Leaf Litter
Raking in Notes From All Over
March 2005

Here Piggy, Piggy
$3.9 million will go to Prohunt New Zealand Ltd., a professional animal control company, in the hopes that it will be able to rid Santa Cruz Island (California) of 2,000 nonnative wild pigs. The pig eradication project is the latest effort by the National Park Service and the nonprofit Nature Conservancy to return Santa Cruz Island and four other islands of the Channel Islands National Park to native conditions. Although the pigs were first brought to the island in 1852, their existence threatens nine rare plant species and the native island fox. The Leaf-let first reported on the pigs’ impending demise in 2000 (http://www.albrightseed.com/pigs_on_santa_cruz.htm).

Ratting Out GE Crops
Ten years ago, Toshiko Fujii, a Japanese researcher and professor of medicine at Teikyo University, discovered that glufosinate herbicide caused aggressiveness in baby rats. The news is relevant today because glufosinate is used in Bayer’s genetically-modified (GM), herbicide-resistant crops. Yoichiro Kuroda, who is studying the effects of glufosinate for the Japanese government, cites the late Fujii’s work as evidence that the chemical in GM plants may cause brain damage

Not So Great Scotts
Federal regulators fined the Scotts Company of Ohio for failing to immediately report that genetically-engineered (GE), herbicide-resistant grass seed had escaped from a test field in Madras, Oregon. The GE seed then bred with grasses up to 12 miles away. Scotts wants to sell herbicide-resistant grasses for use in golf courses, but the USDA requires further testing prior to approving the product. The Leaf-let reported on the GE grass in its November 2004 article, "Roundup-Resistant Bentgrass: Friend or Frankenweed?"(http://www.ssseeds.com/leaf-let/roundup-resistantbentgrass.htm).

Biting the Apple
Apple Computer Corp. has recently come under fire for its inadequate recycling policy. With U.S. consumers getting rid of approximately 13,000 outdated or unused computers per day, advocacy groups such as the Computer TakeBack Campaign are concerned that Apple’s policy of charging $30 each to recycle computers will discourage proper disposal. And, with 10 million Apple iPods sold since 2001, the group fears that this trendy Apple product will become yet another form of "e-waste."

But Do They Drive SUVs?
Pygmy chimpanzees known as bonobos are being hunted for meat to the point of becoming endangered. Found only in the Congo, the bonobo is a primate species that has the greatest genetic connection to humans, living in matriarchal societies that enforce cooperation. The World Wildlife Fund (http://worldwildlife.org) has initiated a new project to protect these soccer moms of the forest.

© 2005 Wendy Dager

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