“2 Thumbs Up Award Mex. wolf count up”

February 5, 2012 at 6:36 am (ancient animals, good news, Helping Mother /earth, mammals, Saving endangered animals + plants, working together)
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To all those who are helping protect our endangered Mexican wolf population in the wild –Mother Nature and the wolves thank you.

Open season every for wolf pups

The annual survey for the number of Mexican Wolves in the wild is out and the news is good

the number of wolves has risen to 58. (up from 50 last year) This includes 6 breeding pair. (up from two last year).

The story has been reported in six regional papers – all listed below.  Let’s blitz them this weekend with a barrage of letters and show the editors, the public, and our elected officials the public cares about Mexican Wolves.  Everything you need, including talking points, links to the articles, tips for writing, and where to send your letter, follow below.

Newspapers in both Arizona and New Mexico reported this, and I encourage you to send your letter to more than one newspaper – changing it as needed to fit that publication. This way, with one letter, you have six chances of getting published.  If from Arizona, send a letter to the New Mexico papers and vice versa.   Include a personal note why you, as an out of state person, care. E.g. “I often camp in the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico out of chance I may hear a wolf howl,” or “A New Mexico with wolves is a place I’d visit as a tourist,” etc.

Be sure to send me a copy (BCC) so I can track what they’re printing. Pasted below is Defenders statement on the count.

Stories (by state) New Mexico Papers:

Albuquerque Journal (South):  More Mexican Wolves Roam the Southwest

Santa Fe New Mexican: More Mexican Wolves in the Wild

Alamogordo Daily News  More Mexican Wolves in the Wild

Las Cruces Sun-New   More Mexican Wolves Thrive in the Wild

Arizona Papers

Tucson Arizona Daily Star More Mexican Wolves in the Wild

Arizona Daily Sun:  More Mexican Wolves in the Wild

 

Sample Talking Points  Pick and choose from the following, but remember: these are just ideas to get you started.  Also, please USE YOUR OWN WORDS, don’t just cut and paste.

 

Ø  Thank the Newspaper for covering the story. E.g.  “Thanks to the Albuquerque Journal for the Mexican wolf story….”

 

Ø  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s efforts to keep more wolves in the wild  by emphasizing tactics that help ranching and wolves coexist instead of removing wolves is starting to pay off.

 

Ø  When packs are more stable they’re able to be better parents, and pups have a better chance at reaching adulthood and reproducing themselves.

letters@lcsun-news.com

Ø  The increase comes as good news for these highly endangered animals, but Mexican wolves are not out of the woods yet.

 

Ø  A population of 58 wolves is still extremely small and at risk from threats such as disease, inbreeding, or catastrophic events like the Wallow Fire, which burned through Mexican wolf habitat last year.

 

Ø  We’re extremely fortunate that the Wallow Fire didn’t wipeout an entire generation of pups, but we can’t continue to rely on luck.

 

Ø  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must build on this momentum. The service should work with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to release new wolves into the wild, adding depth to the population’s gene pool and giving lobos a better shot at survival.

 

Ø  Defenders of Wildlife is leading efforts to create coexistence programs and is seeing significant increases in interest in programs to help ranchers learn to live with wolves.  These programs are expanding in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department, and other groups.

 

Ø  There are wolves eligible for release in both New Mexico and Arizona. The Fish and Wildlife Service should move forward with these releases soon

 

Ø  The Service also should move quickly to revise its out of date policy which prohibits the release of wolves directly from zoos into New Mexico.

 

Ø  Top predators, such as Mexican gray wolves, are vital to keeping wildlands healthy and full of life. Wildlife biologists believe that Mexican wolves will improve the overall health of the Southwest and its rivers and streams – just as the return of gray wolves to Yellowstone has helped restore balance to its lands and waters.

 

Ø  Citizens in Arizona and New Mexico strongly support wolf reintroduction.  Over three-quarters (77%) of Arizona voters and 69% of New Mexico voters say they either strongly support wolf recovery. See Arizona survey here.  See:  New Mexico Survey here

 

Letter Writing Tips & Talking Points

Below are suggestions for your letter.  If you are unsure and want me to look at your letter before sending, send to sjohnson@defenders.org

 

·         Keep it short  – 150 words or less. Read the articles linked above and use the talking points above if needed. USE YOUR OWN WORDS.  (Do not simply cut and paste)

·         Start by thanking the paper for their story and tie your letter to the article. E.g. “Thanks to the Journal for your story, “Can bad meat deter wolves?”

·         Make one or two strong points, don’t try to cover them all: space doesn’t permit.

