2005
2 October 2005. A
Quest for Oil Collides With Nature in Alaska.
By FELICITY BARRINGER. NT Times. IKPIKPUK
RIVER DELTA, Alaska - The 217,000 acres of
windblown water and mottled tundra here on
the North Slope of Alaska ...are home in summer
to 50,000 to 90,000 migratory birds. This
corner of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve
is also thought to be brimming with oil. From
the presidencies of Ronald Reagan through
Bill Clinton, federal officials put the bird
habitat off limits to oil development. But
after federal geologists in 2002 quadrupled
their estimate of the oil available here in
the northeast quadrant of the reserve, the
Bush administration proposed putting the whole
area up for lease to oil and gas companies.
The move has touched off a fierce debate over
whether new technologies can allow wildlife
to coexist easily with oil exploration. Here,
among the crazy-quilt pattern of land and
water, the question is particularly keen,
because this is where Pacific black brant,
snow geese and other migratory birds annually
shed their feathers, and for six flightless
weeks have minimal disturbance and a clear
line of sight against predators.
March 2005. Field
Ecology in a Cultural Context. By Kerri
T. Vierling, Jacqueline Bolman, and Kelly
Lane. Science Teacher, p. 26-31. Ecological
studies that examine how organisms interact
with their environment provide a particularly
useful backdrop for high school students to
both quantitatively and qualitatively explore
the natural world. In Hot Springs, South Dakota,
we developed a module that integrated modern
ecological theory within an American Indian
cultural framework. In this weeklong field
ecology course, Lakota Sioux high school students
explored woodpecker habitat selection and
fire ecology.
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