everyday, but we have been getting a few looks at the grocery stores and the places we’ve been shopping in your Grand Marais community. We hope we haven’t offended anybody.”

These guys us a skunk scent to lure Pine Martens to live-traps. They love the scent. And, they’re not the only ones. Apparently this skunk compound is used in the famous French perfume Chanel No. 5. Some of their colleagues have actually used the perfume as a lure when trapping lynx in Canada.

“However, Chanel No. 5 is like $90 an ounce. (laughs) So we don’t use it.”

Dan and Jeff don’t want just any kind of marten. They already have all the males they need. They want females. As we make our way from trap to trap we catch male after male – seriously, five males – and no females.

“My wife says it’s because they are smarter, but I think it’s because they have a much smaller home range – maybe a half a mile to a mile. In contrast, males cover around two to three miles. You’re just going to get more males. If you set a trap line and spread it out, there’s going to be about two or three times more possibility of a male capture than a female capture.”

(sound of animal screaming)

Catch six, and we’re all hoping it’s a girl. But they have to check to make sure. Marten’s may be small, but they’re certainly not known for being cuddly.

Jeff coaxes the marten head-first into the corner of a laundry bag. He puts a tight hold on its head while Dan peels back the bag to check the genitalia. Once they know they’ve captured a female, they sedate her and run through a series of basic tests to collect data. They also give each animal they take home a name.

“This one is obviously going to be called ‘Barbara’ after you, our colleague. (laughter) You’re a breath of fresh air – literally. (laughter)”

Yeah, they’re a little lonely out in the field. Not a lot of people spend much time with them – smelling a little like skunk and all. And they’re away from home for extended periods of time. But, all in all, they both enjoy what they do and find real meaning in it.

“We can restore what we’ve mismanaged in the past and it’s inspirational for me to see there’s no doubt there’s a niche for this animal there. This animal is a really important part of biological diversity and I’m really happy I can participate in that.” For The Environment Report, I’m Barbara Jean Johnson.

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15th ANNIVERSARY OF WATER CRISIS

  • Dr. Ian Gilson and nurse Mary Busalacchi treated several of the AIDS patients who died during the cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee. (Photo by Erin Toner)

Fifteen years ago, 400,000
people got sick and more than 100 died
from contaminated drinking water. It’s
still the biggest outbreak of waterborne
disease ever in the United States. It
happened because a parasite got into the
water supply in Milwaukee. Since then,
there have been major changes in water
systems across the nation. Erin Toner
reports:

Transcript

Fifteen years ago, 400,000
people got sick and more than 100 died
from contaminated drinking water. It’s
still the biggest outbreak of waterborne
disease ever in the United States. It
happened because a parasite got into the
water supply in Milwaukee. Since then,
there have been major changes in water
systems across the nation. Erin Toner
reports:

Dr. Ian Gilson has been treating AIDS patients for 25 years. He says in all that time,
nothing’s been as bad as 1993 when Milwaukee’s drinking water was contaminated with
a parasite called cryptosporidium.

“We began to get reports of some of our patients having diarrhea that didn’t stop and we
had patients with weird stuff like an ulcer that was not related to acid, severe gall bladder
disease without stones. Ultimately by the time it was called a waterborne epidemic we
knew we had a big problem on our hands.”

Healthy people who drank the water, or brushed their teeth with it, or ate food that was
washed in it, had severe vomiting and diarrhea. But people with weak immune systems,
like those HIV with AIDS, couldn’t fight the parasite. And there weren’t good AIDS
drugs back then, so the patients just deteriorated.

“I distinctly remember several patients saying if you can’t get me over this let’s just be
done with this. One guy who was suffering terribly, we couldn’t seem to get him enough
morphine. And I ordered what I thought was a fatal dose of morphine because I thought
that was the only thing that was going to help him. And it actually relieved his pain.”

When it was all over, cryptosporidium killed 103 people with HIV and AIDS. Even after
15 years, the source of the parasite is still a mystery.

“The cause is not known and may never be known. There does not seem to be any
obvious explanation.”

Carrie Lewis is superintendent of Milwaukee Water Works. She says at the time of the
outbreak, the city pumped in water through an intake pipe about a mile off shore in Lake
Michigan.

The prevailing theory is that sewage overflows contaminated water in the bay, and that
the water was pushed toward the intake pipe and entered the treatment plant.

Lewis doesn’t buy it.

She says if human sewage was the source, people would have had to be sick to excrete
the parasite, and there’s no evidence of that. Some also speculate that cow manure
contaminated area rivers, but Lewis says regular testing in the watershed rarely finds
traces of cryptosporidium.

