Buffalo Mountain looks good with a fresh coat of white.

SUMMIT COUNTY — Ski resorts rejoiced in an overnight storm that dumped 11 inches at Vail, 9 inches at Copper Mountain and similar amounts at most resorts in the northern and central part of the state. Get the full snow report from Colorado Ski Country USA.

Some roads remained icy and snowpacked Friday morning, but Loveland Pass was the only reported closure, and Highway 6 should re-open once crews have controlled the avalanche hazard.

In the backcountry, an avalanche warning is in effect through 12 p.m. Saturday, Jan, 28, as forecasters warn of dangerous conditions, with both natural and triggered snow slides likely on many slopes.

The storm added anywhere from .5 to .75 inches of snow-water equivalent in a 12-hour period. Combined with strong winds and a weak base layer, all the ingredients are in place for another round of dangerous avalanches. Only the South San Juans and the Grand Mesa zones are excluded from the warning, but even in those areas, the hazard is rated as considerable.

The storm clears over Frisco Friday morning, Jan. 26.

SUMMIT COUNTY — Nearly a foot of snow fell overnight in a classic Colorado snowstorm, with heavy waves of precipitation streaking through the mountains on a moist northwest flow. Here’s how it looked in Frisco at daybreak.

This is what we like to see!

Just a few more swipes with a brush ...

Any snow day is a holiday!

Comet and Ringo, meet Frosty.

Main Street, Frisco, Colorado.

High in the Rockies.

Chiricahua leopard frog. PHOTO COURTESY U.S. FOREST SERVICE.

SUMMIT COUNTY — As so many times before, a federal court has overturned a U.S. Forest Service grazing permit because federal land managers violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The court ruling at least temporarily blocks cattle grazing on 42,000 acres in the Fossil Creek watershed on the Coconino National Forest in central Arizona. The drainage is a stronghold for threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs. Download a copy of the ruling here. The Forest Service has made great efforts to help with the recovery of the frogs elsewhere in Arizona.

The permit holder, J.P. Morgan-Chase & Co., which maintains interests in the historic Ward Ranch of Rimrock, Ariz., reintroduced about 290 cows in September 2009.

“Fossil Creek is one of the Southwest’s most important river reaches,” said Taylor McKinnon, with the Center for Biological Diversity in Flagstaff. “The court’s ruling is a victory for this beautiful creek, its diverse array of native species and the public investments that have been made to recover them. In authorizing this grazing plan, the feds gave Fossil Creek and its endangered species short shrift in favor of J.P. Morgan-Chase,” McKinnon said. “We’re glad the court is demanding a course correction.”

The court ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately consider the potential effects of cattle grazing on the threatened species when it issued a “biological opinion” authorizing the grazing plan.

The court also ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately quantify the amount of incidental “take,” or harm, to the leopard frog, and failed to analyze the effect of the approved plan on the frog’s chances of recovery — all violations of the Endangered Species Act.

“The court’s ruling is significant because it will help protect the last known population of Chiricahua leopard frogs on the Red Rock Ranger District,” said Todd Tucci, a senior attorney at Advocates for the West who argued the case on behalf of the Center.

The court also ruled that the Forest Service violated NEPA by using inaccurate information to assess grazing impacts. Even though the Forest Service documented unsatisfactory, impaired or inherently unstable soil conditions across 96 percent of the allotment, rangers authorized the grazing.

In its environmental assessment, the Forest Service documented unsatisfactory, impaired or inherently unstable soil conditions across 96 percent of the allotment, with only 4 percent of the soils in satisfactory condition. Soil loss in the allotment is currently about 35 percent above normal, causing eight tons of soil loss per hectare annually. Today, 60 percent to 87 percent of the allotment is in declining range condition.

Sales of backcountry related gear grew significantly, according to figures released by SnowSports Industries America.

Dry start to season hits retailers, but backcountry gear sales still going strong

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A warm and dry early winter hurt sales of winter sports gear, but not as badly as some retailers might have expected, according to figures released by SnowSports Industries America.

Most variance in snow sports sales can be directly attributed to weather, according to SIA, which pointed out in a press release that snow cover across the country was down more than 50 percent from December 2010.

