Dr. David M Watson

Senior Lecturer, Ecology and Ornithology, Institute for Land Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Australia

Today's Date: 31 July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Spending time pottering around rocky shores and rock pools on Summer holidays

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes—lush cool sclerophyll forest near Melbourne with tree ferns, waterfalls and lyrebirds

Now? Many—a real favourite is the unbroken miles of stony downs country in the northernm Strezlecki desert where I conduct fieldwork

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Too many choices, but a firm favourite is the long-nose coatimundi—they’re amazing. Social, busy, inquisitive and very personable

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Current challenge = global warming—it’s going to take concerted efforts from all, and I can’t see that happening any time soon when, like all organisms, our actions are necessarily self-serving and short-sighted. Longer term, the greatest challenge will be conceiving of this planet supporting life that doesn’t include humans. This is something most policy makers cannot grasp, and is critical to all long-term planning

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

That we are animals, dancing to the same drum as all other animals—and we should treat our fellow organisms approporiately

Yat-tung Yu

Coordinator, Waterbird Count Monitoring Programme and International Black-faced Spoonbill Census, Hong Kong Bird Watching Society

Today's Date: 30 July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Touching the animal - I am also a bird ringer and I still remembered the first bird I have ringed and then released. It just like to have some kind of interaction with the bird.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

window of my home, because I just watch birds from it and I could not go to countryside very often in my childhood.

Now? Mai Po Nature Reserve, Hong Kong - my working place. I am also living nearby and I can go there very easily even when not working.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Bird, because I am a birdwatcher, also as mentioned, I am also a bird ringer.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

I think the greatest challenge is our life style, especially to the ones living in developed countries. We just consume too much resources and seem not in a sustainable way. The greatest challenge in future will be the depletion of natural resource, especially the freshwater.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

To change our current life style. Do it in a very simple way and I hope that could save somewhat more to our natural resources.

Valeria Ojeda

Ph.D., Universidad Nacional del Comahue & Argentine National Research Council

Today's Date: 29/07/2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I cannot identify any such particular interaction, I’ve observed and thought about nature in a special way since I was a little child…feeling myself like a natural creature. I especially remember the forests around houses my family rented for vacation in Patagonia when I was a child, and maybe feeling “lost” in those forests while playing with other kids may have been the most exciting experience I had with nature; I still love to feel that way.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, in summer I visited both the Atlantic Sea cost (either Uruguay or Argentina) and the Patagonian Andes. I definitely preferred the mountains.

Now? The same choice, this is my place on Earth.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I asked myself that question many times… I don’t have one.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Both now and for the future: understand (individually) that we can live with much much less (materially) than we feel we need today… unsustainability of our behavior as individuals is so obvious for many of us, but so subtle to most humans… Also try to see the short lifespan of the current system most humans are relying on (big/small countries, rich/poor countries, dominant/dominated countries)… these differences are maintaining the unsustainable global system we are in today… it will need to be changed if we are to survive.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

I’m not good at this…

Advice 1: From time to time, try to feel more like a wild animal than like an intellectual human being... things look very different.

Advice 2: Restricted to women: you have the power to change the world VERY quickly! Stop having kids who no one cares about, concentrate in educating (not just feeding and keeping warm) just one or a few ones.

Lester W. Doodnath

Project Implementation Officer, Institute of Marine Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago

Today's Date: July 28, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Going to the beach and rural parts of Trinidad as a child. Viewing leather back turtles

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes

Now? Yes, I run and hike

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, Any hummingbird and why? Always busy

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, Loss of habitat due to at least in Trinidad due to increase in industry/development and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future? Same, less concern for the environment as other issues draw away attention

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Take your time, enjoy it while you can

Kathryn Hanratty

Private Citizen

Today’s Date: 7/27/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

No one experience, I just feel better when I am in the woods. I can breath, I feel relaxed, it is a spiritual experience for me - has been since I was a child.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Lake Erie shore - I could walk there every day.

Now? a small pool at the top of a waterfall in the North Cascades.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

The dog is my first choice - loyalty, friendship etc.. Wild animal? Wolf because they represent the truly wild places.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global Warming and Population growth

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Take PERSONAL Responsibility for your impact on the environment, think about what you do every day.

Richard Shucksmith

Scottish Association for Marine Science

Today's Date: 27 July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Diving both temperate and coral reefs all a round the world, being out in the mountains of Scotland, watching otters, eagles and deer.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Round freshwater lakes and ponds where we used to go fishing and many were very remote so we always saw lots of wildlife.

Now? Out in the mountains and islands. I love being out round the coast and on islands hence working on the west coast of Scotland where we have the inner and outer herbridean islands. Also, I love the fjord system in Chilean Patagonia.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I do not have any particular favourite I love watching wildlife from a mouse in the garden to fish under the sea.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Population expansion, increase in population will exert more pressure on the natural systems which are already under serious pressure. Many people will say climate change although this will change many of the natural systems, if they were not under some much pressure they could cope with the change, many communities are very resistant. However if these ecosystems are so small any way they will just get degraded more. We're over populated already on global scale and it is set to rise by 2050. Can the earth really take that increase considering that all our natural resources are on the verge of being at least economically extinct if not population extinct? Its people we have to manage then conservation might stand a chance.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Every little bit helps, act locally think globally. If every body walked to work or cycled or used public transport it would help, if we all recycled or learnt to use less plastics or fuel it would help. We can all do our little bit which when your talking millions of people doing it results in a large reduction.

Joel Trick

Wildlife Biologist/U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Today's Date: July 27, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Discovering birds and butterflies at an early age.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The woods across the street from our house.

Now? The area around a wild river in northern Michigan

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

In general, all species of birds.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

To create a widespread recognition that our current rate of resource utilization is unsustainable. In the future, it will be to retain the functionality of our natural systems, sufficient to provide for basic life needs of the inhabitants of the planet.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

To recognize that humans are not separate from the environment, and are in fact dependant upon natural systems for our continued survival.

MARYANN WHITMAN

CITIZEN OF PLANET EARTH; EDITOR, WILD ONES JOURNAL
(WWW.FOR-WILD.ORG)

Today's Date: July 27, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I WAS PROBABLY 10 OR 11 TARGET SHOOTING WITH A 22 RIFLE (IT WAS A DIFFERENT WORLD, ON A FARM IN CANADA, IN THE FIFTIES). I SPOTTED A STARLING IN A TREE AT A 100+ METERS AND TOOK A POT SHOT, NEVER EXPECTING TO MAKE MY MARK. I HIT THE STARLING, KILLING IT. I WAS DEVASTATED. ALL I COULD THINK WAS THAT A PARENT (STARLING) WOULD NOT COME BACK HOME THAT NIGHT. EMPATHY CAN BE PAINFUL.

AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME I HAD THE AURORA BOREALIS EXPLAINED TO ME AND WAS INTRODUCED TO THE CONCEPT OF THE UNIVERSE. I RECALL LOOKING AT THE LEG OF A KITCHEN TABLE AND THINKING 'THERE MIGHT BE A WHOLE UNIVERSE IN THERE'; A LITTLE CONCRETE, BUT EMPATHY AT ANOTHER LEVEL.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

YES. I GREW UP ON A FARM SURROUNDED BY FOREST TO WHICH I HAD FREE ACCESS. I HAVE VIVID RECOLLECTIONS OF A NUMBER OF 'FAVORITE PLACES' THAT WERE MY OWN.

Now? ANYWHERE IN MY OWN SMALL ACREAGE BUT THE EASE OF ENJOYMENT IS NOT THE SAME. THE OLD GROWTH FORESTS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

A RIVER OTTER. I LOVE THEIR 'PLAYFUL NATURE' AND THEIR CURIOUS, INTELLIGENT EYES (YES, I KNOW THEIR VISION OUT OF WATER IS DISTORTED). BUT I HAVE MORE HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE WITH DOGS. I HAVE MADE VERY STRONG CONNECTIONS WITH TWO VERY INTELLIGENT GOLDEN RETREIVERS (AT DIFFERENT TIMES).

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

POPULATION GROWTH; WITHOUT THIS PRESSURE OUR OTHER CRISES MIGHT BE MORE MANAGEABLE OR MIGHT NOT HAVE REACHED CRITICAL PROPORTIONS.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

READ; LEARN; THINK; BE GENTLE; PRESERVE.

Todd Fearer

Graduate student, Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, Virginia Tech

Today’s Date: 7/27/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Hard to pinpoint one, but being an avid hunter would probably rank first. Through hunting with my father and grandfathers and continuing as an adult, I've gained a love and respect for nature, and a connection to the natural world that I don't think I would have developed otherwise. As a hunter, I'm maintaining an active role in the interactions of the natural world, and it certainly helps me remember how connected we are to nature and how much we still rely on it. I've had several 'close encounters' with deer, raccoons, grouse, weasels, a couple of bears, and various others when they have walked very close to me (sometimes close enough to reach out and touch) but not known I was there - I always love those. Any beautiful sunrise or sunset. Listening to the wind blow through white pines.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The old farm where my grandmother grew up in Preston County, WV. My family would often go camping there and it was where I did alot of my hunting. While I was a teenager, I would drive out there and go for a walk almost every Saturday, regardless of the weather or time of year.

Now? The central Appalachian Mountain region in Virginia and West Virginia. I've been to Kenya, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Hawaii, and other places, but I still love it here the most. Specifically, a section of Jefferson National Forest in Giles County, VA. It's a broad, high-elevation valley, so it's consistently cooler than the surrounding area. The valley is drained by a beautiful stream full of native brook trout that weaves its through old beaver meadows and hemlock stands. It's also very remote - the occasional plane overhead is usually the only unnatural sound that I hear.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

That's a hard one, too. I've always loved cats. They have such personality and I've always had at least one as a pet.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Where to start? In the short term - permanent habitat loss and fragmentation. In the long term, society's increasing disconnection with the natural world around us. So many people think nature is the Discovery Channel and the local zoo. They have no real connection and understanding of the natural world or the problems facing it, and therefore can't see the steps they can take to help conserve it or even realize they need to.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Whatever your level of involvement is in the outdoors, increase it. If you don't do things outside, start taking walks and take binoculars with you. If you like to walk and hike, start camping (with a tent - not in an RV). Do things that will both increase you connection to the outdoors and your understanding and respect of the natural world. And take a child with you!! Only by teaching our children that they are a functioning part of nature will we reverse the disconnect that has become so prevalent today.

Barbara Sallee

Retired DoDDS overseas teacher

Today's Date: July, 27, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

In 1983 I participated in Earthwatch in Kalimantan, Indonesia to help with the orangutan project. Contact with these amazing apes and the fragility of the rainforest, changed me forever. A few years before that, I entered the world of birding and that experience has also changed my life. It's a tie!

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I loved the fields and woods around my home in Annandale, VA. It is all suburban development now. My family also spent a lot of weekends camping in Westmoreland State Park, VA.

Now? I have so many places around the world that I love, but the Goksu Delta in southern Turkey is a very special place where I have spent a lot of time watching the wildlife and the battle to keep it natural.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I cannot pick one animal as I respect and find fascinating all life. I look more at the incredible adaptations of each species as well as the ecosystems and how all living things work together. From childhood I have been especially interested in reptiles and my experience in Borneo has given me a personal relationship with non-human primates.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

I find increasing destruction of habitats around the world very alarming. Our challenge as humans is to see ourselves as animals and part of nature and not the rulers of the earth. All of our efforts need consider how we impact on a healthy planet.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Everyone should be an "environmentalist" and work to conserve our resources as well as reverse the destruction that we are now doing to the earth. Think like a Native American and respect our natural world.

Jessica Sprajcar

Program Analyst/ Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Today's Date: 7/27/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

There were many experiences that have impacted me, but the one that has the most lasting impression was volunteering for four summers as a Zoo Teen at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Getting to work directly with small animals, educating the young visitors, and getting behind-the-scenes tours of the various animal exhibits really gave me an appreciation for environmental education and the diversity of species on the planet.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

My backyard was surrounded by woods and my sister and I would play out there all the time... pretending we were archaeologists and explorers. My grandmother's farm was also a very special place. I fondly remember playing with the goats and running through the fallow fields.

Now? With so many state parks to choose from, I don't have a favorite. Anywhere I can go camping and biking is a place I will like.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

That is a very tough question. It would be easiest to do a top ten list for me. If I did have to try and choose though I would have to say the rhino. There were 2 at the Pittsburgh Zoo that were so great. I guess one reason I like them so much is because they are threatened in the wild and this makes me want to protect them somehow.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

The biggest challenge now is stopping urban sprawl and all other minor human disturbance events that go along with it, like invasive species and pollution. We have to learn that big isn't necessarily better when it comes to homes and businesses. Spreading out until we cover all available land is not a smart idea. In the future our biggest challenge will be to ensure that developing countries are given the new technologies to reduce pollution as they become more industrialized.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

We can choose to go along the same path we have been following for years, but eventually it will come to a dead end (i.e. when all our resources are depleted). Or we can choose to try a new path where we reduce our consumptive habits and realize the resources are there for the benefit of all species, not just humans.

