Archive for the ‘wolves’ Category
NEWS RE WOLVES AS OF VALENTINE’S DAY, OF ALL THINGS:
ONE PERSON DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE - OUR WOLVES NEED YOU
Lakota Wolf, Jasmine Among the Roses, near upper Delaware River, in New Jersey HERE WE GO AGAIN - OUR OWN GOVERNMENT IN THE BUSINESS OF SLAUGHTER OF OUR FELLOW SPECIES. A few posts ago, red-winged blackbirds and starlings (and most likely the extremely rare and endangered rusty blackbirds; now and always, wolves. As I always write in these hot links, and encourage NJ WILD readers to do, ‘WE ARE HERE TO BE EARTH’S STEWARDS, NOT HER DESPOILERS!’ And, ‘ALL THAT IT TAKES FOR EVIL TO HAPPEN IS FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO DO NOTHING.” USE THE HOT LINKS. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LAND TRUST, such as D&R Greenway. KEEP OUR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE — a song says it for all of us, “This land is your land, this land is my land” — and this includes, especially, the wild creatures. When a government can exterminate wild creatures, willy nilly, without having to answer to the people, everything that made us America is deleted, especially “government by/of/for the people! I see a very short step between wiping out birds and wolves and eradicating troublous people. all this in the name of governance!
Dear Carolyn, 42. That’s how many Mexican gray wolves are left in wild… in the entire world. These wolves – found in the wild only in Arizona and New Mexico – face plenty of threats, including illegal killing by anti-wolf extremists. But now a Montana Congressman is taking aim at the life-saving protections these and other rare and beautiful animals need to survive. Rehberg’s two bills would eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for every single wolf in the Southwest, Midwest and Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies. The result? A no-holds-barred approach to wolf killing that would end efforts to stop wolf killings in the Southwest and could see Idaho lawmakers make good on their promise to “remove wolves by whatever means necessary.” If passed, this legislation would also be the first ever to exempt a single species from the Endangered Species Act – setting a dangerous precedent for removing protections for other imperiled wildlife. Make no mistake: These bills are bad for wolves, bad for the Endangered Species Act, and bad for the future of all America’s wildlife. Help safeguard the future of wolves and other wildlife in America. Send your message right now. We need to send a loud, clear message to Congress. Please take action now and help us send more than 50,000 messages to Congress by Friday. Even with Endangered Species Act protections, the fragile population of wolves in the American Southwest is in danger. Without them, these wolves could be doomed. For the Wild Ones,
P.S. We are anticipating many attacks on protections for wolves during this session of Congress, and we will be counting on you to help speak out for sound science and a lasting future for these magnificent creatures. Please stay tuned.
Rod MacIver, fine watercolorist and editor of the on-line journal, “Heron Dance”, created this painting of a wolf in snow, who could be mourning this latest tragedy, as do I. How can our government, our politicians slaughter in our name?
Wolves are the weavers of wildness.
Without wolves, nationally, the phrase “Wilderness Areas” is a tragic joke.
Without wolves, in our beleaguered New Jersey, NJ WILD will be forever oxymoron.
As I have done, in the Princeton University Chapel, and at the Dodge Poetry Festival, and at St. John the Divine, with the Paul Winter Consort, I want to howl with this wolf in the snow, mourning this latest tragedy:
Can anyone tell me how this can be? Bush is gone but his cruelties remain?
Please use this hot link to register your outrage at this destruction of our brothers, the wolves, so essential to Yellowstone, to Earth itself!
Carolyn Foote Edelmann of NJ WILD
I remain absolutely FURIOUS that wolf slaughter can happen on President Obama’s watch.
Nonetheless, there is something good about polar bears at the end of this. EVEN SO, write your congresspersons, senators, and new president, responding to wolf murder.
© Copyright 2009, Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife can be contacted at:
1130 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036
POLAR BEAR NEWS:
Dear Carolyn Foote,
I have some very exciting news to share with you.
Yielding to pressure from conservationists, including more than 50,000 NRDC Members and online activists, the Obama Administration has just announced that it will support an upgrade in international protection for polar bears.
This is extremely important, because if the world agrees to increase the polar bear’s protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), it would help end trophy hunting and stop the global trade in polar bear body parts.
