Turtle Dove seen near Staple in Kent.

The European turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) is a member of the bird family Columbidae, the doves and pigeons. According to the State of Europe's Common Birds 2007 report, the turtle dove population in Europe has fallen by 62% in recent times. Environmentalist groups have said that this is partly because changed farming practices mean that the weed seeds and shoots on which it feeds, especially fumitory, are more scarce, and partly due to shooting of birds in some countries.

Work by the street artist Vera Bugatti

for more informations:

www.facebook.com/thewalla.bocaverta/

On August 13th, 1987, an over under at Muirdale, Wisconsin between westbound Soo Line train 937 on former Milwaukee Road rails down below - and a Chicago & North Western freight passing through at the same time on the C&NWs Butler freight line up above.

This location is near the corner of Highway 100 (Lovers Lane) and Watertown Plank Road and is really part of Wauwatosa, a western suburb of Milwaukee.

The term “Muirdale” was in reference to a large Tuberculosis Sanatorium that was built nearby in 1914-15 that was named for famed naturalist, author, and environmentalist John Muir, who had lived in Wisconsin for a time early in his life.

The C&NW did refer to this location, which was just four miles from Butler, as Muirdale, and it showed as such in their timetables.

I remember many times hearing their westbound trains on my scanner calling Butler to announce that they were passing through here and asking for yarding instructions. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

Today is World Environment Day and on this day let us pay homage to Late Sunderlal Bahuguna who was a great environmentalist, Gandhian and who taught India to hug trees through Chipko movement for protecting environment. Bahuguna passed away recently due to COVID.

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El gran Parque Pumalin es uno de los proyectos de conservación privada más grande y diverso de Sudamérica, ubicado en la Provincia de Palena en Chile, al sur de la ciudad de Puerto Montt. Fue creado por Douglas Tompkins un controvertido ecologista y empresario multimillonario estadounidense ex dueño de marcas de moda como Sprit o North Face, fallecido después de volcar su kayak, en el Lago General Carrera (Chile) el 2015. Luego de su muerte dono el parque al estado Chileno para conformar un un gran parque nacional que sumado a otras reservas nacionales en la misma area tendra mas de 700 mil hectareas. Asi 4.5 millones de hectareas, el 20% del territorio nacional estaran bajo protección convirtiendose esto en un hito mundial sin precedentes.

Se extiende desde el corazón de Los Andes hasta los fiordos de la Costa del Pacífico y fue declarado "Santuario de la Naturaleza" en el año 2005 por el gobierno Chileno. Protege ecosistemas únicos en el mundo como el Bosque Patagonicoo Templado Lluvioso de los Andes Australes o Selva Valdiviana incluyendo especies orignarias como viejos Alerces de mas de 4.000 años, areas montañosas con varios volcanes como el Chaiten y Michimahuida, multiples rios lagos y lagunas asi como tambien ecosistemas costeros con bahias y fiordos intocados, haciendo de este lugar uno de los bordes costeros más espectaculares de la Tierra; un paisaje de naturaleza y belleza extraordinaria. Ademas el parque ofrece numerosos senderos, sitios de camping e instalaciones públicas, permitiendo que cada año miles de visitas puedan disfrutar este majestuoso paisaje. La Carretera Austral cruza el parque en casi toda su extrension permitiendo un facil acceso a sus principales atractivos.

La Carretera Austral es uno de los mayores atractivos de la Patagonia chilena. Esta larga carretera que nació como un sendero de colonización a fines del siglo XX, actualmente es una ruta turística de un creciente interés para viajeros y aventureros de todo el mundo que quieran recorrer la salvaje belleza patagónica. Se ha consolidado como destino por ser una de las mejores 10 rutas escénicas del mundo para viajar ya sea en auto, motocicleta o en bicicleta.

La Carretera Austral o Ruta CH-7, nace en la ciudad de Puerto Montt, recorriendo mas de 1.240 kilómetros, en su trayecto cruza varias veces la cordillera de los Andes, junto con bordear el litoral y los fiordos de la Patagonia Occidental, para luego internarse en los bosques australes siempre verdes, acercándose a numerosos glaciares, grandes lagos y los ventisqueros de los Campos de Hielo Norte para finalizar en Villa O’Higgins, a unos cuantos kilómetros del Campo de Hielo Sur.

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The huge Pumalin Park is one of the largest and most diverse private conservation projects in South America, located in the Province of Palena in Chile, south of the city of Puerto Montt. It was created by Douglas Tompkins a controversial environmentalist and entrepreneur Northamerican billionaire former owner of fashion brands like Sprit or North Face, deceased after his kayak overturned, in Lake General Carrera (Chile) in 2015. After his death, he owned the park to the Chilean state to form a large national park joining with other national reserves in the area to will have more than 700 thousand hectares. By this way 4.5 million hectares will be under state protection, 20% of the national territories becoming an unprecedented global milestone.

It extends from the heart of Los Andes to the fjords of the Pacific Coast and was declared "Sanctuary of Nature" in 2005 by the Chilean government. It protects unique ecosystems in the world such as the Patagonian Rainforest of the Southern Andes or best known as Selva Valdiviana including native species such as Alerces of more than 4,000 years old, mountainous areas with several volcanoes like the Chaiten and Michimahuida, multiple rivers lakes and lagoons as well as coastal ecosystems full of untouched bays and fjords, making this place one of the most spectacular coastal edges of the Earth; a landscape of extraordinary beauty and nature. In addition, the park offers numerous trails, camping sites and public facilities, allowing thousands of visitors every year to enjoy this majestic landscape. The Carretera Austral crosses along in almost its all entire extension park avoiding access to the main atracctions.

The Carretera Austral is one of the biggest attractions of the Chilean Patagonia . This long road that began as a path of colonization in the late twentieth century , is now a tourist route of a growing interest for travelers and adventurers from around the world who want to explore the wild beauty of Patagonia . It has become destiny as one of the top 10 best scenic routes in the world to travel either by car , motorcycle or bicycle .

The Carretera Austral or Route CH -7, born in the city of Puerto Montt , traveling more than 1,240 miles in its path crosses several times the Andes along with skirting the coast and fjords of Western Patagonia then deep into the southern evergreen forests approaching numerous glaciers large lakes and the glaciers of the Northern Ice Field to finish in Villa O'Higgins a few kilometers from Southern Ice Field .

This is the view of the backside of Glen Canyon Dam, Bridge, Carl Hayden Visitor Center and Page from the west side of Lake Powell.

After Monument Valley we drove to Page Arizona. We checked in at Hyatt Place Hotel (which I highly recommend). Then we went across the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge and toured the Carl Hayden Visitor Center and Glen Canyon Dam.

www.nps.gov/glca/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.htm

Carl Hayden Visitor Center

Main visitor center for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Exhibits about recreation and historic water use. Tours of Glen Canyon Dam are closed. Movies in auditorium. Site operated by Glen Canyon Conservancy - reach them at 928-660-7881.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Canyon_Dam

Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the southwestern United States, located on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, near the city of Page. The 710-foot-high (220Â m) dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S. with a capacity of more than 25 million acre-feet (31 km3).[4] The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges now flooded by the reservoir; Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led the first expedition to traverse the Colorado River's Grand Canyon by boat.

