Lacassine Pool in Southern Louisiana

The rain had stopped, but heavy black clouds hugged the sky to the south as we entered Lacassine Pool, part of Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge. We had driven on roads that criss-crossed the rice fields of southern Louisiana where dowitchers stood in the sodden fields with their heads bobbing up and down like miniature oil rigs.

Fishermen lined the banks of the canals on either side of the road, while egrets and heron stalked their prey nearby, seemingly unperturbed. As we drove slowly, mosquitoes danced on the car windows. Red-winged Blackbirds and Boat-tailed Grackles squawked and guarded their territories as they perched on the still brown cattails and reeds. Tree and Barn Swallows swooped in and out over the marshes. Black and Turkey Vultures wafted on the thermals.

Only 15 miles from the gulf coast, the refuge was established in 1937 to provide habitat for wintering waterfowl and preserve the vanishing marshes. It comprises 34,760 acres, including 16,000 set aside where hunting and fishing are not allowed. A road loops through this section of marshes, swamps and open water where we drove to observe nesting wading birds. We were the only ones in this part of the refuge.

“Look, a Nutria,” Barbara exclaimed. The beaver-sized rodent resembled a gopher as it chomped on marsh grasses. The Great Egret sharing the area seemed oblivious to its munching neighbor. Nutria, originally imported for fur farms, were later released in the marshes of southern Louisiana. They have caused extensive damage to the fragile ecosystem from over-grazing.

Mottled Ducks swam calmly through the reeds. Amongst the bobbing coots were numerous moorhens, their red beaks gleaming as though they had been recently painted. “Stop the car,” I told Barbara, “and back up slightly, I think there is a gallinule in the bushes.” Sure enough, the purplish and green feathers and yellow legs of this colorful waterfowl stood out against the undergrowth.

My target birds were White Ibis and Roseate Spoonbill. I had seen both briefly in Mexico, but could not count them on my North American bird list. In a cluster of wading birds were all three Ibis – Glossy, White-faced and the White. Standing on its bright red legs, it jabbed its red beak into the mud to extract crustaceans. While we watched several more flew in and we could see their black wing-tips with each graceful wing beat.

“Look beyond them and past the bushes,” Barbara pointed. Sure enough, I could see the pink feathers of a Roseate Spoonbill. It swings its long spatula-like bill back and forth as it sieves through the water. I would see some later at the High Island rookery where I could clearly observe the bright and lighter pink feathers, along with the orange feathers of breeding plumage.

As the clouds cleared in the west and the sun dropped low on the horizon, the area was bathed in a golden hue. We headed out of the refuge towards Lake Charles. Suddenly an owl that had been perched on a power pole flew up and out over the fields. “I think that is your owl,” I yelled. Barbara who has 531 birds on her North American list was hoping to see a Short-eared Owl. There was no one else on the road, so we backed up and found a spot to stake it out, hoping it would fly over the fields again. After half an hour, we gave up and headed through the dusk back to the freeway to find a motel for the night. It had been a wonderful start to our birding adventure.

Gratitude

All day as we worked, drivers honked, waved, blew kisses and yelled ‘thank you,’ as they made their way down the street. Marais Street in the Upper Ninth Ward is narrow and the houses are close together. Most are referred to as ‘shot-gun’ houses because they are only one room wide. As I looked beyond the peeling paint and boarded up doors and windows, I saw the decorative scrollwork on the eaves, remnants of better days. As we gutted the house, we saved the historic wood work to use in rebuilding.

Across the street from the house we were gutting was a sign pasted in a window declaring, “Proud to Be Home.” These signs, along with those that assert “I’ll Be Back,” are found all over town – evidence of the pride and determination of the city’s residents.

Initially when we were told the home was a rental, I felt resentful. Why should we help a landlord, I wondered? These feelings were dissipated when I learned FEMA trailers only went to people who owned land. Renters were evacuated to other parts of the country. They are a vital part of the workforce of a city that is rebuilding. Without rentals, they cannot return.

The woman who owned the property worked along side us all day and kept telling us how grateful she was.

As I cleared the yard behind the house, I uncovered lilies about to bloom – new life emerging from the contaminated soil.

