Audubon articles from November 2000

Audubon archives from November 2000

What You Can Do.(Green Mountain Audubon Nature Center, Vermont)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... I WAS IN NORTHERN VERMONT ON A WARM day last September. I had gone for a bike ride and ended up at the Green Mountain Audubon Nature Center, a mile down a dirt road in Huntington. Three kids in their teens were sweeping the porch as adults...

Everybody Counts.(Christmas bird count)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... ONE OF AUDUBON'S GREAT TRADITIONS IS THE Christmas Bird Count. This winter marks the 101st year that Auduboners and other volunteers have gone out to count every bird they see within a specific time and space. For many participants the count is...

LETTERS.(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2000... "Our natural resources are essential, and humans are in charge of taking care of them so that life can continue." --MARY E. PARDEE Teaching Our Children I HAVE JUST FINISHED READING "Classroom Warfare" [Incite, September-October],...

Waterfront Land: $37.10 an Acre.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... CHESUNCOOK, MAINE, IS A FORMER LOGGING VILLAGE WITH one white church, a store that grosses $25 in a good week, a whole lot of moose, and a year-round population of 12. No roads lead here: You arrive either by boat (an 18-mile trip up the West...

Keep Bird Feeders Clean I.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Researchers at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology have discovered that since the winter of 1993--1994, house finch populations in the eastern United States have crashed, from 300 million to 180 million. The finding comes from volunteer bird...

Buying the Ranch.(Baca Ranch in New Mexico)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... "I believe when the dust settles on this Congress, this will be one of the most important, if not the most important, pieces of legislation that has come along," declared U.S. senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). It was an unusually bipartisan...

Wheels Across America.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... At 25, Mike Kahn is too old to have to write an essay about "what I did during my summer vacation." Too bad; he would have a great answer. Kahn spent the summer on a bicycle, pedaling more than 5,000 miles from Palo Alto, California, to Bar...

The Charge of the Bird Brigade.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... IN A SCENE WORTHY OF A JAMES BOND FILM, A HAWK FITTED WITH A microcamera and a transmitter was intercepted by India's Border Security Force last December as it flew across the country's northwestern border. According to the Indian Press Trust,...

Keep Bird Feeders Clean II.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Last winter, salmonella killed several thousand common redpolls around bird feeders in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Trent Bollinger, a wildlife pathologist with the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Center in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,...

Secondhand Smoke.(crematories)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Last year more than a quarter of all deceased Americans--600,000 bodies--went up in smoke. During the next decade that number will rise to about 828,000. "Crematories, just like other combustion furnaces, could be subject to the emissions...

Bad Jeans.(environmental aspects of mining pumice used for stonewashed jeans)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... SINCE THE MID-1980s DENIM manufacturers have used pumice to give jeans a rugged "stonewashed" look. But as the impact of mining this pale volcanic remnant has emerged, many have wondered whether it's worth squandering America's natural heritage...

The Mardy Murie Story.(Review)
November 1, 2000... "Mardy's story is a great love story and a genuine adventure story," says Bonnie Kreps, the producer and director of a new documentary film, Arctic Dance. "It is also the story of a passionate commitment to preserve America' s last remaining...

Torpedo the Dams.(river guide Michael Jones)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... NOTHING HAD PREPARED RIVER GUIDE MICHAEL JONES FOR THE SALMON he saw beside his boat last summer above Six Mile Falls, on Maine's Kennebec River. "It was like a lightning bolt shooting out of the water," he says. A year ago there wasn't even a...

Bill's Big Stick.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... During his eight years in office, Bill's Cinton has set aside more land in the Lower 48 than any other president. Clinton earned his spot in history by wielding the formidable stick Theodore Roosevelt first fashioned under the 1906 Antiquities...

Johnny Rotten, Tree Hugger.(Sex Pistols to pay Future Forests to plant trees)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Rock star John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, star of the Sex Pistols, made his mark in the late 1970s by proclaiming himself the Antichrist and singing that the world had "No Future." It seems that Lydon has literally turned over a new leaf. The...

Flower Power.(Air Force plants cottonwood trees to metabolize ground contamination)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... THE AIR FORCE IS BETTER KNOWN FOR BUZZING TREES THAN FOR PLANTING them. But now, thanks to a new science called phytoremediation, the service plants trees as well. For years it used trichloroethylene (TCE), a highly toxic solvent, to clean jet...

