Friday, 13 Oct 2000
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
It’s Friday the 13th! And it’s also a full moon, which is very exciting. One of my friends was born on a Friday the 13th and she says it’s always a lucky day for her. Hopefully, this Friday will be a lucky day for me, because I have a lot of work to finish up before I can enjoy the weekend. Fridays are always catch-up days for me, when I frantically try to finish everything I started during the week and meet all of the optimistic goals I set for myself.
To top it all off, I’m very tired this morning because I stayed up late last night reading a book called Where Bigfoot Walks by Robert Michael Pyle. Complete with historical accounts of bigfoot sightings, in-depth analysis of bigfoot hunters, and his own personal encounters with something large and mysterious, the book is a fascinating account of the history and continuing phenomenon of the man, and woman, of the woods. The evidence pointing to a large hairy ape or hominid living in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest is actually quite convincing. However, the main premise of the book, I think, is that people need the idea of wilderness, wildlife, and something larger than ourselves.
Florida manatee — bigfoot of the sea.
Image: USFWS.
As Pyle argues, people depend (emotionally, spiritually, physically, and economically) on natural resources and biological diversity. Just as the buffalo has helped to save the prairie and the manatee is helping to restore the Everglades, perhaps Bigfoot, real or imagined, can help people understand the importance of ancient old-growth forests. Bigfoot, like many endangered species such as the spotted owl, the wolf, the grizzly, or the fairy shrimp, can be seen as a symbol of vanishing wildlands in our contemporary world and an endangered ecosystem in need of restoration.
As Stewart Udall, former secretary of the interior, wrote in The Quiet Crisis: “History tells us that earlier civilizations have declined because they did not learn to live in harmony with the land. [People] need to learn from nature, to keep an ear to the earth, and to replenish their spirits in frequent contacts with animals and wild land. And most important of all … [recover] a sense of reverence for the land.”
Spotted owls keeping an eye on the earth.
Image: USFWS.
If you would like to “keep an ear to the earth” by getting news about wildlife and wildlands, we at the Endangered Species Coalition have many publications that provide interested folks with up-to-date information. In fact, one of my tasks for today is gathering articles for our quarterly news magazine, ESA Today. For this edition, there are several Endangered Species Coalition members who are writing articles about endangered species in the West. A wildlife rehabilitator in Colorado is writing about her experience saving a Preble’s meadow jumping mouse who got her tail caught in a trap. In California, someone is writing a story for us about an Army base that wants to expand its “war games” training facility into critical desert tortoise habitat. In addition, an expert on land exchanges is writing an article for us about swaps of government and private lands in Utah that have made developers into millionaires by ripping off taxpayers and endangered species.
We also have great email publications about species issues. GREENLines is a daily news digest about endangered species, biodiversity related issues, and people working to stop extinction. It’s read every morning by thousands of interested students, scientists, reporters, and environmental activists. To subscribe to GREENLines, send an email to greenlines@reply.net with “subscribe” in the subject line. For those of you who crave even more news and action, we also have an activist package that includes GREENLines, periodic action alerts, weekly publications about important wildlife and wildlands bills in Congress, and a weekly digest of Federal Register notices on endangered species programs. To subscribe to this full package, send an email to actgreen@reply.net. It’s all free of charge.
For more information, or if you would like to become an Endangered Species Coalition member, send an email to esc@stopextinction.org. Any U.S. organization can become a member and we would love to include more people in our network working for strong biodiversity protection. We also have a sister organization in Canada, the B.C. Endangered Species Coalition. On their website, you can make a beast of yourself by sending a letter to the prime minister about weak endangered species legislation proposed in Canada.
I am kind of sad to be writing my last diary entry. Grist Magazine is a great publication and I’d like to thank them for letting me share my week with all of you. I’ve enjoyed hearing from people across the country about your experiences with wildlife and wildlands. If you would like to contact me, send an email to smatsumoto@stopextinction.org.
I think I’ll end the week with a quote. As the Dalai Lama said, “Change only takes place through action. Frankly speaking, not through prayer or meditation, but through action.” Please join us in our actions to save endangered species and promote strong biodiversity protection. For the Wild!
