Foreword: Making Sense of Information for Environmental Protection

Despite the ubiquity of information, no one has proposed calling the present era the Knowledge Age. Knowledge depends not only on access to reliable information, but also on sound judgment regarding which information to access and how to situate that information in relation to the values and purposes that comprise the individual\u27s or the social group\u27s larger projects. This is certainly the case for wise and effective environmental governance. A regulator needs accurate information to understand the nature of a problem and the consequences of potential responses. Likewise, the regulated community needs information to decide how best to comply with adopted rules, and the public needs information in order to accept the credibility and legitimacy of the regulatory regime. But governance also requires judgment regarding how to manage information itself - how to structure burdens of proof in light of goals such as public safety or promotion of economic growth, how to balance the public\u27s interest in disclosure against competing aims such as national security or the protection of trade secrets, whether to withhold information in the belief that it may actually be harmful to the recipient, and so on. This paper, written as a foreword for the Texas Law Review\u27s symposium issue, Harnessing the Power of Information for the Next Generation of Environmental Law, provides a model to understand the role of information in environmental law - how it is generated, utilized, and disseminated within regulatory processes. Drawing on the diverse and significant insights of the symposium articles, the paper attempts both to make sense of the role of information in environmental protection and to highlight significant questions and concerns

Summary Account of the Carolina Parakeet in Arkansas

The extinct Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) once was part of the Arkansas avifauna. The first two reports of the species in what is now Arkansas were made in 1673 and 1718 by early French explorers. The remaining records are from the 1800s when parakeets were found in nearly all parts of the state, often in abundance. The last literature reference for the species still definitely occurring in Arkansas pertains to birds present in the summer of 1885 along the White River at Newpor

Occurrence of the Plains Harvest Mouse, Reithrondontomys montanus (Baird) in Arkansas

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 201

Quantifying Community Separation and Increase in Number of Avian Species with Corresponding Increase in Habitat Complexity, an African Example

The relationship between increase in faunal diversity and corresponding increase in habitat complexity was quantified using shrubland bird communities in western Africa. Vegetational characteristics were measured in circular plots around bird positions. Bird species were then arranged from grassy open habitats to dense shrubland and found to be separated into three distinct communities when subjected to Duncan\u27s multiple range procedure in conjunction with discriminant functions analysis. Random samples classified with respect to bird species showed there were few species in the more abundant open habitats and a disproportionate number of species were packed into the less common but complex shrubby habitat. The species packing formula generated supports the concept that spacial heterogeneity is a factor promoting high biotic diversity

Measuring Shrubland Vegetational Structure Using Avian Habitats as an Example

Vegetational sampling of avian habitats stresses the use of methods primarily designed for forest birds. This paper describes a technique for sampling vegetational structure in uneven patchy habitats such as shrublands. Using the method, avian habitats in old field shrublands of northwestern Arkansas were analyzed

Failure to Establish Feral Coturnix Quail Populations in Arkansas in the Late 1950\u27s

Although Coturnix introductions failed in the late 1950\u27s, it was learned in Arkansas that birds survived longest after autumn releases especially where fallow fields were numerous, that Coturnix favored grasslands whereas the bobwhite preferred shrublands, and that Coturnix occurred singly, pairing only in the breeding season