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RAVENSWOOD
MEDIA
NEWSLETTER
Issue #5, June 2008
Providing a conduit between science and the public |
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RAVENSWOOD MEDIA'S WEBSITES
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CONNECTING KIDS TO NATURE By Sue Crombie
When I was a kid, my life was my bike. I explored the Forest Preserves near Chicago by riding the most obscure path I could find. I needed adventure because, like all kids, I had to feed my own imagination. Today, television, computers and video games provide the imagination and children need not go any further than their living room to find adventure. Federal, state and county officials are concerned this trend will erode the bond between kids and the natural world and create a generation alienated from nature.
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“Children are the link to the future of wilderness and wildlife in the United States. When I learned that the U.S Fish and Wildlife was starting an initiative to connect children to nature, I left my 13 year career at the EPA to be the health educator at U.S. FWS.” Robin Bunch says about the Children and Nature Initiative at U.S FWS. The gap between children and nature threatens both the future of conservation and children’s health.
The service was already alarmed by the disconnection between kids and nature when Robert Louv’s book, Last Child in The Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, appeared in the bookstores.
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The book has generated a national discussion about the issue and inspired Leave No Child Inside programs. Part of the service’s mission is to ensure the future of conservation and they realize that nature needs children as much as children need nature. “Today’s children are the decision makers of tomorrow”, says Robin.
Parents and teachers play an important role in reconnecting children to nature. The Children and Nature Initiative has designed several strategies for teachers and parents to encourage kids to explore the outdoors. Resources for teachers and parents have been set up with guides on how to engage children in outdoor activities.
“The service has not received any outside funding and relies heavily on the strong desire in its employees to reconnect children to the outdoors”, says Robin. “This is going to be a slow process but every little step helps, even if it’s just a few states and counties at a time.”
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On the regional level, the Hoosier National Forest in Southern Indiana has initiated a program called Kids Unplugged. The program targets 3rd-5th graders from underserved areas. The kids are bussed to Hardin Ridge Recreation Area for a day of outdoor activities. “Never has connecting children to land been so critical, making this an ideal time for Kids Unplugged.” says Cindy Sandeno, chief biologist for the Hoosier National Forest. “The goals of this event are to teach underserved children lifelong outdoor skills and encourage their personal relationship with the outdoors”. |
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May 16, 2008 was a tranquil morning at Lake Monroe where only a few birdcalls could be heard. Screams of delight broke the silence as kids streamed out of buses to spend the day in a “different” kind of classroom. There were 132 attendees from 2 schools. The majority of the kids qualified for free lunch programs and the schools lacked the resources for outside activities. One teacher remarked, “The kids were really excited about getting outside and it was a good trip because a lot of them don't get out of the city.” The children were paired with mentors who volunteered to take kids on hikes, bird watch and fish. “It was a wonderful experience for both the kids and the adults. It’s important to continue this every year so we grow up a new generation of conservation stewards.” |
In 2001, Mrs. Miller of Glacier Ridge Elementary School brought in an article about a
threatened marsh adjacent to the school. The classroom discussion motivated student
Henry Cilley to investigate the marsh where he discovered the endangered Blandings Turtle. |
A development firm had proposed to build a strip mall on the marsh destroying native habitat for the turtles. “I wanted to go and get the turtles and bring them all home to take care of… but my mom said no.” Henry said ruefully.
With the help of his parents, Henry contacted the media, attended board meetings, and encouraged his classmates to get involved. In the end, Henry’s efforts paid off and the area was saved. To my delight, as I drove down Algonquin Road last week, I noticed for the first time, a turtle crossing sign warning drivers to slow down. I realized it was the marsh that Henry worked so hard to protect. The sign is an important reminder to me of the power in all of us to make a difference. |
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CONNECTING NATURE TO ADULTS...THROUGH ART By David Cottrell
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Ric Laurent relishes painting outside. “Having grown up in the West, I have this great longing for wide open spaces,” says Ric. He hikes into forests, crosses mesas and other wild places to paint in a tradition called en plein air, from the French meaning “in open-air”.
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Plein-Air painting challenges the artist to capture on canvas the mysteries of a single moment in the outdoors. It began in the mid-19th century, when French realists and impressionists, like Monet and Renoir, found inspiration for their art in their gardens and rural areas.
Ric is associated with a larger group known as the Plein-Air Painters of America. Their mission is “to strive to more fully explore and respond to the timeless beauty that surrounds us all”. They also are committed to promote “a heightened visual appreciation of the world by sharing with the public our combined knowledge and experience through workshops and exhibitions of the highest caliber”.