Lewis says she has no clue what happened, and she’s OK with that. She says what’s
important is what’s changed since then. Lewis says water testing at the time of the
outbreak amounted to taking a couple of samples a day – and that was considered good.

“Today we have hundreds of instruments testing the water every single second for all
sorts of different parameters, so the 15 years that’s gone by it’s a lifetime.”

The cryptosporidium outbreak so damaged Milwaukee’s psyche that people were willing
to do just about anything to make the water safe again. The city spent $90 million to
extend the intake pipe farther out in Lake Michigan. The filters at purification plants were
updated. And now the water is treated with ozone, which kills cryptosporidium.

What happened in Milwaukee caused changes around the country.

New federal regulations required water systems to test for the parasite and safeguard
against it. A drug was licensed to treat the disease.

Michael Beach is associate director for healthy water at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. He says today people should have a lot of confidence when they turn on
their tap.

“Those types of outbreaks have virtually disappeared from the tracking system.”

Many water experts say municipal drinking water in this country is now the safest in the
world. They say the legacy of the Milwaukee outbreak is that water utilities are no longer
just managing a system of pipes and water mains – they’re in the business of protecting
public health.

For The Environment Report, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links

Westward Ho for the Ash Borer

  • Adult emerald ash borer (Photo by David Cappaert, Michigan State University, courtesy of the Michigan Department of Agriculture)

The emerald ash borer has eaten through
millions of trees in the US and is spreading
west. Erin Toner has more:

Transcript

The emerald ash borer has eaten through
millions of trees in the US and is spreading
west. Erin Toner has more:

For six long years, the tiny metallic-green emerald ash borer has been a killing machine,
starting with millions of ash trees in Michigan and Canada, and then munching its way
into 10 states.

It was recently discovered in Missouri, and now, it’s in Wisconsin.

The prognosis is not good.

Darrell Zastrow is with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

“Our forests are not typically resilient against non-native species and that is true for
the emerald ash borer. It is generally considered to be a poster child for invasive
species.”

Officials in Wisconsin are doing what everyone else has done – restricting the movement
of firewood and telling people how to protect their trees.

Some promising treatments to fight the emerald ash borer are being tested, but so far,
nothing has worked at keeping the insect from spreading west.

For The Environment Report, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links

States Go Farther to Reduce Mercury

  • Some of the fish caught in the Great Lakes are unsafe to eat due to mercury (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)

The government warns people not to eat too
much Great Lakes fish. That’s because some fish are
contaminated with mercury – a toxic chemical. Some
of that mercury comes from coal-burning power plants.
Erin Toner reports more states are beginning to make
power companies cut down mercury pollution:

Transcript

The government warns people not to eat too
much Great Lakes fish. That’s because some fish are
contaminated with mercury – a toxic chemical. Some
of that mercury comes from coal-burning power plants.
Erin Toner reports more states are beginning to make
power companies cut down mercury pollution:

The courts have ruled the federal government has not done enough to reduce mercury
pollution. Now, more states are adopting their own rules.

Illinois and Minnesota require power plants to cut mercury emissions 90% by 2015.
Wisconsin is following suit, but its plan gives utilities more time to get to 90% if they cut
other pollutants at the same time.

Keith Reopelle is with the group, Clean Wisconsin.
He’s happy with the new rule, but says it could be stronger.

“It does require the largest power plants to reach the 90% reduction on average over their
fleet, that’s not really the same as requiring every plant to get a 90% reduction.”

Wisconsin’s largest utility says complying with the new rule will be a ‘technological
challenge’. Power bills are expected to go up between 5 and 12 dollars a year to pay to
reduce mercury pollution.

For The Environment Report, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links

Momentum for Great Lakes Compact?

  • Color satellite photo produced from NOAA-14 AVHRR satellite imagery. (Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, NOAA)

A delay in the approval of the Great Lakes water
diversion compact might be ending. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

A delay in the approval of the Great Lakes Water
Diversion Compact might be ending. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

The compact, agreed to by eight Great Lakes Governors and Canadian Provincial Leaders, aims
to discourage other areas from seeking Great Lakes water. Four states have ratified the
agreement. But various disputes in Wisconsin over water conservation and getting water to
communities that straddle the Great Lakes basin delayed the compact there.

A new, bipartisan deal apparently headed to approval in the Wisconsin legislature pleases the
Council of Great Lakes Governors, and its executive director Dave Naftzger.

“This could really be the tipping point that pushes the region over the edge and enables the deal
to finally get done so this region can take the finalized compact to Washington for final approval.’’

Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania are the other states still working on ratifying the Great Lakes
Water Diversion Compact.

