Teddy Project

My friend Jonathan, the refuge manager at Canaan Valley NWR, has been working diligently on an initiative he cooked up called the Teddy Project.

WV Public Broadcasting features the Teddy Project in a recent radio broadcast.


The Teddy Project is a partnership between FWS and the Arts Institutes, where student animators partner with a National Wildlife Refuge to create a short video featuring a cartoon Teddy Roosevelt and his friend Puddles. Dozens of these cartoons have been produced thus far, bringing arts students and viewers closer to the NWR system and Conservation.

Alaska Follow Up

A newspaper in South Carolina reports on a trip to one of the unknown National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska, Togiak. I had the opportunity to spend nearly a week in Togiak several years back, and it is a jewel that does not deserve its anonymity, an incredible place of rivers, mountains, rugged shoreline, salmon, walrus, sea birds, bears and wolves. Unmatched fishing.

When I was in the Refuge, I was going to fly up to Kagati Lake, where these folks started their trip, but never made it there. Soon, I hope.

Read more here.

This Bigfoot Stuff

I have a friend who has devoted his life to saving wild critters. He and his wife rescue all sorts of wild things and keep them all at their place in Indiana. They travel around the country with their wildlife friends and get kids excited about wildlife.

Check out their site, and send them some support if you can, they need to buy lots of food.

Larry is also an expert on bigfoot. I talked to him recently about Bigfoot, and he carefully went through his argument for the existence of this big critter, including its range, which he says is across North America.

"I want to believe you Larry, I really do." I said to him. But Bigfoot in Indiana?

I was with George Schaller in his cabin office a few years ago and had commented on George's bigfoot track cast, and George had said that he believed that Bigfoot really could exists. Damn, that's a good endorsement if you ask me. Apparently Jane Goodall has said similar things.

So the other day I look at Google trends and there is bigfoot, number three. I click and see some lads in Georgia claim that they have a bigfoot carcass. Problem is, their bigfoot looks a lot like a $500 costume for sale on the internet, with a little pig intestine thrown on top to spice it up. Scientific American chimed in the day before the press conference, skeptical like any good scientist.

Apparently the press conference yesterday left a lot unanswered, and it appears that this is just one more hoax. Oh well, maybe next time...

I want to believe.

National Pollinators Week

Bees and other pollinators are critical to our survival. They've taken quite a beating recently, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is focusing on their importance this week.

Check it out here, don't forget to listen to a podcast or two.

Fledging

The NCTC Eaglecam has a video up of the second eaglet fledging yesterday just after 8 AM.

It has been a great season for these birds, and many folks have watched their development.

See it here.

Students Work to Improve Habitat

Check out the good work these students are doing.

Elyssa Clauson, 10, envisions a desertscape, there in the back, she said, pointing to an off-limits unkempt sweep of tall grass. "Sand and cactus could go there – and some lizards."

She held her ground when the boys pooh-poohed her idea as impractical because the lizards would slither off.

"The fence can have small holes," she said.

Let's Go Outside!

Here's a link to a report on a recent Fish and Wildlife Service sponsored meeting for health care and Conservation professionals that focused on People and Nature.

And more on the FWS "Let's Go Outside!" program.