Audubon Photo by FWS

The few weeks in April and May when turkey hunting is open is undeniably my favorite time of year.  The quiet chill of winter is finally giving way to sunshine and hints of green.  Birds are finding their voices again.  The insufferable clouds of mosquitoes haven’t developed just yet, and it’s the perfect time to sit quietly against a tree and watch the world come back to life.

Don’t get me wrong – getting out of bed at 3:30 in the morning is painful.  Every early morning I have the same thought:  why do I do this to myself?  It doesn’t take much, however—only that first pre-dawn gobble of a big tom turkey from his roost somewhere in the trees—before I remember why.  Only a lucky few know what it’s like before the forest wakes up on a spring morning, when the only sounds are a few chuck-will’s-widows calling out and the crunch of last fall’s leaves beneath your boots.

This wild turkey struts across the field. black_throated_green_warbler/Flickr

A window into a wild world

It’s also an indescribable experience to call to a gobbler as if you were a lonely hen, and to have him respond with gusto.  They’re incredible birds.  To me, they always resemble something prehistoric, carefully picking a quiet path through the trees with their long, scaly legs and tiny, white golf ball heads—until the toms display full strut, with tail fanned and chest feathers puffed out.  Then they look like Thanksgiving walking through the woods.

To them, everything incites curiosity, and watching them explore decaying logs or empty ditches is like a window into another world. This spring, on one special morning, we called in three jakes (juvenile males), and we watched them chase grasshoppers and play turkey tag for several minutes until interest in a squirrel drew them further into the woods.  They had been entirely unaware of our presence, and I felt pretty lucky to get to watch them behave as they have for millennia.  Several years ago, when turkeys were nearly gone from many places around the country, we would not have been so fortunate.  Extraordinary conservation efforts—thanks to dedicated men and women everywhere—have gone into rebuilding wild turkey populations and protecting their forest habitats.

Family Traditions

Hunting during turkey season with my father. NWF Photo by Rachel Dawson

Indeed, this season was successful.  Our family harvested three toms, plenty for us.  But it’s clearly not always about the hunt.  There is so much more that comes with pursuing game:  a chance to experience the wild in a unique way, an important time together as family, and a deeper understanding of the importance of giving back to ensure that our sportsmen’s (and women’s) traditions persist for future generations.  So while I might be disappointed to see another turkey season in the books, I know I can look forward to seeing those jakes return as toms next spring…and there is plenty of summer fishing to come in the meantime!

Exxon crews try to control and clean-up tar sands oil in Arkansas

Last week, the Exxon pipeline burst near Mayflower, Ark., flooding wetlands and neighborhoods with toxic tar sands dilbit. The pipeline is more than 70 years old and Exxon was recently fined for failing to perform regular maintenance on the line. Very little is known about what’s actually happening, but recent aerial footage has given light to a much bigger problem for this community and Exxon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NWF has been saying for years that the oil industry is not applying lessons learned from the Enbridge tar sands disaster and this Exxon spill proves that point unbelievably:

• Exxon had to be told that their tar sands pipeline broke as a river of tar sands oil flowed in and around homes and wetlands. Exxon is still working to stop the flow of oil from reaching nearby Lake Conway, which also happens to be the water resources for the nearby communities. Similarly, Enbridge had to be told about their million gallon spill – that tar sands spill went unreported for almost 17 hours and impacted nearly 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River! A State of Emergency was issued by the governor of Michigan to bring in resources to prevent the oil from hitting Lake Michigan.
• Exxon seems to be grossly underestimating the amount of tar sands spilled: they originally reported only 80,000 gallons spilled, but now that figure is closer to 400,000 gallons. Judging by the photos and videos, I would guess the figure will continue to rise. Enbridge also underestimated the original spill amounts, which is still under debate to this day. Enbridge also estimated the clean-up would take weeks, which has now turning into years. This is the same story Exxon is selling to the media and their failure to face the facts continues to cause major delays in the cleanup, which will only continue to impact the communities and wildlife negatively.
• Because of these low spill figures, Exxon has been allowed to get away with a pathetic response and responders are not showing signs of using spill equipment that accounts for the fact that this oil will sink in the wetlands and water impacted. It took Enbridge months to admit that the tar sands heavy crude sank in the river and wetlands, and by that time all the damage had been done. Because response to tar sands spills is much harder and much more expansive, I am guessing that Exxon will continue to try and hide the facts. Enbridge and the EPA are still trying to figure out how to clean-up tar sands oil submerged in the Kalamazoo River.
• Wildlife response is incredibly lacking and continues to be limited by Exxon — due to their potential liability. One group that has stood up in the face of this disaster is Helping Arkansas Wildlife Kritters. We want to thank them for their leadership in response. However, it appears that an Exxon contractor will soon take over all wildlife response efforts. We hope that federal agencies will also step in to ensure that response is being handled properly. It took Enbridge nearly two weeks to have their wildlife center in full gear. In those two weeks, local rescues along the Kalamazoo River tried to take matters into their own hands, but were quickly shut down because Enbridge considered their wildlife response a liability. My heart breaks for the wildlife and people that continue to be impacted.
  