For The Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

Related Links

Airlifts for Wildlife

  • On March 5, 2008 the Wisconsin Army National Guard airlifted 75 tons of mature trees to improve wildlife habitat in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. The aviation training mission used UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to lift the trees on the east shore of Long Lake. (Photo by Steve Apps, courtesy of the Wisconsin State Journal)

There’s an old saying that goes ‘There’s more
life in a dead tree than a live one.’ That’s because
bugs and birds and burrowing animals can all find homes
in dead trees. Trees that are cut down are also sometimes
dropped into lakes to make habitat for fish. Chuck
Quirmbach reports sometimes getting the right tree to the
right spot requires some creative thinking:

Transcript

There’s an old saying that goes ‘There’s more
life in a dead tree than a live one.’ That’s because
bugs and birds and burrowing animals can all find homes
in dead trees. Trees that are cut down are also sometimes
dropped into lakes to make habitat for fish. Chuck
Quirmbach reports sometimes getting the right tree to the
right spot requires some creative thinking:

(helicopter noise)

It’s not every day you seen an upside down tree flying through the air.

But this Blackhawk helicopter is skimming along with a big tree dangling on a
line beneath it.

We’ll get to why in a moment. But to do that you’ve got to meet the guy who thought
up the idea.

Mark Sesing is sitting in his pickup truck. He’s
a wildlife manager – actually, a water specialist. He’s looking through the windshield at a
stretch of shoreline of Long Lake in Wisconsin.

“The habitat’s been stripped away. We’ve got piers; we’ve got boats, boathouses, we’ve got houses
and cottages. All that development has resulted in, I guess what I’ll call a
sterilization of the shore.”

On the other side of the lake there’s an area that’s a bit better for birds and fish.
But Sesing thought the wildlife needed a little help. He knew putting some dead
trees there could benefit the animals.

Put the crown of the tree in the water for the fish, so they can hide from predators
and lay eggs in the thicket. Put the trunk on the shore, and all kinds of animals can
make a home. Or birds can find bugs in the dead tree.

But there was a problem: you couldn’t get to the area with trucks without cutting a road down a steep hillside. And Mark Sesing was not interested in damaging more of the
shoreline.

So he got to thinking. Why not get the Wisconsin Air National Guard to help?

(helicopter sound)

So why would the Air Guard want to move trees? Practice!

Chief Warrant Officer Dirk Brandt is with the National Guard’s 832nd medical
company. He says practicing lifting trees and placing them on the shoreline could
help pilots and crew prepare for a med.-evac. lift in a war zone.

“If it was medical supplies, or critical medical supplies, since our unit is med.-evac., then the more we practice with, I guess you could say, ‘inanimate objects’, then the
better off when we actually physically have to do it.”

The airlift worked like this: first, one of the copters would hover over a forested
area about a quarter mile from the lake. That’s where trees had been cut down to
improve the health of the woods.

(hover sound)

Then, ground crew would grab a nylon strap hanging down from the aircraft and wrap it around a tree.

(helicopter lifting sound)

The helicopter would then go up. And carry the dead tree to the water’s edge.

(helicopter fades)

By the time the project was done, there were 23 dead trees placed along about a-
quarter mile of lake shoreline.

Wildlife managers will start watching the trees and collecting scientific data on the
project this summer. They estimate the trees will provide habitat for fish and birds for
the next ten to twenty years.

For the Environment report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

Related Links

Preserving Indian Mounds

  • Roger and Margaret Martin visit the effigy and burial mounds. (Photo by Brian Bull)

Historians, archaeologists, and Native American tribes are fighting to save ancient
mounds. The mounds are found scattered across much of North America. These
earthen, man-made formations mark the presence of prehistoric, indigenous people. But,
Brian Bull reports many are disappearing because of development or neglect:

Transcript

Historians, archaeologists, and Native American tribes are fighting to save ancient
mounds. The mounds are found scattered across much of North America. These
earthen, man-made formations mark the presence of prehistoric, indigenous people. But,
Brian Bull reports many are disappearing because of development or neglect:



Jay Toth is walking through the Kingsley-Bend Indian Mounds site. Toth is an
archeologist with the Ho-Chunk tribe in Wisconsin. He surveys nearly 30 mounds here,
including several that he says contain human remains. Toth says these mounds range
from 800 to 2000 years old, and are considered sacred, which is why Toth isn’t happy
when a man lets his dog use one for a bathroom:


“There’s a sign right there…”



“The guy saw the sign coming in, he didn’t bother…think that’s a good reflection on why
mounds are continually destroyed. There’s just no consideration.”


