July, 2000

Grace Under Fire
As California braces for fire season, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection plans to add extra firefighters and support staff in San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, and Riverside.The department, which battles wildfires on private and state-owned land, spent $145 million fighting fires last year, the most expensive fire season in its history. While recent rain in Northern California could delay the fire season there, the CDF and U.S. Forest Service are still gearing up for a somewhat worse than normal season, according to Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes.

Chocolate Lovers Beware
Researchers say three species of fungi may create a world chocolate shortage. The fungi, which cause diseases with the evil-sounding names witches broom, black pod rot, and frosty pod rot, are infecting the trees and pods in which cocoa beans grow. But don't yank out that sweet tooth just yet. A good fungus belonging to the trichoderma family has been discovered in the Amazon river basin and is being used to destroy the bad fungi.

Butterflies Are Free
University of Illinois scientists have determined that a type of corn that is genetically engineered to kill an insect pest isn't a threat to one common type of butterfly. The scientists placed black swallowtail butterflies near a farmer's field that had been planted with Bt corn, which has a bacterium gene that makes it toxic to the European corn borer. There was no evidence that the biotech corn was harmful to black swallowtail butterflies.

Watership Down Author Remembered
Ronald Lockley, a naturalist and prolific author best remembered for his book Watership Down, died at the age of 96 in Auckland, New Zealand on April 12 of this year. He authored 60 books, many of them about birds, and established the first formal bird observatories in Britain and New Zealand. He was also an early organizer of the conservationist forces that grew into the environmental movement.

A Surefire Hangover Cure
A shortage of the succulent blue agave plant, used to produce tequila in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, has jarred the tequila industry. The agave crisis began several months ago, sending prices spiraling tenfold to $742 per ton for the plant, which yields the sugary liquid that is distilled to become tequila. Consumers are already suffering the consequences because some producers have doubled their prices. "It didn't occur to anyone to invest in planting agave seven years ago, when there was overproduction and prices were rock-bottom," said Ramon Gonzalez, head of Mexicos tequila regulatory board. Vodka, anyone?