An AP story today reports "Dozens of Indiana bird species diminishing." Some quotes:
More than two dozen bird species are listed as endangered in Indiana, and the populations of 13 others were diminishing, studies say.The Bluffton News-Banner has a story about the federal buyouts of a number of the town's homes, located in a floodplain, damaged by the 2003 flood. Some quotes:A Stanford University study published this month concluded that 10 percent of all bird species are on track to disappear within 100 years, and an additional 15 percent are in trouble because of habitat loss, climate change, introduced predators and other factors.
The Audubon Society reported this fall that 85 percent of U.S. grassland birds — many found in Indiana — are declining. * * *
Their numbers were depleted as nesting habitats disappeared into row crops, subdivisions and roads — a problem often being repeated in their wintering grounds.
"The fact that we're losing birds is an indicator of declining environmental quality," said Don Whitehead, a retired Indiana University professor and bird biologist. "We are tied to that same environment."
Instead of wondering when, if ever, big flood loss relief would come, the relief has been paid and the city could end up with about $125,000 on hand for its flood buffer picnic park in the east part of the older residential city. * * *Posted by Marcia Oddi at December 27, 2004 07:23 PMOver a week ago the city’s environmental contractor, EMS Inc. (Environmental Management Services) was reported to have been filing its notice to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) on intent to demolish, including environmental removal plans, chiefly on the limited amount of asbestos indicated by the EMS studies.
Allowing a required two-week waiting period from that notice filing to the actual demolition, the city set out Jan. 3 to Frauhiger as the first day any actual demolishing could take place, although salvage removals could be started right away. * * *
The huge difference from Christmas-New Years a year ago is that last year at this time, there was disappointment because the state-predicted buyouts by Christmas of 2003 were not taking place on that state timetable.
Actually, as most know, the breakthrough did not come until May and the money until July 9, 2004, the one-year anniversary of the greatest flooding day in the Great Flood of 2003.
On that July 9, 2004, date, the state turned over a check for $490,559 -- the first payment toward the committed total of $684,926 federal hazard mitigation money for a buyouts program from FEMA (Federal Emergency Managements Agency.)
With a subsequent check for $80,759 as the state has tracked the 75 percent federal commitment on actual buyouts and related costs, the federal sums to Bluffton have totalled $571,745 thus far, and all the 17 homeowners in the priority flood zone area have been paid in full for their homes -- paid on basis of averaged out appraisals. * * *
The entire program, including buyouts, demolitions, clearings and new park launching , will be just under $1 million, with a little under $700,000 in federal funding or it.