Audubon articles from July 1999

Audubon archives from July 1999

Building Nature's Library.(Editorial)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO, Andrew Carnegie recognized that democracy demands a literate population. So he set out to build libraries in communities across the country. His vision led to 2,500 permanent institutions that make books available to...

The Final Cut.(environmental hazards of cutting lawns)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Thought you were helping the earth by forsaking your power lawn mower for a push model? Think again. Cutting your lawn--no matter what the tool--could still pollute the air. The pleasant scent of fresh-cut grass and drying hay is actually the...

Killing All Cormorants?(men plead guilty to shooting up to 2,000 birds at Little Galloo Island, New York)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... IN A MATTER OF DAYS, nine angry men turned the nation's largest colony of double-crested cormorants--7,500--into a killing field. About 2,000 birds lay dead or dying from shotgun wounds; dozens of nestlings were left to starve. The massacre of...

Getting the Lead Out.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Since 1988, New Hampshire has lost more than 75 loons to poisonous lead sinkers and jigs. The birds mistake them for the pebbles they eat to help digest their food. Now New Hampshire has become the first state in the nation to ban the use of...

Pollution Isn't Sexy.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Air pollution is fading the brilliant yellow breast plumage of small birds called great tits. This probably makes it more difficult for them to attract a mate, according to researchers in Finland. Sulfur and heavy metals are killing off...

Test Your Environmental IQ.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW about environmental issues? If you do, you're in the minority. Most Americans are ignoramuses when it comes to environmental issues, according to a survey of 2,000 adults conducted by the National Environmental Education &...

Some Welcome Home!(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... The return of a native has upset some residents of Wisconsin. The fisher, a weasel-like animal gone from the state since 1932, was reintroduced to northern forests in the mid-1950s by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the US...

Fragmenting Forests.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... As chainsaws cut forests into small parcels, habitat for nesting and foraging birds disappears. Chopping up forests also presents new opportunities for some animals, such as raccoons and opossums, to feast on songbird eggs. According to a...

Oh Deer!(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... AS FAR BACK AS 1981, scientists in Colorado and Wyoming detected mad deer disease, which belongs to the same family as mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a horrific malady that causes brains to deteriorate into a spongy mush)....

Good News.
July 1, 1999... Bird Bill Flies In April the US Senate unanimously passed the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, providing $8 million a year through 2002 for protecting bird habitat in Latin America and the Caribbean. The bill was one of the National...

Bad news.
July 1, 1999... Beetle Invasion The Asian long-horned beetle, an invasive species that kills hardwood trees by tunneling into their trunks and branches, has now been detected in 14 states. The only effective way to eliminate the pests, which are a serious...

Washington Watch.
July 1, 1999... Eastern North Dakota needs a clean, reliable source of drinking water. But the National Audubon Society and other conservation groups claim that a new bill in Congress to address the issue comes with old problems. The bill, sponsored by...

Red-legged Frog Alert.
July 1, 1999... Environmentalists are suing the US Fish and Wildlife Service for dragging its feet designating critical habitat for the California red-legged frog, which was listed as threatened in 1996. The frog supposedly inspired Mark Twain's short story...

Swordfish Gets a Break, Finally.
July 1, 1999... ARE YOU SERVING swordfish tonight?" we asked the manager at Delphini, an upscale restaurant in Manhattan known for its seafood dishes. "No. We took it off the menu, because they are being overfished," responded Nell Erman, sounding more like a...

Ask AUDUBON.(singing sands)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... What are singing sands? --Jean Carpenter, Hartsdale, New York Singing sands--along with booming, barking, and squeaking sands--are the musicians of the soil set. When disturbed, say by breezes or beachcombers, they emit curious noises...

Dance of the Fireflies.(meaning in Morse code of fireflies)
July 1, 1999... Their flashing has lit up many a midsummer night. Now biologists are finding new layers of meaning in the Morse code of fireflies. WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I believed in fairies. On summer evenings at dusk I would lie in the grass and watch them...

The Mailman Brings Bad News.(postal clerk creates environmental film)
July 1, 1999... Postal clerk Gene Bernofsky has a secret life: He's the Michael Moore of mining. YOU HAVE TO WATCH CLOSELY to catch sight of Gene Bernofsky in Trembling Waters. He's the short, bespectacled canoe paddler wearing a US Fish and Wildlife...

Through the Eyes of a Hawk.(red-tailed hawks)
July 1, 1999... A strange moment of kinship led to an obsession with redtails--and to a new way, of seeing the world. I'VE KNOWN RED-TAILED HAWKS my whole life, spying their hunched silhouettes on poles and bare trees, their husky shapes wheeling in the...

from YELLOWSTONE to YUKON.(wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer is hiking from the Rocky Mountains to the Yukon Territory)
July 1, 1999... For the past 1,200 miles, he's walked along knife-edge ridges, skied over mountains, and hiked through canyons. And he still has 1,000 miles to go. Karsten Heuer is a man on a mission to save one of the world's last mountain ecosystems. ...

BEAR NECESSITIES.(effort to remove grizzlies from endangered species list)
July 1, 1999... AFTER A LONG DECLINE, GRIZZLIES FINALLY APPEAR TO BE HOLDING THEIR OWN. BUT THE EFFORT TO REMOVE THEM FORM THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST HAS NOW IGNITED A POLITICAL AND SCIENTIFIC FIRESTORM. ON A SPRING DAY IN THE THOROFARE, A REMOTE STRETCH...

[LESSONS FROM LAKE APOPKA].(fish dying from pesticide poisoning in Florida)
July 1, 1999... On December 20, 1998, members of the Florida Audubon Society observed 173 species of birds on Lake Apopka, a record for the past 99 years. By March, hundreds of fish-eating birds were dying, some convulsing and bleeding from the eyes and beak,...