A dam in Glen Canyon was studied as early as 1924, but these plans were initially dropped in favor of the Hoover Dam (completed in 1936) which was located in the Black Canyon. By the 1950s, due to rapid population growth in the seven U.S. and two Mexican states comprising the Colorado River Basin, the Bureau of Reclamation deemed the construction of additional reservoirs necessary.[8] The Glen Canyon Dam remains a central issue for modern environmentalist movements. Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sierra Club and other organizations renewed the call to dismantle the dam and drain Lake Powell in Lower Glen Canyon. Glen Canyon and Lake Powell are managed by the Department of the Interior within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Navajo Nation 2025

This beautiful but invasive species of fish, native to the Indo-Pacific region, has taken a great toll on Florida’s marine eco-system in recent decades. They have no known predators, eat many other fish species, lay as many as 30,000 eggs in four days, and have seriously imperiled reef eco-systems. Concerned environmentalists regularly sponsor “derbies” in which Lionfish are hunted and removed by divers, who net or spear them.

Did you see the news last night, the bit about Plymouth council cutting down over a hundred mature trees in the town centre, this was in spite of 16,000 residents signing a petition. It has been branded despicable by campaigners, the local Labour MP, environmentalist Chris Packham and the Woodland trust who had been talking to the Tory led council to save the trees. Oh and the council was well aware of local feeling as they did all this vandalism during the night, I only hope this is remembered come the next council elections. Todays photo is all about how a woodland area should be managed, as in leave it alone nature knows what it’s doing, man hasn’t a clue.

Valley of Fire State Park in Mesquite Nevada

"Along with his prolific body of work, Burle Marx was a pioneering environmentalist and a self-taught botanist, identifying over 50 yet-undiscovered plant species", including this thorny bromeliad, Dyckia burle-marxii, planted by his former home at Sítio Roberto Burle Marx.

stories.thejewishmuseum.org/this-is-how-we-do-it-roberto-...

www.citylab.com/design/2019/06/roberto-burle-marx-nyc-nyb...

Created for Mixmaster Challenge # 30 by studiobobs

Recipe:

➤ Your image must include a means of transportation – but since we are all environmentalists, ecologists, animal activists and rescuers, the vehicle must be activated only by clean energy, such as sunlight, wind, water, geothermal heat, gravity, magnetic force, warp drive, teleportation and so on.

➤ People (of any number) must also be included (aliens and fantasy/sci-fi creatures welcome).

➤ Same for animals (of any number, aliens and fantasy/sci-fi creatures welcome).

➤ Use only soft or natural shades of color

➤ No abstractions: your subjects must be recognizable.

Thanks to Catness Grace for extra hadidahs.

Explore 05-19-09 #9 -

Explore Front Page - Thank You All !!

sticking close with mom - Copyright© Ute Hagen

it was wonderful to watch those two. i took so many shots of them and tried not to be too intrusive doing it, but sometimes the mother had enough of me, especially when she was nursing or grazig and then looked up and saw me...... whoa, she came after me a couple of times and i had to retreat while speaking gently to her ((:

this filly could not have been much older than ? a week ? - at times it's legs got wobbly and it layed down for a little while (((;

i am getting a little ahead of myself here (still have 3 shots i would like to add to my "countryside - cypress gove" set)..... but here is the first image in my next series/set i am very excited about: "Rancho Chimalli" - photos i shot last sunday during a meeting of artist's and environmentalist's at the shores of lake Chapala - a project to create a small ecological santuary-ranch, a safe keeping for native plants and animals and customs.

texture by ground_floor, thank you!!

REMINDER:

* Important, please note:

Copyright© Ute Hagen - All my photos and art images are protected under International Copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my explit permission. If you want to use any of my images please contact me first, either here through flickr mail or at: uteart@gmail.com

Thank you.

A kinetic pointillism artwork by Ganesh Kelagina Beedu Shenoy

Seems 56312 Jeremiah Dixon has been ticking over at Washwood Heath West Junction before getting the road for its run to the N.R.M. to collect Tornado for the West Sommerset Railway gala. 0Z63 certainly made for an impressive sight as it rounded the curve on the Up Derby Fast.

Rouen (France) S'il y en a un qui aimerait bien prendre sa retraite, c'est le Père-Noël. Il s'est syndiqué car, intérimaire, il ne travaille qu'un jour par an, et malgré son grand âge, il n'a pas tous ses trimestres. En raison de la pénibilité de son travail qui l’oblige à assumer une année de travail en un jour, il ne trouve personne pour le remplacer. Comme chez les curés, il y a une crise de la vocation.

Je l’ai rencontré et il a accepté de me donner une interview. Il dit avoir adhéré à une association contre la maltraitance animale et remplacé ses rennes par un vélo. Hors micro, il avoue qu’en réalité, ses rennes, il a été obligé de les bouffer pour survivre. Précarité oblige !

Quant à son vélo, n’ayant pas d’argent, il a dû le voler. Mais il a pris soin de ne pas choisir un vélo électrique car il est devenu écologiste et militant anti-nucléaire. Nous vivons une drôle d’époque.

Uber Santa Claus

Rouen (France) If anyone would like to retire, it's Santa Claus. He joined a union because, as a temporary worker, he only works one day a year and despite his advanced age, he has not contributed enough to have a full pension. Due to the arduous nature of his job, which requires him to take on a year's work in one day, he cannot find anyone to replace him. As with priests, there is a vocational crisis.

I met him and he agreed to give me an interview. He says he joined an association against animal abuse and replaced his reindeer with a bicycle. Off the microphone, he admits that in reality, his reindeer, he was forced to eat them to survive. Precariousness obliges!

As for his bike, having no money, he had to steal it. But he was careful not to choose an e-bike as he became an environmentalist and anti-nuclear campaigner. We live in weird times.

Cruising around Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska was a total enjoyment, particularly seeing those breathtaking sceneries of the wilderness. I was also very lucky with the weather....as there was no rain and it was not too cold:-)

Covering 3.3 million acres of rugged mountains, dynamic glaciers, temperate rainforest, wild coastlines and deep sheltered fjords, Glacier Bay National Park is a highlight of Alaska's Inside Passage and part of a 25-million acre World Heritage Site—one of the world’s largest international protected areas. From sea to summit, Glacier Bay offers limitless opportunities for adventure and inspiration. [Source: National Park Service, USA]

Yes, that John Muir! About 50 miles southwest of us is where John Muir's boyhood farm can be found. His father brought John over from Scotland in the late 1840's to some land he planned to farm in central Wisconsin. The land was wilderness.

In his writing about his youth, John described this lake, they called it Fountain Lake(later is was changed by the next owner to Ennis Lake), and the beautiful white and yellow waterlilies that ringed the lake.

