Audubon articles from March 2002

Audubon archives from March 2002

Editor's note.(loss of environmental wildlife in nature sanctuary)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
March 1, 2002... ONE DAY EACH AUTUMN, AUDUBON HOUSE EMPTIES OUT SO THAT STAFFERS can troop off to the Audubon center 45 minutes away in Greenwich, Connecticut, for the annual company picnic. Sprung from our desks in lower Manhattan, we're able to stretch our...

Audubon view.(National Audubon Society plans to open urban centers)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
March 1, 2002... DEAR AUDUBON MEMBER: DIVERSITY. IN NATURE, NO CONCEPT IS MORE FUNDAMENTAL TO A STRONG, healthy environment. But we often forget that people are also part of nature. We know that diverse ecosystems are stronger and healthier than...

Our land. (letters).
March 1, 2002... NOTHING I HAVE SEEN IN print since September 11 and October 7 (the day we began bombing Afghanistan) has been as consoling and hopeful as Audubon's "This Land Is Your Land" series of essays and photographs [January-February]. While our leaders...

Insidious invader. (letters).
March 1, 2002... TED WILLIAMS'S "AMERICA'S LARGEST Weed" [Incite, January-February] is the best write-up I've seen on the eucalyptus. As an environmental landscape consultant, I regard the Tasmanian blue gum as a giant flammable, extremely dangerous, and...

Bush league. (letters).
March 1, 2002... OPERATION SELF-RELIANCE" [FIELD Notes, January-February] is excellent. I have fought in two wars and various other actions for the United States, and I do care about clean air and water and the survival of the earth's plants and animals...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2002... On page 23 of the January-February issue [True Nature], the caption under the picture of the stabilimentum should have read, "It acts as both a warning to predators and an attractant to prey."

New life for a lake. (Water Conservation).(fish in Walker Lake in Nevada may be aided by proposed farm bill)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A FEW PUDDLES ARE ALL THAT REMAIN OF a once-fertile oasis called Winnemucca Lake, about 40 miles north of Reno, Nevada, which at one time drew vast flocks of migrating waterfowl to its shores. By 1955 farmers had siphoned off the last drops of...

Do Potter fans give a hoot? (Field notes: news on nature and the environment around the world).(desire for owls as pets influenced by 'Harry Potter' movie, but discouraged by experts)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... In 1996 the re-release of the movie 101 Dalmatians led to a run on that breed of dog, although, unfortunately, many of these high-strung pooches ended up in the pound. So it's no surprise that this winter's smash Harry Potter movie would set...

Flight school. (Field notes: news on nature and the environment around the world).(teaching whooping cranes to fly)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A clutch of whooping cranes, enrolled in aviator academy when they were still embryos, got their first actual flight lesson from an unlikely surrogate mother: a stereo blasting a medley of crane calls and airplane sounds. After the chicks...

Toxic avengers. (Education).(high school students makes documentary about illegal dumping in landfill)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... IT'S NOT EVERY DAY THAT TEENAGERS TAKE on the mob, local town officials, and illegal dumpers of hazardous waste. But don't tell that to the Middletown (New York) High School students in Fred Isseks's electronic journalism class. They've been at...

Darwin's birdbrains. (Discovery).(thrush nightingale migration research)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... FOR A MIGRATING SONGBIRD, KNOWING when it's approaching the Sahara Desert can mean the difference between life and death. Vast stretches of desert and ocean, which provide no food, are especially dangerous. Although scientists have long known...

Arctic starting line.(bird migration patterns from Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Each year millions of birds migrate from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to wintering grounds on six continents and in all 50 states. Some 180 species have been found in the refuge; 70 of them nest in the narrow coastal plain between...

Salmon sleuthing. (Field notes: news on nature and the environment around the world).(use of genetic database of salmon DNA determines if fish are caught illegally)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Last winter officers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada raided a suburban Vancouver restaurant and seized 750 pounds of contraband salmon. A tip led them to the stash, but it was DNA fingerprinting that earned the officers a conviction. Since...

Reefer sadness. (Field notes: news on nature and the environment around the world).(company disposes of cremated remains in concrete reef balls)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Ashes to ashes, dust to... water? Instead of using a traditional burial urn, a Georgia company will lay your cremated remains to rest in an underwater "reef ball." The concrete reef balls--the ashes are actually stirred into the mixture--are...

Garbage in, garbage out. (Computers).(environmental aspects of disposal of computers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... WE'RE DROWNING IN digital detritus. Discarded personal computers are collecting dust in closets; companies have warehouses packed with them. What's more, with the speed of computers doubling about every 18 months, that technological wonder you...

Hungry for change: chef Alice Waters is convinced that the path to awakening students' minds to their environment is through their stomachs, so she's helped them build a schoolyard--and make it edible. (education).
March 1, 2002... IN AN UNRULY PLOT OF LAND BEHIND THE MARTIN LUTHER King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, the raspberry bushes shake with activity. A slow rustling that begins at one end quickly picks up speed, rippling down the patch as a dozen hands...

Living on the edge: with wetlands declining and shorebirds in trouble, the question is: how do we reclaim the habitat the birds need to survive? (Conservation).(wildlife reclamation)
March 1, 2002... ON A SUNNY DAY IN EARLY AUGUST, A RESTLESS flock of semipalmated sandpipers rises from the shore of the Bay of Fundy and sweeps out over the water. Twisting and turning as one, rippling like a pointillist's flag, the tiny birds, which seemed so...

