Recently in Conservation Category

Aldo Leopold was one of the great conservationists of the 20th century. I remember very clearly discovering A Sand County Almanac in the visitors center at Dinosaur National Park during a family vacation when I was in high school. I was already a fan of Thoreau and Muir, but here were essays by a biologist that showed as much reverence for the natural world as Thoreau or Muir and were infused with the understanding of a professional biologist. The Land Ethic spoke to me deeply, as did Thinking Like a Mountain, especially this paragraph:

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes - something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

Tonight the Edwin Way Teale Series on Nature & the Environment opens its 2011-2012 season with a showing of Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for our Time. Curt Meine, who wrote the definitive biography of Aldo Leopold, and Ann and Steve Dunsky, the filmmakers, will join us to answer questions from the audience after the showing. The showing is free to everyone who is interested. Please join us.

Time:  7:00pm
Place: Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center, University of Connecticut

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

Gizmodo friend and amazing filmmaker and photographer Vincent Laforet
says that calling this time lapse video of Utah and Arizona
"breathtaking" is an understatement. He adds "Holy cow". Make sure to watch this at full screen and HD. (Source)

"Breathtaking" is an understatement. "Mind boggling" is more like it. The images with the night sky as a backdrop are beyond stunning. Thank you, Dustin Farrell and www.crewwestinc.com.

Unless you buy recycled paper, the paper you use¹ is probably made from wood pulp. Cotton and linen are added to "fine" papers, and there are wood free alternatives. But here's a wood-free alternative you're not likely to find from your local supplier.²

Mahima Mehra, a Delhi-based paper merchant, turned to elephant dung as the raw material [for her paper]. Ms Mehra sells her paper, produced by her business partner Vijayendra Shekhawat, under the name Haathi Chaap, Hindi for "Elephant Mark". They stumbled on the idea during their visit to Amer fort in Jaipur. They observed that the clumps of roughage left behind by elephants ferrying tourists up to the fort bore a striking similarity to the raw fibre used in paper-making. ("Frugal innovation: wholly shit", The Economist, 14 September 2011)

Related articles

• How do you make an biodegradable paper (wiki.answers.com)
• What invented paper (wiki.answers.com)

A colleague just pointed me to a couple of web sites that may help you find an opportunity.

http://www.stopdodo.com/ claims to be "the busiest site for Environmental Jobs, News, Courses & Events."

http://www.idealist.org/ "connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives."

If you know of others, please post links in the comments. If there are enough suggestions, I'll collect them into a "Conservation and environment jobs" page.

Late last year the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to form an Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

IPBES will be an interface between the scientific community and policy makers that aims to build capacity for and strengthen the use of science in policy making.

...

IPBES will be the mechanism that addresses the gaps in the science policy interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The first meeting of IPBES will take place in Nairobi 3-7 October. A preliminary agenda for the meeting and other documents are avaliable at http://ipbes.net/plenary-sessions/first-session-of-plenary.html.

"Martin Luther King did not say 'I have a nightmare'." If you are concerned about the future -- whether because of climate change, the loss of biodiversity, the pollution of lands and waters, or anything else -- you should follow his example. Share your dream and get people to follow. Nic Marks says it much better than I can.



The video comes from a recent post on Dot Earth where Andy Revkin is arguing that we should adopt the approach of a "despairing optimist" -- René Dubos.

Even as he recognized the environmental costs attending human development in the 20^th century, he expressed relentless confidence that a shift to a deeper, more durable, definition of progress could be melded with the power of innovation to produce better outcomes.

We lost Les Mehrhoff last December. Every time I've been outdoors this spring and saw another plant whose name I should know but have forgotten, I've remembered how gently Les would remind me: "Prunella vulgaris", "Lychnis vulgaris", "Galium aparine".¹

We had a wonderful symposium celebrating Les' life and contributions in late May. His wife and daughter were there, and Les would have loved it.

A little earlier in May, Region I of the Environmental Protection Agency recognized Les with a lifetime achievement award. Here's what they had to say:

Leslie J. Mehrhoff (posthumous)
The late Leslie J. Mehrhoff of Willington, Conn. was an outstanding botanist who was well known in Connecticut, New England and the nation. He was an accomplished and enthusiastic naturalist and received his graduate training at the University of Connecticut. He worked for many years with Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection before becoming the manager of the Torrey Herbarium at the University of Connecticut. During his career, Les inspired, encouraged, mentored and educated many people, influencing botanists, biologists, legislators, students and gardeners young and old. His innumerable presentations on biodiversity and the importance of protecting species and their natural communities included his renowned high-quality photographs. He worked tirelessly to protect endangered species and to prevent the negative impacts from invasive species. In recent years, he traveled to China to promote control of invasive species. He had a spirited sense of humor, and his sense of wonder about the natural world gave him a childlike innocence. Les' life work made incalculable contributions to the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems throughout Connecticut and New England. He was instrumental in gaining passage of Connecticut's Endangered Species statutes, in publishing The Connecticut Butterfly Atlas and in development of The Atlas of Breeding Birds of Connecticut, and The Atlas of Ground Beetles of Connecticut (Coleoptera: Carabidae, excluding Cicindelini). He retired in 2009 and passed away in 2010.

There's a short news piece in UConn Today about the award.

The images from Louie Schwartzberg's movie Wings of Life are extraordinary. Please take a few minutes to sit back and enjoy them because, as Schwartzberg puts it, "We will protect what we fall in love with."

Related articles

• The hidden beauty of pollination: Louie Schwartzberg on TED.com (ted.com)