SANTA FE, N.M. – New Mexico's Upper Rio Grande Watershed is home to one of the best-connected wildlife landscapes in the country.

But development is fragmenting the landscape and reducing habitat – creating challenges for migrating wildlife.

A new 20-year management plan for the Carson and Santa Fe national forests is now open for public comment.

Andrew Black, public lands field director for the National Wildlife Federation, says he is encouraged that the plan would recognize three key areas critical to wildlife corridors, but he'd like to see it go further and prevent new road construction and energy development.

"Protecting important migration pathways or wildlife corridors enables wildlife to travel safely from their summer and winter range and also allows animals to adapt to the impacts of climate change, whether that's related to fires or drought, as across the West those are major impacts and shocks that we're seeing from climate," he states.

Black also encourages planners to recognize bighorn sheep as a species of concern.

A report this year from the United Nations estimates that 1 million animal and plant species are on the verge of extinction, with alarming implications for human survival.

Public comment about the plan continues through Nov. 7 and can be submitted at connectedcorridors.com.

Black says wildlife is adaptive, but due to climate change, some habitat changes are occurring so quickly that watering holes on a wildlife migration corridor can disappear from one year to the next.

He says any plan for managing forests must use the best available science to make sound decisions that protect wildlife while also allowing people opportunities to access the natural world.

"Opportunities for hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, bird and animal viewing and a lot of other recreational activities that really supports our outdoor economy and, of course, local communities," he states.

Black adds that 87% of New Mexico residents say they want more overpasses or underpasses built for wildlife, and 73% want to prevent oil and gas development in known migration areas.

A new report found nearly all Missouri coal plants are releasing toxins into the local groundwater.

The report from two nonprofits, the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, showed improper storage of waste material from coal-fired power plants is causing unsafe levels of groundwater contamination at 91% of U.S. coal plants.

The Environmental Protection Agency implemented the Coal Ash Rule in 2015, requiring power plants to monitor local groundwater and regulating safe storage of the byproducts of coal combustion.

Patricia Schuba, president of the Labadie Environmental Organization, said leaking ash disposal sites have been an issue in Missouri for decades, and the EPA needs to be proactive.

"Communities like mine would like the EPA to step up, start investigating these sites and enforce the rule," Schuba asserted. "I think it needs to come from EPA. Our state regulators here in Missouri bend over backwards to accommodate the polluters."

The Edison Electric Institute, a trade association representing U.S. investor-owned electric companies, said as producers begin to close basins where coal ash is stored, they are doing so "in ways that put safety first, protect the environment, minimize impacts to the community and manage costs for customers."

The EPA has established ash-disposal sites need to have a plastic liner and a layer of compacted soil in order to prevent groundwater contamination. But the requirements to retrofit ash disposal sites to correct groundwater contamination currently applies only to ash dumps active when the coal ash rule went into effect in 2015. Older sites were allowed to be closed without changing the soil underneath, or adding a plastic barrier.

Schuba argued sites like the one near her need to be dug up and cleaned up.

"EPA needs to act on this. We can't get this corrected quick enough," Schuba contended. "And for a place like Labadie, you have to go in, find the pollution, and tell the utility they need to dig up the waste, put it in a lined landfill and remediate the land, so just dewatering it, you can't dewater in a flood plain."

The Coal Ash rule requires groundwater wells be dug and tested near ash disposal sites, which has enabled reporting on the amount of groundwater contamination at each site.

"I would think anybody who lives in a community near one of those plants should not be drinking their water, and that's sad because we're all dependent on groundwater," Schuba emphasized. "Most Missourians drink groundwater, and if not, they're drinking water from the river where this pollution is washing out into."

Coal ash toxins in water are tasteless, odorless, and can't be seen.

The state Coastal Conservancy will vote next week on a strategic plan
to guide how hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars get spent over the next five years. The future of California's 1,100 coastline is at stake.

Liliana Griego, senior coastal program manager with Audubon California, said funds should go to projects that play to the strengths of indigenous people's knowledge and connection to the land.

"We're emphasizing equity, specifically to ensure that tribes are receiving long-term funding for co-management of various coastal habitats, with the end goal of returning ancestral lands to tribes," Griego said.

California Audubon, The Pew Charitable Trusts and Coastal Policy Solutions submitted public comments on the draft plan - asking that accessibility for under-served communities be prioritized - including programs to improve public transit opportunities and provide multilingual signage.

Griego said the Conservancy also should fund programs that combat the effects of climate change on the coast.

"Sea-level rise is a major threat," she said, "and so we really want to see land get acquired more inland so that as the sea levels are rising, wetlands are able to have room to migrate inland."

The groups are also promoting so-called "blue carbon" programs to restore coastal habitats such as wetlands, tidal marsh and eelgrass beds with native plants that sequester carbon as they grow, provide a buffer for sea level rise, and rebuild habitat for birds migrating on the Pacific Flyway.

Community members and conservation groups recently toured a former paper mill because of urgent concerns that the site poses a threat to a nearby Montana river.

The Smurfit-Stone Mill near Missoula operated from 1957 to 2010, leaving behind pollutants that continue to leak into the nearby Clark Fork River.

In 2020, the state expanded a fish consumption advisory to a 100 mile stretch on the river.

Elena Evans, environmental health manager for the Missoula City County Health Department, was part of last week's tour.

She said berms separate industrial waste from the Clark Fork over a four mile stretch and cover 380 acres of the river's floodplain.

"The berms cause concern for folks downstream," said Evans, "leaving unlined dumps and landfills and sludge ponds that are impacting our EPA-designated sole source aquifer, and so that's why we had a tour."

Evans said the site also is an issue for Missoula's drinking water.

She said she hopes that by voicing their concerns during the US Environmental Protection Agency's investigation phase of the Superfund site, officials will incorporate the outcomes the community is looking for - such as restoring the Clark Fork floodplain.

In 2018, higher-than-average spring runoff caused part of the berms to erode and released toxic waste into the river.

Julia Crocker, community programs coordinator with the Clark Fork Coalition, was also part of last week's tour.

She said there's anxiety over what an even larger event could do to the waste stored behind those berms.

"As we've seen these large floods happen more and more frequently due to the changing climate," said Crocker, "there's a possibility that if we were to have an episode that happened on Yellowstone here, all of that would get pushed into the Clark Fork."

David Brooks is the executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited and was on last week's tour as well.

His organization is part of a study that will start in 2023 and look at fish and water quality near the former mill to determine the scope and scale of contaminants on the river.

Brooks said this is a critical issue for Montanans.

"People recreate in the river," said Brooks. "People eat fish out of the river. And so even absent a catastrophic event, this is a long term concern for water quality, fish and people."

The effect of toxins in the area also is a concern for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, whose ancestral land lies within the 100-mile fish consumption advisory area.

Tribal members rely on subsistence fishing and have been leading efforts for a proper cleanup of the former mill site.