Clipmarks | ruralart's 'nature' clips

Electronic smog disrupting nature

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:26:22 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This is of great concern. Not sure what we will be willing to do about it though.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Mobile phones, Wi-Fi systems, electric power lines and similar sources of "electrosmog" are disrupting nature on a massive scale, causing birds and bees to lose their bearings, fail to reproduce and die, a conference will be told this week.

Dr Ulrich Warnke – who has been researching the effects of man-made electrical fields on wildlife for more than 30 years – will tell the conference, organised by the Radiation Research Trust at the Royal Society in London, that "an unprecedented dense mesh of artificial magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic fields" has been generated, overwhelming the "natural system of information" on which the species rely.

Dr Warnke, a lecturer at the University of Saarland, in Germany, adds that the world's natural electrical and magnetic fields have had a "decisive hand in the evolution of species". Over millions of years they learned to use them to work out where they were, the time of day, and the approach of bad weather.

Saving Jaguars in Mexico and the US

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:58:53 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nature.org

Jaguars once roamed the Americas — from the Grand Canyon to Argentina. But hunting and habitat loss have reduced their numbers dramatically over the past century.

Today, there are no jaguars permanently in the United States — and only a small group of 80 to 120 jaguars can be found in the Mexican state of Sonora.

That's why The Nature Conservancy and partners Naturalia, Northern Jaguar Project and Defenders of Wildlife are working to save this rare group of northern jaguars. The partners are combining land protection efforts with innovative projects like the use of trip-cameras to monitor jaguar movements.

Key strategies in this effort are:

Educating and providing ranchers with incentives to not kill the jaguars; and

Helping the Mexican government create and strengthen federal reserves;

Indeed, payments to ranchers for trip-camera photographs of the jaguars have become an important incentive for conserving the species in the corridor.

Tags: jaguar, mexico, conservation

Biofuel Invasion Danger

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:44:36 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Fuel crops 'pose invasion risk'

Nations should avoid planting biofuel crops that have a high risk of becoming invasive species, a report warns.

A study by the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) said only a few countries have systems in place to assess the risk or contain an outbreak.

It has listed all the crops used to produce biofuels, and urged governments to only select low-risk varieties.

The global cost of tackling invasive species costs $1.4 trillion (£700bn) each year, the report estimates.

"This usually involves the importation of foreign (alien) species of plants that are known for their fast and productive growth.

GISP, a partnership of four conservation organisations, including IUCN and the Nature Conservancy, fear the biofuels boom could expose gaps in nations' bio-security measures.

Rapeseed is fine to grow in Europe, but invasive in Australia

Tags: biofuel, plants, conservation

Saving the Coral

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:38:11 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nature.org

World Ocean Day is June 8. Celebrate by helping us rescue the coral reefs of the tropics. With your help, we can protect the world’s beautiful seascapes and Rescue the Reef!

Just below the water's surface lies a magical world teeming with life and value. Coral reefs are home to 4,000 fish species and provide the world with goods and services — such as jobs, foods, medicines and storm protection — worth $375 billion annually.

But scientists estimate that 70 percent of all corals reefs could be lost by 2050 if current rates of destruction continue — from factors ranging from overfishing to climate change.

That's why The Nature Conservancy is supporting three major policy efforts by island nations around the world to conserve marine diversity — the Micronesia Challenge, the Coral Triangle Initiative and the newly launched Caribbean Challenge, which is being aided by a $20 million Conservancy pledge.

aim of protecting 20 percent of the region's marine and coastal habitat by 2020

Tags: coral, caribbean, conservation, nature

Travel the Desert on foot by internet

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:48:36 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This is pretty cool... great info and pictures.

Clip Source: www.nature.org

Our scientist is traveling across 300 kilometers of desert on foot — and you can follow along right here!

Sanjayan, lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy, is trekking across Africa's Namib Desert — the world's oldest and possibly driest desert — to map and assess a proposed national park in the Namib that would protect priority habitat for lions, elephants, rhinos, cheetah and oryx.

The Conservancy's partners — Save the Rhino Trust and Round River Conservation Studies — are working hard to establish this communally managed area. See below for the latest updates from Sanjayan's journey across one of the most remote spots on Earth!

Day 1: Hobatere Conservancy
The expedition is underway — and we're already down three camels and our solar-powered gear works only in fits. Oh, and then there's this pride of lions nearby...

Tags: nature, desert, travel, africa

Fantastic Nature Photos of Place to Protect

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:09:39 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: These are great photos, and many more are on the Nature Conservancy site. Definitely worth going to.

Clip Source: support.nature.org

Congratulations to all the finalists in The Nature Conservancy's 2nd Annual digital photo competition. This page represents our 2007 Grand Prize Winner, Finalists and Honorable Mentions for the Best Places We Protect Photo category.

