Audubon articles from March 2006

Audubon archives from March 2006

Editor's note.
March 1, 2006... You can tell the days the Union Square farmers' market, New York City's largest, is open by visiting Audubon's editorial offices. You'll find many staffers carrying bags filled with flesh produce they have toted back from the market. For us the...

Audubon view.(Waimea Valley Audubon Center)
March 1, 2006... For time immemorial, Native Hawaiians have divided their lands into units called ahupua'a. These lands traditionally ran from the top of a mountain down to the ocean, and encompassed most of the resources that ancient Hawaiians needed to...

More than birds.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I RECENTLY LOOKED AT AUDUBON for the first time, and I am amazed by the in-depth coverage it features. The National Audubon Society isn't just about birds; it understands that birds are a part of a larger web of fife, and is therefore committed...

To log or not to log.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... YOUR LOGGING ARTICLE ["Timberrr!," January-February] had a good message but should have stressed more strongly how important it is to guard against clear-cutting. Through the years I've seen too many magnificent woodlands sacrificed for the...

Don't bully SUVs.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... AUDUBON FALLS INTO THE TRAP of blaming a pretty minor problem for all the energy woes of the country ["Hogwash?" Field Notes, January-February]. SUVs are your boogieman, but they are a small part of America's profligate energy consumption. Why...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... The urine of the red fox smells more like skunk musk than the urine of the gray fox, as stated in "Winter Yaps" (Earth Almanac, January-February). We regret the error.

Mi, mi, mi mice.(mouse as vocalists )(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Seventy years ago the chirps of a hidden canary teased the residents of a Chicago children's home. But when, after weeks of searching, the minstrel was finally revealed, it turned out to be not a bird but an extraordinary mouse. Named Minnie,...

Tracking the spread.(avian flu transmission control)
March 1, 2006... WHEN AVIAN FLU KILLED MORE THAN 6,000 geese and gulls last spring at China's remote Qinghai Lake, ornithologists knew for certain that the virus devastating Asian poultry farms was a threat to wild birds, too. Less clear, and hotly debated...

Talk about indigestion.(Everglades ecosystem destruction by pythons)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Last fall the Everglades provided a real-life set for what could have been the next Alien vs. Predator movie. The alien, a 13-foot Burmese python, which is native to Southeast Asia, exploded after trying to swallow the predator, a live six-foot...

Running on fumes.(Ford Motor Company converts paint waste into electricity)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... What to do with toxic paint fumes has plagued the automotive industry almost since its inception more than 100 years ago. Now Ford Motor Company has designed a technology, called Fumes-to-Fuel, that converts paint waste into electricity. It...

Drive a hybrid, save the Arctic.(Arctic National Wildlife Refuge destruction for oil demand)
March 1, 2006... Americans guzzle more than 7 billion barrels of oil each year, despite its rising cost. Since plans to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge remain a constant threat, it bears noting that as of 2005 the U.S. Geological Survey estimated...

On the wings with monarchs.(migration)(Francisco Gutierrez)
March 1, 2006... THE MONARCH BUTTERFLIES HAD arrived by the millions at their wintering grounds in Michoacan, Mexico, on November 3, 2005, when Francisco "Vico" Gutierrez touched down his ultralight plane on a stretch of two-lane highway near the Sierra Chincua...

Sunny side of coffee.(DISPATCHES ...)(Solar Roast's coffee production)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Environmentally friendly coffee is all the rage these days. Consumers in search of a "greener" cup of Joe have a variety of shade-grown, pesticide-free brands to choose from, including one sold by Audubon www.audubon.org/market/...

The big sleeper.(DISPATCHES ...)(black bear)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... While most black bears in Pennsylvania dodged hunters during last December's hunting season, one 700-pound male snoozed soundly out of harm's way. Two children, ages 8 and 9, were playing in the snow outside their home in Chestnuthill Township...

A life worth living.(Richard Tompkins Paul)(Obituary)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Richard Tompkins Paul once expressed to a colleague what being an Audubon warden meant, to him: "How lucky are we--to spend our lives immersed in the magnificent wildlife of America, at such wonderful sites as Audubon sanctuaries." Rich died of...

American revival: covering 200 million acres, the American Chestnut fed the nation's economy and wildlife until the first half of the 20th century, when a devastating blight virtually wiped it out. Now a tireless advocate wants to return this icon to its former glory.(restoration)(Fred Hebard)
March 1, 2006... Exit Interstate 81 at the hamlet of Meadowview in southwestern Virginia and stop at the Little Diner for lunch, and you'd probably mistake Fred Hebard for one of the local cattle or tobacco farmers. He'd probably be wearing a T-shirt and jeans...