The tribe has painstakingly restored and maintained this site with its own money. But
Toth says out of 20,000 groups of mounds across Wisconsin alone, only a quarter
survive today. Many are still being desecrated or destroyed by construction and
development:


“It’s just too bad that we don’t have the respect for the religious aspects of what these are
all about. No one would expect the Ho-Chunk Nation or
any other tribe to go in and buy up public cemeteries and subdivide it up for housing
development, but somehow mound sites and other native burial seem to be okay.”


And it’s not just in Wisconsin. Similar problems exist for Indian mounds in other states,
including Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, and Tennessee. Development is supposed to stop if a
mound is discovered, but authorities can only act on the calls they receive.


Samantha Greendeer is a Ho-Chunk attorney. She’s working with tribal, state, and federal
officials to revive legislation first introduced by West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall.
It would proactively protect burial mounds, rather than after they’re disturbed:


“We seem to have to deal with this a little bit more just because a lot of the old ancestral
mounds and burials of native people are not in organized European-type cemeteries that
are zoned and properly accounted for. They don’t get that extra
bit of protection that a normal burial site would get.”


If passed, the federal government would have to deal with Native American and Native
Hawaiian tribes before taking action that would affect any land deemed sacred. Attitudes
about the mounds are changing.


(Sound of jackhammers)


Construction workers are tearing up old concrete foundations, to help set up new
buildings on the University of Wisconsin campus. But it’s a different story near the
University observatory. Campus developers plan to displace newer structures with the
older architecture. Gary Brown points to a sidewalk built in the 1950s. It’s right next to a
centuries-old bird effigy mound which some Native Americans still use for ceremonies:


“We’ll be coming back several feet away from the edges of the mound, carefully remove
the sidewalk, reconstruct the sidewalk a little bit further away. It’ll be a lot of hand labor,
there won’t be a lot of major big machinery…”


And moving the sidewalk will create a buffer zone to help protect the ancient mound.



Some people outside of the tribes realized the value of the mounds decades ago.
Roger and Margaret Martin walk in the rain with umbrellas, to show several effigy and
burial mounds in their backyard:


“When friends come to visit, we take ’em out back and point them out…We’re standing
on the bird effigy, swept back from both sides are the bird’s wings…the one on the left is
much more pronounced.”


Back when the neighborhood was being built, most people flattened the mounds. But, he
Martins signed up with what’s called an archaeological covenant program. They’ve
promised not to alter the mounds on their property. They also get a tax break on any land
containing a mound.


The Martins say they’d like to begin a ceremony where they visit the mounds and think of
their makers, the early North American cultures. Such reverence means a lot to Ho-Chunk
archeologist Jay Toth, who says the formations are rich in meaning and history for his
people:


“These mounds represent the deed to the land for all Native Americans. This you can’t
take away.”


Toth and other preservationists hope Congress passes laws to better protect ancient
mounds. They hope in time that people come to regard both burial and effigy mounds as
items to preserve, rather than destroy.


For the Environment Report, I’m Brian Bull.

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Power Plant Tests Carbon Capture

  • A pipe has been connected to the flue gas duct at We Energies' coal-burning power plant near Milwaukee. The pipe will suck out a small amount of gas and treat it with chilled ammonia, allowing CO2 to be separated and captured. (Photo by Erin Toner)

Coal-burning power plants have done a lot to reduce
pollution that leaves their smokestacks. But the power
industry is not controlling the main greenhouse gas –
carbon dioxide. That could change in the next decade.
One utility is about to begin the first test ever of technology
to reduce CO2 emissions at power plants. Erin Toner
reports:

Transcript

Coal-burning power plants have done a lot to reduce
pollution that leaves their smokestacks. But the power
industry is not controlling the main greenhouse gas –
carbon dioxide. That could change in the next decade.
One utility is about to begin the first test ever of technology
to reduce CO2 emissions at power plants. Erin Toner
reports:


When you think about air pollution, you might think of
power plants with giant brick chimneys pumping dark
smoke into the sky. here’s not as much of that stuff being released
into the air as 30 years ago. That’s because power plants have added equipment to control certain types of pollution:


“Okay, just to give you an idea of what we’re looking at,
this big silver building is where all the particulate is
removed, we’re going from that toward the stacks, so
we’re looking at the discharge emissions control
devices…”


Ed Morris oversees environmental projects at We Energies’
coal-burning power plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. In
the past few years, it’s installed equipment that’s cut sulfur
and nitrogen emissions by up to 95 percent. Now it’s going
after carbon dioxide, or CO2, the most prevalent manmade
greenhouse gas that no utility has yet controlled.


By the end of the year, the We Energies plant will begin the
first test in the country of a new technology called “carbon
capture:”


“We are designing the technology to achieve up to 90
percent CO2 removal.”