Charles Robertson

Beach City, Texas

Sunset, Amboseli NP, Kenya

Grand Prize Winner

See Full Image

Jeff Zimmerman

Asheville, North Carolina

Black Balsam Knob, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina, USA.

Great Blue Heron, Great Falls National Park, Maryland, USA.

Sunset, Great Falls National Park, Maryland, Virginia, USA.

Elakala Falls, Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia, USA.

Blue Footed Booby, Galapagos Islands

Blue Ridge Mountains

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA.

Big Horn Rams, National Bison Range in Moiese, Montana, USA.

Tags: nature, photos, photography, wild, conservation

Preserving nature globally - the top 10

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:05:18 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: I'm really impressed with both what the Nature Conservancy does, and how they work with local communities to do it. Everyone benefits.

Clip Source: www.nature.org

Costa Rica: A Landmark Debt-for-Nature Swap

Canada: Spirit of the Great Bear Rainforest

New York: Saving the Heart of the Adirondacks

Climate Change:

China: Its First National Park

Africa: New Program Takes Off

California: Santa Cruz Island Success

Papua New Guinea: Protecting Marine Life and Human Needs

Grasslands: Conservancy Moves Into Argentina and Mongolia

Tennessee: A Big Deal to Connect the Cumberlands

Gorgeous Nature Photos

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:11:56 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.nature.org

The best of more than 11,000 images.

Shot by leading photographers.

Now at your fingertips.

"Natural Light" gives you access to the most arresting photos from The Nature Conservancy's huge archives. From Tibet to Tanzania, from hissing alligators to quivering zebras, "Natural Light" opens a brilliant window onto our work and the astonishing nature that we at the Conservancy encounter every day.

Coral Reefs, Mangrove swamps, tourism interrelated

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:23:46 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: The Nature Conservancy does an incredible job of preserving nature while empowering local people in positive ways.

Clip Source: www.nature.org

Coral reefs often appear to divers as independent communities — symbiotic villages where fish, corals, crustaceans and shellfish seem to exist apart from the vast surrounding ocean, content to live within their own world of blazing color and darting movement.

But reef systems are complex and fragile ecosystems, greatly dependent on what surrounds them. For instance, in Bocas del Toro, an archipelago on the northwest Caribbean coastline of Panama, coral reefs are particularly reliant on the hundreds of neighboring mangrove islands that are now being overrun by rapid development.

As part of its work in Panama, The Nature Conservancy is partnering with the local government to create a land-use plan that will preserve undeveloped areas of Bocas del Toro and protect the coral reef and mangrove systems.

While Conservancy staff is working to create solutions that are unique to the Bocas del Toro archipelago, the threats facing the reef are common to systems around the world.

Tags: nature, conservation, coral reef, ocean, sea, mangrove, panama

Camouflage - it works!

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:13:02 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Beautiful photos, interesting history of the study of camouflage in animals, and how this translated into the development of military camouflage.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Hiding in Plain Sight

A veteran photographer shows the extraordinary knack that some animals have for...disappearing

in a new book, Vanishing Act, he defies conventions to show what he calls "animals' incredible ability to vanish in plain sight."

Ever since people thousands of years ago noted the uncanny trickery of animal camouflage, nature watchers have taken pains to understand it. Some animals’ color matches their favored habitat:

vivid splotches or stripes help protect animals such as zebras and giraffes.

Military camouflage, first introduced in World War I, was inspired by research on animal camouflage.)

Mimicry is the shrewdest disguise.

Some camouflage works in concert with particular behaviors.

The modern study of camouflage began shortly after Charles Darwin proposed, in 1858, that new species arise through evolution by natural selection.

Tags: camouflage, nature, war, photography

Counterfeit horses in Poland

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:56:20 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Click image for more photos / R. & M. Kosinski / www.kosinscy.pl

Galloping Ghosts

In Poland's primeval forest, a Nazi scientist re-created an extinct breed of horse. Or did he?

What is so awe-inspiring about this landscape that it could bewitch people from many cultures and eras? For starters, it contains 500-year-old oak trees, as well as soaring pine, spruce and elm rising like citadels hundreds of feet tall. In addition to its throwback tarpans, it boasts a multitude of other species, from one-celled protozoans to boar, elk, lynx, wolf, moose and bison. Beavers, martens, weasels, badgers and ermine glide through the marshes and woods, while Pomeranian eagles share the skies with bats, goshawks, tawny owls and black storks. The air smells of balsam and pine needles, sphagnum moss and heather, berries and mushrooms, marshy meadows and peat bogs. Small wonder the preserve has been named a World Heritage site.

these "tarpans" are technically counterfeits

Tags: horses, poland, zoo, world heritage, nature

Nature Conservancy - fabulous photos

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:15:52 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: The slide show is truly incredible - gorgeous photos. The Nature Conservancy is definitely worth donating to.

Clip Source: www.nature.org

The best of more than 11,000 images.

Shot by leading photographers.

Now at your fingertips.

Tags: nature, nature conservancy, photography, conservation