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Critters Places

Zoo Stories

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The St. Louis Zoo is a favorite place of mine, but the web site for the Zoo doesn’t provide all the back stories to the animals. Or at least, not as many as I would like.

Happily, I spotted a story on the Amur Tiger cubs’ father, Khuntami by Dr. Jeffrey Bonner, in St. Louis Today—the latest in a year long series on the Zoo. I asked the St. Louis Today for links to the other articles, and the site was kind enough to link the others in.

This is a wonderful series, which I now see is also linked more prominently at the Zoo site. What I especially like about the series is that it focuses on the Zoo’s conservation efforts, rather than the “entertainment” items, so many other zoos feature so prominently. For instance, the Amur tiger cubs are winners with the public, true. How could they not be? What’s more important, though, is that the Amur tiger is one of the rarest cats in the world, and these five tiger cubs are especially critical for the program to save this endangered cat. The cubs’ father, Khuntami, was born in the wild, and orphaned as a cub. His genetic contribution to the Amur Tiger breeding program has been invaluable in the desperate attempt to save this beautiful cat.

But yeah, OK, they are cute little buggers.

Amur tiger cub

Categories
Places

Johnson’s Shut-Ins 2008

Johnson's Shut-Ins 2008

I visited Johnson’s Shut-Ins last week, before it closed for the season on the 24th. I hadn’t visited since 2006, and was very pleased to see how much progress has been made. The water quality is much improved, and most of the small particulate debris is gone. The Shut-Ins aren’t completely healed— you don’t heal from such a devastating flood in a couple of years— but both the DNR and Ameren have made significant inroads in correcting the damage.

The fens look nicely restored, and I could barely recognize the flood path, the green growth has done much to help it blend into the mountainside.

It does look like some of the boulders will be left in the restored park, which I think is a good thing. They won’t impact on the area, but will serve as a reminder, as well as historical marking.

I thought about doing a before/after/after slideshow, but I think I’ll wait on this until after the park is officially open, hopefully next May.

Categories
Places

Cheap gas

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

You can tell when the gas prices are lower: the stations are filled with big SUVs and trucks. And today we find out that Missouri has the lowest gas prices in the country. For now, that is.

I used some of the lower gas prices to fuel a trip to see Johnson’s Shut-Ins before it closed this year. I’ll have pictures in a later posting, but for now, it was good to see the park, and good to see how much it has improved.

I’ve been critical of both Ameren and DNR (Department of Natural Resources) in the past, but they both did a good job cleaning up the shut-in area, and restoring the Fens. I’m looking forward to the full opening of the park next year, when we’ll be able to walk around the entire park. I’m also looking forward to a fully restored Ozark Trail.

The park is still fragile, though, and use is severely restricted. Rightfully so—such devastation won’t be cured overnight. Food and drink are strictly forbidden, as are dogs. I was therefore irritated to see a couple of ladies carrying their food hamper and McD’s soft drink cups to the shut-ins, and even more at the couple letting their dog piddle on some of the newly growing rare and endangered fens. How quickly people forget how close we came to losing a natural treasure.

I want to save the world, but can we save it for just some of the people?

Categories
Climate Change Places

Katrina comparisons

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

It is difficult to be sympathetic to people in Iowa and Missouri when you read some webloggers who gloat about how “well” their state did compared to how well the people did in New Orleans after Katrina. I think it’s time to take a closer look at events; to get some perspective on both events.

Early estimates put the number of damaged or lost homes in Iowa at about 8,000 to 10,000 homes, based on the number of displaced people. I estimate from the numbers I’ve heard in the last few weeks that Missouri will end up with about 500 to 1000 damaged or destroyed homes.

The number of homes destroyed by Katrina varies widely, but I’ve seen estimates from 275,000 to over 850,000 homes, many of them in New Orleans. In fact, 80% of the city was impacted, and only 45% of the New Orleans population has been able to return to New Orleans, years after the storm.

I couldn’t find numbers of people killed in the recent floods here in the midwest, but from an old estimate, we lost about 30 people. Over 1836 people died from Katrina, and the long term impact of the flood could result in thousands more dying.

Though we like to think floods along the Mississippi are sudden, this one was not. We had all the indications of a bad flood building up along the Mississippi beginning in April. The people impacted by New Orleans had three days, four tops, to prepare.

The people in Missouri and Iowa were not cut off and isolated. Most had neighbors and friends who helped. The people in New Orleans were shoved into a coliseum or left marooned on damaged bridges, as the surrounding communities would not let them leave the city. Why? Because rumors talked about roving bands of thugs shooting everything in sight; rumors proven to be untrue, but still persisting in places like Wikipedia—an article I nominate for being the worst edited, most inaccurate, and outdated article in Wikipedia. These people were left without water and food, in intense heat for days. No comfortable Red Cross shelters for them.

River floods like the recent flooding in the Midwest impact across class lines, especially after the federal buy outs resulting from the the 1993 flood. The flood in New Orleans impacted on some of the poorest people in this country. People who were then bused as far away as Salt Lake City, and cut adrift.

This recent flooding is terrible, and I don’t want to downplay the awfulness of the event, or the extent of the damage and the help that will be needed to rebuild in Iowa and Missouri. At the same time, it angers me to see those pontificating in how “better” we handled the flood than the folks handled Katrina in New Orleans and the rest of the south. Especially when the purpose for such comparisons is politically, and even racially, motivated.

Additional

Categories
Places

DC Weblog

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Missouri folks: rest of you close your eyes

Missourinet posts a note that Lorna Domke from the Department of Conservation is starting a weblog. One of her first stories is on Pickle Springs. (Remember when I wrote on Pickle Springs? Back, when I used to have a life?)

Ms. Domke does need to find her own ‘voice’, but that will come in time. I’ve added her weblog to my reading and am looking forward to more. Well, maybe not more stories on hunting and fishing, but that goes with the conservation territory.