National Wildlife articles from August 2001

National Wildlife archives from August 2001

Searching for Solutions To Sprawl.(environment)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Eddie Nickens admits that he didn't pay much attention to the effects of urban sprawl on wildlife until some of his favorite fishing holes disappeared. "Just five years ago, I had a choice of several good spots within half an hour's drive of my...

NWF Goes to Court To Protect Northwest Salmon.(National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE Federation is leading a coalition of environmental groups, including two of its affiliates, the Idaho Wildlife Federation and the Washington Wildlife Federation, in suing the federal government for failing to come up with...

PROGRAM PROFILE - Species Recovery Fund Awards Grants.(National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... NWF'S KEEP THE WILD ALIVE program has awarded ten new grants to local organizations for innovative, community-based projects that will directly improve conditions for imperiled species. The winners, selected from dozens of applicants, will...

PUBLIC OPINION - Alaskans Want Wilderness.(environment)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... THE PUBLIC overwhelmingly supports wilderness protection for Alaska's pristine Copper River Delta. A massive campaign by NWF and its allies generated a record 30,000 comments to the U.S. Forest Service, more than 99 percent in favor of...

Former Clinton Administration Officials Join NWF.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Jamie Rappaport Clark, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during the Clinton administration, and Michael Dombeck, ex-chief of the U.S. Forest Service, have joined NWF in senior leadership positions. As senior vice president for...

Pritchett Elected Chair of NWF's Board of Directors.(National Wildlife Federation official Bryan Pritchett)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Delegates to NWF's 65th annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C., elected Colorado conservationist Bryan Pritchett to chair the organization's Board of Directors for the next two years. Pritchett, a coordinator for the City of Boulder's...

NWF Uses Hybrid Car To Promote Conservation.(National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... NWF is touring dozens of education and conservation events this summer with a new breed of car to spread the message about the need to conserve energy resources and reduce emissions that contribute to air pollution and global climate change....

Sage Grouse Wins Protection In California.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... In a victory for NWF and its California affiliate, the Planning and Conservation League, the U.S. Forest Service has designated sage grouse a sensitive species in northern California. This designation requires the Forest Service to maintain...

CONSERVATION HEROES - Louisiana Couple Champions Cause of Turtles.(Martha Ann Messinger and George Patton)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... WHEN MARTHA ANN Messinger and her husband George Patton found a box turtle in the yard of their Bastrop, Louisiana, home in 1989, little did they realize that they were about to embark on a mission that would consume much of their time and...

AFFILIATE SPOTLIGHT - Alabama's Roads to Reefs Aids Anglers.(construction of artificial reefs to improve inshore fishing)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... THE ALABAMA WILDLIFE Federation is working with the state, Mobile County and local conservation groups in funding a program called Roads to Reefs, which uses old concrete from a road-improvement project to construct artificial reefs in Mobile...

GRASS-ROOTS ACTIVISTS: TAKING A STAND - Atlantans Learn To Speak Up for Clean Water.(water-conservation seminars offered by National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... LOUVERSIA WIGGINS has been active in her Atlanta, Georgia, neighborhood for 20 years. But after participating in NWF's Leadership Development Workshops, the 49-year-old mother of two learned to make her voice heard on more distant turf. ...

Young Poet, Parrot Lover, Donates Proceeds.(student Jack Baer to donate proceeds from book to National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... SECOND GRADER JACK BAER of Alexandria, Virginia, became so enthralled with parrots after reading about them in school that he decided to write a book of poems about jungle animals and sell it to raise money for an organization that works to...

Zoo Vet Crusades Against Population Growth.(veterinarian Tim Reichard)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... SINCE ATTENDING AN NWF WORKSHOP on population and the environment several years ago, Toledo Zoo veterinarian Tim Rei-chard has become increasingly outspoken about the impact of population growth and human activities on species ranging from...

For the Love of a Horned Lizard.(wildlife protection efforts)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Texas horned lizards were once so common that in the 1950s a small West Texas gas station paid local kids a nickel for each reptile they collected, and then gave one to each customer who bought a full tank of gas. On dusty farms and ranches and...

Cashing in on Conservation.(economic benefits of wildlife watching)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... "Get over here. It's back," whispers a khaki-clad man into his walkie- talkie. His dispatch sends two forty-something Pennsylvania men into a race-walk across the trailer loop at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in southern Texas. They join...

Easing Orphans Back Into the Wild.(nature-release programme for orphaned bears)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Last summer, as wildfires raged in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, a scrawny black bear cub with burned paws emerged from the smoke and flames. For three days, the youngster fed on a deer carcass and drank from a nearby creek. State game warden...