The nearest neighbor was five miles away. When they arrived by oxcart, they put up an oak slab shack to live in. This is where John fell in love with all things natural---plant or animal. This passion led to his drive to establish National Parks and the Sierra Club.

Yesterday(March 23) we walked where John Muir walked. We walked around his lake(it was ice covered). We saw where his farmhouse was. We touched oak trees that were growing on their land when he was there.

All my heroes are environmentalists!

What a thrill! In my mind, I could feel his presence! We need him today!

john muir's lake

located on his boyhood farm

hallowed ground

Image and haiku by John Henry Gremmer

Ospreys are on the rebound after a troubled past. Despite a history of pesticide poisoning, persecution, and population declines, Ospreys have returned as one of the most abundant raptors of the coast. Today, the Osprey’s story stands as a testimony to the power of scientifically-informed environmental activism.

Osprey numbers crashed dramatically following the widespread use of DDT, a pesticide deployed across America in the 1940s. While previous decades saw Ospreys hunted as “pests” and their wetland habitats drained for development, the introduction of DDT all but rang the death knell for the entire US Osprey population.

Nobody realized it at the time, but DDT builds up in animals’ body tissue, and persists in the environment years after being sprayed on farm fields. This spelled trouble for birds of prey: while DDT spraying rarely poisons adult birds to death, it destroys the structure of raptors’ eggshells, preventing them from reproducing.

As a result, Ospreys declined by over 90% between 1950 and 1970. When the now-famous environmentalist Rachel Carson finally named DDT as the culprit in her book Silent Spring, the discovery ignited a movement. A coalition of the National and Massachusetts Audubon societies, as well as local land trusts and nationwide advocacy groups, intervened on behalf of all species threatened by DDT. They sued the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the pesticide—and won.

A few decades later, Ospreys are almost back to their pre-DDT abundance.

Located in Clear Creek Canyon in the Escalante River arm of Lake Powell (Glen Canyon), the Cathedral in the Desert is an amazing alcove of sandstone in a bend in the canyon. The cathedral is/was renowned for the beautiful light that filters through the “ceiling” into the quiet verdant floor at the bottom of the canyon, as well as the surrounding walls ornamented by striped desert varnish on the Navajo sandstone. It has been a flashpoint of contention between environmentalists, who view the cathedral’s drowning as "America’s most regretted environmental mistake" (David Brower, former Sierra Club head) and recreationists who relish their jet skies and power boats, and feel the access to such monuments was enhanced; (although as much as 90 feet of it is underwater… ) “Environmental activists want you to believe that all was lost when Lake Powell was created but those of us who are intimate with Glen Canyon know better” (Paul Ostapuk, Friends of Lake Powell). The cathedral fully emerged from the lake in 2005 following a severe drought, but has since again been partially immersed by the rising lake waters. Given the prediction of climate change for the southwestern U.S., it is likely the lake levels will lower and the cathedral will again be viewable in its entirety. (#1)

The Menindee Lakes is a natural series of lakes that fill with water when the Darling-Baaka River floods. In the 1960s, a series of engineering projects augmented the Menindee Lakes, allowing water to be directed into the lakes and held back or released. This ensured a reliable water supply for the city of Broken Hill, the township of Menindee and secure supply of water for the Lower Darling River and supply to South Australia.

The Menindee Lakes system provides important habitat, nursery and recruitment for native fish, such as the Murray Cod and Golden Perch. It is important habitat for a huge variety of native and migratory bird species. The Menindee Lakes system is vital to the communities of the Far West, providing recreation and amenity, as well as attracting tourism, recreational fishing, horticulture and viticulture.

The Darling-Baaka River is central to the cultural, spiritual and economic lives of the Barkindji people.

The health of the Menindee Lakes and the Darling-Baaka River are intimately linked. The lakes fill from the Darling-Baaka River and water stored in the Menindee Lakes keeps the Lower Darling flowing during dry times. The Great Darling Anabranch is a series of ephemeral creeks, billabongs and lakes that wind their way to the Murray River to the west of the main Darling-Baaka River Channel.

Irrigation expands:

There has been a rapid expansion of irrigation along the rivers in the Northern Basin of the Murray Darling Basin, particularly cotton. Irrigation of cotton has expanded by 4,000% since the 1970s. In 1971 Australia grew 81,000 bales of cotton. By 2012 Australia grew 5.3 million bales. Irrigation dams - Wee Waa

Much of the cotton is grown along the rivers of the Murray Darling in very large irrigation enterprises, with most of the cotton grown on tributaries of the Darling-Baaka River.

Large private storages were built to hold water and other structures were built to capture flood waters. Water licences and water sharing plans allow irrigators to suck huge quantities from the tributaries of the Darling-Baaka even when flows are modest.

The result has been that low and medium flows have virtually stopped flowing down the Darling-Baaka River. Only the largest floods that cannot be captured upstream, or specially protected environmental flows, now make it down to the Menindee Lakes and Lower Darling-Baaka River.

An easy target?

After the Millennium Drought exposed just how over-allocated the river systems of the Murray-Darling Basin were, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was agreed between the Commonwealth and the states. The Plan aimed to make the Murray-Darling Basin system more sustainable by returning more water to the rivers through buying back water licences and other measures to recover water for the environment.

Menindee Slogan Bus:

The irrigation industry views the water flowing into the Menindee Lakes as wasteful and unproductive (not growing crops). They would prefer water to be taken from the Menindee Lakes to meet the targets under the Basin Plan rather than for the irrigation industry to be compelled to use less water. The industry points to the volume of water that evaporates from the Menindee Lakes each year as a key reason to reduce the amount of water flowing into and being stored in the lakes. The amount of water that evaporates from shallow private storages in equally hot and dry climates is rarely mentioned.

Scientists and environmentalists view the water that flows down our rivers, fills wetland and billabongs, and spills over floodplains as highly productive for nature and vital for sustaining complex ecosystems that have evolved over eons. These flows are also vital for replenishing underground aquifers and for sustaining downstream communities and Indigenous cultures.

Some politicians view the Menindee Lakes as an easy target. The population around Menindee is sparse, without much economic or political clout. The birds, fish and wildlife can not vote, lobby or protest. Taking water from the Menindee Lakes system is seen as politically easier than seeking to recover water from loud, well-connected and politically savvy irrigators. The location of the Menindee Lakes in a remote part of NSW that is out of sight and out of mind for many citizens located on the eastern seaboard also makes it hard for the issue to gain political traction.

A plan to decommission the Menindee Lakes:

After the Menindee Lakes filled from a major flood event in Queensland and NSW 2012, they were rapidly emptied by the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the NSW Government. Usually the lakes would hold water for many years after they filled, but by 2014 they were emptied. As a consequence, Broken Hill was in danger of running out of water and the government announced a plan to drill bores to supply the city with low-quality bore water. Locals were outraged at this plan and were concerned that the Menindee Lakes had been deliberately drained so quickly as part of a plan to justify the decommissioning of the lakes.RIP Menindee Lakes

Another flood filled the Menindee Lakes in late 2016, but again they were rapidly drained, almost inexplicably into a flooding river. By then end of 2017 they were again dry just as drought started to bite and Broken Hill was facing another artificial water shortage.

