By Derek Markham •
August 17, 2009
PacRim Coal’s plan to strip mine coal right through 11 miles of salmon-bearing streams in Alaska would destroy critical wetlands and headwater streams beyond the point of restoration, according to three new studies by scientists.
The salmon fisheries along the Chuit River would be severely damaged, so much so that the researchers say that restoration would be “virtually impossible”.

Most of us think that we can do pretty much whatever we want with our property. If we own land, we can build a house, right? Well, that’s what Jack Barron of Bonner County, Idaho thought, too. However, the EPA says otherwise.

The US Federal Aviation Administration released a document as a companion to their
online wildlife strike database. The numbers for both the research document and the database could be off by 80%, as the website states only about 20% of wildlife strikes are reported. So the number of bird strikes and animal strikes could be much higher. (The data has been entered only up to Dec. 2008 perhaps due to collection difficulties).
By Jeff Kart •
May 10, 2009
Some people like to call them swamps — usually folks who want to turn them into concrete developments.

Others call them wetlands, for their abilities to reduce flooding and filter out contaminants that run off of city landscapes.
The fact is, you may not like wetlands or swamps (mosquitoes), but they do a lot of good. The next time it rains, watch the water run off of a driveway, sidewalk, street or nearby parking lot. That water used to go into wetlands, depending on where you live. Now it goes into sewer systems, and often ends up being flushed untreated, or only partially treated, to rivers and lakes.
What to do, short of “The World Without Us“?
Many cities are turning to constructed wetlands, which can’t replace the natural work of Mother Nature, but can do a pretty good job of keeping contaminants out of waterways that supply drinking water, fishing and good ol’ recreation.
By Alex Felsinger •
March 22, 2009

Iraq’s marshlands are the largest wetland habitat in the Middle East, but years of damming, drainage, and pollution have rendered the area inadequate for the survival of the area’s plants, animals, and humans.
Untold numbers of people, many of whom living in extreme poverty, have been displaced by the drying marshlands. After initial improvements after the expulsion of Saddam Husein’s regime, water levels have shrunk down to below 2003 levels due to drought, causing many who returned to the area to leave.
By Mridul Chadha •
March 21, 2009
China has often by-passed the internationally prescribed EIA regulations to go ahead with socially & environmentally sensitive projects. The Chinese government is trying to block public scrutiny of an oil refinery to be set up in wetlands near Hong Kong.

Following last week’s post on contamination of the water supply for the city of Yancheng, China, state-run media Xinhua News has released an update on the news item.
According to a government circular cited in the Xinhua article, seven officials responsible for water supervision have been punished and two have been removed from office for lacking oversight. The Mayor of the city has pledged to close over 10% of the city’s [...]
By Elizabeth Balkan •
February 26, 2009

Authorities from China’s coastal city of Yancheng, in the province of Jiangsu, shut off water last Friday and restricted the supply for most of the weekend following citizen reports of foul smelling water. An estimated one million of the city’s 1.5 million residents were left without water due to what government identified as the presence of two variants of carbolic acid – carcinogen hydroxybenzene and phenol — in the city’s water supply.
The local government identified Biaoxin Chemical Company as the party responsible for the tainted water, which illegally discharged the toxic chemicals from its facility, said state media Xinhua news agency. Xinhua also reported that the plant has been shut down and its top executives arrested. Officials have not provided any additional information; and state media China Daily reports that no one has come forward with symptoms of poisoning have not been independently confirmed.
By Andrew Williams •
February 3, 2009

Less than an hours drive from downtown Shanghai, Chinese conservationists have created a mile long wetland nature reserve in an area that, just three years ago, was littered with mountains of steel slag more than ten yards high.
In an amazing tribute to Chinese ingenuity, the Paotaiwan Wetland Park is now home to thriving populations of Egrets and Wild Water Bamboo, and has just been awarded the coveted China Habitat Environment Award.
“The 50-hectare wetland is a precious treasure for the ecosystem here,” says Yang Xin, president of the Shanghai Baoshan Greening Management Bureau. He calls wetland “the kidney of Earth,” a purifier and filter that protects water resources.