By Chad Love

Could the capped wellhead at the Deepwater Horizon site be leaking again? That's the question some are asking after the discovery of oil sheens in the vicinity of the infamous BP disaster.

From this story in the Mobile (Alabama) Press-Register:

Oil is once again fouling the Gulf of Mexico around the Deepwater Horizon well, which was capped a little over a year ago. Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of small, circular patches of oily sheen dotted the surface within a mile of the wellhead. With just a bare sheen present over about a quarter-mile, the scene was a far cry from the massive slick that covered the Gulf last summer.

By Bob Marshall

Fish and wildlife habitat means jobs, too.

Sportsmen arguing against the roll back of environmental regulations often get told that keeping fish, wildlife and human habitats clean costs too many jobs.

Well, here's some ammunition to fight back with: A growing body of evidence points to just the opposite effect - that environmental regulations important to fish, wildlife and people actually create jobs.

That isn't just tree-hugger chatter. This letter to the Wall Street Journal by executives from power companies says so,  as does this study.

Members of the hunting and fishing community have been trying to make the same point. Ducks Unlimited CEO Dale Hall points out that environmental spending is less than 1.26 percent of the federal budget in 2010, yet supported "more than 1.6 million jobs and generate more than $25 billion a year in federal, state and local taxes,".

By Bob Marshall

Report lists problems and cures for greater sage grouse:

A new study confirms what sportsmen have known for years: The solution to plummeting greater sage grouse populations is closer monitoring of private lands development in birds' habitat range.

Researchers with the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey looking at grouse habitat across 11 states found occupancy rates were many times higher where human development was lower, especially such vertical structures as cell phone towers and power lines.

The highest population densities were on federal lands where regulation is tighter. However, researchers also know the greater sage grouse will soon be listed as threatened because they depend on the vast amount of adjacent private lands to maintain populations.

The report bolsters the support for the recent grant of $21.8 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for farmers who tailor development to grouse needs. That builds on the two-year Sage Grouse Initiative which provides $112 million to 11 Western states.

By Bob Marshall

Too-hot for Western Trout Fishing?

If you care about Western trout fishing, you'll want to know this:

A new, peer-reviewed study shows rising stream water temperatures caused by climate change could cut Western habitat for trout in half over the next 70 years, sending populations of cutthroat, rainbows, brookies and browns plummeting.

The study published this week in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," was reported by a team of 11 researchers from Trout Unlimited, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado State University and the University of Washington. The full report can be found here.

The report predicts the expected three-degree Celsius (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in water temperatures and other climate-related impacts would reduce populations of native cutthroat across the West by as much as 58 percent, brook trout up to 77 percent, and rainbow and brown trout populations by as much as 35 percent and 48 percent respectively.