EXPOSE

Outdoor Photography Names 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers

2010-12-22T09:57:00.006-05:00

Outdoor Photography Magazine has named its 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers and we're honored to have several iLCP photographers included in the mix! Congratulations and thanks! Let's keep up the great work bringing conservation into focus.

Fresh Water: The Essence of Life

2010-12-20T01:13:00.004-05:00

What would we do without fresh water? Although these ecosystems have proved resilient throughout millennia, within the last few generations humanity has radically destroyed earth’s fresh water ecosystems to the point of alarm. Fresh Water: The Essence of Life, the latest publication from Earth in Focus Editions (EIFE) in conjunction with the iLCP alerts readers to key issues concerning a topic paramount to all of us -- fresh water -- and its resources, its uses (and abuses) and its future.

It is within our grasp to adapt to the conditions we have created and to mitigate our impact on the future, but the window of opportunity is closing. Now is the time to reclaim our humility in relationship to the Earth’s fresh water and to resurrect an understanding of how interdependent we are with these ecosystems.

Click here for more info on the book. You can also check out a preview of it by clicking here.

Freshwater_Final_2010 from iLCP on Vimeo.

Impacting Indigenous Culture - The Tar Sands of Northern Alberta›

2010-11-24T16:39:00.004-05:00

Every extractive industry deeply affects the relationship between people on the land and their newly manufactured landscape. The incredibly rapid development of the tar sands in Northern Alberta is having a profound affect on the culture, lifestyle and health of the First Nations. Conversely, communities have gained employment, and access to modern health care and services. Is the stability and preservation of a culture better served through attention to traditional lifestyle or to commerce and industry?

This multimedia piece by iLCP photographer Robert van Waarden explores this story and the consequences of the Tar Sands development on the First Nations of Northern Alberta.

Impacting Indigenous Culture - The Tar Sands of Northern Alberta from Robert van Waarden on Vimeo.

The Big Picture: Using Images To Defend A World At Risk

2010-11-15T13:10:00.002-05:00

The iLCP is a fellowship of the world's top professionals who share an art and a vision. Through their images, they inform, inspire, motivate… They are defenders of a world at risk. The following images are from a feature on iLCP in the Winter 2011 issue of 2board Magazine.

***

Above, Garth Lenz's images of global environmental issues, threatened wilderness regions, nature’s devastation and its impact on indigenous peoples, have appeared in many of the world’s leading publications. He believes that “presented with images that show the beauty and fragility of nature, contrasted by the scale and impact of our industrialization of the landscape, people will be encouraged to support conservation and a more ecologically sensitive relationship with the earth.”
Famous for her underwater photographs of marine life, Michele Westmorland, said it is the goal of iLCP "to tell visual stories that can change minds and protect delicate environments, whether it’s flora, fauna or cultural traditions.”
“Photography and science are a powerful combination.” Armed with a background in science, Cristina Mittermeier founded iLCP in 2005. She has made it her life’s mission to “use photography to protect our planet’s precious resources”, focusing mainly on indigenous communities, and in particular a tribe from the central Amazon, called the Kayapo (pictured above).
Over the course of his long career, Jim Brandenburg has received a multitude of prestigious national and international honors for his work, including the World Achievement Award from the united Nations environmental Programme in Stockholm, Sweden, in recognition of his using nature photography to raise public awareness for the environment. The image above is included in a unique collection that represents iLCP’s 40 most important nature photographs of all time.
Pulitzer prize-winner Jack Dykinga helped to develop the iLCP’s Rapid Action Visual Expedition (RAVE) initiative that features a team of photographers, writers and cameramen working together to provide a comprehensive portrait of a conservation issue or threat in a very short period of time: “Βy assembling RAVES, the iLCP has managed to expose threats to the environment and inform a global audience in an effort to effect change. I’m involved, because it gives me a chance to “pay back” and defend all the wild places I hold so dear."
In Kabul, this 11-year-old girl, Humaria (above), sells eggs to help her family in their struggle to survive a devastating war. When Taliban came to power, education for girls came to an end. Documenting indigenous and tribal cultures around the world for more than 25 years, Phil Borges, seeks to enhance and improve cross-cultural understanding with his images.

Learn more about the iLCP here.

Coverage of climate summit called short on science: Study Says Media 'Under-reported' Issue of Warming

2010-11-15T12:29:00.005-05:00

Less than 10 percent of the news articles written about last year's climate summit in Copenhagen dealt with the science of climate change, a study showed on today.

From the Washington Post:

Based on analysis of 400 articles written about the December 2009 summit, the authors of the report for Oxford University's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism called for a rethinking of reporting on future such conferences.

Author James Painter concluded that "science was under-reported" as the essential backdrop when about 120 world leaders met in Copenhagen but were unable to agree on a binding treaty to slow climate change...

"We need more discussion between scientists, journalists and policymakers on how to keep highly significant, slow-burn issues like climate change interesting and engaging to different audiences around the world," Painter wrote...

Painter said one way to improve the reporting on climate change is to provide a larger media staff members to help scientists. He said the environmental group Greenpeace had 20 media staffers in Copenhagen, compared with 12 media staff from 250 universities. The U.N. panel of climate scientists has one media officer.

Among other suggestions was more frontline reporting about the effects of climate change, along with more imaginative use of new media.

Tripods in the Mud: Fiji Expedition in Photos

2010-11-11T18:37:00.007-05:00

***

On assignment with the joint New England Aquarium / Monterey Bay Aquarium Fiji Expedition — with partners Conservation International and Wildlife Conservation Society — ILCP photographer Keith Ellenbogen joined a team of scientists and citizen scientists to visually communicate biodiversity, scientific work and issues surrounding our marine environment.

For the first part of the expedition we lived on a boat and descended beneath the surface on a daily basis to explore the coral reef habitats and ecosystems within the Bligh Waters of Namena Marine Reserve (Locally Managed Marine Area), Vatu-i-Ra and deepwater seamounts.

On this expedition I worked collaboratively with Dr. Les Kaufman, Senior Scientist at Conservation International to experiment with a technique for capturing images of fluorescence within corals that may be used as a method for understanding coral resilience and the “health” of the coral reef ecosystem.

From a photographic point of view the use of fluorescence photography enabled me to capture a palette of mind-bending retro greens, yellows, oranges and reds within the geometric structure of the corals that are naturally produced but not easily seen without the aid of filters covering camera lens and strobes.

The technique was experimental and required both Dr. Kaufman and myself to work as a team through some of the challenges and issues of capturing images of fluorescence within the corals. One challenge was to capture images of fluorescence during daylight hours so we could more easily target selected areas and species of corals. This was difficult because the ambient daylight dilutes the filtered light emitted by the strobes and received by the camera. Additionally, both Dr. Kaufman and myself worked as a team underwater to find corals that would exhibit areas of scientific importance as well as peak visual interest.

This was a rewarding collaboration that showcases how captivating imagery can bring to life scientific research and conservation efforts.

Ensuring Conservation Through Education in Fiji

2010-11-10T10:57:00.002-05:00

***

Marine issues are key in Fiji. Take a quick look at Google and you'll soon find that there are plenty of marine conservation related expeditions and volunteer trips. In a pristine region that's up against severe challenges like pollution, over fishing coral reef degradation and erosion, it's no surprise that the global community wants to make sure that the island's unspoiled landscape and waters don't fall victim to these threats. But beyond the global support for these islands, there's a lot of stuff happening on the ground to ensure that the beautiful and diverse marine environment in this area of the world doesn't disappear, and one of those is one of the simplest things that we can support: education.

This summer the International Pacific Marine Educators Network convened in Fiji to discuss sustainable development in the Pacific region. At the conference's end, it was clear that strengthening the role of marine education and traditional knowledge is a crucial component to the future of sustainable development in this region, and both UNESCO and the Fiji government made commitments to making sure that this would happen.

“Pacific Islanders, who are custodians of the rich but threatened marine biodiversity in the region, have for centuries applied customary management practices in the traditional governance of their fishing grounds,” noted associate professor Joeli Veitayaki, coordinator of the Marine Studies Division at the University of the South Pacific (USP).

“While remnants of the system remain today, the people have witnessed increasing threats as they have to share their resources with other people with whom they must now work to ensure its sustainability.”

What exactly does that look like? Making sure that marine education is included in Fiji's school curriculum, setting up a combined youth forum between Fijian school students and Coorparoo Secondary College, Brisbane, Australia. The power of education in aiding some of our bigger, global issues can't be stressed enough. Fiji currently does not include marine education in its primary and secondary curriculum although most of the students come from coastal villages or are connected to them. Think about the potential for change if all of them were well educated about their local environment from a younger age; better local stewardship equals better global citizens when it comes to the environment, and that will be something Fiji can be truly proud of.

Image: Alex Kehr

Judges Announced For International Forest Film Festival

2010-11-08T19:14:00.005-05:00

An International Forest Film Festival competition to mark the International Year of Forests, 2011 has named Vance Martin, the president of the WILD Foundation, Jan McAlpine, director of the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat, and iLCP's own Cristina Mittermeier as the judges who will select winning films from 18 finalists in six categories.

The International Forest Film Festival competition, launched by the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat, will announce the finalists in December 2010, and the winners will be honoured at the global launch of Forests 2011 at UN Headquarters in New York in February 2011.

“The International Forest Film Festival offers a unique opportunity to bring the issues and objectives of Forests 2011 to a global audience,” said Ms. McAlpine, director of the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat. “The power of cinematic art is universal. It connects with people all over the world on a personal level. The International Forest Film Festival will spread the message of Forests 2011 in that same powerful manner.”

Winning films will first be showcased at the global launch of Forests 2011 in New York, and will then be screened at other festivals and events around the world throughout the year. The film festival is part of a global effort to raise awareness on the importance of forests, their relationship with people and the sustainable management, conservation and development of all types of forests.

While the overall theme for the film submissions is “Forests for People,” specific film categories will explore the multitude of ways that people interact and benefit from forests. From the social, cultural, economic or spiritual aspects of the “360 Degrees on All Things Forest” category to highlighting uniquely dedicated individuals in the “forest heroes” category, the competition seeks to take an all-encompassing approach to forest issues.

A full description of guidelines and categories is available at www.forestfilmfestival.org.

Films made since 2000 are eligible for entry, and submissions will be accepted until November 30^th2010, through www.WithoutABox.com.

Tripods in the Mud: Fiji -- Interview With iLCP Photographer Keith Ellenbogen

2010-11-08T13:53:00.007-05:00

Here at the International League of Conservation Photographers, we know that in order to capture the images that inspire people, sometimes you've got to get your hands dirty. And that's part of the inspiration behind our Tripods in the Mud (TIM) initiative that helps partner professional photographers with conservation organizations for the creation of visual materials on a specific region or issue. iLCP photographer Keith Ellenbogen recently returned from a TIM expedition to Fiji, so this week we've decided to highlight Keith's work and what he discovered while working in Fiji. Stay tuned for more stories from Fiji throughout the week!

***

Keith Ellenbogen specializes in underwater photography and environmental conservation and the goal of his work is to inspire positive social change toward protecting the environment. On his recent Tripods in the Mud expedition to Fiji, he joined a team of scientists and citizen scientists to visually communicate biodiversity, scientific work, and issues surrounding our marine environment. Upon his return, we caught up with Keith and asked him a few questions...

Q: How did you get into conservation photography?

Fascinated with life beneath the sea, in high school I volunteered as an assistant aquarist at the New England Aquarium (NEAq). Working within an aquarium setting, I learned first hand about the role oceans play within our global marine environment.

At age 16, as a newly certified diver with 10 shore dives off Gloucester Massachusetts, I was invited with the NEAq to go on a collecting trip to the Bahamas. As part of an hour-long television documentary a crew of underwater videographers traveled to the Bahamas and filmed us collecting fish to bring back to the aquarium. I remember thinking "WOW" and shortly after the trip, I purchased my first Nikonos V and enjoyed learning the art of underwater photography. Throughout my life, I have continued to combine and pursue my interest in art, photography and the marine environment. I have also acquired a Masters in Fine Arts that continues a life long passion in photography and marine life.

Q: Why do you personally care about Fiji? And have you ever been before?

I care about Fiji because it is one of the most beautiful places with spectacular natural resources. The people are warm and friendly, and the coral reef communities are vibrant with exotic and colorful species that dazzle the imagination. Yet Fiji’s natural resources are not immune to the pressures of modern societies such as overfishing, global warming, ocean acidification and more...

During the past three expeditions to Fiji, one part of my work has focused on using my underwater lens to highlight the beauty of marine life and environmental issues with a goal that these images will help to inspire conservation and future action.

Q: How far did you travel to come and shed light on this important issue?

I have traveled from the Island of Manhattan to the Islands of Fiji — half way around the world across the International Date Line to develop stories that focus on marine life and conservation. I have also traveled to locations such as Madagascar, Southeast Asia and Mediterranean Sea to shed light on compelling marine environmental issues.

Q: Why do you think Tripods in the Mud is an important Initiative?

As a conservation photographer, one of the most rewarding aspects of my job is working with scientists, blending their knowledge with my images in such as way that allows the viewer to make both an intellectual and an emotional connection to the natural world. By doing so, I hope that people will become informed and enthusiastic about conservation.

Q: Tripods in the Mud is all about collaboration. Tell us a little about how you collaborated with folks on the ground. How did the team add to the story?

The process of collaborating is as fluid as the sea around us. Ideas are exchanged, images are shared, and stories are developed. One of the most rewarding aspects of collaborating is the process of working together to develop and communicate stories that can spark peoples’ attention and satisfy their curiosity about the world around us.

As part of a team, we each brought our “left” and “right” brained skill sets together to develop narratives that directly relate to the story we are trying to develop. These stories are a combination between captivating imagery and essential scientific research that can only be developed and communicated by scientist/photographer collaboration. As with all nature photography, the story is constantly evolving and growing based on conditions on the ground.

Q: Why is conservation photography such an essential element to the conservation movement as a whole, and this project in particular? And why would you suggest conservation groups include photographers in their expeditions?

Conservation photography is an essential element of the conservation movement because it visually describes complex ideas in a succinct way that people can immediately understand and respond to emotionally. The important role of photography in conservation consists of at least three elements:
Creating beautiful images of the environment that inspire and motivate people to conserve our planet.
Document the environment through imagery. Documentation is important for many reasons. For example, images are essential for visualizing and communicating human-induced changes in our ecosystem. Photography is important for describing and communicating environmental conditions and describing the actions of researchers working to understand and preserve the environment.
Photography is a means of storytelling: photographs are crucial for communicating the stories of people, animals and plants as well as the scientific missions undertaken to protect them. Photographers and scientists work collaboratively to make the environment accessible to the public.
To benefit from the power of images, a conservation group needs to include professional photographers. Such professionals bring an artistic perspective to a conservation mission and are able to use the latest technology to create images in diverse environments.