  Tar sands heavy crude, from an Exxon pipeline, overtakes an Arkansas creek

• Transparency is nowhere to be found – leaving impacted residents confused and angry. Exxon has evacuated between 20-40 families and I have a feeling the evacuation zone could increase. It is critical to get people and wildlife out of the impacted area as quickly as possible because the benzene (part of the diluents used to transport tar sands through pipelines) is at unsafe concentrations in the days immediately following a release. Benzene is considered a carcinogen. Enbridge had major delays, but ended up evacuating homes within a few hundred feet of the Kalamazoo River because exposure to the chemicals was a major concern. Because of confusion and delays in those evacuations, over 300 people reported having health issues related to exposure to the tar sands crude. Ultimately, Enbridge ended up buying around 150 homes from families living along the Kalamazoo River because contamination was so widespread.

For almost 3 years now, many people (including myself) have been fighting to try and get the oil industry, our regulators and lawmakers to pay attention to the lessons learned from the Enbridge Kalamazoo River disaster – so it never happens again. The Exxon spill proves (again) that the focus for oil companies and pipeline operators is only on profits and not on the safety of our communities, wildlife and resources. Enbridge has also argued that the Kalamazoo River disaster was a rare situation. With not even three years between this spill and the Enbridge spill, I think we can safely say this is a precursor for what’s to come if we continue to allow the tar sands industry to expand.

It is inexcusable that our regulators let Exxon operate this incredibly old pipeline to transport tar sands crude. It is inexcusable that our regulators and decision makers are allowing any tar sands pipeline projects to move forward without proper spill response plans. And it is inexcusable for our lawmakers not to demand safety over oil profits.

What will it take for us to change? Last week, the National Wildlife Federation, through the filing of a rulemaking petition, lead a coalition of concerned citizens and organizations by called for a moratorium on tar sands pipelines projects and expansions until the EPA and PHMSA create tar sands pipeline regulations that account for these issues – and many more. Please help support this effort by contacting those agencies and speaking up for wildlife and those impacted by this latest disaster.

Bird watching. Credit Erin Millstead

I also plan to take my daughter to a local hiking trail to look for more birds and wildlife, different than what we see in our yard. Afterwards, we’ll have fun learning online about the bird species we have seen and playing the games and activities on the bird count website. The online bird guide will be a good resource for us.

I grew up in Southern California in the “land of eternal spring.” Swallows, hummingbirds, pelicans, and seagulls were the type of birds I saw around my backyard. From my backyard swing, I often gazed at the huge pelicans that sailed overhead and then plunged down with a huge splash into the sea chasing fish for their dinner.

Like clockwork, every March I would hear a chorus of birds outside my bedroom window and realized it was springtime and all the birds had again come back from South America to their California homes. In my little world, birds were seen and heard everywhere, because in Southern California, windows and doors were always open to catch the cool ocean breezes. With the temperature ranging from 50-70 degrees in my seaside town, bird calls always accompanied the roar of the Pacific Ocean.

When I moved to the East Coast and started to experience the seasons, I marveled at the glistening snow on the ground, deep green evergreens and bright red cardinals. What a beautiful contrast. Then, when spring and summer came, I witnessed purple martins (an East Coast version of my beloved Swallow) flying around my yard in search of bugs during the early evening hours. When my baby was born, I took her outside to point out all the birds and trees in our backyard so that she felt comfortable with the sights and sounds of nature.

