Conservationists are suing three federal agencies over the adequacy of an environmental review the government has said satisfies requirements to resume killing coyotes, mountain lions and other wildlife in federally protected wilderness areas in Nevada.

The move comes five years after the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services settled a similar lawsuit by suspending the operations intended to protect livestock from predators.

WildEarth Guardians long has battled Wildlife Services over the predator management program that Congress approved in 1931 and costs U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars annually.

It allows USDA to “eradicate, suppress or bring under control” a whole host of native species, including mountain lions, bears, wolves, coyotes and bobcats, “for the benefit of agribusiness.”

The New Mexico-based environmental group and the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Reno. It accuses the agency of failing to fully disclose or adequately analyze the impacts of its plan to expand use of aerial gunning from small planes and helicopters, poisoning and trapping of the animals on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands in Nevada.

The conservationists say the agency routinely ignores the science about the efficacy of what they call a “large-scale slaughter” program, killing 1.3 million native species across the U.S. annually — the vast majority of those, coyotes.

“While society has evolved to understand the importance of native species as a key part of ecosystems and the need for coexistence of wildlife, Wildlife Services continues to rely on antiquated practices in the name of `managing’ conflicts with wildlife,” said Lindsay Larris, wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians.

After WildEarth Guardians sued over the program in 2012, Wildlife Services agreed in 2016 to cease predator control activities in wilderness areas and wilderness study areas in Nevada with few exceptions for public health or safety. The settlement dictated the operations — which typically stem from ranchers’ requests for action — couldn’t resume until the agency fully complied with federal law.

One of the updates in the agency’s July 2020 assessment is the conclusion that imperiled sage grouse would benefit from killing of predators that feed on chicks, including coyotes and ravens.

The lawsuit says that’s an illegal use of the Animal Damage Control Act, which only allows the agency to do what’s necessary to control “injurious animal species.”

The assessment “fails to establish that ravens and coyotes are depressing or otherwise injuring populations of sage grouse,” according to the lawsuit that also names the bureau and the Forest Service as defendants.

The three agencies are violating the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wilderness Act by sanctioning an impermissible “commercial enterprise” within designated wilderness areas without demonstrating lethal predator controls are necessary for a valid “wilderness purpose” or preventing serious losses of domestic livestock, the lawsuit said.

Bureau spokesman Chris Rose said in an email to The Associated Press that the agency had no comment. Neither Wildlife Services nor the Forest Service immediately responded to requests for comment.

The lawsuit says Wildlife Services doesn’t review circumstances surrounding ranchers’ requests to determine whether lethal means are “necessary to prevent serious domestic livestock” nor to ensure “only the minimum amount of control necessary to solve the problem will be used.”

Under the new plan, Wildlife Services “must simply provide email notification to the bureau before and after conducting (such management in) bureau-managed wildernesses and wilderness study areas,” the lawsuit said.

Alternatives the agency doesn’t consider include temporarily curtailing livestock grazing activities in areas where the bureau has determined conflicts between livestock and wildlife often recur at the same time of year when newly born lambs and calves graze on U.S. times and native carnivores are rearing their offspring, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit says the government also fails to adequately evaluate local impacts of predator management across nearly 9,700 square miles (25,000 square kilometers) of wilderness and wilderness study areas in Nevada. The environmental assessment said there’s an “extremely high likelihood (95 to 100%)” that lethal control of wildlife will be conducted in eight wilderness areas and five study areas in Nevada over the next 10 years.

Most of the coyote killings are concentrated in only four of Nevada’s 17 counties. But the government’s assessment evaluates the impacts at a statewide scale across 109,826 square miles (284,448 square kilometers) “thus diluting the degree of localized effects to native ecosystems,” the lawsuit said.