In summary, conservation photography and environmental science are complementary approaches to preserving the planet. Photography harnesses the beauty of nature and the power of breathtaking imagery to communicate scientific insights about the environment. Photography inspires the viewer to learn about the environment and protect it.

Q: How can people get involved with the Fiji project?

I think the best way to get involved in Fiji is to go to Fiji. Experience the culture and the environment and then to support organizations such as The New England Aquarium, Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and to live a life style that supports a sustainable future.

Q: What’s up next for you Keith?

I continue to teach photography to undergraduate and graduate students as well plan for future expeditions in the field. My passion remains a strong desire to return to the sea photographing the marine life.

Learn more about Keith on his website: www.bluereef.com

FotoWeekDC: Life Lives Here... And Nowhere Else In The Universe

2010-11-08T13:18:00.004-05:00

Founded in 2008, FotoWeek DC has evolved from a city-centric photography festival to a multi-season tribute -- with international appeal -- to photography in all its forms. FotoWeek DC celebrates the transformative power of photography through the exhibition of inspiring and provocative images, diverse programming, and collaboration with the local and international community. The event kicked off on November 6 and runs through November 13.
***

The International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) is excited and honored to be a part of this year's event with the exhibit, Life Lives Here... And Nowhere Else In The Universe. Curated by Cristina Mittermeier, these projections by Fellows of the iLCP shine a light on some of our planet's most beautiful and precious natural resources... And the threats facing them. We hope they will help connect the dots between cause and consequence on all our environmental decisions, and lead us to understand how every action has an effect on our planet and all life on it.

If you're in the DC area, you can catch the night gallery projections throughout the week at the below locations:
Nov 8th 5 to 10pm in Dupont Circle
Nov 8th 6:30 to 8pm Road Projections Silver Springs -- Elsworth Drive (in front of the stage near the water fountain), Silver Springs, Maryland
Nov 9th 6 to 10pm FWDC Satellite -- 3330 M Street NW

If you're somewhere else in the world, take a moment to view some photos of the projections here.

Projections by:
Daniel Beltra: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
Amy Gulick: Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska's Tongass Rain Forest
Robert Glenn Ketchum: No Pebble Mine; Wild Salmon of Bristol Bay Forever
Garth Lenz: The Alberta Tar Sands, a new addiction to the most toxic oil
Thomas D. Mangelsen: American West, a disappearing landscape
Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier: Kayapo: Amazon River people on the edge
Paul Nicklen: Bi-Polar Disorder: Why Ice Matters
Thomas P. Peschak: Sharks: Apex predator, human prey
Brian Skerry: 3 Degrees of Japan's Seas

Heiltsuk Nation Rejects Enbridge Northern Gateway Proposal

2010-11-04T13:33:00.003-04:00

This summer, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers took part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the next several months we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.
***

Oil tankers will never be allowed on B.C. North Coast, community tells Enbridge representatives

In a press release from Bella Bella yesterday, the Heiltsuk Nation was unequivocal when it told Enbridge Inc., the world's largest pipeline construction company, that they will never allow oil tankers on or near their traditional territory on the B.C. coast.

At a public meeting in Bella Bella, Enbridge representatives heard from the community's hereditary leadership, elected leadership, youth, elders and nearby residents their deeply felt and strong conviction to never allow crude oil tankers on the B.C. north coast.

Their concerns include risks to the marine environment, food security, livelihood, economy and culture.

"We will not change our position, we stand behind our coastal First Nation neighbours and the declaration that we all signed that ban oil tankers on our coast," Marilyn Slett, elected Chief Councilor of the Heiltsuk Nation, stated at the public forum. "We will never support the Enbridge project and we will never support a project that has the potential to destroy our way of life."

"Enbridge has severely underestimated the resolve and commitment that the Heiltsuk Nation possess when it involves protecting their traditional territory." said Ian McAllister, local resident and Conservation Director of Pacific Wild.

"Our relationship to our land and waters is sacred and when it comes to the possibility of a massive oil spill our position is not negotiable." stated Hereditary Chief Harvey Humchitt

The Heiltsuk Nation calls on the Federal Government to protect BC coastal waters and legislate an oil tanker traffic moratorium.

Join them and take action here!

Spirit Bears the Next Environmental Superstar: Great Bear RAVE on ABC News Nightline

2010-10-21T15:23:00.006-04:00

© Ian McAllister, iLCP

Late this summer, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers took part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.

We're very excited that the Great Bear RAVE is going to be featured on tonight's ABC News Nightline.

Along with the program, they've put together a great slideshow of photos which you can check out here.

You can also read this piece, highlighting Spirit Bears as the next environmental superstars. Here's an excerpt:

"It's a magnificent bear," said Ian McCallister, director of the nonprofit conservation group Pacific Wild.

Today, the Great Bear Rainforest faces a threat -- a massive oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, Canada. The plan would turn the spirit bear's home into a superhighway for supertankers.

"They want to bring Big Oil to this coast," McCallister said. "The only thing that's standing between that is really the spirit bear, the concerted efforts from conservationists and the First Nation [native] people."

CBC News Sunday Edition on Great Bear RAVE + Threats Facing BC's Coast

2010-10-13T12:39:00.006-04:00

BC First Nations, environmentalists and BC Municipalities have all voiced their opposition to the proposal, with the community of Hartley Bay leading the pack.

Helen Clifton of the Git'gat people voiced her fear over what will happen if supertankers infiltrate their waters, "Tankers are one football field wide and three football fields long. If it was to come to a complete stop, it would take 18 miles." She said that tankers will surely disrupt wildlife and crush their fishing community. "What is going to be left for my great grandchildren, and those yet unborn? Will there be a Hartley Bay when they're adults? We're a people of the sea. We cannot exist as a people"

iLCP photographer Daniel Beltra shares her concern, "There's always human error. There are always mistakes made. Then you get big accidents."

And Daniel should know. He spent more than a month photographing the Gulf oil spill and said said that clean-up efforts seemed almost ridiculous because of the massive spill. It made him think of trying to clean up an "oil-filled Olymic swimming pool with Q-tips."

Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Photo courtesy Daniel Beltra/GreenPeace

Returning to what the pastor said, "But then a little bell goes off in the back of my head… What about the Gulf oil spill? What if something like that happens here?"

Listen to the CBC News Sunday Edition here. Note: The Great Bear RAVE story begins about one-third of the way into the podcast.

Take action to protect Great Bear here.

Great Bear Update: Majority of British Columbia's municipalities vote against Enbridge proposal

2010-10-04T17:46:00.003-04:00

Momentum grows for environmental protection of British Columbia's marine and terrestrial biodiversity.

Representatives at Convention of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) passed three resolutions against offshore oil and gas exploration, oil tankers on the BC north coast and the proposed Enbridge oil pipeline on October 1, 2010.

"This is a significant blow to Enbridge's proposal to transport Alberta's tar sands oil to the west coast of Canada," said Ian McAllister of Pacific Wild. "The UBCM represents the voice of cities across British Columbia and these resolutions send a strong message to the BC government."

These municipalities join forces with BC's First Nations community and conservation groups.

Congratulations to all the groups and activists who worked so effectively to help inform the UBCM. The iLCP is proud to have been able to play a small role in this important fight.

Click here to view images from the Great Bear Rainforest.

Click here to view a short video of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Environmental Threat Facing Great Bear Is A Global Problem

2010-10-01T13:44:00.003-04:00

This summer, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers are taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.
***

"Oil has a long history of not producing wealth or prosperity, exactly the opposite. What oil brings is poverty, social disease and environmental degradation. This is something that this coastline does not need," iLCP founder and president Cristina Mittermeier said. "
This is an environmental threat facing British Columbia and the coast… This is an environmental threat that would be facing planet Earth. This would have global impact."
Last month, Cristina and a troop of some of the best conservation photographers in the world journeyed to Great Bear to capture the wildlife, ecosystems and First Nations communities that thrive in the region, and expose the threat that they face.

"When you're working with 100 of the best photographers in the world, you need to deploy them. So we came up with the idea of a SWAT team… to capture images and bring back stories," Cristina said.

The goal of a RAVE
(Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition): engage the media, nationally and internationally, and create tipping points for conservation issues.

"In global terms, when you think about the Alberta tar sands, it will be doubling its potential output if this pipeline goes through. It's not just the impact it will have on the coastline. It's the impact it will have in Athabasca. This is one of the most toxic projects on the planet and I think as a civilized society, we need to ask ourselves: 'Do we need this oil?' And maybe the answer is 'no, not anymore.'"

Great Bear Rainforest RAVE from iLCP on Vimeo.

Toronto Star Says Alberta Can't Greenwash Its Tar Sands Troubles

2010-09-23T11:52:00.011-04:00

Photo by Garth Lenz

We've talked a lot about how terrible the tar sands is for the environment, so we thought we'd hand it over today. Earlier this week, the Toronto Star editorial board gave its opinion on the tar sands:

When a delegation of Alberta cabinet ministers comes to town calling for a “constructive conversation” about the oil sands, they deserve a hearing. Anti-Alberta boycotts are gathering steam, and the province is responding with public relations campaign of its own.

But a charm offensive is not going to change the channel. It’s not enough to say the world should stop tarring Alberta’s oil sands merely because the province claims it has gone green, as Environment Minister Rob Renner told his Toronto audiences this week.

“There is no doubt we must transition to a cleaner energy future that will see our reliance on carbon-based fuels diminish,” Renner said soothingly. The trouble with Renner’s story is that it sounds like a tall tale. He boasts of the “incredible environmental improvements that the oil sands industry has made,” but sloughs off the burden of surging greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution.

Alberta’s pitch is that billions of dollars will flow down the pipeline to Ontario manufacturers that supply the oil sands sector. Now Energy Minister Ron Liepert wants Ontario workers to shout down environmentalists who want to shut down the oil sands with this snappy retort: “You’re attacking my livelihood.”

If that’s the adult conversation Alberta claims to want, it sounds more like a hard sell, with a hint of economic blackmail (back the oil sands, or it will cost you jobs). The trouble with Alberta’s pitch to Ontario’s economic self-interest is that it ignores the heavy burden imposed on manufacturers by a higher Canadian petro-dollar, which is already pricing our exports out of foreign markets.

The oil sands are being developed at a breakneck pace, without a workable strategy for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta is relying too heavily on a $25-million public relations war chest, and the panacea of unproven carbon capture technology, to greenwash its tar sands troubles.

Great Bear RAVE Profile: Norm Hann

2010-09-22T15:38:00.005-04:00

This month, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers are taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.
***
Great Bear Rainforest RAVE: Q&A with Norm Hann from iLCP on Vimeo.
Norm first came to The Great Bear Rainforest through King Pacific Lodge where he worked as a guide. He has since been living with the Gitga'at First Nations community in Hartley Bay off and on for the last 10 years, working within the community coaching, teaching and participating in student mentor programs. Through his involvement with the Gitga'at community, Norm found inspiration to engage in the struggle against Enbridge, Inc.'s proposed twin pipelines and oil super tankers in the pristine waterways of the Great Bear Rainforest.

This past May, Norm completed a 400-km standup paddle board expedition along the proposed oil super tanker routefrom Kitimat to Hartley Bay, bringing awareness to the people and the wildlife of the Great Bear Rainforest and the North Pacific Coast.

Norm wrote on First Ascent's blog this summer:

A voyage of this magnitude had never been attempted on a stand up paddleboard in Canada before. The Great Bear Rainforest stretches from Vancouver Island north to southeast Alaska. It is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest in the world and is one of the most prolific areas for marine and terrestrial wildlife anywhere in the world. It is also the traditional home of coastal First Nations who have used the bounty of the ocean and forest to sustain themselves for millennia.

The purpose of my expedition, which I called “Standup4GreatBear,” was to bring attention to the traditional food harvesting areas of the First Nations, the amazing ecosystem of the Great Bear Rainforest and the proposed development that could threaten them. The journey became much more than that.

People along the way asked me if the paddling was hard or if there were any challenges. My answer was always the same. “When you are paddling for, and representing, the people and wildlife of our amazing coastline, you feel like the most powerful person in the world, challenges seem small.” The expedition was not a race or a feat of endurance; it was a special opportunity we had to hear the song of the coast and of the people. It’s a very powerful song and one that we all can be part of: We say no to oil tankers on our coast, and our answer will not change.

Great Bear RAVE Profile: Joe Riis

2010-09-20T18:12:00.005-04:00

This month, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers are taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.
***
South Dakota native Joe Riis is a full-time wildlife photojournalist dedicated to working on endangered species and ecosystems. Born in 1984, he was raised on the Great Plains along the breaks of the Missouri River in Pierre, South Dakota. A National Geographic Young Explorer armed with degrees in Wildlife Biology and Environment & Natural Resources from the University of Wyoming, Joe connects sound science with nature photography. Joe is widely recognized for his photographic work on the Missouri River and on the Pronghorn migration in Grand Teton National Park.

He has published work in many local and national publications and has had solo-exhibitions showcased throughout the U.S. including the U.S. Dept of Interior Museum in Washington D.C. He photographs entirely in the wild, not in captive situations or "game farms," his photographs are also presented in their true form without any computer manipulation. Joe is always searching for a good story, and uses both photos and words to captivate his audience.

We caught up with Joe before he left for Great Bear and asked him a few questions...

Why do you personally care about the Great Bear Rainforest? And have you ever been before?

I care about this place because I care about wild places and wild animals — it's that simple. I also like to eat wild salmon, which needs no further explanation. Wild salmon and crude oil do not coexist.

Yes, I have been to the Great Bear Rainforest. I was here in August of 2009 on a film assignment, and was based in the fishing village of Klemtu. I was setting up remote video cameras for a British film production that focused on spirit bears. I've been dreaming about coming back here to Great Bear for the past year, and am super stoked to set up my camera traps to capture bears and wolves.

How far did you travel to come and shed light on this important issue? What is your assignment on the RAVE?

Not very far, I've spent the past month in northern British Columbia working on the Sacred Headwaters RAVE, photographing stone sheep, moose, and mountain caribou, which was totally awesome. I was based at the headwaters of the Skeena, Stikine and Nass rivers for the entire month of August. And now I am on the coast where all three rivers flow into the ocean. Journeying from source to sea and capturing all of the life along the way throughout the past month has been so so magical.

What do you think the power behind a RAVE is?

It's all about the power of the people. The power starts with the local conservation group, then when we add the team of photographers, everything shifts to empowering the general public to protect this place. We (the photographers) are showing them what they have and trying to help them (the public) visualize the incredible landscape and life they live with, and inevitably have the power to protect.

Why is conservation photography such an essential element to the conservation movement as a whole, and this project in particular?

People need to see the changes that are happening to this planet, bottom line, and they need to be inspired and connected. That is conservation photography.

