Fires nearing Florida wildlife refuge

The Honey Prairie fire united with the Paxton Road fire Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service said.NEW: Florida Gov. Rick Scott declares a state of emergency526 firefighters are working to protect the Okefenokee swamp90% of a public boardwalk is burned

(CNN) -- Two fires have merged, coming dangerously close to protected areas in Florida's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

The so-called Honey Prairie fire, which has been burning since late April, united with another blaze called the Paxton Road fire Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Working around the clock, 526 firefighters have been deployed to combat the flames.

"We've got lots of crews out there trying to hold that line, trying to protect that wildlife refuge," Forest Service public information officer Haven Cook said.

Cook said while the fire is 75% contained, dealing with a fire in swamp can be tricky.

"When we're dealing with a situation like this, the fire can lay down, creep under all that peat, and so when we have significant weather like a wind event, it can spark and develop an active flame front very quickly from there."

The fire reached the eastern edge of Okefenokee Swamp to Chesser Island, a tourist attraction that housed an observation tower and a 4,000-foot boardwalk that stretched out into the middle of the swamp.

"The tower is fine; so is the historic Chesser Island homestead," Cook said. "But the boardwalk did burn; about 90% of it burned."

Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency Monday, citing the ongoing danger of wildfires and drought conditions.

Meteorologists say there are moderately good chances for rain toward the end of the week, but thunderstorms may also be in the forecast.

"This fire can go on for weeks until we get a good drenching rain," Cook said. "The firefighters are going to be monitoring this and watching this for two, maybe three weeks because it's been such a dry year."

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Cat curfew is purrfect remedy for wildlife attacks (Reuters)

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Cats in several suburbs of Sydney will be ordered to curl up inside from dusk to dawn under a curfew that hopes to curb overnight attacks on native wildlife.

The move in by the Leichhardt local government area, on the inner west side of Sydney, was inspired after deputy mayor Michele McKenzie's son rescued a brushtail possum and its baby when they were attacked by a cat.

There are also plans to reintroduce a colony of ringtail possums, which are much smaller in size, to the municipality, and McKenzie wants the animals to have the best possible chance at survival.

But the odds are stacked against the possums unless cats, which can climb trees to catch the animals, are stopped from prowling at night.

There have been some 564 reported cat attacks on ringtail possums in the last year alone, making up the biggest part of total cat attacks on wildlife, wildlife protection agency WIRES said. "It's a small thing to ask people to keep their cats indoors if it means protecting our native wildlife." McKenzie said "After all, they were here first, we've introduced domestic pets, so we have a responsibility to control them."

Whilst the curfew cannot be strictly enforced, an education and information program to be sent out by the local government will propose that cat owners keep their pets indoors between dusk and dawn, monitor their cat's activities during the day and attach two bells to their collar.

The proposal will cover the suburbs of Balmain, Rozelle, Lilyfield, Annandale and Leichhardt. McKenzie said local residents were very responsive. Cat owners "don't imagine, because they feed their pets, that they are attacking wildlife. But it is a natural instinct, cats will prey on wildlife -- and because they can actually get up in the trees they are a bit more dangerous than dogs," McKenzie said.

"Dogs will do terrible damage to a possum, but they don't get them quite as often because they don't climb trees."

WIRES reported that over a 5 year period, there were 16,775 attacks by all types of domestic pets on native wildlife.

(Reporting by Amy Pyett; editing by Elaine Lies)

Corrects reference to Sydney in lead.

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A year after Gulf spill, group gives mixed report card for wildlife

A new National Wildlife Federation study says some Gulf Coast wildlife still faces significant challenges after the oil spill. STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe National Wildlife Federation releases a report on the Gulf a year after the spillThe federation finds some species recovering, while others need helpThe report says Gulf factors in place before the spill also combine to hurt wildlifeThe report calls on Congress to take actions toward helping Gulf restoration effortsRELATED TOPICSGulf Coast Oil SpillGulf of MexicoNational Wildlife Federation (CNN) -- Nearly a year after the start of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, some wildlife is recovering, while other species could need significant help, according to a National Wildlife Federation study released Tuesday.

The current status of the coastal wetlands -- where a wide variety of animals live or breed -- is classified in the report as "poor," with that classification based on several factors in place before the April 20, 2010, explosion on the drill rig Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and triggered what scientists say was the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Even before the spill, the area was hard hit due to erosion, storms and river channeling.

The federation says the spill caused 3,000 miles of beaches and wetlands to be contaminated by varying amounts of oil. Even the efforts to clean it up can cause damage. Combining all factors before and since the spill, the report's author, Douglas Inkley, writes that if there isn't a massive coastal restoration, "Louisiana will have lost an area of coastal wetlands larger than the state of Rhode Island" by 2050.

"Experience with other disastrous oil spills tells us that the damage is far from over," the report says.

Bouncing back from catastrophe

"What is clear is that the disaster response has focused on removing oil, with little action taken to address the long-term wetlands habitat degradation exacerbated by the oil disaster."

Sea turtles and Atlantic bluefin tuna are among the species currently classified in poor condition.

"In terms what I'm more concerned about; I would go straight to the sea turtles," Inkley said Tuesday.

Before the spill, four of the five species of sea turtles in the Gulf were endangered. The report notes during the spill "sea turtle strandings were 8 times higher than the 22-year average."

It's unclear how many animals actually died, but "of 609 known dead, 481 were Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles, the most endangered sea turtle species in the world," the report says. It goes on to say that in addition to the loss of population, the turtles continue to be at risk due to impact on their habitat, climate change and accidentally being caught by commercial fishing boats.

The wildlife federation says even before the spill, the tuna population was in decline due to overfishing. The animals only breed twice a year, and the spill took place in one of their breeding seasons.

The report says "contact with oil may have reduced the number of juvenile bluefin produced in 2010 by 20 percent." The National Wildlife Federation calls for restrictions or a halt on commercial fishing of the animals until they recover.

Photos from the Gulf oil spill

The situation for other animals is more promising.

Brown pelicans had been recovering prior to the spill and were removed from the endangered species list in 2009. During the spill more than 700 were found in the area, with two-thirds of those dead. Despite that and the ongoing threat from loss of habitat from the oil, climate change and storms, their status in the Gulf is classified by the federation as "good."

Another "good" species is shrimp. The report cites experts saying shrimp "catch levels are likely to recover to recent pre-spill harvest levels by the end of 2012" but it also acknowledges the continued impact on populations due to the degraded wetlands.

Dolphin strandings were up five times the normal rate during the spill, according to the report. It goes on to add that despite the spill "the overall status of dolphins in the Gulf is good," though, "reduced fitness of adults and reproductive failure could spell trouble for the future."

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The total impact of the spill, however, is still not certain. George Crozier, director of Dauphin Island Sea Lab says, "It will be critical to monitor these key species in the months ahead, especially given the unknown impacts of weathered and 'dispersed' oil remaining in the Gulf."

In fact, Inkley, said Tuesday, "The effects will be long-lasting. This Gulf oil disaster is far from over." He points to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 1989, which was on a much smaller scale and is still unfolding.

The National Wildlife Federation calls for several actions that should be taken to solve the problems highlighted in the report. It calls on Congress to dedicate fines from the spill to Gulf restoration, develop programs to stop wetland loss, reform oil and gas leasing, conduct long-term studies and make payments toward restoration efforts more quickly.

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