Monday, April 23, 2018

The genius founder of the CNN, TBS and TNT cable networks, Ted Turner, is the largest private landowners in the USA..........."Exemplifying an unending case of biophelia(love of creation), Ted has spent much of the last 30 years puzzling back together the broken pieces of the western landscape, making it more closely resembling a pre-European-contact picture"............. "Now, after a relatively mum decade, the man who invented cable news is back to the bullhorn, evangelizing via a fledgling ecotourism business known as Ted Turner Expeditions (TTX)"............"“I don’t have a single cow".........."We’ve replaced them with bison, the original animal that populated the plains"........... "They’re more environmentally friendly as far as grazing is concerned"................"Cattle evolved in Europe, where there’s copious rainfall and lush grass, whereas bison grew up on the plains with no cattle or horses"..............."Our ranches(14 of them covering 1.9 million acres, all with conservation easements) don’t have domestic sheep or domestic goats"............. "Those "domestics" didn’t come from America either; they came over from Europe"..........."The most numerous bird in the U.S. is the starling"............"There were none in North America"............."They were brought over from Europe to eat caterpillars on fruit trees, and they’ve taken off and become the most numerous bird in North America"..............."Not one person in 10 knows that"..............."Turner’s land represents a new kind of park, a private national park, encompassing the ideals and ambitions of its outspoken owner"............"Importing foreign species is a very tricky business"............."They take over native creatures becasue their natural predators are not present here and throw the circle of life out of whack"............"And you practically can’t get rid of that once it gets established".................I hope all of you join me in a "tip of the hat" for Mr. Ted, 'for putting into practice and demonstrating by example, the ultimate environmental goal of leaving the land in as fine a condition, ecologically speaking, as one found it, or to do no harm, or, whenever possible, to use proceeds to heal past abuses and restore ecological function in a way that re-enhances natural values"

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http://www.amtrakthenational.com/ted-turner-is-on-a-mission-to-save-everything Ted Turner Is on a Mission to Save Everything Story...
Sunday, April 22, 2018

When I first moved into my southern California home, Moles were my first year "close-in" neighbors, tunneling caverns beneath my back lawn......... ."These molehills were from 2-inches to 2-feet tall, as they pushed excess soil to the surface"................... "One mole can dig 200-feet of feeding tunnels in a 24-hour period"............ "So, even though it may seem like you have a multitude of moles in your yard, you probably only have one; maybe two"............ "Moles are solitary, territorial animals, requiring large territories in which to forage".........I did not kill them with poison..............I flushed them out with my watering hose, trapped them in a pail and "re-wilded" them across the street in open-space terrain............."Note that while I chose to move my "digging neighbors", they can be good neighbros if your choose to allow holes in your yard..............."Moles feed on white grubs; beetle larvae".......... "And they can eat their weight in grubs".........., "Moles have an insatiable appetite for Japanese beetles, European chafers, rose chafers, Asiatic garden beetles, and Oriental beetles, before they emerge as adults"......... "All of these beetles are voracious pests of ornamental plants".......

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https://adirondackexplorer.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f2786fbb7862339a0b90113d7&id=6097d49799&e=46b8d98c61 SATURDAY, AP...
Friday, April 20, 2018

