ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide. Founded in 1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE has no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.

 

This site built and maintained by: GREANVILLE ASSOCIATESand CRESCENT COMMUNICATIONS •Rev. 12.1.05 Copyright ANIMAL PEOPLE, INC. 1992--2006

 

 

 

 

 
   

 
powered by FreeFind

ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: October 2006

War hurts wildlife

 

Scarce wildlife habitat in both Lebanon and Israel took a big hit from the July and August 2006 fighting.

 

"Huge swaths of forests and fields across northern Israel were scorched by Hezbollah rocket strikes," reported Associated Press writer Aron Heller. "Charred branches stick out of the ground like grave markers at the Mount Naftali Forest overlooking Kiryat Shemona. In all, rocket fire destroyed 16,500 acres of forests and grazing fields, said Jewish National Fund forest supervisor Michael Weinberger, the top administrator of Israel's forests. About a million trees were destroyed.

 

"The Mount Naftali Forest," planted by Israeli settlers in 1948, "was hit by rockets earlier," Heller continued. "Afternoon gusts carried the flames, wiping out 750 acres and trapping gazelles, jackals, rabbits and snakes."

 

Less than an hour's drive north in peacetime, Lebanese environment minister Yacoub Sarraf could only helplessly watch fuel oil from the bombed Jiyyeh power station spread along the coast. The station was hit by Israeli jets on July 13 and 15.

 

"We cannot get equipment, companies, labour or know-how to handle the problem," Sarraff told BBC science and nature reporter Mark Kinver on August 8. "Intervention can help most within the first 48 to 72 hours after a spill. We are already 20 days too late."

 

The oil-exporting consortium OPEC committed $200,000 to clean-up efforts in early August, but the spill continued spreading, unchecked, into September, coating sea turtle nesting habitat and accumulating to a depth of four inches on the sea bed, according to divers who did a late-August inspection. Poisoned fish reportedly washed ashore along the length of Lebanon.