Going the extra yard: Americans have begun using less water and fewer chemicals to transform cookie-cutter lawns into wildlife-friendly havens. Three habitat heroes in Tampa, San Antonio, and Seattle show the way. (Healthy Neighborhoods).
March 1, 2002... BARBECUES AND PICNICS, FREEZE TAG AND laughter. The yard is a place where neighbors gather, kids play, and pets frolic. It's where you go to read on a warm afternoon, or catch fireflies in the cool of the evening. The first piece of nature as...

Springing to life.(growth of tree buds)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Two years ago James Balog began work on a series of tree portraits, seeking out the oldest or largest trees in the United States and trying to capture their "individual personalities." Using a Nikon D1 digital camera, he shoots as many as 300...

The treasure of Iwokrama: in a forgotten corner of South America, harpy eagles still fly and jaguars still roam -- and the native Makushi Indians are working with scientists to keep it that way. (Citizen Science).(Guyana)
March 1, 2002... WITH AN EXUBERANT WHOOP, A HALF-dozen kids kicked off their plastic sandals and raced up to an enormous old kapok tree, buttress roots protruding from its massive trunk like rocket fins and its branches dripping with thick lianas that...

State of the States.(environmental efforts in Texas, California, Missouri)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... TEXAS In an effort to protect and increase the population of two endangered birds, the black-capped vireo and the golden-cheeked warbler, a diverse coalition is supporting a program to reduce cowbird parasitism in central Texas. The...

An eye-opening educator. (Vanguard Of The Volunteers).(Wendy Paulson)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... "LOOK, LOOK UP THERE!" SAYS SEVEN-YEAR-old Franciny Rochet, pointing to a dark shape flitting through the trees in New York City's Morningside Park. The second grader smiles and turns to five of her classmates and their trip leader, Wendy...

Asking the right questions. (Randall Davey Audubon Center).(Outdoor Science Field Studies programme for underprivileged children)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... "I KNOW!" "I KNOW!" THE VOICES OF THE fifth graders at Agua Fria Elementary School, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, overlap one another, and the kids' hands wave eagerly in the air. Lauren Parmelee, director of education for Audubon-New Mexico,...

Kissimmee Valley Audubon Society.(restoration of Steffee family homestead in Florida)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... In Florida, the Kissimmee Valley Audubon Society is in the midst of restoring the historic Steffee family homestead, which will be the site of a new nature center in Osceola County. "When completed, this will be a premier regional nature center...

Southeast Kansas Audubon Society.(protection efforts on behalf of purple martin)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Parsons, a town of 11,514 people, set in the plains and rolling hills of southeastern Kansas, is known as the state's Purple Martin Capital. Each year an estimated 1,000 of the bluish-black swallows come to Parsons, where they move into martin...

Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society.(proceeds from prints by photographer David Liittschwager to benefit protection efforts on behalf of burrowing owl)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... David Liittschwager, a renowned photographer of rare and endangered species, recently created two benefit portraits of the western burrowing owl for California's Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. With the bird's population falling locally and...

The new Bird Bible: a team of 700-plus professional ornithologists is writing profiles on 720 of the continent's existing and extinct species. The goal? To create the most comprehensive work on birds in years. (birds).(The Birds of North America: Life Histories for the 21st Century)
March 1, 2002... EACH OF THE TOWERING PUBLISHED WORKS IN THE history of ornithology--Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology, John James Audubon's Birds of America, Arthur Cleveland Bent's Life Histories of North American Birds, and Roger Tory Peterson's...

Moon river romance: a protected island, a long-lost friend, and dozens of baby wood storks--sounds like a match made in heaven! (journal).(Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge)
March 1, 2002... EVER SEEN A BABY THAT WAS ACTUALLY DELIVERED BY A stork? How about more than 100 at once? I did recently on Pelican Island, a tiny, primitive spot in the expansive lagoon of Florida's Indian River, about 60 miles down the coast from the...

Coming Home to Eat: the Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods. (Reviews: charting new territories).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods By Gary Paul Nabhan. W.W. Norton, 330 pages, $24.95. ARIZONA ECOLOGIST AND NATIVE foods activist Gary Nabhan explores the seasonal resources of his regional food shed in an...

John Muir's Last Journey: South to the Amazon and East to Africa. (Reviews: charting new territories).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... John Muir's Last Journey: South to the Amazon and East to Africa Edited by Michael P. Branch. Island Press, 337 pages, $27.50. IN AUGUST 1911, JUST THREE years before his death, John Muir embarked on a 40,000-mile journey to South...

Art of the wild ... (Reviews: charting new territories).(Flora)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The world's leading couturier saves her most dazzling designs for Kingdom Plantae. Whether on land or underwater, plants have modeled Mother Nature's styles for ages. Nick Knight, a noted fashion photographer, spent more than three years...

Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage. (Reviews: charting new territories).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage By Deborah Cramer. W.W. Norton, 442 pages, $27.95. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, the author notes in the introduction to this remarkable book, "32 million square miles, 12,000 feet deep, resists our easy or...

One picture.(formation, dispersion by ocean currents of icebergs)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... AS THE CELEBRATED LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER LYNN DAVIS DISCOVERED IN 1986, THE fjords of Greenland offer endless possibilities for dramatic studies of nature's most ephemeral sculptures. The world's largest island is virtually covered by an ice...