Audubon articles from September 2008

Audubon archives from September 2008

Audubon view.(Viewpoint essay)
September 1, 2008... As I write this, gas costs more than $4 a gallon. By the time you read it, that might be $5. As a result, politicians are clamoring for more oil drilling in the United States. But drilling America dry is not the answer. We need a more balanced...

Que pasa, Kenn?(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... In "Gentle Giant" [July-August], why is there no mention of Roger Tory Peterson's excellent book Field Guide to Mexican Birds, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1973 and coauthored with Edward L. Chalif? That particular book took a long time to...

Oh, deer!(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... "A Tale of Two Habitats" [July-August] correctly points out several likely causes for the alarming decline in wood thrushes, such as habitat loss, acid rain, and nest predation encouraged by forest fragmentation. Unfortunately, it left out one...

Travel tip.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... It is gratifying to see an interest in conservation maintained in Lebanon, a country that has been in turmoil for many years ["Washing Away War," July-August]. The sidebar "Making the Trip" does not mention one issue that people planning a trip...

Stop the slaughter.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... "Fowl Play" [May-June] was an eye-opener, and two things disturbed me: 1) the breeding of genetically altered pigeons for sport, which is abhorrent because it serves no purpose, and 2) the killing of raptors that are doing what is instinctive...

Hole in crab.(field notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Golf is hard enough, with water hazards and sand traps peppering the course, but on little Christmas island, 1,600 miles northwest of Australia, players must avoid hundreds of four-and-a-half-inch red crabs migrating...

Mass transit.(field notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... As fuel prices soar to new highs, farmers in India are increasingly trading in their tractors for another type of transport: camels. The lanky, long-legged animals require little care and can survive hot, arid conditions. So instead of killing...

Squeeze play.(ENERGY)(on U.S.'s energy policy)
September 1, 2008... If John McCain wanted a friendly audience, he chose the wrong place. At a campaign stop in June, about a hundred protestors were waiting for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate in Santa Barbara, California, site of the infamous...

Balding cure.(field notes)(penguins)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Pierre, a 25-year-old African penguin, was starting to drop his feathers, and bald patches were appearing on his head. Worse, the patriarch began to lose his respected status in the colony, and the other penguins were shunning him. "He was...

Styrofoam is forever.(WASTE)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Styrofoam Is Forever For all the recycling programs around these days, 169 million tons of trash still ended up in incinerators or landfills nationwide in 2006. (The average American throws out nearly five pounds of...

Bionic beak.(field notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but for one bald eagle, it's in the beak. Three years ago a female eagle was rescued with most of her beak shot off. She was taken to a bird recovery center, named Beauty,...

A sunny neighborhood.(field notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Residents of the Palamanui eco-community will have it all--as if a breezy spot in the hills near Kona, Hawaii, weren't enough. The 725 acre residential complex, slated to open in 2010, will boast a health club, a university, even a forest...

Let it flow.(EVERGLADES)
September 1, 2008... Florida is 187,000 acres closer to saving the Everglades, and environmentalists are throwing around words--"fabulous," "magnificent," "ecstatic"--they generally reserve for only the greatest victories. On June 24, Florida Governor Charlie...

Bet the ranch.(good news: Celebrating conservation victories)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... On Tejon Ranch, the biggest contiguous private property in the state with the biggest population (more than 36 million people), the California condor forages, wildlife crosses the San Joaquin Valley, and four distinct ecological regions collide...

Welcome home.(good news: Celebrating conservation victories)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the late 1950s, on small islets off Bermuda, wildlife managers found 18 nesting pairs of Bermuda petrels. It was a remarkable discovery, because the species had been presumed extinct for centuries (see "Seeking...

Coddling caribou.(good news: Celebrating conservation victories)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Native Alaskans, sportsmen, and conservationists--plus a million or so migratory birds and tens of thousands of caribou--can breathe easier since the Bureau of Land Management granted them a 10-year reprieve from its plans to open the wetlands...

Winning the west.(good news: Celebrating conservation victories)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Score one for the sage-grouse, which is on the verge of an Endangered Species Act listing. Populations have plummeted in part because Wyoming's unprecedented energy rush has fragmented their sagebrush habitat (see...

Kings of the road.(good news: Celebrating conservation victories)(North American Monarch Conservation Plan)
September 1, 2008... Monarch butterflies seize people's imaginations across North America during their annual migration to and from their Mexican wintering roosts to breeding grounds as far north as Canada, up to 3,000 miles away. So it makes sense to take a...

Piping up for plovers.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... This summer piping plovers, American oystercatchers, and loggerhead turtles nested a little easier on the beaches of North Carolina's Outer Banks because of new restrictions on off-road vehicles (ORVs) on Cape Hatteras National Seashore, where...