Packrat Treasures Yield Gold.
November 1, 2000... This cuddly mammal collects plant parts, plastic forks, and 65-million-year-old shark teeth. Now its hoards are providing important evidence of climate change. IN A CREAM-COLORED SANDSTONE CLIFF ON NORTHERN Arizona's Paria Plateau, hard by...

Military Watchdog.(activist Grace Potorti)
November 1, 2000... As government forces practice warfare in the wilderness, Grace Potorti defends their victims--both animal and human. ON A NEVADA NIGHT WITH NO MOON, GRACE POTORTI SHOULDERED A SHOVEL AND entered restricted Air Force territory just north of...

LOST.(trip to Telegraph Creek in British Columbia)
November 1, 2000... THE RIGHT ROAD IS ALWAYS A PROBLEM, AS DANTE reminds us in the opening line of The Inferno, and there is no end of ways to lose it. The summer I turned 50, I began to wonder exactly when the right path had turned into such a deep rut. The...

Ask AUDUBON.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... What can you tell me about Mexican jumping beans? Are they extinct? Esther Rice, Hemet, California THE MEXICAN JUMPING BEAN HAS a somewhat overblown reputation as a jittery legume with a penchant for wild ricocheting, a kind of vegetal...

HIGHWAY THROUGH HEAVEN.(how construction of an interstate highway affects communities in North Carolina)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... As an interstate grew in North Carolina, photogropher Rob Amberg chronicled the construction. He found that building a road is more costly than it appears. Text by Mary-Powel Thomas WHEN YOU LOOK AT A MAP OF NORTH CAROLINA, WAY OVER TO...

THE [NEXT] SPOTTED OWL.(economic, social and environmental effects that may result from declaring the sage grouse as an endangered animal)
November 1, 2000... THE SPOTTED OWL BECAME A RALLYING CRY FOR THE OLD-GROWTH FORESTS OF THE NORTHWEST. CAN THE SAGE GROUSE, ALSO IN PERIL, HELP SAVE THE VAST SHRUBLANDS OF THE INLAND WEST? THE DAY IS ALREADY HEATING UP AS BIOLOGIST KARA LEONARD DRIVES SLOWLY...

THE WILD WORLD'S SCOTLAND YARD.(US Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory investigates crimes against animals)
November 1, 2000... PROBING EVERYTHING FROM CROCODILE PURSES TO ELEPHANT-LEATHER SHOES, A TEAM OF EXCEPTIONAL SCIENTISTS IS CRACKING UNSOLVED CASES AT THE WORLD'S ONLY FULL-SERVICE LAB FOR CRIMES AGAINST WILDLIFE. One spring day, Bonnie Yates plucked a tiny...

A HABITAT HELD HOSTAGE.(inability to fully research Colombia's wildlife because of rebel groups and military activity)
November 1, 2000... Colombia is one of the biologically richest places on earth. But as the guerrilla war rages, species are vanishing, and the scientists who are studying them fear for their own lives. THERE WERE FIVE OF THEM, ALL MEN, WEARING civilian...

The Great Florida Birding Trail.(places to bird watch in Florida)
November 1, 2000... For birders, Florida has always been full of surprises, adventures, and great bird sightings. Now a ground-breaking celebration in Titusville promises even greater delights. Scheduled for later this month, it will inaugurate something truly...

The High Life.(bar-headed geese migrate over Mt. Everest)
November 1, 2000... Bar-headed geese migrate over Mount Everest, where oxygen is scarce and life is rare. How do they survive in such conditions? AT 29,028 FEET MOUNT EVEREST IS TALL ENOUGH TO POKE into the jet stream, a high-altitude river of wind that...

Victory at Sea.(Delaware Bay region declared horseshoe crab preserve)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... IT'S BEEN A FOUR-YEAR FIGHT, but Audubon can now celebrate a major victory. In August, Norman Y. Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, proposed that more than 1,500 square miles off Delaware Bay be set aside as a horseshoe crab preserve--good...

Building Partnerships For Nature.(Washington's Olympic Peninsula has new Audubon Center)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... A NEW KIND OF ENVIRONMENTAL classroom is rising along the banks of the Dungeness River, on Washington's rugged Olympic Peninsula. In fact, some educators are touting the Dungeness River Audubon Center as a blueprint for the future. The new...

Tern Watch.(predators prevented from reaching tern eggs in Maine)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... These "lifeguards" were not rescuing struggling swimmers this past summer, but two field biologists hired by Maine Audubon did manage to keep the. state's Laudholm's Beach safe all the same--at least for breeding colonies of least terns. Gregg...

