Number 85 - To see a tree asmiling.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous 4th

A good day here in the Mid Atlantic. A lot of outside work done: lawn mowed, weed-whacking and edging, got patio cleaned up (finally) of last year's debris and leaves. Property is looking good and will look better in the future. I am on a roll.

Clicked.

Thanks for message Danon. Stradee did relay your message, and we're all waiting to hear your and Patti's verdict on the book. Hope you both liked it - but if you didn't, at least it has the merit of being brief. On the way back we flew over the Florida coastline. Even from 30,000 ft you can see that horrible black goop spreading like an oily cancer. If I see one more black-goop-covered marine creature slowly asphyxiating - is there a more horrible death?! - I may just join the legion of people calling the BP "emergency" center in Houston and making assorted threats. Good to see you and have a very happy 4th.

Thank you so much, HS. The book was captivating. It's one of the few I've read that once started I could not stop until I'd read it through. I am surprised that the story was from approx 30 years ago. I don't remember it being in the news. But, that stuff wasn't news back then.
Thanks a million.
We are giving the book to our local library so more people can appreciate it.

Hi all. Clicked.

Glad to read these news. I'm re-reading the book myself and promised to send it to Stradee when I've finished with it. You're right it's not a recent story, and the only way I got to know about it to begin with is that my late mother served as chairman of a charity supporting dolphins and whales; someone sent that book to her foundation, so I read it also. Btw, you will like the motto printed on the letterhead of the foundation - it's from Psalms , King James version: "Deep calleth unto deep at the sound of thy waterspouts; All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me". I know there are many new translations of the Bible, but the old text sounds more majestic to my non-literary ear

Hi back, so good to see you. Your avatar is very, very timely considering my post. Clicking along now I'm back, encouraging all to continue!

Thanks, ehBeth.

Did you know that this year Detroit found itself so broke it decided to skip 4th of July fireworks altogether; the good people of Windsor, Ontario, just across the water, charitably suggested that their own celebration for Canada Day on July 1st be combined with the destitute neighbor's. I think the combined fireworks display took place on the Saturday (July 3rd). No prizes for guessing who paid for it

cool, i didn't know that, Windsor, being an auto city has its own problems, but over all we're doing better than our poor neighbours, hoping they see some relief soon

hope everyone had a good 4th

Thanks, DJ. I'm sure everyone here returns your wishes and hopes you had a fun Canada Day. Are you joining the click-stream pros?!

when i remember

i do use care2 to send e cards now and again

Hi DJ, HS, Sumac and all good Wildclickers.

HS, the book reminded me of an album of music by Ray Lynch - Deep Breakfast.

That was awhile ago and in those days it was called New Age music. I still have my antique copy and my antique player to make sound with it.

I keep lots of stuff - I came across two little hand waving flags the other day - they each have 48 stars.

My attic is filled with old stuff.

LOL Danon - you may recall Pres. Reagan started his first term after he turned 70. His answer whenever someone muttered anything along the lines of "too old" was to say he knew for a fact he had canpaigned "in all 13 states". Your flag with the 48 stars is a mere stapling - speaking of trees, as we are

Remember?! There's no such thing as "remember"; on the day you decided to be my friend you agreed to being reminded forcefully of your duties in this world. Ask these good people here, they've all known me forever. To sum up: you will henceforth click daily each and every time you have an internet connection available. My prose is crystal-clear, I always thought, perhaps asymptotically approaching limpid. My modesty is hard to beat as well

They are still logging the rain forests in Indonesia:

Indonesian Firm Accused of Clearing Rain ForestsBy AUBREY BELFORD
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The environmental group Greenpeace has accused one of the world’s largest pulp, paper and palm oil companies of aggressively clearing Indonesian rain forests and throwing into doubt a landmark billion-dollar deal that aims to fight climate change by curbing deforestation.

In a report released Monday, Greenpeace accused a subsidiary of the Indonesian family conglomerate Sinar Mas of secretly planning a massive expansion of pulp mills and cutting down essential forests, including habitats for endangered tigers.