Sergio Savoia

Director of the WWF European Alpine Programme

Today’s Date: 27th July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I was born in a small mountain village in the Swiss Alps. Nature was never far away. I guess the imposing beauty of the mountains did it for me.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

There was this huge waterfall near my house. It was crashing down from up in the mountains to form a little mist-shrouded lake. A rickety wooden bridge crossed it. I loved to sit on the bridge, my legs swinging and feel the vaporized water on my face.

Now? There is a place in southern Italy where I regularly go on vacation. It is a country dirt road lined with rosemary bushes and this big old oak tree. I like to go there and sit in its shade.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Wolves are my favourite. And they are slowly repopulating the Alps, which makes me (and not only me) really happy.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Unfortunately there are so many of them. If I had to single one out, I would say global warming is the worse threat

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Please change your attitude. We must stop thinking that damaging the environment is bad for animals and plants. It is actually bad, even lethal, for mankind. We do not exist outside the environment, we can't live
without Nature.

Gail Ashton

Scottish Association for Marine Science

Today's Date: 270706

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Scuba Diving- it's amazing everytime I get the opportunity to breathe underwater

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Tree house at the back of my garden

Now? Tops of various hills, or sea cliffs

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Octopus- they're great, really mysterious, clever, and intuitive & you can read what they're thinking

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Reversing the long windy detrimental road of human dominance that we've come down- don't think we're going to get over this one!

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources,
what would it be?

Sell the car, get a bike.

Jonathan Smith

President, Tambo Bluff Landcare Coastcare

Today's Date: 27/07/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

In my later life I have had many unforgettable animal encounters, but the greatest impact was probably interaction with the plain old, but extraordinary family dog that I knew as a small child. Sailing in a 14 meter yacht to the Antarctic Peninsula gave me a new perspective on nature.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Fossil cliffs and sea-caves at Beaumaris, Port Philip Bay

Now? Still love marine environments, particularly estuaries.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

No favourites. I work with dinoflagellates and am still captivated each time I look down the microscope. I think the leafy sea-dragon is pretty special. I became very attached to storm petrels on a long lonely sailing trip across the southern ocean - they come out to play when it gets too rough for the albatross. We were caring for an injured grey-headed flying fox recently which was very rewarding.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Changing the political, economic and social ideals that are destroying our natural ecosystems on a massive scale. Providing sustainable freshwater, food and shelter for all human societies. Redefining "prosperity" for all in a truly sustainable way. Ultimately, preventing the collapse of the planet's life-support systems.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Don't consume the future. Plant more trees. Eat more vegetables. Play more music. Sorry that's 4 pieces already.

Tariq Nazir

Section officer, Ministry of Environment, Pakistan

Today's Date: July 26, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Love to the nature.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Green mountains and clean river water.

Now? Same but in dream.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Leopard, because of its beautiful walk.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

low forest cover, loss of habitat, climate change, Ozone depletion, water quality.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Care the nature .

Maurice Burns

Secretary, Friends of the Gippsland Lakes

Today's Date:27/07/2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Fishing has led me to admire nature

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The banks of the Murray River, Mildura, Australia

Now? Not really, the more unspoilt the better

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

No favourite, no special affinity just respect for their right to be in the environment that suits them

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Reining in and undoing the damage of unsustainable consumption

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Stop thinking of ourselves as the master species entitled to destroy the environment beyond our genuine needs

Doug Heiken

Restoration Coordinator, Oregon Natural Resources Council

Today’s Date: 7-26-06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Old-growth forests and wildflower meadows.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, the woods and creek behind my house in Clackamas County, Oregon and the Crooked River Canyon in central Oregon. And the beaches of the Oregon Coast.

Now? Not currently. Too busy! (Must change that.)

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

At any given time, my favorite animal is the one I mostly recently learned something fascinating about.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Population growth, climate change, native habitat destruction. Compounded by the fact that appropriate management of nature requires complex and adaptive mechanisms while our human minds and institutions tend to latch onto simple concepts that don't mesh well with nature.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

1) Immerse yourself in far from equilibrium thermodynamics and complex dynamical systems science then apply that to what you already know about nature.
2) Don't forget that it's the uncharismatic microfauna that really make the world go 'round.

Claudine Sierra

Consultant at University for International Cooperation, Principal Researcher in a TNC Program and audit for Rainforest Alliance and Ecological Flag, Costa Rica

Today's Date: July 26th 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Underwater encounter with a Humpback Whale in the Caribbean, Encounter with wild elephants in India

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, The Delta of Tigre in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Now? Yes, tropical forest, tropical beaches and Cocos Island, Costa Rica

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Impossible to answer, almost all of them!!!

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Restrain from indiscriminate use, respect nature for what it is, change the standards of comfort and urban life.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Enjoy by watching, smelling, feeling, listening, thinking, praying (however you pray and caring). Enjoy by being. Don't have more than what you really really really need and use, don't throw in the garbage unless you are sure about where it will end and how, plant a native tree ..... every month and multiply your good actions.

Anne F. Bellenger

Ph.D., retired teacher, Miami/Dade County FL Public Schools

Today's Date: 7/26/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

The biggest impact on me was probably the time I photographed a family of 3 whooping cranes. These huge birds allowed me to approach them and photograph them from a distance of about 25 ft. It was a thrill of a lifetime because they are so rare.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Highlands, North Carolina

Now? Everglades National Park

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Ivory billed woodpecker, if they ever locate it. It's my favorite because of the mystery associated with it, and the fact that it was supposed to be extinct. I believe it still exists.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Habitat destruction is the greatest environmental challenge now and global warming in the future.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Don't believe anything the government says.

Tim Riding

MSc student, University of Auckland

Today’s Date: 27/7/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Sailing on the open ocean with all manner of cetaceans and fish, and diving amongst them.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, up a tree!

Now? On the open ocean

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Sharks and rays. That’s what I study and that's what fascinates me...

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Human over-population and the consequences that has.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Breed sensibly. The less people in this world the less pressure on the environment and our natural resources. Seems obvious really, doesn't it??

