Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Today the Obama administration released the landmark National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, a plan for responding to climate change to help conserve our precious wildlife and natural resources.  It provides in-depth analysis of climate change-related conservation problems and practical solutions that confront them head-on.  It’s an unprecedented step towards taking action in a warming world, and mirrors Defenders’ own climate adaptation vision

Defenders of Wildlife was instrumental in ensuring that this national wildlife adaptation plan was created, including urging Congress to provide direction to the administration to prepare this groundbreaking plan and engaging the administration throughout its development.

What makes the strategy so unique?  To start, this is the first national plan for responding to climate change developed by federal, state and tribal organizations together.  Its creation, three years in the making, was truly a team effort.

It’s also more focused and direct than many plans that have come before it.  The strategy outlines the wide range of ecosystems and wildlife affected by climate change.  From the arctic tundra to the Florida Everglades, from butterflies to polar bears, climate change is making an impact.  And this strategy calls on us to act before it’s too late.

It includes seven goals for helping our fish, wildlife and plants respond to and build resiliency in a warming world.  Goal 1, “Conserve and Connect Habitat,” calls for ensuring that wildlife can modify their range in response to climate fluctuations.  States like Florida with fragmented wildlife habitat can help species survive by creating wildlife corridors, and developing strategically to avoid making habitats even more isolated.

Goal 2, “Manage Species and Habitats,” calls for updating and changing species conservation plans to consider the impacts of climate change.  This will help protect a wide range of species currently affected by climate change.

And possibly one of the most vital goals of the strategy, goal 6, calls for increasing climate change awareness and motivating decision-makers and the public to act.  This is and will continue to be a hugely important issue: from securing funds for restoration work to protecting crucial wildlife habitat, there can be little progress unless everyone understands the threat of climate change.

Now that the strategy is complete, it’s time to implement it.  Here at Defenders, we hope to see some of the partners that helped create the strategy, like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service, begin to work towards accomplishing the strategy’s goals.  And along with adaptation, we need to focus on reducing carbon emissions: the two go hand in hand.  The strategy is our roadmap for responding to climate change; it’s time to begin the journey.

President Obama surprised many people when he said last week in his inaugural address: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.  Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.”

Oiled debris field in Sheepshead Bay, NY. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally.

“Powerful storms,” of course calls to mind Hurricane Sandy, the October super-storm that swept away our illusions that if we ignore climate change, it will go away. And this week, we are pleased to report that Congress finally acted to fund recovery in the areas so hard hit by that storm.

The $50 billion relief bill is important to Defenders’ priorities because it recognizes that restoring and rebuilding our natural infrastructure is just as important to our communities as rebuilding our roads, homes and businesses. We have long known that natural wetlands, dunes, forests and floodplains can absorb some of the impact from a major storm, thereby protecting communities from the ravages of winds and flooding. But the Sandy supplemental makes a historic commitment to restoring and preserving coastal areas as part of a comprehensive plan to prevent future storm damage.  (See our previous blog for details on the contents of the bill.)

It remains to be seen whether 2013 will mark the point where we finally embark on the road to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the “path towards sustainable energy sources” that the president spoke of last week. That will be the real key to reducing the risk of more billion-dollar weather disasters in the future. By providing the funding  to increase resiliency by harnessing the protective power of restored ecosystems, Congress has at least taken a step in the right direction.

Haley McKey, Communications Associate

Storm surge damage at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (Credit: USFWS Northeast)

This past Tuesday, the House voted on the $50.4 billion Hurricane Sandy supplemental bill.  The outcome?  Results are mixed, but overall, we were pleased to see that there’s good news for both wildlife and people thanks to Representative Frelinghuysen.

The Sandy hurricane supplemental bill (H.R. 152) originally slated for the House floor left out many of the forward-thinking provisions the administration and the Senate’s relief bill proposed for restoring coastal ecosystems.  But Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) saw the need to keep these provisions, and introduced an amendment restoring most of them to the bill.

His amendment included the full amount of much-needed funding that the Obama administration requested for repairs and restoration at national wildlife refuges.  The storm cost our refuges a total of $78 million in damages from flooding, erosion, and debris, 16% of the National Wildlife Refuge System’s total budget.  Unfortunately, nearly $10 million of this funding that would have gone to repairing damage on the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Connecticut was subsequently stripped by an amendment offered by Rep. John Fleming (R-LA).

