Another essay link

My Prairie chicken Festival essay has been published and can be found online at http://www.prairiefirenewspaper.com/2012/07/the-inaugural-nebraska-prairie-chicken-festival . In other news, a fire is burning in the Nebraska Natural Forest near Halsey. The last I heard a thousand acres have burned and the blaze is not fully contained.

Essay link

The Prairie Fire essay appears at http://www.prairiefirenewspaper.com/2012/06/tree-planting-forestation-in-nebraska-a-continuing-success

Nebraska's Forests

Since inheriting the family pine tree farm in Louisiana in 2003, my interest in trees, forests and forestry has increased dramatically.

One result of that interest was learning Nebraska has two national forests. That alone, makes Nebraska, a Great Plains state, somewhat unique. Not every state can claim a national forest. Nebraska’s national forests are also unique in where they are located (in the Sandhills) and how they came to exist.

Because I believe many Nebraskans are not aware of the uniqueness and history of their national forests and the importance early Nebraskans attached to trees, I wrote an essay on these topics that appears in the June issue of Lincoln’s Prairie Fire newspaper. I invite you to read that essay and hope you find it interesting and informative.

More on Prairie Chickens

My last post mentioned a report on Nebraska’s first Prairie Chicken Festival. That report has been written and submitted for publication. I understand the report was favorably received and may appear in print next month.

In the meantime, I urge you to visit the blog, “A Land Ethic,” alandethic.blogspot.com, for an excellent post about one of the Festival’s Friday night performances that had meaning beyond its entertainment value 

The blog’s author, Larkin Powell, Professor of Conservation Biology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, also made presentations at the Festival. One of them addressed habitat for Prairie Chickens in Nebraska and included reasons to be positive about Nebraska’s Prairie Chicken population and future.

Despite his optimistic comments, the May-June issue of Audubon magazine—in highlighting efforts being made in Missouri to preserve prairies noted Missouri’s Prairie Chicken population may have declined 80% from the early 1970s and may now number less than 250,000—brings home that habitat preservation should not be taken for granted but instead, be continually encouraged.

Prescription for a long life

Until I am able to post about my recent trip to the Sandhills for the Prairie Chicken Festival  I want to say I agree with retired University of Nebraska Professor Paul A. Johnsgard who believes that the hours devoted to watching birds, like those spent reading or stargazing, are not counted against one's allocated time on earth.

It's spring

Spring's signs are unmistakably present.

People are active.

Flower planting, mulching, mowing, and other landscaping tasks are now common in our neighborhood. (I don't like weeding.)

Birds are active also.

New sightings include red-winged blackbirds and wild turkeys. Grackles think the bird feeder belongs to them. This morning a mallard walked the golf course. Male goldfinches have turned a bright yellow. House finches are everywhere.

What a pretty time of year!

Tis the season

In a matter of days grass turned green, tree buds appeared (and leaves followed), flowers and weeds bloomed and lawns were mowed. Golfers are already frustrated. Temperatures sometimes reached the 80s.

Where we live male goldfinches have turned bright yellow and (common) grackles have arrived in numbers to overwhelm bird feeders. Wild turkeys across the road gobble every morning and evening.

It must be spring!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves!

This morning's low was close to freezing. Baseball's opening day is not yet a week past. Mother's Day is a month away and we still need April showers to bring May flowers.

Joel Satore

I have again been reminded of Nebraskans who work tirelessly on issues involving conservation and preservation at the international, national and state levels. I appreciate their efforts and believe those individuals are worthy of praise for their good work.

Joel Satore is one such Nebraskan.

Behind his many, highly regarded picture assignments for National Geographic and numerous photography books, Satore has embarked on a project to photograph the 6,000 animal, insect, reptilian, amphibian species captive in American zoos to create of record of what animal species used to be a part of our world. This self-assigned and self-funded project is garnering, as it should, both national and local attention. For example, earlier this month his project was the subject of a segment on the NBC Nightly News and last Sunday’s Lincoln Journal Star had a feature article on the project.

While the attention is welcome as a means of increasing awareness of the often-fragile state of wildlife, that such a project is necessary is very disappointing.

The Journal Star article reports there are 1.25 million animal species and half of those are predicted to be extinct by the end of the century. And the species expected to die away include such well-known and treasured animals as panda, polar bear and woodland caribou. What a shame!

An almost unimaginable sight

Each year Sandhills cranes arrive in Nebraska on their way to the artic from Texas and Mexico. The Nebraska stop, which can last for weeks, enables the cranes to fatten up and gather strength for the harsh conditions of the far north.

Daytime finds the cranes, numbering in the thousands (and that is no exaggeration), in cornfields and prairies feeding. At sunset those thousands of cranes begin their nightly flight to the Platte River. They remain there all night roosting in the river’s extremely shallow water standing on very long legs, all the while dancing and honking and clucking with their several foot long tracheas.

Sharleen and I, for the first time, took the opportunity last Thursday to experience the majesty and beauty of those thousands of cranes descending on the Platte to roost. Our two hours in the blind was an experience unlike any we have had in our lives and almost defies description. Next year we hope to return next year to experience the sunrise departure of the cranes from the river for another day of gorging.

You should join us.

A rare day

Sharleen taking a day off occurs rarely. But she did just that last Wednesday and we made the most of it.

We spent most of the day purchasing needed items for the house. The most important was, in anticipation of the arrival of our new bedroom furniture within a month, a queen size mattress and box springs and sheets. Now, with one big exception, we are ready for that bedroom furniture to arrive. The big exception is we have no lamps or overhead light for that room.  We do have multiple flashlights and a lantern.

Returning home from our excursion we found a delivered package containing Sharleen’s newly ordered binoculars. With their arrival we are ready for our trip west on the 15^th of March for Sandhills crane watching. That trip has both of us excited.

I am also excited about recent deer tracks in the snow and a new identified bird species, a White-Breasted Nuthatch.

Since then

Since posting “Stay Tuned” I have visited the Nebraska History Museum to take in the exhibit about Nebraska’s involvement in early aviation.

I was disappointed.

Learning Charles Lindbergh took flying lessons in Lincoln was interesting. So too was learning Lincoln was home to several airplane manufacturers (none of which survived). But the small exhibit was mostly text, photographs and posters. Physical pieces from the period were few and limited to such things as flying caps, jackets and goggles.

Much more fascinating was an exhibit about Nebraska’s participation in World War II. The exhibit occupies more than one-half of one of the museum’s floors. This exhibit is, in today’s parlance, multi-media utilizing a slide show, photographs and actual radio broadcasts to present Nebraska’s place in the war effort. Period pieces include weapons, uniforms, a military motorcycle and both military and government documents. They are an excellent complement to the “presentation” components and the exhibit is one I can heartily recommend.