Watch the EP's film Flathead Wild, and learn more about the power of a RAVE as Joe takes you through the wild Flathead Valley in search of grizzlies, mountain goats and mountain lions...

Flathead Wild from Epicocity Project on Vimeo.

Great Bear RAVE Profile: Andy Maser + Trip Jennings of EP

2010-09-16T14:02:00.006-04:00

This month, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers are taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.
***
Trip Jennings and Andy Maser started their filmmaking careers as professional kayakers searching out the most remote and extreme rivers in the world. As paddlers, they have a special connection to rivers and the natural world. Seeing many of our favorite wild places threatened by human development, inspired them to change their focus. So, they're now a team of National Geographic explorers committed to using compelling outdoor, environmental and adventure media to inspire people to protect wild places.
We caught up with Trip and Andy before they left for Great Bear to ask them a few questions...

Why is it important to save the Great Bear Rainforest? What’s at stake?

With wild places disappearing all over the world, we need to hold on to special places like Great Bear — an intact ecosystem rich in terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity and home to the First Nations people. It would be incorigable to see all of this destroyed for the sake of oil dependence.

Why do you personally care about the Great Bear Rainforest? And have you ever been before this trip?

No, I’ve never been to Great Bear. I live in Portland, so it’s relatively close to home. We’ve seen a similar project proposed here in Oregon with the LNG pipeline projects. We’ve temporarily defeated most of those projects here and we're still fighting. And we hope to protect Great Bear from the same fate.

How far did you travel to come and shed light on this important issue? What is your assignment on the GBR RAVE?

Not far, just a quick trip up from Portland, Oregon. Our assignment is to produce a film that brings the issue to life, puts this proposed pipeline project into context and gives us the opportunity to tell the story of this incredible place, the threats that face it and the people working to protect it…

What do you think the power behind a RAVE is?

These RAVEs provide a unique perspective on an issue not normally seen. And working with some of the world’s best photographers, we’ll undoubtedly come out of this expedition with images that compel people to take action.

Why is conservation photography, video and filmmaking such essential elements to the conservation movement as a whole, and this project in particular?

If you present the issue in the form of provocative and engaging film and images, you’re more likely to inspire people to care and ultimately take action. If you want people to care, you've got to connect them to this place. And that's exactly what we plan on doing.

What is the ultimate desired outcome?

Short-term, we want this pipeline proposal rejected. Ultimately, the Athabasca tar sands themselves are the root problem. Hopefully, a victory in Great Bear will be a step towards addressing that.

World’s Leading Nature Photographers Urge Canada to Reconsider Major Oil Threat

2010-09-14T13:29:00.010-04:00

Photo © Florian Schulz, iLCP

***

Canada’s proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline, a project by Enbridge, Inc., from the Alberta tar sands to Kitimat, and the ensuing supertanker traffic would have a catastrophic effect on Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, said a group of the world’s leading conservation photographers today.

After two weeks, iLCP's team of photographers have emerged from the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia's north coast armed with compelling and provocative photographs and film. Throughout the next several months, their images will travel around the world to tell the story of this this incredible and threatened place — and the people and wildlife that live there.

© Thomas Peschak, Save Our Seas Foundation

Enbridge Inc., the world's largest pipeline construction company (and the same one responsible for Michigan's oil spill) has proposed to open export markets for tar sands oil outside the United States — most notably China. And to get it there, they plan to build a 1,200 km pipeline from Alberta's tar sands to British Columbia's north Pacific coast over more than 1,000 streams and rivers — including some of the world's largest salmon producing watersheds — and introduce super oil tankers (revoking an existing moratorium on large ships) to transport oil through the pristine waters of the Great Bear Rainforest.

“The International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) receives dozens of requests a year to bring our photographers and filmmakers to endangered landscapes all over the world, but British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest stands head and shoulders above the others,” said iLCP founder and president Cristina Mittermeier. “The ecosystems here are so interconnected that an oil spill would devastate not only the landscapes and seascapes but the communities that rely on them for their survival.”

Internationally renowned photographers from Spain, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, the United States and Canada have just returned from documenting the Great Bear Rainforest. Known as a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE), the program is designed to bolster conservation efforts with world-class imagery in order to protect the planet’s most unique ecosystems. Photographers including Paul Nicklen, Florian Schultz, Daniel Beltra, Jack Dykinga, Tom Peschak, Joe Riis and Cristina Mittermeier took part in the iLCP's RAVE.

© Ian McAllister, Pacific Wild and iLCP

Under the water, on land and in the air, this team of photographers brought home some of the most incredible images to date from this region. Marine photographers and filmmakers went underwater to film whales, sea lions and other wildlife that stand to be lost from an oil spill. On land, photographers trekked through the rainforest to capture the iconic spirit bears, black bears, salmon, wolves and incredible landscapes on film.

© Joe Riis, iLCP

“Enbridge’s bid to bring oil to BC’s north coast just got a whole lot more complicated,” said Ian McAllister, Executive Director of the BC non-profit Pacific Wild. “These are among the greatest nature images we have ever witnessed and they will soften even the most ardent supporter of Enbridge’s efforts to bring oil to our coast.”

Along with support from the conservation community, the BC Coastal First Nations have declared unified opposition to oil tankers in their traditional territories.

"Our laws require us to accept both the right to protect our lands and the responsibility to do so,” said Gerald Amos, President of the Coastal First Nations. “This oil madness has to stop, and this is the place and time for us all to embrace our responsibilities. Now is time to stop the proposed supertankers from soiling our coast and robbing us of our livelihoods."

© Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

“Every Gitga’at family in Hartley Bay has had at least one member employed at the King Pacific Lodge,” said King Pacific Lodge President Michael Uehara. “The resulting tanker traffic from this proposed project will destroy not only the new initiative of King Pacific Lodge, but also the ancient culture it seeks to honor.” The King Pacific Lodge partnered with iLCP on this RAVE and is the largest private employer of the Gitga'at First Nations community.

Throughout the next several months, we will embark on a traveling exhibition to feature these images in key cities across North America and Europe.

To access images for use in stories regarding the RAVE and the Great Bear Rainforest visit our online gallery.

And please credit the photographers appropriately below each image.

For more information, please contact:

Marshall Maher, iLCP, 202.262.3369 or maher.marshall@gmail.com

Ian McAllister, Pacific Wild, 250.882.7246 or ian@pacificwild.org

Great Bear RAVE Profile: Jason Sturgis

2010-09-13T15:44:00.003-04:00

***

An experienced boat captain, Jason Sturgis grew up spending summers on the British Columbia coast, and learned to dive from his father at the age of eight in the warm waters of Maui, Hawai’i. His early love of the ocean and curiosity to explore led him to dive many of the worlds amazing places, like Indonesia, the Galapagos Islands, Cocos Island, and Palmyra Atoll. His extensive field experience and interest in the natural world led him to cinematography. Jason’s steady hand and free diving skills combine for some breathtaking views of the world, both above and below the water. In 2007, he created Open Oceans Productions to tell the story of the underwater environment and the communities that live there.

We caught up with Jason and asked him a few questions about his assignment in the Great Bear Rainforest...

Why is it important to save the Great Bear Rainforest? What’s at stake?

Saving the Great Bear Rainforest is vitally important because ecosystems such as these are so very unique and important to the West Coast ecosystem. The central coast of British Columbia holds such diversity of life and we frankly cannot afford to be half hearted in our protection and appreciation of this wilderness. As we have seen in places like the Gulf coast, there is no margin for error. Once a place like the Great Bear Rainforest is lost or sullied, it will be generations before things recover.

Why do you personally care about the Great Bear Rainforest? And have you ever been before?

I personally care about the Great Bear Rainforest because as a child I spent my summers with my family going all up and down the coast experiencing the magic of these places. The summer explosion of life was just heaven to witness and I can not fathom wild places like these disappearing. One day I want to me able to return with my children and give them the same exposure that I had. I know how much the experience enriched my life and it is paramount that this place be saved for the future generations to come.
How far did you travel to come and shed light on this important issue? What is your assignment on the GBR RAVE?

I started my journey to the Great Bear Rainforest in the town of White Horse in the Yukon Territory. This is not my home, but I was in the area on an earlier trip. So a few planes and ferry rides and I arrived in Hartley Bay. My assignment on this RAVE will be to film and document the underwater world around the Great Bear Rainforest.

What do you think the power behind a RAVE is?

I think the power of a RAVE lies in the ability for photographers and filmmakers to capture the beauty and magic of a place and then share those images with the rest of the world. Why do people care about places that they have never seen or will likely ever visit? I believe the interest and compassion starts from still and moving images that are brought to us so that we may dive into these foreign worlds and see them in a visually compelling way. I personally have never been to the Arctic but I have seen many photos and films and I appreciate the beauty and majesty of the area. So for me, caring started with a photograph. The nuts and bolts of RAVES are in making photographs but those photos ultimately inspire and are lead to caring. That is where the power lies.

Why is conservation photography, video and filmmaking such essential elements to the conservation movement as a whole, and this project in particular?

I think conservation photography and filmmaking is essential to the conservation movement because it introduces worlds to people that they may not have otherwise seen. Conservation starts with caring. Caring starts with identifying with a place and I believe photographs and films are an excellent way to achieve this. I think we are much more willing to protect places if we have been there ourselves. Second to the personal experience, is living vicariously through a film or a photo. The Great Bear Rainforest is a pretty isolated area so for the majority of people, a photo or film may be the closest thing they have to experiencing it. That is why I feel that it is vital for this project to shine the light on the Great Bear Rainforest with images that make people take notice of what an extraordinary place it is.

How do you tell a story via your films?

When I go out in nature to film, my mindset is that the stories are already there. Nature writes the best scripts. The drama and magic is all included, no re-writes necessary. So my real motivation is to try and capture those scenes in the best way that I know how. To bring back those stories intact so that others can see the beauty and the incredible drama that takes place in the wild.

What is the ultimate desired outcome?

For me the best outcome would be for people to have a better understanding and appreciation for what the Great Bear Rainforest is. Hopefully with that education comes caring. So my hope is that the photographs and films make people more aware of what is at stake when we make decisions that could impact an area such as the Great Bear Rainforest. There is only one Great Bear Rainforest and the decisions we make should be made with that in mind.

Connecting the Dots and Paying the Full Price At the Pump

2010-09-09T23:39:00.011-04:00

Photo courtesy Pat Freeny

***

Cristina Mittermeier writes from Great Bear...

Once upon a time people would have never dreamed of putting energy needs over food security. In today’s carbon era, however, that does not seem to be a problem for governments and corporations alike.

What is the big deal in sacrificing the livelihoods, traditions and sustenance of entire indigenous communities, when the rest of us will not accept paying the full ecological and social price at the pump?

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

Do we even make the connections between the landscapes lost, species imperiled and indigenous people stripped of life and home and ancestral ways of life to accommodate our bad energy habits? I believe that as a civilized society we are failing to make those critical connections, but photography can help us better understand the links between causes of environmental degradation and the full consequences paid through the entire life cycle of “energy production”.

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

Last week, the iLCP launched its 11th RAVE — this time to the Great Bear Rainforest. The purpose of this RAVE is to lend a voice to the marine mammals, coastal ecosystems, bears, wolves, eagles and more importantly to the First Nations who forcefully oppose plans for the government of Canada to build a pipeline from the Tar Sands of Alberta to the coast of British Columbia.

Ten photographers will be joined by a small army of reporters from American and Canadian news outlets to help bring these voices to the rest of the world and hopefully to help shine a light on this magical corner of the world that is threatened with yet another misguided oil development project.

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

If all goes well, we will build a constituency of opposition to this project both in Canada and abroad. If we fail to be offended to our core by these type of projects, we will deserve every Gulf Oil Spill coming our way in the future.

Behind the Scenes of the Great Bear RAVE

2010-09-09T14:06:00.008-04:00

***

We've been posting a lot about our expedition in the Great Bear Rainforest — the people, the wildlife and our team of photographers who are trying to capture all of that.

But what goes on behind an expedition like this? How much food do you need to feed 14 hungry people on 6 different boats for 10 days in the rainforest? Here's a little peek into our 3-hour long shopping trip in Prince Rupert...

Now before any of you get all riled up, we are well aware of the fact that we consumed a lot of plastic bags during our shopping trip. And we are also well aware that plastic means petroleum, and it's therefore easy to ask the question, "if you're up there fighting against oil isn't it hypocritical to be filling your shopping carts with single-use plastics?"

The short answer is... While we were able to use cardboard boxes to transfer all of the groceries, we still did consume plastic bags for bulk foods, produce and things like milk jugs and yogurt. There is no easy answer. Unfortunately we live in a society where the infrastructure makes it very difficult to stock up for an expedition of this size and not consume any single-use plastic products. So we'll turn the question back to you: how do you limit your use of plastic, and even disposable goods, when prepping for a trip or an expedition? Post a comment and tell us all about it!

And how do you get the crew and all of this food and gear (1,900 pounds of it!) to the remote and wild North Coast of British Columbia? Hint: it involves planes, buses and ferries... And some heavy lifting!

Alberta Tarsands: Extremely Harmful to Wildlife

2010-09-09T13:13:00.003-04:00

Between now and September 14, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers are taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.

***

The Alberta tar sands have been deemed "the most destructive project on earth," and as if we needed another negative consequence of oil extraction in this area of the world and its effects on the environment, a new study now shows that birds are dying in Alberta oilsands tailing ponds at least 30 times faster than what the industry says.

Up until now, environmental reports about the impact of the oil industry in this region have been published by the oil industry itself, and the authors of the study are demanding that independent, third-party regulation be put into place.

"We need to have credible scientific monitoring," said Kevin Timoney, Treeline Ecological Research, to CBC News.

Read more about the study and its findings here.

Image: Treehugger

Great Bear RAVE Profile: Ian McAllister

2010-09-08T07:37:00.004-04:00

Between now and September 14, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers, is taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along here on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.

***

Photo courtesy Ian McAllister, Pacific Wild and iLCP

Ian McAllister is a founding director of the Canadian based wildlife conservation group Pacific Wild. His photography and film work focuses on the carnivores of the Pacific coast. In 2010, he was awarded the NANPA Vision award and was also named among Time Magazine's "Leaders of the 21st Century" for his environmental conservation work.

He has published four large format books on wildlife and lives on an island with his wife Karen and two children in the Great Bear Rainforest. We caught up with Ian and asked him a few questions on his work to protect the the Great Bear Rainforest...

Why is it important to save the Great Bear Rainforest? What’s at stake?

The Great Bear is in North America's backyard, yet it contains most of the
world's remaining intact temperate rainforest, it is home to indigenous First
Nations people who still live in their traditional territories and who are
supported from the ecologically rich marine and terrestrial environments.
It is the kind of place that you can watch grizzly bears, humpback whales,
spirit bears, wolves and so much else all in a single day.

