White pelicans shot at fake lake in Kansas

Another big-time wildlife crime. Of course, that other anti-wildlife credo of sprawl development continues unchecked.

Comment on the morning anecdote

My longstanding opinion that workers in grocery stores and restaurants have absolutely no clue as to where the foods they’re selling came from was proved out this morning when I journeyed to the local outlet of a well-known “natural” foods chain.

When I asked the woman who took my order (for coffee and a bowl of oatmeal topped with fruit) where the strawberries came from as it is hardly strawberry season here in northern Vermont, she responded thusly: “From the store.”

It would, I am sure, be possible to carry this over to the most basic and life-needed substance of water. If I were to ask the woman across the street where her drinking water comes from, she would, no doubt, say it comes from the tap. Duh.

It’s not just young people who’re disconnected from Nature (and connected to each other electronically), but also the older generation. Any dissenting ideas out there?

Common birds in sharp decline, report states

Come on, fellow citizens. The language in this report is sobering, to say the least. Even our easy-to-see birds of the American backyard are fading before our eyes, and no one - hardly - is doing a thing. Human actions are to blame.

Turtles saved from death by human development

That's the news angle explored in this article I just found on the Portland Oregonian's Web site. But it's a safe bet that other turtle populations in other wetlands across the country have not been as fortunate, their habitat succumbing to destruction by bulldozer.

The language of sprawl (and death of wildlife habitat)

Walking around Vermont and Idaho this year convinced me of this: The word "available" is a synonym for sprawl and the outright loss/degradation of our natural heritage. This sign was found in Boise

The wilderness paradox

What a pleasure it was to step onto federally designated wilderness earlier this month in the state of Idaho. Read and ponder this

ESA protection sought for Monarch butterfly

I've been watching and counting Monarchs for decades and have lots of memories of watching them migrating south over the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (among other locales). I was very fortunate to have found one adult Monarch this summer while walking a nature trail at Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in northern Vermont (see accompanying photo). The species is in trouble and a group of petitioners (read this article) are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to grant Endangered Species Act protection to Danaus plexipus. If Dr. Lincoln Brower, who has studied the Monarch since the 1950s, says the species is in trouble then it very much is.