The Frelinghysen amendment also provides the National Park Service with $348 million to repair damages that occurred on national parks.  The USDA will get funding for restoration and repair to private property: a total of $203 million for restoring damaged farmland and forestland and reducing flood risks.

In addition, the amendment provides a crucial $360 million to Department of the Interior programs to “increase the resiliency and capacity of coastal habitat and infrastructure to withstand future storms and reduce the amount of damage caused by such storms.”  The Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and other programs will all be included.  Restoration will also be funded through grants and cooperative agreements with states, tribes and municipalities.

Finally, it gives $2.9 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for planning and constructing flood-reducing projects that support the long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems.  It also sets down some new ground rules: the amendment requires the Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider projects that were authorized before Hurricane Sandy and other extreme weather events.  These and all future project plans must take current scientific projections of climate-related risks into account.  This is a big step towards making climate planning a part of all building decisions, and will help ensure the success of future projects.

However, the House also passed two other amendments which aren’t so beneficial.   An amendment offered by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) prohibits use of any funds in the bill for land acquisition, which prevents the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and USDA from using these funds to acquire flood-prone habitat to act as a buffer to protect communities.  An amendment offered by Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) also passed, cutting $150 million in coastal funding that could have gone towards improving the quality and resilience of marine wildlife habitat.

Fortunately the House wisely voted down the disastrous amendment offered by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), which called for offsetting $17 billion of the funds in the bill with discretionary funding cuts across the board.  The amendment would have forced cuts in important environmental programs, already underfunded, forcing these programs to scrape by even more and even eliminate essential activities.  Overall, the Hurricane Sandy supplemental bill passed by the House is a forward-looking and ground-breaking piece of legislation that will address important issues like preventing future flood damage, repairing damaged areas in refuges and parks, restoring habitat and helping wildlife adapt to climate change.

Forty foot waves.  60 mile-per-hour winds.  Freezing temperatures.  A fragile, pristine environment.  As if we needed another example of why drilling in the Arctic Ocean is a very bad idea, we sure got one when the Shell drilling ship Kulluk ran aground on Monday.

The problems began last Thursday, when the Kulluk, a conical Arctic drilling ship on its way to Seattle for repairs, broke away from its towing vessel and was set adrift.  Things only got worse from there:  The tow vessel, Aiviq, lost function in all four of its engines due to mechanical issues.  This is the vessel Shell heralded as a symbol of its commitment to doing things right in the Arctic. It is the vessel company president and CEO Gary Chouest described as “the world’s largest and most powerful anchor-handling icebreaker.”  It was designed to operate in minus-40 degrees and is apparently a state of the art vessel. And yet it could not keep control of Kulluk.  As winter seas continued to pummel the drill ship and its now two attendant tow vessels, the Coast Guard was called in to evacuate all of the Kulluk’s crew members.

But the Kulluk wasn’t just carrying crew members.  While the ship pitched up and down in the icy waters, about 150,000 gallons of fuel were sloshing around inside it, too, in the form of sulfur diesel, hydraulic fluid, and lube oil.  In effect, the Kulluk was an oil spill waiting to happen.

By Monday afternoon, the Kulluk was reattached to a repaired Aiviq and a new tow vessel, Alert. The ships were headed for safe port in Kodiak to weather the storm.  But the relentlessly rough water separated the Kulluk from the Aiviq, forcing the crew of the Alert to sever their line, as well.  Kulluk was adrift again, and this time, grounding was all but inevitable.  The ship ran aground around 9 pm on New Year’s Eve on a small island off the coast of Kodiak.

As of this writing, there have been no reports of leakage from the ship or oil sheen on the water.  But the event serves to remind us that drilling attempts in the Arctic will be costly and difficult at best and an environmental tragedy at worst.

Polar bears and other large mammals could suffer damage to their eyes, mouth, skin and lungs from petroleum exposure. Like bird feathers, polar bear fur loses its insulating and water-repelling properties when coated with oil.

This time, the Kodiak Coast Guard station was close enough to respond quickly, with plenty of helping hands and the right equipment. The Coast Guard station can also provide a base for personnel to coordinate efforts or to hunker down when the weather gets too bad to send response vessels.   But the drill sites in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas are over 1,000 miles away from Kodiak, and there’s no Coast Guard station nearer than that.  Shell claims their spill response ship Arctic Challenger can contain an underwater leak, but external support could take days or weeks to reach an out of control vessel, or even worse, a spill.

