i miss vacation!

i always find it amazing how you can spend 3 weeks away and not think a wink about all the articles and projects that need to be done, and have no stress at all, but as soon as you get back home it all lands, flop, right in your lap. Ugh stress. i hate it! i'm working on it; that is on reducing stress in general and the way i approach the whole to-do-list phenomenon.

so... a quick update - i wanted to finish my aussie adventures but just want to add a couple quick photos and say that our last day on moreton island, at tangalooma, was just absolutely brilliant. it is one of those days that will go down in my personal history as one of the best ever. we went on this amazing eco-cruise where a huge herd of dugongs (like manatees) surrounded our little boat and when they'd come up to breathe they sounded like they were breathing through a snorkel. you could hear the "huff" they made as they exhaled. the weather was drop dead gorgeous, the wind was super calm and hence you could see to the bottom of the ocean and all the amazing things swimming about - sea turtles, eagle rays that literally fly through the water, and jellyfish. dolphins came and played and swam in the front of the boat - the wave made from its movement. at the end of the day, we got to feed wild dolphins, and jenny and i just had a wonderful heart to heart on the way back to the mainland. i truly had a wonderful day.

the day before, friday, we also got to see my dear friend karine who i was worried i would not see - which would have been so disheartenening after keeping in touch over 15 years and i'd lost touch via email the past few months...but we got in touch - yea! and she drove hours to see me and i feel so blessed to have these wonderful friends. i am so blessed by these friendships and i just wish everyone could be in contact more easily, on person. if only flying were less expensive!

i'm working on some interesting projects and they are due very soon so i better get back to it!!!


This was the true color of the ocean the last day, when we were in Moreton Bay. It was amazing!!!!!!

One of the many dugong that surrounded our boat. We killed the motor and floated through the herd of them...Sooooo cool!!

aussie photos

Just a selection - more to come!

Savannah petting a wallaby at the Australia zoo, home of Steve Irwin "Croc Hunter."

I have to laugh when I look at this photo because Jenny said something like "Isn't that just like a typical Aussie bloke - just put a beer in between his hands! The attitude!" LOL. These are red kangaroos at the Australia zoo.

A "joey" poking out of its mom's pouch! This was at Something Wild Wildlife Park in Tasmania.

Sam and Savannah out on the marine eco-cruise at Tangalooma on Moreton Island/Moreton bay. This was absolutely a most amazing day!! The water was clear blue and gorgeous and we saw a huge herd of dugong (like manatees), dolphins playing in the boat's bow, eagle rays, sea turtles, jellyfish - it was sooooo cool. That was our last day in Australia!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he... laugh kookaburra laugh kookaburra, gay your life must be! This was outside of my friend Kelli's house - they sound like a bunch of howling jabbering monkeys! I love them!

Sun setting over Shute Harbor, the Whitsunday islands.


Sam and Kai, Kelli's son.


Savannah and I in the Whitsundays.

Sam, Indie and Savannah holding Chloe at Tangalooma, our last day!


An Australian pelican at Tangalooma, Moreton Island.


Savannah petting a koala at Something Wild Wildlife Park, Tasmania

fraser island

After Tasmania we went next to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, and it is a UN World Heritage Site. It is truly an amazing and diverse habitat. Riding over on the boat from Hervey Bay the kids snuggled next to me, the weather was perfect and the wind felt so good, and it just felt really peaceful. We got there and were greeted by two wild dingoes roaming the beach to forage. They are like wolves, but were introduced to Australia from Asia around 4,000 years ago so are pretty much considered part of the ecosystem now. They look totally different than wolves - they are tan and white. One climbed into someone's boat that was on the beach! LOL. Anyway that was pretty cool. The sunset was gorgeous! (photo on right, Lake McKenzie, a freshwater lake with clear water and white sand beaches)

