Saving Rain Forest Thread number 57!!

danon...

Merry Andrew...

This link from Spokane, WA goes to a teaching site for kids, but it has some pictures and talks about how many places in eastern Washington state are so similar to Mars that the Pathfinder (and other rovers) have been tested there.
http://www.kidscosmos.org/kid-stuff/kids-boulders.html

NASA/JPL once had a panorama of a site in eastern Washington posted next to a panorama of a site on Mars...you couldn't really tell the difference between the two places...

You could see the brown, dry hills from where my mom grew up. She used to climb them in the summer and she and her friends really did crack eggs on the rocks to watch them cook...

But, when you get near where my Grandma moved later, a little closer to Yakima proper, there was an apple orchard right behind her residential street where everyone had a beautiful green lawn with flower and vegetable gardens.

One of my aunts has a home on a hill where she has a green, grassy lawn, but all around her are the brown hills full of sage brush and other dry climate types of plants.

My relatives have told me that many, many years ago, it used to get quite snowy there during the winters, but anymore they don't get much more snow there than we do on this side.


Guess I should have looked at that site link that I left above a little closer...

Comparison to Ares Vallis Flood Plain - pictures
http://www.kidscosmos.org/kid-stuff/kids-floodplains-comp.html


(more grown-up site below with pictures of the rovers in eastern WA)

Mars Pathfinding in the Channeled Scabland

"This trip shows that Earth is the most Mars-like planet in the Solar System," quipped Jeff Moore of NASA's Ames Research Center. Indeed, the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop and Field Trips in the Channeled Scabland of Washington proved to be a most excellent experience for the more than 60 engineers, scientists, and educators who gathered to compare Washington with Mars and plan for Mars Pathfinder's July 4, 1997 landing.

"It is exciting that eastern Washington is like the martian landscape!" noted an eighth grade student, Rachel, who came to "Mars Night," a public open house held September 28th to let Spokane residents see what the Mars Pathfinder team was doing in town that week.

It was a virtual invasion of "Martians." The group went to Washington to compare the landscape created by catastrophic Ice Age floods more than 13,000 years ago with the larger Mars flood channel, Ares Vallis. It is in Ares Vallis that Mars Pathfinder will land. The Channeled Scabland of Washington and Idaho represent the best analog on Earth to the channels on Mars..."

story
http://tes.asu.edu/TESNEWS/4_VOL/No_4/scab_adventure.html

Thanks for those links, Matrix. Fascinating sites. I spent the days following 9/11/01 in the Tri-Cities area, accompanying some visitors to the Hanaford Nuclear site, staying at a motel in Richland (or maybe it was Kennewick, don't quite recall now). Got to drive around the area quite a bit. There were times I thought I was in Oklahoma, not Washington state.

Morn'n Merry,

Early rising again? All clicked here in NE TX.

Did you visit the site at Hanford where the very first ingredients for the very first atomic bomb was manufactured? It was still there when I worked with the DOE folks during the early 90's. Very interesting stuff.

Matrix, here's a photo of an American Linx, threatened by logging, hunting, and trapping.

Beautiful animal - reminded me of a chapter in one of my childhood books=
'Two Little Savages' by Ernest Thompson Seton

Here's a copy of Seton's sketch from the chapter entitled - 'The Lynx"
It shows our little hero - Yan, and his dog Grip - running from the ferocious Lynx..............

Hi, Dan. Don't know if I saw the area you refer to at Hanford or not. If we did, it wasn't particularly pointed out to us. The group of Latvians I was with represented the customs and border patrol services of the Republic of Latvia. We sat through daily lectures on how to interdict shipments of nuclear materials and nuclear arms; mainly, how to recognize a suspicious shipment. Got to see some Russian-made Scud missiles up close, but they had all been disarmed. The fact that we were there jsut days after the tragic attack on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon lent a certain poignancy to the whole affair.

