Audubon articles from September 2003

Audubon archives from September 2003

Audubon view.(Donal C. O'Brien Jr.)
September 1, 2003... BIRDS ARE MY PASSION," SAYS DONAL C. O'BRIEN JR., Chair of Audubon's board of directors. "But I care about everything from blue claw crabs to African elephants, and I want to protect them all." And that is what he has dedicated most of his life...

Editor's note.(Audobon)(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... THIS MAKES ME MAD," FUMED KEVIN FISHER, AUDUBON'S DESIGN director, as he chose photos for this issue's feature on Alaska's Tongass National Forest ("Land of the Giants," page 52). What set off everyone involved in this story, from Fisher to...

Forest service on the record: we protect trees.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I HAVE ALWAYS READ AUDUBON WITH a sense of respect. The articles are interesting, informative, and sometimes hard hitting. Never did I question the accuracy of the information presented. "A Place Time Forgot" [March] leaves the impression...

Happy birthday, refuges.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I WAS PLEASED TO READ IN THE JUNE 2003 issue about one of our great public jewels, the National Wildlife Refuge System. What a magnificent idea President Theodore Roosevelt had when he created it, simply for the protection of land and wildlife....

The kittens that roared.(Endangered Species)
September 1, 2003... THE STATIONARY SIGNALS TANYA SHENK was receiving from six radio-collared lynx last May were a potentially ominous sign. After all, not long after the wildlife researcher and her colleagues at Colorado's Division of Wildlife had released 41 of...

Blands have more fun.(Reports; North American Breeding Survey)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Colorful plumage may help birds attract mates (not to mention birders), but researchers have found that these bold displays are potentially lethal. In a recent study, scientists discovered that some showy species, like cardinals, had a 23...

If it absolutely, positively pollutes.(Field Notes)(Federal Express buys hybrid electric trucks)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Federal Express is going green--if not overnight, at least in a hurry. The company recently bought 20 hybrid electric trucks, which are expected to begin hitting the streets by the end of this year in four as-yet-to-be-determined cities. The...

Mickey Muck's macaw.(Field Notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Presley, a Spix's macaw illegally plucked from the wild in Brazil at least 25 years ago, has finally returned to his native land. He had been a pet in suburban Colorado until one day his owner sought help relocating him from Mickey Muck, a...

The making of a classic.(Q&A; "Pale Male" by Frederick Lilien)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... FREDERICK LILIEN ABANDONED HIS NATIVE BELGIUM, A LAW CAREER, AND A NEW YORK CITY hair salon before landing on his feet as an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His debut film, Pale Male, tells the story of the first red-tailed hawk known to...

Richard Pough man of action.(Tribute)(Obituary)
September 1, 2003... LOOK AT MANY OF THE TRULY IMPRESSIVE land-preservation achievements of the last 70 years," says John Flicker, president of National Audubon, "and you will discover Dick Pough was there at the beginning. He was a great conservationist and a...

Reborn moms.(Field Notes, www.hsus.org/ace/14093)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Not sure what to do with that old fur coat attracting moths in the attic? It could be reborn as a security blanket for an orphaned baby rabbit or chipmunk. The Humane Society of the United States is accepting donations of fur coats and...

Waah, waah. Tweet, tweet.(Field Notes)(language acquisition in birds and humans)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Language may be going to the birds. Researchers studying the development of pre-linguistic "babbling" in infants have found similarities in the way young humans and songbirds develop the building blocks of language. The findings were published...

The tallest tallgrass prairie.(Green Building)(rooftop gardens in downtown Chicago)
September 1, 2003... IT MAY BILL ITSELF AS "THE PRAIRIE State," but in Illinois, native prairie has dwindled to a mete fraction of what existed when European settlers arrived. The good news is that native prairie is growing again, in this instance, 11 stories above...

Move over, smokey!(Field Notes; United States Forest Service and the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... After 59 years as the official mascot of the U.S. Forest Service's fire-prevention campaign, Smokey Bear is feeling the heat of competition. After the Forest Service updated his slogan in 2001 to "Only you can prevent wildfires," the Forest...

Follow that blaze.(Fire Ecology)
September 1, 2003... SOME PEOPLE FIGHT FIRES. OTHERS, LIKE Paul Belanger, state education coordinator for Montana Audubon, prefer scouring a burned area of the Bitterroot National Forest for birds. He's not alone. This past summer Belanger led a team of nine...

Guadalupe gumshoe: ex-ranger Nevada Barr may have packed a sidearm like the heroine of her best-selling mystery novels, but when it comes to capturing the beauty of national parks, she's a poet at heart.(profile)(Biography)
September 1, 2003... TALK ABOUT CHANGING TIMES! IN THE FERTILE LITERARY SOIL OF MYSTERY WRITING, hard-boiled private eyes are an endangered species; heinous crimes are as likely to be solved by lawyers, psychologists, or forensic scientists as by case hardened...