Why do you personally care about the Great Bear Rainforest? And have you ever been before?

I live here with my family and I still can't imagine a better place on the
planet to call home — or a more fascinating and challenging place to
photograph.

What is your assignment on the GBR RAVE?

I am going to attempt as much underwater photography as possible, while keeping an eye on some of my favourite streams to photograph wolves and bears...

What do you think the power behind a RAVE is?

A RAVE teams creative people from diverse backgrounds who will bring different talents here while also seeing the coast from myriad perspectives.

Why is conservation photography such an essential element to the conservation movement as a whole, and this project in particular?

Few people have the opportunity to visit a place as remote as the Great
Bear. This is why images really can be part of the solution in protecting an
endangered landscape. The right image can inspire and motivate people to
action and that is a big part of the work cut out for us in the coming
weeks.

How do you tell a story via your photos?

I write books, present them personally to the public, publish them in magazines and other media. They form a core part of the conservation group I work for: Pacific Wild.

What is the ultimate desired outcome?

The Federal government in Canada announces that they are halting the Enbridge Northern Gateway project and they are legislating an oil tanker ban on the BC north coast.

Take action to protect the Great Bear Rainforest!

Take Action: Speak Up For The Great Bear Rainforest

2010-09-08T06:38:00.003-04:00

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

For the last week, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers, has been on the ground taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we have brought you profiles, stories and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it.

And now it's time to act. Tell the story of the Great Bear Rainforest to your friends, neighbors, family — everyone! Share it on your blog, on Facebook and Twitter! And take a few minutes to tell the elected leaders of Canada that you strongly oppose bringing crude oil to the Great Bear Rainforest.

Contact: It is always a good idea to copy your letter or email to other sources. For example, if you write a letter to Prime Minister Harper, copy the two other ministers listed below.

Prime Minister, The Hon. Stephen Harper
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
Mailing Address:
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Minister of Natural Resources Canada , The Hon. Lisa Raitt
Email: Raitt.L@parl.gc.ca
Mailing Address:
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613.996.7046

Minister of Fisheries & Oceans, The Hon. Gail Shea
Email: shea.g@parl.gc.ca
Mailing Address:
Room 259 West Block,
House of Commons
Ottawa, K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613.992.9223

Sample text: Below is some sample text for a letter or email to the Prime Minister. Make sure to personalize it — it's you're chance to speak up!

***

Dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper,

I strongly oppose bringing crude oil to the Great Bear Rainforest.

The proposed plan to build a crude oil pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to the North Coast is the wrong choice for British Columbia. Allowing this pipeline to be built and oil tanker traffic in the pristine waters of the Great Bear Rainforest would undermine the conservation gains already made and the way of life of the coastal First Nations people.

More than 80 percent of British Columbians oppose crude oil tanker traffic on the North Coast and the coastal First Nations have declared a ban under their traditional laws. This project would be a major, long-term investment in dirty oil development at a time when B.C. and Canada should be investing in the clean energy economy.

We have the opportunity to set an example here. To show how we deal with the last few wild places on our planet and more importantly, for how we honor and respect the rights and traditions of First Nations and all indigenous people. I strongly urge you to have the foresight and ingenuity to move forward with a plan that will move British Columbia, and Canada, into the future instead of clinging to the status quo.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Name
Address
Phone

***

Fired up? While you're at it, write a letter to Enbridge, Inc. too! Tell them to keep their pipelines out of the Great Bear Rainforest!

Dispatch from the Field: Deciding the Fate of the Great Bear Rainforest

2010-09-08T06:04:00.009-04:00

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

***

Cristina Mittermeier writes from Great Bear...

For the past few days I have been sitting in a magical corner of the planet. I know it is really special because I have traveled all over the world and seldom have I seen a place where nature and human cultures live in such exquisite harmony and where all the options for development are still available.

The wild coast of British Columbia, with all its whales, bears, wolves and extraordinarily abundant marine life, is one of the true natural treasures of our planet. This coast, home to hundreds of First Nations who have carved a sustainable living for millennia, is indeed a magical place. Sadly, its fate — like many of the world's special places — is not up to the people who live here. Instead, large corporations and government bureaucrats sitting thousands of miles away get to make that choice. One would hope that an enlightened nation, such as Canada is supposed to be, would come up with great ideas for how to turn this unique natural wonder into a sustainable economy for the people who live here and indeed, the whole nation.

One idea would be to do what California has done and opt to leave the coast wild, largely undeveloped, with the possible exception of a scenic highway with a few small enclaves where people could visit seasonally to enjoy the amazing scenery. This could quickly become a “must see” place in the same vein as Yellowstone or Yosemite and it could bring in an endless stream of jobs, revenue and prosperity. Another idea would be to demarcate the entire area as a World Heritage Site, which given its rich cultural and biological heritage, is a well-deserved designation. In this manner, it would become a benchmark for what civilized societies are supposed to do with places like this.

But neither of those options are on the table right now. The only idea that Canada has come up with is to develop this as an oil transit route. And so, this wild coast of northern British Columbia has become a battlefield. The First Nations and the conservation community are ready to fight the massive oil corporations determined to build a pipeline that transports dirty oil from the Alberta Tar Sands in one direction and toxic condensate in the other.

“We have drawn a line in the sand. There will be no Enbridge Pipeline and there will be no crude oil tankers in our waters. This is not a battle we intend to lose,” Gerald Amos from Kitamaat Village said at a protest last week.

Well, a pipeline is not such a big deal, is it? After all its footprint is not very large and its construction will generate a few thousand jobs. Problem is, once the pipeline reaches the coast, the jobs will go away. Worst-case scenario, the pipeline breaks and gushes oil into the pristine waters and land of the Great Bear Rainforest. And the oil will still need to be shipped, so enormous megatankers will then be called in to pick it up and then transport it to Asian markets.

“To me this coast is just this magnificent ecosystem where the terrestrial and marine interact,” Pat Freeny, as Seattle mariner helping the team navigate through Great Bear, said. “And when I think of tankers navigating these waters it sends shivers down my spine.”

Will the fate of this place include the constant threat of oil spills and tanker routes that displace whales and seals and fishermen? Or will we answer the question with foresight and vision, by protecting one of our planet’s jewels of sustainability?

We have the opportunity to set an example here. To show how we deal with the last few wild places on our planet and more importantly, for how we honor and respect the rights and traditions of First Nations and all indigenous people. So the question really is, will Canada do what is right for its people in the long turn or will it become just another petrostate?

Speak up! Tell your friends the story of the Great Bear Rainforest and take action to save it.

Above photo courtesy Ian McAllister, iLCP

Get to Know 5 of the Great Bear Rainforest's Focal Species

2010-09-07T10:10:00.020-04:00

Photo courtesy Ian McAllister, iLCP

***

The Great Bear Rainforest is home to a diverse population of flora and fauna, but unfortunately, despite conservation commitments, many focal species are still at risk of extinction; in an already sensitive area, adding a pipeline in this area would be another great injustice. Who are these animals and why are they worth protecting? Earlier this year the Sierra Club BC, Forest Ethics and Greenpeace published a report looking at five focal species of the area, so to help you better understand the region, we're featuring them here:

Marbeled Murrelet

A small diving sea bird, the Marbeled Murrelet is dependent on old growth forests for nesting. In fact, British Columbia is thought to have approximately 27% of the global population, and the Great Bear Rainforest is home of up to half of B.C.’s Marbled Murrelet population.

Northern Goshawk

There are estimated to be fewer than 400 breeding pairs of Northern Goshawk in all of British Columbia, which represents 50% of this supspecies. The goshawk plays an essential part in its ecosystem: each breeding pair builds and maintains between three and nine nests within its home range, but uses only one per year, while the remaining nests are used by other birds like forest owls, ravens, and Great Blue Herons, many of which can’t build their own.

Grizzly Bear

An iconic species of the region, the Great Bear Rainforest is home to Canada’s largest and densest concentrations of grizzlies. Reliant on salmon, grizzlies' survival is tightly linked to the health of stream-side forests; salmon-eating bears drag fish carcasses into nearby forests, dispersing the nitrogen and phosphorus-rich carcasses across the forest floor, a fertilization process that results in a highly productive, diverse and structurally complex stream-side forests.

Coastal Tailed Frog

Tiny animals, measuring in at 2.5-3 centimeters, these frogs are slow-reproducing and incredibly sensitive to changes in the conditions in and around their home streams.

Photo courtesy Joe Riis, iLCP

Mountain Goat

Did you know that British Columbia is thought to support over half of the world’s Mountain Goat population? These animals are reliant on old growth forests for their survival -- among other things, lichen that falls from older trees is a major winter food source -- making threats to the Great Bear Rainforest particularly problematic for their survival.

Images: UC Berkeley, Save the Great Bear, USGS, Save the Great Bear, iLCP

Great Bear RAVE Profile: Thomas P. Peschak

2010-09-06T16:37:00.005-04:00

***

Thomas P. Peschak is the Chief Photographer of the Save our Seas Foundation and travels extensively in pursuit of marine wildlife and underwater stories. He was born in Germany, but has lead a near continuous nomadic existence and today spends the 100 or so days when he is not on the road in his adopted home of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a former marine biologist who specialized in kelp forest ecology and the impacts of illegal fishing, who left science to pursue a life in environmental photojournalism. He has won many awards including category wins in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Fuji Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions as well as the Grand Prize (Portfolio) and Prix Jean et Maryse Chapeyroux at the World Festival of Underwater Images 2007 and 2008, and is also a Fellow with the iLCP.

Before Thomas took off for the Great Bear Rainforest last week, we had the chance to ask him a few questions about his assignment...

Why is it important to save the Great Bear Rainforest? What’s at stake?

The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the world’s last true coastal wildernesses. Coasts are magnets for development. There is a unique opportunity here to save one of the few areas in the world where you still have a wild ocean meeting a wild terrestrial ecosystem.

It’s a showcase, a showpiece, one of the last places where that interface still exists.

How far did you travel to come and shed light on this?

I flew in all the way from Cape Town South Africa – the Great Bear Rainforest is about as far from Cape Town as you can get!

Why do you personally care about the Great Bear Rainforest?

I first heard about the Great Bear Rainforest 20 years ago because I watched a documentary that really stuck with me. I remember the white spirit bears and wolves that roamed on beaches. That these animals were not afraid of people because this is a place where people hadn’t yet become destructors of nature in this area.

Now that I can visit it and photograph it, I feel so privileged to be a part of something that will protect this area — that’s a pretty cool thing to be able to do.

What do you think the power behind a RAVE is?

If you want to document an area this complex, this size, you need lots of time — months if not years. Yet in threatened locations, you usually do not have the luxury of time. So we have a small group of adept photographers that will be able to create a comprehensive portrait of the Great Bear Rainforest in a short period of time. We will also be able to create an accurate and inspiring portrait of that landscape and it’s varied visual narrative, through many different perspectives and angles. This is something a single photographer wouldn’t be able to accomplish.

Why is conservation photography such an essential element to the conservation movement as a whole, and this project in particular?

I believe that photography is one of, if not THE most important tool in the conservation toolbox. The area we are trying to protect, as is the case with all remote areas, is not easy to get to. Not everyone can visit the Great Bear Rainforest. And how can you expect people to care about something they don’t know? To protect someplace they do not connect to or love? Photography is the ambassador. iLCP photographers try to create the visual narrative that will get people who have never been to the Great Bear Rainforest, to care and understand the threats and in the end help protect it!

What is your assignment on the RAVE?

I am the underwater photographer on this RAVE. My assignment is to really document and portray the underwater world that lies adjacent to the terrestrial world.

I’ll be photographing a pod of whales that have developed a unique feeding culture called bubble netting where they are able to collectively herd fish. The whales bubble net in the exact place the tankers would drive through if the pipeline occurs. This area is also home to stellar sea lions. The stellar sea lion population is dropping worldwide and the tankers will also be going through the location where the stellar sea lions feed and pup and nurse their young. The orcas in the Great Bear Rainforest are not fleeting and transient — they are a keystone species in this environment and most of the research that has been done on orcas has been done on the Great Bear Rainforest orcas.

Along with, the wildlife, I will also be documenting the rich kelp forest ecosystem and the intertidal zone, which is very important — I’m very interested in this transient border between sea and land.

What is the ultimate desired outcome?

The ultimate desired outcome is simple. It is that this pipeline is not built. I have two main reasons... One, having tankers use these estuaries will affect the ecosystem on many levels — worst-case scenario, there is potential for an oil spill. However, just the regular tanker traffic will disrupt the ecosystem irreversibly. Animals living in this coastal wilderness will be disturbed by noise pollution, tankers striking animals, as well as the threat of invasive species brought in with the tankers. This fragile ecosystem is does not need tankers going up these passages.

And two, the pipeline takes away the magic of wilderness. The pipeline must not be built and tankers traffic must not increase. That is the only outcome.

Dispatch From The Field: The Journey To The Great Bear Rainforest

2010-09-03T13:56:00.008-04:00

Photo courtesy Ian McAllister, iLCP

***

iLCP's Jenny Nichols reports from the field...

For lack of a better cultural reference, I feel as if I’ve landed on the set of the movie Twilight. My niece would be looking over her shoulder for vampires and werewolves, however we’ve traveled to the Pacific coast of British Columbia to face an immensely more threatening danger — the proposed Enbridge pipeline that will carry crude oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada to the coast of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. The creation of this pipeline is destructive for the ecosystem and the First Nations and wildlife that call it home, and it will also lead to a massive increase in tanker traffic.

After a semi bumpy 2-hour flight from Vancouver into Prince Rupert, I landed on a tiny fog-cloaked island off of Prince Rupert. Dave, who I sat next to on the plane, explains that now we take a bus and a ferry to the island of Prince Rupert. In Prince Rupert, everything is moving in sweet slow motion, no one is in a hurry, no one is stressed, and everything is running smoothly. The effect was refreshing. I slipped effortlessly out of my autopilot travel mode, and started to look around. The air traffic control personnel knew almost all of the passengers getting off the plane, the baggage handlers passed my bag with a gesture that was similar to a handshake. The crowd slowly rolled onto the sidewalk outside the one-roomed airport and waited for the bus to start loading. I assumed that we would heave our luggage under the bus, but then realized there were no compartments. An open backed moving truck backs up and started to load our luggage. With our gear safely stowed in the truck, we got on the bus and took off for the ferry. I sat next to Dave again on the bus because it’s not entirely clear where I would meet my good friends and colleagues Trevor Frost and Joe Riis who are already in Prince Rupert preparing for the Great Bear Rainforest RAVE.

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

As we drove onto the ferry, Dave started to tell me about the wood mill on Prince Rupert that shut down about 8 years ago.

“Its why I moved here,” he comments and in the same breath mentions that the population has gone from something like 20,000 to 10,000 in just 8 years because of the lack of jobs. He thinks the main reason for the plant closing down was that the new environmental standards were too expensive to implement.

