By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

It may seems like the job of a forest ranger is a relatively peaceful  one, but the latest figures say otherwise. Only eleven years ago, Forest Service workers reported just 34 confrontations with the public. In 2005, according to government documents, they reported a whopping 477, by far the most in any year including everything from gun shots to verbal abuse. Why the sudden increase? “Things like off-road vehicles are taking people into the backcountry to get away from all rules of civilization,” says Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility executive director Jeff Ruch, “and trouble appears to be ensuing.”
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/14904530.htm

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

According to Ron O’Dor, head of the Ocean Tracking Network to be set up at Dalhousie University in Canada, "we know less about our marine life -- how these animals live, where they go -- than we know about the back side of the moon." To change that, scientist want to use electronic tags to basically bar-code salmon, tuna, sharks, sturgeon, penguins, or perhaps polar bears. The animal’s movements would then be read by devices similar to supermarket scanners on the floors of the oceans or via satellite. Let’s hope this version of the technology works better than what’s at the local market, where (canned) tuna has to pass by the scanner six times before it’s counted. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26701912.htm

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

We love our labs, praise our pointers, revere our retrievers. But lets be honest, can any of them save our lives by dialing 911? No, it takes a specially trained beagle named Belle to do that. Check out this heartwarming story, in which Belle saves owner Kevin Weaver as he suffers a diabetic seizure. The heroic pooch later wins the 2006 VITA Wireless Samaritan Award.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-asecpets19061906jun19%2C0%2C4557486.story?coll=orl-news-headlines

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

After seeing our Supreme Court justices recently pave the way for developers to turn waterways into strip malls (see Bob Marshall’s 6-21 post), it’s nice to see that at least some federal judges are not so accommodating. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has sentenced an eastern Idaho developer to 18 months in prison and $9,000 in fines for draining wetlands and bulldozing a stream bed, which incidentally  polluted a spawning bed for Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/06/21/news/regional/ab18f258d0946a4d872571930075e171.txt