February 24, 2017

What We Can Expect From the New EPA Chief
By Brady Dennis/The Washington Post
Photo by Gage Skidmore/flickr
Scott Pruitt woke up last Friday as Oklahoma's attorney general, a post he had used for six years to repeatedly sue the Environmental Protection Agency for its efforts to regulate mercury, smog and other forms of pollution. By day's end, he had been sworn in as the agency's new leader, setting off a struggle over what the EPA will become in the Trump era.

Pruitt begins what is likely to be a controversial tenure with a clear set of goals. He has been outspoken in his view, widely shared by Republicans, that the EPA zealously overstepped its legal authority under President Barack Obama, saddling the fossil-fuel industry with unnecessary and onerous regulations.

But rolling back the environmental actions of the previous administration won't happen quickly or easily.  Existing regulations won't disappear overnight.

In addition, Pruitt will encounter an EPA workforce on edge, in which some employees are wary about the direction he plans to take the agency and fearful he might adhere more to ideology than science. 
After 64 Years, Snake Found Again in Brazil
By Herton Escobar/Science
Photo by Douglas Scorteganga/flickr
One of the world's most elusive snakes has resurfaced after a 64-year "manhunt" by scientists in Brazil.

1953 was the last time any researcher saw a Cropan's boa (Corallus cropanii) alive. Since then, the snake-thought to be the rarest boid in the world-has been recorded by scientists just five times. But the boa, which lives in Brazil's Atlantic Forest south of São Paulo, was always dead, usually killed by locals who don't take chances with snakes.

Now, researchers are getting a second chance to study the species, thanks to a 1.7-meter-long female captured by a group of rural workers in January.
Fight Over Farm Bill Will Be Long and Complicated
By Philip Brasher/Agri-Pulse
Photo by Stephen Drake/flickr
Development of a new farm bill usually starts with discussions of needs and wants, and evolves into costs.

Figuring out the farm bill "math" is not for the faint of heart. Agricultural economists spend countless hours making the programmatic goals work within a certain set of parameters - largely dictated by Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections.
And that doesn't count all of the internal "scores" that staff members produce - trying to work out the kinks and find solutions before CBO issues an "official" score for members to consider.

And then there's also the political math behind that farm bill "wish list" - producing a bill that attracts 218 votes in the House and a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate.

How does one make sense of it all?

If recent history is any guide, farmers, ranchers, sportsmen, conservationists, and anyone else who would like to see more money spent on food and agricultural policy could be in a tough spot when lawmakers sit down to write the next farm bill.
It's Tough to Be a Nesting Canvasback Hen
By Paul Wait/Delta Waterfowl
Photo by Dave Inman/flickr
Michael Johnson monitors more trail cameras than even the most antler-obsessed, deer-hunting fanatic would ever dream of using.

But the University of Minnesota master's degree candidate isn't trying to kill a record-book whitetail, and he's not working for a guide service, either. Instead, Johnson has spent the past two summers wading through cattails collecting memory chips and changing batteries in a mind-boggling fleet of 75 trail cameras that have been mounted on poles to monitor nesting ducks. His research has involved remote-camera observation of more than 150 duck nests, and he's collected 800,000 images. That's no typo: Johnson has 800,000 pictures!

So what have all of those snapshots revealed?

That being a canvasback hen incubating a nest in southwest Manitoba is a tough task.
Is It Time to Retire the Term "Sportsman?"
By Jerry Brasher/Sporting Classics Daily
Photo by m01229/flickr
The term "sportsman" is often applied to hunters, fishermen, and trappers, but is that the correct moniker? I even use it myself, grudgingly, because that term is recognized and aids communication. But is that we are? Are we engaged in a sport? I think not.

"Sport" and "sportsman." When I think of those words, I think of polo players, yachts, football, "extreme" pursuits, hordes of kids ferried frenetically from one soccer field to another. These poor kids never get to play on their own, outside, where they might encounter an insect, bird, flower, or deer.

I think of people chasing some projectile around in an artificial enclosure, basking in the adulation of the adoring crowd.

I think of an activity with little purpose except entertainment and diversion.

I think of winning and losing and opponents and competition, which are fine in athletics but sorry reasons for hunting.

Hunting is not a "sport."

 "I don't regard nature as a spectator sport."