All week I continually was humbled by the city’s gratitude. Shopkeepers, businesses that let us use their restrooms, and people we met on the streets effused their thanks. One evening after our days work as we sat on the gracious front porch of the grand home converted to our dormitory, a young woman paused during her jog and came up to the porch to convey her thanks. “My home didn’t receive much damage,” she told us. “However, it means so much to our city to have you here.”

“It is almost harder now,” one of the locals told us. “It has gone on so long and there is so much more to do.” A high percentage of the population suffers from some degree of depression and there is a high suicide rate. Those that have resources receive medical treatment and medication. If not, they cloister themselves in their FEMA trailers immobilized, while their damaged home sits relatively untouched.

Jean, who owns a praline business, summed up the feelings of many. “While the storm wrecked havoc on our city, it has brought us in contact with so many wonderful people – people like yourselves who will give up a week to restore our hope.”

Birth and Rebirth

Our plane landed in New Orleans and I was at the back waiting to deplane, when my cell phone rang. My heart jumped. It was Cheryl, my daughter-in-law’s mother letting me know that our grand daughter Lilli had just been born. BJ was holding her, and mother and baby were doing fine. Babies – the hope of generations to come. It was fitting that she arrived just as I was about to embark on a mission of hope in New Orleans.

Our group of 34, 16 from Albuquerque’s Covenant Presbyterian Church and 18 from West Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina quickly became a cohesive team. Cooperation was a necessity since we shared two dormitory rooms – one for women and one for men, each tightly packed with metal bunk beds that squeaked every time someone turned over, and forgiveness was crucial with varying degrees of snoring. The height of collaboration was 16 women sharing one sink and two toilet stalls for a week!

During the first night’s orientation, and again before we left for our first day’s work assignment, Sarah, the project director and Katie, our RHINO field coordinator, set the tone.

“You are probably full of energy and anxious to get started, but you need to pause before charging into the house,” Katie explained. “I will enter the house first to assess it and make sure things still are structurally sound.”

Sheryl, the owner of the first home we worked on, evacuated to Georgia and is still there. She had planned to join us; however, she recently had been in an auto accident which prevented her from traveling.

“Remember, this is someone’s home,” Sarah emphasized. When we were invited to do an initial walk through, the first thing that caught my eye was a row of tiny Christmas stockings nailed to a door jam.

We started by removing all the remaining household items, placing them in different piles – save, for salvageable items; electronics; food items or dirty dishes; yard waste and other. While the family already had been through and taken items they wanted, we unearthed important keepsakes, e.g. the children’s report cards.

“Don’t get carried away taking pictures of the damage. People are very sensitive,” Katie said. “And be careful with your language,” she continued. “For instance, don’t go home and refer to your activities as ‘demolition.’ Again, these are people’s homes and we are making it possible for them to rebuild.”

Yet, we felt it was important to document our activities with photos. From a distance it was easy to understand intellectually the kind of damage the residents of New Orleans experienced. We were not prepared for the reality that accompanies up to 11 feet of flood water.

Katie kept vigilant about our health. She called breaks for rest, bathroom runs to a nearby gas station, reminded us to drink water and announced when it was time to change our paper respirator masks.

By the end of the day we cleaned out the yard, dismantled the swing set, removed all of the moldy wall board, removed cupboards, bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Only the studs, roofing and exterior paneling remained.

The pile of debris stretched the entire length of the property.

We were oblivious to the squeaky springs that night.

Mission of Hope in New Orleans

When our church announced a mission trip to New Orleans this spring to assist with restoration activities, I knew I had to go. I continued to be haunted by the memories of the devastation and heard that little progress had been made. I had given money, but wanted to do more, something personal. This was reinforced recently when I met a visitor to Albuquerque from New Orleans. As I told her I would be traveling to her city to help with restoration, she started to cry, even though her own home had not been damaged.

Rev. Catherine Robinson, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church that is sponsoring the trip, was ordained and started her ministry in New Orleans. She explains the importance of the trip for her, “I am not at all handy with a hammer and nails, so I have no imagination that I’m going to make much of a difference in anyone’s housing situation. But I feel that I want to make a pilgrimage there, to offer (if nothing else) a ministry of presence with the people, and in the city, that shaped me so profoundly when I was in my 20’s.”

Dave Campbell, who will be going with his teenage son, Damon, summed up his motivation saying, “I am motivated to go to NOLA because of what appears to be an extraordinary need for volunteers to do hard work. As with most Americans, I have been moved by the extraordinary stories of devastation and courage in New Orleans, and I want to see it for myself. Also, I want an opportunity to share this experience with others—especially my 16 year old son. I know it will be a life changing experience for both of us.”

