Some familiar feathered friends are on the latest national "watch list" of imperiled birds issued today by Audubon and the American Bird Conservancy.

The 2007 list includes a total of 178 species in the continental U.S. and 39 in Hawaii considered to be in the greatest need of conservation to survive in the face of habitat loss, invasive species, global warming and other threats. Ninety-eight are "red list" species of greatest concern, and 119 are on the “yellow list” of seriously declining or rare species.

Maine species made both the red and yellow lists, according to Audubon. The piping plover and least tern are on the red list. Both have been the focus of intensive restoration efforts along the Maine coast, but face constant pressure from coastal development, beachgoers and predators.

Only 35 pairs of piping plovers returned to nest in Maine this year, according to Audubon. The number has declined five years in a row and is now the lowest since 1994. Piping plovers are on the federal threatened species list and on the state’s endangered list. A total of 37 plover fledglings grew up on Maine beaches this summer.

Maine’s least tern population saw an increase in nesting pairs this year, with at least 150 pairs nesting from Wells to Scarborough, Audubon said.

Another red list species in Maine is Bicknell’s thrush. That’s a rare species that lives on Maine’s mountaintops, and concerns about the impact on its habitat has been a major reason some conservationists have opposed putting wind turbines on Redington and Black Nubble mountains.

Here’s the press release with more information about the list.

Take that Al Gore and Ted Kennedy.

Now maybe George H.W. and Barbara Bush hadn’t even thought of all the political symbolism at play here, but there’s no reason we can’t spice up the story about the new wind turbine at Walker’s Point in Kennebunkport. In fact, we can’t resist.

The former president’s new Skystream 3.7 brings to mind the criticisms of Al Gore’s energy use at his home, something eager critics pointed to as another reason to ignore Gore and the thousands of scientists who essentially agree with him about fossil fuels and global warming. It may not win him a Nobel Peace Prize, but former president Bush made a powerful statement this week without saying a word.

It also brings to mind the opposition by Sen. Ted Kennedy and others to a proposed offshore wind farm within view of Martha’s Vineyard and the Kennedy compound. Of course, the Bushes didn’t put their one little windmill in front of the picture window, and it’ll have more impact on their neighbors’ views than their own.

The neighbors in Kennebunkport can’t all be pleased, but don’t count on a lot of public criticism from the other mansions on Ocean Avenue. These are the Bushes and this isn’t suburban Scarborough, where one family’s solar panels started a neighborhood feud last summer.

The Bushes not only gave a big endorsement to alternative energy, they also are demonstrating, in its simplest form, the controversial concept of energy credits or offsets. Their windmill, you see, will generate power for the grid all winter when they’re not home and the lights are off. When they return in the spring and turn on the lights and the furnace, the clean energy they sold all winter will essentially offset their electricity and fossil fuel use in the summer.

Well, it’ll offset some of their energy use, at least. I’m guessing ol’ 41 isn’t going to trade his 825-horsepower Fidelity III power boat for one with sails. Wind is no substitute for petro when it comes to racing across the ocean at 60 mph. One step at a time.

Fred Horch thinks he has a way to save the planet, and the secret is in your trash can.

The Brunswick man is working hard to make “zero-waste household” into, well, a household phrase.

“If you have a zero-waste household, you’re not buying anything you don’t need to buy, you’re reusing everything you can reuse, you’re recycling everything you can recycle and you’re composting everything you can compost.”

The idea is simple and big at the same time. By reducing household trash flow to as close to zero as possible, he said, families can attack everything from global warming to deforestation.

Efforts to restore sea-run fisheries to Maine’s industrial rivers are about to take another step forward, this time on the Saco River.

FPL Energy, which owns nine dams on the Saco, is scheduled to announce the completion of a habitat restoration agreement during a press conference at 11 a.m. today at Saco City Hall.

UPDATE - We covered that announcement, in fact. Here's the whole story.

FPL, which has already spent $16 million on fish ladders and elevators at the dams that are closest to the ocean, will spend millions more to bring salmon, shad and other fish farther upriver and deeper into their historic spawning areas.

The deal will set a timetable for fish passage at Bar Mills dam and upstream dams. It also will include money for other conservation and restoration efforts.

The move is part of a national effort to restore sea-run fisheries decimated over the last two centuries by industrial dams. Maine’s Penobscot, Kennebec and Presumpscot rivers are all the focus of similar efforts.

Stay tuned for the details and reactions.

College dining hall food sure has come a long way in the last few, er ... years. Alright, decades.

At least that’s the case at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.

Bowdoin’s dining hall chefs – yes, they have real chefs – always rank at the top for the quality of the meals they prepare. Now the Union of Concerned Scientists is celebrating the chefs’ commitment to serve food that’s good for the planet as well as the student body.