I’m excited to share my love of birds and the outdoors to my child during the Great Backyard Bird Count. I can’t expect her to love the natural world as I do without spending time surrounded by a world of green. I hope the birds will cooperate by giving us a good show. Some great tips for enjoying the outdoors with children are at National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There website.

What birds do you think you will see this weekend? You might see Cardinals, Pelicans, Canadian Geese, Egrets, and Ducks. Leave a comment and let us know what you find!

Like Be Out There on Facebook, follow @Be Out There  on Twitter, or sign up for Be Out There newsletters for outdoor activities for your kids, news, tips, and resources.

Watch my personal story here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Enbridge oil spill gave me a first-hand look into just how dangerous it is to transport raw tar sands oil, and how difficult it is to clean up when it spills. Unfortunately, federal laws governing pipelines are inadequate in several respects, and states have not passed their own laws to fill in the gaps. Enbridge knew of safety problems with the pipeline years before the disaster and because of weak regulations and poor response plans, this spill went unreported for 17 hours.

Despite the very real threats to wildlife and our communities, Enbridge and other tar sands oil companies are forging ahead with plans to bring even more raw tar sands oil through the Midwest and the rest of the country—before needed regulations are adapted and proper accountability is met.

Right now, we have a critical opportunity to speak up against the expansion of tar sands pipelines and show decision makers and the media the widespread opposition to the risks that tar sands crude poses to wildlife and our communities. By attending events, writing a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper, and submitting comments online, you can make a big difference to protect wildlife from the dangers of tar sands oil.

Speak up to protect people and wildlife from toxic tar sands oil by urging President Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all.

A bison cow attends to her newborn calf in Yellowstone National Park. Working with the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes, NWF recently helped with the release of selected Yellowstone bison on the Fort Peck Reservation, creating a new herd of genetically pure buffalo.

Saying “Thanks”

For the second consecutive year, as Thanksgiving Day draws near, NWF has given staff the opportunity to thank individual donors individually as we phone hundreds of contributors of all kinds and sizes. We reach only a small proportion of those who support NWF, but we try to call as many as time and other constraints allow, just to say thank you.

As a senior editor of National Wildlife magazine, I phoned two dozen donors myself, with great pleasure. I have worked in conservation at the national level for more than 30 years, and throughout that time the importance of donors to my career and to protecting wildlife has been ever on my mind. During my calls, I found myself talking mostly to answering machines, but that didn’t diminish the pleasure of saying thank you to these folks whose kindness plays such an important role in wildlife conservation. My favorite answering machine message this year was by Betsy in Philadelphia, who said she couldn’t answer the phone because she was at the zoo.

Tim Brady, NWF philanthropy officer, makes calls to thank donors during the annual NWF Thanksgiving thank-you event.

Elizabeth Tamburello, an NWF marketing coordinator, said she too found that people she talked to also thanked NWF. One donor, along with giving Tamburello a back-at-you thanks, told her, “I literally just put my check in the mail to you guys.” Several donors Tamburello talked to said they hoped NWF would continue to fight against climate change (we will), saying “it was a big concern of theirs.”

An angler fishes along the Gulf of Mexico coast as pelicans wing overheard. NWF’s many efforts for gulf protection following the BP oil spill recently helped win $1.2 billion for restoration from the BP criminal settlement.

Donor Dollars in Action

In addition to its actions against global warming—seeking better regulation of greenhouse gases and helping individuals take their own measures to reduce carbon footprints—NWF is engaged in a wide range of conservation activities, thanks to donor dollars:

