Pesticide Effects Database Released
The Eureka Reporter
31 Dec 2006
N Rushton
Photo courtesy of The Eureka Reporter
The Eureka-based Californians for Alternatives to Toxics has unveiled on its Web site an assembled database of hundreds of scientific studies and research documents related to the harmful effects of pesticides and herbicides on amphibians and reptiles. CAT Executive Director Patty Clary said the database project began about six years ago when a CAT member in the Southern Humboldt County area alerted the group that swimming holes in several local rivers and creeks were no longer populated by frogs where frogs had always been observed. “This was a very frightening situation,” Clary said.
The Reptile, Amphibian and Pesticides database, or RAP, builds upon an earlier database covering literature up to 1998, which was assembled by the Canadian Wildlife Service. CAT’s updated data pool is searchable by species and genus, location of research, pesticide studied and toxicological effect and includes a list of 327 scientific papers published since 1999 on the effects of pesticides on amphibians. Another 128 research papers on pesticides’ impacts on reptiles is also included. The database, which will be updated as new information becomes available, can be found on CAT’s Web site at www.alternatives2toxics.org.
Grange: Where Urbanites Graze: Improper Land Care Threatens Texas Wildlife
Houston Chronicle
29 Dec 2006
D Pike
The cost of raw land in Texas continues to spiral upward, and once expansive ranches are being hacked into tiny fragments. Those trends could have detrimental long-term impacts on wildlife. Shannon Tompkins called me to his desk Friday to check out the online notice regarding a place for sale about halfway between Dallas and Oklahoma. The property is 324 low-fenced acres and includes a nice-looking house with garage, stocked lakes, grain storage and (presumably, once you see the price tag) lots more.
When asked to guess the asking figure, I missed almost by an entire zero. It can be yours, anyone's, for a mere $3.25 million. Apparently, while none of us rational people were looking, the value of dirt in the middle of nowhere — at least it's in Texas — rose to nearly $10,000 per acre. The only thing wackier than that tag is that it almost surely will be met, but probably not by anyone who realizes that country dirt, even in Texas, isn't worth that much unless it comes with mineral rights, which this place almost certainly does not.
Feral Swine a Disease Threat, Too
Williamsport Sun-Gazette
02 Jan 2007
E Long
Feral pigs are known for their ability to strip and uproot farmers fields, munch on forest plants needed by native wildlife, and kill livestock. Officials say they pose another threat. Diseases that affect humans and agricultural livestock are also a big threat from the wild swine in the state. Harris Glass, state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, in Harrisburg, said feral pigs can carry a number of diseases that can be harmful to humans and livestock.
“Brucellosis can be transferred to humans and you have to cook the meat properly to prevent that,” Glass said. Swine brucellosis, which can also be transferred to domestic livestock, is a fatal human disease, according to the Game Commission’s Feral Swine Report, issued in February of this year. People can contract the disease either by eating undercooked wild swine meat, or by handling the raw meat of an infected animal.
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