GLOBAL POLLUTANTS, GLOBAL SOLUTION. After three years of negotiations, delegates from 122 nations will meet in May to sign an internationally binding treaty on persistent organic pollutants. The agreement would halt the production and use of these toxic chemicals, which travel easily around the planet and stay in the environment for decades. (Restricted use of DDT to control malaria will be allowed until a safe substitute is developed.) Before the treaty goes into effect, it must be ratified by at least 50 nations; in the United States, that requires congressional approval. (See "Thinking Big," January/February 2000.)
WETLANDS WINS AND WOES. First, the good news: In January, the Clinton administration tightened a loophole that had allowed developers to drain wetlands without a permit. The same week, however, the Supreme Court limited the federal government's power to protect isolated wetlands, those not connected to navigable waters. That's bad news for about 20 percent of the nation's 100 million swampy acres--and for the migratory birds that breed, nest, and feed in them. (See "Why Vote? To Protect Wetlands" September/October 2000.)
SNOWMOBILE BAN STALLED. Almost as soon as the National Park Service announced plans to phase out snowmobile use in parks, Senator Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) stopped the agency in its tracks. A bill passed last December prevents the NPS from issuing or enforcing final rules on snowmobiles until July 31; a bill Thomas introduced in February would overturn the proposed ban altogether. (See "Lay of the Land," March/April 2001.)
SACRED SITE SAVED. In January, then-secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt denied a permit for the Glamis gold mine in the Indian Pass area of southeastern California. The rejection, the first issued to a major mining project on lands covered by the 1872 Mining Law, protects sites sacred to the Quechan Indian Nation. (See "Home Front," March/April 1998.)
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