Sales through December reached $2.2 billion, about 2 percent below last season’s record sale, but that total still surpassed the numbers from the the previous two seasons.

Unit sales between August and December were down about 10 percent from last season, with the biggest drop showing up in accessories that consumers tend to buy on their way to the slopes, including goggles, wax, and gloves.

Other equipment sales didn’t take as big a hit, with increased sales in alpine and AT/Randonee equipment, as well as insulated tops.

Specialty shop inventories were up 16 percent overall clearly showing the lag in sales. Additionally, specialty shops sell-through was down 10 percent overall through December as consumers waited for more snow to fall.

Trends to Watch in 2011/2012

• Reverse and mixed camber ski sales are up 75 percent in units sold to 87,000 pairs sold, making up 23 percent of all alpine skis sold through December this season.
• Insulated parka sales are up 4 percent in units sold as non-participants head to chain stores and online to buy snow sports apparel as casual wear. Internet sales of insulated parkas are up 18 percent in units and 14 percent in dollars sold through December.
• In-Season AT/Randonee boot sales are up 12 percent in units and dollars, and skins sales are up 10 percent in units sold and 12 percent in dollars sold.
• Rocker snowboard sales account for more than 70 percent of all in-season snowboard sales this season. Sales of rocker boards increased 13 percent in units and 11 percent in dollars sold through December.

Despite below average snowfall in December and January, the recent shift in weather patterns has generated optimism among attendees at the 2012 SIA Snow Show in Denver.

“Christmas was actually good for us, similar to last year. People from out of town came out regardless of the snow, but now that it’s been snowing we’re seeing a lot more locals shopping,” said Alyssa Vance, of Ski Broker Ski & Board in Fraser, Colorado.

The day started by remembering a recent loss to the snow sports community. Tim Petrick, SIA’s Board Chair, asked for a moment of silence in honor of Canadian freeskier Sarah Burke, who tragically died on January 20.

Petrick went on to welcome local Denver officials to the stage to participate in the Show’s Opening Ceremony and bell ringing. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock joined Colorado tourism and snow sports representatives on stage to ring cowbells and officially kick off the 2012 Snow Show.

“We are thrilled to host the SIA Snow Show and welcome its 20,000 attendees to the Mile High City,” Hancock said. “This convention provides our region with a significant economic boost, and it also gives us the opportunity to showcase all of the great outdoor activities in Denver and throughout Colorado.”

Two new areas were unveiled on the Show floor including the BlueBird Social Zone and the Backcountry Experience. The BlueBird Social Zone gave bloggers and social media addicts a place to relax, enjoy streaming music, charge up electronics and map out their day. Over in the Backcountry Experience exhibit, attendees checked out the latest in backcountry gear, accessories while experts Dean Cummings, Mike Hattrup and Jeremy Jones shared their insights on gear, safety practices.

For more news and highlights from the Show, read the official 2012 SIA Snow Show Dailies. And, for 24/7 updates, be sure to visit the SIA Social Dashboard and stay connected through the SIA Facebook page, SIA’s Latest and on Twitter – we’ll be sending highlights before and during the Show to keep you in the know.  When tweeting about the Show, please add #SIA12 to join in on our Twitter feed.

A profile of the Siberian dog skull shows the shortened snout and crowded teeth that helped scientists determine this ancient animal was domesticated. PHOTO COURTESY NIKOLAI D. OVODOV.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Archaelogists who found a well-preserved, 33,000-year-old dog skull in Siberia and compared with similarly aged skull found in Belgium have come closer to discovering how man domesticated his best friend.

The new evidence suggests that domestication of dogs may have occurred repeatedly in different geographic locations rather than with a single domestication event. Different breeds of dogs may have originated from more than one ancient ancestor, contrary to what some DNA evidence previously has indicated — inother words, chihuahuas may not have much in common with a rottweilers.

“Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological characteristics,” said Greg Hodgins, a researcher at the University of Arizona’s Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and co-author of the study that reports the find. “Essentially, wolves have long thin snouts and their teeth are not crowded, and domestication results in this shortening of the snout and widening of the jaws and crowding of the teeth.”

