Olympia's LBA Woods

The photo gallery below will give you a sense of a 150-acre woodland within the City of Olympia, WA--150 acres slated for 1,000 homes unless our community can rally to save them. For more information, please visit www.lbawoodspark.org and sign the petition to urge the Olympia City Council to step in and help purchase this unique property--the largest undeveloped tract of private land in the city.

Meanwhile, hover 'n' click on the photo below see what spring should always look like in a mature native Douglas-fir forest: exquisite

Clouds for Kevin

Last week's sweltering sunny 89-degree days in San Francisco drove me indoors to the De Young Museum and the Palace of the Legion of Honor where I found not only cool shade but fabulous clouds. Here is the round-up of some so-called landscapes that are really cloudscapes from the two museums.

Though I lingered in person in front of these masterpieces, you have to "hover" your cursor over the paintings and click to advance to the next photo in the gallery.   

Students Help Save Marbled Murrelets!

Thanks to a group of bright and talented 7th and 8th grade students in Newport, Oregon, we have a dozen fabulous minute-long Public Service Announcements aimed at saving the marbled murrelet.

I have posted three of the videos below made by Newport Prep students after their field trip to Cape Perpetua, Oregon, where they learned from biologist Kim Nelson (OSU) about the threat to murrelets by corvids (ravens, jays, and crows). These birds are the primary predators of murrelets in eggs and chicks at the nest and humans are partly to blame. The videos explain the problem and offer ways to stop it.

These videos are not narrated, but the images and text pack a punch that no conservation group is likely to match. Please take 3 minutes to watch the videos...and then another to forward them along.

Want more? Here's a link to the full set. Thank you Newport Prep!