 

·         Provide your name, address and phone number; your full address and phone number will not be published, but they are required in order to have your letter published.

 

·         If you are uncertain about your letter and want suggestions, I am happy to review letters.  Send to sjohnson@defenders.org

 

·         Submit your letter by email, or cut and paste online (some papers prefer email, others online) at:

 

1.      Albuquerque Journal (click here) Send letter to the Journal

2.      Santa Fe New Mexican (click here)  Send letter to the New Mexican

3.      Alamogordo Daily New (Click here) Send Letter to Alamogordo Daily News

4.      Las Cruces Sun New  email to:  letters@lcsun-news.com

5.      Submit Letter to the Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff)  (click here) Submit Letter to the Daily Sun

6.      Submit to Tucson Arizona Daily Star send email (with name and contact info) email letters@azstarnet.com

 

·         Blind copy me  what you send the paper.  This helps me track what they are publishing.

 

Provided courtesy of Scotty Johnson Defenders of Wildlife Tucson, AZ

Image courtesy of Nature’s Crusaders Library

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“Saving humpback Valentina from death”

January 17, 2012 at 7:18 pm (ancient animals, Saving endangered animals + plants, saving oceans/waterways, saving water/waterways, sea life, working together)
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Humpback Whale Shows AMAZING Appreciation After Being Freed From Nets

Thanks for this great video. It makes my heart sing and my energy rise. For more ways to raise  energy visit.

Thanks Great Whale Conservancy and UTube.com

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“Harp seals safer”

January 4, 2012 at 11:17 pm (ancient animals, endangered animals and plants, Nature's wonders, sea life, working together)
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International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)’s Seal Team Director, Sheryl Fink, has just let me know that Russia has banned the import and

Seal pups slaughtered for fashion

export of harp seal skins. This is a huge victory as the Canadian Government estimates that Russia receives 90% of Canada’s exports of seal skins.

IFAW supporters have worked so hard to help us close down the markets for seal products around the world.

Next goal end to Canada’s commercial harp seal hunt. 

Mother Nature and her seals thanks everyone for their continued support and for saving their skins for them(the seals) to wear.

For more seal info

Image courtesy of NC library

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“Victory for threatened species”

July 30, 2011 at 6:58 pm (good news, Saving endangered animals + plants, saving the environment, working together)
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House Votes Down ‘Extinction Rider’ That Would Have Halted Spending to
Protect New Species Under the Endangered Species Act

TWO THUMBS UP AWARD Center for Biological Diversity

In a victory for imperiled species, the U.S. House of Representatives today voted not to include the “extinction rider” in an appropriations bill that would have stopped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from spending any money to protect new species under the Endangered Species Act or to designate “critical habitat” for their survival. The House voted 224-202 in favor of an amendment from Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) to strip the “extinction rider” from the Interior department’s appropriation bill.

“The extinction rider would have been a disaster for hundreds of animals and plants across the country that desperately need the help of the Endangered Species Act to survive,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Today’s vote is a promising sign for wolverines, walruses and species in all 50 states that, without help, face the very real prospect of extinction.”

Plants and animals across the country are at heightened risk of extinction due to habitat destruction, global climate change, extreme weather events and other factors. Earlier this month the Center and the Fish and Wildlife Service reached a landmark agreement to speed protection for 757 imperiled U.S. species, including the wolverine, Pacific walrus, Rio Grand cutthroat trout and Mexican gray wolf.

For more information Center for Biodiversity

TWO THUMBS UP AWARD goes to the Center for Biodiversity and everyone that has helped save our threatened and endangered species.-“Thanks” from Mother Nature

Images

Wolverine  Wikimedia.org

Walrus  Wikimedia.org

Grey wolf pups  Natures Crusaders library

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“Elephant pyre such a waste!”

July 21, 2011 at 5:56 pm (ancient animals, animal cruelity, animals/medicine, Saving endangered animals + plants, working together)
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Don’t you think that we could have found a better tribute to honor the lives of these innocent elephants than letting their remains go up in smoke?  This was not a well conceived plan. I realize a message was sent to poachers and illegal traders, but this seems to add insult to injury.

Do any of NC readers have a better green way to honor the elephants and make money to support elephant research too?

Well Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki on Wednesday did not ask for our input when he ignited five tons of ivory stockpiled in the country since being seized in Singapore nearly a decade ago. Some 335 tusks and 42,553 ivory carvings went up in smoke at the Manyani wildlife rangers training institution in eastern Kenya

The vanities of man fueled this slaughter of elephants for their ivory  in Asia and the Middle East where elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are used to make ornaments and traditional medicines.

Kenya in 1989 torched 12 tons of ivory, three years later Zambia also burnt a stockpile of smuggled tusks.

