Baby wild boar crossing track

Florida To Create New Bird Sanctuaries

Natural History Wanderings

The Orlando Sentinel reports

The state’s wildlife agency wants to designate new sanctuaries for roseate spoonbills, reddish egrets, blue herons, brown pelicans, black skimmers and many more water birds that are synonymous with Florida’s wild side.

Read story at  Florida to create new bird sanctuaries – Orlando Sentinel

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The Grand Tetons

Jet Eliot

Teton mountain range at sunrise, WY Teton mountain range at sunrise, WY

Located in Wyoming, this mountain range began forming 6-9 million years ago.  The Tetons are the youngest mountains in the Rocky Mountain range.

It is a unique mountain range due to its formation, and we had a mountain experience of an unusual nature.

A series of geological processes over millennium eventually led to the uplift of the region.  Situated on the Teton Fault, approximately two million years ago earthquakes displaced the range.

Fault block formation of the Teton Range and Jackson Hole. Courtesy Wikipedia.

The western side moved upward while the eastern side moved downward creating the Teton Range and Jackson Hole valley, respectively.

Most mountain ranges have foothills which often obscure much of the mountain.  But here the eastern side arose so quickly and sharply that there are no foothills.  In addition, the older the range is, the more eroded the peaks become.

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Coyote

Echoes in the Mist

© Dhprophotog | Dreamstime.comdreamstime_s_40757480

Coyote, with mystical toes,

Silent as the footsteps of time,

Weaving through the mist-encircled forest,

Elusive she goes,

Shaman, angel, fey,

Spirit from the lands afar,

Outcaste, magic-bent,

Otherworldly guide,

You step from stone to stone,

Through the stream, moon-bright,

Where blue-singing

Fish glide

Through petals whispering in the night.

From milky way

From star to star,

Among the clouds,

The shrouds,

Of worlds, broken

You walk on,

Nose-intent,

From the darkness to the light.

The hillside

Of rock and raven-spoken

Chasms wide,

You climb,

Among the echoing songs of spring.

© Sharon St Joan, 2016

 

Photo: © Dhprophotog | Dreamstime.com

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BREAKING: Dakota Access Pipeline Construction Halted Amid Peace Talks

BREAKING: Dakota Access Pipeline Construction Halted Amid Peace Talks

RED POWER MEDIA

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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – August 16, 2016

Developers of a $3.8 billion, four-state oil pipeline halted construction Tuesday while law enforcement and tribal leaders in North Dakota met to discuss a resolution to a protest of the project.

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier says he met with tribal leaders to “negotiate peace” to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

Dakota Access filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday against protesters. Dakota Access’ complaint alleges protesters are putting the safety of workers and law enforcement at risk.

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The sheriff says 28 protesters have been arrested since last week for interfering with the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline that’s designed to carry North Dakota crude to Illinois.

Kirchmeier says the peace talks will be ongoing. He says construction is slated to resume Wednesday.

[SOURCE]

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Eastern Sierra High~

Cindy Knoke

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Today we hiked the Crystal Lake Trail in The Eastern Sierra,

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with a brave friend who led the way and cut in front on high altitude precipices!

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We climbed 1,000 vertical feet starting at a base of 8900 ft,

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passing many pristine alpine lakes,

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and making a few nice friends en-route!
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Tomorrow we go higher starting at a base of 9,900 ft and heading up into Tioga Pass, land of no wifi, so I will hopefully be back in touch the day after tomorrow.
Cheers to you from the high Sierras~

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English demonstration against flood-causing grouse killing

Dear Kitty. Some blog

This video from England says about itself:

Ban the burn, 12th August 2012

Dongria Kondh talks about the issues of draining and burning blanket bog, in particular at Walshaw Dean Estate, above Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

By Peter Lazenby in Britain:

Tuesday 9th August 2016

PROTESTERS will hold a mass demonstration against burning moorland for grouse shooting this week, which they blame for causing severe floods in the north.

The Ban the Burn rally will be held in the Yorkshire Pennine town of Hebden Bridge in the Calder Valley on Friday, the so-called “Glorious 12th” — the start of the grouse-shooting season.

Ban the Burn was formed following devastating floods in the region in 2012.

Moorland above the valley is regularly burned to make the land more suitable for profitable grouse shoots.

The deliberate burning has been condemned as a contributory factor to floods…

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Excerpt from The Sixth Extinction

Exposing the Big Game

From Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin:

“…There was no steady progression from simple to complex forms throughout Earth history. Simple forms of life arose early on, it’s true. But…that early simplicity continued in mind-numbing sameness for billions of years, with nothing more complex than singe-celled organisms for six sevenths of Earth history. When complexity eventually arose 530 million years ago, in the form of multicellular organisms, it did so explosively; within 5 million years (an instant in geologic time), evolutionary innovation produced a myriad of multicellular forms of life. Life’s flow is therefore not smooth, but extremely erratic.”

Text and Photo Copyright Jim Robertson

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Young foxes playing with pine cones, video

Federal Court: Navy Must Limit Long-Range Sonar Use to Protect Marine Mammal

Exposing the Big Game

https://www.nrdc.org/media/2016/160718

Siding with NGOs for 3rd time, Court tells Navy that protecting marine mammal habitat is “of paramount importance”

SAN FRANCISCO – In a unanimous rebuke, the Ninth Circuit court ruled Friday that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) had illegally approved a permit authorizing the Navy to use its high-intensity long-range sonar – called low-frequency active sonar (or LFA) – in more than 70 percent of the world’s oceans. Designed for submarine detection over vast expanses of deep sea, LFA has the capacity to expose thousands of square miles – and everything in it – to dangerous levels of noise.

The case against the Fisheries Service was brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), The Humane Society of the United States, Cetacean Society International, League for Coastal Protection, Ocean Futures Society and its President Jean-Michel Cousteau, and Michael Stocker, a bioacoustician and director of…

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