As an avid conservationist I am torn at this comment.

Part of me rejoices, as I look out over this incredible landscape where water and terrestrial habitat seem to converge with such grace. I secretly celebrate the fact that these trees will not end up as woodchips and 2x4s. However, Dave is clearly pained by this occurrence and the economy of Prince Rupert has clearly suffered enormously. I don’t know what the answer is in Prince Rupert, however I do know that conservation has to involve and empower the local communities to succeed. So often conservation movements and conservation groups are perceived as being the voice that says, “no, you can’t do that.” We need to turn that around and be the voice that says, “yes!” Yes you can be stewards of the land. Yes! This pristine landscape is still here because you protected it. Yes! You can still kayak along the Pacific Coast of BC and see whales, orcas and bald eagles. Yes, there is still a lot of work to do, but yes, there is also still time to make the right choice.

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

The International League of Conservation Photographers and partners strive to make that choice obvious by telling the story of the Great Bear Rainforest through imagery and video. To help bring attention to the people living in the Great Bear Rainforest whose voices are not being heard. To show how imperative it is to protect this unique place and how together the people of Canada and the global community can stop this proposed pipeline and avoid an increase in tanker traffic that could destroy and ecosystem and a way of life.

So, how can you help? Here are three simple ways for you to support the work of iLCP and raise awareness about the threats facing the Great Bear Rainforest. Together, we can protect this precious ecosystem and the communities that live there!

1. Give! Support iLCP and the Great Bear RAVE

2. Take Action! Keep Oil Tankers Out of Great Bear
3. Tell the Story! Tell your friends, your family, your neighbors! Post stories from Great Bear on your own blog, on Facebook and Twitter!

Chesapeake Bay RAVE_Neil Ever Osborne_Pine Creek

2010-08-31T12:15:00.002-04:00

Chesapeake Bay RAVE

Pine Creek, tributary of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

On the last day of the Chesapeake Bay RAVE, I stared at a rock for over an hour. The rock above actually. It was alone. The only rock breaching the surface of the scene. I used it to create a time lapse for a multimedia component of the RAVE some of my colleagues are working on. Time lapses are incredible tools that allow you to use multiple still images to create motion in a single scene. Subtle as it might be, the water ripples were the only thing moving, I was trying to elicit a mood that would suggest we can keep Pennsylvania’s rivers, streams, and creeks clean if we keep making positive changes.

The farmers in Pennsylvania who work so closely with the land are doing this. They are planting more trees to create corridors that can act as buffers along waterways on their property. More trees equal more nutrient absorption and less soil erosion, and overall better health for the watershed.

This morning I was working alongside Frank Rohrer, a stream buffer specialist who works with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He is a photographer himself so the early rise at 5:00am was not too much hassle for the both of us. We worked the Pine Creek scene for a couple of hours, concentrating on simple compositions offered. Then, once the sun was up and the fog had dissipated, we headed home to conclude my RAVE assignment.

While I have no trouble staring at rocks for lengthy periods of time, I really was itching to see more of the Pennsylvania wildlife Rohrer talked about in the preceding days I was with him. Ideally, I would also get a chance to photograph these animals but as nature often chooses, this is not always the case. Sometimes the sighting is enough.

On the way back to the cabin in the woods, we were fortunate to glance a Bald Eagle, a White-tailed fawn, and a Black Bear mother with two cubs.

Check back here in the next couple of weeks to learn more details about the upcoming action exhibit later in September on Capital Hill. iLCP photographers will share images from the Chesapeake Bay RAVE.

The World's Dirtiest Oil: Learning From Michigan How Tar Sands Are Really Affecting Us

2010-08-31T10:05:00.008-04:00

***

"Tar sands. Canada’s gross gift to the Great Lakes. The core of a “pollution delivery system” to the most important fresh water ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. Our region is the epicenter of refining for what has been called “the world’s dirtiest oil.”

That's a quote from a compelling article by Henry Henderson at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Henderson emphasizes the need for honestly addressing the recent Michigan oil spill and its effects. "Because if the First Nations tribes in Canada see the mess in Michigan, they will trust Enbridge even less than they do now (which is not much considering the problem the pipeline company is having in getting right of way for the project)."

Interested in learning more about the negative effects of tar sands? Read the full article here. You can also check out a photo gallery from the spill over on the Daily Green.

Great Bear Rainforest Profile: Cristina Mittermeier

2010-08-30T17:18:00.014-04:00

Between now and September 14, the iLCP, a group of internationally renowned photographers, are taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.

Armed with a background in marine biology, Cristina Mittermeier turned her focus to images — realizing they were a better tool to tell the story of humans and nature. At the heart of her work, Cristina amplifies the idea that people and nature are not isolated from each other, but are inexorably connected. In 2005, Cristina founded the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) — a prestigious team of photographers who believe that awe-inspiring photography is a powerful force for the environment.

Focusing on the relationship between nature’s most spectacular and endangered wildlife and Earth’s vanishing traditional human cultures, Cristina and iLCP aim to replace environmental indifference with a new culture of stewardship and passion for our beautiful planet.

Cristina is currently on the ground in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest to tell the story of this threatened ecosystem through images. We caught up with Cristina and asked her a few questions...

Why is it important to save the Great Bear Rainforest? What’s at stake?

Number one the livelihoods of the people, most of them First Nations, and the fragile ecosystems of the northern shore of BC.

How far did you travel to come and shed light on this important issue?

I’m living in DC but originally from Mexico.

Why do you personally care about the Great Bear Rainforest? And have you ever been before?

Because I am deeply offended by the lack of respect for the First Nations who have lived here for thousands of years and whose voices of opposition are not being heard.

Yes, I have been here before, I came here to spend time with the Gitga'at Nation at their spring fishing camp and to scout the area for the RAVE.

What do you think the power behind a RAVE is?

Empowering our conservation partners with the highest quality imagery not only helps to bear witness but it helps build constituencies around these issues. In the case of the RAVE because we have international photographers these constituencies are usually international as well.

How do you tell a story via your photos?

I like to delve into the human aspect of stories like this. I'm interested in using images to connect the dots between cause and consequence.

What is your assignment on the GBR RAVE?

I'm going to be embedded with the Gitga’at First Nations. Documenting their absolute reliance on natural resources for survival and their deep ties and tradition surrounding their relationship with the coastal resources.

What is the ultimate desired outcome?

We would like to see the government of Canada rethink it’s strategies surrounding oil development in particular in the tar sands and perhaps look at the fate of other petrol states such as Venesuela and Iraq.

By bringing international photographers we are trying to help Canada realize the way the rest of the world is looking at this situation.

Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP President and photographer speaks for the Great Bear Rainforest from iLCP on Vimeo.

World's Premiere Photographers Join Forces to Protect British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest

2010-08-30T15:43:00.017-04:00

Photo courtesy Ian McAllister, iLCP

Between now and September 14, the iLCP and a group of internationally renowned photographers are taking part in a RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures, but overseas oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have put the region in threat, prompting the action of conservation groups and the iLCP. Throughout the expedition we'll be bringing you profiles, stories, statistics and photos to learn more about the region and why it's so crucial that we all work to protect it. Please follow along on the iLCP blog, on Facebook and Twitter.

Just like in many creative industries, the photography business is a competitive one. Why then, would some of the world's premiere photographers converge in the wilds of British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest? To save one of the planet's most priceless treasures. Photographers including Paul Nicklen, Florian Schultz, Daniel Beltra, Jack Dykinga, Tom Peschak and Cristina Mittermeier will take part in the iLCP's RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) of the area and tell the story of this incredible place and the people working to save it.

"The Great Bear Rainforest is an environmental treasure, and the international exposure that the iLCP is capable of generating will undoubtedly prove a clarion call for its protection," said Ian McAllister, Conservation Director for B.C. based Pacific Wild and recently nominated Associate of the iLCP. "We have everything to lose and very little to gain by allowing oil tankers on our coast."

Overseas oil interests want access to western Canada's tar sands — the second largest known oil reserves in the world — and have proposed the construction of a massive pipeline through the rain forest to get it.

Photo courtesy Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP

Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, iLCP's team of photographers will showcase the immense ecological importance of western Canada's threatened rain forest and marine environment. The images and stories from the expedition members will be shared with international media and partner organizations and will be featured in a traveling exhibition across North America and Europe.

Photo courtesy Ian McAllister, iLCP

So, how do you go about that? Build a 1,200 km pipeline from Alberta's tar sands and British Columbia's north Pacific coast over more than 1,000 streams and rivers — including some of the world's largest salmon producing watersheds — and introduce super oil tankers (revoking an existing moratorium on large ships) to transport oil through the pristine waters of the Great Bear Rainforest.

"We support this effort to document the lands and seas of our traditional territory," states Ernie Hill Jr., Sn'axeed, Gitga'at Hereditary Eagle Chief. The indigenous First Nations who call this area home unanimously oppose this project. "Enbridge's pipeline and oil tanker proposal will destroy our way of life and we must do everything possible to show what we stand to lose."

Learn more about the Great Bear Rainforest RAVE.

Chesapeake Bay RAVE_Neil Ever Osborne_Eastern Hellbender Salamander

2010-08-28T12:17:00.000-04:00

Chesapeake Bay RAVE

Eastern Hellbender Salamander or Giant Salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) eating a crayfish.

Have you ever seen this critter before? I had not. I also did not know where to find them but their mystic was enough to intrigue me to look. During the Chesapeake Bay RAVE, collaborations with local experts and people on the ground were essential. This seems like a common thread with conservation projects these days and so through Chesapeake Bay Foundation communications guru Kelly Donaldson I was able to reach out to Dr. Peter Petokas of Lycoming College to assist me with a photo shoot with the amphibian he knows so well.

Eastern Hellbender Salamanders can grow to more than 25 inches in length, making them the third largest aquatic salamander species in the world. They really are that big. I wanted photographs of the giant salamander to introduce this amazing animal to those who had never seen one. What role they play in the Chesapeake Bay watershed might not be as clear as with other aquatic wildlife but they certainly maintain a balance in the crayfish numbers, eating them frequently with a suction feeding behaviour.

Other names for this wicked looking creature are snot otter, devil dog, mud-devil, grampus, the Allegheny alligator, leverian water newt, and vulgo. But, to me they are not that ugly. Some people say the name Hellbender comes from their odd appearance. Under the water, they have the unassuming appearance of rocks, though this did not stop us from finding them. With Petokas at hand, we were able to photograph five Hellbenders in their natural setting.

I have my fingers crossed that one of my Hellbender images end up in the 30-image action exhibit that premieres this September on Capital Hill. iLCP and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation are using the images this RAVE creates to facilitate news coverage of the urgency of the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Act to speed the restoration of the Bay’s health and protect it over the long term.

I was also able to ask Dr. Peter Petokas a few questions during our time together and he had these few comments:

Q: Why do you study the Hellbender?

A: I began to study the Hellbender out of curiosity, what it was, where it was, and how well the species was doing, since no one seemed to know the answers to these things. We’ve since learned an amazing amount of
new information about this animal and I hope to continue my studies as long as I am able. It’s not pretty and it doesn’t entertain us with interesting behaviors, but it is an intriguing animal, very secretive,
difficult to access, and a key predator on stream crayfish. Having documented migrations of up to five miles, this creature defies what we think we know about salamanders.

Q: How important is the Hellbender to the Chesapeake watershed?

A: We’ve lost so much of the value of our watersheds through resource extraction and habitat degradation, that the Hellbender is now in jeopardy of complete extirpation. Along with the Bald Eagle and the
American Shad, the Hellbender is a poster child for everything that we’ve done wrong in the watershed. We’ve mismanaged the Susquehanna River Basin for over 200 years and it will never return to the pristine
state when Bald Eagles, Mountain Lions, and Hellbenders were important keystone predators in the food chain. We’re working to return long lost species such as Shad and Eels to the West Branch, but the Hellbender
hasn’t been eliminated yet and I’m working hard to ensure that existing populations remain viable with the ultimate goal of reintroducing Hellbenders to previously-occupied streams.

Q: You have a ritual of taking a photo of each student you work with holding a Hellbender, why?

A: A cameo shot is taken of each person who works with me to document their participation and for use on their personal web pages. I’m working on a powerpoint presentation of the approximately 100 cameo
photos that I have and will convert it to a quicktime video, sequencing through photos of elementary and high school students and teachers, undergraduate students and professors, graduate students, ecologists,
researchers, and other folks who have worked with me. I’ve even had students and teachers visit here from Japan to learn about Hellbenders.

Q: Are the populations of Hellbenders in the Chesapeake watershed doing well?

A: This animal is so difficult to study that it has taken me six years to discover that the Hellbender is in serious jeopardy of disappearing from the Susquehanna River Basin. It was once thought to be widespread
throughout the basin, but today it appears to be restricted to just three tributaries of the Susquehanna River. Most populations in the West Branch were lost many years ago due to abandoned mine drainage.
We’ve lost two other West Branch populations since 2006, one due to a Sodium Hydroxide spill and another due to rapid die-off from unknown causes. Several Main Stem populations have disappeared since the early
to mid-1990’s. I only hope that the three extant populations in the West Branch will remain healthy and not succumb to disease or the kinds of environmental disasters that occurred in the past.

Chesapeake Bay RAVE_Neil Ever Osborne_water pipe

2010-08-27T12:19:00.000-04:00

Chesapeake Bay RAVE

A water pipe lays in the land where trees once stood.

As part of the Chesapeake Bay RAVE, one of my goals was to create images that depict land disturbance in Pennsylvania. Covering this topic was important to connect the terrestrial environment with the issues of water quality in the watershed.

Bottom line: as the landscape changes, so does the flow of nutrients and sediments into the water, and that which enters the Susquehanna River could stand a chance of emptying into the bay.

As a focus point, I worked closely with some of the natural gas companies drilling within the Marcellus Shale to showcase how natural resource extracting is modifying the topography. In brief, the Marcellus Shale contains largely untapped natural gas reserves and companies have been flocking to this “play”, the industry term for a rich area of natural resources, for over two years now. A local source in Pennsylvania told me there were over 25 individual companies working the land. Some, like Chesapeake Energy, are taking precautionary measures to minimize disturbance they cause, others seem not to be so keen.

As an example, gas companies need to use huge amounts of water during the drilling operation. In a process called hydraulic fracturing, water is pumped through serpentine like pipes that navigate through the landscape to a 4-5 acre drill site. Once there the water is then pumped into the well bore (pipes leading to the shale below the ground) at high pressures forcing the underground rock formation to fracture resulting in a more porous substrate for the gas to travel through.

Did I mention they need an insane amount of water to do this! A well blowout in Pennsylvania on June 3, 2010 sent more than 35,000 gallons of hydraulic fracturing fluids into the air and onto the surrounding landscape in a forested area.