Less than 1% of the pre-settlement(pre AD1500) forest exists in the USA east of the Mississippi River........."Known as "OLD GROWTH FOREST", these woodlands created the type of ecosystem conditions that most indigenous organisms(plants, insects, reptiles, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds were accustomed to and thrived in"........."Old Growth forests are not only old chronologically, they are complex, with various tree heights and widths, plenty of woody debris, understory vegetation creeping up into the vertical space, and interruptions in the canopy that allow sunlight to shine through--all optimizing biodiversity of life in the forest" .............."U of Vermont forest ecologist,Bill Keeton and Harvard Forest Director David Foster are trying to speed up the maturation(old growth type stasis) of the secondary and tiertiary 70 to 90 year old "STRUCTURALLY SIMPLE" woodlands that dot the eastern forest landscape today from the Great Lakes across to New England and down the Appalachian Spine and west across the old confederate states"............"This man-assisted succession process is known as STRUCTURAL COMPLEXITY ENHANCEMENT(SCE)".................."When nature has time to take its course, natural disturbances like windstorms uproot and blowdown trees".............. "Foresters are now working to create these same type conditions--"tip-up mounds", "holes in the canopy" and other “natural” features via mechanical means"............... "They are pulling trees over to form tip-up mounds".............. "By Girdling, or removing a strip of bark from the circumference of a tree trunk, snags, or standing dead trees are created"............. "Certain trees are also strategically being harvested to open up the canopy near larger, faster-growing trees"............All of this to assist in the rewilding and biodiversity optimization of the woodlands....................."Foster and Keeton both collaborated on Wildlands & Woodlands, a regional initiative that calls for conserving 70 percent of New England, or 30 million acres, as forests".................. "They envision 27 million acres of woodlands composed mostly of privately owned, managed land (which could include SCE), along with three million acres of wildland growing naturally"............"Advocates of old-growth restoration have been criticized for idolizing a historic habitat that no longer fits into the modern landscape".................. "But Keeton says his blend of sustainable forestry and functional habitat is an attempt to build a resilient ecosystem for a future of environmental uncertainty".................“It’s very important to make it clear that this is not a kind of emotional or historical attempt to go back,” Foster says...........“It’s an attempt to go forward"

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https://www.nrdc.org/stories/forests-just-ones-mother-nature-used-make Forests, Just Like the Ones Mother Nature Used to Make New fores...
Thursday, April 19, 2018

So, apparently "size does matter"-----to some extent............."Researchers in the University of Wyoming's Department of Ecology discovered that nature reserve size and species similarity are the primary factors in determining whether multiple wildlife species are indirectly protected under the umbrella of a reserve created to enhance conservation for one species---in this case, the Greater Sage Grouse in Wyoming"............."The umbrella species concept is one surrogate species strategy in which a species with large area requirements—such as the greater sage grouse—is provided sufficient protected habitat"............. "In turn, that same habitat can provide protection of many other species in the same area"............ "The main advantage of this strategy is the potential to conserve numerous species without extensive, individual consideration for each species"............."Interestingly enough, the species that benefited the most were the ones most similar to the sage grouse—other birds; those highly associated with sagebrush plant communities; and those with widsprea habitat"..........."In contrast, the habitat of species with restricted distributions, particularly combined with vegetation associations not closely matching the greater sage grouse, did not receive as much protection from the umbrella reserve"................. "Some of these species included the spotted ground squirrel, dwarf shrew, prairie lizard and the plains pocket gopher".............."The results suggest that wildlife managers should pay close attention to background species with limited habitat, particularly if their vegetation associations do not align closely with those of the umbrella species".............."In this case, what might be ideal sagebrush habitat for sage grouse might not be right for other species"

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https://phys.org/news/2018-04-greater-sage-grouse-habitat-species.html Researchers study how well greater sage grouse habitat protects ot...
Wednesday, April 18, 2018

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the bi-partisan passed WILDERNESS ACT........Can any of you believe that the Senate passed this landmark conservation bill by a vote of 73 yes, 12 No(15 Senators did not vote) and the House passed the bill by an astounding 374 yes, 1 No vote...............I daresay on any issue, environmental or otherwise, there might never be such a resounding support of any issue, ever again, in the "swamp of D.C."..............Was the Congress of this era(1960-1973) and Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon as gifted in their foresight and wisdom on these environmental issues as our Founding Fathers were in creating the Constitution???? ...............Republican Nixon passed the Clean Air and Water Acts as well as the Endangered Species Act and both Democrats(Kennedy and Johnson fought for and signed the Wilderness Act).............The Wilderness Act Statement of Policy----"In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness"............ "For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as "wilderness areas", and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness"............"A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain"............. "An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions"

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http://mountainjournal.org/american-conservation-movement-has-lost-its-edge Brandborg Worried Conservation Movement Has Lost Its Edge D...