An executive with the subsidiary, Asia Pulp and Paper, denied the charges.

The Greenpeace report says that an internal 2007 document shows that Asia Pulp drew up plans to significantly increase its pulp mill capacity to 17.5 million tons a year from 2.6 million tons.

The report also said that Asia Pulp had sought more than a million hectares in new concessions to meet this demand. In the Sumatran provinces of Riau and Jambi alone, the company sought 900,000 hectares, or 2.2 million acres, more than half of which was granted, Greenpeace says.

“What is actually happening in the field is they keep expanding because their timber concessions are not enough to supply their mills,” said Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace’s lead forest campaigner in Indonesia.

Asia Pulp’s sustainability chief, Aida Greenbury, denied that the company had confidentially made any such expansion plans.

“To support production of 15 million tons of pulp a year is just impossible,” Mrs. Greenbury said, because the company would not be able to harvest enough wood to feed the mills. “I don’t know how they came up with 15 million tons.”

She added, “It’s impossible to plan expansion of pulp mills secretly because we need to get approval from the local government, the central government, everything else.”

Greenpeace also charges that much of the land set aside and cleared overlaps with endangered-species habitats.

Mrs. Greenbury said that Asia Pulp did not use wood from forests it deemed to be of “high conservation value,” which included deep peat and major endangered-species habitats. The company takes around 85 percent of its wood from plantations, she said, with the rest coming from degraded land or lower-value forests.

Greenpeace also charges that Asia Pulp has cleared peatlands more than three meters, or about 10 feet, in depth. In Indonesia, the clearing of such deep peatland is illegal because the land, which is made up of semidecomposed vegetation, releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases when burned or drained.

Hadi Daryanto, the Forestry Ministry’s director general of forestry management, said he could not comment on the report because he had not yet seen a copy of it. He added that he had heard no reports of Asia Pulp clearing peatland more than three meters deep.

The Greenpeace report also criticizes several multinational companies, including Wal-Mart, Hewlett Packard, Carrefour and KFC, for buying from Sinar Mas and urges them to suspend dealings with the company.

The accusations of wrongdoing are particularly sensitive in Indonesia because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has staked much of his global prestige on acting against climate change. Large-scale deforestation has made the country the world’s third-largest emitter of climate-change-causing gases, behind China and the United States, according to some estimates.

The country signed a $1 billion deal with Norway in May that imposes a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear virgin forest and peatland.

The deal is part of an approach to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which is widely seen as one of the few areas of progress that came out of the collapsed climate change talks in Copenhagen last year.

But Greenpeace’s accusations — and Sinar Mas’s denials — hint at what critics say are major hurdles in the plan. Bureaucratic dysfunction, corruption and Indonesia’s sheer size create confusion over what is happening in the field. At the same time, environmentalists, companies and governments frequently disagree on what constitutes environmentally sensitive land and what does not.

“This is a big question mark for the government of what forest protection will look like,” Mr. Maitar of Greenpeace said. “If the big companies like A.P.P. or Sinar Mas as a group are still doing business as usual, still doing forest clearing, so what’s the meaning of the moratorium?”

Still creaking today..... At my age that's a good thing.

sumac, yes, asia is still a dictatorship - ie., there are a couple of really rich people and there are millions of very poor people living in poverty.

Same thing is happening in Iraq and afganistan. I read a few days ago that the coupla people in charge were shipping out BILLIONS of USA dollars right in front of everybody to banking institutions all around the world. It doesn't take a fifth grader to know the reason - the rich guys are preparing for the exodus of American support.
That money is OUR TAX money sent to support rebuilding their country. Of course, it was our bombs and stuff that caused the damage for the most part and the bombs of the bad guys doing their part to cause as much discord as possible.
I quote Gen. Sherman "War is Hell"

And, I would like to add my own thought, "War is Stupid"

Just read Bartletts Quotations - Almost to a person the historians of BC all agree that War is a useless and degrading thing and is fought between two rich men at the expense of the lives of most of their young men. Not even taking into consideration the collateral damage to women and children.

