National Wildlife articles from June 2002

National Wildlife archives from June 2002

This Issue.
June 1, 2002... Why Sink Money Into a Swamp? We've all heard the story about the unwitting investors who thought they were buying prime Florida real estate, only to discover that they had actually bought land submerged in a swamp. Now there's a new twist...

NWF Leads Fight for Texas Water.
June 1, 2002... They're fighting over water in Texas, and so far the environment has come up short. But through the Texas Living Waters Project, NWF and one of its affiliates, the Texas Committee on Natural Resources (TCONR), are working hard to ensure...

Climate Change's Impacts on Wildlife.
June 1, 2002... GLOBAL WARMING resulting from human activities will likely mean growing threats to North America's wildlife, more trouble with invasive species and significant environmental changes that jeopardize our quality of life in the future, according...

Global Warming: Species' Habitats Risk Major Changes.
June 1, 2002... Climate change has major repercussions for wildlife according to NWF's recent publications Wildlife Responses to Climate Change and The Birdwatcher's Guide to Global Warming. These findings indicate that: * The suitable climatic ranges of...

New Partnership Monitors Declining U.S. Amphibians.
June 1, 2002... This spring, NWF and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center formed a partnership to help amphibian populations nationwide through Frogwatch USA. Created in 1999 by USGS, Frogwatch is a monitoring program that...

"Cool" Video Examines Effects of Consumerism.
June 1, 2002... American teenagers have enormous buying power, spending $150 billion every year. With that in mind, NWF and Population International recently showcased their new video, The Cost of Cool, at an event in Washington, D.C., to coincide with Earth...

eNature Provides Park Service Species Info.
June 1, 2002... In March, NWF and the National Park Service (NPS) signed an agreement that calls for the sharing of natural resource information via the Internet. Through the collaboration, NPS will enhance its site with material from NWF's eNature.com, and...

Annual Meeting Celebrates Conservation.
June 1, 2002... This year's NWF Annual Meeting celebrated the diversity of grass-roots conservation activists. Held in Georgia in early March, the meeting provided attendees with a range of updates on environmental issues and opportunities to share strategies...

Georgia Volunteer Embraces Chattachoochee.
June 1, 2002... COMMUNICATIONS manager Bruce Morton enjoys biking to work in Atlanta. He also likes to pedal away from traffic when he can. Getting to off- road trails nowadays requires him to load his bike in the car and drive through the most congested parts...

Sportsmen Help Protect Mammal Habitat.
June 1, 2002... To help combat the state's severe wildlife habitat loss, the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, an NWF affiliate, has partnered with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, NWF and other organizations in the Important Mammal Areas Project...

Kentucky Student Develops "Buy Recycled" Policy.
June 1, 2002... Buying environmentally friendly products is important to Morehead State University student Darryl Huston. A recipient of an NWF Campus Ecology Fellowship, the chemistry major is working to increase the amount of recycled products used on...

Grant Recipients Plant Endangered Pondberry.
June 1, 2002... As recipients of a Keep the Wild Alive TM Species Recovery Fund grant, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and several local Mississippi garden clubs are working with middle school students to reestablish pondberry plant communities at two national...

Donated Land to Provide City Nature Habitat.
June 1, 2002... Catherine Ladnier, a member of NWF's President's Council, recently decided she would like to give a gift to the community of Easley, South Carolina: a gift of nature. Inspired by the work of children and educators at the local West End...

Ten Birds That Help Control Garden Pests.
June 1, 2002... As a gardener, it can be your worst nightmare: watching helplessly as hordes of destructive insects attack your plants. With a little planning and simple landscaping, however, you can help moderate garden pests naturally in your yard. Your...

"LITTLE SCUM" TAKES ON BIG MINING - Bruno Van Peteghem's campaign to protect the South Pacific island of New Caledonia has earned him both scorn and praise.
June 1, 2002... BRUNO VAN PETEGHEM is an activist forged by fire. Two fires, to be precise. The first came November 23, 1998, when his car mysteriously burst into flames inside his garage on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia. The second followed a few...

