In 2003, a group of New Mexico students began lobbying the state legislature to address collisions between vehicles and wildlife. As a result, state agencies have installed fences to guide mule deer, black bears, cougars, and other wildlife through safe passages beneath a major highway. So far, the project – completed last year for the relatively modest sum of $750,000 – seems to be working. It has reduced animal fatalities by ninety percent. (Christian Science Monitor)

Keep America Beautiful announced a record 48,000-plus gardens, green spaces and xeriscapes created in 2008 in its annual Great American Cleanup campaign that cleans-up and greens-up thousands of communities in all 50 states.

“The impact of more than 48,000 gardens nationwide is wonderful to imagine,” said Matthew M. McKenna, President and CEO of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. “Every one of these public spaces could be providing a quiet place to reflect on nature, food for the community, a gateway for the neighborhood, an activity space for kids, or even an offset to a community’s carbon footprint. We are incredibly thankful to all the volunteers and partners who made this possible.”

Six weeks before leaving office, the Bush administration is giving up on an effort to ease restrictions on pollution from coal-burning power plants, a key plank of its original energy agenda and one that put the President at odds with environmentalists his entire eight years in the White House. (AP story at SFgate.com)

(Photo courtesy of Sun Star)