A federal judge last week temporarily halted construction on a $320 million irrigation project by the Army Corps of Engineers in a region of Arkansas where birders recently reported sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker long thought to be extinct. Responding to a lawsuit filed by concerned environmental groups, U.S. District Judge William Wilson ruled that credible accounts of the bird’s presence in Arkansas’ Big Woods Preserve in 2004 called into question the environmental impact assessments used to greenlight the irrigation project.

In the latest bad news related to human-induced climate change, scientists last week reported bottom fish and crabs washing up dead on Oregon beaches are the latest victims of global warming, which is reportedly causing oxygen-deprived "dead zones" along a 70-mile stretch of Oregon’s Pacific coast.

In a surprise to many environmentalists, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a proposed bilateral treaty between the U.S. and Russia to protect dwindling populations of polar bears in the far north. The treaty, first conceived in 2000, sets quotas on polar bear hunting by native peoples and calls for the establishment of an international commission to suggest ways to protect habitat for the massive mammals.

Surprisingly enough, the newest frontline in the campaign to protect America’s homeland is the battle against invasive species. Researchers at Carnegie Melon University and the Smithsonian Institution are spearheading consulting projects for the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) analyzing the contents of insect traps set around America’s largest ports of entry in order to determine how threatening some of the creepy crawlies coming into the U.S. just might be.

In some places, gold is hardly worth a nickel. Places like Oracle, Arizona, where tall tales still root deep. Because, in the West, land is gold–land is why the people come. The Sonoran Desert shrivels year by year as parcels are cashed in for top dollar. But with an annual population influx of 200,000, as 19,000 new roofs are raised, the land simply cannot keep up with the Joneses.