The Altai Mountain skull is extraordinarily well preserved, said Hodgins, enabling scientists to make multiple measurements of the skull, teeth and mandibles that might not be possible on less well-preserved remains.

“The argument that it is domesticated is pretty solid,” said Hodgins. “What’s interesting is that it doesn’t appear to be an ancestor of modern dogs.”

The UA’s Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the Siberian skull.

At 33,000 years old, the Siberian skull predates a period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, which occurred between about 26,000 and 19,000 years ago when the ice sheets of Earth’s last ice age reached their greatest extent and severely disrupted the living patterns of humans and animals alive during that time. Neither the Belgian nor the Siberian domesticated lineages appear to have survived the ice age.

However, the two skulls indicate that the domestication of dogs by humans occurred repeatedly throughout early human history at different geographical locations, which could mean that modern dogs have multiple ancestors rather than a single common ancestor.

“In terms of human history, before the last glacial maximum people were living with wolves or canid species in widely separated geographical areas of Euro-Asia, and had been living with them long enough that they were actually changing evolutionarily,” said Hodgins. “And then climate change happened, human habitation patterns changed and those relationships with those particular lineages of animals apparently didn’t survive.”

“The interesting thing is that typically we think of domestication as being cows, sheep and goats, things that produce food through meat or secondary agricultural products such as milk, cheese and wool and things like that,” said Hodgins.

“Those are different relationships than humans may have with dogs. The dogs are not necessarily providing products or meat. They are probably providing protection, companionship and perhaps helping on the hunt. And it’s really interesting that this appears to have happened first out of all human relationships with animals.”

The 2012 late December snowpack in the U.S. was the lowest in recent years.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — After several months of forecasting increased odds of above-normal snowfall for the 2011-2012 winter season, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has shifted gears and has upped the odds for below-normal precipitation for February through April.

According to NOAA, La Niña has peaked at about half the strength of last winter, and hasn’t influenced the weather as expected, at least so far. While the last few weeks have seen a shift in the larger pattern, the jet stream is still staying mainly north of Colorado and not driving down from the Northwest with abundant moisture like last winter.

Check out NOAA’s snow analysis web page for animated maps of precipitation and snow cover.

The jet stream pattern in Oct. 2011. Click on any of the images to see the entire powerpoint presentation covering the Feb. through March outlook.

The jet stream in December 2011, starting to line up in a pattern that's move favaorable for bringing moisture to Colorado.

The persistent position of the jet stream led to below-normal precipitation across large parts of Colorado the first part of the winter.

Precipitation patterns were spotty across Colorado from October to January.

Percentage of normal precipitation, October, 2011 through January 2012.

The next map, showing precipitation as a percentage of average between late December and late January.

Bullseye of precip in central Colorado.

The past month has seen temps well above normal across nearly the entire state.

Odds are better than even that above-normal temperatures will persist through late winter and early spring.

Temperature outlook for Feb. - April 2012.

Better than even chances for below normal precipitation in late winter and spring, according to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.

The U.S. Forest Service is entrusted with management of precious public resources like this grove of bristlecone pines on Mt. Evans.

A couple of previous Summit Voice stories:

Forest Service releases draft of new national planning rule

Commentary: This land is your land … really!

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The U.S. Forest Service today took a big step toward finalizing a new rule that will determine how the agency writes management plans for 155 forests spanning 193 million acres of public land.

According to the agency, the rule will cut red tape, reduce litigation and try to deliver tronger protections for forests, water, and wildlife — all while supporting the economic vitality of rural communities.

While the Forest Service says the new planning rule bolsters environmental protection, some environmental groups were quick to point out that the rule actually weakens enforceable standards for protecting wildlife.

“The most collaborative rulemaking effort in agency history has resulted in a strong framework to restore and manage our forests and watersheds and help deliver countless benefits to the American people,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“Under our preferred alternative, plan revisions would take less time, cost less money, and provide stronger protections for our lands and water,” said Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. “Finalizing a new rule will move us forward in managing our forests and grasslands, and will create or sustain jobs and income for local communities around the country.”

