Conservation Column Mar 2015: Grazing Improvement Act Will Damage the Environment
Debbie Schlenoff 541.685.0610 dschlenoff (at) msn.comThe federal government grants grazing permits to allow…
Debbie Schlenoff 541.685.0610 dschlenoff (at) msn.comThe federal government grants grazing permits to allow…
Debbie SchlenoffSome people argue that we need to privatize the publicly owned 93,000-acre Elliott State Forest and sell it to timber interests to generate money for our school funds. The argument does not hold water (although our forests do!) when…
Debbie SchlenoffAs described in the president’s column last month, the National Audubon Society recently released a report indicating that over half of North American bird species are threatened by climate change. (See the report at http://climate.audubon.org/.) The geographical ranges in…
Debbie SchlenoffScientists are studying the psychological benefits that accrue when people listen to the sounds of birds. It is thought that hearing birds sing may help us to relax and recover from stress, assist our focus on tasks, and inspire…
Debbie SchlenoffSports teams have often branded themselves with animal monikers (hello, Duck fans!). Football teams borrow from our feathered friends—the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks. So it is sadly ironic that the massive football stadium…
Debbie SchlenoffI’m always impressed by the skill with which many birders can identify bird species by ear. The birds can one-up us though; they can recognize individual birds by song. Several scientific studies have demonstrated that birds can discriminate between…
People have long been fascinated by owls. Search for the term owl facts and you’ll find lists such as fun owl facts and awesome owl facts (because, well, owls are awesome). On some of these lists, you’ll learn that a…
Spring is in the air—time to talk about the birds and the bees. Perhaps not “the talk” that first springs to mind, but rather the one about pollinators and how important they are to life on earth (not to mention…
A heron’s slender body elongates as it stretches its neck to spear a fish; a chunky Marbled Murrelet beats her wings rapidly as she carries a breakfast of fish for her young from the ocean to the forest; small shorebirds…
Debbie Schlenoff “Birds of a feather flock together.” This old saying applies to both birds and humans. The benefits of flocking for birds are many: They use mobbing to chase off potential predators, even when the predator is larger than…