Africa is home to 472,269 elephants whose survival is threatened by poaching and illegal trade in game trophy as is rising population causing wildlife habitat loss.

The site of the Wednesday’s ivory burning also bore symbolism. The national wildlife rangers institution is in the Tsavo National Park, which is Kenya’s leading elephant sanctuary home to 12,572 elephants.

Wildlife officials said a monument will be erected at the burning site.

In the last few years  several smugglers were arrested at its Nairobi international airport, a major regional hub.

Trafficking animal parts is also linked to other crimes such as document falsification, corruption, money laundering and other organised crime, according to wildlife authorities.

Protecting and develop our wildlife resources is a national focus, because eco tourism has become a huge revenue source for the country.

Excerpts and image courtesy of  http://www.terradaily.com

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“Saving the honey bee from extinction”

July 18, 2011 at 10:30 pm (agriculture, ancient animals, animal cruelity, animals/medicine, bees/insects)
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Seems there are many projects in motion worldwide to try to save the honey bee from demise.

Many factors have caused this imbalance in one of Mother Nature’s finest worker urbanization, pesticides and chemicals of all kinds, the EMFs from power lines, cell phones and their obnoxious cell towers, GM plants and chemical infested modern agriculture, poor quality food for many commercialized stocks of bees and trucking the hives long distances to pollinated field of polluted crops without a rest between seasons.

Now many are trying to help this bee-leagured population recover. The latest extreme measure is to forget about recovery and living mre harmoniously and just engineer a super beeimmune to mites and pesty  diseases. I can see it now the super godzilla of a bee from the north now meets the Africanized bee from Africa and the offspring will off the world.

bees, bee breeding, parasitic mites, bee population, University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, cold resistant bees

Over the last five years the world’s honey bee population has been steadily dwindling, with many beekeepers citing 2010 as the worst year yet. In order to save these extremely important insects, scientists are working on breeding a new super honey bee that they hope will be resistant to cold, disease, mites and pesticides. If all goes well, the new and improved insect will continue to pollinate our crops for years to come.

On the other extreme with a the gentler approach, is Michael Leung and HK Honey from Hong Kong whose approach is refreshing and Zen like. Check out the video.

Excerpt and Super honey bee photo courtesy of  inhabitat.com

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“Happy 4th of July from the Happy faced spider”

July 4, 2011 at 7:21 am (ancient animals, arachnids, Saving endangered animals + plants, working together)
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Happy 4th of July  from the Happy faced spider

Even though it is a threatened species this tiny arachnid maybe the happiest spider on the planet – the happy faced spider from Hawaii.
Measuring only a few millimeters this happy faced spider, Theridion grallator, is harmless to humans, has evolved the patterns to confuse predators.
It lives in the rainforests of the Hawaiian island chain in the Pacific.
If you find one under a leaf, it certainly could bring a smile to your face.
This unique marking may help protect it from being eaten by a bird or other predator, because when it first sees the spider the markings may confuse a predator. That moment could give the spider the chance to escape..
Not all happy-face spiders have such striking markings, and some are nearly all orange or all blue.
Found only high in the rainforests of Hawaii and are under threat from the introduction of animals not native to the islands.
Hawaiian fauna is being threatened by all the human-imported species of animals and plants that establish there each year.
Most indigenous plants and animals in lowland areas of Hawaii have disappeared due to intrusion of nonnative species brought by visitors to the Islands.Only the upland rainforest have the native species.
It is a member of the Theridiidae family.The Hawaiian name is nananana makakiʻi (face-patterned spider). The binomial grallator is Latin for “stiltwalker”, reference to the species’ long spindly legs.

Remember if this little soider can be happy so can you.  Happy 4th of July!
Resources

Excerpts courtesy of http://tgr.ph/iLUpEt

Image courtesy of    http://bit.ly/mFR5iq

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“Happy 4th 4 polar bears”

July 3, 2011 at 6:40 pm (ancient animals, animals, global warming, good news, Nature's wonders, Saving endangered animals + plants, saving the environment, working together)
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U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan (Bless you!) has officially rejected Alaska’s arguments

and given the polar bears continued protection under the Endangered Species Act.

This ruling is a huge win for our long-running work to protect these mighty Arctic bears who are struggling to survive while facing rapidly melting sea ice

We win a big one!

and oil companies that want to drill in the heart of their habitat.

The Center for Biological Diversity and others, including Nature’s Crusaders members worked  together tirelessly over the years achieved this critical victory.  Without the tens of thousands of actions you’ve taken and the support you’ve given us over the years to keep fighting in court for the majestic white bear — We and Mother Nature thank you.