The next day we got shown around the island by a Kingfisher Bay Resort Ranger/EcoGuide. There's no way to see it all but we saw a great cross-section! In the center, freshwater creeks run through primeval rainforest with tall palms and cycads and ferns. On each side of the island are Eucalyptus forest and huge sand blows which basically create massive sand dune complexes. We hiked across this yellow sand dune at Lake Wabby for an hour and it reminded me of scenes from Star Wars where R2D2 and C3PO are stuck on a desert with only sand. The way the sand blows the sand into rivulets is just beautiful. (photo to left, the kids climbing a giant "sandblow" or sand dune in the middle of Fraser Island)

The lakes are spring-fed and COLD so I let the kids swim but I stayed out and enjoyed the scenery. Colin, the EcoGuide who showed us around, was very knowledgeable and I learned a lot about the ecology of the island. We saw a lace monitor - a huge lizard - among other things. During our trip we also ate "Bush Tucker" at the resort's restaurant which is Aboriginal food sources - not just the various plants used but we also tried kangaroo, emu and crocodile meat and the kids loved all of them!

We stayed at Kingfisher Bay Resort which was one of the first-ever ecoresorts, truly designed with the environment in mind - from the architecture of the buildings and rooms to the food to the natural history tours - birdwatching to spotlighting to whale watching and island explorations - and everything in between. I was very impressed with the way they developed everything, preserving all the native vegetation, elevated walkways, energy conservation.

Last we went on the most AMAZING whale watching trip, which was almost surreal. The water was a deep but clear blue you could see the whales under the surface. Two subadults played near our boat for over an hour. They got SO close to the boat! They did all the behaviors from spy-hopping to pectoral fin flapping to tail slapping to breaching. They went back and forth under the boat and really just seemed to enjoy our attention (we made noise, and it draws them to the boat). They are amazingly beautiful animals.

A subadult humpback whale surfacing in Platypus Bay, near Fraser Island.

Sunset on Fraser Island.

The clear blue waters and white sand of Lake McKenzie.


The rivulets in the sand dunes on Fraser Island, near Lake Wabby.

tasmania

Australia's island state just blew me away. Hobart itself was a quaint little town with truly outstanding cuisine, but the scenery really didn't blow my socks off until we got out of the city and into the national parks. We first went to Mount Field National Park and this was, I think, the kids first truly "wow" experience in Australia. The rest had been cool (they'd loved Daydream Island and snorkeling) but this place was straight out of the primeval past! (photo to right is the view out our hotel window - the harbor at Hobart at night).

Huge tree ferns towered above, Eucalyptus trees grew to nearly the size of California's redwood giants (they are the 2nd tallest trees in the world here) and moss-covered logs were strewn about the forest. Drizzly rain and mist covered the day and it gave it a lush, cool, moist feel. It resembles the Pacific NW forests of the US quite a bit. But the coolest thing is that pademelons were everywhere!!! These are tiny kangaroo-like creatures - well not tiny but about 1.5 feet tall. It was the kids' first experience seeing the classic Australian wildlife in the wild as opposed to in a wildlife park. Sam dubbed it "dinosaur world." (view to left is a giant eucalyptus tree in Mount Field National Park. They are the 2nd tallest trees in the world after the giant redwoods in California).

It was chilly but not freezing and our warm gear kept us cozy. Sam saw a platypus in the creek! I was so jealous. He yelled out "there's a platypus!" and that scared the little thing away. They are quite abundant in the area. We were sure we'd see one later in the day at the top of the mountain in a crater lake but the one thing they don't like is wind, and just at the time we got to the top a huge blustery gale came and it blew fiercely and we only got out of the car for a few minutes before heading back down the mountain. We then went down a bit and the winds calmed down and we walked around an Alpine herb field which was just STUNNINGLY gorgeous. Autumnal colors of rusts, reds, yellows and oranges covered the landscape, which had mostly shrubs, and huge boulders covered with colorful lichens. Tarns - small shallow wetland ponds - dotted the landscape. We all just kind of walked around looking for wombats, because their square poo was everywhere. :) I just loved it. We were literally in the clouds as we were high up the mountain and a cloud had descended on it. We could see, but there was an omnipresent mist. (above is the alpine herb field at Mt Field National Park)

