Wildlife Management

The howls that echoed through Griffith Park on Monday were coming from hikers, parents and nannies -- not coyotes. Park visitors were furious with a decision to shoot coyotes in the 4,210-acre park following an encounter between a man and a coyote last week. Eight animals were killed before the eradication effort ended at 10:50 p.m. Friday, said Kyle Orr, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. Park visitors blasted the hunt as overkill. They blamed the problem on people who illegally feed coyotes.

A federal judge Monday restored protections for grizzly bears near Yellowstone National Park, overturning a George W. Bush administration finding that the animals had made an "amazing" and sustainable recovery. In a strongly worded order, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's conclusion that the bears would find adequate food and protected habitat in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho was not supported by the government's own science, and that protections put into place for the grizzlies were not enforceable.

Something is about to happen on California's second-longest river that hasn't happened this time of year since Harry Truman was president. Water is going to start flowing down two stretches of the San Joaquin that have been sucked dry since Friant Dam began diverting most of the river into two giant irrigation canals. Today dam managers will crank up releases of water into the San Joaquin as part of an ambitious restoration program intended to return chinook to the once salmon-rich river by late 2012.

Thousands of mustangs that roam the West would be moved to preserves in the Midwest and East to protect the wild horses and the rangelands that support them, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday. The plan would not require killing any wild horses, he said. Interior Department officials had warned in recent months that slaughtering some wild horses and burros might be necessary to combat the rising cost of maintaining them. "We have a huge problem -- out-of-control populations of wild horses and burros on our public lands," Salazar said in a conference call with reporters.

For years, the water stored by the Savage Rapids Dam has nurtured the green bean fields and grazing pastures of southern Oregon, turning them into a lush region of bounty. But there has been a price -- the death of thousands of fish, which slammed themselves into the concrete wall of the dam in a futile effort to head upstream. Scenes from years past now resemble a faded sepia-tone photograph. Many of the big farms have turned into 10-acre hobby ranches; the salmon are in danger of disappearing; and even the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that harnessed rivers and irrigated the West, began saying a few years ago it would be better to just tear down the dam once and for all. So they did. On Friday, a platoon of bulldozers and earthmovers tore away at the last of the temporary earthen berms holding water behind the dam. The Rogue River rushed free, flowing through its historic channel for the first time since 1921.

More than 1 million pounds of carp that were threatening endangered fish have been pulled out of Utah Lake this winter, with most of it going to a farmer's fields and a nearby mink farm. The carp are being removed to save the June sucker, an endangered fish that lives only in Utah Lake and its tributaries. When carp feed on the lake bottom, they tear up vegetation that provides important places for young June suckers to hide. Wildlife officials say around 5 million pounds of carp must come out of lake each year to make enough room for the June sucker.

In an effort to spur the growth of native grasses and coastal sage scrub, state officials will set two controlled burns this week to rid four wilderness sites south of Newport Beach of unwanted nonnative weeds and vegetation. The state Department of Parks and Recreation and the Nature Conservancy will conduct the burns on Tuesday and Wednesday in Crystal Cove State Park and in the Irvine Co.'s open-space reserve land, which is in an unincorporated area.

The black bears' "capture, transportation and release occasioned much comment in the local press and their introduction was generally approved. If they thrive, they will become a real attraction to the thousands of visitors who spend summers and weekends in the mountain playgrounds. Their comical, clownish appearance and actions are a never-ending source of amusement to youngsters and adults alike."

Animals in the Santa Monica Mountains may soon find themselves unwittingly participants of a photographic project designed to monitor their movements. About 50 cameras will be scattered throughout the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area. * Camera: Sits a few feet off the ground in a protective box, camouflaged in mountain vegetation. Target animals: Coyotes, bobcats, foxes, badgers and mountains lions.

Imagine her surprise: a bobcat going about her nightly prowling business in the Santa Monica Mountains stumbles upon a delightfully stinky can of sardines. Being a cat, she can't resist and takes a mouthful. Suddenly, a flashbulb goes off and the bobcat's snack--along with her physical characteristics and distinguishing features--is recorded for posterity by a point-and-shoot camera.