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Way DownstreamIn Annapolis, the EPA says it’s changing how the Chesapeake Bay Program operates to emphasize action on Bay restoration plans. Discussing the changes, program spokesman Mike Burke acknowledged to The Washington Post what Bay Weekly reported several years ago: that government agencies would fall short of reducing pollution in half by 2010. Last November, the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that the program lacks “a comprehensive, coordinated implementation strategy” … In Calvert County, former U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers has lost her appeal. In a split In Annapolis, the Chesapeake Bay Trust is among those recognizing the value of trees in protecting Chesapeake Bay. That’s why the Trust this week announced some $200,000 in grants to the city of Annapolis, Baltimore and several other communities aimed to create urban tree canopies and buffering air pollution … On the Eastern Shore, U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest became the first Maryland politician of note to leap off the Poplar Island restoration bandwagon. The federal government plans to spend nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars rebuilding the vanishing island, primarily as a place to dump dredge spoils from the approach channels to Baltimore Harbor. But just as Congress prepared to lock in the next phase, Gilchrest, a maverick Republican, fired off a letter arguing that the money should be spent protecting people elsewhere along the Bay from eroding shorelines … Our Creature Feature comes from China, where a blend of capitalism and conservation is disturbing There’s no guarantee people will see one of the 1,600 or so wild giant pandas in a Chinese nature preserve. But for 360 yuan (about $45), people have a chance to get near one and perhaps take a picture. A government paper proclaimed that the company was protecting the environment and that no more than 20 trips limited to five people each would be conducted each day. But Beijing University professor Tang Chunxiang, perhaps risking his job, told Shanghai Daily: “If garbage is not dealt with and visitors are not supervised properly, the search trips are sure to do harm to the pandas. |
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decision, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board declined to reinstate Chambers, of Huntingtown, who was fired by the Bush administration nearly two years ago for speaking out about a shortage of police on the National Mall. Her words were prescient, judging by the rash of crime in the shadow of Washington monuments this summer …
panda-lovers. A state-sponsored company, Aba State Jiuzhai Wolong Giant Panda Industry, is conducting panda-tracking trips in the wild.