Administration officials say they are trying to negotiate a settlement with environmental groups that would remove the injunction against multiple timber sales, and they are trying to rewrite Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan, which calls for more wildlife surveys than the government has been able to complete. 09.17.99 Greens Vs. Genes Enviros fighting genetically modified foods in Britain scored a point today when the government announced that it would not fight a legal challenge against its licensing of crop trials. Friends of the Earth had gone to court to stop a trial planting of genetically modified rapeseed, arguing that the government illegally made changes to the license for the trial. The government acknowledged that it's actions were illegal, but said this development was just a small setback in its plans to test genetically modified crops in the country.
FoE claims the government's trial program is now in chaos.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's administration is trying to open the country up to genetically modified foods, but most Brits are staunchly opposed and enviros in the country have threatened to destroy trial crop plantings. The kiwi bird, New Zealand's national symbol, is in danger of going extinct within five to 10 years, enviros warn. New Zealand's kiwi population is now estimated at 70,000, down from 5 million in 1923. Though the population has been declining for decades, a recent study by New Zealand's Forest and Bird Society, which found an 18 percent drop last year in the population in one of the bird's few remaining strongholds, has prompted a rash of concern. So far, the conservative National Party government and the opposition Labour Party have failed to seriously address the issue.