As more and more permits for well sites are allocated, Pennsylvania counties like Bradford and Tioga, who seem to have the most drilling activity, will see more alterations to their countrysides.

Neil Ever Osborne_Chesapeake RAVE_Otsego Lake

2010-08-26T20:47:00.004-04:00

CAPTION: Will Harloff of Copperstown, NY fishes on the Susquehanna River at its origin in Otsego Lake.

From it’s humble beginning in Otsego Lake, the Susquehanna River winds 444 miles through New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay near Harve de Grace, Maryland. While the Susquehanna boasts statistics that define it as the longest river east of the Mississippi and the16th largest river in the United States its most impressive feat is that it dumps more than 50% of the freshwater that enters the Chesapeake Bay. I came to the origin of this river for that reason alone as part of an iLCP Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE).

In short, the concept behind iLCP’s RAVE initiatives is to address the challenges of modern conservation by creating a full visual and media assessment of a conservation issue or threat in a very short period of time.

On the Chesapeake Bay RAVE, of which I am one of 9 photographers, the iLCP has partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other experts on the ground that call the Chesapeake watershed home.

I am in Pennsylvania covering the northern region of the state with the hopes of capturing images that depict natural resource consumption, pristine rivers and creeks, and the aquatic wildlife that might inhabit the area.

Stay tuned for more work as my week in PA unfolds.

Great Bear Rainforest RAVE

2010-08-26T18:48:00.002-04:00

Conservation Photographers Coming To Canada's Great Bear Rainforest

Proposed Pacific coast oil pipeline cited as lead factor for international group

August 11, 2010

Washington D.C. - A selection of the world's most celebrated and talented nature photographers will deploy to Canada's Great Bear Rainforest, the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) announced today. Home to white spirit bears, ancient forests, and stunning marine biodiversity, it is one of the planet's most priceless treasures. Asian oil interests wanting access to western Canada's tar sands, the second largest known oil reserves in the world, have prompted the iLCP to focus on this region.

"The iLCP works in countries around the world and we receive many important requests for support. Yet from the perspective of threats to biodiversity and indigenous culture, few issues compare to the potential environmental catastrophe this proposal could bring about," states Cristina Mittermeier, President of the iLCP. "With the ongoing oil disaster we are witnessing in the Gulf of Mexico, and the State of Michigan, Canada should reconsider bringing oil to the Great Bear Rainforest."

Enbridge Inc., the world's largest pipeline construction company, recently filed an application to the Canadian National Energy Board to build a 1200 km twin pipeline between Alberta's tar sands and British Columbia's north Pacific coast. The unprecedented proposal, facilitating Asian access to Canadian oil, would be constructed over a thousand streams and rivers, including some of the world's largest salmon producing watersheds, while introducing super oil tankers to the pristine waters of the globally recognized Great Bear Rainforest. The indigenous First Nations who call this area home unanimously oppose this project.

"We support this effort to document the lands and seas of our traditional territory," states Ernie Hill Jr., Sn'axeed, Gitga'at Hereditary Eagle Chief. "Enbridge's pipeline and oil tanker proposal will destroy our way of life and we must do everything possible to show what we stand to lose."

Documentation by iLCP photographers will showcase the immense ecological importance of western Canada's threatened rainforest and marine environment. The images and stories from the expedition members will be shared with international media and partner organizations and will be featured in a traveling exhibition across North America and Europe.

"The Great Bear Rainforest is an environmental treasure, and the international exposure that the iLCP is capable of generating will undoubtedly prove a clarion call for its protection," said Ian McAllister, conservation Director for B.C. based Pacific Wild and recently nominated Associate of the iLCP. "We have everything to lose and very little to gain by allowing oil tankers on our coast."

The expedition team will include some of the world's most renowned photographers who will focus on documenting the natural and cultural history of the B.C. coast.

"I have been on assignment for National Geographic Magazine in many of the world's most beautiful places and the B.C. coast ranks among the best," said Paul Nicklen, National Geographic photographer and World Press winner. "I'm looking forward to helping document this ecological treasure and hopefully contributing to its protection."

In 2006, British Columbia legislated protection for nearly 30 percent of the Great Bear Rainforest, signaling support for an economy based on conservation and wilderness protection. Introducing massive oil tankers to the coast threatens existing businesses and emerging economic opportunities.

"Our lodge, the largest community employer in the region is considered Canada's finest according to Conde Nast, but it sits along the pathway of the proposed oil tankers," said Michael Uehara, King Pacific Lodge president. "If this pipeline is built and oil tankers begin transiting these waters, we will go out of business. Plain and simple."

The iLCP will be holding a press conference in Vancouver on September 14th, 2010. The location for the press conference will be announced once determined. Expedition members will discuss their two weeks spent documenting the Great Bear Rainforest and will share their stories, images, and video from the expedition with the media in attendance.

Click here to view images from the Great Bear Rainforest.

Contacts:

CANADA
Ian McAllister
Pacific Wild Conservation Director
office 250 957 2480 cell 250 882 7246 email ian@pacificwild.org
Pacific WILD

King Pacific Lodge
lisa.mccaskill@kingpacificlodge.com
604-987-5452

USA
Marshall Maher
(202) 262-3369
Maher.marshall@gmail.com

Chesapeake Bay RAVE_Middle Aged Tarzan_ Krista Schlyer

2010-08-11T12:23:00.009-04:00

Middle aged Tarzan

By Krista Schlyer

Remember when every kid had a swimming hole and every river a rope swing? I remember heading down to the creek swinging a metal pail with an apple and sandwich Ma made for me, fishing pole on my shoulder, Albert waiting for me at our favorite spot. Wait, no, that was Little House on the Prairie. But I swam in rivers once, I think. Don’t remember. But I do remember very clearly the day when I was about 9 years old and my mom wouldn’t let us go swimming with a group of kids in the St. Joe River in northern Indiana. A friend of hers had recently gotten a chunk of glass lodged in his leg while swimming in the river, and it was off limits to us ever after.

Not being able to swim in a river on a hot day is kind of like being dehydrated, having a glass of water right in front of you but knowing it is at least a little bit poisonous. It’s torture, the deepest kind of alienation from the earth. But I’ve always figured we were all in the same boat. I didn’t think people swam in urban rivers any more, which is why during my trip to Richmond to cover the James River for the Chesapeake Bay RAVE, my jaw dropped wide open when I saw a whole community of people swimming off the city’s riverbank. My first inclination was to stop the people around me and say, “Did you see this? What the crack are they doin?” Multiple rope swings were set up along a stretch of the river in downtown Richmond. Kids and adults alike waited in line for their turn at the rope. Grown men hollered Tarzan yells and tried to outdo each other when it came their turns. Is this Mars? 1950? A rerun of Gentle Ben?

Few people swim in the Potomac or the Anacostia Rivers, in part because it is illegal in the District of Columbia due to concerns about the health of the water. I once did a triathlon swim in the Potomac, but there were daily tests of the water quality leading up to the event. Had there been a good rain, the swimming portion of the event would have been canceled rather than risk illness of swimming in the river. So seeing these apparently normal human beings swimming in the James made my head spin. It looked like so much fun. It occurred to me, maybe the James is just that much cleaner than the Potomac.

No, not really. The sewage that flows into the river after large rains pours in downstream of where most people swim, which helps increase water quality for swimmers. But the suburbs and rural agriculture runoff that enter the James upstream ensure that unhealthy chemicals and fecal matter are part of the water here just as they are in the Potomac. Swimmers can get ear and intestinal infections, and who knows what else, but the idea of not swimming in the river must be worse than swimming in a polluted river. How’s that for a choice?

On a walk along the James the following morning, I happened across one of the signs the city of Richmond displays to explain the sewage overflow system to its citizens. In an unfortunate choice of colors, the brown sign has a caricature of a fish who looks quite pleased with himself for swimming above the outflows of sewage coming from urban Richmond. The text supports the contentment of the poster-fish, saying the fish and birds are not harmed by sewage because the pollutants are mixed into the river water by the rapids. Water + poo = smiley. The sign also reads: “Releasing storm water here two or three times a year is an economically and socially prudent way to combine the impact of a vibrant urban community with the need for a clean and healthy river.” I’m not sure how putting sewage in the river makes it cleaner and healthier, but I’m no expert. And that fish sure looks happy.

The reflections of the city off the river in soft morning light, combined with thoughts of a city of middle-aged Tarzans hurtling themselves into the James, highlight what an amazing resource the river is. This city seems in the process of a great revitalization. There are terrific restaurants featuring local foods, there are new galleries and river parks, the kind of things that lead to healthier living and greater quality of life. But soft-pedaling the impact of human waste, street and industrial runoff, and agricultural pollutants flowing into the river seems unnecessary. We have made strides on water quality. Many rivers are in better shape than they were a couple of decades ago, thanks to the Clean Water Act. But we have a long way to go before we can tell people they no longer have to make a choice between swimming in our rivers and their health. Pathogens with ominous names like vibrio, cyanobacteria and crypto sporidium, along with mercury from coal plants and nitrates from farm and lawn runoff, pose potentially serious health risks to people and wildlife. Back in the 1950s and 60s we may have had the excuse that we didn’t know the impact of human pollution on our watersheds. We no longer have that excuse. Now it comes down to a choice between making important changes, or continuing business as usual and accepting our alienation from our own rivers.

To find out more about how you can help the Bay watershed GET INVOLVED!

Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Chesapeake Bay RAVE
Krista Schlyer

Chesapeake Bay RAVE_ Morgan Heim_Virginia Beach

2010-08-05T12:12:00.013-04:00

Tripods in the Mud_Snake River_Q&A with iLCP photographer Neil Ever Osborne

2010-07-29T16:08:00.011-04:00

Q&A with iLCP photographer Neil Ever Osborne

This summer, Save Our Wild Salmon (SOS) and the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) have joined forces to visually tell the awe-inspiring story of the Snake River's endangered one of a kind salmon and the place they call home.

iLCP photographer Neil Ever Osborne partnered with SOS through Tripods in the Mud (TIM), an initiative of iLCP that helps partner professional photographers like Neil with conservation organizations for the creation of visual materials on a specific region or issue.

In two photo expeditions, iLCP and SOS will travel to the epicenter of the Snake River salmon’s spawning grounds in the rugged Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho and the high desert of Eastern Oregon. Working collectively to capture engaging and provocative images, the team will provide a visual narrative to bring the story of the Snake River’s endangered one of a kind salmon and their epic migration home.

We caught up with Neil for an interview, and here’s what he had to say…

Q: You spend a lot of your time capturing images of some of the world’s most threatened animals and ecosystems. What is conservation photography all about?

A: In a simple sense, conservation photography involves using photographs as tools for conservation. A lot of the conservation photographer’s work is focused on what happens after the image has been captured — what a photographer does with their pictures and who they put them in front of is the crucial component of conservation photography.

Q: How did you get into conservation photography?

A: I have trained and worked as a conservation biologist. The shift into photography came when I realized I could speak to broader audiences, and reach them more effectively, using visuals to enhance the research.

Q: Why did you decide to take on telling the story of Snake River salmon?

A: When I was told about the incredible migratory feat these salmon undertake — they swim more than 900 miles to spawning grounds while climbing over 6,000 feet in elevation — joining the cause to try and bring their numbers back was easy.

Q: Before you traveled to Idaho, you hadn’t spent much time working with salmon or rivers. How did you feel coming away from that first expedition?

A: The wild, remote landscape hit me first. The vast sweeps of protected habitat are unlike many other places in the USA that I’ve seen. I’m from Ontario, Canada, where you just don’t see terrain like you do in the Pacific Northwest. It’s no wonder the salmon try and make it back there.

Q: Tripods in the Mud is all about collaboration. Tell us a little about how you collaborated with folks on the ground. How did the team add to the story?

A: The Tripods in the Mud initiatives are born out of the synergy created when visual resources are valued and vision is shared. My photographs were only possible thanks to the insight provided by Save Our Wild Salmon and Idaho Rivers United, among others — the partners I had in Idaho. Everything from logistics and scheduling to transportation and field scouting were provided. For example, local guides like Ed Cannady and Nappy Newman were ever so valuable to me. Knowing the landscape and the animals like these gentlemen did shaved considerable time off our efforts to get the images we needed.

Q: You’re heading back to the Northwest to capture Snake River salmon coming home. What are you looking forward to on this trip?

A: I am not looking forward to the cold alpine water but I am excited to get wet. On this second expedition we will be seeking images that will connect an audience with these fish. This will mean getting close to the animals when we can. I am also just as excited to work with the Tripods In The Mud partners again.

Q: A lot of outdoor enthusiasts are also photo enthusiasts. What are your three best tips for taking better photos on our adventures?

A: 1. Get your hands on a super lightweight lens (e.g. 50mm f1.8) so you can climb higher and get somewhere faster; 2. In our highly saturated visual world perspective means everything so take the photo that everyone else is not taking; and 3. When you get back from your adventure show your pictures to influential people in your neighborhood.

Have your own questions you want to ask Neil?
Submit them via Facebook, Twitter or leave a comment on this blog! If you’re using Facebook, make sure to tag iLCP in your question, and on Twitter, be sure to use the hashtag #ilcptim.

We’ll pick 3 questions a week to post on the blog with answers from Neil! And on August 27, we’ll pick one lucky person who has submitted a question to win a free pair of Teva sandals!

Tripods in the Mud_Neil Ever Osborne_ Snake River

2010-07-27T17:09:00.000-04:00

Part 1 - Idaho’s Platter of Salmon Habitat

By Neil Ever Osborne

Redfish Lake was so named because of the bright red color of these endangered salmon.

Standing at its shores, it was easy to imagine the lake densely packed with sockeye, their shimmering scales reflecting in the water’s surface like rose petals.

We were there too late in time, and too early in the season, for any slight evidence of this vision, but the migration journey of Snake River salmon is truly a remarkable, though ominous tale.

Navigating close to 900 miles (~1450 kilometers) of waterways inland from the Pacific rim to elevations above 6,000 feet (~1820 meters), the Snake River salmon travel farther and climb higher than any other salmon on earth. Now, dams prevent this migratory feat from happening.

This one-of-a-kind story needed to be told with images.

At 6,547 feet (~1,984 meters), near the base of the serrated Sawtooth Mountains, the glacier-fed Redfish Lake remains one of the highest salmon spawning habitats on the planet. Enveloped by the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA), a wild and remote landscape comprising roughly 756,000 acres (~305,940 hectares), including the 217,088 acre (87,850 hectares) Sawtooth Wilderness Area, it is also one of the most protected salmon spawning habitats left.

Add adjoining aquatic highways such as the Salmon River, the Middle and East Forks of the Salmon River, Bear Valley Creek, and Marsh Creek, among dozens of other tributaries, and Idaho presents a platter of some of the most ideal salmon spawning habitat in the lower 48 US states.

