The City of Hagerstown is poised to sell to the National Park Service an $800,000 easement that would conserve nearly 3 miles of the Appalachian Trail. That only leaves about 10 miles of the trail that are still unprotected.

Read (AP via WTOP)

The Rappahannock River is becoming a critical winter gathering point for bald eagles.

A one-day boat survey last week of a 35-mile section of the river from Mount Landing Creek above Port Royal to Tappahannock turned up 276 of the majestic birds of prey. That’s only two less than the 278 spotted during a 2001 January count, which was the highest in a decade.

Read (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)

Human societies rapidly descend into anarchy and chaos without policing. Now, researchers have found that the same thing happens when groups of monkeys are left to their own devices instead of being “policed” by dominant males.

Read (New Scientist)

Federal officials have begun removing grizzly bears around Yellowstone National Park from the Endangered Species List, ending 30 years of protection and shifting responsibility for their management to state officials who might allow hunting.

Read (Baltimore Sun)

Two million gallons of untreated sewage have spilled over a large swath of beach along the Santa Monica Bay, causing major headaches for sanitation officials and homeowners. Los Angeles County says it’s the largest spill of its kind in more than a decade.

Listen (NPR)

Fish are sick and dying in many different rivers along the East Coast of the United States. Populations of some fish are down by 70 percent. Different diseases are afflicting the fish, and scientists don’t know if there’s any common source of their ailments.

Listen (NPR)

Whale sharks that have been spotted off the coast of Australia are getting smaller, researchers say. In a decade, their average size has shrunk from around 23 feet to 16 1/2 feet.

Read (BBC)

Park biologists suspect canine parvovirus is responsible for a drop in Yellowstone’s wolf population, but they said they will let nature take its course.

Biologists suspect that it was introduced to Yellowstone by a tourist’s infected dog or a coyote. Because parvo is so hardy, it persists in the soil for months. A wolf could catch it from simply sniffing contaminated soil, the biologists said.

Read (New York Times)

Removing dead wood seems like a good idea after a fire, but data shows it may compound problems.

Read (Christian Science Monitor)

At least five species of deepwater exotic fish – only caught since the 1970s – are now on the critically endangered list. The researchers say many other species are likely to be similarly endangered and, worse, there seems little hope of saving them.

Read (New Scientist)

New Orleans’ architectural cornerstones will be among the easiest to restore, possibly inspiring reconstruction.

Because these neighborhoods were built by early settlers who understood the dangers of their environment, they sit in the city’s highest parts, and came through the storm in the best shape.

Read (Christian Science Monitor)