Prions — in plants? New concern for chronic wasting disease

Posted on September 30, 2013 by admin

 

September 28, 2013 5:15 am  •  RON SEELY | Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Prions — the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer — can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

The research further demonstrated that stems and leaves from tainted plants were infectious when injected into laboratory mice.

The findings are significant, according to the researchers and other experts, because they reveal a previously unknown potential route of exposure to prions for a Wisconsin deer herd in which the fatal brain illness continues to spread. The disease has also become a pressing problem nationwide: The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified the deer disease in 17 states and predicts it will spread to other states. Continue reading →

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Move Over Global Warming! White-Tailed Deer Pose Biggest Threat To East Coast Forests

Posted on September 3, 2013 by admin

William Pentland, Contributor, Forbes

8/28/2013 @ 1:37PM

 

The rapidly rising population of white-tailed deer pose a more significant threat to forest habitats across the eastern United States than global warming, according to a new study by The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

“White-tailed deer likely impact every landscape east of the Mississippi River,” said the TNC. “The damage has been insidious — both slow moving and cumulative.”

Deer overpopulation results in overfeeding on select plant species, which can quickly alter the composition and structure of forests.

The study claims that that white-tailed deer inflict more damage on habitat integrity in the eastern United States than any other native vertebrate species.

“In our opinion, no other threat to forested habitats is greater at this point in time — not lack of fire, not habitat conversion, not climate change. Only invasive exotic insects and disease have been comparable in magnitude,” the TNC said. “While we acknowledge that climate change is a long-term stressor that will lead to significant changes in eastern forest ecosystems, high deer populations have had a much greater negative impact currently and over the last several decades.” Continue reading →

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Where is Missouri’s soil going?

Posted on August 22, 2013 by admin

 Mary Anne Meyers – Sun, 18 Aug 2013 KMTLand (St Louis) —

The combination of last year’s record drought and this year’s heavy spring rains has scientists wondering if efforts to restore Missouri farmland are going to waste. Thirty years ago, Missouri had one of the worst soil-erosion rates in the nation, but conservation practices over the years cut that in half. The Agriculture Department says that in the past five years though, Missouri farmers have taken a half a million acres of land out of conservation programs. As a result, wetlands are disappearing – and so is the soil. Kat Logan-Smith, director of environmental policy, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, blamed rising grain prices. “With corn prices the way they are, the incentives are all stacked against conservation,” Logan-Smith said. According to the USDA, nationwide 10 million acres have been dropped from conservation programs, and scientists are seeing the worst erosion in years. If it continues, food prices and crop-insurance costs will rise. Continue reading →

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Groups raise alarms, but Illinois DNR downplays development

Posted on August 20, 2013 by admin

By Lee Bergquist of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Aug. 19, 2013

Environmental groups expressed alarm on Monday after detailing new evidence in Illinois that spawning Asian carp have been found nearly 100 miles upstream from their previous spawning sites.

The groups cited survey work from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in June that showed spawning Asian carp had moved to within 25 miles of an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

The barrier is about 30 miles from the Lake Michigan shoreline. Continue reading →

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Huge swaths of Canada’s boreal forests under threat

Posted on July 29, 2013 by admin

 

Researchers say a full 50 per cent of ‘world’s last great forest’ should be protected

 

By Randy Boswell, Postmedia News July 21, 2013

 

caribou pic

 

Iconic species such as the woodland caribou “have disappeared from the southern tier of the boreal forest” and other signature wildlife of Canada’s forests — wolverine, grizzly bear and wolf — are in trouble, the panel states.

At least half of Canada’s vast boreal forest should be strictly protected from any kind of development and the rest should be carefully managed to preserve or restore its ecological integrity, a panel of top North American researchers argues in a report to be released Monday on “the world’s last great forest.” Continue reading →

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