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An old, WWII era plane that crash(landed?) on Palmyra Atoll. My story has always been that it was from the last air carrier for the island.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! One of the things I am most thankful for is having such places like this -- this is Prisoner's Harbor, Santa Cruz Island, part of Channel Islands National Park -- so nearby, as an escape from the insanity that is our technology driven, 24/7, consumption- and competition-focused world just a short boat ride away.
Prisoner's Harbor is one of the anchorages which is on Santa Cruz, and is beyond the usual landing at Scorpion Bay. Far fewer people land over here (no water, only one long dry camp up a big hill, one single pit toilet at the dock). There's a long wharf here which was formerly used for running cattle to market; and there is still a fair amount of traffic here (and cars) to the Nature Conservancy side of the island. It's remarkably different than the Scorpion Bay side (only 20 min. down the coast by boat). Instead of grasslands, it's a pine forest, with Manzanita (a species normally found only in alpine areas), ironwood (the only ironwood on the continental U.S. -- a vestige of the forests that covered North America before the ice age 6 million years ago -- and pine trees, all at sea level). If you ignored the sea and salt air, you'd think you were on the top of Mt. San Jacinto or in the Sierra's.
Mountain dwelling wild animals include the black bear and mountain lion. The group of birds in the higher elevations, including the Common Black-hawk, Golden Eagle, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, and Montezuma Quail, is more closely associated with western mountain ranges than birds across the rest of Texas. Some species nest here and nowhere else in Texas.
This system is also of importance for bird migration. Various birds of prey, ten species of hummingbirds and some of the other gems of America, including the painted redstart and Grace’s warbler, migrate through the Davis Mountains. In just a relatively short time they have found on the property Mexican Spotted Owls and Slate-throated Redstarts, two very rare birds for Texas.
This is the creek at the top of the main falls at Falls Ridge Preserve. Falls Ridge is part of the Nature Conservancy and boasts a spring-fed travertine waterfall approximately 80 feet in height.
It's a pretty easy trail and offers a lot of great photographic opportunities. I plan to re-visit often.
www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/virginia/p...
Lake Russell, Kissimmee River, Florida
The Disney Wilderness Preserve, owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy, protects more than 12,000 acres of valuable upland and wetland habitat in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, at the headwaters to the Everglades. Disney Wilderness Preserve is a central component to the new Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge which the Nature Conservancy is helping create in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Learn more at: www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/florida/pr... and www.fws.gov/southeast/greatereverglades/.
Photograph by Carlton Ward Jr / Carlton Ward Photography / www.CarltonWard.com
Credit: Carlton Ward Jr. / CarltonWard.com
For editorial use only.
The Hansen Livestock Co. near Medicine Lodge, Mont. is core sage grouse habitat area and the Hansens have worked with NRCS to improve their grazing system and habitat for wildlife. Lto R: Stephanie Hansen, Lindsay Schmidt, NRCS district conservationist, and Eric Hansen. Beaverhead County, Montana. June 2017.
The Davis Mountains comprise a unique and limited ecosystem. Adapted to natural processes of fire and drought, the system is slow to recover from impacts inflicted by humans. Overgrazing, habitat fragmentation through ranch subdivision and overuse of the water resources by a growing population are potential threats to one of Texas’ most ecologically diverse landscapes.
The Conservancy has known of the importance of preserving this natural area for some time. Three priorities guided us to action: the conservation of a landscape-scale “sky island”, the preservation of West Texas’ ranching legacy by keeping a large and historical part of that heritage intact, and safekeeping the dark skies surrounding University of Texas McDonald Observatory.
With the 32,000-acre purchase of part of the historic U Up U Down Ranch, the subsequent addition of 2,000 acres and the donation of conservation easements on some 70,000 acres thus creating a buffer around the core preserve, roughly 90,000 acres of the Davis Mountains are under protection.
Water found in surface streams, springs or shallow ground-water tables is the lifeblood of this arid portion of the state. Conservation on the Davis Mountains Preserve and on neighboring lands is crucial to the protection of the hydrological system that originates at Tobe Gap and Bridge Gap on Mount Livermore, extends through rugged canyonlands and opens out into the desert flats near the town of Balmorhea.
© Lawrence Goldman 2013, All Rights Reserved
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Copyright © 2013 Elizabeth Root Blackmer. All rights reserved.
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Fall Creek Gorge Nature Preserve, Indiana
January 4, 2008
This small falls is above the potholes and is at the start of the gorge. Above the falls this creek looks like any other average creek in Indiana.
Knobeloch Woods is a virgin white oak forest which is a rare thing now. It was land owned by my ancestors and years ago with the help of the Nature Conservancy, transferred to Illinois public property as a nature preserve to protect it in the future. Apparently it was very coveted by loggers and the story goes that even a bunch of Japanese businessmen came to try to buy it.
dnr.state.il.us/INPC/directory/Sitefiles/Area7/KNOST.htm
Knobeloch Woods Nature Preserve (Freeburg)
35 acres of dry upland and wet floodplain forest are open to the public with Illinois Nature Preserve restrictions.
Rentchler Road off Hwy 177 | Belleville/Freeburg, IL
For Mother's Day, we decided to find a new place to walk and chose Happy Valley Forest managed by the Nature Conservancy. It was a day of spring woodland flowers. Very nice.
Read more here -
www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/ontario/our-wor...
See locations of interest with directions/maps www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/ontario/visit/
Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission.
© Barbara Dickie. All rights reserved.
A stream on Arlo Van Diest's farm near Webster City is protected by conservation methods like a denitrifying bioreactor and buffer strips.
The site is part of the Boone River Watershed. The watershed has 20 public and private stake-holder groups that have committed expertise, funding, and other resources to preserve and enhance water quality and watershed health.