How many <I>E Magazine</I> readers are surprised that, in the wake of what EPA head Michael Leavitt calls a "mandate" for the Bush administration’s scorched-earth environmental policies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) would sacrifice the greater sage grouse to protect western oil and gas interests?

For the last decade Republican legislators have been crying foul regarding the sweeping powers of the Endangered Species Act, especially in regard to what landowners can and cannot do on their own private property. But now that Republicans have an increased majority in Congress, they are poised to make major changes weakening the ability of the federal government to protect endangered species through restrictions on development and resource extraction on privately owned wildlife habitat.

In perhaps the opening salvo in what promises to be a systematic weakening of endangered species protections in the United States, the White House last week proposed cutting back river miles protected to facilitate Pacific salmon recovery by 80 percent, while simultaneously rejecting any possibility of removing hydropower dams that have decimated the fish’s reproductive capacity.

An investigative report in Cleveland’s <I>Plain Dealer</I> November 27 makes it plain why large corporate animal farms are terrible neighbors—and why communities that welcomed them in often regret their decision.

Marine conservation activists were dismayed to learn last week that the Bush administration is unlikely to institute recommended policy changes regarding the way it handles ocean pollution, coastal development, fisheries management and other marine environmental issues. The White House is mandated to officially "respond" by December 20 to recommendations set forth by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy last year.

Environmentalists are bracing for stepped-up efforts by a re-elected Bush administration to dramatically increase logging of old-growth trees and other forestlands in the Pacific Northwest over the next four years.