Between 2015-20, nearly 15,000 coyotes were killed on Bureau of Land Management lands alone in Nevada — about three-fourths in White Pine, Eureka, Elko and Humboldt counties.
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Nearly 50 toxic waste sites around the U.S. will be cleaned up, and ongoing work at dozens of others will get a funding boost, as federal environmental officials announced Friday a $1 billion infusion to the Superfund program.

The money comes from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law last month and will help officials tackle a backlog of highly polluted Superfund sites in 24 states that have languished for years because of a lack of funding, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

About 60% of the sites to be cleaned up are in low-income and minority communities that have suffered disproportionately from contamination left by shuttered manufacturing plants, landfills and other abandoned industrial operations.

“No community should have to live in the shadows of contaminated waste sites,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Friday at a news conference at the Lower Darby Creek Superfund site in Philadelphia, where a former landfill leached chemicals into soil and groundwater in the largely minority Eastwick neighborhood.

“With this funding, communities living near many of these most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination will finally get the protection they deserve,” said Regan, who has made environmental justice a top priority.

The funding is the first installment of a $3.5 billion appropriation to the Superfund program from the bipartisan infrastructure law. The announcement comes a day after Regan disclosed plans to release $2.9 billion in infrastructure law funds for lead pipe removal nationwide and to impose stricter rules to limit exposure to lead, a significant health hazard.

Sites to be cleaned up under the Superfund program include one in Roswell, New Mexico, where dry cleaners that went out of business almost 60 years ago laced the aquifer with toxic solvents; dozens of residential backyards in Lockport, New York, where a former felt manufacturer contaminated the soil with lead; and a residential and commercial district in Pensacola, Florida, where the defunct American Creosote Works once used toxic preservatives to treat wood poles and fouled the neighborhood’s soil and groundwater.

In Philadelphia, fed-up residents approached the EPA in 2015 to push for cleanup of the contaminated Clearview Landfill. Work began two years later. More than 25,000 tons of contaminated soil have already been removed from nearly 200 residential properties, parks have been cleaned up and stream banks have been stabilized.

The $30 million cash infusion from the infrastructure law will accelerate those efforts, with work to be completed in 2023 — a year ahead of schedule.

“Our property values have never been higher,” said Eastwick resident Ted Pickett, who serves on a community group that has been advising the EPA. “We no longer fear that our health is negatively impacted by concerns about contamination from the landfill. … Our social fabric is stronger.”

New Jersey accounts for seven sites on the Superfund backlog list, while Florida has five and Michigan and North Carolina have four each. Pennsylvania has two — and 90 on the Superfund list as a whole.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said many of these toxic sites are in low-income and minority neighborhoods like Eastwick that have “borne a disproportionate share of the harmful effects of environmental damage.” He said the harms have been compounded by a historical lack of funding for cleanup.

“We have to work tirelessly to clean up polluted places that are harming and holding back communities in which they are located,” said Wolf, adding the new Superfund money “is going to help make the promise real for communities all across Pennsylvania.” 

 

 
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The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said Friday that it is preparing athletes and officials for a 2022 Beijing Winter Games “unlike any other” amid continuing coronavirus concerns and criticism of China’s human rights record. 

Almost 300 US athletes to take part

Acknowledging “logistical complexities” and “political discussions that we know will continue,” USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland said the United States will send about 230 athletes to the Olympics and another 65 to the Paralympic Games in Beijing in February. 

“We know these games will be unlike any other,” Hirshland said on a conference call Friday after a USOPC board meeting in Salt Lake City. 

She said the USOPC’s pre-Games briefing of athletes will include ample information on COVID-19 as well as Chinese law for athletes who might want to speak out on political issues. 

“What’s really important to us, and where we feel we have a very strong sense of duty and obligation is to educate and provide the delegation with ample information and clarity around both the rules and the laws, in this case, the laws of the country where we’re going, also the rules of the IOC, the jurisdiction of the event itself,” Hirshland said, noting that the laws of China “clearly, are distinct and different than those in the United States.” 

“It’s our duty and obligation to ensure athletes understand what that means, and that the expectation is that we abide by the laws of that country,” she said. 