Ric gives workshops on Plein-Air painting through the Oak Park Art League. He leads groups of 3 to 20 artists on outdoor expeditions to paint in a spot surrounded by the colors and sounds of nature. |
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“When you set a scene up, you look for a dominant subject - a focal point,” says Ric “it could be sunlight on a boulder, a cloud, or something that catches your eye because of a strong contrast between dark and light.” A painter will sometimes spend an entire day at a single spot “so it has to be something that inspires and holds the artist’s attention.”
Ric believes that Plein-Air painting connects the artist to nature in a very personal way. “It’s something you cannot get from painting from a photograph. You need the whole value range and color of the subject you're painting in nature. The totality of this experience manifests itself in the painting. Nothing can substitute for the experience of nature.”
Outdoor artwork also comes with pleasant surprises, such as deer or other wildlife that wanders into the scene and will sometimes stick around long enough to be captured on canvas. In order to accurately capture the right light, “an artist will sometimes go day after day to the same location and at the same time to paint for 25 minutes, and go home.”
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Many Plein-Air painters practice painting a complete landscape in two hours or less. "A really good painter can knock out a painting in less than one hour”.
Some of the most memorable places where he has painted on site are the Rio Grande Gorge in New Mexico, and in Colorado. It is in these places where natural conditions and the artist truly come together.
“There is satisfaction not unlike the outdoorsman feels,” says Ric. “A communion with nature, learning to observe in detail, understanding the biosphere by observing the passage of time, and the satisfaction of recording an hour of the life of the planet and having a collector share your interest by purchasing one of your paintings.”
This summer, Ric along with other nationally recognized painters, are traveling to Door County, Wisconsin for the annual Plein-Air Festival. For details about their July events, visit www.doorcountypleinair.com. To find out more about Plein-Air painters near you, go to
www.p-a-p-a.com. |
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A MUSSEL'S COME HITHER LOOK By David McGowan
Last month I saw a remarkable animal that I had no idea existed. I found it on the rocky bottom of a shallow river, flicking its fleshy folds. It looked like a wounded fish stuck in the rocks. Its spasmodic movements offered me a glimpse of a mystery seldom seen.
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Displaying mussels, Family Unonidae, are distributed worldwide but most are found in the river washed mountains of Appalachia and the Ozarks. Each year the mussels expose a jerking lure packed with larvae. When a fish strikes, the lure explodes shooting the larvae into the gills of the fish. The larvae, glochidia, survive and grow from nutrients provided through the fish’s gills. When they’ve reached a suitable size, they drop off the fish and colonize a new habitat many miles from their parent. Evidently, this is done without harming the fish.
Jacob Culp and Dave McGowan
search the Elkhorn Creek for Mussels
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I needed a shot of a displaying mussel for The Nature Conservancy’s program about the Blue River in Indiana. The mussels are difficult to find displaying in the wild. Fortunately, the Kentucky Center for Mollusk Conservation allowed me to film at their compound just outside of Frankfort. Center director, Monte McGregor, began the project in 2002.
The Center has successfully propagated mussels for reintroduction into rivers throughout Kentucky. Some species of mussels are very narrowly host specific, relying on a single species of fish to carry their larvae. If the host fish disappears so does the mussel. They are also highly susceptible to pollution and low oxygen levels in the water. Subsequently, fresh water mussels are one the most endangered group of animals in the United States.
Jacob Culp, an aquatic biologist at the Center, took me to the Elkhorn Creek. We walked up and down the clear, cold river, hunched over our viewing buckets looking for the animals. After two hours of searching a hundred yards of rushing river, we finally found a displaying mussel in three feet of water. The camera was packed into an underwater housing and dropped to the stony bed of the river. |
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There’s a certain satisfaction in filming animals in the wild, whether they’re
charismatic megafauna or an unassuming mussel at the bottom of a river. To see a creature in the environment it evolved in, doing the things it has for thousands or millions of years, renews my awe of the mystery of nature.
The state of Kentucky deserves a lot of credit for investing in the Center for Mollusk Conservation. Monte McGregor and the scientists at the Center are contributing to the understanding of freshwater mussels and their impact on the river ecosystem. The more pieces of the natural world we can fill in and protect, provides hope that the next generation can also share in the excitement of seeing animals in the wild. |
WORKING TOGETHER WORKS! JUST ASK AUDUBON AND TOYOTA.
