Bats are Decidely Un-Creepy!

I love bats. Yes like the little flying mammals. (And like the baseball kind too, but not as much as the mammals). In fact, for a brief time as an undergrad, I helped out the ONLY bat ecologist in the entire Department of Wildlife Ecology. And I had a damn good time doing it, too.

To wit. A PSA about bats that need our help! Please help these bats!

Save America's Bats From A Devastating Epidemic!

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a deadly epidemic that is spreading among America's bats. It has killed more than 1 million bats in 14 states. There is no cure...yet.

But we have a plan, and we need your help.

See this video news report from WSMV-TV.

Help Save America's Bats Today
Go to the Pepsi Refresh site and vote for The Nature Conservancy's project to build an artificial bat cave in Tennessee.

We're in a national competition for funding throughout November, and every vote counts.

You can even vote via text messaging on your phone. Just message 104201 to Pepsi (73774).

Tell your friends, families and co-workers. Share our project on Facebook and Twitter.

You can vote every day in November for our project. Please do!

How to Find our Project and Vote on the Site
The links here will take you straight to the voting page for our site, where you can learn more about it. The first time you click Vote, the site will require you to register. It's quick and simple. After that signing in to vote each day is easy.

And please add your comments at the bottom of our Pepsi page.

Why Care?
Bats are fascinating, vital elements of our natural world. A single bat can devour 600 insects a night. One million bats can eat 694 tons of insects per year, keeping pests in check.

Our Project
The Nature Conservancy will build an artificial cave near an existing hibernation cave in Tennessee. It will be underground and will mimic the environmental conditions of the natural cave. Artificial caves have been successful bat roosts, but winter hibernation sites have not been attempted before.

Our artificial cave will be a safe haven for bats to hibernate in during winter and a test site for WNS treatments. Several disinfectants can kill the fungus believed to kill WNS, but they can harm other cave animals. Our artificial cave won't house other animals and could be disinfected when bats are absent.

Our Track Record Working with Bats and Caves
The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee has been a leader in cave and bat conservation since the 1980s. Tennessee has more caves than any other state, and we feel a great responsibility for our cave ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee has purchased nine bat caves and manages dozens of others under agreements with landowners.

Please vote today to save America's bats...and every day in November 2010!

This Is a Tribute

Here is a fantastic article.

It starts out with a fantastic intro that talks about Tenacious D.

It then goes into a fantastic bit of metaphor.

It includes this quote, which made me read the article in the first place: "The job of river conservation boils down to this: If at all possible, save the original; create or save tributes where you can’t."

This Is a Tribute | Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy

Because I Really Love Oysters

Ok...so first, let me start out by saying that I'm a conservation scientist who used to work in large part for something called the "Upper Mississippi River Program". That's what this is based on, but it's purely MY opinions.

Disclaimer over.

So. At a conference in February of this year, I heard the director of The Nature Conservancy's Louisiana chapter talk about how much work they'd put in over the last few summers lovingly restoring oyster reefs and how they needed volunteers to go down and help them out this summer as well. I seriously considered going down there at the time, but I ultimately decided that the timing wouldn't work out for me to go this year. Less than 3 months later, all that work they'd done to help out these oysters is in SERIOUS danger of being for nothing. And I regret my decision not to go down there and help out the good people of coastal Louisiana.

So. In order to try and fulfill SOME of the duties I feel I've failed on, I'm going to post some links. The Nature Conservancy was featured on the CNN Telethon to help the Gulf last night, and there are still a myriad of ways that we can all give to the Fund for Gulf Coast Restoration or any other of the fine charities that are getting involved to help out in what's pretty much one of the most heinous environmental disasters that I've seen in my lifetime.

That said...here are some links. Please help out if you can:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/30/impact.oil.spill/index.html

http://www.nature.org/multimedia/features/art31637.html

http://blog.nature.org/tag/gulf-oil-spill-tnc/

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/gulfofmexico/


And...as an added bonus...I'm going to take a minute and link to an article that makes me want to scream and hit people for being completely uninformed about things and then presuming that they have an obviously correct opinion.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/13/kemp.oil.river/?iref=obnetwork

Here's what's wrong with this.

It's not like the Army Corps isn't using SCIENCE to control the river levels. I mean, come on. I appreciate you thinking that they're obviously flawed as they're technically a branch of the American armed forces (eyeroll), but let me tell you something. I have the pleasure of working with a LOT of Army Corps of Engineers' Mississippi River scientists .......the water levels aren't just arbitrarily assigned....they're assigned to minimize risks to both fragile environments AND the people living along the river floodplain.

In addition. I present to you some info about the other river/basin in question...the Atchafalaya. It's in pretty big trouble most of the year due mostly to........LOW WATER LEVELS!!! Yeah. Let's take it's water away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchafalaya_Basin

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987/02/23/1987_02_23_039_TNY_CARDS_000347146

http://www.fws.gov/atchafalaya/


There....my piece on the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico spoken. Mostly.