Audubon articles from June 2003

Audubon archives from June 2003

Editor's note.
June 1, 2003... IN THIS AGE OF HARROWING uncertainty, celebrating our nation's natural heritage can soothe the soul. This issue of Audubon marks the centennial of the National Wildlife Refuge System, a distinctly American gift to future generations. "The other...

Dear Audubon member. (audubon view).
June 1, 2003... WE AMERICANS OFTEN TRACE OUR NATION'S HERITAGE TO 1620, when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. At Audubon we trace our heritage to 1803, when John James Audubon arrived in this country from France to manage his father's Mill Grove Farm in...

Klamath killjoy. (letters).
June 1, 2003... I GREATLY APPRECIATED "SALMON Stakes," by Ted Williams, in the March Audubon. The fish kill in the Klamath Basin is a tragic example of an ecosystem whose resources have been oversubscribed by the federal government. With so many competing...

The forest and the trees. (letters).
June 1, 2003... I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE A DIFFERENT perspective than that which Ted Kerasote credited me with in "Roads to Ruin: Slow Burn" [March], about Duncan Canyon in California's Tahoe National Forest. My primary goal to help re-create the old forest that...

Urban myth. (letters).
June 1, 2003... THE CRY NOW COMING FROM MONtana, of all places, about urban sprawl is disheartening. "Real Enviros Live in Town" [March] touches on this problem with the same logic Tom Hylton did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Save Our Land, Save Our...

Collision course. (National Defense).
June 1, 2003... THIS DOGFIGHT MIGHT SEEM LIKE A mismatch. The U.S. Navy's Hornet attack jets weigh 30 at nearly twice the speed of sound, and bristle with weapons. Your typical 15-pound tundra swan, in contrast, cruises along at 60 miles an hour and, frankly,...

Stick to prunes. (Reports).
June 1, 2003... A recent commercial for Metamucil, in which a "park ranger" pours a glass of the laxative into Old Faithful to keep it "regular," has Yellowstone National Park officials steaming. "It may have been obvious to Procter & Gamble that this was not...

Avian adultery. (Field Notes).
June 1, 2003... Australian scientists have turned back the covers on a new secret of superb fairy wren mating. Less studly males who can't find their own territory latch on with nesting pairs in a seemingly innocent alliance. In return for a place to stay,...

Watch where you climb! (Field Notes).
June 1, 2003... Even the most agile rock climbers can wreak havoc on native plants. On the climber-choked limestone cliffs of southern Ontario, two Canadian biologists have found that the diversity of native plants drops dramatically near popular climbs....

Nasty snowmelt. (Mountain Ecology).
June 1, 2003... THE HIGH PEAKS OF GLACIER NATIONAL Park cradle some of the last glaciers in the country. And when Dan Fagre, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), skis into this remote Montana wilderness, the landscape looks pristine. But the...

Plovers are Americans, too. (Bird Conservation).
June 1, 2003... EVERY INDEPENDENCE DAY, ABOUT FIVE hours before the fireworks commence, hundreds of sentinels, walkie-talkies in hand, fan out across north Atlantic beaches, from Massachusetts to New York. Their mission: to keep holiday revelers from trampling...

High on bats. (Field Notes).
June 1, 2003... In spring and early summer, when the night sky begins to darken outside of caves all across Texas, more than 100 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge like an enormous black cloud and spiral into the darkness. Gary McCracken, a biology...

Watching out for whales. (Field Notes).
June 1, 2003... Some ships rely on the detection of whale song to avoid often deadly (for the whales) collisions with the far-ranging mammals. But what happens when the whales remain silent for hours at a time? A group of innovative scientists led by Michel...

Dirty air is clean air. (Doublespeak).
June 1, 2003... WHEN IT COMES TO SAYING ONE THING ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND DOING ANOTHER, the White House is positively Orwellian. The administration has apparently taken its cue from a 12-page memorandum by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who advises clients...

Hope and sorrow. (Update).
June 1, 2003... ADULT CONDOR NO. 8, KNOWN AS AC-8, may have been the poster bird of successful but tenuous efforts to save wild condors. A matriarch of the captive-breeding program, she produced 12 chicks and 106 direct descendants, and taught survival skills...

A gift to birders. (Field Notes).
June 1, 2003... The Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in 2001 to end U.S. Navy bombing exercises on the South Pacific island of Farallon de Medinilla after learning that the bombing was killing scores of birds, including the...

