New Regs on Coal and Mercury

The EPA announced new regulations intended to force coal-fired power plants to modernize or else. Regulating and limiting the mercury fallout from these plants is good news for people and fish - especially those who live in the New England. Warnings about eating fish abound in places like Maine. But these warnings are the result of pollution (mercury and acid deposition) from industry not in Maine, but in places like Ohio. I took the photo on West Virginia on a stream that is being "limed" to help reduce the impacts of acid deposition from coal-fired power plants.

EPA and Mercury

Native Trout in Texas?

Forget about stocked non-native trout below dams, there is an effort underway to return native Rio Grande cutthroat trout to west Texas. Today, this subspecies is found only in New Mexico and southern Colorado, but were extirpated from Texas long ago. Texas Trout

Yellowstone cutthroats and grizzly bears

The decline of Yellowstone cutthroat trout is apparently having a significant impact on Yellowstone NP grizzly bears who once feasted on these tasty trout as they moved into small creeks to spawn. Without the trout, the bears go looking for other food sources such as cows, trash, and the occasional camper. The native trout are disappearing because of the illegal introduction of lake trout, which are big, voracious predatory, non-native fish (in Yellowstone). Bears are moving out of the Park in search of food, meaning more conflicts with people. Bears inevitably lose these conflicts. At the same time, there is growing political pressure to de-list the grizzly bear because their numbers have grown in recent decades. But, given the decline of this important food source, this is no time to reduce the protection for the West's greatest predator. See the related story here:

Fish and Bears