Sean Black is with Alstom, the company that designed the
process. It will inject chilled ammonia into a tiny stream of
boiler gas. This will theoretically allow the CO2 to be
separated and captured. The test will see how much can be
removed before the gas is sent up the chimney.


Black says after the test in Wisconsin, it’ll go on to a full-
scale demonstration at an American Electric Power coal-
burning plant in West Virginia:


“And that will provide the marketplace with the
credibility that this technology is ready for commercial
deployment.”


The coal-burning power industry is trying to get carbon
capture ready because it believes the government will soon
start regulating CO2 emissions.


Kris McKinney manages environmental policy for We
Energies, and its pilot CO2 program:


“Technology doesn’t exist today to capture, let alone
store, the CO2 emissions, reductions that would be
required in the event that federal legislation is passed.”


Power companies have been criticized for moving too
slowly on cutting CO2 pollution. Some environmentalists
say utilities could have been doing more earlier, but won’t
spend the money on new technology if they’re not required
to by the government.


We Energies’ Kris McKinney says they’re wrong about the
status of the technology, but right about the money. He
says that’s because the cost of adding the CO2 reduction
equipment has to be passed on to customers:


“Whatever happens has to happen over a longer period
of time…it needs to be thought out in a way that doesn’t
cause dramatic cost impacts, unanticipated cost
impacts.”


McKinney says rushing to add new pollution controls
would be a huge risk. And in the case of carbon capture,
he could be right.


The government’s
has raised concerns about the chilled ammonia process. A
report that has not been made public says 90 percent CO2
reduction has not happened in early testing, and might not
be possible.


It also says carbon capture could dramatically increase the
energy needed to run a power plant.


George Peridas is a science fellow with the
Natural
Resources Defense Council
, an environmental
organization:


“The publicity that this is receiving is disproportionate
to the actual results that they have achieved. And there
are fundamental scientific reasons to question whether
this can be done.”


Alstom, the company developing chilled ammonia carbon
capture, says it won’t comment on the government’s report
because it hasn’t been made public. Company officials do say they’re confident the technology will work. They’re predicting the full-scale process will be
ready to retrofit existing plants or to build into new ones in
five years.


If so, it’ll be one option for a power industry that’s under
increasing pressure – and likely government mandates – to
clean up its dirty legacy.


For the Environment Report, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links

Bio-Gas Shorted on Rates

A growing number of farms around the country are using technology to turn organic
waste into energy. But the operator of one such system says it will be difficult to expand
unless the process becomes more profitable. Michael Leland has more:

Transcript

A growing number of farms around the country are using technology to turn organic
waste into energy. But the operator of one such system says it will be difficult to expand
unless the process becomes more profitable. Michael Leland has more:


A a 20-foot-tall tank turns manure into gas that’s used to make electricity. Richard
Pieper with Clear Horizons says this Wisconsin farm can power 200 homes.


He says he’d like to expand, but it doesn’t make economic sense. It costs 20 cents to
produce each kilowatt of power, but the local utility only pays 5 cents. Solar generators are getting 22 cents a kilowatt:


“The rates have to be the rates that others at a minimum are getting for their technology.
Give us those rates, and depending on where that is, depends on how fast we can move
forward.”


Solar generators get more per kilowatt because they’re part of a program that’s funded by
customers who agree to pay more for green energy. Biogas is not part of that program.


For the Environment Report, I’m Michael Leland.

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Enviro-Groups Sue to Protect Wolves

  • The Fish and Wildlife service ruled that wolves in certain states no longer need protection, but some groups feel that decision might put wolf populations at risk again. (Photo by Katherine Glover)

Wildlife groups have gone to court, seeking to reverse a recent federal
decision that took the grey wolf off the list of protected
species. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

Wildlife groups have gone to court, seeking to reverse a recent federal
decision that took the grey wolf off the list of protected
species. Chuck Quirmbach reports:


The Fish and Wildlife Service ruled in February that the wolf
population was strong enough in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan that
the wolves no longer had to be listed as endangered or threatened. The
states can euthanize problem wolves or even develop a wolf hunt.


But three groups have just filed a lawsuit over the federal action.
Rebecca Judd is an attorney with the Humane Society of the United
States. she says the door has been opened to large attacks on the wolf
population.


“We don’t think that the wolf’s recent progress toward recovery should now
be squandered by exposing them to killings and state-authorized hunting
and trapping programs.”


The Fish and Wildlife Service says the states in the western Great
Lakes region have good plans for protecting the grey wolf, but the
federal agency is preparing a five year monitoring effort.


For the Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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