The nostalgic bear that educates the public on the dangers of wildfires turns 65, today! Smokey Bear’s first public poster release was August 9, 1944. In case you don’t know, Smokey Bear is one of the most recognized symbolic images of the United States Forest Service.
According to Wikipedia, Smokey Bear is often unofficially referred to as ”Smokey the Bear” after two songwriters added the word “the” for rhythm purposes. Smokey Bear vigilantly reminded us with his popular slogan “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires”. It wasn’t until April of 2001 that his message was updated to “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires” which included all unwanted, unplanned fires in natural areas.
When I think of campfires, I envision the fictional character, Smokey Bear. Growing up, there were posters of “Smokey the Bear” plastered on every classroom wall. I can even remember the commercials. A recent study proved 95% of those surveyed could finish the sentence when given the first words of his famous slogan.
This past weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting Dennis Paige, founder of Swiftdeer-Paige, at Inn Serendipity to share a program on storytelling with our community of friends and family. Awarded the 2008 Grassroots Conservation Leadership Award from the Audubon-Chicago Region and the Chicago Wilderness Habitat Project, Paige has been entertaining and teaching thousands of people about the most pressing ecological issues of our times while inspiring a more balanced relationship with the web of life through the craft of storytelling.He’s been at it since 1989.
Paige’s hour-long program was a reminder of how far we still need to go on our journey of creating a “Story of Sustainability” that most American’s can embrace, not just a few.Obviously, the present American story of never-ending growth, executive bonuses, consumer-based economy, and more jobs is not compatible with the long term sustainability of a finite planet – especially if you recognize that despite our technological know-how, two thirds of the planet’s human inhabitants still cannot drink a glass of safe water, for example.
Elements of a Great Story
According to Paige, the elements of a great story are imagination, believability and content.Our group of local friends, bed & breakfast guests and family members circled around Paige as he orchestrated various activities to help our group, who ranged in ages from 4 to 80, become better storytellers and understand this ancient art and craft of storytelling. In terms of the content, it’s all about the problem, resolution and moral of the story.
We’ve all heard the legend of Johnny Appleseed, the legendary apple tree planter of the United States. He walked across the country with his walking stick, and a bucket of seeds, just walking and planting as he went. Everywhere he went, apple trees sprouted up. And he was a hero. It is such a hero that Yosemite is looking for now.
The number of large trees is falling in Yosemite National Park, but no Johnny can be found. And the decrease is bad news for many species, including spotted owls, mosses, orchids and fishers (a carnivore related to weasels). These species, as well as others, are losing their habitat with the loss of the trees.
Giant poisonous jellyfish are poised to assault Japanese waters, experts warn.
Reports of massive bloomings indicate that this season’s Nomura’s jellyfish spawn should be a big one. The good news is that there may not be a nation on Earth more psychologically prepared for the invasion of giant monsters.
Cold-blooded animals have a lifespan which is exponentially related to the temperature of their environment, a new study finds.
That means that as temperatures increase due to global warming, cold-blooded animals around the world will begin dying younger. Given that the vast majority of animals on Earth are cold-blooded, including the likes of amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans and reptiles, global warming could have unexpected, profound impacts on the world’s ecosystems.
Hungry villagers have been caught stealing meat from the nearly extinct lions of Waza National Park.
The villagers likely scare off the lions with sticks or fire shortly after they make a fresh kill. Researchers fear the practice may be more common than previously thought, and it may help explain why lion numbers are plummeting in Cameroon.
Dunham the bottlenose dolphin was attacked by sharks and euthanized this Tuesday just 3 hours after being released from Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
Experts nearby monitoring the dolphin said he was attacked by at least two different sharks, and that the wounds were life-threatening. They euthanized him immediately upon arriving at the scene.
Move over Nature…the famed strength of a spider’s web silk now has some competition. Bio-mimicry and bio-materials–both emerging new sciences that seek to utilize and/or reproduce or modify natural biological materials and properties for commercial usage–has been seeing an explosion of research and experimentation of late. Recent bio-materials experiments with spider dragline silk (taken from the Araneus spider’s silk glands) have resulted in a bio-mimicked new material that is stronger than its natural version.
Your kids may do this all the time but do you ever kick off your shoes and run barefoot through the grass?
I am very anti-shoe (yes, I am a barefoot hippie-neo-hippie actually, I am very into hygiene).
Being outside without shoes can feel to some like going about naked. There are people who never walk around outside without shoes. Gasp! Yes, I know, horrible isn’t it? How can you connect, really connect to Mother earth without feeling her beneath your bare feet?
Conservationists in Bangladesh are thrilled after the discovery by local villagers of a clouded leopard cub, a species which was previously thought extinct in that country.
This is the first time a clouded leopard has been spotted in Bangladesh in 20 years. The cub, which was captured by the villagers, was seen with a sibling and their mother while they were eating a dead monkey. That means there may be a small but healthy breeding population surviving in the wild.