There are 16 individuals in our intergenerational group who will be traveling to New Orleans March 25 and participating in Project RHINO (Restoring Hope In New Orleans). The four youth in our group are choosing to have this experience over the typical spring break vacation at the beach.

We will spend the week in demolition activities. Our packing list includes safety goggles, leather work gloves, a tool belt and respirator masks – a little daunting.

Rev. Tom Oler, recently retired from Metterie, a suburb of New Orleans, and now living in Estancia, shared his experiences of living through the aftermath of Katrina. His comment was, “From the stories in the media, I think many people are more interested in who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby – that they have forgotten about the gulf coast.” I am hopeful that information about our experiences will inspire others from Albuquerque and New Mexico to consider this type of experience.

Bert Dugan, a member of our group, sent the following quote to the rest of us today as we prepare to leave: “Serendipity is seeing or experiencing something important when you were looking for something else.” This will be good to remember during the coming week. Stay tuned.

Fresh From the Farm

Today I picked up my first box of produce from Los Poblanos Organic Farms in Albuquerque. My two-week supply contains a pound of asparagus, 6 apples, 4 oranges, garlic, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, onion, 3 kiwis, chard and a package of ‘first of season’ strawberries. I could not believe how fresh everything was! The spinach was vibrant and clean and the red chard was crisp and straight. It was a joy to the eye, as well as to the palate.

The warehouse provides boxes to transport the produce; however, I used my recycled cloth conference bags. From an aesthetics point of view, I envied another shopper who placed her fruits and vegetables in a large round shopping basket hung jauntily over her arm. It was such a relief not to deal with all of the plastic bags my normal shopping trip entails. Since the food is pre-paid, I simply picked up each item from its cooler on tables around the room and put it in my cloth bag. Only the greens needed to be bagged.

Participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is something I ruminated about for almost a year. In CSA the consumer joins with others by signing up for a ‘share’ of the produce – giving some stability to the farmer. Los Poblanos currently has about 850 shareholders. I opted for a box every other week, which I will pick up from a convenient distribution point. The ‘dividend’ from my shares will be fresh organic food.

I kept making excuses for not signing up. Could I chow down on a box full of produce every two weeks? What happens when I am out of town?. What if my box contained something I didn’t like? My questions remained; however, I decided to stop procrastinating and take the plunge – even though I am soon to head out of town.

Purchasing my shares was a snap. On the Los Poblanos website I indicated whether I wanted to weekly or every other week pickups, the number of weeks I wanted to purchase, selected a convenient site to obtain my produce and entered my credit card on their secure site. Home delivery is also available for a nominal charge.

Since I am leaving for New Orleans on Sunday, this week is a test of my ability to make sure I use the items I brought home. My sister and brother-in-law will be the recipients of left-over asparagus, half a cabbage and some spinach.

Okay, how can I use a bunch of chard in less than a week? I plan to enjoy Chipolte Cheddar Chard, Garlic Creamed Chard and Chard Frittata. A Google search provided me with information on how to freeze left-over chard leaves.

A recent article, “My Search for the Perfect Apple” in Time Magazine discussed the pros and cons of buying local versus organic produce. The author, who lives in New York, favored buying locally, even it wasn’t organic. I didn’t have to make that choice – my local farmer grows his produce without use of pesticides. He is passionate about sustainable community agriculture, the significance of environmentally friendly farming and the importance of consumers demanding organic produce.

Jane Goodall, of chimpanzee fame, became interested in the relationship between agricultural methods and health through observing the impact of farming methods on the chimpanzees she had been studying since 1960. She watched trees cut down, mountain slopes erode and lakes depleted through over-fishing. Both chimpanzees and farmers suffered.

In her book, Harvest for Hope, Goodall asserts, “…we are at a critical point in human history…And one way in which we can truly make a difference is to think about what we eat. Each decision we make – what we choose to buy, choose to eat, will have an impact on the environment.”

Not only am I looking forward to enjoying fruits and vegetables that exude freshness, I am supporting local agriculture and reducing my environmental footprint.

