Wildlife

 By CHRISTINE HEINRICHS

Mute Swans retain a mythic grip on people, touching the hearts of those who glimpse these graceful white birds gliding across a misty lake. Yet many now regard Mute Swans as unwanted invaders that trash fragile wetland and aquatic habitat and chase out other birds.

This dichotomy confounds wetlands managers, who want at least to control growing populations of Mute Swans, if not eliminate them entirely.

Find out if an endangered or threatened animal or plant species lives in counties of interest to your audience, and cover it in the context of current news developments or some other at-risk-species angle.

For the first time in 25 years, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has updated the list of federally-protected migratory birds. The net result is the addition of 175 species, bringing the total to 1,007.

Three organizations file a lawsuit against the USFWS, a new study finds three strains of GE maize likely damaged organs of rats that ate the foods for just three months, pesticide use associated with GE crops may actually be greater than for traditional crops, and GE seed prices skyrocket.