The rare brown fish-owls recently spotted in Turkey are threatened by continued dam construction, against which protests have been increasing.

Image: chrn, Flickr

TreeHugger joined our friends at Wild Wonders of Europe in putting out the call for signatures on a FaceBook petition to Save Lake Skadar. Thanks to all of you who signed, the strategy is bearing fruits. WWF has announced that the Montenegrin government has decided to call off the original plans to build 4 dams on the Morača River in Montenegro!

Original 12th-century paintings by Ma Yuan (left) and Zhang Hongtu's contemporary reworkings (right) to show the effects of agricultural pollution (top) and dams (bottom). Images via Foreign Policy.

Zhang Hongtu has never shied away from tough subjects.

Küre Mountains National Park (L) is on its way to becoming part of a protected European park network, while demonstrators in Ankara (R) were arrested for protesting nuclear power. Photos via Turkish Adventures (L) and Today's Zaman (R).

With summer in full swing in Turkey, the season's regular environmental woes have again come to the fore.