According to the [Virginia Game Department](http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/), 1,050 deer were killed in the [George Washington National Forest](http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/gwj/) in 2000. In 2005, 656 were killed, a 38% decrease. Deer hunters concerned with a declining deer population in the national forest have created an alliance to increase the presence of the animals.
[Read](http://www.dailynews-record.com/news_details.php?AID=4263&CHID=1) (Harrisonburg Daily News Record)
The under secretary of agriculture visited a skeptical sixth-grade class in North Carolina to defend a proposal to sell 309,000 acres of National Forest land.
[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/us/05sale.html?ex=1304481600&en=c907567f36d45601&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) (New York Times)
Caterpillar populations are peaking earlier in the European spring, perhaps due to global warming, and birds that usually eat them are suffering as a result.
[Read](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9105&feedId=online-news_rss20) (New Scientist)
The polar bear, hippo and many sharks are among species newly listed by the world’s biodiversity agency as threatened with extinction.
[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4963526.stm) (BBC)
Invasive brush-tailed possums are overrunning New Zealand and forcing out native species, leading locals to devise unique strategies for getting rid of them. The possums were introduced to New Zealand in the 19th century and today spread bovine tuberculosis to livestock and wreak havoc on forests, competing with native birds for food.
[Read](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0425_060425_possum.html?source=rss) (National Geographic)
The exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station is teeming with life. After humans were evacuated from the area 20 years ago, animals moved in. Existing animal populations multiplied and species not seen for decades, such as the lynx and eagle owl, began to return. There are even bear footprints, an animal that has not been seen in the Chernobyl area for centuries.
[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4923342.stm) (BBC)
Some species of migratory birds that feed on the eggs of [horseshoe crabs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crabs “Wikipedia”) may soon disappear because of the rapid decline in the numbers of horseshoe crabs.
[Read](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0418_060418_crab.html?source=rss) (National Geographic)
Belgian researchers describe a fish from the muddy swamps of Gabon that can hunt and catch its prey on land. The fish captures its prey by propelling itself onto the shore, raising the front part of its body and bending its head downwards over the insect.
[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4902784.stm) (BBC)
Although drought may be the best known barrier to successful crops in Africa, poor soils are a huge part of the equation. Farmland in Africa has been robbed of chemicals such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are vital for plant growth. These have not been replaced with organic and chemical fertilizers, as they are in most other countries, because of the expense.
[Read](http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060327/full/060327-15.html) (Nature)
The Chesapeake Bay oyster harvest this season is approaching nearly twice the amount taken last season, with some watermen still on the water in the waning weeks of the season. The upcoming crab season also looks promising.
[Read](http://fredericksburg.com//News/FLS/2006/032006/03252006/178266) (AP via the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
About 50 fish were found dead in two different locations along the Shenandoah River earlier last week, and biologists say they have no idea why.
On Monday, a few dozen smallmouth bass, minnows and suckers were found dead along the South Fork near Port Republic. The next day, 26 redbreast sunfish were found dead along the North Fork of the river downstream from Woodstock.
The deaths are not significant enough to sound an alarm, but the number is more than what occurs naturally and it has biologists worried.
[Read](http://www.dailynews-record.com/news_details.php?AID=3612&CHID=1) (Harrisonburg Daily News Record)
Last year in Goldfield, Iowa, a refinery began pumping out a stream of ethanol, which supporters call the clean, renewable fuel of the future.
There’s just one problem: The plant is burning 300 tons of coal a day to turn corn into ethanol – the first US plant of its kind to use coal instead of cleaner natural gas.
If the biofuels industry is going to depend on coal, and these conversion plants release their CO2 to the air, it could undo the global warming benefits of using ethanol.
[Read](http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0323/p01s01-sten.html) (Christian Science Monitor)
Fewer than half the people who own luxury S.U.V.’s are going back for another one, and incentives for the vehicles are at record levels and for the first time. The higher cost of gasoline is a big factor, but wealthy buyers are shifting gears, because excessive energy consumption is becoming socially embarrassing.
[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/18/business/18trucks.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1143090930-kvdewzk5FwjGA/AysE3inA) (New York Times)
The smaller Toyota Prius and Honda Civic gas-electric hybrids remain hits that are in short supply. But the luxury Lexus RX 400h SUV and Honda Accord sedan hybrids have been taking longer to sell than their conventional counterparts. The problem seems to be that the bigger, fancier hybrids often carry a higher price differential compared with their conventional versions than the differential for the smaller cars.
[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2006-03-20-hybrid-sales-usat_x.htm) (USA Today)
For five days or more, crude oil oozed from a pipeline through a corrosion hole about the size of a pencil eraser, silently spreading underneath the snow in what would become the biggest spill ever on Alaska’s North Slope.
Ultimately it wasn’t the pipeline’s leak-detection systems that discovered the spill. It was an oil-field worker who smelled oil.
[Read](http://fredericksburg.com//News/FLS/2006/032006/03182006/176476) (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)