Susan Phelon

former president of the Urner Ornithological Club

Today’s Date: 7-26-06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

In the mid eighties, I was on the West Coast and hoped to see 3 things, a sea lion, a whale, and an eagle. While on the San Juan Island ferry a Bald Eagle flew right by the ferry at eye level at about the same speed as the boat. I blurted out, "Wow! It's just like the Post Office commercial! That statement made me realize how far away from nature I had drifted. My adult experience was sadly limited to TV. As soon as I returned to New Jersey, I signed up for NJ Audubon birding trip and now travel all over the world birding.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

As a child my favorite place to be in all the world was the forest behind our house which is now part of a Monmouth County Park. I couldn't wait until I was home from school, so I could change clothes, snack, and then stay in the woods until dinner or dark, whichever came first. I was always alone, just enjoying nature. Once I even saw a White-tailed Deer. Of course, now New Jersey is inundated with deer, but in the 1950's that was a great sighting.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I love giraffes and hope to someday visit the Rothschild Giraffe Research Center in Kenya. My love affair with giraffes began at age 3 when I was given a stuffed giraffe. He became my best friend (as any only child will tell you it's very important to have a resident best friend). Giraffee went everywhere with me and I still have him (or what's left of him - no eyes, nose bitten off, no tail). Whenever I'm really upset, he still gets a teary hug.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming without a doubt. Also the growing demands on natural resources by China and India.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

My advice, vote Democratic. George Bush is a disaster. (I'm a life long Republican)

Steve K. Sherrod, PhD

Executive Director, Sutton Avian Research Center

Today’s Date: 7-26-06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

As a child (I am 58 now) at a time when nobody cared nor did laws regulate, I raised all kinds of wild animals from coyotes to squirrels, from snakes to lizards, and from mourning doves to red-tailed hawks. While I was always interested in everything, raptors and other predators really captured my obsessions, and I became a falconer. I am still a falconer today, a passion that has kept me in the field and taken me all over the world, but my interest in raptors and their declines due to DDT during the 60's led to my interest in wildlife conservation, and consequently, habitat conservation, and then to human population concerns, and finally to the problem of a world economy based on a U.S. economy ultimately failing the world's ecology due to the need for continued growth.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

During my childhood, I loved spending time in the Wichita Mountains of southwest OK, and also the mountains and streams around Red River, N.M.

Now? I love the arctic most of all; followed by the high plains, scrub deserts, and grasslands.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Although least suited for life in a zoo, after raptors, I really love the cheetah (with what you might find to be an odd description), but what I will call all the grace and beauty of predatory swan.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

As already stated, a U.S. economy based on continual growth, one that dominates and drives a world economy based on same.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Vote for environmental candidates and help educate those candidates regarding what reasonable steps can be taken to conserve habitat geographically, temporarily, quantitatively, and qualitatively. (and encourage your friends to do likewise).

Steve Sosensky

SoCA Bird Guides

Today's Date: 7/26/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Seeing a Magnificent Frigatebird fly over my head about 20 feet up spurred the decision to take up birdwatching enthusiastically. I now work in the industry.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

My neighborhood had several patches of woods and a pond and marsh that froze over for ice skating in the winter.

Now? I can't count that high. Some examples are Yosemite NP, East Mojave Preserve, Salton Sea, any rocky shoreline in California.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I don't really have one. I like Empidonax flycatchers for the challenge of identifying them (but any bird I see for the first time), most mammals, but especially cetaceans, and butterflies.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Republicans. The greatest environmental challenge is people who care more about overuse for economic gain than about the quality of the environment and the legacy we will be leaving for future generations.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

We need to ensure that renewable resources stay renewable and that non-renewable resources are used sparingly until alternatives are discovered and developed.

Firefly

Volunteers for Tawo

Today’s Date: 7/26/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Visiting an Ihanktonwan Sioux reservation in SD by the banks of the Missouri River.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, the beach.

Now? Still the beach.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Eagle. Because it can fly and see well at great distances.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

FYI-- young man---Humanity is now facing the tipping point of total planetary destruction.

Your blind survey seems utterly ridiculous to indigenous old folks (61) like me---but since you are obviously young and naive--with painfully naive Q's--- I am doing you this favor---plus giving you a present to read. [A Critical Review of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth by Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari, Inc.]

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

STOP DRIVING.

Pat Rydquist

Naturalist, Metro Parks, Serving Summit County - Ohio

Today's Date: July 26, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I was doing an owl survey in the wee hours on a very cold February night. After hearing an Eastern Screech Owl respond to the call, a coyote howled. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I turned to see the coyote leaping in the starlight not more than 5 feet in front of me. Then the coyote looked at me with such joy that I felt like leaping myself.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Backyard

Now? Costa Rica's cloud forest

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Giraffe because it is awkward, yet adorable at the same time. I love to see the parents lick their young.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming now and over-population consuming all the world's resources in the future.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Respect and use moderation in all our resources. There is only so much to last forever! If you can find an environmentally friendly (green) way of living, share it with others as if it's the only natural thing to do.

Ruth Millsaps

US Army Corps of Engineers

Today’s Date: 26Jul2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I lived in Yellowstone National Park during the summer of 1988.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Sitting in a tree reading a book.

Now? The Oaks Picnic Area on the Wallisville Lake Project

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

House cat, because I think I’m part cat.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Renewable/sustainable energy sources. Ditto.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

I have a quote hanging on my wall, sorry I don’t know who said it, but it’s this: “Wars have in common that everyone loses. Wars against Nature are the worst because all humanity of all generations loses.” Humans were meant to be stewards of the environment, not rapists. Stewardship, in part, means to make sure something good is left for the next folks to come along.

David Hartgrove

Conservation Chair, Halifax River Audubon

Today's Date: July 26, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

In 1977, while at work one afternoon, I watched as a Loggerhead Shrike killed a House Sparrow and the proceeded to feed it to her 3 nestlings. I bought my first Petersen Field Guide the next day.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The top of a 45' longleaf pine in a vacant lot down the street from my house.

Now? The observation tower at the "Rose Bay Project", a part of Spruce Creek Park. This is a Volusia County park on the north side of Spruce Creek, in eastern Volusia County.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

The Raccoon. They are relentless predators on wild bird populations and on sea turtle nests. Both should be reasons for me to dislike them. But their intelligence and creativity has to be admired.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming, climate change, what ever you want to call it. The billions spent on Everglades restoration will be for nothing it they're sitting under 3 feet of salt water. In the future, as now, population expansion is the biggest bomb on the horizon. The expanding populations in South America aren't burning the rain forest because they want to get rich. They're doing do because they're hungry, as all humans get on a regular schedule. If we were straining the earth's capacity at a population of 3 billion, what are we doing to it at 6 billion?

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Actions and decisions have consequences. Think before you throw that old battery away. Think before you sign the sales form for that Hummer. Think before you decide to have 5 kids instead of 2.

Wayne E. Thogmartin

Statistician (Biology), US Geological Survey

Today’s Date: 07/26/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Probably my cat while growing up.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Not particularly.

Now? Either the San Juan Islands, WA, or the Great Plains of North America during the Pleistocene.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

This is a tough one. Not sure that I can elevate one over another. How about a Mammoth?

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Now: Habitat loss and degradation.

