NEWSTALK 860 » Environment

'Finding Nemo' Fish Could Be Listed as Endangered

Amanda Ferris — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:15:22 +0000

The Center for Biological Diversity has started a petition to get the orange clownfish, who was popularized as Nemo in Pixar's hit movie 'Finding Nemo,' and seven other species of damselfish to be classified as an endangered species.

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Tropical Storm Ernesto Crossing the Caribbean

Jim Bell — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:18:03 +0000

We knew it couldn't last. We went two full months into hurricane season without a tropical storm anywhere near Texas or Louisiana, but we may not be able to feel safe for much longer. There's now a storm "out there" that could very well come our way and cause major problems.

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Update: Keystone XL Pipeline Gets Key Permits

Jim Bell — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 16:18:43 +0000

The Houston Chronicle reports that TransCanada has received the last of three key permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to start building the 485-mile Gulf Coast section of its controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The company says this means the $2.3 billion oil pipeline can start construction in the “coming weeks.”

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Gov't Okays Texas Stretch of Keystone Pipeline

Jim Bell — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:28:23 +0000

People in east Texas need to brace themselves and get ready, because the way has been cleared for a major stretch of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada. Barring a successful legal challenge, it's coming.

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You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole…..

Jim Bell — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:20:04 +0000

And we'll go fishin' in a new fishin' hole. Now it's not as if we don't already have plenty of places to fish in these parts, but you may be interested to know that a brand new lake is almost ready to be opened for fishing. It's Lake Naconiche in northeastern Nacogdoches County, and Texas Parks and Wildlife fisheries experts have just finished stocking it with a huge supply of Florida bass.

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USA Leads World in Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Jim Bell — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:03:07 +0000

It's true. The United States is constantly vilified for being a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, for stone-walling international climate treaties like the Kyoto Protocol, and of being the source of most of the skepticism over climate change. All three charges are true in varying degrees.

Even so, care to guess which country has had the greatest reductions in carbon dioxide emissions since 2006, a year after the controversial Kyoto Protocol went into effect?

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Forest Service Urges Us To Report Arson Wildfires

Jim Bell — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:22:37 +0000

Heading into the long Memorial Day weekend -- the unofficial start of another hot and dry summer — the Texas Forest Service is begging us to be careful with cookouts, campfires and any outdoor burning.

TFS also wants people to be especially watchful for arsonists deliberately starting fires and report them to law enforcement.

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Indian State Declares Open Season on Poachers

Jim Bell — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:16:20 +0000

A state in western India is so disgusted with tiger poachers that it has declared open season on them. The government of the state of Maharashtra is allowing state forest guards to shoot illegal hunters on sight -- in an effort to put a stop to the rampant killing of protected wildlife, especially the dwindling population of tigers.

To make this legal, this government simply declared that killing or injuring suspected poachers is not a crime anymore.

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Does Your Homeowners Insurance Cover Earthquakes?

Jim Bell — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:07:17 +0000

Two relatively minor low magnitude earthquakes have struck the area between Nacogdoches and Center in the past two weeks. Nobody was hurt, and no major property damage has been reported, but a number of businesses and homes have minor to serious structural or interior damage.

Now people in that area are asking: "Does my homeowner's insurance cover this?" The short answer, sad to say, is no it doesn't.

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Forest Service Surveys Drought Destruction

Jim Bell — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:03:15 +0000

The Texas Forest Service has estimated that last year's drought killed hundreds of millions of trees, but those are only educated guesses. Now the agency is launching a more scientific survey that will provide a much more accurate picture of the destruction the drought left behind.

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TransCanada Reapplies for Oil Pipeline

Jim Bell — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:04:12 +0000

The Canadian oil company that wants to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. has submitted a new application for the project, after changing the route to avoid environmentally sensitive land in Nebraska.

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Monster Size Catfish No Danger to Ecosystem

Jim Bell — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:10:21 +0000

Because of the wettest winter and spring in years, east Texas lakes are at last back to their normal levels in most areas. "Full Pond", as state hydrologists say. That means the fishing is better than it's been in years, and the State Parks and Wildlife Department is busy restocking the public lakes and waterways with all kinds of fish, including catfish. BIG catfish.

Officials recently released more than three dozen monster size blue catfish weighing 40 to 90 pounds into Lake Livingston, and they say there's no reason for concern about what the fish might to the fish populations or the ecosystems in the lake or downstream in the Trinity River.

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New ETex Fish Hatchery Plans Open House

Jim Bell — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:40:39 +0000

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will hold an open house at the new John D. Parker East Texas State Fish Hatchery near Jasper on Friday and Saturday, April 27th and 28th.

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Neches River Rendezvous Getting Close

Jim Bell — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:05:22 +0000

Outdoors enthusiasts should starting making plans now for the 15th annual Neches River Rendezvous on June 2nd. This 10 mile canoe trek down the Neches River is growing in popularity and attracts more participants every year.

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Seen Any Snakes in East Texas Lately? They're Starting to Emerge

Jen Austin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:13:12 +0000

With the nice spring weather more people are starting to spend time outside, and the right combination of rain and sun also means snakes are happy, and they’re being spotted in greater numbers.

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TransCanada Changes Keystone XL Pipeline Route

Jim Bell — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:30:26 +0000

The developer of the Keystone XL international pipeline has identified a new corridor that goes around the environmentally sensitive area where the Ogallala Aquifer provides drinking water for millions of people in Nebraska and several other midwestern states.

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Bracing for a Major Allergy Season

Jim Bell — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:06:54 +0000

Ah yes spring is in the air, and so are all those things a lot of people are allergic to. Spring in the Piney Woods is always tough on people with allergies, but there's an usual profusion of allergens in the air this year, and those who specialize in such things say we're all in for an especially "sneezy" and miserable allergy season.

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New Theory: CO2 Makes You Fat

Jim Bell — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:33:38 +0000

Don't laugh. This is serious stuff. Researchers in Denmark have announced a theory that may not only explain why people all over the world are getting fatter and fatter, but it could also serve as a warning of serious consequences for life on Earth if pollution caused by CO2 emissions isn't reduced.

The theory states that CO2 -- carbon dioxide -- contributes to making us fat. Oh please.

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Keystone XL Pipeline Hits Legal Snag in Texas

Jim Bell — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:35:12 +0000

A Lamar County farm family has stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline project dead in its tracks. The farmer has been granted a temporary restraining order that will stop the pipeline at her farm's property line while lawyers on both sides argue the issues the family has raised

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Japan Tsunami Debris Floats Toward North America

Jim Bell — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:19:56 +0000

Here's another aftershock of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last March. Millions of tons of debris from near total destruction were washed out to sea when the tsunami subsided and tides returned to normal.

Much of the debris sank to the ocean floor, but between one and two million tons of debris are still floating in the Pacific. Worse, it's drifting eastward toward North America, and a lot of it is going to wash up on a lot of shorelines over the next two years.

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