“When the bear came out, I saw a flash of fear in Kobayashi’s eyes, because he’s never faced a bear before.”

• A coalition of 29 environmental groups have released a 391-page policy document for the incoming administration, focusing on green jobs and clean energy and highlighting the need for science-based policy and transparency, but covering a wide range of topics. You can read it here (pdf). NRDC, one of the co-signers of the document, has some of their folks blogging about various aspects of the proposals.
• FWS has decided that the Northern Mexican Garter Snake should be listed as endangered, but it doesn’t have the funds to do so. Plenty and ESA Blawg consider that fact.
• In honor of Thanksgiving, the NY Times offers a charming editorial on wild foods. “We have a great deal to learn from Twain’s instinctive premise: that losing a wild food means losing part of the landscape of our lives.”
• The Vigorous North, one of my new favorites, shares some links on inner-city wilderness areas, including a proposal to turn Fresh Kills from a dump into a preserve. (Preserve of nature, not trash. Well, the trash is still there. &c.)
• An update on what the American Bison Society’s been up to, including a public survey that shows that Americans care about bison but don’t realize that there are only a few thousand “pure” bison left in the wild.

• Remember how Indonesia just promised to save the remaining forests of Sumatra? It’s not going so well. A consortium of NGOs under the name “Eyes on the Forest” have revealed that Asia Pulp & Paper has built a 45 km “legally questionable” paved logging highway right through the middle of tiger habitat. Whoops! How on earth do you miss something like this? More on the importance of the Sumatran peat forests over here.
• “The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, or TIGER, near Miami, claims to have overcome the problem by encouraging both tigers and humans to swim together in a specially adapted pool.” Oh yeah, this will definitely end well.
• The 40 remaining Amur leopards are going to get a little more habitat, thanks to WWF and logging company concessions.
• An open letter to the next president, from Michael Pollan. [via Kelly Lab]