Future: The failure of people to realize the extent of what they've lost. A depauperate normalcy that prevents one from even imagining how grand and incredible nature was only a couple decades earlier.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Think 7 generations hence and what the effect would be on those who succeed us.

Steven J. Saffier

Science Associate, National Audubon Society

Today's Date: 7/26/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Having birds come to my feeder, identifying them with a field guide and recording their visits. Finding salamanders under logs. Watching a spider weave a web and catch prey...that one is Zen.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The woods behind my house, and the nearby preserve, Pennypack Park in Northeast Philadelphia.

Now? Pennypack, Muir Woods, Mt. Tamalpais, Cold Creek Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, Shawangunk Mountains in the Catskills, Moab Utah, just about any deep deciduous forest in the east, and the million places I have yet to see.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

American Crows. True thinkers, clowns, strong, graceful, clever, agile, vulnerable. I think I may have been one in a previous life.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Land use, development, paving paradise...and how we view our needs (i.e. the new mall) as equally important to preservation of natural resources. The mindset that leveling a forest, desert, or prairie is the best way to build a structure has to be challenged. Green buildings and ecologically-minded development must be considered. Everyone, especially children, must have encounters with nature daily...and so it must be preserved or re-created around homes, schools, and commercial properties. Development will continue, there's no getting around that...but how it's practiced will have profound effects on the environment and how "we" view it.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

If you ask me tomorrow, I might have a different answer. But today I say support your local (and national) land trust organization. These are the people who buy up tracts of land, postage stamps in some cases, so that others can have some green in their lives. All of these postage stamps add up and do contribute to the sustainability of birds and other wildlife.

Another would be to GET OUTSIDE! Enjoy the natural world. Observe silence, even for a minute or so, in nature. Inhale what it has to offer.

Rev. Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison

Archdruid - Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF)

Today’s Date: 7/26/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

They have been many examples, but I think my all time favorite has to be stalking up close enough to a deer to touch it.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Again, many. Probably the Moose River Plains in the Adirondacks overall though.

Now? Still the same.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I enjoy being around all animals but would have to say the whitetail deer because I see it the most. For zoo animals, it would be the snow leopard because of its power and beauty.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Right now I would have to say Global Warming. We will be going through such weather swings that it will cause the destruction of many areas and the extinction of many species. This will remain the greatest challenge for many years to come in my opinion.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Take advantage of the time we have left to visit as many of the great places as possible. They are likely to be very different in the future.

Dr. Keith Leggett

Namibian Elephant and Giraffe Trust

Today's Date: 26th July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

As an elephant researcher just about every day of interaction with elephants is very high on the list, even after nearly 17 years of interaction with elephants (last 9 years as a principal research animal) I still get a rush when studying them. However, I would have to say my favourite experience to-date where I actually felt at one with wildlife was one morning when I was out running, two large Kudu for some reason came, joined me and ran with me for about 400m before they had enough and ran off into the bush.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Anywhere outside of 4 walls. Though growing up in Australia, my favourite place was the north coast of NSW on the ocean, anywhere.

Now? Kaokoland, northwest Namibia, closely followed by the lowveld of Zimbabwe around Gona-re-zhou National Park and Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Elephants, fascinating life styles and interactions, also amazingly tolerant and gentle for such a large mammal.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Not enough time or energy to answer this question fully, the greatest risk, put simply, is human population expansion and our constant need for land and resources to support ourselves at the expense of the environment and the animals that inhabit the land. Greedy and stupid politicians don’t help of course…..

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Stop breeding and be more aware of the environmental consequences of your actions…. Impossible I know but that would be the best thing. In addition the western world should seriously look at alternative energy sources and fuels, they exist but are not given credence nor research and development due to the influence of multinational oil companies and their associated industries. The third world is a whole other story and there have been thousands of pages written on the subject… better men than I are already discussing this point.

Damh the Bard

Order of Bards Ovates and Druids

Today’s Date: 25th July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

That's a hard one to start with! It would probably be seeing the deer rut.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

A small woods down the road from where I used to live, sadly now under a housing estate.

Now? I've bought 5 acres of woodland and that is my favourite natural place.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Too many, Deer for their power and prowess, otters for their attitude and playfulness, and dogs, for being constant companions.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Human ignorance and human ignorance. I could say global warming, melting ice caps, the fur trade, whaling etc, but I think it can just be summed up as - The greatest threat to the environment is humans, and the greatest threat in the future will be humans, because we just don't seem to learn.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

You are not separate from it, you are a part of it, and it is a part of you. What you do to the environment, you do to yourself.

RUFUS EBEGBA

MR/FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, NIGERIA

Today’s Date: 25/07/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

visit to a park

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

yes, zoo

Now? no

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Lion, BECAUSE OF ITS STRENGTH

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

NOW AND THE FUTURE IS BIODIVERSITY DEPLETION

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

SUSTAINSBLE UTILISATION OF BIODIVERSITY

Seth Cook

China Program Coordinator, IUCN-World Conservation Union

Today's Date: July 25, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Probably with dogs and cats, as these are the animals that I grew up with.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Not particularly; I loved just about every natural area I visited.

Now? I still feel the same way.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

It's hard to say, as I like so many animals. Probably cats (including big cats), because they can be great companions and yet are independent.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

There are so many monumental environmental challenges today. The greatest may be climate change, because it is already so far advanced and requires concerted international efforts to address.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Tread lightly on the earth - always be conscious of your impact on the planet.

Brian A. Rutledge

Executive Director, Audubon Wyoming

Today's Date: July 24, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Fifty years of living with and in nature. From a childhood in the wilderness of Canada and the US to travel and study in Sub-Saharan Africa

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Our cabin on a northern lake.

Now? The foothills of the Rockies.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

As a former zoo Director my love is for individuals of many species, though elephants, apes and big cats have held special esteem.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Human population growth and global climate change.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

At least hesitate to reproduce!

John Bates

The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

Today’s Date: 23 July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Birdwatching as a child

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Kino Springs, Arizona

Now? Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivia

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Scale-backed Antbird because it has been a wonderful species to study and it is a species that illustrates the complexity of biodiversity in the tropics.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Educating scientists throughout the world that can communicate with the public about the need to study and conserve biodiversity.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Support educational programs at all levels as much as possible so that we have the scientific community necessary to make the best possible decisions about our world.

John Bothwell

Research Officer, Cayman Islands

Today’s Date: 24 July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Going fishing with my father.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Near, on or in the sea, usually fishing or snorkeling and with friends.

