Homeland Security road construction could displace bald eagles; Washington, DC

Road Could Chase Off Eagle Pair, Officials Say - washingtonpost.com
The Department of Homeland Security -- an agency with a bald eagle on its seal -- might drive away a pair of bald eagles by building a road near their nest in Southeast Washington, officials with the city and the National Park Service say.
The eagles live in a thickly wooded sliver of national parkland in Anacostia, where towering trees overlook their hunting grounds on the Potomac River. When they settled there in 2000, the pair were the first bald eagles to nest in the District in a half-century.

Natural Lands Trust Fund buys 22 acres of habitat in most urban state to protect endangered tree frog; Ocean Township, NJ

Ocean County to preserve habitat for Pine Barrens tree frogs - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Breaking News
OCEAN TOWNSHIP - With a few slivers of sunlight piercing the clouds and the canopy above, Mark Villinger hiked through thick brush toward an oasis hidden between the hills off Brookville Road.
He stopped at the banks of a small pond, obscured by trees and filled with vegetation. Birds chirped overhead, while a chorus of croaks came from the understory.
'I think that's it,' he said, turning his ear toward the water, listening for the Pine Barrens tree frog.
The unseen pool is a sanctuary for these endangered amphibians, which is partly why on Wednesday afternoon the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders approved the acquisition of the 22.3-acre parcel that encompasses it.

Protecting the World's Most Expensive Tree; Moshi, Tanzania

ENVIRONMENT-TANZANIA: Protecting the World's Most Expensive Tree
By Denis Gathanju*
Moshi, TANZANIA, Jun 18 (IPS/IFEJ) - With the snow-capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro providing a backdrop under simmering tropical sunshine, a group of women in Mijongweni village break into song.
The song, in Swahili, praises the benefits of protecting the environment and living in harmony with nature for the survival of generations; values vital to the survival of one of the rarest hardwood trees in the world, the African blackwood.

Known to locals as mpingo, the African blackwood (dalbergia melanoxylon) is a tree that has been exploited to extinction in southern Ethiopia and Kenya and is currently only found in Tanzania and northern Mozambique. Tanzania boasts large tracts of natural forest and woodlands

While few people would recognise the tree, many across the world have heard its melodious tunes: the tree is a prized commodity for makers of musical instruments like flutes, clarinets and oboes, so much so that it is today the most expensive hardwood tree in the world, currently fetching up to 25,000 dollars per cubic metre.