International League of Conservation WritersWriting to inspire the love of nature and a passion for its protection |
The International League of Conservation Writers is a forum to bring writers together from around the world who are writing to promote wilderness, nature, conservation, or using other means to protect and restore the natural areas, habitats, animals, and plants of our planet. ILCW will present periodic writing awards to authors who excel in this field.
To apply for ILCW membership click here. |
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Featured VideoGo to all previous Featured Videos here. |
Improving Water Quality and Wildlife Habitat in the Florida Everglades
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| “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we aredoing to ourselves and to one another.” ― Mahatma Gandhi |
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Let’s Get Wild Photo ContestIn celebration of 2019 being the Year of Wilderness, European Wilderness Society is running a Wild photo competition! Entry is free and open to anyone, so what are you waiting for? Ends May 31, 2019. Great Prizes. Upload your photos here. . . . . . .
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WILDArt will take place in Majella National Park, Italy, between 1-7 September 2019. Artist applications close 1st May 2019. For more information visit the European Wilderness Society here.
Week after week, we see upsetting consequences of climate change such as floods contaminating our drinking water, worsening algae blooms, conflict and mass human migration. Yet, we also hear about solutions addressing issues such as toxic coal-ash waste. Such consequences demand innovative solutions and stewardship.--The NWNL Team
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By Sarah Kearns, NWNL Project Manager
With Earth Day coming up in April – and World Water Day observed just last week –this article will highlight a few important and unique annual observances that are included on the newly updated NWNL Annual Observances Calendar.
International Day of Action for Rivers Sponsored by International Rivers, this day “celebrates our life-giving waters, and honors all those who have worked hard to ensure that our rivers continue flowing.” Celebrated on March 14, this year was its 22nd anniversary. International Rivers encourages actions planned by communities and stewards that coincide with the theme for the year and register them on their website.
World Water Day This annual UN observance day highlights the importance of freshwater. The day annually advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. Observed March 22, this year’s theme was “Leave No One Behind,” suggesting that as sustainable development progresses, everyone must benefit.
Earth Day – This famous annual celebration on April 22 has included worldwide demonstrations in support of environmental protection. This year’s theme will revolve around protecting species and how the reduction of plant and wildlife populations is directly linked to the effects of human activity.
American Wetlands Month – Sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], this annual observance is celebrated during the month of May. The EPA and its partners – federal, state, tribal, local, non-profit and private sector organizations -celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the nation’s ecological, economic and social health.
Nature Photography Day – Hosted by North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), this annual observance is celebrated June 15 every year. According to NANPA, this observance “is designated to promote the enjoyment of nature photography, and to explain how images are used to advance the cause of conservation by protecting plants, wildlife, and landscapes locally and worldwide.”
World Water Monitoring Day – Though the day is observed on September 22, the official sponsor, EarthEcho International, encourages participation from World Water Day in March through the end of December each year as part of the EarthEcho Water Challenge. The challenge builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of local waterbodies using kits provided by EarthEcho International.
Given these highlights of a handful of the annual observances included on the NWNL Annual Observances Calendar, take a look at the calendar and learn about the rest! Please email us at info@nowater-nolife.org if you know of any additional observances related to water or the environment missing from our calendar. While on our site, check out our NWNL Upcoming Events Calendar to learn about upcoming lectures, exhibits and expeditions, and the new NWNL Progress page to learn about all NWNL has done in the past 13 years! Too see more blog posts click here.
The European Wilderness Society recently closed their call for the next Wilderness volunteer, to work with the European Wilderness Society in their main office in Tamsweg, Austria. Over the course of two weeks, they received an amazing total of 322 applicants! The quality and diversity of the applicants was impressive as they came from 32 eligible countries, and from many different backgrounds. The new volunteer will be named soon and will start in June 2019.
By Louise De Waal and Blood Lions
South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) proposed that the Captive Lion Breeding (CLB) industry should continue as long as it is properly regulated and appropriate legislation introduced, at the Portfolio Committee of Environmental Affairs (PCEA) briefing on 12th March 2019 on the implementation of the Committee’s Report in respect of CLB.
This ignores the PCEA resolutions from the two-day Parliamentary Colloquium on CLB in August 2018, which included the resolution (9.1) specifying that the “DEA should as a matter of urgency initiate a policy and legislative review of CBL for hunting and lion bone trade with a view of putting an end to this practice.” This Resolution was subsequently adopted by parliament making it a Parliamentary Resolution.
Currently, South Africa is holding between 9,000-12,000 lions in captivity, in approximately 300 facilities for a number of commercial purposes, including canned hunting, breeding and the lion bone trade.
Blood Lions, a leading organisation that works to end the captive lion breeding, canned hunting and lion bone trade industries in South Africa, is deeply concerned by the outcome of the recent briefing.
To read the entire article, click here.
By Dalia Mortada, NPR (National Public Radio)
Darrell Blatchley received a call from the Philippines' Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources early Friday morning reporting that it had a young Cuvier's beaked whale that was weak and vomiting blood. Within a few hours it was dead. Blatchley, a marine biologist and environmentalist based in the Philippine city of Davao, gathered his team to drive two hours to where the whale had washed up. When the necropsy was performed, Blatchley told NPR, he was not prepared for the amount of plastic they found in the whale's stomach. "It was full of plastic — nothing but nonstop plastic," he said. "It was compact to the point that its stomach was literally as hard as a baseball." "That means that this animal has been suffering not for days or weeks but for months or even a year or more," Blatchley added. He noted that among the 88 pounds of plastic were 16 rice sacks — similar to potato sacks — and plastic bags from local Philippine grocery chains, Gaisano Capital and Gaisano grocery outlet.