Right of way: every year, all kinds of wildlife, including many endangered species, are killed crossing America's highways. Now biologists and land planners are teaming up to design ecofriendly roads that animals can traverse without having to risk life and limb. (cutting edge).
June 1, 2003... NINETEEN FEET OF SNOW FELL ON NORTHERN IDAHO IN THE winter of 1996, resulting in an unusual slaughter of wildlife. Heavy snows in an area known as the McArthur Lake wildlife corridor forced deer, elk, and moose down from the mountains and onto...

The secret life of redstarts: the key to a big-picture understanding of songbird populations may lie in the details, from the social to the sexist to the subatomic. (birds).
June 1, 2003... COMING DOWN OUT OF THE HILLS ABOVE THE SOUTHWEST coast of Jamaica in the predawn darkness, we turn east and drive with the shoreline to our right. Far out on the bay, black waters hold a medallion of hammered silver cast down by a full moon. It...

Ask Audubon.
June 1, 2003... How do animals that store their food in different locations find it later on? Ross Schennum, Elgin, Illinois TO THE AVERAGE CAR-KEY-LOSING human who is blessed with a conveniently located kitchen larder, the thought of unearthing...

A birdwatchers' paradise ... Texas: yeah, Texas.
June 1, 2003... A breathtaking state of deep canyons and rugged mountain peaks, spring fed rivers, colorful desert, breathtaking coastlines, and wide-open spaces, Texas comes as close as you can get to a birders' paradise. A confluence of three major bird...

Safe havens. (National Wildlife Refuge Centennial).
June 1, 2003... ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AMERICANS FLOCK TO OUR NATIONAL PARKS, forests, and seashores. But only the National Wildlife Refuge System, one of the nation's best-kept secrets, exists to protect our wild animals and plants. This unique network of...

A century of progress: the history of the refugee system is 100 years of heroes and hard work, trials and triumph. Here are some of the major milestones along the way.
June 1, 2003... 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt sets aside the 5.5-acre shell-covered Pelican Island in Florida's Indian River as the first protected federal "preserve and breeding ground for native birds," thus founding the National Wildlife Refuge...

Awakening wonder: in the watery reaches Klamath Basin, a father and son explore the splendors of nature--and discover that finding the "right" answer can be as complicated as the refuge system itself. (National Wildlife Refugee Centennial).
June 1, 2003... After a long flight west to Eugene from my home in Brooklyn, New York, I was driving east up the rumpled rise of Oregon's Cascades with my 17-year-old son, Nathaniel (Nate to you, to his friends, and to himself). With each banked, looping...

Labor of love: friends of the refuge volunteers, like those at Anahuac in Texas, aren't afraid to use a little elbow grease or a pair of chest waders--to improve their local treasures. (National Wildlife Refuge Centennial).
June 1, 2003... ON A CLEAR, COOL SATURDAY morning at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge along the upper Texas gulf coast, Miss Loda Gibson, a retired schoolteacher, is greeting visitors with B.J., her 15-year-old granddaughter. Standing thigh-high in Shoveler...

Prizes worth protecting. (National Wildlife Refuge Centennial).
June 1, 2003... The dramatic layers of light and shadow lending Macduff Everton's panoramas a third dimension serve purposes both artistic and practical. "I'm trying to photograph some of the still beautiful wild places in the hopes that people will see them...

The other crown jewels: you don't have to go to Yosemite or Yellowstone to enjoy nature's greatest spectacles. America's national wildlife refuges not only have it all, odds are there's one virtually around the corner from you. (National Wildlife Refuge Centennial).
June 1, 2003... THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE SYSTEM HAS 540 sites spread across all 50 states. The system protects 282 species that are federally listed as either threatened or endangered, including 56 birds, 46 mammals, and 96 plants. If some refuges are...

California. (Chapter News).
June 1, 2003... Members of El Dorado Audubon and the Friends of Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) hit the road this past spring to promote the importance of the refuge system to the Pacific Flyway, and to species ranging from gadwalls and wigeons to...

Sacred trust. (Movers & shakers).
June 1, 2003... WILLIAM YELLOWTAIL HAS CUT A WIDE SWATH across the western landscape--as a Montana rancher and state senator, as regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and as an acclaimed fly fisherman and wilderness guide. But no...

Florida. (Chapter News).
June 1, 2003... The Audubon Society of the Everglades celebrated its fourth annual Everglades Day on February 8 at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee NWR in Boynton Beach. "Loxahatchee is a real integral part of the Everglades ecosystem, but a lot of people in...