An underwater ark: largely unheralded but teeming with wildlife, eelgrass is the base of the food web in coastal waters. Now scientists are on a mission to unlock its secrets and protect this vital habitat before it's too late.(true nature; includes related article "The nature of eelgrass")
September 1, 2003... AS THE MOON DRAWS BACK THE WATERS OF WASHINGTON'S Puget Sound, Charles Simenstad lowers a car battery into a garbage can, wedges the can into a duct-taped inner tube, and attaches a motor and hose. He wades into Hood Canal with this homemade...

Exploring wild Alaska: traveling in style.(www.travelalaska.com/aud)
September 1, 2003... From the deep greens of its primordial forests to the banded blues of its glaciers, that far-flung outpost of the American imagination, Alaska, is a study in contrasts. A 365 million acre vastness that teems with abundant life, great and small,...

What's the stink about skunks? To a lot of people, they're varmints with a (pungent) twist. Herewith some second thoughts about an animal of a decidedly different stripe.(journal)(Column)
September 1, 2003... LATE LAST SUMMER I PULLED INTO A GAS STATION, GOT OUT and knelt to peer under my truck, and said a bad word. The checkout girl, leaning on the building, having a smoke, asked if everything was okay. I told her I'd run over a stump. When I went...

Land of the giants: Alaska's Tongass National Forest is home to 800-year-old trees and an array of wildlife not seen in the lower 48 for a century. So why would anyone want to log this place?(Forests; includes "Stands of Old Growth" statistical table)
September 1, 2003... AIR HAS PRESENCE IN SOUTHEAST Alaska. Wisps of low clouds, draperies of mist, and veils of rain hang over the forest, roll along the kelp-strewn beaches, and ghost around the far-flung sprawl of islands. Rain is a constant along the coast, and...

Spawning hope: once an environmental and economic mainstay of the Pacific Northwest, salmon are now so scarce that their status is provoking fights across the region. But on quiet Washington river, locals long at loggerheads are teaming up to bring fish back.(Fish Conservation)
September 1, 2003... THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA JUTS LIKE AN AX blade from Washington's northwest coast. Mountains make up most of it, and the rivers tend to be short and steep. The Dungeness is no exception. Here, just 10 miles from the sea, it gets its shoulder up...

The age of aquarium: renowned photographers Len Jenshel and Diane Cook have spanned the globe, documenting the mesmerizing effects of ocean life on landlubberly audiences. Their new book, Aquarium, explores both the splendors of the seas and our fascination with exhibiting them for everyone to appreciate.(Photo Essay)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Aquariums provide a portal into an enthralling world, one in which the watery theater of marine life is separated from human life by mere acrylic. It is this elusive barrier--between nature and culture, reality and artifice--that Diane Cook and...

Fire (in the sky): in less than an hour, flames had reduced nearly 8,000 acres of grasslands to smoldering stubble and ash. Still, this historic blaze--centuries overdue--may have been the salvation of a unique and little-known ecosystem in the highlands of southeastern Arizona.(Grassland Ecology, www.audubon.org/states/az)
September 1, 2003... WHEN LINDA KENNEDY DROVE THROUGH the ranch gate, she saw a wall of dust and smoke heading her way. She doesn't remember feeling scared or brave. But she did keep driving. As Kennedy neared Bald Hill, a grassy knoll in a rolling open va]ley that...

Living on the edges: across the country, researchers who are studying sprawl's impact on birds are concluding that if you can't beat it, plan it. So they are designing landscapes to help, not hurt, native species.(Bird Conservation; includes related article "Home is where the birds are" and "Gaining the upper wing", www.birdsource.org, www.audubon.org/bird/at_home/)
September 1, 2003... On a mid-May morning, summer and scarlet tanagers throng Black Creek's canopy of tulip poplar and swamp chestnut oak. Gorging on caterpillars, the brilliant red migrants are joined by mixed flocks of orchard orioles, cedar waxwings,...

Virginia is for nature lovers.(travel U.S.A.)
September 1, 2003... On May 14, 1607, the first intrepid settlers landed on the banks of the St. James River, sixty miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, to establish Virginia's first English colony. Jamestown, as it came to be known, was not the only...

Donal C. O'Brien Jr.(Milestones; National Audobon Society)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... BESIDES HIS WORK FOR AUDUBON, Donal O'Brien has been a conservation leader at the state, national, and international level. * In his home state of Connecticut, he has served on the Board of Fisheries and Game and on the Council of...

A conservationist to his core.(Movers & Shakers; Donal C. O'Brien Jr., National Audobon Society)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... DONAL C. O'BRIEN JR. WHO HAS SERVED AS CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF directors of Audubon for almost 15 years, is stepping down this year, December. During his tenure, he has compiled a unique record of achievement. O'Brien first joined the board in...

