CONSERVATIONISTS PUSH GREATER MANATEE PROTECTION: "In the face of increasingly high mortality rates," conservation groups are going on the offensive to get greater protection for endangered Florida manatees says National Geographic News 5/9. Groups like Save the Manatee Club worry that the manatees can't sustain losses averaging one a day and that if more substantial measures aren't taken soon "we may reach a point where there isn't any solution." In response, conservationists have filed 2 lawsuits, petitioned the Governor to declare the manatee death rate a "state of emergency" and are working with U.S. Sen. Bob Graham to double spending on FWS "on-water enforcement." Manatee advocates also want more enforcement of laws limiting development in prime habitat and are turning to the courts in cases where "funding and political will to enforce rules is woefully lacking."

REINTRODUCTION UNFAIR TO GRIZZLIES?: An article in the Idaho State Journal 5/8 gives several perspectives on reintroduction of grizzly bears to central Idaho. One biologist notes that prior to their extirpation salmon made up two-thirds of the grizzly diet and questions the success of reintroduction given that the "state's once-healthy salmon runs are virtually gone." The FWS counters by saying that "they'll be brining in non-fish-eating bears," and cites another study showing there is "plenty of suitable habitat." A political perspective was provided by the Farm Bureau which asked, why even bother bringing in grizzlies when like the wolves they're "likely" to be shot to appease livestock interests, "it's not fair to the grizzlies."

ATLANTIC FOREST MORE IMPERILED THAN AMAZON: Although the Amazon gets most of the media attention, Brazil's Atlantic Forest was just recognized by the British journal Nature "as one of the world's five most endangered hot spots" says the Christian Science Monitor 4/19. Conservation biologist who wrote the report say that while "massive loss of species" in the Amazon could be decades away, mass extinctions in the Atlantic Forest are "happening right now. We are in danger of losing a lot of species very quickly."

SAVE FLOWERS NOT MAKE BOMBS: The Dept. of Energy has agreed to establish an 160 acre reserve at its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Test Facility to protect the endangered large-flowered fiddleneck and provide "critical habitat for more than 300 species of plants, including vanishing native grasses and 95 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians" says ENS 5/1.

CRESTED IBIS COMEBACK: The New China News Agency 4/25 reports that "a ban on fertilizers and lumbering" near vital habitat has succeeded in bringing the number of crested ibis, now found in the wild only in China, up from 7 in 1981 to 200 today.