By Jon Christensen
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Conservation has a curious and troubled relationship with history. One might think it straightforward. Conservation, after all, has conservative roots. It seeks to conserve.
What does it seek to conserve? Some version of the world bequeathed by history. But which history? Ah, there’s the rub.
Unfortunately, […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Water and the Fight Against Poverty
The article,“Pipe Dreams” by Fred Pearce (Conservation In Practice, January-March, 2005) brought home to me the wonder of water, but I have a small grouse about an omission.
A few years ago I wrote for an overseas magazine a two-part feature entitled “Ever […] Read More »
The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist
By Carol Grant Gould
Island Press, 2004
Reviewed by Eric Dinerstein
The Mount Rushmore of modern-day conservation biology is easy to imagine. From left to right gaze the likenesses of E.O.Wilson, Dan Janzen, Gordon Orians, John Terborgh, and Michael Soul?. The pure field biologists who have […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Although conventional wisdom holds that growing cocoa (Theobroma cacao) under a canopy of native trees is sustainable, this may not be true in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. New research shows that the canopy over cocoa farms there is losing its diversity: the original trees are dying off and are being […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Protections for the critically endangered leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) don’t go far enough. Whereas the focus has been on protecting migrating sea turtles from longline fisheries in the open ocean, new research shows that many North Atlantic leatherbacks spend their summers feeding in coastal and shelf waters off Canada […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Habitat restoration can have unexpected and unwanted effects. New research shows that restoration efforts on a small Mediterranean island helped a gull that was already superabundant and that preys on two at-risk seabirds.
“When designing a conservation project, you have to be concerned with the side effects your actions […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Contrary to fears of U.K. conservation organizations, genetically modified crops could help rather than hinder birds. New research shows that genetically modified (GM) beet fields can produce more weed seeds for birds to eat in the fall and bring higher sugar yields than conventionally managed beet fields.
GM beets […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Toxic paint may not be enough to keep boats from spreading nonnative marine species around the world. The bryozoan Watersipora subtorquata can grow on toxic paint, and new research shows that colonies of this tiny marine animal can support — and presumably transport — many other species including amphipods, […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
Ecotourism may be part of the key to conserving Africa’s endangered wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). A new study shows that park visitors are willing to pay a premium for seeing the dogs in their dens, suggesting that this charismatic species could raise funds to help save itself.
“Tourism revenue […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
When it comes to endangered species, there’s much more at stake than biodiversity. The many ecosystem services that animals provide are also at risk. A new analysis projects that one-fourth of bird species will become so scarce over the next century that they might as well be extinct, thereby […] Read More »
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
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By Sarah DeWeerdt
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
It’s a formula known to dreamers and innovators everywhere: combine food and wine in the presence of good company, and you’ll get an idea — often accompanied by a rough napkin sketch — that might in some small way change the world. In Michael Andreu’s case, […] Read More »
By Nancy Bazilchuk
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
The life of an inventor is not easy. A prominent British physicist reportedly told Thomas Edison his light bulb was “a completely idiotic idea,” and physicists told Chester Carlson, the inventor of the Xerox machine, that his dry-ink transfer process could never possibly work.
So it […] Read More »
By Joshua Brown
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
More employee than pet, Camas, a seven-year-old German shepherd, sniffs with precision. After hundreds of hours of training, she can distinguish between wolf and coyote scat, find endangered tortoises the size of a half-dollar under rocks in the Mojave Desert, and identify the scent of elusive […] Read More »
By Kevin Krajick
April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)
One recent January day, Michael Klemens was touring the grounds of Harlem Valley Psychiatric Hospital, about 100 km north of New York City. Closed and largely abandoned since 1994, the 340-ha site spanning a small valley flanked by wooded hills is slated for redevelopment into […] Read More »
