Population of Migrating Monarch Butterflies Lowest Ever

 From the Star-Telegram:

Monarch butterflies, hit hard by strong storms at their winter home in Mexico, have dwindled to their lowest population levels in decades as they begin to return to Texas on their springtime flight back to the United States and Canada.

The monarch loss is estimated at 50 to 60 percent and means that the breeding population flying northward is expected to be the smallest since the Mexican overwintering colonies were discovered in 1975, said Chip Taylor, a professor of entomology and director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas.

Read the entire article: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/19/2051354/monarch-butterflies-making-trek.html

Texas' Trinity River Fish Contaminated by PCBs, Won't be Safe for Consumption for Years

Officials said the fish in the Trinity River, located in Texas, won't be safe to eat for many more years because of the continued presence of a toxic compound in the water. Some of the highest poisonous readings of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were found at sample sites in Tarrant County.

"I think we've done irreparable damage," Brian Smith, who owns about 700 acres of preserved ranchland along the river in Navarro County south of Dallas, said during a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality meeting Wednesday in Arlington. The meeting was held to update the public on the state's effort to clean up the water in a 150-mile stretch of the river in Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas and south toward Corsicana.

Read the full story at Star-Telegram.com.