WEB UPDATES

HAVEN FOR HORSESHOE CRABS. Shoreline erosion, coastal development, and overfishing have taken their toll on the East Coast's horseshoe crabs, spiderlike creatures that predate the dinosaurs. Since 1990, the Delaware Bay crab population has declined dramatically, also endangering the migratory shorebirds and marine life that feed on them. In February, the National Marine Fisheries Service took action, creating a 1,500-square-mile sanctuary just off the Delaware coast, an area considered to be critical habitat for spawning horseshoe crabs. (See "Home Front," May/June 2000.)

"CLEARCUTS FOR KIDS" PASSES. For almost a century, timber-sale revenues from national forests helped pay for road maintenance and education in rural counties. As timber sales declined, so did school budgets. Instead of de-linking educational funding and logging, Congress passed a bill that would tap other federal programs to make up the difference. Despite concern that this stipulation would encourage logging, the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act was signed into law last October, keeping rural students dependent on deforestation. (See Big Timber's Big Lies," September/October 2000.)

FISH VS. FROG, THE SEQUEL. In the 1950s, the California Department of Fish and Game began air-dropping hatchery-raised trout into mountain lakes throughout the Sierra Nevada, where the fish provided food and recreation for hikers. Half a century later, the agency is trying to stem the ecological damage caused by its efforts. In January, it suspended the stocking program in selected lakes while it studies the impact of the introduced fish on the dwindling native populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs and Cascade frogs. (See "Lay of the Land," July/August 2000 and January/February 2001.)