How to Enter the 2002 National Wildlife Photography Competition.
June 1, 2002... The editors of National Wildlife invite you to enter their thirty- second annual photography competition. WHO: The competition is open to all amateur and aspiring professional photographers 18 years of age or older except employees of the...

CREATURES THAT TIME FORGOT - From a handful of bugs and birds to mountain beavers, species that have changed little after tens to hundreds of millions of years both fascinate and puzzle biologists who study "living fossils".
June 1, 2002... A MOUNTAIN BEAVER'S reaction to overheating is hardly what you'd expect from a species that ranks among the animal kingdom's great success stories. Unable to sweat or pant, this muskrat-sized resident of the Pacific Northwest spends most of its...

Letters.
June 1, 2002... Own Worst Enemies Your article on the Colorado River Delta, "A River Once Ran Through It" [February/March 2002], should make us all stop and think about how we could better conserve our precious water resources. We are our own worst...

THE MURRES THE MERRIER - Decoys, mirrors and mood music lure gregarious seabirds back to abandoned breeding colonies.
June 1, 2002... COMMON MURRES are extroverted birds. They summer in the midst of crowded, cacophonous parties-breeding colonies that draw hundreds to hundreds of thousands of these formally attired, black and white seabirds. So imagine one colony's reaction...

NORTH AMERICA S FISH FEEL THE HEAT - How will climate change affect fish? New studies from across the continent provide some dramatic and troublesome answers.
June 1, 2002... JOHN MAGNUSON doesn't have to fire up the latest computer modeling program to see how global warming is affecting his world-he can look out his office window at the University of WisconsinEMadison and see the broad, blue sweep of Lake Mendota....

THE ABOMINABLE SNOW TREND.(melting glaciers and rising sea levels)
June 1, 2002... SNOW AND ICE are disappearing quickly, and our problems may be growing as a result. Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder gathered data from around the world and found that ice caps and glaciers (such as South Cascade glacier in...

BUG OFF.(spices that repel insects)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... SOME OLD SPICES may turn out to give new relief from annoying insects. Catnip, for instance. The aromatic oil in this herb is ten times better at warding off mosquitoes than DEET, the chemical used in most bug sprays, researchers from Iowa...

Battle of the Sexes.(how sexual behavior of insects is related to evolution)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... THERE'S GOOD NEWS about the timeless strife between males and females-- it helps creatures evolve. Throughout the animal kingdom, males prefer to mate often, and females are choosier about their partners. Each gender tries to gain the upper...

SEDUCED BY SIFAKAS - On a quest for images of some of Earth's rarest primates, two wildlife photographers journey to the remote island of Madagascar.
June 1, 2002... FOR NEARLY TWO weeks, Pete Oxford and Rene Bish had hiked Madagascar's Marojejy National Park searching for the silky sifaka, a rare, all- white primate. Undaunted by rugged rain-forest terrain and the bloated leeches that clung to their legs,...

Spectacle on Mount Chaparri - Visionary thinkers in Peru launch a private reserve to help endangered bears and reward local people.
June 1, 2002... WE ARE IN NORTHERN Peru searching for secretive spectacled bears. No luck so far. Instead, we awake to the mournful courtship calls of small, gray doves drifting up from a fog-filled valley and, closer by, the nervous buzz of a tiny amazilia...

RETURN TO THE Heartland - Absent from the Midwest for most of the past century, the regal trumpeter swan is making an impressive comeback.
June 1, 2002... SUMNER MATTESON received some conflicting advice before his first trip into the Alaskan wilderness by bush plane in 1989. He'd been told to have a hearty meal before boarding the aircraft; he'd also been told not to. So Matteson went aloft with...

NWF View.(opposition to Bush administration plans to tap resources of National Wildlife Refuges)
June 1, 2002... What the Words Really Mean WHAT PART of the words "National Wildlife Refuge" don't they understand? The need to provide healthy habitat for America's wildlife populations inspired the creation of the refuge system, one of the most...