Blatchley is the founder and owner of the D' Bone Collector Museum, a natural history museum in Davao. In the coming days, the museum will post a list of all the items found in the whale's system, the museum said in a post on its Facebook page. Blatchley and his team work with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and other organizations to assist in rescue and recovery of marine animals.
"Within the last 10 years, we have recovered 61 whales and dolphins just within the Davao Gulf," he said. "Of them, 57 have died due to man — whether they ingested plastic or fishing nets or other waste, or gotten caught in pollution — and four were pregnant." Read more.
4Ocean is an organization started by two surfers who were surprised at all the floating trash they encountered while surfing near Bali. Their organization has removed 4.1+ million pounds of trash from the ocean in less than two years. They currently employ 150 people in 27 countries and they’re growing.
Nearly 90% of ocean plastic pollution starts on land and enters the ocean through river mouths. Plastic accumulates on the ground where rain and floods wash it into rivers and canals that carry it to the ocean. Nearly 16 billion pounds of plastic enter the oceans annually. And 70% will sink to the bottom of the ocean if it’s not collected.
By giving ocean plastic a value they are creating a new economy for the removal of trash and one that will prevent plastic pollution. The Ocean Plastic Recovery campaign will create jobs for local fishermen and improve the quality of life in their communities. They host cleanups all over the world, both above and below the water, to raise awareness and change behavior. Then the reclaimed ocean plastic will be given new life by manufacturers and eliminate the need for virgin plastics.
How are they funded? 4Ocean sells bracelets made from recycled plastics and glass. For each bracelet sold they claim they will clean one pound of plastic from the ocean.
By Meghan of Million Mile Secrets
It’s exciting to travel to faraway places to see new sights and different cultures. But don’t forget, the US has some of the most amazing and popular parks in the world.
The issue is, they need your help. Many of these parks were severely impacted by the recent government shutdown. The shutdown left our public lands unsupervised because National Park Service employees were furloughed during that time. As a result, there were incidences of damaged property and stolen artifacts, and reports of overflows of human waste and garbage.
The parks suffered without anyone there to maintain these precious spaces. But by visiting a National Park, you can give back and support these beautiful areas of the US.
Our guide explains how you can save on your next National Parks vacation, along with additional information on other ways to support the parks.
Giving directly to the National Park Foundation is the most straightforward way to donate to our National Parks. According to NationalParks.org the National Park Foundation is accredited by Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, meeting all 20 standards for charity accountability. This indicates the organization’s commitment to fair and honest solicitation practices, adequate oversight, transparency and financial effectiveness.
Just remember, it’s wise to use a credit card that earns travel rewards or cash back to make such a donation. Not only will the National Park Foundation benefit from the gift, but you’ll earn something for making the donation as well. It’s a win-win! Below are a number of other ways (outside of a direct cash donation) to make a gift to the National Park Foundation.
Memorial or Special Occasion GiftsMaking a donation to the National Parks is a great way to honor the memory of someone or to celebrate a special occasion. Have a family member who loves to hike? Donate to the National Park Foundation in their name! Have a friend whose passion is conservation and keeping public lands accessible? Give a gift to the National Park Foundation to celebrate their birthday!
Estate PlanningGiving to the National Park Foundation through estate planning is something many people might not consider, but it’s a great way to pledge support the parks in the future. Through estate planning, you can, for example, give a gift to the National Park Foundation through a life insurance or retirement plan, through your will or trust, or in other ways. If you’re interested in contributing in this way, it’s important to contact the appropriate professionals (tax consultant, lawyer, etc.) and to discuss the planned gift directly with the National Park Foundation.
SecuritiesDonating securities (like stocks) is another great way to support the National Park Foundation. When you donate stock, the National Park Foundations sells and puts the proceeds right to use. The value of the stock is established (per the IRS) by calculating the mean average price on the date ownership is transferred. If you decide to donate/transfer securities, it’s important to notify the National Park Foundation in advance so that they can properly credit you for your gift. And you should also be sure to discuss any plans for stock or securities donations with your financial advisor. Read more.
Jaguar
In Iberá, Juruna and Mariua -- the two Brazilian jaguars that we received last month – were moved to the Jaguar Reintroduction Center in Iberá, after successfully finishing their quarantine period. They have been really active since the beginning, and they already hunted their first live capybara inside the 1.5 hectare enclosure where they are living now. To view photos and read more click here
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On September 3rd 1964 Lyndon B Johnson signed the US Wilderness Act and on February 3rd 2009 the European Parliament issued the first European Wilderness Resolution calling for more Wilderness in Europe. 2019 marks therefore the 10th anniversary of Wilderness in Europe and the 55th anniversary of the US Wilderness Act. The European Wilderness Society will organise several activities, events and launch new initiatives celebrating Wilderness in Europe.
Read the European Wilderness Newsletter, click here.
Two Roads theater troupe used ILCW member (Canada) Daniel Hudon’s book Brief Eulogies for Lost Animals: An Extinction Primer and the writings from Darwin as the basis for their play Mirabilis: Stories of Wonder and Loss: An Extinction Cabaret, about recent animals extinctions to raise awareness about what we're losing and what we've lost. The performance took place in October in Medford, Massachusetts. Two Roads plans to have a larger production of the play in 2019.
That's how many trees and other flora ILCW member (USA) Adrienne Ross Scanlan will be planting in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. Call it a personal response to climate change, a logical next step in urban nature restoration, or a much needed kick in the butt against political and environmental despair. So far she’s planted (not quite) 200 native trees, shrubs, and ground cover plants, which means trees will be part of her nature writing and restoration efforts for a long, long time to come. Click here for more information about Adrienne and her many projects.
