Ethanol and the Unlucky 13

[Guest guest]

A swath of the American Heartland that has remained untouched, in many

cases, for centuries, is being plowed up for – what else? – corn.

 

Since Congress mandated increased use of the alternative fuel ethanol,

the price of corn has spiraled upward, dragging with it the price of

just about every other food staple. As we've chronicled, the trade

offs for this biofuel have been substantial, from world hunger to the

polluting of the Gulf of Mexico from massive fertilizer runoff.

 

But USA Today chronicles another facet of the corn ethanol boom today:

The loss of native grasslands, which in many cases taxpayers have paid

to preserve. At least 2.5 million acres of formerly preserved lands

will be planted this year, according to one estimate, and that follows

a decline in native grasslands of a stunning 24 million acres from

1982 to 2002 – that's bigger than the state of Indiana.

 

With the grasslands go the grassland birds. The Nature Conservancy has

labeled The Unlucky 13.

 

1. Lark Bunting

2. Baird's Sparrow

3. Lesser Prairie-Chicken

4. Sprague's Pipit

5. Ferruginous Hawk

6. McCown's Longspur

7. Scaled Quail

8. Long-billed Curlew

9. Cassin's Sparrow

10. Burrowing Owl

11. Greater Prairie-Chicken

12. Mountain Plover

13. Chestnut-collared Longspur

 

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/grassland-birds-47032703