The UCS, an environmental advocacy group founded by scientists, has featured Bowdoin head chefs David Crooker and Daran Poulin on a new Web-based feature called Green Cuisine. The site, which includes a slide show, described how the chefs buy meats and veggies from local farmers with the same green philosophy.

Green Cuisine is part of the group’s effort to connect like-minded consumers, chefs and farmers and show that healthy, organic, locally produce food is practical, affordable and convenient. More proof is provided by Eat Well Guide a web-based directory of sustainable food in the United States and Canada. For example, a couple of clicks on the site finds more than 180 farms, restaurants and farm markets selling locally produced foods within 100 miles of Portland.

Maine will soon become the last state in the nation to let farmers grow corn that’s genetically engineered to be toxic to pests.

The state’s “I Lead” motto notwithstanding, this is one of those cases when being last has its advantages.

A new federal study that made news this week found the genetically engineered variety – called Bt corn – may get into streams and kill insects that provide food for fish.

Opinions about what to do with that knowledge range from ignoring it to reversing course and keeping Maine a Bt-free zone. At the very least, it’s one more kernel of information for Maine regulators to chew on as they take up the state’s first set of rules for growing Bt corn.

Bt corn is engineered to produce a toxin – bacillus thuringiensis – that protects the crop against European corn borers. Bt is a natural toxin and can also be sprayed on crops, but it degrades quickly and doesn’t work for long.

Corn that’s sprayed with Bt is still considered organic and can be used as feed on organic dairy farms. The genetically engineered variety, on the other hand, is, officially, not organic.

Bt corn now represents about 35 percent of the corn acreage in the United States. Much of that gets eaten by livestock. But, if you’ve eaten corn on the cob anyplace other than in Maine, or even just outside of corn season here, you’ve probably eaten Bt corn. Swallowed any corn chips? Canned corn? Popcorn? Then you’ve eaten the genetically engineered variety.

Maine’s Board of Pesticide Control rejected the use of Bt corn a decade ago when its use was being phased in everywhere else around the country. Last year, however, seed manufacturers and farmers went back to the board and got permission to grow Bt field corn for feed.

So far no one has asked for permission to grow Bt sweet corn to sell at farm stands and supermarkets. This is Maine, after all. One new thing at a time.

The board opened the Bt door despite a range of objections, including the potential for human health and environmental effects. Opponents also argued that the state’s farmers have developed a valuable competitive advantage simply because of Maine’s reputation as the lone organic holdout.

Board members ultimately sided with those who said the engineered corn has now been shown to be safe for people and the environment. But they also decided not to blindly follow the other states.

Maine’s proposed rules define Bt corn as a regulated pesticide, a step beyond federal rules. They also would require farmers to be licensed to plant Bt corn and take precautions not required elsewhere.

The rules are the focus of what is expected to be a big Board of Pesticide Control meeting Nov. 16 in Waterville. That meeting got even bigger this week when word of the National Science Foundation study spread through the state.

The report, which was published last month, said pollen and pieces of corn plants can drift or get washed into streams, a possibility that had not been studied by federal regulators before. The toxin is eaten by caddisflies, which happen to be a close relative of corn borers as well as a favorite food of fish and amphibians.

That report provides some late ammunition for those who hope the board changes its mind and bans Bt corn, or at least adopts strict rules about how its used.

Either way, the state has the advantage of going slow.

At first glance, it looks like Maine colleges and universities got snubbed in the latest ranking of green campuses.

The Sierra Club published a list of its top 10 eco-minded American colleges in the November/December issue of Sierra Magazine. There are no Maine schools on the list, which is based on energy efficiency, recycliung, food choices and other factors.

Curiously missing is the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, which was ranked the greenest college in the entire world last summer by Grist, an online environmental magazine. See our previous post about that.

Sierra didn’t overlook the school, however. It just decided that including COA wouldn’t be fair to the competition. In fact, it disqualified all colleges that make up what is called the Eco League, a consortium of five environmentally themed colleges that includes COA.

“Founded in 2003, the Eco League consists of five small liberal arts institutions (Alaska Pacific University, College of the Atlantic, Green Mountain College, Northland College, and Prescott College) spread from Alaska to Maine but unified by an emphasis on environmental learning and hands-on experience” according to Sierra. “On any given day, students at Eco League schools might be on ‘lamb watch’ at a farm, reading Silent Spring, or canoeing on the Yukon River for a senior project. Students can also explore different ecosystems by spending up to two semesters at other schools in the consortium.”

Here is Sierra’s list of the best of the rest:

1. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
2. Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
3. Warren Wilson College (Swannanoa, N.C.)
4. University of California System
5. Duke University (Durham, N.C.)
6. Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vt.)
7. Berea College (Berea, Ky.)
8. Pennsylvania State University
9. Tufts University (Medford, Mass.)
10. Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pa.)