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Underwater ceremony planned to release new stamps featuring life in the kelp forest

WASHINGTON — The post office is taking a dive for its latest postage stamps.

Utility company PacifiCorp agrees to removal of Klamath dams to help salmon in Calif., Ore.

MEDFORD, Ore. — The utility that owns four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River has agreed to terms for their removal, a key milestone in efforts to restore what was once the third-biggest salmon run on the West Coast and end decades of battles over scarce water.

Power utility agrees to terms for removing Western river dams to help salmon

MEDFORD, Ore. — The utility that owns four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River has agreed to terms for their removal, a key milestone in efforts to restore what was once the third biggest salmon run on the West Coast and end decades of battles over scarce water.

Drought is fueling more smelly and dog-killing blue-green algae in parts of Upper Midwest

WAUSAU, Wis. — Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly blue-green algae that’s killed dozens of dogs and sickened people.

French prosecutor studying toxic algae complaints after horse’s death on beach

PARIS — The prosecutor’s office is studying up to 300 complaints linked to noxious green algae after the death of a horse this summer on a beach in Brittany, a judicial official said Friday.

USDA to provide $320 million for conservation efforts along Mississippi River in 12 states

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department is pouring $320 million into efforts to improve water quality in the Mississippi River basin.

Ark. Sen. Blanche Lincoln to become first woman to serve as head of Senate ag committee

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Sen. Blanche Lincoln will become the first woman to head the Senate agriculture committee under leadership changes made because of Ted Kennedy’s death.

Where’s Waldo? Scientists search for missing robot used to detect toxic algae off Fla. coast

SARASOTA, Fla. — Scientists on Florida’s Gulf Coast are trying to find an underwater robot that has mysteriously vanished.

France admits to green tides of toxic algae after death of thoroughbred on Brittany beach

SAINT-MICHEL-EN-GREVE, France — It should have been a perfect day for Vincent Petit, finishing up an afternoon gallop on a wide expanse of beach along a pastel-colored bay. Instead, he and his mount were sucked into a hole of noxious black sludge.

Environmental groups laud EPA setting limits for nutrient runoff polluting Florida waters

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Environmental groups on Friday lauded long-awaited action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set legal limits for farm and urban runoff polluting Florida’s waterways, limits that could serve as a model for other states.

After horse’s death, French pm says algae pollution endangers health on some Brittany beaches

SAINT-MICHEL-EN-GREVE, France — A French government-sponsored report released Thursday says decomposing algae covering some beaches in Brittany represent a serious health risk and gases that can kill within minutes were detected on a beach where a horse died last month.

Shipwrecked: Archaeologists explore graveyard of sunken ships in Baltic Sea

STOCKHOLM —The fire began in the galley, where the crew had kept a stove burning while they visited a tavern ashore. As the flames devoured her stern, the Anna Maria sank through the ice in the Stockholm archipelago.

Gulf of Mexico’s ‘dead zone’ of low-oxygen water much smaller than predicted, but still severe

NEW ORLEANS — The Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone” — where there is too little oxygen in the water for anything to live — is less than half the size predicted earlier this year but also unusually severe, a scientist said Friday.

Exxon Mobil makes first big investment in biofuels; partners with California firm

HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will make its first major investment in greenhouse-gas reducing biofuels in a $600 million partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. to develop transportation fuels from algae.

Invasive kelp comes to San Francisco Bay, worrying scientists and outpacing eradication effort

SAN FRANCISCO — A fast-growing kelp from the Far East has spread along the California coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay, worrying marine scientists and outpacing eradication efforts.

Green machines: Pentagon looks to algae as tomorrow’s fuel for fighter jets, cargo planes

LOGAN, Utah — Somewhere among the beakers and the bubbling green-tinged tanks in this Utah State University lab, Jeff Muhs is searching for champion pond scum for Uncle Sam.