My goodness, missed so much here the past few days!

The 4th was quiet...worked on the deck...primer coat today...spiffin' the place.

HS, i'm looking forward to the book you sent dan, and i hope you liked reading {portions} of the book i sent...some chapters much better than others.

My God! If i see one more bird, fish, dolphin, whale, turtle, harmed i swear i'm going balistic. Perhaps better i work ouside and stay away from tv and computer. damn

dan, truer words, etc.

sue, unfortunately, wildlife and habitat suffers when people can't sustain themselves except for what they can find in their immediate vicinity.

Beautiful Monarch butterflies migrating to Mexico are finding their habitat being destroyed also. When authorities attempt stopping looters, they're shot.

Beth, hope you wearn't affected by the power outages in Canada. Heard NPR news earlier in the day, but not certain where the problems were.

Dear wildclickers, i'm returning to the great outdoors (while we can still enjoy breathing) and praying you all are safe and have a super day.

I
m with Stradd. But in this heat and humidity, I go to the great outdoors at 7 am (up at 4 or 5), and come in at 11:30 or so. That is the best that I can do.

Yes, war is stupid.

Agency Agreed Wildlife Risk From Oil Was ‘Low’By LESLIE KAUFMAN
The federal agency charged with protecting endangered species like the brown pelican and the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle signed off on the Minerals Management Service’s conclusion that deepwater drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico posed no significant risk to wildlife, despite evidence that a spill of even moderate size could be disastrous, according to federal documents.

By law, the minerals service, before selling oil leases in the gulf, must submit an evaluation of the potential biological impact on threatened species to the Fish and Wildlife Service, whose responsibilities include protecting endangered species on land. Although the wildlife agency cannot block lease sales, it can ask for changes in the assessment if it believes it is inadequate, or it can insist on conducting its own survey of potential threats, something the agency has frequently done in the past.

But in a letter dated Sept. 14, 2007, and obtained by The New York Times, the wildlife agency agreed with the minerals service’s characterization that the chances that deepwater drilling would result in a spill that would pollute critical habitat was “low.”

The agency signed off on the minerals service’s biological evaluation, even though that assessment considered only the risks to wildlife based on spills of 1,000 to 15,000 barrels — a minuscule amount compared with the hundreds of thousands of barrels now spewing into the gulf. The assessment also noted that even such modest spills carried up to a 27 percent risk of oil reaching the critical habitat for some endangered species.

Much of the first wave of criticism over the federal government’s part in the Deepwater Horizon disaster has focused on the dual role of the Minerals Management Service (renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement last month), which was responsible for both promoting offshore drilling through the sale of leases and for policing it. But environmental groups were also critical of other federal agencies that have watchdog roles and could have exercised their authority to protect the species.

“The Endangered Species Act requires caution, but federal wildlife agencies allowed offshore oil drilling to play Russian roulette with endangered species in the gulf,” said Daniel J. Rohlf, the clinical director of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center at Lewis & Clark Law School.

“Would people get on a plane if they knew it had a one in four chance of a major mechanical problem?” Mr. Rohlf asked, adding, “Federal wildlife agencies made conscious choices — under the guise of science — to allow offshore oil drilling with an identical risk of serious harm to endangered species.”

Deborah Fuller, the endangered species program coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s office in Lafayette, La., led the team that reviewed the minerals service’s biological assessment. She said that her office recognized that a big spill would be disastrous to wildlife and that it made suggestions for increasing preparedness for the cleanup of a spill as part of an informal consultation on the biological review.

But she said her office did not challenge the minerals service’s assessment of the risk.

“We all know an oil spill is catastrophic, but what is the likelihood it will happen?” Ms. Fuller asked. She said her office had considered that any likelihood under 50 percent would not be enough to require the protections of her office.

“Obviously, we are going to relook at all these numbers for upcoming consultations,” she said.

