The Washington area experienced the driest September in more than a century. At Meadow Hill Farm in Loudoun County, the pastures are taking on a yellowish hue. Shoots aren’t sprouting from 100 acres planted with rye because there hasn’t been enough rain for the seeds to germinate, and the usual grass dinner for the 200 cows has been supplemented with hay.
Read (Washington Post)
It’s not good if you’re already tapping into your hay supply.
A 28,000-acre refuge on the Eastern Shore, the “Everglades of the North”, faces the double threat of rising sea levels and 6,000 new homes.
Read (Baltimore Sun)
Four of West Virginia’s 55 counties are using biodiesel, and several more are planning to make the switch. Those that do use biodiesel are eligible for increased state transportation funding.
Read (AP via WTOP)
Buying a bottle of water could help clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
Read (WTOP)
The Bush administration’s proposal has touched off a fierce debate over
whether new technologies can allow wildlife to coexist easily with oil
exploration.
Read (New York Times)
Untreated wastewater flows from Tijuana, Mexico, into the Pacific Ocean near the California border, and the U.S. government is expected to endorse a much-debated treatment plant.
Listen (NPR)
The military wants to be a good public citizen by pumping more biodiesel into its tanks and trucks. The fleets will burn about 6 million gallons of the enviromentally friendly fuel this year.
Read (Wired)
Arguments erupt in the North Woods as investors propose a half-million-acre development.
Supporters say the development would boost jobs – and the region’s dwindling population. Critics argue the move would squeeze the largest undeveloped land east of the Rockies.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
Farmers say rice, vegetables, peanuts and fruit are growing well, spurring hopes that agriculture in the still devastated region will recover faster than expected.
Read (AP via USA Today)
A species of mosquito common in the eastern U.S. and capable of carrying the West Nile virus has made its way to the Midwest for the first time.
Read (AP via WTOP)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that West Coast beach-front critical habitat for the threatened western snowy plover will be cut back by nearly 40 percent, continuing a Bush administration policy of reducing habitat protections for threatened and endangered species to reduce economic losses.
Read (AP via WTOP)
With a new, highly contagious canine flu spreading, dogs that are coughing should be kept at home for up to two weeks, a scientist who first described the illness said Monday.
Read (New York Times)
For millennia, fall’s Gulf of Mexico hurricanes have butted gale-force winds against the southbound journeys of migrating birds. Somehow, the birds have been able to sense storm paths and survive.
Read (AP via WTOP)
A power index shows a near doubling of storms’ destructive potential over the past 30 years.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
An environmental group says farmers around the Chesapeake Bay are doing a better job reducing pollution that runs into the water, but they’re getting squeezed out by development.
Read (WTOP)