Prospects improved for the federally endangered clapper rail salt marsh harvest mouse after the Marin Audubon Society purchased a 630-acre parcel of wetlands and uplands, known as Bahia, on the mouth of the Petaluma River, saving it from development.(California)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Prospects improved for the federally endangered clapper rail salt marsh harvest mouse after the Marin Audubon Society purchased a 630-acre parcel of wetlands and uplands, known as Bahia, on the mouth of the Petaluma River, saving it from...

The Seattle Audubon Society has invited readers into gardens around the city in the new book Gardening for Life: An Inspirational Guide to Creating Healthy Habitat.(Washington)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Seattle Audubon Society has invited readers into gardens around the city in the new book Gardening for Life: An Inspirational Guide to Creating Healthy Habitat. "The book is perfect for gardeners who are unaware of how their small efforts...

Banding together for birds.(Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary Audubon Center, Oyster Bay, New York)
September 1, 2003... THIS YEAR MARKS THE 80TH BIRTHDAY OF the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary Audubon Center, making it the father of all Audubon centers. Almost the entire 14-acre patch of land in Oyster Bay, New York, was donated in 1923 by W. Emlen Roosevelt as a...

From September 5-7, Audubon Mississippi will hold its Fourth Annual Hummingbird Migration Celebration.(Mississippi)
September 1, 2003... From September 5-7, Audubon Mississippi will hold its Fourth Annual Hummingbird Migration Celebration. One of the highlights of this year's festival will be a special concert by the Dixie Hummingbirds, on Friday evening. Call 662-252-1155 of...

Last year Audubon Connecticut begin construction on an information kiosk at the Audubon Center at Bent of the River and a birding trail with native plantings at Cove Island Park, an Important Bird Area (IBA).(Connecticut/Ohio/North Carolina)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Last year Audubon Connecticut begin construction on an information kiosk at the Audubon Center at Bent of the River and a birding trail with native plantings at Cove Island Park, an Important Bird Area (IBA). The projects were supported by...

Audubon directory: your quick guide to the resources of the Audubon Society.(listings National Audubon Society)(Directory)
September 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 POLICY DIVISION ...

Healing the land: a leader in ecological restoration touts the new movement's successes--and takes on its critics.(The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communication With Nature)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communication With Nature By William R. Jorden III University of California Press, 256 pages, $27.50 LIKE ALL ENDURING POPULAR MOVEMENTS, ENVIRONMENTALISM HAS been propelled by...

Liquid Land: a Journey through the Florida Everglades.(Book Review)(Brief Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... By Ted Levin University of Georgia Press, 312 pages, $29.95 FOR TED LEVIN, THE CAPE SABLE seaside sparrow serves as a metaphor for the modern Everglades. At one point in his new book, Levin describes the plight of this critically endangered...

Snake Eyes.(Book Review)(Brief Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... By Terri Weifenbach and John Gossage Loosestrife Editions, 68 pages, $150 (limited edition of 500) ART OF THE WILD Pictures don't lie. But neither do they convey absolute certainty. Few have examined this paradox as exquisitely as...

Monkey Dancing: a Father, Two Kids, and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth.(Book Review)(Brief Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... By Daniel Glick Public Affairs, 343 pages, 526 HOW DO WE HEAL? THE QUESTION consumed Daniel Glick two years ago, having recently lost his older brother to cancer and his wife to divorce. Spurred by predictions that nearly half of the...

Good Morning Midnight: Life and Death in the Wild.(Book Review)(Brief Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... By Chip Brown Riverhead Books, 300 pages, $24.95 FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL REFUGE, nothing beats the wilderness. But as literary journalist Chip Brown demonstrates in this haunting biography of outdoorsman Guy Waterman, moving there may...

Good to the last drop: don't let that precious rain go down the drain. Here's how you can save water, reduce pollution, and help wildlife--all at the same time.(backyard; "Low-Impact Development Design Strategies", www.goprincegeorgescounty.com and www.metrocouncil.org/environment/Watershed/BMP/manual.htm, www.cwp.org/stormwater_mgt.htm)
September 1, 2003... I USED TO HATE RAINY DAYS. THE DRAMA OF EACH PASSING STORM escaped me. I'd sulk inside, waiting for the leaden clouds to lift. Then one day several years ago, as a nor'easter lashed our Shelter Island, New York, home, my husband, Don, and I...

One picture.(Subterranea by Sally Gall)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Photographer: Sally Gall Title: "Thirst, 2001" Where: Yucatan, Mexico Camera: Toyo 4x5 Field Camera with 135mm lens Film: Kodak T-Max Exposure: About one hour at f8 A TREE'S ROOT SYSTEM SERVES SEVERAL PURPOSES OF...