The agency has tried three times previously to update the 1976 planning rule, but was challenged by conservation groups in court, losing each time, as courts rejected Forest Service attempts to cut public input or remove meaningful standards for wildlife monitoring.

“Today’s rule is a step up from the Bush administration’s rule, but its protections are still a far cry from Reagan-era regulations that the Forest Service has been trying to weaken for 12 years,” said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director at the Center for Biological Diversity, a group that has been part of the previously successful efforts challenging Forest Service attempts to weaken its own rules.

“Our publicly owned national forests should be a safe haven for wildlife. In the face of unprecedented global climate change and other threats to species, the Forest Service should be trying to strengthen, not weaken, protections for wildlife on our public lands,” McKinnon said.

The planning rule in effect since the Reagan administration includes strong, mandatory protections for fish and wildlife, requiring the Forest Service to monitor and maintain viable populations.

The Clinton administration in 2000, and the Bush administration in 2005 and 2008, tried revise the 1982 regulation. Each of these efforts was found unlawful and were not implemented.

The Obama administration is again trying to weaken the long-standing 1982 regulations by requiring that the Forest Service only maintain viable populations for species “of conservation concern,” and only at the discretion of local forest supervisors.

A notice of availability for the PEIS will be published in the Federal Register on February 3, 2012, and the Secretary will issue a record of decision selecting a final planning rule no less than 30 days afterwards.

Highlights of the preferred alternative include:

• Plans must include components that seek to restore and maintain forests and grasslands.
• Plans would include requirements to maintain or restore watersheds, water resources, water quality including clean drinking water, and the ecological integrity of riparian areas.
• Plans would be required to provide habitat for plant and animal diversity and species conservation. These requirements are intended to keep common native species common, contribute to the recovery of threatened and endangered species, conserve proposed and candidate species, and protect species of conservation concern.
• Plans would provide for multiple uses, including outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, wildlife and fish.
• Plans would be required to provide opportunities for sustainable recreation, and to take into account opportunities to connect people with nature.
• Opportunities for public involvement and collaboration would be required throughout all stages of the planning process. The preferred alternative would provide opportunities for Tribal consultation and coordination with state and local governments and other federal agencies, and includes requirements for outreach to traditionally underrepresented communities.
• Plans require the use of the best available scientific information to inform the planning process and documentation of how science was used in the plan.
• The planning framework provides a more efficient and adaptive process for land management planning, allowing the Forest Service to respond to changing conditions.

Parts of the Colorado mountains are under an avalanche watch. Click for more info.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A round of forecast snow — perhaps 4 to 10 inches Thursday night — could unleash another cycle of dangerous, naturally running backcountry avalanches, Colorado snow safety experts said, issuing an avalanche watch that covers the Front Range and mountains to the west from Fairplay up to Steamboat Springs.

Four people have died in avalanches this season, including two at ski areas. Get the latest backcountry update at the Colorado Avalanche Information Center website.

An avalanche watch means that, if the weather forecast is accurate, the avalanche danger will rise to high in the watch area, with both natural and triggered slides likely. The watch is in effect through 11 a.m. Friday. A high danger rating means very dangerous backcountry avalanche conditions, and travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended. Specifically, the warning covers the Park Elkhead, Flattop, Front, Gore and Tenmile ranges.

The forecast calls for a 12 to 18 hour period with moderate to heavy snow and strong winds building fresh layers of snow atop a rotten base of faceted sugar-snow crystals that can’t support additional weight.

Freshly fallen dendritic snow crystals. When these flakes fall and sit on the ground during spells of dry, cold weather, they metamorph into so-called faceted grains (see next photo) that don't stick together and can't support the weight of subsequent snow layers. PHOTO BY BOB BERWYN.

These area faceted grains of "sugar snow" at the base of the snowpack in most of Colorado's mountains. They don't stick together and collapse easily under the weight of fresh snow, contributing to the significant risk of backcountr avalanches.

Some avalanche paths that slid after the last storm cycle have already been reloaded by wind-transported snow and the weight any fresh snowfall is likely to cause more natural releases.