The issue is getting wild salmon to return there.

In part one of my week-long Tripods in the Mud (TIM) assignment, I traveled to the Sawtooth Valley in central Idaho to focus attention on the pristine habitat and the wild animals that are interconnected to this unspoiled environment.

TIM is a new initiative conceived by the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). It unites professional photographers with conservation organizations for the creation of visual material to give life to specific regions or issues.

In this case, I partnered with Save Our Wild Salmon (SOS), a nationwide coalition of stakeholders working collectively to restore self-sustaining, abundant, and harvestable populations of wild salmon and steelhead to the rivers, streams and oceans of the Pacific Salmon states while focusing their efforts on the Columbia and Snake River Basin.

On the ground, SOS sent logistics wizard Emily Nuchols, co-founder of Under Solen Media LLC, who served as one of my field companions and an information guru for the week. Accompanying us was Greg Stahl, an amateur photographer familiar with many of the locations we planned to visit, and also the Assistant Policy Director at Idaho Rivers United (IRU), a non-profit organization devoted to protecting and restoring Idaho’s rivers, an effort that includes considerable work on behalf of recovering endangered salmon and steelhead. Tom Stuart, a Stanley resident and IRU board member, rounded out the contingent. Stuart’s long-time advocacy and encyclopedic knowledge of the issues were also integral to the trip’s success.

The TIM initiatives are born out of the synergy created when visual resources are valued and vision is shared. My photographs were only possible thanks to the insight provided by my colleagues.

Our TIM team corresponded months before the Idaho expedition, as the assignment required a grueling schedule that would allow us to cover as much ground as we could in a short amount of time.

Our first day was dedicated to a long morning and an even longer afternoon as we scouted scenes that would depict the natural havens salmon could call home. In Idaho, this was not an arduous task, as the surrounding Boise, Challis, and Sawtooth National Forests and Frank Church Wilderness provided abundant backdrops. I used my neutral density filter frequently, as it allowed me to capture the details in lingering shadows and blur ripples above rocks. Often, we were surprised by mule deer whose curiosity brought them closer to my lens.

“Not since I was little, have I searched for wildlife so hard,” expressed the always energetic Nuchols, whose expertise in locating wildlife was a welcome surprise for me. “When you're out there stalking a moose in the woods, or hiding behind sagebrush to get the perfect shot of a pronghorn, or staring for hours at the river hoping for a glimpse of the first salmon runs, it's really not that difficult to see how all of these animals are connected.”

There is truth behind Nuchols’ observation. The Snake River salmon that migrate from the Pacific Ocean are jam-packed with nutrients. Some are destined to fill the bellies of predators who patiently await their return, taking their place in the food cycle. That is, if the salmon are able to come back.

Individual days began to blend into the pastel colors of sunrises and sunsets.

On more than one occasion, we were drawn to the presence of an adult female pronghorn before realizing that she was distracting us from her newborn fawn hidden in the sagebrush. In the meadows we saw more ungulates, as elk and moose pranced to the edges of lodgepole pine forests while I extended my tripod’s legs. We added mating pairs of sandhill cranes and adult female mountain goats with kids to our wildlife shoot following guided visits from SNRA Recreation Manager Ed Cannady and Nappy Newman, a passionate mountain goat advocate and local guide.

From above the landscape, the serpentine features of rivers and tributaries were more evident. My airsickness was kept at bay as I found comfort in viewing such vast sweeps of green architecture. Our pilot, Don Reiman, another IRU board member, graciously flew us in his Cessna 210 over Idaho’s wild backyard for more than two hours, as I surveyed the ground below for patterns and contrasts.

Midweek, the predictable weather followed suit and we floated the upper reaches of Bear Valley Creek on the hunt for wild salmon. With my underwater gear at hand, I wanted test shots I could evaluate before our return trip here in late August, I maneuvered an inflatable kayak by Stahl’s side, and he pointed out river features perfect for salmon redds, nests salmon build for spawning.

“Idaho has one-of-a-kind salmon habitat” Stahl said. “With dams downstream on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers blocking the natural migration corridor, what it doesn’t have are self-sustaining populations of wild fish.”

A bald eagle soaring above hinted at the images that could materialize with more fish in the oceans, rivers, and creeks of the Pacific Northwest.

I stared at the water through a polarizing lens that afternoon and was rewarded when a dashing fish filled my composition briefly, though my shutter was too slow to capture its identity. Being so close to the water, I was tempted to slip in.

It is the reproductive coloration of the sockeye salmon that influenced Redfish Lake's nomenclature but other anadromous species swimming the basin’s waters are affected as well. Chinook and steelhead spawning numbers are also down from historical counts and they are down catastrophically. The statistics are clearer than Idaho’s alpine water. At one time, up to 16 million wild salmon returned to central Idaho each year. Today, as few as 10,000 successfully complete the obstacle-ridden migration. Determining how to share this narrative is the work of a conservation photographer and my quest has been enhanced through partnerships created by TIM.

Five days into the trip, I had not yet seen all of the species swimming the Snake River. Before departing for a stint on the East fork of the Salmon River near the end of our expedition, I had my chance to place another one in front of my camera when we picked up news of jumping salmon at Dagger Falls, a cascade fish must pass to reach the spawning waters of Bear Valley Creek and Marsh Creek upstream.

Perched precariously on a rocky ledge, with foaming water below, I was an arm’s reach away from the largest of the salmon species, the chinook, demonstrating awe-inspiring perseverance. Their movement up the falls seemed fictitious, and yet it was real. For hours I clicked while flying fish filled the frame.

In August, the TIM team will once again return to the salmon rivers of the Idaho and Oregon to create images that will inspire you to help their plight. This time we will be seeking images to relay the real-life drama that is salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest.

For more notes from the field visit the Save Our Wild Salmon Blog

Krista Schlyer_Chesapeake Bay RAVE Video Blog

2010-07-27T10:38:00.004-04:00

Rediscovering the Anacostia by Krista Schlyer

GET INVOLVED!
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Chesapeake Bay RAVE
Krista Schlyer

Chesapeake Bay RAVE_Krista Schlyer

2010-07-23T13:41:00.017-04:00

Rediscovering the Anacostia by Krista Schlyer

I’ve lived in the Chesapeake Bay watershed for more than 10 years. I’ve hiked many of the mountains, hills and fields that drain into the Bay, and paddled some of its tributaries. I’ve even paddled the same stretch of the Anacostia River I was on today. But I’ve never seen it quite like this.
My assignment on the Chesapeake Bay RAVE is to document the challenges that the Washington DC metro area poses to the Bay. The issues are many and complex— in some ways it’s hard to even begin to understand the magnitude of the impact that DC’s 5 million people have on the Bay. My job here is not just to try to understand it, but to make images of it that tell the story for others.

So I asked my neighbor and friend, Brent Bolin, who works for the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS), if he could show me the Anacostia River, and help explain what is going on here. We started in Bladensburg, Maryland, at the Bladensburg Waterfront Park which by itself tells an important story about how intense human population and industry have altered what was once a natural watershed system. This spot, which sits about a mile from my house, marks the historic location of a busy deepwater port. In colonial times, Anacostia River depths reached 40 feet, making it possible for huge ships to travel here. Today, due to deforestation upstream, siltflows into the river have drastically altered it. At low tide it is now possible to walk across the river in Bladensburg. And in the riverbed and floating upon shallow waters, a relief map of decades of pollution is drawn.

Once out on the river in a pontoon boat, floatillas of garbage and oil slicks greeted us. I’ve been on this river in a canoe before, but somehow the magnitude of the distress this river is under did not hit me. The Anacostia is notorious around here. It’s fish are not edible due to chemical contaminants. Swimming is officially discouraged due to fecal and other pollution. But because I had never turned my eye to the sad state of the Anacostia, I didn’t realize just how beaten down this waterway really is. And the sight of it strikes me hard. How is it possible that a society, the nation’s capitol no less, will allow things to get this bad? That we will destroy our children’s ability to swim in a clean, safe river; our own ability to go fishing and eat what we catch; even just the ability to paddle a canoe in waters not littered with garbage. Somewhere along the way, this city ceased caring about these things, about the Anacostia itself.

Gladly, not everyone stopped caring.

There are those, like Brent at the watershed society and many others who are working hard to return the river to what it once was. Regular river clean-up days and educational outreach by individuals and organizations are pecking away at the indifference that has degraded the river.

Brent showed me the wetlands that people have been working to restore and explained that even when money and expertise are focused on rebuilding lost wetlands, it is not always simple here. A population of non-migratory Canada geese see to that. The geese were introduced long ago in order to provide a game species for hunters. The hunters stopped hunting as this area urbanized, but the geese remained. Now their population is so high and omnipresent, that the minute people finish planting a wetland restoration project, the geese move in and mow down the plants. We saw hundreds of geese along the riverbank and in the shadow of the Pepco power plant in Washington DC. We also saw a man who had made his home on the river, in a shack perched precariously at the edge of the water, with all his belongings stacked in piles in the vegetation beneath his makeshift roof. Not far from there, Brent pointed out an outflow location where in heavy storms a combination of raw sewage and stormwater flowed directly into the river. And upstream from there, a man was standing waist deep in murky water, washing his face. It was almost too much to take in, too much information about a river that helps make up the very character of the city I call home, but which until now I barely knew.

Hopefully for the city at large, a consciousness is slowly building. It will take time, but if people could just see the potential of the river, could experience the sight of osprey fishing and great blue heron standing silently along the banks, could remember a time when it was possible to jump into a river on a hot summers day, there would be hope for restoring this treasure to the people and to the wildlife. Every step forward can make a difference: from picking up garbage you see in your neighborhood (and which ultimately ends up in storm drains that flow into the river), to conserving water use in your home, to planting a native garden rather than a lawn; and of course letting your elected officials know that you care about the Anacostia and the Chesapeake.

Krista's Video BLOG

To find out more about how you can help, visit:
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation Website

Chesapeake Bay RAVE

About Krista Schlyer

View Krista Schlyer in a larger map

Dispatches from the field_Miguel Angel de la Cueva_Sierras La Giganta y Guadalupe

2010-07-12T14:06:00.012-04:00

iLCP photographer Miguel Angel de la Cueva just finished his explorations of Baja California's must rugged mountain ranges La Giganta y Guadalupe along with Mexico's most acomplished ecologist Exequiel Ezcurra and Western States Award Winner author Bruce Berger, for 13 months they unveiled relic forests and exuberant oases hidden in remote mountain tops and canyons, the inaccessibility of this places kept this ecosystems pristine , out of reach from cattle, loggers ,copper mining projects and even unregulated tourism, the purpose of this project is to create a book that will support the creation of a 1,500,000 acres Biosphere Reserve.

This survey required complex logistics and mule rides sometimes up to 4 weeks long surveying volcanic peaks in the 5000 to 7000 feet range and canyons up to 2000 feet deep, the photographs and writtings are being used now by Niparaja NGO , the Northwest Center for Biological Research CIBNOR and CONANP (Mexico's National Comission for Natural Protected Areas) in public, government forums and meetings to enforce the creation of this Reserve.

Among the biodiversity that this mountain ranges hold there's a sub species of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis weemsi) which is listed as highly endangered by the IUCN, an endemic subspecies of poplar tree named Güeribo and a parasite purple spike orchid , its cultural heritage includes 7.500 + year old cave paintings sites.

This is the first time this sky islands are photographed and brought to light, Baja California and its famous coastline have been under a huge amount of pressure due to mega tourism and residential developments with huge thirst for fresh water, protecting this mountain ranges and their valuable resources is a must.

The book La Giganta y Guadalupe will be presented between september and october 2010, an upcoming website of this project will be launched soon, for more information on how to support this iniciative please contact mterranet@hotmail.com and visit Miguel's website.

Photographer Miguel Angel de la Cueva has been exploring the Baja California peninsula for the last 8 years, his book Oasis of Stone, a representation of Baja California's deserts was a silver Award Winner

in ExpoBook America NY 2006, he also has participated in 3 iLCP RAVES.

LOOKbetween 2010

2010-06-14T16:36:00.010-04:00

LOOKbetween, the two-night event featuring ninety innovative photographers, kicked off this past weekend on a beautiful farm outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The three-minute shows were projected onto a huge screen while attendees gathered on blankets, basking under a sky of stars and the light of the 10,000-lumen projector. The photographic subjects ranged from shark conservation (iLCP's Tom Peschak), to photography of conflict in the North Caucasus, to a deck of cards. This range of photographic genres was inspiring as each genre can learn from the strengths of the others.
Members of the photography industry also attended, and Saturday was filled to the brim with discussions of multimedia, distribution, publishing, and funding. Miki Johnson facilitated this discussion with poise and grace in the mid-day humidity that threatened to melt the 300 guests.

iLCP photographers nominated:
Chris Linder
Ian Nichols
Tom Peschak
Joe Riis
Ian Shive*
Stefano Unterthiner*
* photographers who did not attend and whose work was not projected.

Thank you to Andrew Owen, Jenna Pirog, Nick Nichols and Jessica Nagle for an inspired gathering!

Tripods in the Mud_Dragon Run_Justin Black

2010-06-12T13:28:00.003-04:00

By Justin Black, iLCP Executive Director

The Dragon rippled as I slid the kayak out into the swamp’s caramel brown water. The still quiet of pre-dawn was broken only by the song of a prothonotary warbler, a croaking bullfrog, the sudden splash of a jumping sunfish. Gliding along on the glassy surface past lush swamp plants – arrow arum, water lilies, swamp rose, the lovely purple poker-like blooms of pickerelweed – and under the spreading branches of bald cypress, their conical “knees” emerging from the water in rows like the Dragon’s teeth, I felt completely removed from the Tidewater Virginia farmland that encircled me beyond the forest. Entering this place was like time-travel.

I had come to photograph the landscape of Dragon Run Swamp, the wild centerpiece Virginia’s Middle Peninsula, on assignment for the The Nature Conservancy which has recently protected the watershed in a Manhattan-sized conservancy, Virginia’s largest at 20,000 acres (80.9 km2). As one of the healthiest and cleanest wetlands in the Chesapeake region, this exceptional conservancy serves as a model for other watersheds around the Bay, making it an interesting point of reference as iLCP prepares to launch a Chesapeake Bay RAVE in summer 2010. This unique ecosystem has been ranked second in ecological significance among 232 areas investigated in a Smithsonian Institution study which covered 12,600 square miles of the Chesapeake Bay region. It’s easy to see why.

The water teems with fifty-five species of fish, including the young of several anadromous species – striped bass, American shad, alewife and blueback herring among others – that migrate here from the Bay or the Atlantic in the spring to spawn. Chain pickerel, warmouth sunfish, and white catfish are some of the native fish species that call the Dragon their year-round home. The watershed is a birder’s paradise as well, with various songbirds, bald eagles, osprey, heron, and egrets in abundance. It’s an important stop for migratory waterfowl as well, and shy wood ducks are particularly fond of the cover provided in the swamp. In the forest, wild turkeys are frequently seen… or only heard.