We visited Something Wild Wildlife Park earlier in the day and got to pet and/or see wombats, koalas, Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, squirrel gliders, various Australian birds - budgies, cockatoos, rosellas - etc. The roos and wallabies had joeys in their pouches and I got some great photos. The next day we also visited the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park which was very cool too. It had a whole field full of kangaroos and wallabies that you could walk through, and the kids got to pet them! We also visited the Tasman peninsula which is connected to the mainland via a narrow isthmus and this is where the famous Port Arthur prison was, though we didn't visit it. We saw the coastal cliffs and walked along a very cool beach all in Tasman National Park. (photo to the left is a Tasmanian devil, a marsupial carnivore. They are declining rapidly due to a new disease - a fatal contagious cancer)

Oh and how can I forget, we got to see a little (fairy) penguin rookery. We hid in the cliffs until they came ashore which was not until it was quite past dusk, and I was very disappointed because I really couldn't see anything at all. Savannah wrote in her journal that she got so excited, then bored, then she cried with disappointment when she could not see anything but a dark blob emerge from the ocean (there were not a whole lot of them). However the story gets better! We finally climbed down and after the biologist was assured that all had safely climbed into their burrows he showed us the burrow of one in a rock crevice. To be honest it did not look very penguin-like and so I was a bit disappointed. But then we walked back toward the car and up stairs because this was a public beach but most people don't know it's a penguin rookery (it was actually devastated by dogs a couple years back) we saw a penguin ahead of us climbing the stairs!!!!! They actually make nests and burrows all along the area, not just right in the beach cliffs. So this little penguin, not much bigger than the stair itself, would scrunch its little booty up, wiggle and then jump like a piece of popping popcorn to the next stair! It looked very penguin-like at that point. We watched it do this for several steps in the light and it was just so adorable. Then it went to the side of the stairs and we went on our merry way. (view to the right is the rock formations on a popular surfing beach in Tasman National Park)

I think if I had to pick one single best moment of my trip so far that was it. I was just in love with this little penguin hopping up the stairs! It so exemplifies the state of wildlife in today's world. Here they wait until the night is dark because the full moon exposes them more to predators and this response has evolved over millions of years and it worked with their natural predators. But now we've introduced domesticated dogs and feral cats and even foxes to their world, and as hard as they may try to come ashore on some supposedly safe island, they end up completely vulnerable. We could have just scooped it right up. There's no way for them to escape something like a dog attack. They can't fly, they can't run. They don't bite. They are absolutely vulnerable. And here they are in our human world, climbing up stairs trying to get to a little burrow to make a home for a nest they'll lay in a month or so. Fortunately the biologists are working to create artificial burrows and protect the rookery from dog attacks etc.

And we had a truly great guide - Josh - who appreciated the kids zany sense of humor and more than anything just allowed them to be themselves and enjoy the world their way more than anywhere else. We all laughed a whole lot these days in Tasmania. The penguin day that included Mt Field NP was truly the best day of my whole trip so far. (View to the left, another view of the beach at Tasman National Park).

Oh and my laptop electrical cord died so I've been unable to recharge my laptop meaning I can't access anyone's email unless they email me!! I downloaded all my email Aug 10 so anything sent before then I can't access either... I need everyone's mailing address for postcards so Dad, Celeta, Holly, Daline, Lazer etc write me!! :)


Did I say it was a little chilly at the top of Mount Field??


Sam at the Tasman National Park beach.


Sunset shot through the car window!

The markets at Salamanca in Hobart.

The lush temperate rainforests of Mount Field National Park. This is the stream where Sam saw a platypus!

whitsunday adventures

so much to say, so little time! we're having a good time, and i can't find the cord to upload my photos at the moment or i'd put some up here. we spent a day at hardy reef snorkeling which the kids loved, and then 2 days on a resort on daydream island which was really awesome. daydream is a small island very close to the mainland in the whitsundays. the entire island is pretty much made up of this one resort, and we stayed in a gorgeous room overlooking the beautiful aquamarine ocean with a tall palm tree just outside our window. our room was so beautiful! (photo to left: the view out our room's window)

they have a huge marine lagoon surrounding the resort that has many of the great barrier reef creatures including rays, sharks, corals, fish, squid, etc. it is shallow and clear so easy to see the animals. The guy who takes care of the marine lagoon, Dave, showed us the various fish including Pancake and Pikelet, two huge rays. We got to "pet" one. Very cool! Dave was super nice and the kids really enjoyed it.

the resort interior was so cool too with colorful art deco furniture and a tropical fish theme. we had nearly 2 full days there and it was our first stay somewhere besides my friend kelli's home so it was very exciting for the kids. the whole resort is surrounded by this create marine lagoon with all the marine creatures.