Scores of natural and triggered avalanches have been reported the past few days from around the state, with some slides taking the entire snowpack to the ground. See the full list of recent avalanche observations at this CAIC web page.

The snowpack is tender and touchy, as shown by this video from the CAIC YouTube channel:

This video is posted at the CAIC’s latest backcountry avalanche conditions report web page.

NASA satellite images show the state of Arctic ice from a distance, but a new two-year research efforts should yield more clues about global warming impacts to the planet's icebox.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A research effort led by the University of Colorado Boulder is launching a two-year study of Arctic sea ice to determine whether areas like the Beaufort Sea and the adjacent Canada Basin have passed a ‘tipping point’ and now are essentially sub-Arctic zones where ice disappears each summer.

Such ice loss could be causing fundamental changes in ocean conditions, including earlier annual blooms of phytoplankton, which are microscopic plant-like organisms that drive the marine food web.

The team will use unmanned aircraft and satellites to ocean buoys in order to understand the characteristics and changes in Arctic sea ice, which was at 1.67 million square miles during September 2011, more than 1 million square miles below the 1979-2000 monthly average sea ice extent for September — an area larger than Texas and California combined.

Critical ocean regions north of the Alaskan coast have experienced record warming and decreased sea ice extent unprecedented in human memory, said CU-Boulder Research Professor James Maslanik, who is leading the research effort.

The scientists will take a close look at the Beaufort Sea, considered a “marginal ice zone” where old and thick multiyear sea ice has failed to survive during the summer melt season in recent years, said Maslanik, of CU-Boulder’s Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research in CU’s engineering college. Such marginal ice zones are characterized by extensive ice loss and a strong “ice-albedo” feedback.

“Sea ice is lost when the darker ocean absorbs more sunlight in the form of heat in the summers, resulting in potentially thinner sea ice that re-forms the following winter,” Maslanik said.  “This positive feedback between heat absorption by the ocean and accelerated melting becomes reinforcing in itself.” Marginal ice zones also are characterized by significant human and marine mammal activity, he said.

There was a record loss of sea ice cover over the Arctic in 2007, he said. “In some areas of the Arctic Ocean the multiyear ice rebounded, but in the Beaufort Sea we did not see that kind of multiyear ice persistence like we used to see,” said Maslanik, who also is a research professor in the aerospace engineering sciences department.

The vast majority of climate scientists believe shrinking Arctic sea ice in recent decades is due to rising temperatures primarily caused by human activities that pump huge amounts of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The new $3 million study led by Maslanik, “The Marginal Ice Zone Observations and Processes EXperiment,” or MIZOPEX, is being funded by NASA. In addition to satellite data, the study will use small, unmanned aircraft that can fly below the clouds, observe the same location continuously for hours and make more precise measurements of sea ice composition and sea surface temperatures. Maslanik and his CU-Boulder team previously used unmanned aircraft to assess ice conditions both in the Arctic and in Antarctica.

The MIZOPEX arsenal also will include floating buoys that measure ocean temperatures. CU-Boulder engineering faculty members Scott Palo and Dale Lawrence and their graduate students are converting miniaturized versions of dropsondes — standard weather reconnaissance devices designed to be dropped from aircraft and capture data as they fall toward Earth — into the buoys that will be deployed by the UAS.

The modified dropsondes, which were developed at CU-Boulder for use in Antarctica, will be combined with CU-designed miniature unmanned aircraft that will land on the ocean near sea ice floes. Such floes are critical to several species of Arctic wildlife, including polar bears, walruses and seals.

The buoys and unmanned craft will collect sea surface and subsurface temperatures to about a meter deep, while the overflying unmanned planes and satellites measure temperatures at the surface, Maslanik said.

“We want to know if the warming is just at the ocean surface or if there is additional heat getting into the mixed layers of the upper ocean, either from absorbed sunlight or from ocean currents, that could be contributing to sea ice melt.”