Now? The same, except add SCUBA Diving to the fishing.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Fish. From deep sea to shallow, from predators to grazers, they are wondrously amazing creatures, fun to watch and tasty to eat.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Adapting to climate change.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Use Less

Mary Akers

The Institute for Tropical Marine Ecology (ITME, Inc.), Dominica

Today’s Date: July 24, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Probably my childhood, spent in a remote area of the Appalachians. Our nearest neighbors were a mile away and we were surrounded by woods with a pond in our front yard.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Probably at the top of the tallest pine tree behind the house. Also in/around the pond.

Now? Anywhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Sea turtle. They are wise and ancient and slow and graceful.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Climate change and destruction / depletion of the world's oceans.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Don't take water for granted and don't treat it carelessly. It all comes back around eventually.

Leon Zann

Professor/Head, School of Marine Studies, University of the South Pacific, Fiji

Today’s Date: 24 July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Not one but three life-changing natural experiences:
1. The first time I looked into a rock pool (at home, Australia, 1950?), when I was aged 3 years.
2. My first dive on a coral reef (Heron islands, Great Barrier Reef, 1966)
3. My first visit to a coral reef in Fiji (Jan 1979)

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The rock platforms and sandy beaches of my home in Northern NSW Australia.

Now? Pacific coral reefs, especially the atoll countries

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

(It seems a perverse one) The venomous, coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. They represent what we know, and what we don't know about coral reefs. I have spent half my life in long-term studies, and managed the Barrier Reef Marine Parks research and control programs.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

I work at the Uni South Pacific where half our 12 member countries are small oceanic islands or atolls. Their challenge is isolation, vulnerability, lack of terrestrial resources, growing populations, high cost of fuel etc. They face not just a real threat of global climate change but day-to-day survival, lack of potable water, gastro-infections, diabetes etc. Small islands are regarded as scientific ‘natural laboratories' where we see in microcosm the big issues of the planet. It does not look good I am afraid.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Limit growth of human populations, and develop realistic objectives in development (in both developed and developing countries).

Zadie Neufville

Public Education Officer, National Environment and Planning Agency, Jamaica

Today's Date: July 23, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Watching birds feed in my yard as a child

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

My backyard attracted all types of birds and a variety of lizards and other insects; it was the place for exploration.

Now? Anyplace that offers opportunities to walk and explore nature.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Don't know. I love dogs and cats, fish, some birds but I am also afraid of some insects and large lizards and I like to watch seals and dolphins and others like crocodiles, and whales fascinate me. If I have to chose I would say the Tiger because of its versatility on both land and in water, its strength, power and grace.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Public Education, getting people to understand that they can make a difference. Getting people to accept their responsibility in changing the way governments approach protection and conservation of natural environments

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Be aware and be prepared to make some changes in your life and be a role model for others to do the same.

Lanny Smith

The Earthman Project www.Earthman.TV

Today’s Date: 7/22/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I always had dogs and hung out in the woods of Long Island New York growing up. The woods have always held a connection or me. Hiking, camping and being in them brings a sense of peace and wonder.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The neighborhood woods (now a shopping center).

Now? Radnor Lake in Nashville, Tennessee

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Always been amazed at the size and yet gentleness of elephants. Smart animals.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global Warming and Climate Change.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Educate, and then activate yourself to become part of the solution.

Jack Ward

Director, Department of Conservation Services, Bermuda

Today's Date: 21st July 06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Growing up on the shoreline turning over rocks and checking out the life under them.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The shoreline of Harrington Sound, Bermuda

Now? The coast of British Columbia

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

My dog – he understands me and never questions.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Human Greed – now and into the future. It fuels the materialistic madness that compromises all natural systems.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

A wealthy man is one who is free from want – control your wants and be wealthy.

Parrie Pinyan

Private Citizen

Today's Date: July 21, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

"Working" on the farm and in the woods when I was very young with my grandpa. (He was 1/4 Cherokee and tried to teach me everything he knew.)

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Woods and small streams.

Now? Woods and clear streams.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Dogs-unconditional love for those who win their affection.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming. Survival of the human species.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Almost stop emitting CO2 and the other greenhouse chemicals.

Thaddeus Murdoch

Principle Investigator, Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Assessment and Mapping (BREAM) Project, Bermuda Biodiversity Programme, Bermuda Zoological Society

Today's Date: 21st July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Scuba diving on healthy coral reefs

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Out on shallow reefs in the lagoon in Bermuda

Now? Same

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Rainbow parrotfish. They are beautiful, and massive.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Overpopulation combined with environmental misuse such as pollution and land development

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Lessen your footprint.

Janice D. Boyd

Private Citizen

Today’s Date: 20 July 06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

growing up in a community in the mountains of New Mexico

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

in the woods and mountains behind my home

Now? Valle Grande caldera in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

parrot: they are sooooo intelligent, as well as being pretty and leading interesting lifestyles

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

now: overpopulation ; in the future: increased overpopulation and flow of migrants away from highest population densities into areas of lower density, thus creating uniform misery in the world

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

stabilize and even reduce the population of humans. We have exceeded the long term carrying capacity of the planet, at least for a generally decent lifestyle for all. We are ruining our planet for all life.

The biggest problem is over population, but it is the elephant in the room that few people want to talk about because of some religious groups' selfish positions and some cultures' pursuit of the oppression of women. We need to acknowledge this elephant!

Rachelle Razon

Private Citizen (Philippines)

Today’s Date: JULY 21, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

THE SEA AND ITS CREATURES

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

YES, THE BEACHES

Now? YES, STILL, THE BEACHES

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

DOLPHINS, ALTHOUGH I HAVEN'T HAD A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH ANY. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY DREAM TO GET CLOSE AND TOUCH ONE. MY ONLY ENCOUNTER WITH THEM IS THROUGH BOOKS. I AM VERY INTERESTED IN THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE HIGHLY INTELLIGENT CREATURES. FROM MY READINGS, THEY ARE HIGHLY SOCIALIZED AND HAVE TRAITS WHICH ARE HUMAN-LIKE.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

NOW AND IN THE FUTURE, THE GREATEST CHALLENGE IS THE DECLINE OF MANY COMPONENTS OF NATURE (ANIMALS, PLANTS, RESOURCES) DUE TO DEVELOPMENT.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

THE EASIEST WAY TO CONSERVE NATURE IS TO LEARN TO LOVE AND ENJOY ITS BEAUTY AND MAGNIFICENCE.

Teresa M. Woods

Kansas State University

Today's Date: 7-20-2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

camping as a child

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes.

Now? Yes.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Elephants -- perhaps because of their intelligence.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Pollution. Air pollution leads not only to direct health risks like asthma, but also to global warming, acid rain, etc. Water pollution leads to eutrophication of bodies of water as well as toxic build-up, poisoning numerous organisms or even just changing the normal chemical dynamics. Land pollution through agricultural chemicals, toxic waste dumps, etc., poison organisms and ecosystems either directly or indirectly through the trophic levels -- affecting the organisms that may normally come to mind as well as pollinators, decomposers, mycorrhizae, and all sorts of other microorganisms, and so altering ecosystem function.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Think. Seriously think your actions through to all their logical conclusions and then let your conscience be your guide.