We went snorkeling at lover's cove on the island but the tide was sooo low that it was impossible to get out there without stepping on the corals, which is not good, and so it only lasted about 30 min and we went back in (this included the time walking out and falling on the sharp staghorn corals and helping the kids with their masks etc). savannah said that time it "freaked her out" because everything was so close to her face. lol. :) she also did the thing where she inhaled the ocean through her snorkel once which didn't help! both the kids liked snorkeling though and loved all the cool creatures. we saw all the cast of Finding Nemo :) they are all found in Australia. (photo to right - view from the top of the rainforest trail)

then we hiked up the rainforest trail which is only a 20-min hike across the island. we saw an orange-footed scrub fowl which is a megapode, they build huge mounds as nests and bury their eggs and incubate them by adjusting the amount of leaves and vegetation on the mound if the nest temp is too hot or too cold. the male tends the nest. pretty cool. i didn't know what the bird was when we were on the hike or i'd have looked for the nest, but i just looked it up in my bird book after the fact. So after our little rainforest walk across the island, we arrived to see wallabies (small kangaroos) feeding on the grass, which was very cool. it was the kids' first sight of wild wallabies! They come out on the lawns to feed at dusk.

today we fly back to brisbane at noon, and then tomorrow head to tasmania which is what i'm most excited about!! (besides seeing the friends which has been awesome). i love that few people in the world have been there, and think it will just be so cool. all for now! ciao!

(the photo to the left i call roo do, because this roo has an interesting hair-do! it's actually a wallaby, but close enough!)

sea kayaking

We went sea kayaking and snorkeling today. I hated it! The waves were sooo huge and the cold water was slapping into my face and it stung my eyes and fogged my glasses. I normally kayak in calm rivers so it was very different. I've sea kayaked before but in calm water. It was sunny but cold, I was freezing! I was the slowest of everybody, and had a really hard time of it against the waves. Savannah was with me at first and then we switched Sam over to my kayak but it was still difficult. He's smaller and a stronger paddler because he goes with Matt a lot. I felt like a huge wimp. We went thrugh a shallow patch and I saw a sea turtle which was cool. When we got to the little island, I didn't even bother to go snorkeling. After a bit, Savannah switched and rode with someone else and he was a better kayaker than I so she had fun once she switched. She said they zoomed across, and she loved the snorkeling too. Sam liked it sort of except he was freezing cold and the snorkel mask would not fit right at first. It wasn't a great reef section so Sunday we go to a much much better one. I'm just glad the kids enjoyed it. Now I am glad to be home (at Kelli's) and warm!!

ps my black bear article for Defenders Magazine is now out! It's online at:
http://www.defenders.org/defendersmag/issues/summer06/bears.html

pss it posts as 1158pm Thursday but where I'm at it's 3pm Friday! :)

silver and gold: make new friends and keep the old

a quick email before bed... day 2 in australia and it's been sooooo cool connecting with old friends. friends to me are friends for life and i've made a major effort in the past couple years to stay in better contact with and to visit with friends. So in the past 4 days I've visited Paige who was a kindred spirit in LA when I lived there (she had a homebirth with the same midwife and we were in playgroup together when our kids were toddlers) and visited my 2nd cousin Daria & met her adorable 2 year old son Reed, and saw Jenny in Brisbane who befriended me in Australia and introduced me to sea turtles for the first time at Mon Repos National Park (where we scouted for turtles all night long) and one of my best friends from high school Kelli who I'd lost touch with for years before reconnecting last year. Tonight I'm with Kelli and its sooo cool to catch up. I tell ya, all of these gals they are awesome people.