The team plans to gather information over 24-hour cycles to determine how the ocean and ice are reacting to atmospheric changes. “Understanding what’s happening in the water is critical to forecasting what will happen to ice in the near term, as well as in the decades to come,” said MIZOPEX team scientist Betsy Weatherhead of CU-Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

“We’ve never had the data before,” Weatherhead said. “With this new instrumentation, we’ll be able to ask questions and test theories about the drivers of ice melt.”

The MIZOPEX effort involves CU-Boulder, NASA, Fort Hays State University in Kansas, Brigham Young University, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, NOAA, the University of Washington and Columbia University.  Ball Aerospace Systems Group of Boulder also is collaborating on the project.

Other MIZOPEX project scientists from CU include Brian Argrow, Sandra Castro, Ian Crocker, William Emery, Eric Frew and Mark Tschudi.  Argrow directs the CU-headquartered Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles, a university-government-industry partnership for the development and application of unmanned vehicle systems.

For more information on MIZOPEX visit http://ccar.colorado.edu/mizopex/index.html.

For more information on CU-Boulder’s Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles visit http://recuv.colorado.edu/.

Kemp's Ridley Turtle. PHOTO COURTESY NOAA/KIM BASSOS-HULL, MOTE MARINE LABORATORY.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY —Along with the significant pollution — including greenhouse gases — associated with use of fossil fuels, the push to extract more oil and gas is also a driver in the great wave of species extinctions currently sweeping the planet.

From tiny river mollusks in the Appalachians to the mighty polar bear, aggressive development of fossil fuel resources is endangering dozens of species. In the West, greater sage-grouse is under pressure, as habitat is increasingly fragmented by well pads, compressor stations, access roads, power lines and pipelines.

To draw attention to the threats, the Endangered Species Coalition last week released a report on wildlife endangered by energy development, highlighting 10 species that are particularly at risk.

“America’s outsized reliance on dirty and dangerous fuels is making it much harder to protect our most vulnerable wildlife,” said Mark Salvo, Wildlife Program Director at WildEarth Guardians and head of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign. “We should not sacrifice our irreplaceable natural heritage in order to make the fossil fuels industry even wealthier.”

The report shows how wildlife suffers displacement, loss of habitat and the threat of extinction from the development, storage and transportation of fossil fuels. Coalition members nominated candidates for inclusion in the report, and submissions were then reviewed, judged, and voted on by a panel of scientists. The report identifies the home range, conservation status, remaining population and specific threat facing each of the ten finalists.

In addition to the loss of habitat to roads and well pads that are scraped clean of sagebrush, greater sage-grouse are highly sensitive to noise and visual disturbance from oil and gas drilling, especially on their traditional mating grounds, known as leks. Recent studies show negative impacts to sage-grouse mating and brood rearing activities from oil and gas facilities as far as four miles away from lek sites.

In 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that greater sage-grouse warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act, but declined to add it to the federal threatened and endangered species list, citing an existing backlog of pending listing decisions.

Since then, state governments and federal land management agencies have increased efforts to conserve sage-grouse and their sagebrush habitats. The Bureau of Land Management, which manages approximately half of all sage-grouse habitat in the West, is currently revising management plans across the West to better protect sage-grouse and the places they live.

“Sage-grouse are an icon of the Western landscape,” said Josh Pollock, Conservation Director at Rocky Mountain Wild. “If they are in trouble, it means we should be very concerned about what’s happening to our wide-open western landscapes and the sagebrush country that supports dozens of other wildlife species, like pronghorn, elk, golden eagles, and swift fox.”

Other examples of at-risk wildlife include the dwindling population of bowhead whales off the coast of Alaska — threatened by contaminants and noise from offshore drilling — to the dunes sagebrush lizard in Texas, where habitat loss and degradation and leaking pipelines are contributing to the reptile’s decline.

Elsewhere in the country, the iconic and endangered whooping crane overcame near extinction in the 1940s, only to face a new battle for survival from the proposed Keystone Pipeline, which would run alongside the crane’s long migratory path, destroying resting places and food sources.[ds1]  The lingering impacts of the Deepwater oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are affecting vital breeding grounds of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. And in Appalachia, toxic coal waste is dumped into streams, smothering the threatened Kentucky arrow darter and other fish, as well as poisoning the drinking water supply for downstream communities.