Chimney Roost.(school builds new chimney to allow Vaux's swifts to continue nesting in old chimney)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Thanks to the Audubon Society of Portland, Oregon, the children at Chapman Elementary school can finally shed their sweaters and turn up the heat. For the past eight years students and teachers have braved cold classrooms during the first month...

Corkscrew's evolution.
November 1, 2000... Since 1954, visitors to Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, an 11,000-acre preserve in south Florida, have marveled at its wild marshes and woods, not to mention its black bears, alligators, and more than 200 species of birds. On December 2,...

The Low-Rent Birder.(Pete Dunne)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... HUNCHED BEHIND A SPOTTING SCOPE, HIS EYES TURNED TOWARD THE SKY, THE PETE DUNNE of today is not far removed from the 24-year-old kid who first landed in Cape May, New Jersey, more than two decades ago. As a cold October wind sweeps across the...

Dry Lake Success.(development in Flagstaff prevented)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... "We're not duking it out anymore; we're trying to pull together," says Linda Brandt, a member of the Northern Arizona Audubon Society, speaking of developers and the Friends of Dry Lake, a group in which several Audubon chapter members play key...

Birds on the Brain.(Birdathon director Jeffrey Folmer)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... A few days ago, eager to learn the results of Audubon's biggest fund-raiser of the year--and the world's largest competitive birding event--I climbed to the sixth floor of Audubon House, in New York City, where I squeezed into the small office...

ENLISTED MAN.(Texas Audubon Society selects Terry Austin)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... This past September, Terry Austin, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and a former Air Force aviator, took over as executive director of the Texas Audubon Society. Austin, a lifelong conservationist, previously held positions with Trout Unlimited,...

It Takes a PLANet to Save One.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... AMERICANS WHO CARE ABOUT THE environment know that its sustainability is intimately connected to the health and well-being of the world's population. This connection has led the National Audubon Society's 15-year-old Population & Habitat...

Swamp Dreams.(glacial kettle lake gifted to Columbus Audubon Society)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... For Columbus Audubon Society members, it was love at first sight. But Calamus Swamp, a pristine, 19-acre glacial kettle lake in Ohio's Pickaway County, already had other suitors. Ada May Burke, whose family had owned the property for more than...

LATIN AMERICAN ADVENTURES.
November 1, 2000... Costa Rica, Honduras & Venezuela Latin America is a land of contrasts and variety. Country after country offers unique and stunning terrains. Mountains loom above lush jungles and spectacular seascapes. Exotic and diverse wildlife abounds....

Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds.(Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds By Christopher Cokinos. Tarcher/Putnam, 359 pages, $24.95. CHRISTOPHER COKINOS KEENLY feels the absence of vanished North American birds. He recounts the fate of four...

The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World.(Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World By Patricia Tyson Stroud University of Pennsylvania Press 371 pages, $34.95. AS JOHN JAMES AUDUBON HIMself acknowledged, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803-1857) played a critical...

THE LIVING WILD.(Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Art of the Wild "An animal without a habitat is simply a curiosity bidding time to its extinction," Art Wolfe writes in his new book, The Living Wild (Wildlands Press, $55). With biodiversity loss ranking as one of the world's most pressing...

Wanderlust: A History of Walking.(Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Wanderlust: A History of Walking By Rebecca Solnit. Viking, 326 pages, $24.95. IN HIS FAMOUS ESSAY "WALKING," Henry David Thoreau promoted the practice as an ordinary way to experience the extraordinary in nature. In this lively and...

Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality and Wilderness in America.(Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality And Wilderness in America By David Petersen; foreword by Ted Williams. Island Press, 269 pages, $24.95. DAVID PETERSEN HAS WRITTEN the one book on hunting that nonhunters should read. He explains the...

Owls Aren't Wise & Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Owls Aren't Wise & Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife By Warner Shedd. Harmony Books, 322 pages, $23. WARNER SHEDD GENTLY BUT firmly dispels common misconceptions about wildlife. For every balloon...

Perilous Crossing.(Mara River of Serengeti Plain, Africa)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... IT'S RUSH HOUR AT WILDEBEEST CROSSING ON THE MARA RIVER, ON EAST AFRICA'S Serengeti Plain, and the traffic doesn't slow, even for a lurking Nile crocodile, an animal that can grow to 20 feet. Actually, says photographer Fritz Polking, who shot...