Bats

 

A few months ago, I was at a group meeting with the Chief of the Natural Resource Conservation Service, a branch of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.  (NRCS started after the Dust Bowl, which has a new Ken Burns documentary this Nov. 18-19! I've spent my whole life being uninterested in the Dust Bowl, until last year.  Now I am fascinated). 

My point is that at the NRCS meeting we all introduced ourselves and two people at the meeting were from the bat lobby.  It had a more official name, but basically they worked for the "bat lobby." Wow.  I thought.  I am so glad that I work on a multitude of environmental issues, and that my job does not focus day-to-day on bats.  "Bats are nature's insecticide," they said. 

For many months, my attitude was "Ha ha ha.  Bat lobby." However, the last two months or so, I feel like I keep running into bat issues and bat media.  My organization has been working on bat mitigation.  I keep seeing stories about sick bats.  Bat diseases.  The Nature Conservancy had a whole profile on artificial bat caves, "a radical idea to save America's bats."  What is the deal with bats?

Well, I don't have a large lesson to articulate in this post, but just wanted to say, "OK, bats.  I'm intrigued.  I'm paying attention to your issues now.  Kind of." Maybe I'll post more when I learn more.  I guess the bat lobby broke through to me.  Dang. 

Probably Not Calm at the Jefferson

The America's Great Outdoors Tumblr sent around this beautiful Jefferson Memorial photo today. A great site for amazing photos of our best public lands.

Pretty blue skies reflecting on the Tidal Pool - This is likely the exact opposite of what it looks like right now.  Hurricane Sandy is swirling by!

Idaho on Fire

Photo: Smokey the Bear Fire Danger sign in Sawtooth National Forest

Idaho was on fire for a good part of the summer and beyond. I visited in late August and wanted to post some photos.  Sad that I could not see the famous Sawtooth Mountains very well, but it was a memorable trip all the same.

Photo: Fire burning in mountains north of Boise

Photo: Smoke from large fires north of Stanley in central Idaho

 Photo: Sunset in Sawtooth National Forest during fire season near Sun Valley

Photo: pronghorn in smoke, drive from Sun Valley to Boise

Photo: Not everything was smoky! Idaho is beautiful - a few more images: a rancher wagon in Hailey, the falls of Idaho Falls, the Upper Snake South Fork, Redfish Lake Lodge, Redfish Lake and Old Boise

Photo:  Holding rocks at Craters of the Moon National Monument in central Idaho.  Apollo 14 astronauts trained here in 1969 before visiting the moon.

Phone Home Glove

I follow the Appalachian Mountain Club's blog, and they recently told me about new gear called the Hi-Call Phone Gloves, which "feature a speaker in the thumb and a microphone in the pinky, allowing you to talk directly into your hand and connect with any Bluetooth-enabled phone."

I find it a fascinating but silly idea.  And, the reviews say that you must talk into the left glove, even though most people probably use their right hand to hold phones.

If you need to ski and talk and don't want to lose your phone, then this is the device for you.  You can use it with the GPS-enabled ski goggles with heads-up displays!

Photo:  Appalachian Mountain Club