Donna LaFleur

Past-President Baton Rouge Audubon Society

Today's Date: 7/20/06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

My father, an outdoorsman, shared his love for nature with me and my siblings. I was 6 years old, hiking with him to the river to fish, when we topped the bank of the river and disturbed a Great Blue Heron, who gracefully took off for parts downstream. That beautiful image is still imprinted in my mind, and as my first memory of "nature," it is one I experienced with the same wonder and awe that now characterizes my admiration and reverence for the natural world.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

The forest and the river have always been my favorite places - from the swimming hole I enjoyed as a child near Covington, Louisiana, to the hiking trails I visit today throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Difficult to choose from such a wondrous variety of life forms - but I seem to be drawn to birds. Flying is a skill we humans have long desired, from the seemingly magical flight characteristics of the hummingbird to the strength, speed and accuracy of a falcon. The personality, affection, intelligence and communicative skills of my pet parrot have endeared her to me, so while I greatly appreciate other animals, birds are my favorites (don't tell the dog).

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming will bring serious consequences to our world, but it's impossible for me to forget that water usage and availability is also of prime importance, as well as the destruction of habitat for countless species of plants and animals. Ultimately, human overpopulation and dominance of the planet is connected to all of these issues as well as others, so perhaps that's the greatest challenge facing us.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Our natural environment is being undervalued and undersold in our capitalistic society. The true value of the environment can not be measured in dollars and cents. You cannot create a healthy planet in which to live, diverse in both life forms and natural resources, with money.

Marisa Alcorta

Master's Student in Horticulture & Agronomy, UC Davis

Today's Date: 7-20-06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Living and working in the tropics during summers as an undergraduate. I spent a lot of time in the jungle, collecting and observing plants, insects and fungi. It was incredibly grounding -- stepping from such a human-dominated environment into the jungle, where plants and ferns tower above you, insects scurry about on errands I could only imagine. It gives one the gift of perspective, as I began to realize my place in the world, it gave me humility. Watching the ecology of nature unfolding before me, the cycles of life and death... it was the clearest demonstration I've ever had of how everything in the world is connected, and it was a lesson I carry with me even on the streets of bustling cities. It's hard to remember when surrounded by asphalt, concrete and cell phones, but we all depend on each other.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I grew up in Austin, Texas in a neighborhood on the edge of becoming "bad". My classmates lived on the other side of town, so my brother and I would spend summers exploring the creek that I think now was some kind of drainage system through our neighborhood. My favorite thing about the creek was watching fascinating things like tadpoles, dragonflies and minnows. I spent hours watching them, hoping to get some insight into what they were doing. I also remember exploring a razed field, where they had dug everything up getting ready to build a new housing development. I found a few arrowheads and began my love affair with rocks, I LOVED finding rocks. To this day, when I travel, I still bring home rocks. They are a tangible memory of my experiences.

Now? Now I live surrounded by flat agricultural fields, but wandering through scratchy corn plants isn't my idea of fun anymore. When I can, I go to Tahoe or Point Reyes. It's important for me to be surrounded by trees.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Well, I think dogs are the most entertaining, (thought I must say I'm not familiar with the personality of giraffes or elephants) -- but I think ants are the most interesting animal I know by far. I'm fascinated by their social behavior, and how they work as a super-organism (bees also do this).

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Pollution is our greatest environmental challenge at the moment. Pollution of air (global warming, particulate matter), water (pesticides, carcinogens, sediment) & soil (depletion, really, and erosion) will shorten our life spans. The environmental challenge is to stop polluting and basically re-invent industrialization so that it reverses pollution, and cleans the environment as a by-product of whatever it is we are creating.

The greatest challenge in the future for society will be of course, to make this happen and be united about it. The greatest challenge as individuals will be watching our bodies adapt or not adapt to a polluted environment... do we carry mutations that allow us to breathe dirty air better than our neighbor?

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

At least once a year, make an effort to step out of your daily life and go stand inside a forest. Stand there for a long while, and listen. Long enough that you can start to recognize different bird calls, long enough to follow an ant down the path, long enough to forget what time it is. And then try to imagine what you would do if this was your only home. Look at all the resources that you have at your fingertips -- pine needles for your bedding, plants to eat, wood to burn, small game to hunt, shade from the sun... Now scale it up a hundred thousand times.... this earth is our home, but what is happening to our resources?

Kathleen (Kate) Orchard

St. Christopher Heritage Society

Today's Date: 20 July 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I was not allowed to keep a pet when I was young, but I survived on the David Attenborough 'Zooquest' books (I did not have TVin those days) and Gerald Durrell's books, which had a great impact on me.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I moved around a bit - pre-teens was the wood filled with silver birch trees behind my house (Ashvale, Hants, UK). Teenage by the Thames at Reading (Berks, UK) feeding the swans and ducks and along the Kennet and Avon Canal, catching sticklebacks and cyclops.

Now? Wingfield Forest and river, St. Kitts, Eastern Caribbean

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

A hard question - there are many, but a special favorite is the Leatherback turtle, because I've seen them in their natural habitat, giant adults nesting and little babies hatching. Its the sort of thing I dreamed about when I read those wild animal books as a child.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Now - Human population increase and the spread of western values of making more money. In the future - More of the same, more habitat loss and degradation and the threat of the only 'wild' things being in zoos and arboretums.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Reduce, reuse, recycle, recover.

Amartya Saha

University of Miami

Today's Date: July 20, 2006

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you ?

I’ve been interested in freshwater aquatic ecosystems since childhood, and the realization that in many parts of the world they are under threat, or are already being degraded made me wish to work towards their conservation. Mainly fishes, but also macroinvertebrates, amphibians, mollusks, etc.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, the Himalayas and Western Ghats mountain ranges in India, Arabian Sea beaches outside of Bombay, ponds in Bengal

Now? Florida Everglades, southern Arizona, cloud forests in Peru, savannah in Brazil, Atlantic forest remnants in Misiones, Argentina

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

animal.. hmm.. rhinos perhaps. i saw some in Kaziranga National Park in India long ago, and their size, speed and combination of gentle minding their business peacefully grazing combined with their power impressed me. But there are many other animals...