Flush with cash from privatising the electricity networks, the NSW Government spent $500 million building a 270 kilometres water pipeline from the Murray River at Wentworth to Broken Hill. This ended the city’s reliance on the Darling-Baaka River and Menindee Lakes for water supply. Cotton Australia applauded the construction of the pipeline saying in their Annual Report, "The pipeline is a win for the community, the environment and irrigating farmers, and a solution Cotton Australia and its allies have long lobbied for." Meanwhile the local community was concerned that the pipeline would allow the NSW Government to decommission the Menindee Lakes without worrying about Broken Hill's water supply.

Sure enough, plans to reconfigure the Menindee Lakes are back on the table as a project to 'recover water from the environment' under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan's Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism. The NSW Government wants to save up to 100 gigalitres of water each year by reducing the volume water stored in Menindee Lakes by up to 80%. A range of proposals have been put forward for consultation.

The Darling River Action Group has labelled the plans as 'ecological genocide.' They strongly oppose the huge reduction in habitat that will occur if reconfiguration plans go ahead. They worry that changing the times between and length of inundation in the lakes will have a major impact on fish breeding and birdlife. The Barkindji native title holders are also strongly opposed to the plans, with significant concerns about the impact on their culture, community, environment and sacred sites.

Fish kills and dry rivers and lakes:

Fish Kill Menindee In the teeth severe drought, predictions of environmental catastrophe on the Darling River came true as millions of fish floated dead on the surface. Hot weather and a lack of flows led to a blue-green algae bloom that stripped the water of oxygen when it died, suffocating many millions of fish along a length of the Darling-Baaka River. Images of giant Murray Cod many decades old floating on the surface of a stagnant, bright green river shocked Australians. If water had been stored in the Menindee Lakes, a flow of water in the Darling-Baaka River could have been maintained and millions of fish and other creatures would have survived. It was noted that the very large mature Murray Cod that had died would have survived numerous previous droughts, so what had changed?

A report by the Australian Academy of Science concluded:

The conditions leading to this event are an interaction between a severe (but not unprecedented) drought and, more significantly, excess upstream diversion of water for irrigation. Prior releases of water from Menindee Lakes contributed to lack of local reserves.

A small flow in mid-2019 led to a partial revival of the Darling-Baaka River and water in the upper lakes of the Menindee Lakes system. However, the Menindee Lakes and Darling-Baaka River face three major threats:

1) The proposed re-configuration of the Menindee Lakes system;

2) The continuing overallocation of water extraction licences in the Northern Basin of the Murray-Darling system;

3) The extent and proposed licencing of floodplain harvesting, which is capturing huge quantities of water before it can even reach the waterways of the Darling-Baaka River.

Source: Save Menindee Lakes (www.savemenindeelakes.org.au/the_history)

In China, tigers became the target of large-scale 'anti-pest' campaigns in the early 1950s, where suitable habitats were fragmented following deforestation and resettlement of people to rural areas, who hunted tigers and prey species. Though tiger hunting was prohibited in 1977, the population continued to decline and is considered extinct in southern China since 2001. Having earlier rejected the Western-led environmentalist movement, China changed its stance in the 1980s and became a party to the CITES treaty. By 1993 it had banned the trade in tiger parts, and this diminished the use of tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine. The Tibetan people's trade in tiger skins has also been a threat to tigers. The pelts were used in clothing, tiger-skin chuba being worn as fashion. In 2006 the 14th Dalai Lama was persuaded to take up the issue. Since then there has been a change of attitude, with some Tibetans publicly burning their chubas

A few weeks back there were at least 30 eagles roosting in the trees along the Wolf River in Winneconne. I had a chance to walk very near a tree where a dozen were resting. Two-thirds of the birds were immatures.

I made this image on another day during a snowstorm when some of the eagles were landing on the ice.

When I was young and people were spraying DDT on everything, these birds were rare and heading for extinction. Now, I see eagles every day. That's good news! Thanks science and environmentalists for bringing them back.

a winter eagle

hunting for a fish dinner

along the wolf

Image and haiku by John Henry Gremmer

Rincon is a surf spot located at the Ventura and Santa Barbara County line in Southern California, USA. Also known as the “Queen of the Coast,” Rincon is one of California’s most famous surf spots, known worldwide for its well-formed waves and long rides. Rincon Point is home to the Rincon Classic surf championship scheduled for January each year.

In the background are the oil rigs in the Santa Barbara channel, which is a sore subject to environmentalists, activists, and residents of the Santa Barbara coast.

On July 22, 2021, Biden Administration announced the decommissioning of Oil Rigs off California.

The announcement starts the process of permanently ending all offshore oil and gas operations at eight platforms and removing these platforms and their associated pipelines from the ocean.

#MookyBD

#Sony A1

#California

This alcove is located in Clear Creek Canyon in the Escalante River arm of Lake Powell (Glen Canyon). It is adjacent to the Cathedral in the Desert, another amazing alcove largely covered by a sandstone ceiling. The cathedral is/was renowned for the beautiful light that filters through its “ceiling” into the quiet verdant floor at the bottom of the canyon, now under water. The surrounding walls are ornamented by striped desert varnish on the Navajo sandstone.

This part of Glen Canyon/ Lake Powell has been a flashpoint of contention between environmentalists, who view the cathedral’s drowning as "America’s most regretted environmental mistake" (David Brower, former Sierra Club head) and recreationists who relish their jet skies and power boats, and feel the access to such monuments was enhanced; (although as much as 90 feet of it is underwater… ) “Environmental activists want you to believe that all was lost when Lake Powell was created but those of us who are intimate with Glen Canyon know better” (Paul Ostapuk, Friends of Lake Powell). The cathedral fully emerged from the lake in 2005 following a severe drought, but has since again been partially immersed by the rising lake waters. Given the prediction of climate change for the southwestern U.S., it is likely the lake levels will lower and the cathedral will again be viewable in its entirety. (#2)

The art installation on Vidbey Island across the water from Reykjavik was created by environmentalist artist, Richard Serra, entitled 'Afangar' ("Standing Stones"). The 18 columns in groups of two are intended to echo the geological makeup of the basalt columns on the island.

Ísland

Drakes Estero was used for commercial oyster production for nearly 100 years. In 1972, National Park Service purchased 71,028-acres of pristine wilderness directly north of San Francisco, on the stipulation that they would lease the land in the “pastoral zone” back to the families that had farmed it for generations. The commercial oyster farm received a 40-year Reservation of Use and Occupancy.

The Point Reyes Wilderness Act of 1976 designated all bodies of water, and land within certain boundaries in Point Reyes National Seashore, as wilderness or “potential wilderness.” The oyster farm fell within these boundaries.

