Among a series of changes to the Endangered Species Act recently proposed by Trump administration officials is a provision that would define the “foreseeable future” as the time period extending “only as far as they can reasonably determine that both the future threats and the species’ responses to those threats are probable.”

Environmental groups and scientists see the proposed changes as an attempt to limit the protections extended to new species.

“It is difficult to place any trust whatsoever in an administration that so openly disdains data, logic, information, reason, and the critical role of science in informed decision making,” says Rod Sayler, associate professor of environmental science at Washington State University. “By opening the door to interpreting what ‘foreseeable future’ means, people may discount potential longer-term threats (such as those from climate change) and argue for shorter-term perspectives and more immediate benefits of development activities.”

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Popular Science

A fissure has opened up in Grand Teton National Park just 60 miles (100km) from the Yellowstone volcano, prompting officials to immediately close the area. Experts have detected expanding cracks in the rock buttress, which is being closely monitored by geologists for movement.

While it hasn’t blown its top for more than 600,000 years, scientists are working to better understand Yellowstone in the hopes of predicting the next eruption.

Researchers at Washington State University said pools of molten volcanic rock build in subsurface magma chambers and are key to the eruption process.

“It is the coal in the furnace that’s heating things up,” said study coauthor Professor Peter Larson.

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Brinkwire

Salmon in the northwestern continental United States often carry a fluke containing bacteria that can produce a deadly disease in bears called salmon poisoning disease (SPD). Current recovery plans for grizzly bears in the North Cascades of Washington and the mountains of central Idaho, where infected salmon currently occur, call for using bears from several interior populations; however, a new study reveals that such bears with no history of salmon consumption are likely sensitive to SPD.

The Journal of Wildlife Management findings indicate that identifying a source of bears that would be resistant to SPD may be difficult.

“We are hopeful that the bears used in the initial restoration effort will feed exclusively on terrestrial-based foods as there are currently very few salmon returning to the North Cascades; however, any bear that moves into lower elevation areas where they might consume salmon will be closely monitored,” said lead author Dr. Charles Robbins, professor of environmental studies at Washington State University. “If they eat salmon containing the bacteria, we suspect they will get sick. We are hopeful that they will be able to recover.”

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Science Daily

There’s camping, then there’s Alaska back-country, grizzly bear scientific research camping.

That’s how Joy Erlenbach, a doctoral student in the School of the Environment, has spent the past three summers, and where she is right now.

“We get dropped off in the middle of Katmai National Park by a float plane, then we’re on our own for a month,” Erlenbach said before she left this year.

No showers, only one other person to talk to, and surrounded by beautiful mountains, rivers, wildlife and waterfront. Oh, and bears. Plenty of bears.

“We’ve got two tents, surrounded by an electric fence, with maybe 20-30 bears in the meadow right outside the tent,” she said. “You can’t let your guard down. I mean, bears aren’t there to get you, but you have to always be aware of your surroundings.”

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WSU Insider