In considering earlier plans by the minerals service to sell oil leases in the gulf, the Fish and Wildlife Service had decided to conduct its own biological assessment, using its own scientists. But in 2007, the Louisiana office chose to write only an informal letter of concurrence with the minerals service’s assessment, the agency’s lowest level of review. While the wildlife agency could not stop a lease sale, formally disagreeing with an assessment by the minerals service could deter buyers worried about possible litigation by environmental groups.

In its 71-page biological assessment, the Minerals Management Service concluded that the chances of oil from a spill larger than 1,000 barrels reaching critical habitat within 10 days could be more than 1 in 4 for the piping plover and the bald eagle, as high as 1 in 6 for the brown pelican and almost 1 in 10 for the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. When the model was extended to 30 days, the assessment predicted even higher likelihoods of habitat pollution.

The report described in detail the severe consequences for a variety of species if they were to be affected by oil.

“Heavily oiled birds are likely to be killed,” the assessment said, adding that if the birds did not die, they might suffer from pneumonia or infection.

Stacy Small, a scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, reviewed the biological assessment prepared by the minerals service and the letter in which the wildlife service concurred with the evaluation. “The wildlife risk models apparently weren’t based on large oil volumes and didn’t estimate risk for a worst case, or even really bad case, oil disaster scenario,” she said.

“If they had looked at a 30-day time span for oil reaching shore, the risk would probably have looked a lot higher and maybe triggered a more stringent review under the Endangered Species Act,” Dr. Small said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like anyone at the agencies asked for that.”

Nut? What Nut? The Squirrel Outwits to SurviveBy NATALIE ANGIER
I was walking through the neighborhood one afternoon when, on turning a corner, I nearly tripped over a gray squirrel that was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, eating a nut. Startled by my sudden appearance, the squirrel dashed out to the road — right in front of an oncoming car.

Before I had time to scream, the squirrel had gotten caught in the car’s front hubcap, had spun around once like a cartoon character in a clothes dryer, and was spat back off. When the car drove away, the squirrel picked itself up, wobbled for a moment or two, and then resolutely hopped across the street.

You don’t get to be one of the most widely disseminated mammals in the world — equally at home in the woods, a suburban backyard or any city “green space” bigger than a mousepad — if you’re crushed by every Acme anvil that happens to drop your way.

“When people call me squirrely,” said John L. Koprowski, a squirrel expert and professor of wildlife conservation and management at the University of Arizona, “I am flattered by the term.”

The Eastern gray tree squirrel, or Sciurus carolinensis, has been so spectacularly successful that it is often considered a pest. The International Union for Conservation of Nature includes the squirrel on its list of the top 100 invasive species. The British and Italians hate gray squirrels for outcompeting their beloved native red squirrels. Manhattanites hate gray squirrels for reminding them of pigeons, and that goes for the black, brown and latte squirrel morphs, too.

Yet researchers who study gray squirrels argue that their subject is far more compelling than most people realize, and that behind the squirrel’s success lies a phenomenal elasticity of body, brain and behavior. Squirrels can leap a span 10 times the length of their body, roughly double what the best human long jumper can manage. They can rotate their ankles 180 degrees, and so keep a grip while climbing no matter which way they’re facing. Squirrels can learn by watching others — cross-phyletically, if need be. In their book “Squirrels: The Animal Answer Guide,” Richard W. Thorington Jr. and Katie Ferrell of the Smithsonian Institution described the safe-pedestrian approach of a gray squirrel eager to traverse a busy avenue near the White House. The squirrel waited on the grass near a crosswalk until people began to cross the street, said the authors, “and then it crossed the street behind them.”

In the acuity of their visual system, the sensitivity and deftness with which they can manipulate objects, their sociability, chattiness and willingness to deceive, squirrels turn out to be surprisingly similar to primates. They nest communally as multigenerational, matrilineal clans, and at the end of a hard day’s forage, they greet each other with a mutual nuzzling of cheek and lip glands that looks decidedly like a kiss. Dr. Koprowski said that when he was growing up in Cleveland, squirrels were the only wild mammals to which he was exposed. “When I got to college, I thought I’d study polar bears or mountain lions,” he said. “Luckily I ended up doing my master’s and Ph.D. on squirrels instead.”