Thirty years later saw the beginning of the decade long Oyster War, which pitted sustainable food advocates and local economy boosters against environmentalists and wilderness supporters. Ultimately, the National Park Service prevailed, and five miles of oyster racks and other debris were removed.

The fate of the oyster farm was certainly a loss for local food lovers in the Bay Area and for the oyster workers who were employed there, some for decades. But the decision sets an important precedent, marking a commitment to wilderness over private business—one that future generations will benefit from for many years to come. I wonder if the outcome would have been different in 2017.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by and for all of your kind comments -- I appreciate them all.

© Melissa Post 2018

On a perfect Saturday morning, PM 1225 rolls at a slow 15 MPH just south of Ashley, MI blowing out an amazing amount of smoke. The train would then stop in Bannister, MI and continue on.

Created for the Artistic Manipulation Group Contest Mixmaster 30

➤ Your image must include a means of transportation – but since we are all environmentalists, ecologists, animal activists and rescuers, the vehicle must be activated only by clean energy, such as sunlight, wind, water, geothermal heat, gravity, magnetic force, warp drive, teleportation and so on.

➤ People (of any number) must also be included (aliens and fantasy/sci-fi creatures welcome).

➤ Same for animals (of any number, aliens and fantasy/sci-fi creatures welcome).

➤ Use only soft or natural shades of color

➤ No abstractions: your subjects must be recognizable.

All photos except the small fish were taken at the Paralympic Games opening ceremony in London 2012. The boat and the giant blue whale travel around the Olympic Stadium under 'people power'.

All photos are my own.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, comment, fave or invite. I really appreciate them all.

All rights reserved. This photo is not authorized for use on your blogs, pin boards, websites or use in any other way.

Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It holds 24,322,000 acre-feet of water when full, second in the United States to only Lake Mead - though Lake Mead has fallen below Lake Powell in size several times during the 21st century in terms of volume of water, depth and surface area.

Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the 1972 creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination of public land managed by the National Park Service. The reservoir is named for John Wesley Powell, a civil war veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869. It lies primarily in southern Utah, with a small portion in northern Arizona.

Lake Powell is a water storage facility for the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Compact (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico). The Compact specifies that the Upper Basin states are to provide a minimum annual flow of 7,500,000 acre-feet to the Lower Basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California)

According to US Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation report, in addition to water loss, Lake Powell faced an average annual loss in storage capacity of about 33,270 acre-feet, or 11 billion gallons, per year between 1963 and 2018 because of sediments flowing in from the Colorado and San Juan rivers. Those settle at the bottom of the reservoir and decrease the total amount of water the reservoir can hold. Environmentalists have pushed to drain Lake Powell and restore Glen Canyon to its natural, free-flowing state.

Dame's Rocket is a tall short lived perennial with white, purple and pink flowers blooming in the spring. It has a sweet fragrance with prolific blooms. That being said it is considered by many environmentalists as an invasive species. It tends to crowd out native species and grows like crazy. I happen to enjoy them. If you don't like them, dig them up I guess.

Camera: Nikon F3 with a Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.5 AI-s lens.

Film: Harman Red ISO 125 Redscale 35mm film.

Scanned by Walkens House of Film, Melbourne, Australia

The once mighty South Esk River used to run freely through the Cataract Gorge until it was dammed in the early 1950s for hydro power. We've had a lot of rain this spring, and after a few days of continuous rainfall the Trevallyn Dam overflows into the Cataract Gorge. Then we get an impression of what it was once like for the rapids to flow.

This new Harman Red film can give an apocalyptic touch to photographs, so it was an ideal situation to try it out. Here the rich reds, oranges and yellows of the redscale film stock produces a truly surreal outcome.

A TRIBUTE TO JANE GOODALL

I've just learned that the famed primatologist and environmentalist, Jane Goodall, has died overnight at the age of 91. This news has impacted me in a way comparable to when I heard that Carl Sagan (1934-1996) had died. The reason is simple: Both were extremely wise human beings, quite apart from being brilliant scientists and educators. Recently, Jane Goodall was warning us of the political consequences of uncivil societies, where we treat the marginalised and our most vulnerable people with disdain and cruelty. In much the same way, Carl Sagan left us with a dire warning of what he considered was an impending new Dark Age in his book, The Demon-Haunted World. In it he forecast the rise of perverse interpretations of religion which would seek to impose not only their worst theocratic impulses on the world, but would aim to undermine fundamentally all the gains we have made through scientific knowledge.

I remember hearing Jane Goodall speak in Melbourne early in the 2000s, and she was so eloquent in expressing her love for the natural world. She was able to draw lessons from it and apply them to our successes and failings as homo sapiens. Like Sagan, she was concerned about the growing anti-intellectualism which was starting to manifest itself in the world of neo-cons culminating in the so-called "war on terror". In the past week she spoke out about the way the United States is being plunged into an authoritarian nightmare. [Remember Christian Nationalists, power might be an aphrodisiac when your man is in power, but just wait for the fallout when this power-base essentially crumbles. You are doing untold damage to all religions and to civil society - as Sagan warned.]

The best way to honour Jane Goodall would be to stop listening to the online science-skeptics, the grifters and anti-intellectuals who are trying to dumb our society down. Why are they doing this? Because an ignorant populace is easily manipulated by power-hungry politicians and corporations who have no interest in the well-being of ordinary citizens.

Jane Goodall: 91 & Thriving

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cGn-gm4MTI&t=163s

Rest well dear Jane.

Morning at the marsh. Where the river widens to form a lake, extensive stands of cattail in the shallow water have created habitat for waterfowl and other birds. It was still very early spring. A sublime morning; even the Canada Geese were oddly silent. As I picked my way along the shore, a handful of Ring-billed Gulls rose from a platform of mud and ice and wheeled above me. They were the only other birds I saw; most migrants won't arrive for another week or two, delayed by some fierce and nasty weather across the plains. At that point I traded my telephoto for a wide angle lens and went into minimalist mode with the landscape.

I tried all the usual devices - using cattails to provide foreground interest, framing the scene with a lone tree, and so on - but ended up liking this shot best. Just a strip of gold with blue above and blue below. Not a cloud in sight. Utter stillness. Let the empty spaces be empty. I know there will be great hoopla and well intentioned PR as environmentalists everywhere celebrate Earth Day, and that's fine with me. People need to become more aware. But I can't help thinking that often the very best thing we can do for nature is to leave it alone.

Photographed at the northeast end of Newton Lake, along the Frenchman River, near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2021 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

“

We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be –the mythologized epitome of a savage ruthless killer – which is, in reality, no more than a reflected image of ourself.

”

”

Farley Mowat (Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves)

~

Farley McGill Mowat, OC (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian north, such as People of the Deer (1952) and Never Cry Wolf (1963). The latter, an account of his experiences with wolves in the Arctic, was made into a film of the same name released in 1983. For his body of work as a writer he won the annual Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature in 1970.