• NWF is working to protect habitat and environmental conditions in the Great Lakes region. Most recently, NWF has worked for laws designed to keep Asian carp—an invasive species that could cause devastating ecological damage—from expanding into the Great Lakes and has sought to close gaps, inconsistencies and loopholes in U.S. state and Canadian provincial laws that leave the Great Lakes vulnerable to a new wave of mining activity;
• NWF is working for stronger protections against mercury pollution, helping to get the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in late 2011 to finalize the first-ever national limits on mercury from U.S. coal-fired power plants, which will cut emissions by 90 percent and significantly reduce exposure that can harm wildlife and impair brain development in children.
• After 15 years of partnership with the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, NWF last March helped secure 61 genetically pure Yellowstone National Park bison for release on the Fort Peck Reservation, the northeastern Montana home of Sioux and Assiniboine tribes. Since the release on March 19, more than 20 bison calves have been born, a start to restoring a lost part of the tribes’ heritage.
• NWF and its partners in 2009 won a series of court cases requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ensure protections of wildlife and habitat in three local flood zones proposed for development, benefitting endangered Key deer in Florida, dwindling orcas and Chinook salmon in Washington state’s Puget Sound and more than 314 square miles of Mississippi wetland and bottomland forest between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, which would have been drained by the proposed Yazoo Pump.
• Thanks to dedicated work by dozens of NWF employees on the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign, half of the $2.4 billion that BP will pay to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as part of its criminal settlement for the Gulf oil spill will be used for Mississippi River delta and barrier-island restoration in coastal Louisiana.
  Late in 2010, NWF and the Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF) successfully concluded a federal case challenging FEMA’s practice of issuing flood insurance for storm-surge areas along the Florida coast, which includes 90 percent of U.S. sea turtle nesting habitat.
• Through its Certified Wildlife Habitat® program, NWF has guided more than 100,000 citizens through the process of turning their backyards and other property into habitat suitable for local wildlife.

A New Generation of Conservationists

A group of friends camp out in Virginia. NWF is seeking to get 10 million more childern into the outdoors during the next three years.

• The annual Great American Backyard Campout, now approaching its ninth year, which gets families out of the house and into tents in backyards and other outdoor sites. More than 160,000 campers participated in 2011.
• Eco-Schools, an internationally acclaimed program started in 1994 by the Foundation for Environmental Education, which provides a framework to help educators integrate sustainable principles throughout their schools and fosters environmental stewardship among youth. NWF has served since 2008 as Eco-School host for U.S. K-12 schools. The program now has more than 700 participating schools with 300,000 students.
• The Certified Schoolyard Habitats, a program that helps teachers and students to develop wildlife havens on school grounds and that also creates outdoor classrooms. With more than 4,000 certified schools, including more than a dozen tribal schools, Schoolyard Habitats is the largest U.S. school-garden program.

Thanks Again!

Nothing NWF has or will accomplish could be done without donors. For those we couldn’t phone this year, everyone at NWF extends to you too a hearty “Thank you” for your support.

Click below for more information on:

Adopt a Species

NWF Gifts for Kids

NWF Gifts for All

Photographs for this blog were donated by entrants of the annual National Wildlife Photo Contest, to whom goes a special thanks.

Two Enbridge pipelines cross the Straits of Mackinac,under our lakes, just west of the Bridge, Photo: MDOT Mackinac Bridge

“This is a recipe for disaster,” said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the Great Lakes office of the National Wildlife Federation in Ann Arbor. “This toxic oil pipeline is 60 years old, runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac, and is operated by a company with a terrible record of spills and ruptures. Now they want to increase pressure and temperature in the line by pumping an additional 50,000 barrels—2.1 million gallons—per day. This is a BP oil spill scale catastrophe waiting to happen.”

Enbridge Energy has been responsible for more than 800 pipeline spills in the United States and Canada between 1999-2010, including the biggest inland oil spill in U.S. history, in which more than 1 million gallons of oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River.

Despite its shoddy safety record, Enbridge Energy is now trying to expand Line 5. This project is part of a system wide expansion that will have massive impacts throughout the entire Great Lakes region as Enbridge gears up to push incredible amounts of toxic tar sands oil through our waters to refineries that dot the lakes. In addition, that oil is not likely to stay here. Enbridge is also expanding their pipeline network east of Michigan to push tar sands oil to New England and possibly out for export through the Portland-Montreal pipeline.

This NWF map simulates a 3, 6 and 12 hour spill from line 5 based on Enbridge spill response plans, average current speeds and “worse case” discharge estimates.

There is very little known about the integrity of Line 5 because Enbridge, and agencies charged with pipeline oversight, refuse to provide the pubic maintenance records or inspection history. What we do know is that Enbridge’s emergency response plans for this location are abysmal. The overall line is nearly 60 years old and has had its fair share of spills. And there is no margin for error when it comes to preventing oil spills in the Great Lakes: the Lakes provide drinking water for 30 million people in the U.S. and Canada, support a $7 billion fishery, a $16 billion recreational boating economy and are the backbone of one of the world’s largest regional economies.