The Eastern gray is one of about 278 squirrelly species alive today, a lineage that split off from other rodents about 40 million years ago and that includes chipmunks, marmots, woodchucks — a k a groundhogs — and prairie dogs. Squirrels are found on all continents save Antarctica and Australia, and in some of the harshest settings: the Himalayan marmot, found at up to 18,000 feet above sea level, is among the highest-living mammals of the world.

A good part of a squirrel’s strength can be traced to its elaborately veined tail, which, among other things, serves as a thermoregulatory device, in winter helping to shunt warm blood toward the squirrel’s core and in summer to wick excess heat off into the air. Rodents like rats and mice are nocturnal and have poor vision, relying on whiskers to navigate their world. The gray squirrel is diurnal and has the keen eyesight to match. “Its primary visual cortex is huge,” said Jon H. Kaas, a comparative neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University, A squirrel’s peripheral vision is as sharp as its focal eyesight, which means it can see what’s above and beside it without moving its head. While its color vision may only be so-so, akin to a person with red-green colorblindness who can tell green and red from other colors but not from each other, a squirrel has the benefit of natural sunglasses, pale yellow lenses that cut down on glare.

Gray squirrels use their sharp, shaded vision to keep an eye on each other. Michael A. Steele of Wilkes University in Pennsylvania and his colleagues have studied the squirrels’ hoarding behavior, which turns out to be remarkably calculated and rococo. Squirrels may be opportunistic feeders, able to make a meal of a discarded cheeseburger, crickets or a baby sparrow if need be, but in the main they are granivores and seed hoarders. They’ll gather acorns and other nuts, assess which are in danger of germinating and using up stored nutrients, remove the offending tree embryos with a few quick slices of their incisors, and then cache the sterilized treasure for later consumption, one seed per inch-deep hole.

But the squirrels don’t just bury an acorn and come back in winter. They bury the seed, dig it up shortly afterward, rebury it elsewhere, dig it up again. “We’ve seen seeds that were recached as many as five times,” said Dr. Steele. The squirrels recache to deter theft, lest another squirrel spied the burial the first X times. Reporting in the journal Animal Behaviour, the Steele team showed that when squirrels are certain that they are being watched, they will actively seek to deceive the would-be thieves. They’ll dig a hole, pretend to push an acorn in, and then cover it over, all the while keeping the prized seed hidden in their mouth. “Deceptive caching involves some pretty serious decision making,” Dr. Steele said. “It meets the criteria of tactical deception, which previously was thought to only occur in primates.”

Squirrels are also master kvetchers, modulating their utterances to convey the nature and severity of their complaint: a moaning “kuk” for mild discomfort, a buzzing sound for more pressing distress, and a short scream for extreme dismay. During the one or two days a year that a female is fertile, she will be chased by every male in the vicinity, all of them hounding her round and round a tree with sneezelike calls, and her on top, refusing to say gesundheit. A squirrel threatened by a serious predator like a cat, dog, hawk or wayward toddler will issue a multimodal alarm, barking out a series of loud chuk-chuk-chuks with a nasally, penetrating “whaa” at the end, while simultaneously performing a tail flag — lifting its fluffy baton high over its head and flicking it back and forth rhythmically.

Sarah R. Partan of Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and her students have used a custom-built squirrel robot to track how real squirrels respond to the components of an alarm signal. The robot looks and sounds like a squirrel, its tail moves sort of like a squirrel’s, but because its plastic body is covered in rabbit fur it doesn’t smell like a squirrel. Yet squirrels tested in Florida and New England have responded to the knockoff appropriately, with alarm barks of their own or by running up a tree. Human passers-by have likewise been enchanted. “People are always coming over, asking what we’re doing,” said Dr. Partan. “We’ve had to abandon many trials halfway through.” An iSquirrel? Now that’s something even a New Yorker might love.