Please take a moment to celebrate this announcement with me, because it would never have happened without the activism of NRDC supporters like you! And let’s give credit where credit is due: I encourage you to send a message right now to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — to thank him for doing the right thing for the sake of polar bear survival. But please don’t think this battle is over. Between now and March 2010, when the next CITES treaty talks take place, we will have to expand our campaign to make sure that other key nations line up with America’s pro-polar-bear position. So much is at stake: hundreds of polar bears are still being hunted as trophies, and their body parts traded, each year. Canada, which is home to two-thirds of the world’s polar bears and includes some of the world’s most important polar bear habitat, still allows both trophy hunting and commercial trade. If the polar bear is to survive, we must end these destructive practices by upgrading polar bear protection under CITES. Around the world, NRDC has been taking a leading role on this issue. Our team recently traveled to Geneva to discuss polar bear conservation with the CITES Standing Committee, and also reached out to allies in Norway, Russia and the European Union as we build international momentum for increasing protection. Over the next few months I’ll be writing to you again with news and updates — and asking you to take action to help protect polar bears from trophy hunting and trafficking. But make no mistake: the Obama Administration’s endorsement of tougher polar bear protection was absolutely critical, and I don’t believe it would have happened without more than 50,000 NRDC Members and online activists making your voices heard — loud and clear. So give yourself credit, and send a note of thanks to Ken Salazar, too, for standing up for polar bears. Tomorrow, the fight continues, but for today you and I have something to celebrate! Sincerely,
Jasmine, one of New Jersey’s Lakota Wolves consummate greeter and protector in her own preserve… I have my own theory about the reasons for Palin’s abrupt departure. Had she remained in office, something will come to light so that she would share the fate of the previous governor of Illinois. We shall see. Defenders of Wildlife feels it is the searchlight which they persistently/insistently shine upon Palin’s slaughters, which has hounded her from office. We shall see. See UPDATE from Defenders of Wildlife on July 31, particularly thanking our enlightened Congressman Rush Holt, ever our partner in preserving and protecting nature. As I always urge NJ WILD readers, use those hot links; write those senators and representatives; send in those letters to editors to save nature at all costs. We are here to be stewards, not despoilers. Ours is a representative government. Never forget that, in recent years, our historic rights and freedoms were nearly obliterated. The Palin Effect is a lingering symptom of the disease called tyranny, to fight which evil our Founding Fathers and Mothers pledged their “lives, their fortunes and sacred honor.” For their sakes, for our own, and especially for those who come after, we must use this freedom of speech to retain and even enhance America’s founding principles. Vigilance is in order. Your voice is essential. Join, support and answer hot links for advocacy groups: local and national chapters of Sierra, Audubon, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, and the like. Buttress your local non-profits, –such as D&R Greenway Land Trust, Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, Friends of Princeton (or Montgomery or West Windsor) OPEN SPACE, Kingston Greenways, and others. What set America apart, before the Revolution, was our wild stretches, our untrammeled lands. Edward Abbey knew that a tyrant, –from within or without–, could destroy our liberty by closing parks. Whether national or state, county or town, in wild spaces people discover their true selves, their full selves. In the open, with NATURE, people recharge, restore and THINK. All of which our government, –federal and many complicit states–, steadily/deliberately discouraged over recent years. Reclaim your voice, your parks, defend your creatures. No matter why Palin leaves, support those who defend our wild places. BUILD MOMENTUM Remember: “All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” [Edmund Burke] Your wild advocate, Carolyn Niki Richardson who cherishes, even feeds the Lakota Wolves, sends this news on the heels of NJ WILD’s post re Jasmine and her brethren: UPDATE July 31 from Defenders of Wildlife:
Dear Carolyn
In the two days since I last wrote you…
Even with this phenomenal momentum, we’re in for a tough fight in the days and weeks ahead. Fortunately, we have some great allies in our efforts to save wolves and other wildlife from aerial gunning — allies like your representative, Rep. Rush Holt , and you. to captialize on this amazing momentum and build even more vital support for the PAW Act.
Today, representatives are headed to their home districts for the August congressional recess, and senators will return home at the end of next week. But even while Congress is out of session, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund will continue our fight to end Alaska’s awful aerial wolf-killing programs and prevent this terrible practice from spreading to other states. This from Defenders of Wildlife earlier in July - which triggered this post: Dear Carolyn,Today, Congressman George Miller (CA) will re-introduce the Protect America’s Wildlife (PAW) Act — federal legislation to end Alaska’s barbaric aerial wolf-killing programs and prevent the slaughter from spreading to other states. And, for the first time ever, the bill will also be introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), joined by Senator Ben Cardin (MD).Just three days ago, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin blasted Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund’s efforts to save wolves in her resignation speech.
With your help, we’ve put aerial gunning in the national spotlight and built momentum to stop it. Now we need your support to seize this moment and fight to end these awful wolf-killing programs… Thanks to your efforts, the PAW Act already has more than 90 original cosponsors in the House of Representatives! To educate Members of Congress and their staff, this week we’re launching a powerful new ad using a photograph from the March aerial wolf slaughter of 84 wolves near the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve — gruesome evidence of the brutality of Alaska’s aerial wolf-killing programs. *** � Just wanted to make sure you are aware that Senator Feinstein and Rep. Miller introduced the PAW Act yesterday to stop aerial hunting. The act is S.1971 The Protect America’s Wildlife Act. Info is on Defenders website.