Meadow lark: a now you-see-them, now-you-don't relationship with a pair of red foxes reveals an animal of unmistakable grace, energy, and charm.(journal)
March 1, 2006... I sniff for the scent of red fox, a mix of old, vinegary wine and skunk stink. It's the end of winter in the northern Rockies, and snow lies in soft complicity over the field, blue shadow grooving the roll of land beneath it. Forests of pine...

Lost & found: a dumping ground for San Antonio's sludge is born anew as a wildlife refuge that beckons birders and schoolkids alike to pull on their hiking boots and go exploring.(AUDUBON CENTER)
March 1, 2006... Why oh why is no one answering the bell? It's ringing inanely, like the chorus to "Frere Jacques," but nobody's picking up. True, I'm 15 minutes late for a Sunday morning birding tour at the new Mitchell Lake Audubon Center in San Antonio, but...

Leader of the pack: southwest nights became noticeably quieter when the Mexican gray wolf vanished three decades ago. Today wolf howls pierce the air once again as an Apache tribe in Arizona spearheads a biological and cultural renaissance.(TRIBAL LANDS)
March 1, 2006... In the lobby of the White Mountain Apache tribe's Wildlife and Outdoor Recreation Division headquarters, a row of stuffed animals greets visitors like a furry receiving line. Arrayed across the floor, a monstrous eight-point elk, a bighorn...

TheHotZone: a veteran war photographer makes a return trip to Chernobyl 20 years after the town was the scene of the worst nuclear accident ever. Amid the still-toxic devastation, he found surprising signs of life.(PHOTO ESSAY)(Antonin Kratochvil)
March 1, 2006... CHERNOBYL. TWENTY YEARS AGO IT WAS JUST THE name of a sleepy Ukrainian town that few people had heard of Then, on April 26, 1986, engineers at a nearby nuclear plant botched a routine safety test. A reactor exploded and caught fire, unleashing...

The ripe stuff: besides giving you the chance to buy the freshest, tastiest fruits and vegetables anywhere, America's booming crop of farmers' markets are preserving open space, protecting drinking water, and saving small farms.(AUDUBON AT HOME)
March 1, 2006... AT THE HOLLYWOOD FARMERS' MARKET, IN Los Angeles, the great-granddaughter of "the Cattle Queen of Montana" sells grass-fed bison, which she raises without hormones or antibiotics. At the Mississippi Farmers' Market, in the state capital of...

Cream of the crop.(list of farmers markets)(List)
March 1, 2006... Farmers' markets are all about buying local, so the best market is probably the one closest to you. To find "food with the farmer's face on it" in your town, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture website (www.ams.usda.gov/farmers...

Pulling all-nighters: a hardy band of volunteers in Maine brave freezing temperatures till the small hours of the morning to unlock the secrets of owls.(birds)
March 1, 2006... At 2 a.m. on a cool March night, coyotes are yipping down by a small brook in the woods next to this rural road. The stars are brilliant, and the countryside near my home in mid-coast Maine, pretty but unspectacular in the day, seems entirely...

Explorer-in-chief: restless and in search of adventure after his presidency, Teddy Roosevelt headed down the uncharted Amazon River. He almost didn't make it back alive.(The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey By Candice Millard Doubleday, 416 pages, $26 BLACK CARE RARELY SITS BEHIND A rider whose pace is fast enough," Theodore Roosevelt once observed. In 1912, humiliated by his failure to...

Being Caribou.(book review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Being Caribou By Karsten Heuer The Mountaineers Books, 237 pages, $24.95 Many honeymooners opt for a cruise or a beach resort. Not wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer and his new bride, filmmaker Leanne Allison. In April 2003 they set out to...

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise.(book review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise By Michael Grunwald Simon & Schuster, 464 pages, $27 People have not treated the Everglades well. The first government report on the River of Grass, in 1848, declared it...

Art of the wild.(Yosemite in Time)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Yosemite in Time, an exercise in rephotography by Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, is an ode to the great Yosemite photographers who came before them. By photographing rivers, mountains, and valleys from the same points at the same times of year as...

The Last Season.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Last Season By Eric Blehm HarperCollins Publishers, 352 pages, $24.95 Randy Morgenson grew up in the shadows of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. He was "baptized into the world of camping in Yosemite by being bathed in a...

Audubon directory: your quick guide to the National Audubon Society.(Directory)
March 1, 2006... BOARD OF DIRECTORS CAROL M. BROWNER Chair of the Board LESLIE DACH Vice-Chair ALLEN J. MODEL Treasurer JACK J. DEMPSEY Secretary CHRISTOPHER M. HARTE VIVIAN R. JOHNSON Assistant Secretaries...

One picture.(James and Other Apes)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... SPECIFICATIONS Subject: Chimpanzee Where: Cameroon Camera: Contax 645 with 120mm lens Lighting: Sunpack ring flash Film: Kodak NC400 Exposure: f16@1/90th of a second MEET ARRON, A CHIMPANZEE FROM CAMEROON IN...