David Ingram in an interview with Hancock Wildlife Foundation's (HWF) webmaster, Richard Pitt, about some of the history of the foundation. We're sure you'll find this interview interesting and entertaining since both Richard and David Ingram have known David Hancock for decades. Some interesting insights into the background that lead to the creation of Hancock Wildlife Foundation
The "Story of a River" and how HWF continues David Hancock's 50 years of teaching, giving lectures, and exposing the world to the wonders of wildlife in general and the eagle in particular.
David Ingram has travelled with David Hancock in collecting some of the grouse and ptarmigan that Hancock used to raise for reintroduction into areas where their numbers had dwindled to nothing. Richard's account of the life cycle of the salmon and how its dwindling numbers in many spawning runs is affecting not only the eagles that rely upon their dead carcasses for food - and in the case of the newly fledged eagles from the current season, typically their first ever meal not given them by their parents, but also the bears and even the trees in the forests.
The "canary in the mine" is how he describes these top-of-the-food-chain predators. Salmon numbers rise when the oceans are in good health, and fall when the oceans suffer from things like polution and sea lice - or even the recent migration North of the humbolt squid due to changes in ocean temperature and food availability in their typical areas. With high salmon numbers the eagles, killer whales and bears increase in numbers and the forests do well. When the oceans suffer then so does the salmon and following them the whales, eagles and bears - and forests.
The International Society for Ecological Economics, and its regional associations around the world, is a gathering of ecologists with a profound goal of bringing sanity to the greed normally displayed by the world's economic leaders for the purposes of changing to a sustainable relationship between people and our world's ecological systems.
In my many visits to northern British Columbia and particularly Alaska since 1958, the pronounced melting of the continent's ice sheets has been a dominant feature and warning of the world’s changing climate. My current annual visits aboard the Princess ships have further ingrained the perilous plight our greed-driven society has unleashed on the globe.
The following is a fine review, in Brighter Planet, of the key elements that effect the “sea rise” as a consequence of global warming. Understanding the simple physics that bring about the melting of ice is a very good start in understanding the issues.
Published Friday October 9, 2009
By David Hendee
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
An Omaha federal judge issued the stiffest jail sentence in recent memory Friday for a wildlife violation.
Judge Joseph Bataillon sentenced Lamar Bertucci Sr., 39, of Macy, Neb., to 366 days in prison for possession an eagle part.
Bataillon said he hoped the sentence would send a message to others who violate federal laws protecting eagles, hawks and other raptors.
Mark Webb, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent who has worked as a state or federal officer in Nebraska off and on for more than three decades, said he wasn't aware of anyone receiving a longer jail sentence from a federal court in Nebraska for such a crime.
