Conservation

Raptor, Hawk Watch International. Goshute Mountains, Nevada. September 2003
North Platte River Reclamation. The Colorado Division of Wildlife places boulders in the river to create a deep man-made pool designed to increase native trout reproduction. Walden, Colorado. October 2000.
Raptors placed head-down in cans to reduce stress during processing and banding, Hawk Watch International. Goshute Mountains, Nevada. Fall 2003
Richard Bard with the pelt of one of the original wolves released in the Mexican Grey Wolf Recovery Project, Alpine Arizona. September 2003
OP1 (Observation Point One) Hawk Watch International. Goshute Mountains Nevada. Fall 2003
Trapping blind, Hawk Watch International. Goshute Mountains Nevada. Fall 2003
Mexican Grey Wolf education skin, Mexican Wolf Recovery Project. Alpine Arizona, Fall 2003
Stack yard fencing designed to reduce damage claims caused by grazing Elk herds on ranching property located in prime Elk wintering grounds. Fenced areas, once open to grazing, forced wildlife into less desirable areas resulting in conflict with human concerns. Colorado Division of Wildlife. Walden, Colorado. October 2000.
Beaver frightening device, Tres Rios River Wetlands Project. Arizona Game and Fish, Phoenix. September 2003
Song Bird Banding 1. Monzano Mountains, New Mexico. Fall 2003
Mortality ear tags placed on calves in the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area designed to emit a radio signal when a calf stops moving for more than 2 hours, Wolf Predation Research Study. National Wildlife Research Center, Arizona. September 2003
Trapping trout at Lake John for relocation into lakes and rivers throughout Colorado. Colorado Division of Wildlife. Walden, CO. April 2000.
Measuring the wing, raptor banding, Hawk Watch International. Goshute Mountains, Nevada. September 2003
Raccoon guards placed on the trunks of trees that hold Bald Eagle nests. New Jersey Division of Wildlife, Delaware River, NJ 1991
Raptor banding site, Hawk Watch International. Goshute Mountains, Nevada. September 2003
Winter Migration bird counting. Cape May, New Jersey.
Bow net with bait pigeon, Hawk Watch International. Goshute Mountains, Nevada. Fall 2003
Electro-shocking for Apache Trout on the west fork of the Black River, Apache Trout Project, Arizona Game and Fish Department. Alpine, Arizona, September 2003
Mexican Grey Wolf skull, Mexican Wolf Recovery Project. Alpine Arizona, Fall 2003
“Scary Man,” frightening device designed to deter coyotes and wolves from predating livestock. National Wildlife Research Center. Estes Park, Colorado. Fall 2003.
Research cone placed around a control group of sage brush plants. Research project designed to test treatment of sage with chemical supplements in an effort to encourage new growth on unproductive Sage plants in order to impact increased food supplies for sage grouse, pronghorn, deer and elk. Owl Mountain Partnership. Walden Colorado. September 2000.

To be a conservationist is to be an eternal optimist. Pessimism serves no purpose, not when you are trying to change the world. It is conceivable that human attitudes toward nature will be radically improved through education, or creative financial incentives, or (who can say?) an environmental catastrophe that may actually shake us so deeply that we alter our lifestyles. Despite the terrible odds against us, the primary work of conservationists—the fight to redefine the relationship of our own species to nature—must continue. We owe nothing less to animals that are living out their lives in cages, the refuges that were meant to be wild.
Jan De Blieu
Meant to Be Wild