JAS November ProgramBob Gress, Director, Great Plains Nature Center
Volume 29, Issue 3 november 2004
Bob Gress is director of the Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita. He is a 1976 graduate from Emporia State Universitywith an M.S. in Environmental Biology. Bob and his wife Mary Butel enjoy traveling and have photographed wildlife in wild places across the continent. His photos have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and in more than twenty books, includingKansas Wildlife, Watching Kansas Wildlife, The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals and the Kaufman Focus Guideto Mammals of North America.For our program, Bob will be sharing stories behind the photo-graphs in his new book, Faces of the Great Plains, Prairie Wildlife, recently published by the University Press of Kansas. Copies of the book will beavailable for purchase and Bob will be happy to personalize them. Join us November 11, 2004, at 7:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Senior Center, 745 Ver-mont St., Lawrence.
From the jacket cover of
Faces of the Great Plains, Prairie Wildlife
Photographs & field notes by Bob Gress, Text by Paul A Johns-gardThe Great Plains are America’s biological melting pot, drawing creatures from surrounding regions tocreate a rich diversity of wildlife. Here are pronghorn in the shortgrass, rattlesnakes underfoot, and golden ea-gles soaring skyward. Here too, pockets of bison can still be found, recalling yesterday’s thundering herds. Anunprecedented partnership between two great observers of the region,
Faces of the Great Plains
provides keeninsights into and thoughtful reflections on both prairie wildlife and the art of nature photography. Especially inthe wake of increasing threats to the prairie’s habitats, it should foster a new appreciation of the region’s abun-dant fauna, inviting us all to see the land
through new eyes and to join in the preservation of these naturaltreasures.
www.jayhawkaudubon.org
JAS Birdseed Sale
The second birdseed sale of the season will be held on Saturday, December 4th, from 10:00 a.m. to1:00 p.m. at the Lawrence Senior Center, 745 Vermont Street. Books and feeders will also be available at thesale. A pre-order form is included in this newsletter or you may order your seed by contacting Linda Lips at785-842-2300, Pam Chaffee at 785-887-6868, or Cynthia Shaw at 785-842-0475. You can also find the formon the JAS website.The last birdseed sale of the bird-feeding season will be January 29, 2005.
On Tuesday, October 19, The National Audubon Society released the “The State of the Birds”, a report docu-menting the health and abundance of North America’s birds. Appearing in the October issue of Audubon Magazine,“The State of the Birds” paints a disturbing picture. Almost 30% of America’s bird species are in “significant de-cline,” a situation that signals seriously degraded environmental conditions in the habitats these birds call home.The bottom line: the state of the birds in 2004 is not sound. In particular, a disturbing 70 percent of grassland species;36 percent of shrub-land bird species; 25 percent of forest bird species; 13 percent of wetland species; and 23 percentof bird species in urban areas are showing “statistically significant declines.”According to “State of the Birds,” these declines are abnormal. Not part of the natural, cyclical rise and fall of bird populations, “statistically significant declines” are due to outside factors such as loss of native grasslands, over-grazing, development of wetlands, bad forest management, invasive species, pollution, and poor land use decisions.Audubon’s President John Flicker sees a clear message in this report. “Like the canary in the coal mine warning theminer of danger ahead, our birds are an indicator of environmental and human health,” he said. “Birds signal that weare at risk next.”But, Flicker also sees a clear path out of trouble. “People may have created these problems, but people cansolve them, if we act now,” he stated. To that end, Audubon is now addressing the findings of “State of the Birds” inits conservation agenda at the legislative and policy making level, and in the states where the greatest conservationchallenges exist.Compiled by Audubon Scientist Greg Butcher, “State of the Birds” analysis makes the case for private and public action. Based on the report’s findings, Audubon is advocating for improved grassland, forest, and wetland pro-tection, stronger pollution controls, partnerships with private landowners, and backyard habitat programs for home-owners.“State of the Birds” summarizes the status of nearly 700 birds species native to the continental United States,focusing on the condition of species in each of five habitat types: grasslands, shrublands, forests, wetlands, and urbanareas (the fastest growing habitat type in the U.S.). Written using a USGS Breeding Bird Survey and Audubon’sWatchList - cross-referenced with Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count data, the report will be issued on a yearly basis,and will inform Audubon’s conservation agenda, identifying key areas requiring immediate action.Birds not only serve as reliable indicators of environmental conditions, they also contribute greatly to theU.S. economy. Keeping birds - and their home habitats - in good condition is not only a good conservation policy, itis also good business. The worth of birds beyond their aesthetic and conservation value is something that is beginningto be more fully appreciated, a situation that has created allies for bird conservation in small and large business, andlocal governments - entities that have been historically unlikely conservation partners.“According to the U.S. Forest Service, 70 million Americans - one-third of all adults in this country - callthemselves birdwatchers. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notes that they contribute at least $32 billion in retailsales, $85 billion in overall economic output, and $13 billion in state and federal taxes, creating 863,406 jobs,” con-tinued Flicker. “Birds also contribute to the bottom line in more subtle ways, providing free pest and weed control,distributing seeds, and pollinating flowers and crops. American businesses and communities simply cannot afford to ignore thestate of the birds.”A digest of the report was published in the October issue of Audubon magazine and a further analysis is available on theAudubon website, www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds.