“We are paying a high price for the destruction of sagebrush country and the nation’s land, water, air and wildlife by subsidizing the oil and gas industry,” said Duane Short, Wild Species Program Director at Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “Taxpayers will hand out nearly $100 billion to oil and gas companies in the coming decades. Meanwhile, oil companies paid their senior executives $220 million in 2010 alone, while ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP combined have reduced their U.S. workforce by over 11,000 employees in the past six years.”

Fueling Extinction: How Dirty Energy Drives Wildlife to the Brink calls for a commitment to a clean, safe and sustainable energy future, and urges lawmakers to honor the intent of the Endangered Species Act while reducing the country’s dependence on dirty fossil fuels.

For more information and to view the full report, go to: http://fuelingextinction.org.

Top 10 list:
Bowhead Whale: The remainder of the endangered bowhead whale population is threatened by contaminants, noise from off shore oil drilling, and deadly collisions with ships. An oil spill could easily wipe out this small population, which lives solely in icy Arctic waters.

Dunes Sagebrush Lizard: The dunes sagebrush lizard is a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act due to impacts from oil and gas drilling on the Permian Basin in western Texas. Habitat loss and degradation, disturbance from well pads and leaking pipelinescontribute to the decline of the lizard’s population, which exists on a tiny range within the Basin’s vast oil reserves.

Graham’s Penstemon (flower): This delicate flower lives only on oil shale reserves targeted for mining in Utah. Oil shale mining takes massive amounts of water, putting the flowers at risk of either being starved of water or drowned under new reservoirs. Oil shale soils are very unstable, and any development can bury or uproot the few remaining plants.

Greater Sage-Grouse: Energy development has caused habitat loss and fragmentation due to roads, pipelines, power lines, and human and vehicle-related disturbance, resulting in marked declines in sage-grouse numbers. Coalbed methane gas development in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming has coincided with a 79 percent decline in the greater sage-grouse population.

Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle: According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Kemp’s ridley is the most seriously endangered of all sea turtles, due to lingering impacts of the Deepwater oil disaster on Gulf waters – the sole breeding ground of the turtle. In the immediate aftermath of the oil spill, 156 sea turtle deaths were recorded; most of the turtles were Kemp’s ridleys.

Kentucky Arrow Darter (fish): Toxic waste pushed into streams from mountaintop coal mining is smothering the rare Kentucky arrow darter fish and poisoning the drinking water of downstream communities. The arrow darter has already been wiped out from more than half of its range.

Spectacled Eider (bird): Oil and gas development, along with climate change, have drastically reduced the frigid habitat range of the threatened spectacled eider. As a result, the western Alaskan population dropped by 96 percent between 1957 and 1992. Aircraft and vessel traffic and seismic survey acoustic activities can all negatively impact the bird’s habitat and cause death.

Tan Riffleshell (mussel): This endangered mollusk plays a critical role in the health of Appalachian river habitats by filtering pollutants and restoring nutrients to the water. Acid mine drainage, sedimentation from coal mining, and coal ash landfills are contaminating the mussel’s habitat and breeding areas, further threatening this most endangered member of the mussel family.

Whooping Crane: The endangered whooping crane overcame near extinction in the 1940s, but the existing wild flock of 437 cranes now faces a new battle for survival. The proposed Keystone Pipeline would run alongside the crane’s entire migratory path from Canada to Texas, and the inevitable toxic waste ponds, collisions and electrocutions from power lines, along with potential oil spills, would decimate the vulnerable remaining population.

Wyoming Pocket Gopher: It is estimated that fewer than 40 pocket gophers exist today in their sole range in Wyoming’sSweetwater and Carbon Counties. Truck and vehicle traffic associated with increasing oil and gas activities result in habitat loss and fragmentation, cutting off potential mating opportunities and endangering the survival of this rare animal.

Advocates Choice – The Polar Bear: The polar bears’ survival is completely dependent upon sea ice, which is rapidly melting. They are further threatened by the risk of an oil spill, and activities like seismic testing, icebreaking, and vessel movement also negatively impact polar bears and their food sources.