I am delving deeper into my personal discoveries in the New Topographics genre by foregoing any hint of prettiness and allowing the reality of man’s intrusion upon nature take a brazen central role in my work. — Here all that remains of the wild aspect of nature is a thorn and thistle laden ditch along the roadside. Suburbia has completely occupied territories which belonged to nature.

As witnessed by the sewer cover this assault upon nature is also below ground as well as above.

For society to feel better and appease environmentalists they allow space for manicured parks. Again these parks are but a ruse and excuse for yet more places for mankind to occupy.

This might just be the most significant tree stump in Tasmanian history. In 1976 on this very site a group of conservationists across all political groups decided to establish The Wilderness Society. It was to become the major organiser of the campaign to save the Franklin and Gordon rivers from being dammed.

"Wilderness - Celebrating Australia's Protected Places"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU2cs53qvXw

This old tree (not a native) had been planted in the 1890s by the original settlers, and provided plenty of firewood when it was felled. But the stump became a symbol. Like the mythical Round Table in King Arthur's court, this table-like stump has been sat around for many years as environmentalists discussed their plans to protect the Tasmanian wilderness.

tasland.org.au/blog/liffeys-legacy/

Recently I spent a couple weeks in the north in the hopes of photographing more warblers (felt compelled to add a few thousand more images to the massive collection I already don't need). As luck would have it, I awoke to a cacophony of loud squawking noises. Thinking at first that the woods was inundated with tree huggers and environmentalists, I was relived to discover the noise originated from a Peregrine Falcon's nest about 50 meters from my camp laterally, and 50 meters vertically on a cliff wall.

Kyboshing my Warbler plans, I spent a full week photographing the nest.

To mitigate any feelings of jealousy, let me assure you that it was not all fun and games. While I sat in my comfortable camo lawn chair (Bass Pro - $99.95) drinking hot coffee (Costco - $34.00 for 72 pods) from a Yeti mug ($49.95 - origin unknown), I spent the biggest part of the day battling mosquitoes, cooking in 35 degree (Celsius) weather, all the while craning my neck heavenward while I tried to ignore a bunch of screaming juvies.

However, the pain acquired by this change of plans yielded 17,000 plus images that now require processing.

As a cautionary note, I will not be posting warblers for the next few days, but a sequence of Peregrine images from nest to fledge, sky romping and feeding.

Adequate warning has been given!

(PS. Nikon Z9, 20 frames per second, ISO 1600 @ 2500 sec, 800mm lens at F8 - hand held)

This dam was built to help supply water to the city of San Francisco. It was the environmentalists for example John Muir and the Sierra club versus the developers. The developers won. This took place in the early 20th century, about 1920. Now, there are about seven reservoirs in that area and there's some talk about taking down the dam and restoring the area to its natural beauty. It is a glacial valley similar but smaller than Yosemite valley. With the drought and climate changes, I don't think that's going to happen but at least they're talking about it.

Tree hugger is/was a slang term for environmentalists and was more derogatory back then. Today, with more becoming aware of the effects we (humankind) have had on our little planet we all call home, I think it is safe to say we are all tree huggers. At least I hope a good percentage of us are. tree huggers today as our planet is relying on us to help it survive.

My little friend here reminded me of the term used years ago of "tree huggers".

I appreciate each and every visit, comment and fave here on my little corner of the world as seen through my lens.

This is the view of the backside of Glen Canyon Dam, Bridge, Carl Hayden Visitor Center and the electric transmission infrastructure from the east side of Lake Powell.

After Monument Valley we drove to Page Arizona. We checked in at Hyatt Place Hotel (which I highly recommend). Then we went across the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge and toured the Carl Hayden Visitor Center and Glen Canyon Dam.

www.nps.gov/glca/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.htm

Carl Hayden Visitor Center

Main visitor center for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Exhibits about recreation and historic water use. Tours of Glen Canyon Dam are closed. Movies in auditorium. Site operated by Glen Canyon Conservancy - reach them at 928-660-7881.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Canyon_Dam

Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the southwestern United States, located on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, near the city of Page. The 710-foot-high (220 m) dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S. with a capacity of more than 25 million acre-feet (31Â km3).[4] The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges now flooded by the reservoir; Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led the first expedition to traverse the Colorado River's Grand Canyon by boat.

A dam in Glen Canyon was studied as early as 1924, but these plans were initially dropped in favor of the Hoover Dam (completed in 1936) which was located in the Black Canyon. By the 1950s, due to rapid population growth in the seven U.S. and two Mexican states comprising the Colorado River Basin, the Bureau of Reclamation deemed the construction of additional reservoirs necessary.[8] The Glen Canyon Dam remains a central issue for modern environmentalist movements. Beginning in the late 1990s, the Sierra Club and other organizations renewed the call to dismantle the dam and drain Lake Powell in Lower Glen Canyon. Glen Canyon and Lake Powell are managed by the Department of the Interior within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Navajo Nation 2025

“What obligation is more binding than to protect the cherished, to defend whoever or whatever cannot defend itself, and to nurture in turn that which has given nourishment? I’m reminded of words written by John Seed, an Australian environmentalist, when he began considering these questions, he believed, “I am protecting the rain forest.” But as his thought evolved, he realized, “I am part of the rain forest protecting myself.”--Richard Nelson

From the series "Soul Of The Planet"

'Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life'...Hermann Hesse, 'Wandering' 1920.

Trees are fundamental to our development as they meet our needs at every level of human experience. There isn't a single tree out there, big or small, that I am not in awe of.

There's a creek near here, which flows over waterfalls and cascades, following the line of a volcanic dyke of the Jurassic age. The hillsides support a wide variety of native trees and shrubs. The creek and the upper valley's tree ferns and forest environment through which it flows combine to create a feeling of tranquility in this beautiful natural oasis.

© All rights reserved.

I received a very interesting mail today. This anonymous South Australian, Vegitarian, Environmentalist wrote to me asking me if I liked the sight of lifeless whales and informing me that whales deserved my love. I was a bit startled by this message and I have given it some thought. Of course I'm not going to dignify an anonymous letter with an answer but I'd like to share some of my thoughts on this subject here.

Of course I don't like the sight of a dead animal. It actually makes me scared and repulsed. But in some strange way it also makes me curious and interested. I have made a few images of beached whales. It's a rare happening around here and I find myself compelled to make a photographic record of it. I also have to tell the story in my way and apply my personal photographic style. The whole subject of the death of these majestic mammals is really interesting. It makes me wonder if it has something to do with pollution or overfishing? Then again these creatures must be as mortal as any other and die of all sorts of natural causes. I don't pretent to have it all figured out.