So the kids are having a blast also, meeting new friends and seeing new things. We had a long flight and only arrived in Australia yesterday and spent some time exploring the Brisbane suburb of Redcliffe where Jenny lives (Savannah loved it so much she says she wants to live in Redcliffe). :) The thing I noticed about Brisbane is how clean & beautiful and how free of graffiti and billboards. I had fun with the kids walking along the ocean, having ice cream etc. Today we flew to the Whitsunday Islands & I let the kids play in a manmade lagoon at Shute Harbor, we went down to collect seashells and we saw a tree full of rainbow lorikeets. Had some lunch in town. All for now!

Paige and I at Caltech. Paige had the same midwife as I and we were in playgroup when our kids were toddlers in CA! She is an awesome person!

Paige's and my kids at Caltech. Being goofy!

My dear friend Jenny and I in Redcliffe, a suburb of Brisbane. It's been 15 years and it seems like yesterday! Jenny and I met when I did volunteer wildlife work at Griffith Uni in Brisbane and she took me to watch sea turtles at Mon Repos.

Teggun, Savannah, Sam and Kai (in front) all painted! This was on the Fantasea snorkeling trip to Hardy Reef, part of the southern portion of the Great Barrier Reef in the Whitsunday islands. Teggun and Kai are my friend Kelli's kids - Kelli and I went to high school together and were very close, and she moved to Australia about 10 years ago.

watermark

I was running yesterday after the rains, and I had just bought the Watermark CD "a grateful people" and it is such a beautiful CD! It is so full of love and passion. And in my heart I was just praising God and was just feeling gratitude and when I was almost back home, I saw a beautiful rainbow. On the Watermark CD sleeve it says:

"I'm reminded of the definition of a Watermark that we came across so many years ago: 'An impression only visible when held up to the light.' The Light of this world is moving and pursuing people who will align with who He is, no matter what it takes, so that He becomes visible through us to the world. As we move where He's moving, with His purpose and His heart, He takes shape in us, we come alive, and His glory is shown on the earth around us."

The rainbow I saw reminded me of the rainbow on the cover of the latest TX Parks & Wildlife Magazine in which I have two features:

Delta Dawn: The young Colorado River delta is a lush breeding ground for finfish, shrimp, crab — and controversy.

Washing the Water: Wetlands at Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area act as a huge water filter, removing pollutants the natural way.

But alas the piece most important to my heart is my Part 2 on the San Jacinto River, Sustainable Solutions that just came out today.

My Louisiana black bear piece should be out any day also. Ciao for now!

a full summer

Where do all the days go? I have had a house full of kids all summer, which has been truly wonderful. I love that I can work from home and I love that my kids' friends come over and stay and play and they run all around the cul de sac and everyone knows one another. I love the kids' school (Holy Trinity Episcopal School) and the kids there, and one exciting thing is that my daughter's class got selected for a Take Pride in America Award for their conservation work they've done so will receive the award in Washington DC in September!! Their school is listed on here: http://www.takepride.gov/volunteer/spotlights_continued.cfm

I have been working hard, writing away. I finished one article on Kemp's ridley sea turtles, FINALLY finished my sample chapter of my book, and am finishing another on sand mining. I have a zillion errands to run around town, getting everything I might possibly need in Australia (it's not like it's a third world country! I kill myself. lol). I needed a new tripod since I left mine in Peru, and I decided to buy my kids an inexpensive digital camera. Once you've gone digital baby, you'll never go back!

The kids each had a cheap camera, but the film and developing costs are just not worth it. For less than $100 you can have a nice digital plus a memory card. And they can take as many pics as they want. It kind of plays into my article on Australia anyway, which is can I make a nature lover out of my tween (Savannah) who is more into video games and books than nature. I think getting to photograph things will inspire her, the way it did for me when I first went to Australia. I got my first 35mm cam upon my return.

