Forces To Reckon With

James and I need to start our trek to assist the community and environment with starting a non-profit. This is a daunting task in itself and costs a little bit of money. The reason why we decided to go this route is because of all the red tape. Not that there isn’t red tape being a non-profit, there most certainly is, but I think it will be lessened. Right now the attitude we are getting is that there is no way that we don’t have alterior motives just trying to help out the community. The other attitude is I think one that reeks of fear because there are people getting paid by the government to do what we do and since we are doing it for free we may cause them to be out of a job. The only reason that James and I are doing this is because we love being outside and want to foster that love of the outdoors in other people too.

So let me tell a story and I can’t implicate anyone or any organization here because see there is a thing of being 8-balled in these other organizations.

We decided to hold a composting class for our township. James made a homemade composter bin and it has been working out pretty good. So we decided to take the show on the road. Turns out that there is grant money available to give residents free composting bins if they attend a workshop. So here James and I decided to put ourselves on the workshop list, talk to the people who run the workshop and take their show on the road for them to our neighboring communities. Guess what this saves them time, money, and gas!

When approaching this subject with the organization that gives away the composting bins, it immediately drew up red flags for them. Why did we want the compost bins, why are ordinary citizens trying to help out? Like we were going to sell these compost bins in the alleyway. Needless to say… no one would step out of the box on this one. Instead they sent me on a wild goose chase for a week talking to different people who promised they would get back to me that day. Well a week later they finally get back to me and the individual from an organization who shall not be named… gave me another run around sending me back to the first organization that we talked to…. I put my foot down and said that answer will not get me off their phone and finally she read to me an email in which the two organizations had been corresponding back and forth about what James and I were trying to do stating that the only approved place to teach the composting workshop is this place and there are simply not enough funds to let us teach ( even though we would be doing this for free) this to our township. Instead the residents of our township can feel free to take the composting class that is 45 minutes away and they will then be eligible for a free compost bin.

Here’s what I say: We can teach this class better and we are going to take the free composting bin that they give us for taking their class and raffle it off at our class and teach people an easier way to compost.

I also say these people need to step outside the box…. the view is better.

11 Million and You Walk on By

Max and I went on a four mile jaunt this morning. He always runs ahead, he gets bored and wants to explore. He was quite ahead on the trail and I can see the fuzzy outline of him bending over on the ground. When I reach him he is steaming mad and saying “its ridiculous” Max found about 36 empty beer cans strewn over the entire trail. He had already started picking them up. I helped him finish picking up the rest as Max was saying he couldn’t believe that someone had littered.

What always amazes me is that there were at least eight people that passed us already on the trail. These cans were spread out all over the trail and you would have had to hold your breath, jump to the right , hope that you didn’t land in goose poop to miss them. So at least eight people saw them and did nothing and weren’t even bothered by it. In addition there were township workers driving the path and filling in places with mulch, they had a truck and gloves, and yet the cans were still there. Max and I took care of them right away and we couldn’t quite carry them all in one trip. I suggested to Max that we come back the next loop around and he said no, he wanted to take care of them now. So we made two trips but got them all off of the trail.

They are just cans right? I shouldn’t be upset about it right?

I’m not really until I think about another message. 11 million people died during the holocaust. There were many that watched and let it happen. There were people just doing their jobs and knowing it was wrong, but were afraid.

What’s one more polar bear?

4 weeks ago the polar bear was listed as a threatened species due to melting ice where the polar bear hunts and reproduces. The ice is thinner which environmentalists are touting to global warming and thus many polar bears lately have drown due to exhaustion of swimming all day.

The incredible genius of George Bush has decided to disregard the polar bear as a threatened species and allow seven oil companies to have legal protection in case they hurt or harm polar bears in their search for oil.

I’m not happy about gas prices either, but I think the total disregard for nature and science has angered me more. I am very concerned that we have no connection to nature but instead think of how we should fill up our SUVS and what parking lot we can drive too. The displacement of animals and the ecosystem concerns me a great deal. In the beginning it will be rough as animals will be showing up in the walmart parking lot looking for a new home. You may find a bear in some parts of the country, maybe an elk in another parking lot.

Eventually there will be nothing except the animals that we breed over and over for meat. Eventually those will be gone too… and it will be quiet, and only bacteria will live inside the shells of buildings.

Green Spaces and Free Spaces

These last few days our ideas have been overflowing and hoping this weekend to get back to the wooded area and travel it and see what needs to be done and to take some pictures. In my head I have visions of an adventure playground, but not one you normally would think of.

I think at that point we draw a proposal and try to start working with the municipality. Driving home last night from errands, I found another section of woods and I wouldn’t mind finding out who owns that and have another project to start on once we’re done with this one.

I think getting involved with the local governemnet is a good idea but the task is a little daunting. This is a circle we know nothing about.

In pitching these ideas I keep thinking about the kids. This generation has the most to lose from paving over the green spaces. This generation can lose touch with nature entirely if we’re not careful. I think pitching the kids is the way to go because it teaches about the environmental stewardship that we are talking about preserving.

In the sixties people fought for peace. Activism seems to have died down and also there is a pocket of activism that is a little strange. The people that are the activists themselves. I think we can take that energy and turn it into positive enthusiasm for the world, and for your free space.

Remove the stigma of granola, ditch the grassroots…. its about finding the castles again in nature.