What do you get by combining a birding organization with a car company’s largess and a passel of volunteers?
A restored prairie and thousands of bobolinks.
With a grant from Toyota, Audubon has created a program that connects people to nature through conservation projects.
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TogetherGreen was initiated to confront the tremendous environmental challenges facing the world today. The projects demonstrate that by working together, we can make a difference in the environment.
Ravenswood Media was chosen by Audubon to produce a short video on the prairie restoration at the Bartel Grasslands. See the video. Despite the rain, there was a strong turnout of volunteers to plant the thousands of sedges in the mud of the prairie. Two weeks later we returned to film the bobolinks who had just arrived from their long flight from Brazil. It was heartening to see so many people, giving so freely of their time because of a commitment to conservation… and having fun doing it.
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THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: FROM BLUE RIVER TO THE BOTTOMLANDS
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Ravenswood Media wraps up production on The Nature Conservancy’s Blue River Project in June. The Blue River has been filmed in all seasons, from the verdant summer months, through the snowstorms of winter to the floods of spring. Local people have shared their thoughts about the river and its place in their lives.
Just as the Blue River project winds down, Ravenswood Media begins a new program for TNC. Production for the The Bottomlands begins on June 16. The Bottomlands of southwest Indiana are a mixture of cypress swamps and oxbow lakes left over from the changing courses of the Ohio and Wabash Rivers. Our goal is to capture the primordial nature of this exotic Indiana landscape. |
ENVIROVET PREMIERE AT THE HEINZ CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
“Envirovet: Vision for Tomorrow” premiered at the Heinz Center for the Environment on Earth Day, April 22 in Washington, DC. The audience consisted of representatives from many government and conservation organizations. After the program was screened ideas flowed from the attendees on how Envirovet can sustain their important work in wildlife health. As animal populations continue to decline globally, the genetic value of each animal rises so it’s critically important that veterinarians are included in wildlife management decisions.
Ravenswood Media produced the program and the website, www.Envirovet.org, to introduce Envirovet to veterinary students and professionals interested in wildlife work. The website is translated into Chinese and Spanish in the hope of attracting more students from developing countries. Students from 47 countries have already completed the Envirovet course. The film tells their stories using their own words about their passion for wildlife work.
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GORILLA ORPHANAGE SERIES
Ravenswood Media has attracted the attention of New Zealand Natural History television with their proposal for a series on a gorilla orphanage in Rwanda. David McGowan pitched the proposal to NZNH at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival last fall. NZNH produced the popular “Orangutan Island” currently airing on Animal Planet. McGowan, NZNH and a representative of the gorilla orphanage will meet in Washington, DC later this month to discuss episode plots.
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SURPRIZE VISIT FROM TANZANIAN HERPETOLOGISTS
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Visiting Tanzanian herpetologists stopped in at Ravenswood Media to preview “Why Frogs Call… and Why We Should Listen.” Wilirk Ngalason (Tanzania), Simon Loader (United Kingdom) and Michele Menegon (Italy) are focused on the montane frogs of Tanzania. They were in Chicago to study the extensive frog collection at the Field Museum. They provided insightful comments about the 30 minute program and offered suggestions on how to improve it. We also talked about the global threats facing amphibians, particularly in Africa. Our goal for the documentary is to generate more public support for the work of scientists in their search for solutions to amphibian declines.
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| We are happy to announce that our colleague, Coulter Mitchell, has produced a documentary The Cost of Oil. Coulter will screen the program at the end of the month. The documentary is an outline of the effects of offshore oil production in the Arctic Ocean just off the coast of northern Alaska. The native people have lived off the land for over 2000 years using the resources provided by the ocean. The plan for offshore oil development in this region has posed a huge threat to these people’s way of life. Not only will oil drilling have an impact on their subsistence lifestyle, but their cultural heritage may also be at risk.
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View the trailer for The Cost of Oil
The film is a compilation of interviews with the native peoples living on the North Slope of Alaska and expert geophysicists, biologists, oil production specialists, environmentalists, linguists and ethnologists. These interviews have been added to footage taken from the arctic tundra of Alaska resulting in a powerful piece that shows some of the imminent danger that the world may face in drilling for oil in the dangerous Arctic Ocean. |
| NEW INTERN AT RAVENSWOOD MEDIA
Steven Spence will join the Ravenswood Media team in June. Steven is studying media production at Western Kentucky University and will work with us during his summer break. Steven will begin his internship on The Nature Conservancy’s Bottomlands project.
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