In the southern part of the nation, coastal erosion, blamed primarily on rising sea levels caused by global warming, is eating away at the land. Gone Fishin' Strict fishing limits along New England's coast, imposed since 1994, have contributed to rebounds in a dozen species, according to a report released this week. But tight fishing restrictions are likely to remain in place for a few years because some fish, including Gulf of Maine cod, are still at record low levels. The New England Fisheries Management Council projects that fish populations should be fully recovered within 10 years. In less happy fish news, 7.6 million fish in California's Salton Sea died in a single day last week, the largest one-day death toll ever recorded in the lake.
Some scientists say the die-off indicates that the lake's ecosystem is in serious trouble.
The U.S. economy could get a real boost if the nation makes a serious effort to cut carbon-dioxide emissions, according to a new study by the Tellus Institute and World Wildlife Fund. A coalition of businesses is fighting a federal plan that could triple logging levels across a large swath of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. The coalition is indicating that it will go to court if necessary over the plan, which is a version of a plan developed by the Quincy Library Group, a controversial consensus effort of some local environmentalists and timber industry reps. Thirteen bird species that live exclusively on farmland have declined by an average of 30 percent between 1968 and 1995, the team reports. It blames changes in farming methods, including increased draining of land, monoculture planting, and the use of agrochemicals.