‘Play the price’

China reacted to a U.S.-backed diplomatic boycott of the Games by warning Western nations who joined in it they would “pay the price.” 

Hirshland said the USOPC “have a very high degree of confidence in the safety and security plans that are put in place” for American Olympians in China. 

Washington unveiled its decision not to send a diplomatic delegation earlier this month, saying it was prompted by widespread rights abuses by China and what it sees as a “genocide” against the Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang. 

Concerns have also been raised in the sports world over tennis player Peng Shuai, a former world number one doubles player who made sexual assault accusations on social media against a former top Communist Party politician. 

She wasn’t heard from for almost three weeks and the Women’s Tennis Association has suspended tournaments in China saying her video call with IOC president Thomas Bach was not sufficient to quell concerns over her well-being. 

‘Sad situation’

USOPC chair Susanne Lyons said the Peng affair was a “sad situation” and one that hit close to home for an organization that was found to have failed to act on allegations of abuse against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting athletes while working at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. 

“One of the most important lessons that we at the USOPC have learned over the past years is not only to listen to the stories of survivors but to protect them,” she said. 

Beijing Olympians will also have to grapple with stringent measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, just as athletes at the Summer Games in Tokyo did earlier this year. 

Vaccines required

The USOPC said in September that it would require COVID-19 vaccines for U.S. athletes, but Hirshland said Friday that booster shots would not be mandated. 

“We have already encouraged many in our community to get the boosters, following the CSC guidance,” she said. “We will absolutely continue to do that.” 

But she said boosters wouldn’t be required since some in the delegation may not yet be due for them based on when they received their original vaccinations. 

 
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After internal Facebook documents were shared widely with news organizations, the question remains whether and how Facebook will change. Michelle Quinn reports.
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Soaring infections in Britain driven in part by the omicron variant of the coronavirus rattled Europe on Thursday, prompting new restrictions and fueling a familiar dread on both sides of the Atlantic about entering a new phase of the pandemic just in time for the holidays. 

Much remains unknown about omicron, but officials increasingly warn that it appears more transmissible than the delta variant, which has already put pressure on hospitals worldwide. With so many questions unanswered, uncertainty reigned over how quickly and how severely to crack down on Christmas travel and year-end parties. 

After the United Kingdom recorded its highest number of confirmed new COVID-19 infections since the pandemic began, France announced Thursday that it would tighten entry rules for those coming from Britain. Hours later, the country set another record, with a further 88,376 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported Thursday, almost 10,000 more than the day before. 

In England, the chief medical officer urged people to limit who they see in the festive period. Pubs and restaurants said many people were heeding that advice by canceling Christmas parties, though there has been much debate about what’s OK to do. In the United States, the White House insisted there was no need for a lockdown, despite signs that omicron was gaining ground there. 

Globally, more than 75 countries have reported confirmed cases of the new variant. In Britain, where omicron cases are doubling every two to three days, omicron was expected to soon replace delta as the dominant strain in the country. The government has accelerated its booster program in response. Authorities in the 27-nation European Union say omicron will be the dominant variant in the bloc by mid-January. 

Omicron traits 

Early data suggest that omicron may be milder but better at evading vaccines, making booster shots more crucial. Experts have urged caution about drawing conclusions too early because hospitalizations lag infections and many variables can contribute to how sick people get. 

Even if omicron proves milder on the whole than delta, it may disarm some of the lifesaving tools available and put immunocompromised and elderly people at particular risk. And if it’s more transmissible, more infections overall raise the risk that more cases will be serious. 

While experts gather the data, some governments rushed to act, while others sought to calm fears that the new variant would land countries back on square one. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted Thursday that the situation in the U.K. is different from last year because of the widespread use of vaccines and the ability to test. 

If people want to attend an event, “the sensible thing to do is to get a test and to make sure that you’re being cautious,” he said. 