The report makes the following recommendations to address the sunken hazard of Enbridge’s Line 5:

• PHMSA should deny the proposed 50,000 barrels per day expansion of the Enbridge pumping rate. PHMSA has authority under a federal corrective action agreement to regulate Enbridge activities anywhere along the Lakehead system, which includes Line 5. The higher pressures, and possibly temperatures, in a 60-year old line are too great a risk to the Straits, one of the jewels of Michigan and the Great Lakes.
• Enbridge should be required to install additional response centers on either side of the Straits to speed their response to any spills or ruptures.
• The 60-year old pipeline should be replaced, but only to its current size. Michigan should not have even more oil running through the Great Lakes.
• The federal agency, PHMSA, should declare a moratorium on any new or expanded pipelines that transport a highly toxic form of crude—tar sands derived oil that contains diluted bitumen—until after the National Academy of Sciences completes an ongoing study on this type of crude and new regulations are promulgated.
• Passage of the proposed ballot measure to increase clean energy from utilities, Proposal 3, would reduce the diesel gasoline used to transport coal into the state and promote the type of technological innovation that increases fuel economy in vehicles and decreases the demand for gasoline.

Take action to stop dangerous tar sands pipelines projects.

If you want to reach out to PHMSA directly and let them know you want to stop Enbridge from being allowed to expand, you can email them: phmsa.hm-approvals@dot.gov or call: 202-366-4535

Photo: Linda Shafe, Battle Creek
Enbridge stockpiles pipelines for their expansion to Line 6B of the Lakehead system.

Bats Are Mammals

Bats grow hair and feed infant young with mother’s milk, two defining characteristics of mammals. Biologists put bats in the scientific order Chiroptera (from Greek meaning “hand wing”), in the same way that carnivores like bears, wolves, lions and tigers are put in the order Carnivora.

Bats Are Biologically Old Creatures

In the fossil record, bats date back at least 52 million years—tens of millions of years before apes and humans appear.

Bats Are the Only Flying Mammals

Other mammal species glide, but only bats are capable of powered flight. Their wings are composed of the elongated fingers of the forelimbs with a thin webbing of furred skin stretching between the fingers. Because these wings are thinner than those of feathery birds, bats are capable of more rapid and precise turns than are birds.

The long ears on this big-eared, or long-eared, bat help the animal to listen to its sonar signals bouncing off its surroundings. Bats can modify the shape of the ears and reduce the amount of sound going into them to keep loud sonar signals–which humans can’t even hear–from deafening them. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Bats Are Very Successful

In biology, a successful order is one that produces a lot of species, showing that it is highly adaptable to many environments. The chiropterans have produced nearly 1,250 living species, meaning that about 20 percent of the world’s roughly 5,700 living mammal species are bats. (Of the various orders of mammal, only one beats bats in species numbers, and that is the order Rodentia—rodents—at roughly 2,277 species, including mice, rats, chipmunks, hamsters and beavers).

Bats Are Slow Breeders

Females usually produce only one offspring at a time, probably because pregnant bats must fly to find food and can handle only so much onboard cargo. Mothers feed newborns with milk and bring food to older young, which cannot fend for themselves until they are able to fly—a development that may take six weeks to four months, depending on the species. Animals that breed slowly usually live a relatively long time, allowing them to produce sufficient young to maintain the species, and bats are no exception. Individuals of some bat species can live 20 years.

Bats Are Insect Eaters

True, many bats hunt on the wing for insect prey, eating thousands of small insects each night. Many of the small bats native to the United States follow this diet. But some bat species eat fruit, some small animals such as frogs, and some even eat fish.

Bats Are Echolocators

Bats that hunt flying insects may use a form of sonar or echolocation—while flying, they emit sounds that bounce off nearby objects. The echo helps the bat locate what lies ahead, including such prey as moths and mosquitoes. Some bats eat insects on the ground, but they also use highly developed hearing to locate their prey.

Bats Are Not Creatures that Get Tangled in People’s Hair

Certainly not. Their use of echolocation is so precise that

they can fly in complete darkness through a room crisscrossed with stretched lengths of string, compared to which a human is like the broad side of a barn.

Bats Are Little Animals

Yes, in many cases they are. In fact, one of the smallest mammals in the world is the bumblebee bat (also called Kitti’s hog-nosed bat), with a body less than an inch and a half long and weighing around 0.07 ounces. Found in Thailand and Burma, it feeds on insects.

