[CPEO-MEF] NATURAL RESOURCES: "Accidental Wilderness" at Hanford, Washington and White Sands, New Mexico

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Accidental wilderness
Life returns to the west's nuclear test sites

By David Wolman
High Country News (May 24, 2010)
Pique Newsmagazine (August 4, 2010)


April is not the cruelest month in the scablands of southeastern 
Washington. In a week, pink phlox would carpet the undulating desert 
landscape below Rattlesnake Mountain, followed soon after by a rush of 
violet lupine. On a clear day with only a slight breeze, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service biologist Heidi Newsome walked up a canyon, seeking 
signs of the rare buteo regalis, or ferruginous hawk, so named for the 
rusty hue of its feathers. No one else was around; this ecology reserve 
is closed to the public. Far out on the northern horizon, next to a 
sharp turn in the Columbia River, Newsome could see a few trucks, cranes 
and old concrete buildings. But as she made her way up Bobcat Canyon, 
all she could hear were the red-tailed hawks, northern harrier, chukar 
partridge and migrating bluebirds.

...

Newsome's workplace is loosely known as Hanford. Administered by the 
Department of Energy, the Hanford Site in its entirety includes Saddle 
Mountain Wildlife Refuge and Hanford Reach National Monument, as well as 
the central part of the site, where the core DOE operations take place. 
Newsome works for the Fish and Wildlife Service, managing the refuge 
portion of the area. Her work in Bobcat Canyon, in addition to hawk 
surveys, includes restoration efforts to encourage the re-growth of 
native plants devastated by recent wildfires.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?cat=Features&content=Feature+1731

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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