King of Scream: he's more than the master of movie mayhem and the creator of the terrifying Freddy Krueger. This Hollywood director is also a nature lover.(Q&A)(Wes Craven)(Interview)
September 1, 2008... You might be a little nervous meeting Wes Craven, even if you're in the mood because it's nearly Halloween. After all, he's responsible for a string of successful horror films, including the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street. What you probably...

Advice for the eco-minded.(green guru)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I've heard bamboo flooring is more eco-friendly than traditional pine or oak. Is this true? Cara Truhlar, Montpelier, VT At first glance, bamboo is as green as it gets. It grows like a weed (technically,...

Earth almanac.
September 1, 2008... Content not available due to copyright restriction

Running on empty: the next president will inherit an over-drilled, pockmarked western landscape. If wildlife, including sage-grouse and mule deer, is to have any change of rebounding, this country's energy policy will need a major overhaul.(ELECTION 2008 ENERGY)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Viewing the natural gas boom in western Colorado through the eyes of Bob Elderkin, a retired federal land manager, it's clear that the pressure to rechart this country's energy policy intensifies at every turn....

Face-off: both john McCain and Barack Obama see a more sustainable future. On closer inspection, it's clear their visions come in different shades of green.(ELECTION 2008 POLITICS)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] John McCain is a maverick environmentalist, a longtime conservationist who revels in bucking the Republican tide and doffs his hat to Teddy Roosevelt. Barack Obama, meanwhile, is a slick politico in bed with ethanol...

A new leaf: if the feds keep fiddling while the planet starts, kindling, state efforts to control global warming may offer the best chance for changing the direction in Washington.(ELECTION 2008: GLOBAL WARMING)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gridlock is a fact of life in Washington, D.C., like lobbyists or marble monuments. For every bill that ekes into law, a dozen others die a quiet death, and policy issues often fester for decades before getting...

Shock troops.(Photo Essay)(on Forest Defenders and on Christopher LaMarca's photos)
September 1, 2008... In Oregon's deep backcountry, a group of rugged environmentalists fight for some of the nation's oldest forests. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] EIGHT YEARS AGO THIS PAST JULY, a 17-year-old balanced with a noose around his neck in the canopy...

Mountain high! One of the world's first eco-lodges, Camp Denali is an ideal jumping-off place for exploring America's greatest wilderness, with wolves, bears, and caribou, all in the shadow of our grandest peak.(Green Travel)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Wolves. Wild, legendary Alaskan wolves. Four of them, just a couple of hundred yards downslope near Caribou Creek. No, five. Six! Eleven, eventually, when we see them all. The entire Grant Creek Wolf Pack is gathered...

Slings and arrows: they're smart, spectacular, and vocally versatile. So why are blue jays the species so many backyard birders hate to love?(journal)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A classic cinema moment: Gregory Peck, in his Academy Award-winning role as lawyer Atticus Finch in a Depression-worn Alabama town, kills a rabid dog stumbling down a dusty street. At supper that night, his children...

On the brink: the venerable impresario of doomsday scenarios such as the population "explosion" returns to sound the warning bell again about saving the earth.(ESSAY)(The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment By Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich Island Press, 440 pages, 535 Paul R. Ehrlich has never shied away from calling it like he sees it, no matter how gloomy his perspective...

Greasy Rider: Two Dudes One Fry-Oil-Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Greasy Rider: Two Dudes One Fry-Oil-Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future By Greg Melville Algonquin Books, 266 pages, $15.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Journalist Greg Melville and his college buddy...

A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See it All.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See it All By Luke Dempsey Bloomsbury USA, 258 pages, $24.99 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] That A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See it All isn't...

Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... and the World.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan... and the World By Coutney Smithsonian Books/Collins, 196 pages, $24.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Most New York City residents feel little affection for the mottled, grayish bird...

The Dirt on Dirt.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Dirt on Dirt By Paulette Bourgeois Illustrated by Martha Newbigging Kids Can Press. 48 pages, $15.95 (8-12) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dirt has gotten a bad rap. Paulette Bourgeois burnishes its reputation with The Dirt...

The Forever Forest: Kids Save a Tropical Treasure.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Forever Forest: Kids Save a Tropical Treasure By Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini with Rachel Crandell Illustrated by Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini Dawn Publications, 32 pages, $8.95 (5-10) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Peter arrives...

Art of the wild.(Audubon: Early Drawings)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Prior to the publication of Birds of America, John James Audubon spent decades honing his talents. Audubon: Early Drawings (Harvard University Press, $125) sheds insight into Audubon's trajectory as an artist and...

Crows' feats.(One Picture)(Photograph)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SPECIFICATIONS Photographer: Raymond Meeks Title: Crow, Fractured Tree, Montana, 2002 Camera: Nikon Coolpix point-and shoot A cacophony of crows woke me at twilight the other morning. I had heard a...