Bats Are Large Animals

Pretty large, sometimes. Fruit bats, a.k.a. flying foxes, of Australia and parts of Asia and Africa can reach a wingspan of nearly 5 feet and weigh 2.5 pounds. Relying on a keen sense of smell and good eyesight to find the fruit on which they feed, they may fly 40 miles in search of a fruiting tree.

Outdoor Fun for You and Your Kids at Hike & Seek

In September and October, join NWF’s Hike & Seek™ in select cities nationwide for a 1- to 2-mile nature hike and scavenger hunt, during which you can learn more about bats at the Mammals Station on the trail, see a barn owl or other raptor up close, make a bug box and find many more activities for children of all ages, especially toddlers to age 10.

Batty Activities for a Pre-hike Kickoff

• Join thousands of other Americans who are turning backyards into Certified Wildlife Habitat ™

• Most bats are nocturnal. What should you do if you see one in the daytime?

• A Kid Quiz on bats

• Building a bat house.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On July 18th, community members from across Michigan participated in the Lansing, Mich., We are the Kalamazoo Human Oil Spill event to memorialize two years passing since the largest and costliest inland oil spill in US history.

The tar sands spill occurred when a pipeline operated by Enbridge Inc., dumped approximately 1.2 million gallons of tar sands crude into a wetland that overflowed into the Kalamazoo River, contaminating nearly 40 miles of the watershed.

NWF photo: Human oil spill in Michigan’s Capital

People across Michigan are rightfully infuriated that the State of Michigan is even considering allowing Enbridge to expand its pipeline when the company hasn’t shown one iota of remorse or proper accountability for the worst inland oil spill in history. Enbridge needs to prove they can operate safely before the State of Michigan signs-off on their massive expansion plan.

Nic Clark, campaigns director of Michigan Clean Water Action explains:

Michigan can’t afford another Enbridge oil disaster, and expanding this pipeline is a distraction from our clean energy future. That’s why we support efforts to increase our state’s renewable energy standard to 25% by the year 2025. We need to stop exporting our money and jobs importing dirty fossil fuels from other states and the Middle East. The 25% by 2025 proposal will increase the amount of clean energy produced right here in Michigan.

Tar sands oil is more corrosive, dirtier, more prone to spills, and harder to clean up than conventional crude oil. Further, extracting and refining tar sands oil requires the destruction of forests in Canada and the use of massive amounts of energy and water.

“The process is catastrophic for our environment and will have an even more devastating impact by speeding up climate change. Citizens across North America are fed up with our reliance on such a dirty and dangerous fuel and the catastrophic impact it has on climate change”, said Rita Chapman, Clean Water Program Director at Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.

“The youth of Michigan need our decision makers to help us protect Michigan’s great natural resources for future generations and help us create a more sustainable future that does not rely on dirty energy and sneaky corporations” said Liz Starke Coordinator of the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition.

Please join the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center for our River Walk next week to show our continued solidarity around opposition to tar sands oil in the Great Lakes. You can also RSVP to these events, take action against tar sands, and find many more events happening around the country at NWF’s Action Fund Action Center.

NWF photo – rescued turtle covered in tar sands oil from the Kalamazoo River

Enbridge was referring to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the July 2010, Marshall, Mich. spill. This tar sands spill killed an unknown number of wildlife, sickened communities and polluted nearly 40 miles of waterways—for generations to come.

Enbridge can no longer hide behind the unanswered questions and must now face the reality of having the largest inland tar sands oil spill in history. Not only do people want answers from Enbridge, but we also want solutions from the federal agency that oversees pipeline safety, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

NTSB’s investigation revealed that Enbridge demonstrated gross negligence in maintaining their pipelines along with inept operators at their controls. All of this aided in the largest inland tar sands oil spills in history, which went undetected and unreported for nearly 17 hours. The disaster was made worse by Enbridge not having adequate response plans in place and not properly notifying first responders of possible issues on the line.

Not only did this investigation answer some of the most basic questions, it is also going to be the basis for many decisions about fines, penalties and even criminal actions towards Enbridge.