Several media groups in Africa denounced the culture of impunity for crimes against journalists in Somalia. At least three journalists have died since July 2018 with little or no explanation by authorities as to the apprehension of those involved. Witnesses claim a policeman was responsible for a murder of a journalist in July. Because of the inaction to bring those accused to justice the media groups called for an International Day to End Impunity (IDEI) for Crimes against Journalists on November 2, 2018. They urged H.E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, and his office to prioritize investigations into all attacks against journalists in Somalia and bring the violators to justice. They also hope to support the president’s efforts towards ensuring a safe environment for journalists and the people of Somalia to enjoy their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and human rights both online and offline.
The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas is the first global standard of best practice for area-based conservation. It is a program of certification for protected and conserved areas – national parks, natural World Heritage sites, community conserved areas, nature reserves and so on – that are effectively managed and fairly governed. The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Isiola, Kenya was recognized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as one of the top 40 protected areas of the world. Click here for more information.
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Gao Gao the Giant Panda who had been living at the San Diego Zoo for the past 15 years is returning to China per the zoo’s agreement with the People’s Republic of China. While at the zoo, Gao Gao fathered five cubs. When the Giant Panda Conservation Program began in 1996 the number of Giant Panda in the wild was thought to be less than 1,000. The 2014 census revealed 1,864 Giant Pandas in the wild plus 300 more living in zoos and managed habitats in China and elsewhere. Gao Gao will return to the Chinese Center for Research and Conservation for Giant Panda in Dujiangyan, China.
Verena Gruber (ILCW member, Austria) of the European Wilderness Society points out in her latest blog post the differences in camping in Wilderness between the United States and Europe. Camping in the Wilderness in the U.S. is allowed (as long as Leave No Trace Rules are followed) but that camping in European Wilderness is highly restricted or prohibited in many protected areas. But there are other ways to experience European Wilderness as her post points out. Click here to read more.
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The Back to Basics blogs encourages writers to stay positive and resist the fear we are subjected to on a daily basis. Click here to read.
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Due to a new filtering material, lithium could be extracted during the desalination process of producing freshwater from the ocean. The process is being developed by researchers at Monash University in Australia and the University of Texas at Austin. Lithium is an important component in batteries and is currently valued at $100 a pound. The value could offset the cost of desalination. Click here to read the entire article.
GPFriends International gemeinnützige UG announced this year’s Giant Panda Best Friends award to Pandas International, USA; Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Austria; Chengdu Panda Base, China; and CCRCGP China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, China. The award is given to the selected individuals, institutions, organizations and institutions who are committed to the protection of nature, wildlife and species, in particular the Great Pandas.
Suzanne Braden is President of Panda International and a member of ILCW
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
In Eager, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America’s lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of “Beaver Believers”―including scientists, ranchers, and passionate citizens―recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them. From the Nevada deserts to the Scottish highlands, Believers are now hard at work restoring these industrious rodents to their former haunts. Eager is a powerful story about one of the world’s most influential species, how North America was colonized, how our landscapes have changed over the centuries, and how beavers can help us fight drought, flooding, wildfire, extinction, and the ravages of climate change. Ultimately, it’s about how we can learn to coexist, harmoniously and even beneficially, with our fellow travelers on this planet.
The Green Radio Hour hosted by ILCW member Jon Bowermaster has been on the air from KWNY 1490 (radiokingston.org) since March. Bowermaster interviews figures from the political advocacy, science, and activist worlds like: lawyer/activist/ethicist Karenna Gore, filmmaker Josh Fox, author and poet Eliza Griswold, former New York Times environmental writer Andy Revkin, biologist and anti-fractivist Sandra Steingraber, plastic pollution champion Dianna Cohen and, author Paul Greenberg.
Also, check out their archives of past shows here.
ILCW member (USA) Cathy Morrison has illustrated a beautiful book about the flora and fauna found on the prairie. Written by Marybeth Lorbiecki, The Prairie that Nature Built, is a book that will captivate both children and adults while learning about the prairie’s plants and animals. At the end there is more information and activities that children can do to continue to learn about this amazing ecosystem.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released their 2018 World Press Freedom Index showing growing animosity toward journalists world-wide. Many times the hostility towards the media is openly encourage by political leaders and those with authoritarian regimes. To see an interesting map showing the degree of “hatred” toward journalists, click here.
CREDIT BARBARA NORTON
The American Association for the Advancement of Science just published a story about ILCW member (USA) Boyd Norton and how he went from being a nuclear scientist to an ardent conservationist and photographer. Click here to read.
Boyd Norton and admirer
Alison Jones of No Water No Life (and ILCW member, USA) met with Meyasi Mollal of the Serengeti Preservation Foundation (and ILCW member, Tanzania) recently in Nairobi to talk about the Mara River Basin. The Mara River flows from Kenya, across Tanzania and into Lake Victoria providing water to Kenya’s Maasai Mari and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. Kenya currently has proposals to build several dams on the Mara River. Read the interview here.
The Hiking Blog for Montem Outdoor Gear recommends37 must see US National Parks to explore before you die. Click here to learn more.
The Environmental Defense Fund is planning to launch a satellite known as MethaneSAT to measure methane leaks from oil and gas operations, many of which could be stopped with easy repairs. Methane accounts for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. The satellite will produce a snapshot of 80 percent of the Earth every seven days and will detect methane in concentrations of as little as two parts per billion.
The data collected will pinpoint offenders and contributors to global warming so that the leaks can be stopped, as well as provide an accurate account of progress in stopping the methane emissions. The data will also help in prosecuting negligent offenders. The goal of this project is to cut methane pollution 45% by 2025. That would be equivalent to shutting down 1,300 coal power plants. The estimated launch of the satellite is slated for 2021. For more information click here.
David Lindo, ILCW member (UK) has a new book just out in German. He says it is a compilation of his English title Tales From the Concrete Jungles with additional chapters on German, Austrian and Swiss cities. For more details visit here.
In a recent study it was found that man’s best effort to make the Mississippi River more efficient for shipping by straightening it and adding levees to protect against floods may have had the unintended effect of causing higher flooding. Scientists says the river is flooding more now than it has in 500 years. Click here to read the article.
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Linda M. Hasselstrom (ILCW member, USA) has won the Sarton Women’s Book Award for Memoir for her title Gathering from the Grassland: A Plains Journal. The Story Circle Network, an international nonprofit organization of women writers, recently announced the winners of its 2017 Sarton Women's Book Awards™. The award program is named in honor of May Sarton, who is remembered for her contributions to women's literature as a memoirist, novelist, and poet.Linda M. Hasselstrom is a nature writer, poet, and longtime leader in land stewardship, and examines several generations of family diaries searching for an understanding of her ancestors and for direction in planning for the future of the plains ranch which has been in the family for over a century. Moving through the days of a year, she is never afraid to show the reader the most difficult thing of all, the truth of her life. The portrait that emerges is of a woman who makes peace with life’s complexities and finds joy in honoring the plains and its people and animals. Ever the nature writer at heart, Hasselstrom crafts miniature essays on plains animals including antelope, owls, badgers, snakes, buffalo, and cattle. She also delves into rural community dynamics, death and aging, family, and the work of a writer. Click here for a short video about her ranch life, writing and teaching career.Founder of WildVoices, Tomasz Wiercioch writes: This week, I want to introduce you to two young photographers, Neale Howarth and Alex Basaraba. They've taken over our Instagram to share wildlife and climate change stories. Neale is based out of Pumba Private Game Reserve, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, and has been developing his own style of wildlife photography over the last few years and contributes behind-the-scenes blog posts to WILDvoices. Alex is passionate about Climate Change, the environment, and empowering human livelihoods. Through his many travels, he has captured and told many captivating stories at the intersection of environmental conservation and human well-being. He recently launched @AClimateLens, an Instagram based platform featuring a collective of photographers documenting Climate Change to infuse hope in global adaptation and resiliency. He also has a great personal Instagram account. For more information about WILDvoices, contact them here.
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Mali Elephants Safe for Past Year
The Mali Elephant Project (MEP), working with grassroots leaders and national government officials, reports that there was no recorded poaching of elephants during the past year. The habitat is the size of Switzerland, 8 million acres (3.24 million ha), containing elephants as well as numerous cultures and ethnic groups who have traditionally managed their lands separately.
Program director, Susan Canney, and field manager, Nomba Ganame, realized that protecting a herd that migrates across such a vast territory could only be accomplished with local support. That is why the Mali Elephant Project brought together eight ethnic groups for the first-time, and worked with them to organize an elder council that jointly manages the land for the benefit of people and elephants. The Mali Elephant Project harnesses the power of working together to achieve conservation outcomes that would be impossible for one group working in isolation to produce on their own.
In 2013, a violent insurgency swept through the elephant habitat and destabilized the entire region (making the elephants susceptible to bandits and poachers for the first time), the Mali Elephant Project was the only NGO project to remain operating in the region. In an escalating climate of fear and uncertainty, it became necessary to unite local leadership with national-level officials for greater coordination. The result of that process was an official decree issued by Mali’s President in early 2016 calling on all of Mali’s agencies to prioritize working together to save this internationally important herd.
The MEP also built the foundation for Mali’s first anti-poaching unit (APU), a bold and unique collaboration between Mali’s Ministry of Environment, the United Nations MINUSMA forces, Chengeta Wildlife, and local communities. The APU was first deployed in January 2016. The Mali Elephant Project is a project of the WILD Foundation. See more here.
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Nancy Campbell. Photo by Paul Preece,
2018 The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust announce the appointment of Britain’s new Canal Laureate Nancy Campbell</ Campbell is an ILCW member (UK), Oxford-based poet, and kayaker. She has a keen interest in arctic, marine and water conservation, following on from her winter residency at the most northern museum in the world in Greenland in 2010, and subsequent museum residencies in both Greenland and Iceland over the last seven years. During 2018 she will “seek out and share stories” from the people and places she will encounter during her travels along the 2,000 miles of the nation’s historic canals and waterways looked after by the Canal & River Trust. Nancy begins her role as Canal Laureate this month, taking over from poet Luke Kennard (2016-17) and poet Jo Bell, who became the inaugural Canal Laureate (2013-15). Interested in helping make her poetry accessible to a mainstream audience, Nancy is keen to realise her poems through other mediums such as printmaking and film. Her initial events and collaborations will include: creating a short work about rain to be displayed by the waterways; writing a poem about an unassuming and endangered type of herring – the Twaite Shad; and a collaboration with Nottingham’s ‘Light Night’ event. Established in 2013 by The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust, the Canal Laureateship aims to encourage exciting new writing about the Britain’s historic canal network. Previous Laureateships have seen poems stencilled onto canalside walls, carved into newly made lock-beams, translated into short films, and forgotten classic poetry given new life in performances, publication and animations. Canal poetry has been celebrated at venues including the Hay Festival, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Birmingham Literature Festival, National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, London’s Southbank Centre and Crick Boat Show, Welshpool Poetry Festival, Market Bosworth Festival, Leeds Liverpool Biennial, and showcased in a dedicated canal edition of BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please. The project is part of the Arts on the Waterways programme, a partnership between the Canal & River Trust, Arts Council England and Arts Council of Wales to help attract even more visitors to the waterways while surprising and delighting existing communities through innovative art projects.To read poems by Nancy Campbell and the other New Canal Laureates, please click here.
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In Appalachia (USA) previous efforts to restore former coal mine sites have left large areas of unproductive land. Now, a group of nonprofits and scientists are working to restore native trees to the region. Read more.
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The River Mara is the only permanent source of water for herds of wildlife that migrate between Kenya and Tanzania. Currently Kenya is proposing several dams on the River Mara and its tributaries that would lead to reduced water flows possibly imperiling the lives of many of the animals of the Serengeti in Tanzania. For more information, click here.
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The Guardian reports Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto decreed a protection zone around the Revillagigedo Islands (242 miles / 390 km) southwest of the Baja California peninsula. The protection will ban fishing, mining and the construction of new hotels on the islands.
For more information and to view a short film of these spectacular islands, click here.
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Member News
Jon Bowermaster, ILCW member (USA) reports news from his Oceans 8 Films and One Ocean Media Foundation. Their film “Ghost Fleet” has been showing at film festivals across the US and will have its European showing at the Berlin Film Festival in February. The film talks about those enslaved by the fishing industry. See clip. They have added three more short films to their “Hope on the Hudson” series bringing attention to pollution and other threats to this important river in New York State. The Hudson River Maritime Museum has presented Jon with an award for “significant and sustained contribution and service to the Hudson Valley, its residents and its history…” See more. And Jon has also been conducting radio interviews/podcasts on the environment featuring green talk with environmental activists. Click here to view the archives.
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Member Writing
Khonoma village in the Indian state of Nagaland is
spearheading community-led conservation in the nation
“I’ve not hunted since 1998,” says Cayievi Zhünyü. Now in his late-70s, Zhünyü lives in Khonoma village, in the Indian state of Nagaland, near the Indo-Myanmar border. In December 1998, hunting was banned in Khonoma’s forests after a 20-square-kilometer (8-square-mile) area was demarcated by the village council as the Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary (KNCTS). For Zhünyü and other members of the Angami tribe that call Khonoma home, hunting was not a source of income — it was a sacred cultural practice. “As the hunter, I can never eat what I’ve hunted,” Zhünyü says. “It’s bad luck. Instead, I feed my family and friends with it. Those occasions were some of the happiest moments of my life.” The hunting ban called for a huge shift in the lifestyle of the Khonoma people.
The inflection point came in the early-1990s, when villagers killed as many as 300 endangered Blyth’s tragopan (Tragopan blythii) in one week as part of a hunting competition. For some conservation-minded village elders like Tsilie Sakhrie, this was alarming news. “Even with an airgun, the cheapest gun available, an expert marksman can kill nearly 300 to 400 [common] birds in one day. It would’ve been a very short while before our forests were devoid of any wildlife,” Sakhrie says.
Under the guidance of Thepfulhouvi Angami, then the principal chief conservator of forests in Nagaland, and community leader Niketu Iralu, Sakhrie began to campaign for the creation of a protected area within the 125-square-kilometer (48-square-mile) village, as well as a simultaneous ban on hunting and logging. But convincing the villagers wasn’t easy.
“First, we needed to sensitize the hunters,” says Khriekhoto Mor, another village elder who served as KNCTS chairman from 2014 to 2018. “Angami folklore, an important aspect of our tribe’s culture, is replete with stories of animals, birds and forests. So we had to get [the hunters] to understand that if the hunting continued, their children may never get to see these majestic creatures.” Read more.
By Michael McBride (ILCW, USA)
In these slow days of cold and dark, when water freezes quickly in the Labrador retriever’s bowl,
and his sleeping feet quiver and flail with the real or imagined scent of passing wolves,
The winter wren appears as if a harbinger of things to come, does it long for spring?
Spring is far, far away; first there must be a moving cavalcade of cloudless nights,
stars without number and the red star Kochab showing Ursus Minor, the little bear,
the pathway to the west.
And the wolves, where will they be as they wait for dawn? Their stomachs turn in hunger,
their bed of alder leaves whispers softly as they too move in their sleep?
Down valley they will come at first light, noses to the ground, missing nothing, aware of everything.
The smells of the earth will come up to them like the smells of the valley coming down to them.
They are a descending flow like the river itself, ice enclosed, like an insect in a chrysalis,
which aches to break forth, to spread its wings and fly into the spring birth that will come.
This transformation, the breath clouds of the wolves, hang suspended still.
This impishness of the wren in the bracken is an apparition that darts away in silence.
All of this snuggles deep under warm blankets in the imaginative dreams of winter.
Soon enough sunrise will pour honeyed light over the spreading estuary, greeting the chattering
waterfowl and seabirds which are as numerous as the schools of silvery minnows before them.
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The Four SeasonsBy Seamus Shortt (ILCW member, Spain)
A poem by Minerva the Owl from the Montevivo Book Series
Frost snow and ice are the reason
That make Winter a dormant season.
Creatures go into hibernation
As a means to avoid starvation;
Some birds prefer to choose migration
And escape the long dark nights
With the unforgiving cold that bites.
This is the season of rebirth
Life comes to life embracing the earth
With roots of plants, bushes and trees
Nourishing buds, blossoms and leaves.
Newborn hope gives guarantees
Announced by all the birds that sing;
The countryside is lush in Spring.
So sunnier daylight hours abound,
Flowers with blazing colours astound.
Hotter weather bathes our land;
Everything becomes suntanned.
A better time could not be planned,
When Summer’s over we wait a year
Just longing for it to reappear.
Time to be busy in the fields
Tending crops and harvesting yields.
The wind picks up as if to cheer
At Autumn’s colours that appear,
Which means the cold will soon be here,
With rain and cloud there is less sun;
The annual cycle’s now been run.
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Pennsylvania’s Secret Lights up the Night
Northwest Pennsylvania holds a secret; it is a firefly wonderland. The deciduous woodlands and watersheds on the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) offer some of the best locations to experience the magical showing of bioluminescence that defines summer evenings in the Appalachians.
For many of us who grew up east of the Mississippi, no summer evening was complete without going out and catching “lightning bugs.” Their fanciful golden glow was mysterious, wonderful, and oh so beautiful. While commonly thought of as a fly these beloved insects are actually a type of beetle.
More than 2,000 species of fireflies are thought to exist worldwide with 125 found in North America. Over 15 make their home in the ANF. There’s the Photuris versicolor, or the Chinese lantern, which as its evocative name suggests, hypnotically “floats” near the Forest’s Tionesta Creek. Imagine tiny galaxies wafting in the night breeze. Then there’s the orange flicker of Pyractomena angulate as well as the recognizable Photinus pyralis, the most widespread of the eastern fireflies. Additionally five species found in the Forest are diurnal and do not glow at all. However, one species is particularly special and was only confirmed in the Forest in 2012.
“Late one night in the summer of 2011, a group of campers in the Kellettville area of the Allegheny National Forest had let their campfire burn low when they noticed unusual flashing fireflies near their campsite,” says Bruce Parkhurst, who serves on the board of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Firefly Festival. The display of these fireflies was unusual, as it was a complex pattern of pulsed flashes that occurred over multiple intervals, similar to the famous synchronous fireflies found in the Smoky Mountains. Read more, see photos.
Persimmon Tree
By Elizabeth C. Herron
Walking the north trail
in the shadow of autumn
I cross a narrow meadow
surrounded by heavy oaks
and redwoods
no house around
In this unlikely spot
a lone persimmon tree
leaves as warm and bright
in the canyon’s twilight
as slices of sun
giving back
summer’s long days
not for us —
there isn’t a single fruit —
only a harvest of leaves
holding the stillness
of completion
the way for a moment
a dancer at the apex of her arc
holds the world
like a keystone
as if all light
were held like breath
before time begins
the slow release
of autumn’s exhale
each leaf
a brief and steady flame
against the darkening.
CREDIT Dominic Mitchell, birdingetc.com
Dominic Mitchell, ILCW Member (UK) is the managing editor for Birdwatch magazine and BirdGuides.com. In a recent article story for the World Land Trust he tells about his trip to the Ecuadorian Andres, the amazing birdlife, and the need to protect their habitats. The sites visited are managed by the World Land Trust’s Ecuadorian partner Fundacion Jocotoco. Not only did he and his party have the opportunity to see the rare Spectacled Bear and the endangered Andean Condor, they also saw new roads coming into these critical forest ecosystems that will surely have negative impacts unless these areas are protected. Read his article here.
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New Books by ILCW members
Nancy Campbell
The Library of Ice: Readings from a Cold Climate
2018, Simon & Schuster / Scribner UK
Hardcover, 336 pages
The book is rich in meticulous detail — it’s a microscope and a dictionary, as much as a library. Less familiar words bloom throughout (‘dioptre’, ‘firn’, ‘philtrum’), and it does well to veer only occasionally towards the abstruse. For all the density of scholarship, it’s a readable account, and highly poetic in places.
Vivid imagery is conjured, whether it’s through Campbell’s words (“The [curling] stone makes me think of a child potentate: everyone’s eyes are on it, and its apparently independent movement is cleverly controlled”) or the words of others (Arctic explorer William McKinley: “As I turned round to face the ship, old Karluk seemed to be doing her best to outdo nature. Her deck covering of snow shimmered like tinsel. Every rope and spar was magnified by a fluffy coating of frosted rime”). Read the entire review by Sally Moss here.
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Second Nature: Saving Tiger Landscapes in the Twenty-First Century by ILCW member Sanjay Gubbi (2018, Rainfed Books) is a “field guide to future conservationists” says Wired magazine. The article goes on to say: The Western Ghats landscape spread across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala is home to a wildlife corridor passing through Nagarhole, Bandipur, Mudumalai and Wayanad. It hosts the single largest tiger population in the world. This is an area that Sanjay Gubbi is keenly familiar with. Gubbi has documented his conservation efforts in the region, compiled in a new book titled Second Nature: Saving Tiger Landscapes in the Twenty-First Century, published January 2018. The book features the nitty-gritty of wildlife landscape preservation, often far removed from the beauty of hillsides and forestry, the purview of pure ecologists who view applied conservation as “a beast that is far too huge to grapple with.” India’s large human population and the aim to become a ‘developed economy’ has strained forest resources. Policies that facilitate large-scale industrialisation have also resulted in linear infrastructure intrusions like roadways, railway tracks and power lines, which move into natural ecosystems without regard to ecological balance. Click here to read the entire article.
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Did You See This?
Behind every species fighting to survive, are the people dedicated to their protection. We persist, so that nature prevails.
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The Rocky Mountain Wolf Project is committed to restoring the gray wolf to the great National Forests and other public wildlands in western Colorado. After the successful reintroduction of gray wolves into the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, there's just one missing link in the Rocky Mountains—one state whose public lands are still haunted by the missing howl: Colorado. Join our mission and help build our movement by spreading awareness and donating what YOU can to reestablish the wolf in western Colorado. Click here for more information.
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The following graphic illustrates why China was chosen for the location of WILD 11 (the 11th World Wilderness Congress). For additional information click here.
Click the image to print this infographic.
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Conservation Photographer Boyd Norton submitted this photo of what the Great Sand Dunes National Park could look like if mineral extraction is greenlighted further on public lands. Former Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes, who is now the executive director of NYU School of Law’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center wrote:
“… despite his allusions to Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his team are consciously and aggressively casting aside a long list of environmental, health and safety protections for valued public lands, as well as rules that protect taxpayers from being fleeced by energy companies: They’re repealing oil and gas operator requirements for fracking; rolling back rules that restrict wasteful venting and flaring of unwanted gas; and axing reforms requiring coal, oil and gas companies to pay royalties at an appropriate level. He’s also quashed, midstream, a federal coal program review that already had identified serious improprieties.” Read the entire article here.
If you don’t want to see mineral extraction on our public lands, work to protect them by increasing the awareness of what could happen through your writing, photos, and social media..
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Blood Lions, the film that exposes the cruelty for profit of the canned hunting industry by the shooting of captive-bred lions in enclosures, will now be released worldwide on the new streaming platform www.ecostreamz.com. The film was produced not only to create global awareness around the captive lion breeding and canned hunting industry in South Africa - where thousands of lions are mass bred to be killed each year for large profits - but it is also a “call to action” to tourists and young international volunteers when visiting that country. Jim Branchflower, founder and CEO of Ecostreamz, said, “For some, lions are just a commodity, cruelly abused to make money from cub-petting, canned hunting and selling their bones for traditional Chinese medicine. We are proud to play a role in this important campaign to end their suffering. Any caring person who watches Blood Lions will want to back the campaign to ban the practice.”
To watch the film or the trailer.
For more information:
Ecostreamz and info@ecostreamz.com
Showmax for South Africa.
Blood Lions and info.
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Bob and Charlotte Baron with Joseph Bruchac at the May 16, 2018 Authors Guild Foundation Event in New York City.
CREDIT MELANIE ROTH
ILCW members (USA) Bob and Charlotte Baron were recently honored, along with their company Fulcrum Publishing (Golden, Colorado), by the Authors Guild Foundation in New York City. They were presented the Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community. Bob is also cofounder of the International League of Conservation Writers. Other ILCW members on hand for the presentation were: Joseph Bruchac, who introduced the Barons, Bruchac is the author of many books on Native American stories and culture; Vance Martin, President of the WILD Foundation; Elizabeth Darby, author and contributor to numerous magazines; Larry Schweiger, past president of the National Wildlife Federation; and Patty Maher, author and magazine contributor. . . . . . .
A new study shows that better global land stewardship—conserving and restoring wild habitats and practicing more sustainable farming—could get us more than one-third of the way to the Paris climate mitigation targets. Nature may not be the most sexy tool in the shed, but it has tremendous power to move the climate change needle. In principle, the authors say, natural climate solutions could remove 23.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere each year. Read more.
Source: No Water No Life Weekly Drop Newsletter
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Book Reviews
Gathering from the Grassland: A Plains Journal 2017
Linda M. Hasselstrom High Plains Press
Paperback and Hardback, 320 pages
This book is a rumination on the daily lives of an extraordinary writer-rancher, on the folk who raised her, and on the many ways physical and spiritual in which grass has sustained them and their cattle on this daunting South Dakota land. Hasselstrom s new journal, created day by day over an entire year, one blade at a time, unfolds like a new season s grasses. On the horizon, encircling everything she has seen, are echoes from the past. In offering a companion volume to her thirty-year-old Windbreak, Hasselstrom brings her prairie to life and puts her own self, and her forebears, under the microscope and makes sense of what once seemed chaotic.
Review
Linda Hasselstrom’s lyrical journal grows, organically, out of a passionate love for the land, the land s creatures, and the land s people, present and part of her personal past. This enduring, endearing litany of a year in the life of a writer, a poet, and a rancher takes us deep into the heart of what it means to belong to a place, to live a deeply-rooted life to grow old with the land and to remain young with it, too. A precious glimpse into a year richly, uniquely, profoundly lived.
--Susan Wittig Albert: author of Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place, and other memoirs, historical fiction, and mysteries, including the China Bayles series
Linda M. Hasselstrom owns a small family ranch in western South Dakota. Her seventeen published books of poetry and nonfiction include Feels Like Far: A Rancher s Life on the Great Plains, autobiographical essays. With the Great Plains Native Plant Society, Hasselstrom dedicated the Claude A. Barr Memorial Great Plains Garden in 2001 to preserve native shortgrass prairie plants on 350 acres of her ranch, and the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies established a riparian protection area on her land along Battle Creek.
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Tread Softly
By Diana Woodcock
2018, FutureCycle Press
Paperback and Kindle, 90 pages
After living on the Arabian Peninsula and the Tibetan Plateau, in the Everglades (as a poet-in-residence), in Macau, Thailand, and Chengdu, China—a city so polluted the sun seldom breaks through the smog to shine—Diana Woodcock now follows Christina Georgina Rossetti’s mandate, “Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.” This, her third collection of poems, was inspired by it. Perhaps for a poet who grew up memorizing nature psalms of the Old Testament and singing “This is My Father’s World,” it was inevitable that her poetry eventually would take a turn toward ecological concerns, merging her spirituality with her love for all earthly beings. For more information, click here.
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The Light Shines from the West
A Western Perspective on the Growth of America
By Robert C. Baron
2018, Fulcrum Publishing
Hardcover, 288 pages
Traditionally the complex history of America’s westward development was told from learned scholars from the eastern US. That was where the major universities were located. Bob Baron, ILCW member/co-founder, breaks tradition by writing about the western expansion of the US through a western perspective. He and five chapter authors cover many aspects of this transition of a country. Page Lambert (ILCW member) writes beautifully about the Rural West. Elizabeth Darby (ILCW member) tells of the many women who were key in the West’s development and they are not ladies of the evening (like many sources portrayed women in the frontier West, if they mentioned them at all). And the medical perspective and innovations that came out of the Western US, and not the East, that are written about by Dr. Bruce Paton (ILCW member). This book is an exploration of the innovations and expansions that have shaped the West and the American landscape from 1800 to today. It provides an overdue and insightful overview of western American history. For more information, click here.
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Words the Turtle Taught Me
Susan Richardson (ILCW member UK) announces her fourth poetry collection, Words the Turtle Taught Me, published by Cinnamon Press. Described by writer Philip Hoare as ‘vital, glorious, salutary’, it grew out of Susan’s recent poetry residency with the Marine Conservation Society Fostering engagement with endangered ocean species, it blends poetry and prose, science and shamanism, contemporary ecological peril and ancient myth. For more information, click here>
“Susan Richardson’s work is a suspended state, caught between the us we presume to be and the species with which we share this watery, fragile planet. Cut and precise, archaic and innovative, transcendent and in-the-moment, she sees the life of the sea as a mirror of ourselves, and vice versa: always changing, always the same. This beautifully written and exquisitely illustrated compendium summons up the sea we always thought it to be, but which now hovers in the balance…Words The Turtle Taught Me comes as a vital, glorious and salutary lesson for us all.”
– Philip Hoare
author ofLeviathan & The Sea Inside
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Calendar
April 27 – May 1,2019
Birding Tour to the Po Delta, Italy
Slender-billed gulls and pygmy cormorants. Plus urban birding and culture in historic Ravenna and Comacchio. ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
May 5-12, 2019
Birding Tour to Estonia
Great Snipe and Woodpeckers. ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
May 11-18, 2019
Birding Tour to Latvia
Owls, Woodpeckers and Spring Migration. ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
May 27-29
Wilderness Academy Days 2019 hosted by The European Wilderness Society , in the Biosphere Reserve Lungau, Austria. Discussing Wilderness in Europe, Fire Management, Alien Species and more. For more information click here.
June 8-16
Birding Tour to Slovenia
Beauty and Beasts Spring Tour. Bears, Beers, and Birds. ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
June 10-16
Birding Tour to Speyside and Environs, Scotland
Celebrity guided wildlife holiday with the Grant Arms Hotel. ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
August 24-30
Retreat to the River – Creative Adventure for Women on the Colorado River, Westwater Canyon, Utah
A 6-day writing and sculpting float trip down the Colorado River featuring sculptor Roxanne Swentzell of the Santa Clara Pueblo. Six day, five nights. Led by ILCW member Page Lambert. For more information click here.
August 31-Sept. 14
Birding Tour to Peru
From the Concrete Jungle to the Amazon Jungle. ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
Sept. 29-Oct. 6
Birding Tour -- Estonia Autumn Migration Tour
Migrants, migrants and a few more migrants! ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
Oct 5-11
Birding Tour – Extremadura Autumn
Bustards, Sandrouse and Vultures! ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
Dec 1-5
Birding Tour – Northern Serbia 2019 Winter Tour
Long-eared Owls. ILCW member David Lindo is the Urban Birder. Click here for more information.
WILD 11, the 11th World Wilderness Congress to be held in Beijing, China.
For more information, click here.
2020
April 24 to May 6, 2020
Peru Women Writing Adventure
Weaving Words and Women
Page Lambert (ILCW member) and True Nature Journeys partner once again to offer a rare opportunity to travel with other creative women, explore Peru's Sacred Valley, and spend time with the Quechua women of the high Andes. Woven into the adventure are visits to the ancient Incan ruins of Pisac, Pumamarca, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu. For more information click here.
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ILCW News
Do you have news?Let us know if you have won an award, written a new book, or launched a creative endeavor to bring awareness to conservation. Chances are the ILCW membership is not aware of these things, so be sure and tell us. Send items to:patty@ilcwriters.org
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David R. Brower Office for Conservation Writing Come write, do research, and be near wild and protected areas in Colorado while working in the David R. Brower Office of Conservation Writing. Sit at the same desk used by Dave Brower.
ILCW Members Are Eligible to Use David R. Brower Office for Conservation Writing There is no cost for ILCW members to use the office. To apply click here.
World renowned Conservation Photographer Boyd Norton has selected 16 of his favorite prints that are available to make your own. Check out these amazing images from the winner of the Ansel Adams award here.
ILCW facebookTell us what you are working on, what changes you see in the area of conservation (good and bad) in your area, include news from you: have you recently won any awards or accolades? Have you recently published a new book or article or perhaps finished a piece of art, performance piece, photo that glorifies the natural world? This page is for you, please enjoy and generate interest in ILCW and what we do.
Do you have a friend or a colleague who is passionate about Nature and believes that we should protect what we have for future generations? ILCW welcomes all creative people (not just writers) who use their talent to bring awareness to the plight of our natural world. Have them apply to be an ILCW member at http://www.ilcwriters.org/application.html
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