OK all for now, back to the grindstone... I will upload some ugly sand mining pics from being out on the river the other day soon! Eegads this company is just spewing muddy water into the river. I laughed at the conversation of the biologists I was with. There was a guy going out on a boat with his kids on the river, and they were like, Can you imagine what it's like to be the one who pollutes the river and having to go out on the river? And the other was like, That IS the guy! He goes out on the river while his lackeys run his operation. And the other says, How could I be so naive? Well anyway the conversation went something like that!

Update: this photo takes two glances to appreciate. The left part is NOT the sandy bank, but silty water being actively dumped by a sand mine. To the right the water runs so lear you can see fish. The sediment is so heavy and persistent that it affects the river for twenty+ miles downstream. Of course this causes all kinds of problems (read my 2 articles on sand mining at CleanHouston.org to learn all about the problems and solutions)!

happy last 35th unbirthday to me

On the eve of my last 35th unbirthday, I reflected on my run that it has indeed been a good year to me. I can finally say that I am truly happy and I feel truly blessed. I don't have a man or relationship that I'm pining after ("it takes a damn good man to be better than no man at all" is my favorite saying!) but I am happy in myself. I enjoy my freelance career. I love my freedom. My kids are growing up, happy, healthy, loving people. Life isn't perfect, and certainly nor am I, but I have great friends, great kids, a wonderful career, great health and a great and loving God!

I leave July 30 for 3 weeks in Australia with the kids - I am ecstatic. But for now, I have to get my assignments done and focus, focus, focus so I can play and enjoy when I'm there! Back to work :)

wanderlust

i've got a sickness what can i say? it's called wanderlust. and so with a little click of my mouse, i bought 3 tickets to australia - myself and my two kids! so i better get cracking at hauling in some new projects.

australia holds a special place in my heart. it changed my life, it changed my career path. i did a study abroad program there in 1990-1991 studying rainforest ecology in far north queensland. before that, i was pre-med. i fell in love with research and studying wildlife. i loved the country so much i decided to stay on another 2 mo, living with a family and doing volunteer wildlife work. i remember i called my mom one time and she said, "when are you getting back to the real world?" as if australia and that adventurous lifestyle wasn't the "real world." it was my world, it was where i was living and working and having the experience of a lifetime. whose to say it's somehow inferior and not the real world? so what if i took one measly semester off of college? i finished!

i have two dear friends who i still keep in touch with, and i recently found out one of my best friends from high school moved over there and so i have 3 people to visit and stay with! and they all have kids, so my kids should have a truly lovely time. we will not get back to far north queensland, but will spend time in brisbane, fraser island, airlie beach, and tasmania! i added in tasmania because not many people go there, it's supposed to be drop-dead gorgeous, and i figured i can sell more pieces on a place more off the beaten path.

i have wanted to get back there since i left. i met matt in summer 1991 just after i returned and it was all i could talk of. i always wanted to go back but never did. my fear of flying developed not long after and it was probably one of the reasons i justified not getting back there. so now i've come full circle, my fear of flying has dissipated and i hope that i don't just get utterly sick of flying with all the time i'll be spending in airplanes!

my goal is to take my kids on a life-changing eye-opening journey to another culture, and another land full of strange and exotic beasties. they have never been out of the country (except on our drive to alaska and they were so young) so it should be all new and all exciting! savannah was always telling me how *I* always got to go to all these cool places and she never got to go. so now there you have it. she can't say that anymore.

piece of my heart

Just as it is essential that our sight not be crippled by scientific tunnel vision, so also it is essential that our critical faculties and capacity for skepticism not be blinded by the brilliant beauty of the spiritual realm. -- M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled.

it was a really neat experience in church today. all the youth (high school) had just gotten back from their yearly colorado retreat and they sort of led the church service and shared some of the experiences, and they were so jazzed and filled with the spirit of God. it was just a joyful time, and as i prayed my mind went to the peruvian children - yashira and all those sweet little ones who live in the rainforest and who touched my heart - and the machiguenga children who were unhealthy and sick, and i just sent out a wave of love toward them.

and i thought of how all the places i've visited, the people i've met and the friends i've made they all have a place in my heart and always will. i cherish the people who have been my friends whether i presently keep in touch with them or not (and many i do). i thought of my dear friends in australia who i may be lucky enough to see again soon, and everywhere the people who have shown kindness to me. and my father, it is a day to bless and be thankful for fathers, and i had an amazing father who showered me with acceptance and taught me about reality without sheltering me from it. sending out love to all those kind souls who have been my friends over the years! and all those who i have met and who work for bettering the earth, for social justice, for wildlife, for environmental protection and for spreading the love of God and Jesus' radical message. keep on fighting the good fight!