NTSB also revealed that Enbridge has had a detailed history of failure and continues to not act on that failure. Matt Nicholson, pipeline investigator with the federal safety board added this comment:

“Lessons are being lost” on Enbridge…

Despite the obvious failure and neglect, the State of Michigan and the federal government are allowing Enbridge Energy to build an additional pipeline along this decrepit pipeline, which will have the ability to triple the amount of tar sands oil flowing through the Great Lakes.

For the National Wildlife Federation, who has been on the ground responding to this disaster since the first few days, these basic needs and actions are clear and most urgent:

• Line 6B should not be in operation until all structural defects are repaired and Enbridge should not be allowed to build a new and larger pipeline alongside Line 6B.
  

  NWF photo: Tar sands oil in the Kalamazoo River, one year later.

• Enbridge should be required to run an integrity inspection on all operating pipelines within the US, by a third party.
• No tar sands pipelines should be approved for construction until the National Academy of Sciences has concluded a study on how transportation of diluted bitumen impacts current pipelines.
• Any pipeline operator transporting this product should be required to develop alternative response plans; taking into account the unique nature of the toxic heavy bitumen and the need for increased relationships with first responders.
• A thorough health study should be conducted on how a release of diluted bitumen impacts wildlife and human health—short and long term.
• Integrity management programs need to be overhauled and there needs to be increased oversight, on the part of PHMSA, during pipeline inspections and when reviewing emergency response plans.

To learn more about tar sands pipelines and ways to support alternative energy solutions, please visit NWF’s Action Fund Center.

Kalamazoo River polluted with tar sands crude. NWF photo by Beth Wallace.

Agencies within the Unified Command hosted an invite-only media event to open the oiled Kalamazoo River to the public today.

I would love to say that I was shocked by this news, but the truth is that this behavior has become the norm when learning to live with one of the largest tar sands oil spills in history. No transparency, half truths and shut the public out.

On Tuesday morning, I received a call from a reporter in Canada that informed me that the oiled Kalamazoo river will soon be open for public use and a celebration was to take place on Thursday, June 21 to mark the occasion.

I was a little confused, to say the least, on how someone in Canada had learned of this event when people living in Michigan and along the river had not. Even the local media has been left in the dark on the details. Again, confused but not surprised.

After calling every person I can think of—from impacted community members to EPA officials involved in the clean up—not one person could provide more information. It took impacted community members Susan Connolly and Deb Miller making personal stops into the County Health Department offices to find more information. Even then, details were vague and it was made clear that the public is not welcome and only press will be invited.

According to Connolly:

“When I learned from a reporter in Canada that our state and federal government agencies and Enbridge would be reopening the Kalamazoo River it was disheartening. I immediately went in person to Enbridge Headquarters in Marshall, MI and was told by their PR Rep. Jason Manchum that he could not confirm or comment and I would have to speak to the county/state Health Department or EPA. I went to our County Health Department where Jim Rutherford said he could not confirm what portions of the river were going to be reopened. Yet, this morning, a press release detailed that 35 miles from Marshall to Galesburg will be open.”

“There are 390 areas of moderate- to heavy-oiled sediment that require remediation. Health reports are inaccurate or are still not issued to the public. Fish advisories remain. Studies on fish and invertebrates are not being performed. Human health is being ignored.”

All but one section of the river near Marrow Lake has been opened. Marrow Lake is almost 40 miles downriver from the rupture location and evidently that section of river is still heavily oiled due to submerged oil going undetected for months after the spill occurred. Clean-up and remediation along the impacted river will continue, even in the opened areas.

This spill was tar sands oil, which does not act like a conventional crude. Officials discovered that this type of oil, when released into the environment, will often start to sink rather than float. All conventional cleanup techniques only address oil that floats, so cleanup crews were shocked to discover large amounts of submerged oil on the bottom of the river.

Enbridge and responding officials have had to write the rulebook on how to deal with oil that has submerged into the river, and have recently said that they plan to leave oil because cleaning it up could further impact the ecosystem.

Submerged oil remains in the river but local health officials have said, through a faulted study, that coming into contact with that submerged oil poses no risk to long term human health. The National Wildlife Federation found that study to have missing information and therefore the conclusions incorrect.

I am extremely disappointed in the agencies involved in this response and their decision to continue to exclude the public at all levels, including when they are re-opening a river for the public.

If you want to become involved in tar sands pipeline issues, including how to help save wolves from being killed due to tar sands production, please visit the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund.