Biodiversity

"Half a century after Pacific walruses began recovering from industrial-scale hunting, marine biologists are growing worried that they face a mounting threat from global warming."

"As kids, many of us come to see snakes as frightening, evil creatures. In some places, that ingrained fear has taken a toll on the snake population. ... Some folks ... are trying to improve one snake's image - before it disappears."

"More than 50 years after nearly being wiped out in eastern U.S. forests by a deadly imported fungus, the American chestnut may be on the comeback trail."

"Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people."

Saturday Marked Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Day. Will Some of the More Than 30,000 Animals Held by the Federal Government Go To Slaughter?

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture's deregulation of genetically engineered RoundUp Ready sugar beets in 2004 was unlawful, a federal court in California ruled Monday."

"As a species, the endangered Florida panther needs about 4,860 square miles in southern Florida to be protected as critical habitat to save the animal from extinction and recover the species, according to a new scientific petition submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by three nonprofit organizations."

"BILLINGS, Mont. -- Facing the combined pressures of climate change, hunters and lax protections, 600 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park are going back on the threatened species list under a federal court order issued Monday."

"Alabama is fighting an invasive weed, 'the killer weed, the nearly indestructible weed,' cogongrass."

"A furious row has erupted in Canada with conservationists desperately lobbying the government to suspend the annual bear-hunting season following reports of a sudden drop in the numbers of wild bears spotted on salmon streams and key coastal areas where they would normally be feeding."