PERIL in the UNDERSTORY.(high risk of Lyme disease in 1999-2000)
July 1, 1999... SCIENTISTS ARE SAYING THIS SUMMER WILL BE ONE OF THE WORST YET FOR LYME DISEASE. HOW DO THEY KNOW? NEW ANSWERS LIE IN THE OAK FOREST. GRADUATE STUDENT ERIC SCHAUBER ENTERS TEA House Grid with three research technicians in tow. Once in this...

Enchanted Emerald.
July 1, 1999... From snowcapped mountains to life-encrusted seashores, the Olympic Peninsula is one of the wettest and richest places on earth. SPIDERWEBS SAG WITH PEARLS of mist, and the air feels like lotion against my skin. It's November, and everything...

The Puffin Project Goes Global.(seabird conservation)
July 1, 1999... Innovative methods Steve Kress used to lure puffins back to Maine are now helping seabirds around the world. IN 1973 ATLANTIC PUFFINS nested on only one island in United States waters--Matinicus Rock off Rockland, Maine. Stephen W. Kress, a...

Going Native.(ecological use of wild gardens)
July 1, 1999... Do turf and petunias portend a looming biological crisis? WHEN HENRY HUDSON LANDED on Long Island in 1609, he sang the praises of its white ocean strands carpeted with beach plum and prickly pear. I grew up on Long Island, and as more and...

Experiencing the Great Outdoors Along Florida's LEE ISLAND COAST.
July 1, 1999... Sanibel & Captiva Islands Fort Myers Beach Fort Myers Cape Coral Bonita Springs & Beaches North Fort Myers Pine Island & Boca Grande Lehigh Acres LEE ISLAND COAST FROM TROPICAL BARRIER ISLANDS and white sand beaches to...

Pigs in the Offing.
July 1, 1999... TWO GROUPS are devoting their time to manure--pig manure, and lots of it: the Prairie Hills Audubon Society, of Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Kansas Audubon Council. With several other local groups, the Prairie Hills chapter filed a...

It's a Plane! It's a Bird!
July 1, 1999... CAMERON, Regan, Alma, and Forest are the birdwatching heroes of The Birders, a new comic book for kids published by the Texas Audubon Society. The comic, written by Angela Shelf Medearis and illustrated by Jason Stout, follows the adventures of...

IN BRIEF.
July 1, 1999... Camp Friends Since 1936, the Audubon Camp in Maine has inspired a love of nature in more than 50,000 students. Today, however, the camp--333 spruce-covered acres on the northern tip of Hog Island--is showing its age. The Friends of Hog...

Homes for the Treeless.
July 1, 1999... IN CALIFORNIA'S Silicon Valley, land development has boomed with the computer industry, leaving few trees for birds to nest in. "Do you step in and take action before you have a conservation crisis on your hands?" asks Garth Harwood, manager of...

Kitchen-Window Researchers.
July 1, 1999... ALMOST 42,000 PEOPLE across North America took part in the second annual Great Backyard Bird Count, in February. That's three times more participants than last year, which makes Frank Gill, Audubon's senior vice president for science, happy....

A Leader for Lagoons.(Cheryl Ray was instrumental in saving Mentor Lagoons on the Lake Erie shore from development)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... THE THAWING GROUND CRUNCHES softly underfoot with the consistency of a county-fair snow cone in July. Cheryl Ray is hiking to her favorite place--a 25-foot bluff overlooking an untrammeled stretch of sand dunes and beach along Lake Erie. A...

Oasis in Los Angeles.
July 1, 1999... ON A MARCH MORNING several people carrying binoculars emerge from a building in Highland Park, the largely Latino section of northeast Los Angeles. The object of their attention is one of the flocks of exotic parrots that noisily roam the city....

Cyber-Activism.
July 1, 1999... Cyber-Activism: Want to get active on the web? National Audubon Society offers ways to be involved or just learn more about what the organization does. International Audubon NAS recently launched a major conservation initiative for the...

Bone by Bone.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... By Peter Matthiessen. Random House, 410 pages, $26.95. Few novelists can embed their characters as deeply in the American landscape as Peter Matthiessen can, plumbing the depths of the relationship between nature and human nature. Bone by...

Thoreau's Country: Journey Through a Transformed Landscape.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... By David R. Foster. Harvard University Press, 270pages, $27.95. Henry Thoreau's journals continue to serve as a literary woodlot, fueling generations of thought. David R. Foster revisits them to reconstruct the human and natural ecology of...

Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... By Tom Wessels. Illustrations by Brian D. Cohen. The Countryman Press, 200 pages, $24.95. This book, like Thoreau's journals, will help you see more in the woods. Each chapter offers an instructive walk through recovering enclaves of the...

Shadow Cat: Encountering the American Mountain Lion.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... Edited by Susan Ewing and Elizabeth Grossman. Sasquatch Books, 225 pages, $15.95. In recent decades Felis concolor has been quietly restoring its numbers: There are now 10,000 to 50,000 mountain lions in the United States. A lion, of...

The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1999... By Jon R. Luoma. Henry Holt, 228 pages, $22. After a century of"forest management" that has amounted to little more than tree farming, some of the country's foremost ecologists are trying to call attention to the obvious, embarrassing fact...

Earth ALMANAC.
July 1, 1999... Sunless Flowers In the wet shade of the deep woods hide the ghost flowers of high summer. Throughout most of the United States and southern Canada they stand in a clump with bowed heads, white and waxen, a vision from Fantasia. Note the...

The Biggest, Stinkiest Flower.
July 1, 1999... FOR A NATURALIST, immortality is discovering and naming a new species. History books list Englishman Sir Stamford Raffles as the founder of modern Singapore, but in natural history he is better known for discovering the world's largest flower....