The trip to the coast

I'd never been to Corpus Christi before, or Padre Island National Seashore. Wow, I didn't realize we had oceans that appear green and deep blue and with beautiful vegetation-covered dunes along the Texas coast. A far cry from the ugly Galveston coast. Poor Savannah got the stomach flu for a day. Or food poisoning maybe, because no one else got sick.

We all still had plenty of time in the ocean - the waves were amazing. It was the best boogie boarding/body surfing I have ever experienced! We rode the waves all the way into the shore at times!! It was so cool. I love the ocean. At the hatchling releases, it was really neat to see the little critters scurrying so very slowwwwwly to sea. They are so tiny. I've seen greens, loggerheads, leatherbacks in the wild and Kemp's (in captivity) but never Kemp's in the wild. One a single day I was there, I saw a hatchling release in the wee morning hours, a dead loggerhead adult that had washed ashore, and 5 Kemp's nested but they were so far down the beach (it is 60 miles long) we only made it in time to get the eggs, which are transported back to the lab for incubation.

We also walked down to the jetty, and there we saw several juvenile green turtles. A couple of teenage boys were fishing and they caught a spotted eagle ray. I was hoping they'd let it go - as they pulled it up it was just a stunningly beautiful animal. It was dark gray/black with white spots. It was hissing away, really angry (not surprisingly). They cut off its tail end to prevent it from stinging anyone with its barb. I hope they ate it and didn't just catch it for sport sake and kill it for no reason. Savannah cringed and it really affected her. It was good in the sense that she is even more appreciating the beauty of wild creatures and the sadness associated with needless killing. I am not a vegetarian nor opposed to hunting or fishing, but I do think we need to be cautious about which species we kill to eat, and some creatures should just be left alone. She has been reading books like HOOT and Flush by Carl Hiaasen and she said they really made her more environmentally conscious than she was before. This is great.

Kemp's ridley sea turtles

A Kemp's ridley hatchling heads to sea.
Sunrise at Padre Island National Seashore.
Dr. Donna Shaver, head of the sea turtle program at Padre Island National Seashore.
The hatchlings are amazingly camoflaged as they walk down the beach.
padre island national seashore trip details soon...

off to the coast

I'm off to go to Padre Island National Seashore which is on North Padre Island to report on Kemp's ridley sea turtles. North Padre Island is the longest remaining stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world, and it's (amazingly enough) along the Texas coast.

Kemp's are a fascinating sea turtle as they are the most critically endangered of the 7 sea turtle species but have started to recover due to a program in the 1990s. They nest in arribadas where thousands of them used to come ashore all in the same night. I saw an old movie of it and they would just climb all over one another in huge heaps and turtle eggs were getting dug up from other nests and it was craziness. Well now there aren't that many but they still come ashore around the same time. So there's no telling if I'll see one, but I should see the hatchlings.

I've never been to North Padre Island -though I have been to South Padre Island, many times, which is where all the college kids go to party. This is 150 miles north of that, sort of near Corpus Christi. I am looking forward to it. I love the ocean and the beach. It is like home.

franciscan blessing

My dad sent this to me, and i love it. i'm posting it here.

A Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half truths and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within
your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and
exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice,
freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer
from pain, rejection, starvation and want,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them,
and to turn their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others
claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of the God of Abraham and Sarah,
and of Jesus, born of our sister Mary,
and of the Holy Spirit, who broods
over the world as a mother
over her children,
be upon you and remain with you
always.

i am soooo going to fiji...

