On occasion, the rickety edifice of Texas water law is shaken to its core. Such a moment came yesterday when The Aransas Project – a consortium of businesses, citizens and conservation groups – filed suit in federal court in Corpus Christi, contending that the state […]
Updates from March, 2010
ROCKPORT PILOT
Suit filed to protect whooper’s habitat
March 30th, 2010 | TAP In The NewsThe Aransas Project (TAP) has filed a federal lawsuit against several officials of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in their official capacities for illegal harm and harassment of whooping cranes at and adjacent to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in violation of the Endangered […]
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Just add water: Texas environmental agency must do more to protect whooping crane refuge ecology
March 30th, 2010 | TAP In The NewsPulling the whooping crane back from the brink of extinction has been one of the premier environmental success stories of the last half century. During their winter stay at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge the statuesque, red-crowned birds attract thousands of admiring birders to the […]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Plucky Whooping Crane Gives Wildlife Experts Hope
March 17th, 2010 | TAP In The NewsARANSAS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Texas (AP) — After the poisonous snake slithered into the whooping crane family’s marshy grounds and sank its fangs into the chick’s neck, death seemed certain. The bird’s head quickly turned red and swelled to the size of a basketball. He […]
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
End arrogance in water policy
March 15th, 2010 | TAP In The NewsIt’s hard to ignore 57 dead birds. That’s how many endangered whooping cranes died in the drought-stricken 2008-2009 winter season. It’s even harder to say their deaths aren’t worth re-thinking how we consume water. Yet that’s the line Texas is drawing in the sand with […]
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Texans Fight Over Birds, Water Rights
March 12th, 2010 | TAP In The NewsDALLAS—A coalition of environmentalists, bird lovers and Gulf Coast municipalities sued Texas regulators in federal court this past week, accusing them of mismanaging waters necessary for the survival of the biggest flock of endangered whooping cranes, which migrate to South Texas every winter. The group, […]
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
The Big Whoop
March 12th, 2010 | Related PressSince the 1940s, the whooping crane has climbed from a population of just 16 to become a triumphant token of North American conservation efforts. Now the bird is the focus of a lawsuit that pits the environmental movement’s mightiest weapon, the Endangered Species Act, against […]
CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES
Conservation group files a federal lawsuit urging river usage restrictions
March 11th, 2010 | TAP In The NewsARANSAS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — Record deaths of Aransas County’s prized whooping cranes last year led to a conservation group’s federal lawsuit Thursday alleging that heavy Guadalupe River usage is killing the endangered birds. The Aransas Project, an alliance of citizens, organizations, businesses and governmental […]
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Group sues state over whooping crane deaths
March 11th, 2010 | TAP In The NewsA conservation group filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in Corpus Christi claiming management of the Guadalupe River by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has led to the deaths of whooping cranes. Because the 5-foot-tall birds are endangered and federally protected, the Aransas Project is […]