How Zoos Care For Animals

While we are on the subject of animals and books, I wanted to talk about zoos and how they care for their animals. I speak from my own personal experience. I have worked at three different zoos ( Pittsburgh, Sea World, and Baltimore). Like any job, there are things you like, things you don’t like. Things you agree with and things you don’t.

I no longer work at a zoo. Its not that I stopped caring , its just that line of work is very gruelly and it generally doesn’t pay very much. I left the zoo business almost ten years ago.

Some of the views of zoos are put forth by people who have very limited knowledge of how zoos work and what their missions are.  Sometimes these people allow their imaginations and beliefs to rule their thinking and sensibility.

Zoos today are way different than what they have been in the past.  When zoos opened up they sometimes were considered a stamp collection. You have your collection of bears over there, your collection of tigers over there. Even when zoos first opened up I have to question if this was a true motive.

Instead of bearing weight on the negative I would like to think that animals in zoos are ambassadors to the animals that exist in the wild. Most of our school children may fall in love with an animal at the zoo. Perhaps they will also grow up to study that animal or have a career in conservation. Without this connection, our children will never be able to see firsthand a zebra. Much will be lost.

How zoos care for their animals?  Some of these activists want to cry false and claim that animals are abused in zoos, that they are confined to small areas, and are mistreated.

In my ten years of working at a zoo… I have…

1. Never seen an animal abused. Most of the zookeepers cared for these animals very deeply and almost like family.  Some of the chimpanzee zookeepers that I worked with douted on the chimpanzees and bought them birthday presents ( this is odd, but felt it needed to go here to prove a point).

2. Most animals were captive bred. We did have a few wild caught animals, but they were mostly the senior members of the zoo. Catching animals to put them in a zoo is no longer considered a pasttime.

3. Most zoos worked hard at research and breeding strategies. Most accredited zoos participate in something called the SSP. Basically this is a fancy numbering system that records how many species are living in zoos worldwide. This assures a number of different things a) That the animals are not inbred. b) the genetic pool of these animals stays as random and diverse as possible.

4) The animals were often treated better than the employees.  Limited pay and benefits , and yet our marine mammals at Sea World were eating restaurant quality fish.  If you dropped fish on the floor or ground even if the floor was scrubbed you pitched all of the food. Some of the employees were purposedly dropping mackrel, squid, and lobster tails just so they could take them home to feed their family.

Of course there is no substitute for a natural environment, though many zoos spend millions of dollars each year to rennovate and make habitats for their zoo residents as natural as possible. Many of the zookeepers spend extra hours at night on enrichment projects to keep the animals active and guessing.  Walt Disney animal park has a unique enrichment experience in which the animals are fed randomly throughout the day. Its like a lazy susan. Its a self propelled wheel in which food may or may not come out. 

In all honesty the world would be all concrete if it were not for zoos.  We would have paved over it a long time ago. But zoos teach us about animals and worlds that are not our backyard and it is because of this that children learn to preserve and conserve.

It sounds hokey, but when I was five my parents took me to Sea World for the first time.  It was magical. We fed stingrays and I watched the killer whale show.  If it wasn’t for that experience, I think my life would be pretty different and I wouldn’t care as much as I do about the world and the animals that inhabit it.

Would the Chimpanzee Stand Up

Today I am writing because I am angry about something.

James brought me a book with a fuzzy warm cover on the outside. Jane Goodall holding a chimp and the book is titled ” The Ten Trusts”. Its a pretty quick read, and when he brought the book home I could feel the hairs starting to stand up on my neck. I have not supported Jane Goodall at times though I can applaud and respect the work that she has done with chimpanzees.. I rationalize it this way. If I was standing on the side of the road hitchiking and a chimp was standing next to the road hitchiking, and Jane drives along and has only space for one of us. Jane would open the door and let the chimp in and wave goodbye to me.

Jane leaves me with the lasting impression that chimpanzees should be allowed to vote.

I feel myself digressing so let me explain before you throw your tomatoes.

Here is what I am not:

1. A stuffy elitist who thinks that humans are the only important species on the planet.

2. I believe we should respect our place in life. But I think we do need to be sensible and many of the things that are talked about in this book are not sensible

Human Beings are considerably the most complex species on the planet. Jane’s work with chimpanzees has shown that chimps are also complex. This makes a lot of sense because we share about 97% of our genes with chimpanzees.

1. They have complex social networking

2. They use tools

3. They feel emotion

4. They do have nonverbal and verbal gestures ( the verbal ranges from screams, hoots, and hollers, even laughter). However they don’t say hello, goodbye, etc.

5. Supposedly they know their reflection in the mirror ( though know one really knows if they do)

Human Beings are separated from chimpanzees because of language. Though Jane and her cronies might suggest that they do have a language, we just don’t know what it means.

My thinking is that there is no one chimpanzee is standing up and publishing the chimpanzee dictionary. Now that I have pointed that out there no distinction who is further among the evolution ladder.

Just because they are below us on the evolutionary ladder doesn’t mean they don’t deserve respect, understanding, and for us to try to learn as much as we can about the entire planet.

I would be doing a disservice to Charles Darwin, to my own species by putting the needs and wants of animals before my own. To even put them on the same playing field I feel is wrong.

I agree that we should respect life and find better ways of doing things.