“But we’re not saying that we want to cancel stuff. We’re not locking stuff down, and the fastest route back to normality is to get boosted,” he said. 

Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, struck a more cautious note, advising people earlier in the week to limit their social contacts. 

On Thursday, he told a parliamentary committee hearing that the government might have to review measures if vaccines prove less effective than expected against omicron. 

He said that “would be a material change to how ministers viewed the risks going forward.” 

Among those taking the more cautious route was Queen Elizabeth II, who opted to cancel her traditional pre-Christmas family lunch. 

U.S. response 

In the United States, President Joe Biden’s administration said tighter restrictions are not planned. Biden said the omicron variant is not spreading as fast as in Europe because of steps his administration has taken. 

He warned, however, that unvaccinated Americans faced “a winter of severe illness and death.” 

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said that the U.S. was “in a very different and stronger place than we were a year ago.” 

Still, feelings of unease persisted among some Americans. 

Michael Stohl, 32, was relieved when he got the Pfizer vaccine last spring, but the spread of omicron has turned his optimism to dread. 

“Even though I’m fully vaccinated right now, that doesn’t seem to give me any sort of guarantee anymore,” he said. “It just puts this anxiety over you because they tell you the boosters will work, but that’s what they said about the original vaccines. Am I going to have to keep getting vaccinated every couple months?” 

He said he booked an appointment to receive his booster shot Thursday morning. 

Stohl, who works at the concierge desk at an apartment building in downtown Washington, said his family all lives in the city so he isn’t traveling for Christmas. 

He worries about friends and coworkers who will travel, however. 

“I just remember how bad everything was last year, and it’s looking like it might be that bad again,” he said. 

‘European solution’

People in the Netherlands, meanwhile, have been in a partial lockdown since November to curb a delta-driven surge. While infection numbers are now declining, the government this week ordered elementary schools to close for Christmas a week early amid fears of a new rise. Authorities also sped up a booster campaign as caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte cited Britain as an example of how swiftly the variant can spread. 

EU leaders gathering in Brussels for a summit Thursday sought to balance tackling the surge of infections while keeping borders open with common policies throughout the bloc. 

“Let’s try to maintain the European solution,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said. “If every country goes it alone again, we’ll be even further from home.” 

But ahead of the meeting, European nations were already acting to rein in the spread. 

Greece and Italy tightened entry requirements for travelers earlier this week, and Portugal decided to keep stricter border controls in place beyond its planned January 9 end. 

France said Thursday that it will slap restrictions on travelers arriving from the U.K. — which is no longer part of the EU — putting limits on reasons for traveling and requiring 48 hours of isolation upon arrival. The new measures will take effect early Saturday. 

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the measures were being imposed “in the face of the extremely rapid spread of the omicron variant in the U.K.” 

The abrupt move comes after weeks of political tensions between France and Britain over fishing rights and how to deal with migration across the English Channel. The French government is desperately trying to avoid a new lockdown that would hurt the economy and cloud President Emmanuel Macron’s expected reelection campaign. 

Waiting outside a Paris train station, Constantin Dobrynin said that he sometimes felt governments overreacted and imposed unnecessary measures. As for omicron, it wasn’t yet clear how serious it would be. 

“So we should be balanced, and we shouldn’t be panicked,” he said. 

Britain said it was not planning reciprocal measures. 

Fearing a raft of canceled parties and a general drop in business at the height of the crucial and lucrative Christmas season, British restaurants and pubs demanded government help Thursday. They said concerns about the new variant have already wiped out 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) in sales over the past 10 days. 

Across London, restaurants that would normally see bustling crowds clinking glasses and tucking into festive meals were reporting droves of cancellations and empty rooms. 

“It’s a complete nightmare. … This week should be the busiest week of the year for hospitality,” said Sally Abé, a chef at the Conrad Hotel in central London. “It’s everywhere, everybody’s canceling, but there’s no support from the government.” 

 
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