I am enthralled. Here's a concept. Find a remote uninhabited island. Invite 5000 people from around the world to build an ecotopian paradise. Only 100 people can visit the island at any one time, in a sort of time-share model, but everyone who buys in can vote on how the island develops. The price is right: only $220 covers 7 days of meals and accomodations, just not airfare (and $440 for 14 days, $660 for 21 days over 3 years - you can break it up).

The entire community must be built with the environment in mind - a carbon neutral paradise, where the funds help the local Fijians and harvest fruit and fish in a sustainable manner. When you visit, you can help build the accomodations and plan the community or you can just lounge soak up the tropical rays on the beach or snorkel offshore. And it will be on reality-TV for 3 years. Not an intrusive in-your-face broadcasting, and no one gets voted off the island. But TV cameras will record what the genius young people behind the venture call a global social experiment.

Check it out: www.tribewanted.com.
Or an MSN piece on it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13064802/?GT1=8211

I am there!

collecting seashells

One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach; one can only collect a few, and they are more beautiful if there are few. -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I really like this quote. Not only does it hold true for collecting seashells, it's true of friends, and activities and possessions. Being selective in our choice of who we spend our time with, or what activities we do makes them all the more precious. How many kids have a closet full of toys they played with once? When I lived with my dad, I didn't have many toys. Yet I entertained myself with books, with tree knots (which my brother and I called wacko whammos) and my big yellow Tonka truck. I don't remember feeling deprived.

telling the truth

If you tell the truth, have one foot in the stirrup. - Turkish Proverb
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. - 1 Timothy 6:10


That Turkish proverb was in the signature of a fellow rabble-rouser in my area of the country http://www.jsjremotesensing.com/id21.html, where people are bulldozing trees right in the floodplain across town. Here in my backyard, they mine sand with no state-mandated reclamation, and there are rampant violations of the one regulation they do have - that they can't discharge into a river: sand leaches into the rivers, turning it into a brown muddy mess, and damages the aquatic ecosystem (all this is documented by studies, photo & video evidence). Much of this 20-40,000 acres of forest upstream of Houston will soon turn into development or mine pits - and downstream is Lake Houston which provides the city's drinking water. Do we not realize that these forests not only protect our water, they protect people from catastrophic flooding? Flooding will inevitably get worse in this bayou floodplain city as developers and sand mining operations continue to bulldoze and plunder with glee. Economic gain can not be blindly pursued at the expense of the common good. (Photo of sand mine on the San Jacinto River (c) 2006 Bryan Carlile/Legacy Land Trust)

New York City decided it was cheaper to permanently protect over 140,000 acres of upstream forest than it was to build a new water treatment facility (this was reported in the World Bank/WWF 2003 report "Running Pure: The importance of forest protected areas to drinking water.") The cost to build a new plant was $6-8 BILLION plus $300-500 million annual operating costs. Preserving the land was $1-1.5 Billion over ten years. Houston likes its pork barrel projects though, in my researching sand mining I found that Houston spends $7.3 BILLION annually on transportation compared to the next big TX spender Dallas at only $1.9 billion, and all the rest fell under that. Transportation/road construction and concrete appear to be the largest purchasers of sand and gravel. Houston also just built several new water treatment plants on Lake Houston. Was protecting the forest ever considered? I seriously doubt it.

The Observer newspapers ran my OpEd this week and it turned out great. You can read it here - this is a Scan so it will open a GIF file - or here is a link to the online version. I'm writing a piece for CLEANHouston.org website on sand mining also that will be out soon. Some fascinating stuff coming out of my research...

I think it's interesting that Pulitzer-prize winning Times Picayune journalist Mark Schleifstein's warnings of what could happen in New Orleans with a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane were called "disaster porn" by his colleagues and editors - until afterwards when his Nostradamus-like predictions came true. People need to realize that destroying the environment, and building in the floodplain without adequately protecting a lot of greenspace is not only unwise, it is dangerous. I met Mark a few days after Katrina at the SEJ Conference (Society of Environmental Journalists), and seeing the Katrina video footage at the conferences opening session brought tears to my eyes - I don't watch TV so it was the first time I'd seen it.

Why is it so hard for people to use a little foresight?