JAYHAWK AUDUBON SOCIETY
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NATIONAL AUDUBON RELEASES
JAYHAWK AUDUBON SOCIETY
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Riverkeeper Relates Stories of Pollution and Hope
He told a wonderful story about his first day asRiverkeeper when, acting on a tip from a friend who wasa New York state trooper, he caught an oil tanker empty-ing its highly polluted tank waste water into the Hudsonnear the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park. (The tank-ers then made a practice of filling up with free fresh water and taking it to Aruba and selling it!) From his small boathe hailed the immense tanker and asked what they weredoing. When the captain questioned his authority, herelates being at a loss for a moment but finally just saying“The authority of the Hudson Riverkeeper” in a huge bluff. In actuality, his authority was simply the right weall have as citizens to stand up for the health of our com-mon environment. Of course, in the way of the realworld, the captain didn’t then stop what he was doing, buteventually the tankers were forced to stay off the Hudson because of the citizen action of John Cronin as HudsonRiverkeeper.Over a 25 year career as Hudson Riverkeeper, Croninhad an enormous impact on the health of the Hudson and by inspiring others to become Riverkeeperson the reclamation of rivers all over the country. If youwant to know more he has written a wonderful book withRobert Kennedy Jr. called The Riverkeepers. The localorganization is The Friends of the Kaw and can be foundon the web at www.KansasRiver.com. You can contactthe Riverkeeper through the website or by phone at 913-963-3460 if you have knowledge of a pollution problem.Meanwhile, keep imagining how you would likethe world to be. Become active in Jayhawk Audubon andempower us to act on those dreams. — Susan IversenPollution of our rivers and streams, corporatemalfeasance or ignorance--issues with local, nationaland international ramifications that can seem so over-whelmingly complex that we “little guys” often shrugour shoulders in despair at contributing to a solution.But in fact, a few determined individuals can create awellspring of change. John Cronin of Riverkeepersspoke at KU on 10/21 at the Environmental CareersSymposium. He is an engaging raconteur with an in-spiring message: individuals imagining a better worldare a powerful force and any of us can be one of those powerful dreamers!Cronin describes himself as an adventure seek-ing young wanderer in the late 60’s who eventuallyworked as a commercial fisherman on the Hudson River in New York and was introduced to environmental ac-tivism by the folk singer Pete Seeger. He characterizeshimself as a complete skeptic who volunteered to docu-ment point source industrial pollution on the Hudson to please his new friend, but who was convinced that in theend the corporations would win the day and that hewould be taken away by men in suits and never heardfrom again! He recreated for the audience the headydelight and amazement he experienced when the evi-dence he and others collected led to heavy fines and ces-sation of polluting practices by many industries.However, he stressed that the genesis of theAmerican Riverkeepers movement came from a fewmembers of a private fishing club on the Hudson whosimply dreamed that the river could be the wonderfulsource of recreation and beauty and food that it had been 100 or even 50 years ago instead of a place youwarned your children away from because the water wasso polluted. These men had heard of the riverkeepers of Europe who patrol certain rivers and act to stop activi-ties that are destroying the health of the riverine ecosys-tem. “Why can’t we have a riverkeeper?” they thoughtand approached John Cronin to be the HudsonRiverkeeper. Months of fundraising and boatbuildinglater, the first American Riverkeeper was launched.
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