The Big Thicket Association is sponsoring the All Taxa Biological Inventory in partnership with the Big Thicket National Preserve.

Jace Stansbury took part in a field trip in the Lance Rosier Unit of the Big Thicket Preserve conducted by the Big Thicket Association. This field trip is part of an ongoing project known as the “All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory” or ATBI. “The end goal of the project is to identify all the living organism within the park, map their distribution throughout the park, and get a general idea of how each species interacts with other species.

Jace collected many species of mushrooms but the one that got the most attention was the Hericium erinaceus.

It has several common names- Lion’s Mane, Monkey Head, Pom-Pom, Bear’s Head Tooth, Old Man’s Beard, and Bearded Tooth. This football-sized edible “toothed” mushroom is found in late summer and fall growing on dead or living hardwoods, especially beech and oak….

 

The Alaska Panhandle, sometimes referred to as Southeast Alaska, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, which lies just west of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of the panhandle’s area is part of the Tongass National Forest.

Southeast Alaska is a spectacular region of glacier-cut fjords and islands covered with dense rainforest. Its primary industries are tourism, fishing, and logging. There are few roads through the region, and travel is primarily by boat and float plane. It is also the home to Tlingit and Haida native groups, famous for their totems and their marine and forest adaptations.

Read more about this beautiful place and view  the most amazing pictures on the Carl Safina-blog.

In a world of overfishing, where bears are killed for their gall bladders, here is a different kind of place.  It’s a place where bears are protected, fish swarm, the air is filled with eagles, and people can watch it all at extremely close quarters from a very nicely managed and relatively safe viewing platform and blind.

courtesy of sssnole

Acropora palmata= Elkhorn corpoopis considered to be one of the most important reef-building corals in the Caribbean. This species of coral is structurally complex with many large branches. Despite its name, the coral structure more closely resembles that of moose antlers, as opposed to elk horns. These branches create habitats for many other reef species such as lobsters, parrot-fish, snappers, and other reef fish.

Elkhorn coral was once one of the most abundant species of coral in the Caribbean and the Florida Keys. Since 1980 it has been estimated that 90-95% of elkhorn coral has been lost. Threats to elkhorn coral include disease, coral bleaching, predation, climate change, storm damage, and human activity. All of these factors have created a synergistic affect that greatly diminishes the survival and reproductive success of elkhorn coral. Natural recovery of coral is a slow process and may never occur with this species because there are so many inhibitors to its survival.

Read more about the Elkhorn corpoopis in the blog climate shifts.

As i was bloging around this morning i found this post by Joni Lawrence on her MarineBio Blog , she writes that she saw that TripAdvisor.com is donating $1 million to the nonprofit of its readers’ choice.

Her choice was for Conservation International as they’re doing great work to preserve biodiversity both on land and underwater.

I’m compelled to advocate for CI because the organization currently in the lead tends to do harm in some of their humanitarian work. I won’t go into details here, but I will say that my work in international health has been compromised by some of their harmful actions. If anyone wants more details, feel free to email me.

Who do you choose to donate to?

I know hurricanes usually don’t plan to mess with plans of particular people but it is all over the news and the blogshere. The idea that Bush’s plans would be interrupted by Gustav is at least slightly amusing.

There is no better way to make people care for the things that other people go through than to be in their shoes. Three years ago the people of New-Orleans were basically on their own. Not just during Katrina but in the years after.

Some of them are still rebuilding some of them were put off by the Federal Government for much too long.

I have friends that live in the area and the story of their suffering goes far beyond the first month. The Bush administrator is so slow to help that I can’t avoid a small smile hearing that the first day of the convention might belong to Gustav.

BTW it is not a political thing I believe most bureaucracies and red tape organizations react in the same way to people’s need. It just happened to be Bush.

Anyway you can follow the destruction trail of Gustav here.

I agree Irony is a bitch.

The main concern of course is the welfare of the people and the environmental effect. Gustav has already cost lives and caused a lot of destruction so sure the political context is unavoidable but let’s remember the important things too.