Basins are running 20 percent to 60 percent above normal, Summer said. While not an immediate problem, these atypical river ice conditions will be closely monitored as winter continues. For the remainder of New York State and New England, the winter flood risk is expected to be normal. Although areas of western New York near Buffalo have received near record snowfall this season, snowmelt that occurred in mid-December has returned the flood potential to normal. The agreement completes the protection of the mountain's ridgeline and boosts the land protected to 631 acres - an area more than three times larger than Atlanta's Piedmont Park.
Economic benefits come to communities that grow in balance with nature.
Wentworth notes that homes adjoining greenspace are often valued at 15 percent to 20 percent more than houses not near such land. The agency will not issue permits for bear carcasses taken from the M'Clintock Channel population after the close of the 1999-2000 Canadian hunting season. According to new information given to us by the Canadian Wildlife Service, even with remedial steps the M'Clintock polar bears are not expected to recover for a number of years. The best information now available estimates there are about 288 polar bears in the M'Clintock Channel population, rather than an earlier estimate of 700. This new figure indicates that, at the current rate of harvest, the population is declining and will be reduced to zero in 10 years.