Polar Bears – You Can Make a Difference

This morning on Good Morning America, ABC News highlighted the plight of the Polar Bear and provided information on how we could help. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to put polar bears on the endangered species list, due to the effects of climate change. They will be studying this issue during 2007 and reaching a decision by year’s end. They are accepting comments until March 27.

As a lot of global warming nay saying continues, comments in support of this measure are needed. So often only people who opposed a measure turn out and speak up. A town hall meeting recently in Albuquerque is an example. City Council members sought the public’s opinion on red light cameras. While they clearly have reduced the number of drivers who speed through an intersection as the light changes to red, the majority of people who turned out for the meeting were those who got caught and wanted the cameras eliminated. I thought about submitting my appreciation for the measure that helps me feel safer when I drive. But I let the moment pass.

Kevin Paulson, who posted his congressional testimony as a comment to my article, shared his belief that the Polar Bear should not be put on the endangered species list. If you are concerned about the plight of the Polar Bear and the effects of global warming, I encourage you to share your opinions. For more information, check out the Fish and Wildlife web page. Comments can be e-mailed to Polar_Bear_findings@fws.org.

Polar Bears at Risk from Global Warming

The subject of the action alert grabbed my attention – Save the Polar Bears – Help Stop Global Warming!”

There is something magical about polar bears. I first became captivated during zoo visits as a youth. When the opportunity arose to add a visit to Barrow while visiting Alaska this coming June, I immediately signed on. While not guaranteed, I knew that Barrow was one of the few opportunities to see a polar bear in its natural habitat.

A universal fascination with Polar bears has propelled them to global warming’s poster child. Stories of Polar bears drowning in arctic waters pain a grim picture to which many can relate. Andrew Derocher, professor at the University of Alberta draws a comparison between global warming’s impact on polar bears with the effects on forest clear-cutting on its wildlife inhabitants.

“If Polar bears can swim, why are they drowning?” skeptics have asked. It is a fact that Polar bears are strong swimmers and transport themselves long distances in arctic waters between ice floes. What is also true is that the ice is receding further north, increasing the distance between the ice floes and land, a treacherous journey for young bears.

Ursus maritimus depend upon the arctic ice for their very existence. According to an article in the December/January 2007 issue of National Wildlife, Polar bears “routinely travel 3,000 miles a year, moving from ice floe to land to ice floe.”
Their primary source of food is ringed and bearded seals. The bear will wait patiently next to a hole in the ice for a seal to surface for air, then grabs the seal’s head between its jaws and drags it out of the water.

The bears mate while out on the summer ice floes and use the ice as a resting platform. Pregnant females build their dens on ice packs – sometimes several hundred miles offshore – or in snow drifts on land within 10 miles of the coast. They enter their dens around mid October and give birth sometime between November and January. The young bears, who are only about 1.5 pounds at birth, nurse over the winter until they are between 10 to 20 pounds. Sometime in late March or early April, they and the mother emerge. After fasting for several months, the female is famished. She and her cubs will head toward the sea. Whether the birthing dens are on an ice floe or on land, the receding ice and resulting rising water levels are threatening their survival.

The polar ice cap has shrunk, retreating 160 miles north of the Alaska coast. A team of over 300 international scientists reports in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment that in the last few decades Arctic temperatures rose at nearly twice the rate as the rest of the world. As a result, according to the Canadian Wildlife Service, the ice on Hudson Bay is melting an average of three weeks earlier than it did 30 years ago. This leaves a shorter period of time for the mothers and their cubs to build up needed fat reserves before they get stranded on the ice-free shore. During this same thirty year period, the Canadian Wildlife Service has documented a 55 pound drop in the average weight of female bears. If this persists, it will make them incapable of reproducing.

With longer seasons without ice, their natural food source has diminished and they have had to turn to other food sources. They are frequently seen scavenging on whale carcasses, and there have been reports of cannibalism.

Yet many people continue to believe that global warming is not serious. It saddened me to read the comments posted online following a February 2007 story in Britain’s Daily Mail. “Tell Al Gore the sky is not falling,” represent the flavor of many comments.

Steve Amstrup, polar bear biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey has been quoted in a number of articles as saying, “It’s fair to say as goes the sea ice so goes the polar bear.”

The Inuit name for Polar bear can be translated as “The one who gives power.” I am hopeful that the Polar bear can use its symbolic power to help skeptics realize the seriousness of global warming and influence U.S. environmental policy.