O.K., normally I write to NJ WILD readers about beauty and poetry, about peace and restoration/revivivication. Every once in awhile I simply boil over and this is one of them. The spurious president is going out with a bang not a whimper, and the bang dooms wolves. Can YOU SIT BACK and let this happen unopposed? Our President-to-be is quoted as seeing Genesis as a mandate for STEWARDSHIP. He is determined to keep reminding the world, not just his own followers, not just Americans, that we are BORROWING THIS PLANET FROM OUR CHILDREN AND OUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN. WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO TO PRESERVE OUR WILD BROTHERS? a furious Carolyn Jasmine, of the Lakota Wolves of New Jersey, gazes with her riveting eyes, deep into the eyes of her human brothers and sisters…
Brenda Jones immortalizes one of my wild dinner companions, the great horned owl.
My first solo dinner of the New Year held interesting components. My west-facing table held hefty home-made spaghetti, evidence of my split loyalties, featuring the new product, Jersey Fresh (canned! –available at Trenton Farmers Market) tomatoes, accented by herbes de Provence, complete with lavender. Bayberry candles fluttered before lace curtains, framing the relentless darkness of this time of year. I could call this another “Silent Night.” I might add “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” As I relished this deeply nourishing food, I relived sustaining moments with dear friends who know how to honor the sacred times. My room was quieter than a whisper. Suddenly, out across the floodplain, I heard the haunting courtship calls of the great horned owl. January is their spring. Each year, the male returns first, sounding forlorn to human ears, seeking the return of his mate. Immediately, the dark and my hushed room came alive, throbbing with true wildness. I rushed out onto my Canal Pointe porch, so that my very being could be brushed by sound waves from this welcome dinner companion. Read the rest of this entry »
RESCUED LAKOTA WOLF, JASMINE, MEETS AND GREETS THOSE WHO COME TO HEAR HER TALE AND THAT OF HER TIMBER, ARCTIC AND TUNDRA RELATIONS, UP NEAR NJ’S DELAWARE WATER GAP A specialist in wolves, Rick Bass is a stellar nature writer, whose books gave me everything I needed in order to meet and write of New Jersey’s Lakota wolves, for the Princeton Packet recently. Bass’s The Ninemile Wolves set the tone I required, –from despair through heroic recovery efforts to what seemed lasting hope. His book follows a modern wolf pack, resurgent in Montana, –threatened, then miraculously thriving outside protected territory. Calling himself “a follower of wolves”, Rick Bass insists at the outset, “The fear surrounding wolves and their abilities is so much larger than the animals themselves.” We have seen too many contorted pictures of these noble creatures, –demonized by church and state, fangs emphasized, angry eyes smoldering, eyes and demeanor nothing like the gentle eyes beyond counting that I encountered at New Jersey’s Lakota Wolf Preserve. At the outset of the the Nine Mile Wolves project, Bass muses, concerning our centuries of depredation against wolves, that “To regret deeply is to live afresh.” At the successful conclusion, he writes my vivid experience up at Lakota, “Wolves are healing a fragmented landscape.” In The Nine Mile Wolves, “One lone female… led the way to recolonization that has expanded to nearly seven hundred wolves, with more than forty packs throughout Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.” This last is from the 1992 preface to a new edition. In light of recent news of the candidacy of Sarah Palin for one of the highest offices in our land, I shudder to consider the fate of these miraculously restored wild creatures. For awhile, I had relaxed in gratitude and gratification that we have finally begun to make amends to our wild brothers, charged as we are to be stewards of this planet, not its despoilers. Now a woman, who could hold the fate of our nation and therefore the globe in her hands, is revealed as favoring a $150 bounty for the foreleg of each dead wolf brought in through a vicious aerial hunting program. Under her aegis as Governor, nearly 800 Alaskan wolves have already perished. She is also suing federal agencies to have polar bears removed from threatened and endangered lists. She prates of the sacredness of human life while extinguishing that of those whom the Indians revered as the four-leggeds, our relations, and our charge upon this planet. Read the rest of this entry »
Brenda Jones sends the Mists of Morning When the world is too much with us, a little LESS clarity is in order. In this season, hurtling toward fall, a morning walk, an evening stroll, can bring the gift of fog. In our region, with its many waterways, we can go in quest of the blessing of mists. John Keats had it right, in “To Autumn”, (well, EVERYwhere!, actually), celebrating this “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” Especially in New Jersey, still the Garden State, and counting. Fields and farm markets are overflowing now with her jewel-like produce. In face of so much bounty, we might join John in talking to emergent Autumn: “Who has not seen thee, oft amid thy store?… / sitting careless on a granary floor / Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind…/Drows’d with the fume of poppies…” I have yet to encounter “the fume of poppies.” But Keats’ mists are near at hand. We are blessed, in the Princeton area, by the D&R Canal and Towpath, which can be Mist-Central now that its waters cool at night before meeting morning warmth. This baffling time, –financially, politically, even spiritually in our country–, it is good to have a place In which to practice walking when we cannot really see ahead. In which simply to place one foot(e) in front of the other, keep on. Read the rest of this entry » |
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