Audubon articles from July 2000

Audubon archives from July 2000

LETTERS.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2000... Saving Our Forests IN JANUARY 1998 MICHAEL DOMBECK, U.S. Forest Service chief, called for an 18-month moratorium on building new logging roads into millions of acres of our national forests, as Ted Williams reported in "Clinton's Last...

Woody's High on Hemp.(Woody Harrelson crusades for the legalization of industrial hemp)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... At last year's Golden Globe Awards, movie star and environmental activist Woody Harrelson made an unusual fashion statement by attending the event wearing a white Giorgio Armani tuxedo. But it wasn't the designer that was notable, or the cut of...

Bye-Bye Blackbirds.(National Audubon Society's efforts help to halt South Dakota program to poison red-winged blackbirds)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... EACH SPRING VAST FLOCKS OF RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS descend on the plains of South Dakota, gathering among the cattails and reeds in roosts that can be 500,000 strong. Their morning flights create rippling black clouds as the flocks set off in...

Fly Swatters Save Lives.(research indicates exposre to pesticides is risk factor for Parkinson's disease)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The next time your trigger finger itches to spray a fly into oblivion or your aesthetic sense prompts you to give your lawn a chemical bath, consider a recent study at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Researchers there compared 496...

Move Over, John Deere.(flock of sheep used to control vegetation under power lines in New Hampshire)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Power companies have long faced the problem of controlling vegetation under power lines. If trees are left unchecked, they grow up into the lines and eventually short them out. Traditionally, the companies have relied on one of two techniques,...

Butt Heads on Beaches.(cigarette butts and other trash are hazard to marine wildlife)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... PICTURE A SANDY WHITE BEACH IN THE SUMMERTIME: COOL WAVES caressing the sand, seagulls skimming the water... and cigarette butts between your toes. As more and more smokers are pushed out of the office and into the streets, more and more...

Roadside Housing.(Vermont highway maintenance workers place kestrel boxes behind road signs)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Gil Newbury, a Vermont highway administrator, was cleaning some scrap lumber out of his basement one day when he had an idea: Why not use the wood to build kestrel nesting boxes and place them along the highways? Newbury, who had heard about...

Freaky Beaks.(increased sightings of chickadees with deformed beaks in Alaska)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... IN SOUTH CENTRAL ALASKA, THE NUMBER OF sightings of chickadees with deformed beaks has exploded from 3 to 400 in nine years. While a chickadee bill normally grows to less than a half-inch, the beaks on many of the deformed birds are twice as...

MOW YOUR LAWN. IT'S A GAS!(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... In March the Environmental Protection Agency issued new pollution standards for lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and other gardening tools powered by gasoline engines. Next to vehicles, these implements are the nation's biggest producers of...

I'll Have a Hot Dog With Mustard and ... Mosquito Legs?(research indicates that an insect 'zapper' may spread parts of insects some six feet away)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... According to a recent study, the sizzling flash of a bug zapper may do more than kill bugs. James Urban, a microbiologist at Kansas State University, has found that zappers placed near food may spread bacteria from the insects to the tasty...

Mayflies Storm.(mayflies return to Lake Erie)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... By 1962 mayflies had all but disappeared from Lake Erie because of pollution. But today, thanks to the lake's cleanup, they are returning in droves. Ed Masteller, a biology professor emeritus at Penn State University-Erie, has measured...

On Golden Pond: No Trespassing.(access to lakes is controversial issue)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... HENRY FONDA HAD NO PROBLEM REACHING HIS BELOVED GOLDEN Pond, but then, he owned a piece of the shoreline. What about the rest of us? Public access to New Hampshire's 6,700-acre Squam Lake, the setting for On Golden Pond, has been a...

The Power of Parasites.
July 1, 2000... Lurking in guts and rooted on skin, they're the lowly leeches of the universe. But these creatures can destroy or preserve a population. IT WAS A MUGGY NIGHT IN THE FORESTS OF NORTHWEST Costa Rica. I carried a butterfly net, and the...

