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A TOUCH OF NATURE
March 12, 2002 Issue

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DONNA'S COMMENTS
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Hi Subscibers!

This issue is coming out a little early because I am going to be taking a really cool "nature break." We were given a 10-day trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, so I will be looking at some awesome critters and rainforests. If I get some great pictures, I may put them on the website when I return and share them with you. It would be really cool if each of you could go. We feel very blessed to get this incredible trip for free! Thanks for sharing the last issue of this ezine with others as I asked you to do. Our subscriber count is 973 and this is our 8th issue. You are a GREAT group of folks! Keep sharing!

Here's an opportunity for you to help the House Finch:

HOUSE FINCH DISEASE SURVEY - There have been a number of house finches that have contacted an eye disease and Cornell Laboratory needs your help to know where the disease occurs and where it is absent. Whether you see infected birds, or normal birds, please participate!

Here's a great site I recently discovered:

WHAT HAVE WE LOST? - What's already extinct? What is endangered? This site will give you the information you want and need on extinction and endangered. It will tell you why you need to care, how extinction happens, groups that care, lists of species, good news and bad news, and great quotes. Be informed. Here's a place to find out how it's going with nature in your state - www.extinctionmemorial.org

Spring is almost here! Color everywhere! Get out there and enjoy it. It's a time for renewal and time to clear out the cobwebs of winter. Pick a few daffodils and put them on your kitchen counter or desk.

Enjoy life!
Donna

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CRITTER FACTS
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BATS ARE MAMMALS TOO!
There are a lot of superstitions about bats and most people are very misinformed about this animal. Here's some facts:

Bats are not blind - they do see in the dark.

They don't fly into hair - they use sonar to navigate very efficiently.

Bats are vital to many habitats where they are needed for pollination and seed dispersal and are involved in such foods as: dates, bananas, guavas, balsa woods, vanilla, and chewing gum.

Bats do not spread rabies. They can get it and die from it, but are not carriers of it. Only 1/2 of 1% test positive for rabies. There is a much better chance of winning the lottery with one ticket than getting rabies from a bat.

A colony of 150 big brown bats can protect local farmers from up to 33 million or more rootworms each summer. The vampire bat does not like human blood. It feeds on cattle and birds and does not kill these animals. This bat lives in Central and South America.

: Learn more about bats!

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CHARACTER QUALITIES IN NATURE
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SACRIFICE - The Great Horned Owl
The chilling February wind played with the tufts of feather on a crouched great horned owl as she sat searching for a suitable nesting site. An abandoned crow's nest was chosen and she began pecking away its frozen crust of snow to add a few branches and breast feathers. Within a few days it would contain three white eggs and now began the dedicated sacrifice in this frozen forest.

It was a full two months before other birds would nest - and for good reason. The cold days and colder nights made the owl a prisoner of her nest. If she left the nest to find food for herself, she would run the risk of her eggs freezing. So she went without much food during the crucial incubation period. Additional hardship came as a heavy snowstorm pelted the mother owl, with snow clinging to her feathers as well as the edges of the nest. She fought to shake off the snow, but never left the eggs.

After four weeks of keeping the eggs warm, three cream-colored, downy owlets hatched. Now the reason for early nesting became apparent. The owlets opened their pleading mouths and the parents began the race to keep their enormous appetites filled. This would be impossible if they didn't have the advantage of no leaves on the trees, which provided a clear view of rodents on the snow.

The mother owl adjusts its schedule for the best of its young by beginning a nest early and depriving itself of food so the eggs would bring forth her young.

Source: Character Sketches, Vol. I, Institute in Basic Life Principles

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GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE- Restoring the Balance
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BLACK WALNUT TREE (Juglans nigra)
Also known as Eastern Black Walnut and American Walnut, this large tree reaches 100 feet and 5 feet in diameter. The bark is light brown with a rough diamond pattern. The leaf is alternate compound with 10 to 24 leaflets, flowering from mid-April to June. The nut matures from September to October.

Black Walnut exudes a toxin (juglone) found in the leaves, bark, nut husks, and roots that affects surrounding plants allowing for few survivors in the plant kingdom. Rhododendron and vegetable plants in the tomato family are seriously affected even in soil where they've grown up to five years previously. Mulches of black walnut are also capable of causing injury. A few of the plants shown to survive are Black Raspberry, Wild Grape, and Virginia Creeper.