Danon,

Seton's writing pitted wildlife against humans in a way that was never quite clear to me, as did most childrens novels. <Yans and Yings definitely not in sync> lol

How the next few years will play out for wildlife can only be measured by government policies - with four more years of conservatism and protestors discouraged from public demonstrations, we may be viewing wildlife and wildlands from photos instead of natural habitat.

http://www.defenders.org/releases/pr2003/pr010203.html

Stradee,
The following is from the Note to the Reader in the front of my copy of Seton's 'Wild Animals I Have Known' - keeping in mind that the copyright is 1898, and that the thoughts and emotions were from earlier times.
excerpt=
"I believe that natural history has lost much of the vague general treatment that is so common. What satisfaction would be derived from a ten-page sketch of the habits and customs of Man? How much more profitable it would be to devote that space to the life of some one great man. This is the principle I have endeavored to apply to my animals. The real personality of the individual, and his view of life are my theme, rather than the ways of the race in general, as viewed by a casual and hostile human eye."

Hope this helps to better understand his views in writing about animals...............

Merry Andrew,
Here is a quick sketch of the Hanford area - the original site is under the tip of the really big Day Glow arrow.
Sounds like you stayed closer to the Richland area.

Thanks Danon for the paragraph from Seton. His stories, as well as London's were written when there was limited knowledge of wolves natural behaviour. Understanding the natural world, and writing about those experiences without bias, a true work of art, imo.

That's all I was trying to say regarding Seton's writing, although he does give each of the animals he writes about certain human qualities, the wolves in Seton's story "Lobo, the King of Currumpaw" still meet a tragic end from hunters bullets.

'The reality is <with the world as it is today> - there are those that will find or make up a reason for shooting animals. The administration calls their new policies - "preservation".

Oh yes, you are right about the shooting of animals. That also includes the killing of other human animals by the most dangerous animal in the entire history of the world.

Sadly, in Seton's own words - "There is - - - almost no deviation from the truth in Lobo - - -. Lobo lived his wild romantic life from 1889 to 1894 in the Currumpaw region, as the ranchmen know too well, and died, precisely as related, on January 31, 1894."

You and your 282 friends have supported 1,786,251.7 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 66,155.0 square feet.
You have supported: (35,118.5)
Your 282 friends have supported: (31,036.5)

American Prairie habitat supported: 33,423.8 square feet.
You have supported: (9,433.9)
Your 282 friends have supported: (23,989.9)

Rainforest habitat supported: 1,686,672.9 square feet.
You have supported: (159,248.2)
Your 282 friends have supported: (1,527,424.8)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

leaderboard's stuck again < grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr >

Dannon -- thanx for the map. You're right. Most of our activities were closer to Richland. And, having seen the map, I remember now that the motel we stayed at was in Kennewick. Had to drive to Richland each morning and look for the turnoff to Hanford.

Morning MA,
Slept in late this morning??? grin

The main gate is at Richland - then for visitors there is a short drive N to the new site. I hope DOE preserves the original site for historical purposes.

You know of course that you were very close to the land of SWEET ONIONS at Walla Walla!!!! Mmmmm

ehBeth,
Thanks for the update............41.006 ACRES!!!!!!!

Clicked...............

Morning, Dan. Yeah, weekends I sleep in. Seldom get up before 7 a.m.

Lazy days when snowed in - love it when there is snow - also, love it when the snow goes away.....grin

I have tasked myself to repair a window of the Public Library here in Atlanta. The young couple whose home I helped restore a couple of years ago gave my name to the librarian. I had threatened the couple with threats of an unthreatening nature to not tell anyone I did stuff like that, but, they failed in their promise and did a drive by name dropping at the library. I really don't mind, the work pays enough to cover the cost of materials and I am rewarded with a warm feeling of helping the community preserve a very old building.

We passed 41 acres?

holy toledo!!!


Are you taking before and after pix of your restoration work, danon?

You and your 282 friends have supported 1,786,602.9 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 66,318.9 square feet.
You have supported: (35,141.9)
Your 282 friends have supported: (31,177.0)

American Prairie habitat supported: 33,423.8 square feet.
You have supported: (9,433.9)
Your 282 friends have supported: (23,989.9)

Rainforest habitat supported: 1,686,860.2 square feet.
You have supported: (159,271.6)
Your 282 friends have supported: (1,527,588.7)

Yeah!!! Over 41 ACRES!!!!! Now, it's 41.014 acres with your last input.

Pix?? I wasn't but now I will - I did make "before" shots.

41.01 acres