Word: brushlands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...week from the National Audubon Society. Issuing its first WatchList since 1997, the Audubon names birds that are imperiled but have not yet been doomed to extinction. The list of 201 species includes the cerulean warbler, which has an Appalachian habitat threatened by mining, and the painted bunting, whose brushland habitat has been gobbled up by sprawl and farming. The decrease in birds isn't good news for humankind, says the Audubon's chief ornithologist, Frank Gill, since birds are indeed the canaries in the global coal mine. "Birds are one of our best indicators of environmental and other problems...
Shortly after noon on May 4, the National Weather Service station in Albuquerque, N.M., sent out the Haines Index, a measure of moisture and stability factors. In the arid brushland, a low Haines Index (a 2, for instance) is good: conditions are then unlikely to lead to wildfires. On May 4, however, the Haines Index was a potentially catastrophic 6, a situation predicted to last through the next day. Not a good day to start a fire. Especially in one of the dryest years on record...
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