At Audubon you also can read about Bird Conservation Area Designations, four "critical bird habitats" in New York have been set aside by Governor Pataki as bird conservation areas. These diverse habitats are on state lands and protect eagle wintering grounds and songbird migration stopovers.
A less understood and less-well-liked flying species also can be found on the Web at Bat Conservation International. Here you not only can learn about bats but you can adopt one. The closest I've ever gotten to a bat was in Queensland, Australia. My wife and I, and friends, had gone birdwatching with Chris Dahlberg. Afterward, we stopped at his house for tea. His wife brought out a large fruit bat (not for tea), one of several being rehabilitated in a large outdoor enclosure. You can't call it an aviary because it isn't for birds. Maybe it is a "battery." Anyway, what was interesting was the bat's use of its long fingernails at the tips of its long wings for gripping and walking up your clothing while serching for an apple hidden in a pocket. Then the bat simply mashed pieces of apple to a pulp to get the juice and pulp. At this web site you can buy a bumper sticker that says "Batty about Bats." Cute.
Earth Island Journal, an unabashed environmental group, tenders a review of the Environmental Protection Agency's plan for recycling radioactive materials. Apparently, the plan is to allow consumer product manufacturers to use low-level radioactive scrap in products such as eyeglasses, bicycles and toys. Earth Journal reports that the director of EPA's Center for Clean-up and Re-use, John Karhnak, says only "near radiation-free" and "safe-for-the-public" radioactive scrap would be allowed in consumer products. The quotes are in the original article, which is worth a read if you are concerned about this sort of thing. Question: once you start allowing use of a specific level of radioactive material, how do you guarantee against the abuses that always seem to find their way into any system? Better safe than sorry?
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