Return of Wolves Planned For Yellowstone Park

YELLOWSTONE National Park may once more hear the howl of wolves. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service this week proposed re-introducing a small number of wolves into the nation's oldest national park in northwestern Wyoming and also into a section of central Idaho.

Environmentalists favor re-introduction of the gray wolf, an endangered species in the contiguous 48 states, but ranchers worry it will endanger cattle and sheep.

Under the compromise announced Wednesday, ranchers could shoot wolves that stray from protected areas. Cleaning up the Everglades

FLORIDA Governor Lawton Chiles (D) has signed legislation designed to reverse environmental damage to the Everglades. Over the next 20 years, $685 million will be spent to create marshes designed to filter out pollution - mainly chemical runoff from farming.

``After years of neglect, it is time to start cleaning up the river of grass,'' Governor Chiles said. Critics say the new law does not go far enough. They are gathering signatures for a November ballot measure that would tax raw sugar to pay for the cleanup. Swan song for gnatcatcher?

US District Judge Stanley Sporkin has rejected the listing of the California Gnatcatcher as a threatened species.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt last year worked out a deal with developers allowing some building in habitat of the small song bird, which lives along the Pacific coast. But Judge Sporkin ruled Monday that the Interior Department should have made raw scientific data available to biologists hired by developers challenging the listing. An appeal of the ruling is likely. Restarting the Superfund

THE Clinton administration and interest groups apparently have succeeded in getting Superfund toxic waste cleanup legislation back on track. Passed in 1980, the Superfund law was designed to clean up some 1,250 high-priority waste sites. But only about 220 sites have been decontaminated, and much of the money has been spent on lawsuits.

The administration this week gathered business and environmental leaders at the White House, where they worked out some details that until now had stalled reform legislation in Congress.

Incinerator ash - hazardous waste

THE US Supreme Court this week ruled that ash from solid waste incinerators must be treated as hazardous waste.

The city of Chicago had asserted that ash from garbage-burning and municipal energy plants was exempt from such regulations. But in a 7-2 decision announced Monday, the Court found that incinerator ash is covered under federal hazardous waste disposal law. There are 130 garbage-to-energy plants nationwide, and the ruling raises questions about their future.