Wildlife

A National Academy of Sciences report Thursday criticized "the lack of any truly coordinated planning" in the rapid growth of wind farms across the country, and called on federal, state and local governments to pay more attention to the effects of turbines on wildlife and scenic landscapes. Wind provides less than 1% of the nation's electricity, but it is one of the fastest-growing alternatives to fossil-fuelproduced power, a major contributor to global warming. In the last six years, U.S.

Around this time each year, thousands make the pilgrimage to the Antelope Valley to see California poppies shining in the fields around Anne Aldrich's Lancaster home. "There are fields of orange, just like in 'The Wizard of Oz' when you first spot the Emerald City," Aldrich said. But not in 2007, as Southern California is poised to experience its driest year on record. "We don't have poppies this year. This is about the worst we've seen," she said. "It's desert-brown."

Five environmental groups and a labor union Tuesday petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to restrict the use of chemicals that are in many household detergents and have been linked to gender changes in fish and other aquatic life. Led by the Sierra Club, the groups are seeking a ban on nonylphenol and nonylphenol ethoxylates in consumer and industrial detergents and other cleaning products.

A plan to expand an Army artillery range could annex as much as 500,000 acres of federally managed desert in southwestern Arizona that is home to a variety of wildlife, including desert bighorn sheep, Sonoran desert tortoise and endangered lesser long-nosed bats. The plan being considered by the Army's Yuma Proving Ground, near the border with California, would expand the facility beyond its 840,000 acres to accommodate the increasing distance that artillery shells can be fired.

Friendly felines first cozied up to humans in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East at least 9,500 years ago, not in Egypt as commonly thought, an international team of researchers reported Thursday. Archeological evidence had previously suggested the date for the taming of wildcats, but the new study, published in the online edition of the journal Science, provides genetic evidence that confirms the origin of domesticated cats.

Healing ailing rivers is Mark Hill's specialty. So when the tall and lean ecologist visits one of his works in progress, he's prepared to paddle a long and sinuous route to assess the health of his watery patient. In this case, his charge is the Lower Owens River, a 62-mile-long stretch left essentially dry in 1913 after its flows of Sierra snowmelt were diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

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IN "Arctic Tale," a starving young polar bear swims 200 miles in open water looking for food, ultimately settling for leftover walrus on a rocky island, while a lost wee walrus floats adrift, squinting pitifully against the cold. Dubbed "a wildlife adventure," the film's aim is to inspire kids in the same way the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" moved many adults.

Efforts to restore the ecosystem on Santa Cruz Island to its native state reached a milestone this week as scientists said that a two-year program to eliminate feral pigs had been a success. Although the last confirmed pig death was last year, the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy, which owns 75% of the island, have been monitoring the results of the $5-million eradication effort since then to gauge the program's effects. They say the island's endangered species are rebounding.

If it weren't for the parched hillsides, strolling through Big Sycamore Canyon might seem a little like strolling through a Bolivian jungle. The wild parakeets, after all, lend an exotic flavor to a tree-lined fire road that delves long into Point Mugu State Park. In fact, with the surrounding landscape so brown, the communal birds provide a stark contrast as they swarm about in lustrous green flocks.