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Show THE ZEPHYR/FEBRUARY-MARCH 2007 along and lead you out.” (Not a precise quote, but pretty close). It was left for the last caller to On Point to get down to cases. She said that people who get well acquainted with a tree are more apt to be willing to take a stand for the earth and From its critters. That got me to thinking there might not be a global one-size-fits-all answer. Humans concerned about Black rhinos and who are acquainted with the few survivors and their territory will have a differnt take on endangerment than humans in California who try to save the Flower-loving fly or Thorne’s hairstreak butterfly from. extinction. Rock bottom defenders of species will be a varied lot. Their reasons for standing up for The Others will _ be expressed in different dialects, different languages, will have emerged from a variety of cultures and religions. Within each of those categories it is an individual’s experiences MARTIN MURIE and how she judges those experiences that nails things down, creates staunch conviction: slow dawn or sudden light. Abstractions handed down from a noted scientist or a popular preacher will most likely have an affect on a listener, but will it make a make a rock bottom defender? That's a skerihog@ crucial question, because we need passion, we need active defenders, and soon. On second thought, might there be, after all, a universal aspect of those varied experi- -westelcom.com ences that lead people to a partisan stand for wild nature? If there is, it does not lie in the disneyfication commodity realm. Nor will we find it in the infotainment world. Nature tours? Not the high adrenaline or eco-challenge or “learn the real you” varieties. Those are way too self centered. City streets? That's a possible, because on those streets are people, our species. It might be that we have to begin there.Who are we? LOSING SOLITUDE Abstractions handed down from a noted scientist or a popular preacher will most likely In this new century Tim Gallagher from Cornell University’s Ornithological Laboratory and Bobby Ray Harrison, a professor at Oakwood College, and a few others, revived the search for the Ivory-billed woodpecker. These people stubbornly based themselves on the slim chance that /Campephilus principalis/ still hangs on in remnants of once vast old-growth bottomland forests of the south. Gallagher mourns the loss of those forests. “Back when people were saving Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the giant redwoods, they didn’t even think about the southern forests. Logging companies took countless millions of board feet of lumber from the Atchafalaya, year after year. And even as late as 1940, when we had the chance to save a remnant of primeval swamp forest at Feuliana: s Singer Tract, we didn’t do it. We let it go.” (1) In their forays in the remnants, which were formidible enough, they met Bill Fought who had lived in the Singer Tract along with panthers, bears, wolves and turkeys, even ivory-billed woodpeckers. Asked how he felt about its destruction, Bill said, “It ruined my life, if you want to know the truth about it. It takes hardwoods so long to grow. It'll never be the same. I wish my kids could have seen it.” Why do so many people mourn losses of the primeval? Bambi Syndrome? No. The Bambi plague is a media phenom, a caricature of the real, a matter of cozy, bug-eyed mammals, a commodity created with great care and launched into the world’s popula- tions in the name of profit. Highly infectious, the collateral damages are enormous. Please bear with me while I repeat myself from an earlier Zephyr rant (Ivory-bill Truth, June/July, 2005). We are actors in evolution, there is no way of standing aside from that multi-billion-year process of tremendous organic changes. And, we are more than a recent footnote, our roots reach far back inside a fantastic story of animal and plant multitudes, the friendly ones and the ones who don’t give a good goddamn about us and those we have yet to meet, and those who blinked out prior to the moment when the curtain rose on the human scene. I was getting the above into print when E.O.Wilson appeared on NPR’s “On Point’ program where he appealed to religions, especially the Evangelicals, to join with the scientific community in defense of endangered species, aka biological diversity. I was, of course, reminded of the Zephyr’s call for MAHBU: Mormons and Heathens for a Better Utah. Wilson asked whether people can get deeply interested ini the fact that two of the five species of rhinoceroses are endangered. That question was left hanging throughout the program while callers called and pastors talked about their processing biblical and scientific data for their congregations. Wilson made two good comments: Women everywhere must have free access to birth control (didn’t mention other linked aspects of women’s liberation). Second, saving biodi- versity must take root in society at large, can’t be handed down. Pause for Eugene Debs. “T will not lead you into the Promised Land because later on somebody else will come have an affect on a listener, but will it make a make a rock bottom defender? That's a crucial question, because we need passion, we need active defenders, and soon. Let’s take another run at the question. The United States and many other countries have managed to withhold some areas from exploitation: national parks, national forests, wilderness areas, military reservations. But even these are not enough to save grizzlies, bison, wolverines, elephants, tigers, mountain lions, whales, sea turtles and many other animals who travel great distances in search of food or places to raise the next generation. The conclusion can’t be dodged. Rhinos and condors and black-footed ferrets can’t wait forever. Neither can we: the Kyoto Agreement is, by the latest calculations, not nearly enough to moderate our share of global warming and our nation hasn‘t even signed onto that. The Others, and we, need some real help pretty damn soon. A standard counter argument is that we have enough troubles without loading them with sentimental concerns about a few or even a few thousand species blinking out. Extinction--remember the dinosaurs?-- is nature’s way. Not to worry. However, if we pursue this a little further into our own endangerment the question gets kind of sticky. We already live in the future, an impoverished world, bombed, bulldozed, minutely divided into private exclusions, drilled, drained where we take children to petting zoos and aquariums or bring in a bow] or cute little animals to keep in cages. Charlotte, North rapids where kayakers can learn or hone skills. If you can pay, down on pristine emy soldiers and around dioramas, through their car alpine slopes. terrorists from listen politely windows. And and dammed, a country them captive fish to put Carolina offers artificial a chopper will set you We can buy jungles, mountains and scary beasts, envideo hucksters. Families visit national parks to cluster to rangers telling them about the wonders they will see rangers, I’m sure, often wish they were on duty in the wonders under sky and clouds, smelling the smells, listening to the sounds. Do I exaggerate? I don’t think so. “Visitors to King County’s Marymoor Park in Redmond can walk past the Group Health Velodrome, order food at the Subway sandwich shop, surf online in Microsoft-sponsored Wi-Fi areas and read a trail map bearing the Starbucks mermaid logo. : “For the past two weeks, they also could hunt for 30 two-foot, foil-covered fake burritos hidden in the park as part of a dual promotion for Chipotle Mexican Grill and the county’s redesigned parks Web site. “The burrito promotion and other corporate partnerships are the brainchild of King County Parks’ three-member Strategic Partnership and Enterprise Initiatives team. Its job: Come up with ideas to make money and increase the visibility of county parks. NOW AVAILABLE | BREAKOUT A NOVEL BY MARTIN MURIE A cross continent struggle to save people and other endangered species. $15 ss Order direct from Martin Murie ORDER SIGNED COPIES DIREC T FROM MARTIN MURIE: LOSING SOLITUDE: cowtown....$14.95 A contemporary Western. 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