The Stranding.(coping with beached dolphins)
July 1, 2000... We are built to survive. So what drives an animal to turn on itself? THEY WERE LIKE TWO TIRES BOUNCING down a dirt road, rolling over and bumping against each other. About a hundred yards down the beach, two more surfaced and skidded to a...

THE AUDUBON GARDEN MAKEOVER.(an environmental lawn makeover bring abou the return of tree frogs and other creatures)
July 1, 2000... Last summer we announced that Audubon magazine would turn the backyard of one lucky reader into a haven for birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. With the donation of bird feeders, a water garden, and more than $2,500 worth of plants from...

DALTON'S WORLD.(the remarkable stop-action nature photography of Stephen Dalton)
July 1, 2000... On his farm in England, Stephen Dalton photographs exotic hummingbirds in his dining room and "pet" rats in his barn, creating extraordinary images of often ordinary creatures. "THE PLACE HAS CHANGED SINCE YOU WERE HERE," Stephen Dalton...

Flying FEVER.(the West Nile fever has entered the United States, appearing in the New York area but with the possibility of speading)
July 1, 2000... Borne by mosquitoes and hosted by birds, the West Nile virus killed seven New Yorkers last year. Now it's back Will it spread? IN JUNE OF LAST YEAR, DR. JOHN CHAROS LAUGHED WHEN a woman walked into the Bayside Animal Clinic, in Queens, New...

THE GHOST CAT'S NINTH LIFE.(habitat loss has seriously endangered the survival of the ocelot, as biologists in Texas struggle to keep it alive)
July 1, 2000... In a small corner of south Texas, the last wild ocelots in the United States cling to life as biologists struggle to learn the basics about these elusive and reclusive creatures. AS EARLY MORNING FOG DRAPED OVER A FRESHWATER LAKE IN SOUTH...

THE RIVER THEY CALL HOME.(the environmental history of the Penobscot River)
July 1, 2000... Over the past 200 years, Maine's PENOBSCOT RIVER has been dammed and developed, polluted and poisoned. Now the triple that shares the river's name is fighting back. Before there was the river there were streams, small freshets pitching out...

Portrait in Red and White.(brought near to extinction, the reddish egret may be making a comeback)
July 1, 2000... Plume hunters once nearly eliminated reddish egrets in Florida. Now this eccentric bird, our rarest wader, may be coming back. AS A SEASONED OBSERVER OF BEHAVIOR, HUMAN AND OTHERWISE, I HAVE SEEN MONKEYS, lions, and sharks, as well as small...

Ask AUDUBON.(nature questions)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Do birds perspire? Ray Tillmann, Menard, Illinois TECHNICALLY, ONLY ANIMALS with sweat glands can sweat. Birds lack them, but being warm-blooded, they still must have some way to cool down when it's sweltering outside or they risk meltdown....

Art of the Wild.(Brief Article)(Review)
July 1, 2000... Time spent fishing is spent "in a compassless state, off the grid," Thomas McGuane says in Upstream: Fly Fishing in the American West (Aperture, $40). It is "an unaccidental journey toward a direct involvement with nature." McGuane's text...

Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Shaping the Sierra: Nature, Culture, and Conflict in the Changing West By Timothy P. Duane. University of California Press, 595 pages, $50. SHAPING THE SIERRA IS AN IMPRESSIVE attempt to analyze the "changing social and economic relations...

Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town By Brian Donahue. Yale University Press, 329 pages, $27.50. SINCE 1980 THE ENVIRONMENTALIST Brian Donahue and his neighbors in Weston, Massachusetts, have been...

River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida's St. Johns River.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida's St. Johns River By Bill Belleville. University of Georgia Press, 220 pages, $24.95. BILL BELLEVILLE MAKES A STRONG case for preserving the wildness and the wildlife of Florida's historic St. Johns...

Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photography.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photography Edited and compiled by Antony Decaneas. The Mountaineers, 144 pages, $60 cloth, $29.95 paper. FOR SEVEN DECADES BRADFORD Washburn has taken some of the most extraordinary photographs ever made of...