If something like the 2010 BP Oil Spill were to occur in the Arctic Ocean, the environmental damage would be truly unimaginable: iconic arctic species like whales, polar bears and walruses could all suffer. There is also a huge risk of damaging the intricate and pristine ecology of the Arctic Ocean in ways we don’t fully understand yet.  Combine that with the danger to spill response crews, and it’s hard to believe Shell is willing to risk drilling in the Arctic Ocean at all.

This latest fiasco with the Kulluk could have been a New Year’s oil spill.  The incident surely shows that Shell, even with state of the art equipment, cannot  prevent accidents in the remote Arctic. We can only hope that this and Shell’s other recent travails will convince lawmakers and the administration to put an end to offshore drilling in the Arctic before it’s too late.

The first step to solving a problem is talking about it, and it looks an awful lot like Americans are ready to listen.

A University of Texas-Austin poll found that 70% of the public believes that climate change is happening, up from 65% in March.  A 2011 Stanford study showed that when given a choice between three hypothetical Senate candidates with different stances on climate change, 77% of those polled chose the candidate that recognized climate science and called for action.  This data shows that climate change is becoming more accepted, more of a concern, and more important than ever to bring to the fore of any discussion of the future of our country.  So why aren’t we hearing more about it?

To achieve real, lasting climate change solutions, we need to get everyone in on the conversation, including our elected officials.  (Photo: Garton Gary)

Defenders of Wildlife and people of every political stripe who value our natural heritage have been perennially frustrated by elected officials’ refusal to take a stand on climate change, or even mention it at all in past years.  But these officials may be missing out, because times have changed.  Yale and George Mason University conducted a recent survey comparing voter behavior to climate change opinion.  (Both schools have excellent climate change communication programs.)  The results?  Independent voters are going green.

Over half of undecided voters believed that global warming is important, and 68% of undecided voters thought the United States should combat global warming.  The majority of undecided voters believed that both the president and Congress need to do more about climate change.

What’s really interesting about this data is that these surveys were taken before the disastrous weather events we experienced this summer: the crippling droughts in the Midwest, the disastrous wildfires in Colorado, and freak storms across the nation (including the derecho storm that left thousands of people without power right here in Washington).  It’s probable that folks are more concerned about climate change than ever before.

So there’s no better time for candidates on both sides of the aisle to think of climate change in a new light and start working together on solutions that will get carbon dioxide emissions under control, make use of clean energy options and help our world adapt to a changing climate.

Here at Defenders, we fight for meaningful policy action on climate change, which is already impacting wildlife in the United States and around the world.  Wild animals have no way to protect themselves or escape from floods or wildfires.  They have no say in our elections.  It’s up to the American public to drive the conversation and demand that our politicians do something about climate change.  The time to talk-and act-is now.

To learn more about what Defenders is doing to fight climate change, click here.

For an in-depth look at why wildlife is vulnerable to climate change, click here.

by Haley McKey

Fall is finally here, and the change in season is sending Florida Black Bears a message, loud and clear:  “eat up while the getting’s good!”

It’s important to the safety of bears and people that they avoid communities and stick to their natural diet of fruit, nuts and acorns.

There’s a great variety of nuts, fruits and seeds in the Florida countryside for bears to snack on (lots of acorns, not to mention the occasional treat of honey and larvae from beehives).  But bears instinctively look for the greatest calorie reward for the least effort, at this time of year especially.  Unfortunately, in suburban areas that often means pet food and trash.

Fortunately, there’s a great opportunity to learn how to bear-proof your property in Florida this weekend.   The Forgotten Coast Black Bear Festival is coming to Carrabelle, Florida on October 6, and will hold workshops on living with bears, along with presentations by bear experts and guided hikes with a bear biologist.  There are plenty of fun activities for kids and families too: live music, vendors and exhibits, and a Procession of the Species Parade!  Click here to learn more.  You can also see some examples of ways to bear-proof your property here.

Making sure we don’t leave items out around our homes that attract bears helps keep both bears and people safe and assures bears are foraging on their natural wild foods.  Bear-proofing is a community effort, since just one home with unsecured trash can create risk for the rest of the neighborhood.  That’s why festivals and events like the Forgotten Coast Black Bear Festival are important: they bring people together to learn about, as well as celebrate, the unique wildlife they share their state with.

Learn more about what Defenders is doing to help wildlife and people coexist.