In 2005, the Center for Biological Diversity filed the federal petition to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, we’ve led the fight to keep the bears from extinction.

In 2008 the first victory for the bear was won when it was officially listed as a  “threatened” species.

Then the State of Alaska, big-game hunters and others went to court this year to try to strip Endangered Species Act protections from polar bears. Center for Biological Diversity spearheaded the legal battle to defend the polar bears right to full protection under the Endangered Species Act in court, outlining the urgent protections needed to save them from the terrible effects of global warming.

This Thursday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected Alaska’s arguments and said the decision to protect bears because of melting Arctic sea ice was well supported. He also noted the plight of the polar bear was “troubling.”

Even as we take a moment with you to celebrate the court decision, we know our work is far from over. Scientists tell us that, left unchecked, warming could melt so much sea ice that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears, including all those in Alaska, will probably be gone in 40 years.
Thank you again for the part you played in helping secure this win for polar bears. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Center for Biological Diversity and Nature’s Crusaders   working for Mother Nature

Image  Nature’s Crusaders Library

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“Become part of the Sea Sheppard crew”

July 2, 2011 at 9:28 pm (ancient animals, Saving endangered animals + plants, saving oceans/waterways, saving water/waterways, sea life)
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A personal invitation
The Sea Shepherd needs dedicated individuals to crew aboard their ocean-going ships.
Help protect and save ocean wildlife
Uphold International Conservation Law.

 
The challenges are immense. The motivation to destroy life in our oceans is fueled by material greed.
Crew needs:The Sea Shepherd need s a passionate motivated compassionate crew.
Can you qualify for this elite courageous crew?

  • Do you burn inside with a rage against the injustices perpetrated upon whales, dolphins, seals, sea turtles, sea birds, fish, and every living thing in the world’s oceans?
  • Do you believe: All marine wildlife and the ecosystems in which they live are worth fighting for?

Job Description:
Are you fit to endure  Long hours, hard work, dangerous conditions, extreme weather and are a team player? – No whiners, malcontents, mattress lovers, and wimps need apply.
Can you dedicate 1 month(s) + without pay? Preference is given to crew who can give the most time. 


Guaranteed : Adventure, fulfillment, and the hardest work you will ever love. The experience of a lifetime.


Positions Available  We are looking for navigators, sailors, engineers, mechanics, electricians, carpenters, welders, cooks, doctors, medics or nurses, small boat operators, helicopter pilots, scuba divers, photographers, videographers, computer specialists, and even a few unskilled dedicated Whale Defenders.


Room and Board: Sea Shepherd provides bunk, bedding, food, and water.
Image 1. courtesy of  japanprobe.com
Image 2. courtesy of  i.pbase.com

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“340+ dead sea turtles washed up in Gulf 2011”

June 10, 2011 at 11:21 pm (ancient animals, reptiles, Saving endangered animals + plants, turtles, working together)
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Turtles and the people of the Gulf of Mexico deserve a healthy environment to grow up in and raise their families in.

Tell Congress we demand the funding of research and the total financial support and co operational of the oil companies that caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster for as many decades as it takes to return the human and natural health to proper balance

The turtles and the people deserve it.

Gulf of Mexico may look “pristine” again after the disaster in 2010, but the sea life continue to die at record rates. We must stand

Kemps-Ridley sea turtle hatchlings

tall and strong and fund research to clean up our messes and insist that Congress take a proactive roll in energy conservation and making the oil companies fully responsible for the restoration of the Gulf’s marine and human life and livelihoods.

 Last year’s devastating Deepwater Horizon disaster was a serious blow for sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. But the catastrophe for the sea turtles hasn’t ended yet.

Already this year, more than 340 dead sea turtles have washed ashore on the Gulf Coast — more than three times the annual average — and the death toll is likely to be much higher. Signs point to shrimp fishing as a likely cause for the spike in deaths — perhaps combined with the lingering effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Yet the government has not taken action to save these animals struggling to survive. Defenders and our conservation partners have launched a lifesaving lawsuit to protect sea turtles, but federal officials need to hear from you.

Yet the government has not taken action to save these animals struggling to survive. Defenders and our conservation partners have launched a lifesaving lawsuit to protect sea turtles, but federal officials need to hear from you. Take action now: Urge the National Marine Fisheries Service to enforce lifesaving protections for threatened and endangered sea turtles in the Gulf.

Take action now: Urge the National Marine Fisheries Service to enforce lifesaving protections for threatened and endangered sea turtles in the Gulf.

https://secure.defenders.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2183&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=twjkw1joq7.app226a

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