California Dreaming.(environmental propositions pass)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... FOUR YEARS AGO AUDUBON-CALIFORNIA began an ambitious campaign to help pass two environmental propositions. The effort was a success. With a combined budget of $4 billion, the propositions are the largest environmental bonds ever passed, and...

Hotlines.(preventing bird of prey from getting electrocuted)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... STORIES OF RAPTOR electrocution are far too frequent for chance anymore," says Montana falconer Kirk Hohenberger, who has lost four of his own falcons. After he was confronted with little cooperation from a Billings utility company and found no...

IN BRIEF.(environmental news)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The lesser prairie chicken has disappeared from more than 90 percent of its ancestral range, an area that includes much of eastern New Mexico. Thanks in part to a two-year effort--letter-writing, bird surveys, and lobbying--by New Mexico...

River Rendezvous.(efforts to clean the Oconee River in Georgia)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... THE TRIBUTARY TOOK ON THE STENCH OF RAW SEWAGE AFTER IT PASSED BY A TRAILER park in Athens, Georgia. But this was just the beginning. As the stream meandered along toward the Oconee River, it also picked up old tires and decomposing garbage....

Relief for Horseshoes.(laws made to protect horseshoe crabs along the Atlantic coast)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... FOR ONE MONTH EACH SPRING, THE American horseshoe crab rides the tides of Atlantic estuaries all the way to the water's edge. Once there, these 10-eyed creatures look around for mates. But on some beaches it's become tough to find one. For...

Urban Revival.(efforts by citizens in Seattle, Washington, to restore habitats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... TOM KELLY IS BENT AT AN AWKWARD angle, wrestling thorny blackberry bushes out of tangles of ivy. He is part of a volunteer team that is removing invasive plants from a Seattle park to make way for scores of natives in the name of habitat...

A Fatal Plan.(New Mexico's plan to protect bighorn sheep means killing cougars)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... IT'S NOT A HUNT, IT'S A SLAUGHTER," SAYS Elizabeth Hurst-Waitz, president of the Central New Mexico Audubon Society. She's referring to the way cougars are currently being killed in New Mexico--chased up trees by packs of dogs and then shot at...

Desert Defender.(efforts by Mike Prather to promote environmental issues in California)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... IF YOU LOOK WAY OUT ONTO THE LAKEBED AND YOU SEE A LITTLE SPECK OF WHITE JUST cruising along out there, almost the same color as the alkali, that's probably a snowy plover," says Mike Prather, staring through his telescope at Owens Lake. A...

In the Middle of a Marsh.(Massachusetts salt marsh)
July 1, 2000... Floating through a Massachusetts salt marsh provides a whole new perspective on mud, grass, and ocean tides. THERE IS AN END TO EVERY ROAD, I SUPPOSE, AND IN a salt marsh on a falling tide, it's apt to be a smelly one. I paddled into the...

Not Just Trees: The Legacy of a Douglas-Fir Forest.(Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Not Just Trees: The Legacy of a Douglas-Fir Forest By Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds. Washington State University Press, 332 pages, $35. IN NOT JUST TREES, JANE CLAIRE Dirks-Edmunds bravely tells a painful story. Between 1933, when she was a...

CYBER ACTIVISM.(Web site explains efforts to improve care of National Wildlife Refuge System)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... HIDDEN LANDS "Our Government has a secret!" reads the newest slogan for the National Audubon Society's National Wildlife Refuge Campaign. Visitors to www.audubon.org/campaign/refuge/ are urged to vote yes on Refuge Vote 2000, which...

Bringing Back the Baylands.(San Francisco Bay)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... IN 1847, JUST BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA GOLD Rush, San Francisco had 450 people and San Francisco Bay had 329,000 acres of wetlands. Now, some 150 years later, the Bay Area has 7 million people--and only 93,000 acres of wetlands. * The National...

Frozen Fish.(why the Pagothenia borchgrevinki can survive in Antarctic waters)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... DIVING BENEATH AN ICEBERG THAT SLAMMED AGROUND ON ANTARCTICA'S Ross Island, Norbert Wu found this silvery little fish, which polar researchers call a "botch," fieldspeak for Pagothenia borchgrevinki. Borchs belong to a group of Antarctic...