The writer also touches upon the delicate subject of whaling and what he proclaims as brutal methods used by my countrymen as well as Norwegian and Japanes whalers. Most cultures have a long tradition of hunting all sorts of animals. Elephants, zebras, giraffes, cangaroos, aligators, sharks, polar bears as well any other living species are hunted by men for various purposes. It may be for fur, meat, bone or even for use as zoo animals. In general, I don't have anything against the sustainable use of any animal species. But of course we must ensure that endangered species are protected and sustained. I used to be pro whaling but in recent years I've changed my mind and now I think that Iceland should stop it. Not because of some ideas about whales being intelligent creatures. I've also discussed the topic of whaling with many veterinarians and they all think the modern approach to whaling is humane. It just isn't right to carry on whaling against the wishes of the rest of world. It has also been pointed out that more money can be made by using the whaleboats to carry tourists who want to see living whales with their own eyes.

Opinions on the killing of wild animals will in most cases be based on emotional or sentimental grounds. So it's a topic hard to debate. But anyone is entitled to their opinion.

About the image: This bridge can be found near the powerplant in Svartsegni near Grindavík. The image is an HDR of 3 exposures.

John Muir Memorial Park, aka Fountain Lake, Marquette County, Wisconsin, USA. Seven miles out my back door. Boyhood farm of environmentalist John Muir, now a county park featuring a prairie, woodlands, and spring fed lake. Pentacon 100 2.8 lens with a Fotodiox M42 to Nikon F adaptor.

A foreground suddenly ablaze by the early rising sun presented me with both an opportunity & a conundrum. Incorporating it whilst avoiding my own shadow required a fair bit of moving around. This, & the necessity of revealing as much of the loch as possible, required a number of attempts from different spots, with this one achieving an acceptable compromise.

I must admit to having a problem with dammed lochs/lakes, that had previously existed in a natural state only to be exploited with no regard for visual & ecological consequences. There are many in the Highlands: Glascarnoch, Monar, Mullardoch, Cluanie, to name but a few. The celebrated views at the southern end of Haweswater, in Lakeland, highlight how most are willing to embrace a certain idea of what represents exceptional scenery. I, personally, find the man-made effects for the best part repulsive. Conversely, & maybe a little surprisingly, incomparable writer & tireless environmentalist, W.H. Murray, proclaimed Quoich, ". . . one of the most splendid water-scapes in the Highlands". My own position is to find it very difficult accepting permanent alterations. Exacting damaging interference to a land we should be preserving - not exploiting for all it's worth - & therefore leaving behind an unforgivable mess for future generations, represents yet another backward step in the "ascent of man" (sic).

"Let me tell you something. It's too late to be pessimistic -- really too late. We all have a part of the solutions."

~Yann Arthus-Bertrand, environmentalist and photographer.

Harbor seals are a key component of local Alaskan culture and diet, but are now listed as an Alaska Species of Special Concern. This status reflects the long-term decline in their abundance, restricted distribution, reliance on limited habitat resources, and sensitivity to environmental perturbations. Despite several conservation measures in past two decades to promote their population, their numbers have consistently plummeted in the Glacier Bay area, where the above photo was created. This significant decline (a 65% attenuation since early 1990s) within protected areas of a national park is in contrast with their numbers in other parts of the world, that have been resilient to man-made disturbances and shown signs of recovery. While the exact cause of such decline is not established, it is nonetheless considered a sensitive indicator of future changes in the area, such as ocean warming. Because oceans are not just warming up in Alaska, the decline in Glacier Bay harbor seal numbers could be a harbinger of concerning global phenomenon.

Talking about concerning global phenomenon, this year has been extraordinary in the course of recorded history. The North American winter lingered on heavily into summer and then summer came and blew all records through the roof. Anchorage – whose average summer temperatures are in low 60s – experienced temperatures in 90s this summer. Greenland ice is melting by billions of tons half a century before they were estimated to do so. Amazon forests – the lungs of this planet – are on fire. The Australian great barrier reef has been under constant deterioration and this year, it was officially cited to be in a ‘poor state’, a polite way of stating the loss of hope. Believe it or not, we are now beginning to reap, in heaps, what we have sowed for decades.

Now what? New York city is building a five-mile long wall in Staten Island to hold the surging ocean back during hurricanes and the inevitable higher seas of the future. Indonesia is abandoning its sinking capital Jakarta and building a new one (although this one has thick layers of political incentives tied in along with climate change). But are these our solutions? Will our children and grandchildren build flood walls around their homes or will they evacuate the increasingly hostile planet en mass in spaceships to nowhere? The answer is obvious.

What’s not obvious is how do we undo all the mess we have created for ourselves. First things first, we must remain optimistic. The job on hand is enormous, but not undoable. Concerted conservation efforts have already yielded a few bright sparks of hope: many threatened species – humpback whales for example – have sprung back from the brink. To reduce carbon emission, Science has given us electric vehicles, solar panels and is now working on 'supercharged plants' that are supposed to store more carbon-di-oxide away from the atmosphere than regular plants. While scientists are doing their jobs on front lines, we could all do our tiny bit to help: skip the car as often as possible, choose appropriately and then use and reuse day-to-day material instead of recycling them (which arguably leaves a bigger carbon footprint), elect office bearers who have appreciation for our planet as a whole, and take only what we need when our turn comes at the table. As Gandhi said, mother earth has plenty for everyone’s need, but not enough for anyone’s greed. The seals – and rest of the living species including us – still have a chance if we remain hopeful and encourage each other to make environmentally-conscious choices, so that one day human carbon-di-oxide emissions are limited only to our noses and nothing else.

Capturing the elusive essence of the Bushy-crested Jay (Cyanocorax melanocyaneus) within the frame, I found myself at Hacienda Montecristo, a location that teems with the raw beauty of Central American wildlife. The bird, with its striking contrast of black and vibrant blue against the soft forest light, provided a challenge that every wildlife photographer dreams of. The jay’s penetrating yellow eyes fixed a stare that seemed almost aware of the camera's presence, offering a rare glimpse into its soul.

In this shot, I employed a shallow depth of field to isolate the subject from the myriad textures of its natural habitat, allowing the Bushy-crested Jay to command full attention. The interplay of light and shadow, coupled with the rich, natural color palette of the environment, required a careful balance of exposure—showcasing the fine details in the bird's plumage without losing the subtlety of the background. It's these moments, where time slows and all elements converge through the viewfinder, that encapsulate the profound connection between photographer, subject, and environment.

©2022 Adam Rainoff

An endangered butterfly threatens Trump's wall. abcnews.go.com/US/endangered-butterfly-threatened-trumps-...

The Menindee Lakes is a natural series of lakes that fill with water when the Darling-Baaka River floods. In the 1960s, a series of engineering projects augmented the Menindee Lakes, allowing water to be directed into the lakes and held back or released. This ensured a reliable water supply for the city of Broken Hill, the township of Menindee and secure supply of water for the Lower Darling River and supply to South Australia.

The Menindee Lakes system provides important habitat, nursery and recruitment for native fish, such as the Murray Cod and Golden Perch. It is important habitat for a huge variety of native and migratory bird species. The Menindee Lakes system is vital to the communities of the Far West, providing recreation and amenity, as well as attracting tourism, recreational fishing, horticulture and viticulture.