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

degradation of land (through intensive agriculture mainly), threats to water resources (flow alterations, various forms of pollution), loss of biodiversity

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

try and use less of everything, try reuse ( and not just recycle ) -- could be bottles, paper.. think where the item or energy came from, what ecosystems were destroyed by mining for metal or production of pulp for packaging, pollution due to manufacturing and transport...the basic concepts of one's ecological footprint. Now depending on where one lives, there are limitations to how much one can reduce this footprint. But there still is a range of consumption and reuse, and one can decrease it.

Christine ACY Kumar

Private Citizen

Today’s Date: 07-20-06

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I've had so many but probably the most impressive was hiking in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state and a chance encounter with a pair of Golden Eagles. It was sunset, my husband and I were watching the sky change colors at about 8000 ft after a day of stunning hiking views and a full belly of simple hiking fare and a glass of Margeaux painstakingly packed in by me secretly. As we meditated quietly on the beauty of the immense landscape which unfolded before us, elk browsing 1000' feet below us in the near valley, I felt more than heard air moving, only to discover a pair of Golden Eagles had landed in the stunted tree above our heads. The tree was all of 10 feet tall maybe - stunted by the constant winds moving through this region of the pass. I completely forgot the sunset and my wine, and watched this pair interact for about five minutes. I truly do not think they realized we were there since we hadn't moved at all. Perhaps this was a night time roost for them. I don't know. I made the mistake of reaching for my camera and of course they saw the movement of my hand long before I could raise the camera. They took off immediately, falling with the effects of gravity on their impressive weight until their wings got lift. They soared right past my face - perhaps all of 6 feet away. I looked into the eyes of the one bird and felt like I connected to it for an eternity. Of course, it was only a split second. Then I felt the wave of air pushed by their wings blast across my face.

Wow! The majesty of such an experience is not one you forget anytime soon. I can still see, hear and feel them in my mind's eye as though it happened only yesterday. This was in 1994, over twelve years ago. I've experienced many other animals in the wild, some might consider them to be greater, but not in my mind. I doubt much could compare such a freak encounter with two wild Golden Eagles that I could have literally reached out and touched, if only I dared.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yeah, the brook which ran behind my house. I spent more time there than anywhere else. I still do - in my mind.

Now?

No not really. I'm stuck in a city - I HATE it. Why do people create these sterile anatural noisy ugly environments? I pine for open unspoiled spaces every day of my adult life since moving here. THERE'S NO CONNECTION TO THE LAND OR TO NATURE. Now wonder people treat the earth so badly - millions who live in cities don't even know her anymore. Or have forgotten her in the quest for human success. There is a nature preserve that is about 20 minutes from where I live. I visit there a lot. It's been the only way to keep my sanity while living in the city for my husband's job.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

My favorite class of animals are birds. Why? I guess I see a lot myself as well as my hopes and dreams reflected in them. They are intelligent, beautiful and resourceful creatures. They are bipedal just liken humans - a rare phenomenon in nature. Birds sing sweetly or at least earnestly and they can form complex social structures that never cease to amaze me. They inhabit practically every possible permutation of biome the earth has thrown at them and have taken to the air, land and sea and done it all with exquisite aplomb. While I've never met a bird I don't like, I'd be lying if I didn't say the Emperor Penguin was my favorite bird. There is not one thing about these birds which doesn’t absolutely amaze and astound me. It is my ULTIMATE dream in life to see an Emperor in its native habitat. One I have summer access to is the Hummingbird. Another extreme example of a bird which I absolutely revere.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

The greatest environmental threat is multi fold, I don’t consider one any worse than the other - they are all horrible:
1) Human Overpopulation
2) Deforestation and loss of habitat
3) Wanton, Abject and Senseless Consumerism coupled with programmed obsolescence to yet increases consumerism and drive the economy.
4) Reliance on oil and other dirty means of energy, and the lack of willingness to invest in REAL and VIABLE alternative energy while we pollute our oceans and parks, land and air in our never-ending quest for oil. Due to the current US administration's unholy covenant with the oil industry, sadly this attitude will continue for some time despite all the warnings from experts who can read the writing on the wall much more clearly than our politicians can. It's really ultimately the people's fault however since most put ZERO pressure on their government to actually DO something about it. We'd rather be mired down in a war for carbon in the Middle East, wasting billions and billions of dollars, than to have invested all that blood money in hydrogen research. I'm ashamed to be a human being most days, honestly.
5) Global Warming (which is really just a combination of human greed and politicians sitting around with there thumbs up their collective butts worrying they will have to make the hard decisions and commit political suicide in the process.)
Of these above, we hear the most right now about Global Warming and the release of greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere - particularly the carbon based gasses. However, in my mind, the BIGGEST problem is really human overpopulation. I think six billion people all struggling and vying for resources is what is driving the whole nightmarish scenario.
Right now, for wildlife, the single largest threat is deforestation and loss of habitat. Very few animals are not facing this threat right now.

As for part B - hard to say. I hope that we will get a handle on oil & coal consumption in the next 100 years. With giants like Indian and China rising who want to use what the West did as their models for economic development, things could get a LOT worse before they get any better. Hopefully I'll be dead by then!

I want to give the canned answer of Global warming, but really I'm going to have to narrow it down to protecting habitats and all the unique creatures who live in them. I think ultimately this will prove to be a greater challenge than Global Warming. I think that eventually, assuming we don’t' tip the canoe and screw up the earth's climate so badly that all of the polar ice caps melt and we shut down the THC ultimately plunging the earth into another Little Ice Age, protecting our species will prove to be an impossible task. Hawaii has lost three bird species to extinction since 2000 alone. Humans will continue to claim land for our burgeoning population at the expense of every other living creature. I see a future where the Amazon forest is paved and the only animals that survive are the generalists - like starlings, pigeons, tamarisk and Tree of Heaven. I see a total loss of biodiversity, and I have no clue how this can be stopped, why it seems everyone cares buut nothing really seems to get done about it or how we explain what happened to future generations. The entire concept of LAND USE needs to be completely REWRITTEN. Otherwise, Africa, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Asia will all look like Europe. Little cutie cute controlled pseudo environments which are devoid of most of their wildlife. You'll have to purchase an entrance pass to a national park 5 years in advance to even get into it - there will be so many people and so little natural resources left.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Protect and love Mother Earth as though she is your lifeblood, because she is! Stop exploiting her and her creatures as though they are simply put here for our amusement and consumption. People like to think they are above the natural laws and even above the forces of Earth itself, but she will rise again eventually and restore the natural order. And then when calamity strikes and humans die in the millions, or possibly even billions, we will cry and blame God as having forsaken us. Really it was us that forsook the Earth, and she will return the favor in kind. It's inevitable. She's seen eternity, and she has endless days ahead. She's just biding her time right now. We are but a blink. Beware!