National Wildlife articles from February 2001

National Wildlife archives from February 2001

Why Tiny Particles Pose Big Problems.(airborne dust causes health problems)
February 1, 2001... A few years ago, if you had driven along certain residential streets in Long Beach or Los Angeles, you might have seen Ann Miguel pushing a vacuum cleaner down the center of the road. No, she's not an obsessive neatnik. A scientist at...

Caught In the Act - To capture bald eagles on film, a husband-and-wife team has spent years perfecting the art of anticipation.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... First they heard the bird's telltale, high-pitched scream. Then they saw it: a bald eagle soaring on the wind across a deep-blue sky. Instinctively, Tom and Pat Leeson aimed their cameras at the acrobatic creature. When the bird began a...

The Good, the Bad and the Wapiti - While elk are returning to their former haunts in the East, they are the focus of concern and controversy in the West.
February 1, 2001... The mud-cakedbull elk thrashes the brush with his antlers, then sprays his belly with urine. His sides heave with heavy breath. The animal's massive neck, swelled far beyond normal size, tilts back. Finally, the sound comes-at first deep and...

GLOW DOWN BELOW - High-energy lighting reveals a vibrant but little- understood underwater phenomenon.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Marine biology has always fascinated Californian Dan Welsh-Bon. So it's not surprising that he jumped at the opportunity in 1995 to take part in a project in the Florida Keys, where researchers were investigating the fluorescent glow that...

Catching Bandits In the Smokies - Botanists are teaming up with law enforcement officers to crack down on the booming illegal trade in wild herbs.
February 1, 2001... Thunder grumbles over Cataloochee Divide, a 5,000-foot-tall ridge that snakes over the northeast corner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Squatting at the base of a towering silverbell tree, Jim Corbin shakes his...

Companies Find It Pays to Be Green.(economic benefits enjoyed by environmentally responsible companies)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Less than a decade ago, carpet manufacturer Interface, Inc. was excreting hundreds of gallons of wastewater and about 900 tons of pollutants each year. Then in the mid-1990s, the company began experimenting with new ideas-from spinning...

Letters.
February 1, 2001... Living Symbol Geez, sagebrush. I've driven past bunches of it so many times without giving it a second glance. Who would have known how important it is to wildlife and Great Basin ecology? Your article ["America's Forgotten Ecosystem,"...

THE STATE OF ENERGY USE.(states in which people conserve energy)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Most of the time New Yorkers do things in a big way, but when it comes to energy use, Empire Staters think small. A recent study of energy consumption and emissions in the United States between 1970 and 1999 found New Yorkers were the most...

Sweet Dreams.(dreams of zebra finches)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... What do birds dream about while they sleep? A recent study suggests that zebra finches, at least, dream of singing. The colorful songbirds, native to Australian grasslands, breed easily in captivity, making them popular both as pets and as...

VITAL STATISTICS.(extinction)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Number of threatened animal and plant species worldwide: 11,046 Number of known species humans have forced to extinction in past 500 years: 816 Number of threatened animal and plant species in the United States: 998* Percentage...

The Buzz On Cicadas.(dormancy-length of cicadas might be dependant on trees)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... They lie underground for 17 years and suddenly, with unerring precision, burst forth en masse in late spring to mate in a buzzing cacophony. How do cicadas know when it's time to rise and shine? Until recently, researchers thought cicada...

PUTTING POLLUTERS ON THE MAP.(government software for identification of pollution sources)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The new president will face many potential hazards during the next four years. Among those are the dozen or so pollution sources near the White House (above, in red). Free software from the federal government now allows anyone to pinpoint...

PREMATURE EJECTION.(early hatching of frog embryo when threatened)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... When the going gets tough, some frog embryos get going. A new study shows that a red-eyed tree frog embryo will hatch early if attacked. Red-eyed tree frogs are found in tropical rain forests from Mexico to Panama, and females lay masses of...

Conservation from the Grass Roots.(conservationist aims of National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Twenty years ago, a few people stopped asking why there were no wolves in Yellowstone National Park and started asking how we could bring them back. That very question was the seed of inspiration from which grew grass roots action and...

Intriguing Birds and Unfamiliar Faces.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The new logo on the front cover is not the only thing that is different about this issue. On the following pages, you can also read about a number of animals that have rarely, if ever, appeared in National Wildlife. Consider the male...

Putting the Pieces Back Together: Congress Approves Plan To Restore Everglades.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... In what National Wildlife Federation President Mark Van Putten calls "the start of the greatest environmental turnaround in history," Congress has approved a $7.8 billion, 30-year plan to undo decades of human tinkering and restore the natural...

Sioux Reservation Site of Latest Ferret Release.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... NWF, long involved in efforts to restore endangered black-footed ferrets to the wild, has helped engineer the second reintroduction of ferrets on a tribal reservation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released more than 100...

Plan for Restoration Of Grizzly Hailed As New Wildlife Era.(re-introduction of grizzly bear to wilderness areas)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced its final decision to return grizzly bears to wilderness areas of the Northern Rockies under a landmark citizen-management plan that NWF helped initiate. The grizzly recovery plan is unique...

Voters Register Mixed Feelings On Environment.(during national presidential elections)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Voters in the November election were sharply divided not just on the presidential race, but also on how best to manage the environment, results from various states suggest. The biggest defeat for conservationists was in Oregon, where voters...

NWF Convinces Congress To Fund Wetland Purchase.(National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Thanks to an eleventh-hour effort by NWF and two of its state affiliates, 1,000 acres of a valuable southeastern wetland will pass into federal ownership. The area in question is the 170,000-acre Pinhook Swamp, which connects the Osceola...

Lead Shot Ban Saves Waterfowl.(prevention of wildlife lead-poisoning deaths)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The 1991 nationwide ban on lead shot, which NWF was instrumental in bringing about, has had remarkable success in preventing the lead poisoning deaths of millions of waterfowl, according to a new study funded in part by the U.S. Fish and...

Keep the Wild Alive - Report Outlines Action To Aid North America's Wild Cats.(National Wildlife Federation report)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Everyone from private citizens to wildlife agency staffs can take action now to encourage conservation of North American wild cats and help ensure that these powerful symbols of open spaces survive into the future. That's the theme of a new NWF...

Going Head-to-Head With Killer Bees.(control and migration into United States)
February 1, 2001... Killer bees? In my neighborhood? That's what the Los Angeles Times was claiming in an article I came across. In fact, the paper said that in Torrance, California, just 3 miles from where I live, about 60 percent of bees are now...

Why Birders Love the Blues - It's no coincidence that the indigo bunting has been the focus of a number of landmark bird behavior studies.(description and behaviour of bird)
February 1, 2001... Oh my, the song of the indigo bunting, the bluest of all our blue birds. As sweet and variable as a lick from Benny Goodman's clarinet, it swirls from dawn to dusk, from May to September, over the thickets and overgrown pastures of eastern...

Wild Tales About America's Top Dog.(television documentary about coyotes)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Not long ago in the Hudson River Valley, a young male coyote apparently struck out on his own and began migrating south toward New York City. At one point he crossed into Manhattan, probably on a railroad trestle over the Harlem River, and...