A Tale of Slime Cities.(bio-films and effects on health and technology)
August 1, 2001... Run your tongue over your teeth. Do you detect something more than a just-brushed, slick surface, something maybe just a little slimy? If so, you've just felt a biofilm, a highly organized community of microbes with its own food delivery, waste...

Getting The LEAD Out - Lead fishing tackle kills loons; with no national policy to fight the problem, conservationists are convincing anglers to switch to nontoxic alternatives.
August 1, 2001... KATE TAYLOR got the call on the Fourth of July: A dead body near Lovell Lake. She drove from her office in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, to Wakefield near the Maine border, where she found the plastic body bag just where it was supposed to be....

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2001... Remarkable Ranchers It's refreshing to read about such remarkable ranchers as the Tranels, who have realized the importance of the black-tailed prairie dog ["Learning to Live With Prairie Dogs," April/May 2001]. These little animals are a...

Granny Knows Best.(social behavior of elephants found to improve reproductive success)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Pachyderms benefit by keeping their elders around, according to recent research in Kenya's Amboseli National Park. Scientists found that elephant families led by older females are more skilled in identifying calls from potentially threatening...

SAVING THE WRONG PLACES?(least reproductive lands found to comprise most of protected nature areas)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... We've done a heck of a job of protecting rock and ice," says J. Michael Scott, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey in Idaho. Scott is one of the authors of a recent study showing that much of the protected habitat in the 48 contiguous...

Hard Rain Keeps Falling.(effects on environment of acid rain)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Think the acid-rain issue went out with stone-washed jeans? Think again. New research shows that habitats in the Northeast have not recovered from decades of harmful precipitation. Acid rain is formed when pollution from power plants, vehicles,...

FIDDLING WITH LOBSTERS.(spiny lobster found to produce sounds)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Crustaceans aren't usually thought of as musicians, but it turns out that some lobsters make sounds using the natural equivalent of a violin. Sheila Patek, a graduate student at Duke University in North Carolina, discovered that Caribbean spiny...

TAKING A TURN FOR THE WORSE?(fuel consumption by automobiles and trucks)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Average fuel economy of all cars and light trucks in model year 2001: 24.5 miles per gallon Last year that fuel economy of cars and trucks was worse than in 2001: 1980 Average fuel economy of light trucks (pickups, SUVs, minivans) on...

The Sweet Taste of Sustainability.(organic farming found to surpass conventional farming in sustainability)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then an organic apple may keep the banker away. A new comparison of apple orchards in Washington state shows that growers who go organic harvest financial rewards with their sweeter, environmentally...

Finding Beauty in a Boorish BIRD - Scientists take a closer look at pigeons and find that these seemingly ordinary birds are extraordinarily colorful.
August 1, 2001... THE "WILD NATURE 4-H'ers" of Madison County, New York, are taking a field trip, and the wildlife, obligingly, is everywhere. As group leader Denise Almonte dumps a bag of popcorn on the sidewalk, hundreds of pigeons launch themselves from the...

PHANTOMS OF THE DEEP - What are stingrays doing in a freshwater Florida spring? The answer is found in these ocean creatures' unusual adaptations.
August 1, 2001... PEERING THROUGH SHALLOW, crystalline waters, Peter Piermarini is astonished at the number of stingrays he sees blanketing the bottom. Occasionally, one darts, kicking up swirling powder, its long, spiny tail trailing behind. What's unusual is...

A Hidden Treasure in the Arizona Desert.(possible environmental threat to unique Sycamore Spring and Peeples Canyon area of Arizona)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... No sign marks the turnoff to Peeples Canyon. The dirt road that leads there is nearly hidden from the highway. Thousands of motorists driving along U.S. Route 93 from Phoenix to the hotels and casinos of Las Vegas pass by it every day without...

Paved Over and Pushed Out - Beyond its pernicious effects on people and rural landscapes, urban sprawl is threatening some of the nation's most endangered wildlife.
August 1, 2001... A NARROW GAME TRAIL coursed through saw palmetto, hugging the edge of a swamp deep in Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve. I followed the faint path, eyes on the ground. Shin-high cypress knees snagged my boots. Mosquitoes buzzed my ears....

The Future Is Now.(National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecologye program studies college environmental practices)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... TO GLIMPSE THE FUTURE, there's no better vantage point than in the nation's colleges and universities. The values instilled there set the course for succeeding generations. The National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecologye program has...