Missouri. (Chapter News).
June 1, 2003... Burroughs Audubon Society members don't just greet visitors at Squaw Creek NWR, which lies in the Missouri River floodplain. They also lead tours, restore prairie, repaint signs, and reroof the comfort station. Three years ago, along with...

Finding the fun in nature. (Audubon Center).
June 1, 2003... THE TINY GREEN INCHWORM UNDULATED slowly over 10-year-old Ari Kay's index finger. She forward over her half-tied galoshes to the worm's progress, as did three of her buddies--from Camp Kinderland in Massachusetts--who were seated nearby....

Nebraska. (Chapter News).
June 1, 2003... Every week in November and December since 1986, Audubon Society of Omaha members fan out across the DeSoto NWR in the Missouri Valley basin to tally hundreds of thousands of migrating snow geese, so the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can better...

New Jersey. (Chapter News).
June 1, 2003... Eight years ago, when the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR--a RAMSAR Wetland of International Importance, located on the Atlantic Flyway--temporarily lost its biologist, the Atlantic Audubon Society stepped in to conduct the weekly waterbird survey....

Virginia. (Chapter News).
June 1, 2003... The Fairfax Audubon Society is developing young conservationists one merit badge at a time at the Occoquan Bay NWR in Woodridge. Volunteers with Fairfax's Audubon Refuge Keepers program, which has adopted all three Potomac River refuges, will...

Washington. (Chapter News).
June 1, 2003... For the past II years Central Basin Audubon Society members have visited schools in five towns surrounding the Columbia NWR, in the Columbia Basin, to teach third and fourth graders about the refuge. They also sponsor student field trips to the...

Audubon directory: your quick guide to the resources of the Audubon Society.
June 1, 2003... HOME OFFICE 700 Broadway New York, NY 10003 (212) 979-3000 www.audubon.org (including Audubon and the national development, education, science, and travel departments) CONSERVATION CAMPAIGNS AND PUBLIC ...

A liquid Noah's Ark: whether you live in the country or the suburbs, when you build a pond, there's no telling what wild things might turn up. (backyard).
June 1, 2003... JON AND SALLY SOEST ENJOY THE PRIVACY OF THEIR HOMEMADe log house in the foothills of Washington's Cascade Mountains. So when a new home popped up in the middle of their front-yard vista, they decided to dig a pond. The idea was to shift their...

The case for refuges: celebrating the centennial twice over: an intimate portrait of the sprawling system, and a special, spectacular plea to preserve its largest piece.
June 1, 2003... IN THIS CENTENNIAL YEAR, OUR NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES ARE FINALLY drawing the kind of literary and artistic attention usually reserved for the national parks and forests. Two notable recent books are Russell D. Butcher's America's National...

Art of the wild.
June 1, 2003... From the depths of the Panamanian forest comes A Magic Web: The Tropical Forest of Barro Colorado Island (Oxford University Press, 292 pages, $40). This lush pictorial odyssey, accompanied by clear, scientific narration, is a collaborative tour...

The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, is the Environment's Number One Enemy. (Editors' Choice).
June 1, 2003... By Jack M. Hollander University of California Press, 237 pages, $27.50 ACCORDING TO CONVENTIONAL wisdom, the richer we get, the more we consume, and thus the more waste we produce, which naturally leads to widespread environmental...

Plundering Paradise: The Hand of Man on the Galapagos Islands. (Editors' Choice).
June 1, 2003... By Michael D'Orso Harper Collins, 345 pages, $24.95 WHILE THE ENDURING AURA OF the Galapagos Islands is framed around images of unspoiled beaches and Darwin's finches, the archipelago's 20,000 residents have long been viewed as little more...

Lewis & Clark Among the Grizzlies. (Editors' Choice).
June 1, 2003... By Paul Schullery Falcon, 247 pages, $14.95 DURING THE 25 YEARS THAT NATURALIST and historian Paul Schullery has been studying and writing about grizzly bears, he has imagined himself "constantly in the presence of Lewis and Clark."...

Winged Migration. (Editors' Cut).
June 1, 2003... Directed by Jacques Perrin Sony Pictures Classic, 89 minutes, Rated G THE AD COPY FOR THE BOX OFFICE smash read: "You'll Believe a Man Can Fly? The 1978 movie was, of course, Superman. The desire to fly has always tantalized people, but...

One picture.
June 1, 2003... Photographer: Robert Glenn Ketchum Where: Wood-Tikchik State Park, Alaska Camera: Pentax 645 with 150mm lens Film: Fuji Velvia Exposure: 4.5 at 1/500th of a second MY GOD, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL PLACE." ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM,...