The Darling-Baaka River is central to the cultural, spiritual and economic lives of the Barkindji people.

The health of the Menindee Lakes and the Darling-Baaka River are intimately linked. The lakes fill from the Darling-Baaka River and water stored in the Menindee Lakes keeps the Lower Darling flowing during dry times. The Great Darling Anabranch is a series of ephemeral creeks, billabongs and lakes that wind their way to the Murray River to the west of the main Darling-Baaka River Channel.

Irrigation expands:

There has been a rapid expansion of irrigation along the rivers in the Northern Basin of the Murray Darling Basin, particularly cotton. Irrigation of cotton has expanded by 4,000% since the 1970s. In 1971 Australia grew 81,000 bales of cotton. By 2012 Australia grew 5.3 million bales. Irrigation dams - Wee Waa

Much of the cotton is grown along the rivers of the Murray Darling in very large irrigation enterprises, with most of the cotton grown on tributaries of the Darling-Baaka River.

Large private storages were built to hold water and other structures were built to capture flood waters. Water licences and water sharing plans allow irrigators to suck huge quantities from the tributaries of the Darling-Baaka even when flows are modest.

The result has been that low and medium flows have virtually stopped flowing down the Darling-Baaka River. Only the largest floods that cannot be captured upstream, or specially protected environmental flows, now make it down to the Menindee Lakes and Lower Darling-Baaka River.

An easy target?

After the Millennium Drought exposed just how over-allocated the river systems of the Murray-Darling Basin were, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was agreed between the Commonwealth and the states. The Plan aimed to make the Murray-Darling Basin system more sustainable by returning more water to the rivers through buying back water licences and other measures to recover water for the environment.

Menindee Slogan Bus:

The irrigation industry views the water flowing into the Menindee Lakes as wasteful and unproductive (not growing crops). They would prefer water to be taken from the Menindee Lakes to meet the targets under the Basin Plan rather than for the irrigation industry to be compelled to use less water. The industry points to the volume of water that evaporates from the Menindee Lakes each year as a key reason to reduce the amount of water flowing into and being stored in the lakes. The amount of water that evaporates from shallow private storages in equally hot and dry climates is rarely mentioned.

Scientists and environmentalists view the water that flows down our rivers, fills wetland and billabongs, and spills over floodplains as highly productive for nature and vital for sustaining complex ecosystems that have evolved over eons. These flows are also vital for replenishing underground aquifers and for sustaining downstream communities and Indigenous cultures.

Some politicians view the Menindee Lakes as an easy target. The population around Menindee is sparse, without much economic or political clout. The birds, fish and wildlife can not vote, lobby or protest. Taking water from the Menindee Lakes system is seen as politically easier than seeking to recover water from loud, well-connected and politically savvy irrigators. The location of the Menindee Lakes in a remote part of NSW that is out of sight and out of mind for many citizens located on the eastern seaboard also makes it hard for the issue to gain political traction.

A plan to decommission the Menindee Lakes:

After the Menindee Lakes filled from a major flood event in Queensland and NSW 2012, they were rapidly emptied by the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the NSW Government. Usually the lakes would hold water for many years after they filled, but by 2014 they were emptied. As a consequence, Broken Hill was in danger of running out of water and the government announced a plan to drill bores to supply the city with low-quality bore water. Locals were outraged at this plan and were concerned that the Menindee Lakes had been deliberately drained so quickly as part of a plan to justify the decommissioning of the lakes.RIP Menindee Lakes

Another flood filled the Menindee Lakes in late 2016, but again they were rapidly drained, almost inexplicably into a flooding river. By then end of 2017 they were again dry just as drought started to bite and Broken Hill was facing another artificial water shortage.

Flush with cash from privatising the electricity networks, the NSW Government spent $500 million building a 270 kilometres water pipeline from the Murray River at Wentworth to Broken Hill. This ended the city’s reliance on the Darling-Baaka River and Menindee Lakes for water supply. Cotton Australia applauded the construction of the pipeline saying in their Annual Report, "The pipeline is a win for the community, the environment and irrigating farmers, and a solution Cotton Australia and its allies have long lobbied for." Meanwhile the local community was concerned that the pipeline would allow the NSW Government to decommission the Menindee Lakes without worrying about Broken Hill's water supply.

Sure enough, plans to reconfigure the Menindee Lakes are back on the table as a project to 'recover water from the environment' under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan's Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism. The NSW Government wants to save up to 100 gigalitres of water each year by reducing the volume water stored in Menindee Lakes by up to 80%. A range of proposals have been put forward for consultation.

The Darling River Action Group has labelled the plans as 'ecological genocide.' They strongly oppose the huge reduction in habitat that will occur if reconfiguration plans go ahead. They worry that changing the times between and length of inundation in the lakes will have a major impact on fish breeding and birdlife. The Barkindji native title holders are also strongly opposed to the plans, with significant concerns about the impact on their culture, community, environment and sacred sites.

Fish kills and dry rivers and lakes:

Fish Kill Menindee In the teeth severe drought, predictions of environmental catastrophe on the Darling River came true as millions of fish floated dead on the surface. Hot weather and a lack of flows led to a blue-green algae bloom that stripped the water of oxygen when it died, suffocating many millions of fish along a length of the Darling-Baaka River. Images of giant Murray Cod many decades old floating on the surface of a stagnant, bright green river shocked Australians. If water had been stored in the Menindee Lakes, a flow of water in the Darling-Baaka River could have been maintained and millions of fish and other creatures would have survived. It was noted that the very large mature Murray Cod that had died would have survived numerous previous droughts, so what had changed?

A report by the Australian Academy of Science concluded:

The conditions leading to this event are an interaction between a severe (but not unprecedented) drought and, more significantly, excess upstream diversion of water for irrigation. Prior releases of water from Menindee Lakes contributed to lack of local reserves.

A small flow in mid-2019 led to a partial revival of the Darling-Baaka River and water in the upper lakes of the Menindee Lakes system. However, the Menindee Lakes and Darling-Baaka River face three major threats:

1) The proposed re-configuration of the Menindee Lakes system;

2) The continuing overallocation of water extraction licences in the Northern Basin of the Murray-Darling system;

3) The extent and proposed licencing of floodplain harvesting, which is capturing huge quantities of water before it can even reach the waterways of the Darling-Baaka River.

Source: Save Menindee Lakes (www.savemenindeelakes.org.au/the_history)

Let's give thanks on this Sunday that there's still something worth shooting that isn't a 6 axle, widecab locomotive. Earlier this month the Apache started bringing in some cement hoppers for storage. There were 18 of them in the siding at Snowflake Jct, but the 99, 82, and 98 added another 12 to that. What you see here is a little trickery due to the angle of the shot. They have already completed the drop and now have 30 cars standing on the siding. There're only 2 tank cars on the pin as the trusty Alco's pull away from the cut of cars with an eruption of environmentalist nightmares. Halleluiah and praise Schenectady!