This tree grows individually or in small groups in the central and eastern parts of the United States, the best sites being in coves and well-drained bottoms of nearly neutral soil in the Appalachians and Midwest. Since colonial times, Americans have been cutting the good trees and leaving inferior ones to propagate, which has left a disastrous effect on the health and form of the trees. Groves found in mixed forests are usually located on the forest edge and are now small and rare since they have been heavily logged for furniture and gunstocks.

The nuts provide food for wildlife and humans, being used mostly in baked goods and ice cream. The shells were used during World War II to clean airplane pistons with a "nut shell" blaster and this idea was carried into the auto industry. Manufacturers used shells to deburr precision gears, clean jet engines, as additives for oil drilling operations, as filler in dynamite, as a non-slip agent in automobile tires, as an air-pressured propellant to strip paints, as a filter agent for scrubbers in smokestacks, and as a flour-like carrying agent in various insecticides.

Historically, American Indians used the husks for intestinal complaints such as constipation, hemorrhoidal bleeding and parasites. It has been used for fungal problems, herpes, warts, ringworm, impetigo, and athlete's foot. The rich supply of organic iodine aids the skin and thyroid gland, its tannins contain antiseptic properties, and its oxygenating abilities help burn excess toxins and fatty materials. Pet owners use it for worming and in natural heartworm programs. Read more historical medicinal uses of Black Walnut.

Source: This is an edited version of an article I wrote for a local
newsletter: The Rivanna Conservation Society Winter 2002 Newsletter

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"GREEN" INFO- Making It a Way of Life!
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FLUORESCENT LIGHTS
It's now possible to buy fluorescent fixtures that screw into a socket that normally holds an incandescent bulb. They are more costly, but they use 1/4 of the energy and last 10 times longer than a regular bulb.

Jon Luoma, in Audubon magazine, calculated that, "If 2/3 of the 3 billion incandescent sockets in America were relamped with compact fluorescents, the economy would save $20 billion annually (the equivalent of 250 million barrels of oil)

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REDUCE, REUSE, THEN RECYCLE
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Alan Durning, "Asking How Much Is Enough," State of the World: "In many ways, we might be happier with less. In the final analysis, accepting and living by sufficiency rather than excess offers a return to what is, culturally speaking, the human home: to the ancient order of family, community, good work, and good life; to a reverence for excellence of skilled handiwork; to a true materialism that does not just care ABOUT things but cares FOR them; to communities worth spending a lifetime in."

A verse from the Bible comes to mind also:
Luke 12:15: "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a
man's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions."

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CREATION IN THE BIBLE
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Deuteronomy 32:1-3 AVS
Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak;
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain;
My speech shall distill as the dew,
As the small rain upon the tender grass,
And as the showers upon the herb.
For I will proclaim the name of Jehovah:
Ascribe ye greatness unto our God

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MUSINGS: POETRY & PROSE
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"Honestly, our Earth is slowly losing its life more rapidly than ever before. You are the reason, so am I. People are constantly altering the nature of the planet -- by clearing forests and changing land, building more and more houses, malls and roads.

In many cases, now-extinct animals and plants had already existed precariously, like the Las Vegas leopard frog, which only inhabited one marsh in the whole world. And that marsh later turned into the city of Las Vegas, and the frog was wiped out. But the question is: Couldn't we have saved it? And really, shouldn't we have? I cannot bear to think that our country wants to lose such things that it originally came with, things that are truly good. Things that made our country the great place it is. Or was."
-- Scott Boven, 2001

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GOOD NEWS IN NATURE
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CHIMPANZEE SANCTUARY SYSTEM GETS $5 MILLION
President Bush has signed into law a bill that includes $5 million for fiscal year 2002 to begin building the national chimpanzee sanctuary system authorized in the last Congress by H.R. 3514.

The funds, contained in the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3061), will help ensure that construction moves forward as quickly as possible, to give chimpanzees formerly used in biomedical research a chance to live out the remainder of their lives in a peaceful, natural setting.

For more information on this issue, visit here.

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The content, suggestions, and web links in this newsletter are for informational purposes only and not necessarily endorsed our sponsor "The Herbs Place.com" This is a personal publication by Donna Watkins. The ideas and information expressed in it have not been approved or authorized by anyone either explicitly or impliedly. In no event shall Donna Watkins or "The Herbs Place.com" be liable for any damages whatsoever resulting from any action arising in connection with the use of this information or its publication, including any action for infringement of copyright or defamation.