Ebony jewel-wing damselflies with bodies of metallic blue and green warm themselves in the sun’s first rays and then flit from leaf to leaf. Water beetles cruise narrow channels between green stems, and large crayfish take refuge in burrows scattered along the banks of the swamp.

I went out three mornings and evenings in a flat-bottom kayak, generously loaned by Frank Herrin of Friends of Dragon Run, that had been custom-built specifically for navigating over fallen logs and other obstacles in the swamp. Searching for compositions that seemed to capture the spirit of the place in a single vision, my brief was to come back with one great iconic picture: a horizontal landscape for a double-page spread. Working out of the kayak, and with no dry ground for my tripod, I found myself wading in water sometimes as deep as my chest, to get to the positions I needed for photographs. I managed to confirm a warning offered by Andy Lacatell of TNC, who kindly guided me on a scouting tour the first day. Andy, you weren’t lying – there are indeed leeches in the swamp. After spending a combined total of eight hours wading bare-legged, however, I encountered only six of the little suckers. My small blood sacrifice was repaid in spades by the fact that, unexpectedly, I wasn’t molested by a single mosquito.

After scouting the river sufficiently to find compositions that were well-oriented in relation to the sunrise, the second and third mornings were very productive. Indeed, early morning is in the Dragon is idyllic – the air is calm, creatures are active, and the quality of light is crisply atmospheric. Standing there in the cool water, with birds filling the air with song, juvenile bald eagles on a branch above me, the rays of the sun streaming in between cypress branches illuminating thick clusters of flowering pickerel weed, I felt privileged to be in this extraordinary place.

Before me was a view that Captain John Smith could have seen in 1607, and it would have been essentially unchanged for millennia before. Today, on the east coast of the United States, landscapes like Dragon Run are not simply rare. Thanks to The Nature Conservancy, the Friends of Dragon Run, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Dragon Run watershed provides a unique window into the past, and one that – if we embrace its lessons – will help lead us on the path to a sustainable future.

ACT
Support the Chesapeake RAVE
More about the conservation partners on the Dragon Run Tripods in the Mud:
The Nature Conservancy
Friends of Dragon Run

What is a Tripods in the Mud Expedition?

Great Bear Rainforest RAVE _ June scouting _Cristina Mittermeier

2010-06-08T11:56:00.009-04:00

Yesterday I attended a feast, and although the menu included things I had never eaten before, like cockles, ooligans, sea cucumbers, and seal meat, that was, by far, not the most interesting part of the gathering. The feast, organized by what Canadian First Nations, was the largest ever congregation of indigenous people in this part of the world around a common issue. It was not the number of people that attended - 1500 by some people's count, but the number of tribes that traveled from all corners of this region to the small coastal town of Kitimat in British Columbia to voice their opposition to what can only be described as a modern-day Avatar.
At stake is not only the remarkable beauty of this shoreline, but the very livelihood of thousands of people who depend on the sea and its bounty to survive and maintain their cultural identity.
I spent the last week in Kyel, a remote fishing camp tucked away somewhere along this coast. Although people from nearby Hartley Bay actually relocate to Kyel for several weeks every Spring to harvest seaweed, hunt for seals, fish for halibut and catch the first big salmon that are swimming up the river, Kyel is so small, it doesn't even appear on any map. It is rare for the Gitga'at, the people who own this territory, to allow an outsider to come and spend time during the all important Spring harvest, but the threat they are facing is so terrifying and so massive, that I have been invited here as a part of an iLCP RAVE to help show the rest of the world the importance of healthy marine ecosystems to their people.

Every day the 40 or so inhabitants of the camp awake to a variety of activities that include "setting the gear", which means throwing a bunch of hooks tied to a long line and baited with rotting fish into a carefully selected location where the tides are right and the fish are resting, not traveling; slicing the fish, which involves making thin, carefully calculated slices of halibut meat according to knowledge passed from generation to generation; "turning the woks" which entails endlessly moving around the slices of halibut from one warm place over the stove to a sunny spot on the roof of the house on the rare occasions when the sun comes out. The amount of species of plants and animals that are harvested is remarkable, from seaweed to octopus to chitons and clams. Nothing is wasted and everything is carefully prepared to feed entire families for months at a time.

So what could threaten this idyllic lifestyle in such a remote part of the world? The answer is oil, and not just any oil, but what has come to be known as the "dirtiest oil on the planet". This oil is not pumped out from the earth or funneled from the bottom of the ocean; it is embedded into the sandy soils of what is known as the Alberta Tar Sands and unlike other crude oils, this one must be separated from the sand using potent chemicals that have already poisoned all the nearby rivers and landscapes. The idea now is to carry this oil to the shore of British Columbia, over 1500 miles away where it can be picked up by giant supertankers that will then transport it to countries like the United States. The problem is that not only will the pipeline cross over tens of important salmon rivers, once it reaches the shore it will have to be shipped through some of the most fragile and treacherous waterways in the world. The coastline of British Columbia is known for the beauty of this landscape; the endless array of small islands, fjords and inlets that form intricate channels and bays where whales frolic, bears and wolves roam, and people fish. A single oil spill here would be catastrophic. From what we have seen in recent weeks in the Gulf of Mexico and over the past 20 years from the Exxon Valdez to the Great Barrier Reef, an accident is not a matter of if, but of when.

The Kitimat feast is remarkable because it marks the beginning of a powerful opposition campaign, led by indigenous people to protect their shoreline from corporate intrusion. The iLCP is proud to partner with the Gitga'at people in this effort.

ACT
Support the iLCP Great Bear Rainforest RAVE

Mountainfilm in Telluride 2010

2010-06-04T12:02:00.028-04:00

The Theme of the 2010 Mountainfilm was extinction. Extinction of species, landscapes, habitats, cultures. . . life. While this subject is extremely hard hitting and all too relevant, as a whole the discussions and films in the festival were such that people left with a new found strength and most importantly hope that they could personally and collaboratively effect change.

The Moving Mountains Symposium; the Sixth Extinction, kicked off the festival with speakers that included iLCP Fellow Joel Sartore, Maya Lin, Rick Ridgeway, Tom Lovejoy, Louie Psihoyos, Mike Fay, Greg Carr, Dave Foreman, Nicole Rosmarino, and Terry Root. Terry Shocked the audience with the statistic that until recently, 1 species in every 1,000 went extinct every 1,000 years. Now it is 1 in every 100! Mike Fay spoke of the elephants in Zakouma National Park and the decline in numbers even within the park boundaries due to illegal poaching for ivory trade. Louie spoke of his experiences that led to the making of the Oscar a ward-winning film, the Cove.
Joel spoke to the power of the image and how it can inspire people to care, which in turn can lead to action and possibly progress towards the protection of a species. Unfortunately as he was photographing his project on the state of the world's amphibians he was faced with the last of a species as his subject too many times. A great new slant on an old saying emerged from Maya Lin's project "What is Missing," Why can't we save two birds with one tree? The Symposium was packed with insight and revelations brought forward by the leading thinkers in the conservation community.

iLCP's film Flathead Wild, produced by the Epicocity Project, tells the story of the Flathead RAVE and the campaign to save this pristine wilderness in BC, Canada. The film was nominated for the Moving Mountains Award, and was screened 3 times with an amazing turn out.
Click here for more about the Flathead Wild campaign. More on the Flathead RAVE. Watch Flathead Wild here!

The iLCP had a RAVE Retrospective exhibit which touched on each of the 8 RAVEs to date. RAVEs (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) aim to achieve a full visual and media assessment of a threatened area in a short period of time by means of a multi-disciplinary team that includes several specialized iLCP photographers. Their job is to bring back a comprehensive portrait of a conservation issue or threat in a very short period of time. As photographers we also recognize that we are one piece of the conservation communications puzzle and thus work closely with scientists and NGOs on the ground as well as writers, journalists and filmmakers on RAVEs. Thank you to the Ah Haa School for the Arts for hosting the exhibit and Drew Ludwig and the volunteers for their invaluable assistance! Check out more on the RAVE here!

iLCP photographer Joe Riis had 2 exhibits, one in the town of Telluride and one in the conference center where the Extinction Symposium took place.

Joel Sartore and Chris Rainier participated in breakfast talks - Advocacy Storytelling and Image and Impact respectively.

The 12SHOTS reception was a great success at the Bubble Lounge where images were 12 sets of 12SHOTS were projected Saturday night. 12SHOTS is an exercise in storytelling using 12 images, no words, no narration. This exercise emphasizes the need for storytelling in the conservation community.

"There is no question that part of the glue that holds societies together and that helps us understand our place in the planetary puzzle is the art of story-telling. The proverbial “camp fire” around which stories of our common ancestry, the challenges we face, and the ideas we share, have, generation to generation, been passed through stories. Today’s technology allows us to gather around the global campfire in new and meaningful ways and skilled artists and story tellers have become key players to move the conservation agenda by helping 'connect the dots'." - Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP President

Joe Riis and Kyle Dickman, the two 12SHOTS photographers present, spoke to their stories before Timmy O'Neill hosted an uproarious night of Karaoke. Thanks to Timmy and Undersolen Media for handing out great prizes!

Thank you Mountainfilm and Festival Director, David Holbrooke, for embracing iLCP at Mountainfilm. We are still shining with the magic of the festival.

Stay up-to date with iLCP's new projects, initiatives and RAVEs as well as all of the great things that iLCP photographers do every day via iLCP's facebook page and newsletter!

Tripods in the Mud_Keith Ellenbogen_Madagascar

2010-05-24T17:36:00.015-04:00

On assignment with Conservation International, underwater photographer and iLCP emerging league photographer, Keith Ellenbogen, joined a team of eight internationally renowned marine scientists on an expedition along the remote northeast coast of Madagascar on a Rapid Assessment Program (RAP).

"For twenty-one days, with rough seas, we lived and worked on-board a small boat in the Indian ocean. Exploring undocumented areas of the northeast coast, each morning we descended into the turbid waters to conduct biodiversity surveys of the marine habitat that included documenting individual species of corals, echinoderms, seagrasses and fish. Working collaboratively with scientists I integrated a visual component to the research and data collection to create a comprehensive portrait and visual narrative of the marine environment including environmental issues and threats with a goal of conservation. I used images and stories to showcase the beauty and diversity of the marine habitat as well as environmental pressures such as climate change, coral bleaching and overfishing that impact both Madagascar and global marine environments. One of the goals of my imagery is to complement the scientific research with visually compelling imagery that can lead to awareness and conservation about the marine ecosystem. "

ACT

Conservation International Hot Links

Corals and Climate Change

New Species?

Where are the fish?

List of all the posts from CI RAP

Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO)
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Madagascar National Parks
National Center for Environmental Research (CNRE)

Keith's Website

More on iLCP's Tripods in the Mud initiative

Dispatch from the field_Robert vanWaarden_Coal victory in Arizona

2010-05-21T11:11:00.009-04:00

“Just seeing the future for us and knowing that they [our parents] wanted a better future for us, I have the same feeling for, not myself, but the kids and for my relatives and that something better will be in the future for them, that keeps me going. Knowing that we have succeeded in one step and maybe we can continue on and see a better future for all of us. [One of] the other things that keeps me going is knowing that one of my great aunts and my great uncles had respiratory problems. Their breath was taken away slowly inch by inch, feeling like they were being suffocated. When they died, thinking about them and thinking that how much better it would be for the rest of the people here. I don’t want them to die that way anymore, I want them to be able to breathe.” Fern Benally, Navajo Activist.

I am currently in Arizona, covering an incredible group of activists that are working hard to stop dirty energy on the Navajo Reservation and pushing the envelope on clean energy development. Together with Shadia Fayne Wood from Project Survival Media (PSM), we are focusing on the closing of one of the coal mines in the area, the tactics that were used and what this means to the people affected by the closure.

The former coalmine is in the Benally’s backyard, land that has been the families for thousands of years. For the last 30 years, 24 hours a day, the large coal trucks would rumble by the house and the coal crusher would drown out nature. Now, thanks to incredible co-operation and dedication amongst groups like the Black Mesa Water Coalition, Grand Canyon Trust and the Sierra Club, the life of mine permit was revoked in January. Now, the Benally’s can hear the birds sing and watch the stars like their ancestors did long before Europeans came here.

There are still many examples of environmental racism here in Arizona and across our planet. But, it is important to celebrate victories and share the knowledge so that we can all move towards a sustainable future.

Part of this project will be presented this week in San Francisco at the PSM fundraiser launch party. Afterwards, we will publish an audio slideshow and share it here and with environmental networks around the world.

ACT:
Project Survival Media
Robert vanWaarden 's Profile
Robert vanWaarden's Website

Amazing Letter from 2nd grade teacher, Gaye Howorth

2010-05-20T12:00:00.003-04:00

My 2nd grade class had been researching rainforest animals and in the
process discovered that some of their animals were endangered. They
wanted to know how this was happening. More research online revealed
that there were many causes-- loss of habitat, over-hunting, pollution,
etc. How tragic!

When we had finished our research, I decided to show them the video link
you sent me. Everyone was at their desk and I projected it on the wall.
Within the first minute children were silently moving closer until they
were right below the image on the wall. No one spoke. They were
riveted. As soon as it was over they wanted to see it again. Then there
were sounds like ahhhh, oooh no, some read words as they flashed across
the screen. Suddenly as we approached the end, one student began to read
the script aloud, “The story is not over. The next chapter is up to you.”
In a flash the whole class was reading it aloud. They were totally
wrapped up in the images, the message.

They wanted to see it a 3rd time. This time I paused the video on
several images—the wolf, the bear, the crocodiles, the shark fin, the
monkey that seemed to reach out pleading for us to do something. When the
words hit the screen they read them with strength. It sounded like a
chant.

They were all talking now---words like awesome, conservation, protecting
animals. One boy was chastising another for stomping on the ants at
recess. When someone said sharks are bad and kill people, you should
have heard the rebuttal.

Gaye Howorth

May 11, 2010

San Angelo, Texas

Will Obama Dam Salmon to Extinction?

2010-05-18T13:06:00.003-04:00

“Federal Defendants have spent the better part of the last decade treading water, and avoiding their obligations under the Endangered Species Act… We simply cannot afford to waste another decade.”
— U.S. District Court Judge James Redden to Counsel of Record in National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service May 15, 2009.

On the heels of the catastrophic oil spill that is crushing wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration is poised to make a decision this week that could change the fate of endangered species in this country. On May 20, the Administration will release a federal salmon plan that will do one of two things for endangered wildlife: protect the Endangered Species Act, or weaken it. A decision to weaken the ESA for the West’s iconic Columbia and Snake River salmon could send an ecological ripple across the country — affecting every endangered species in the nation.
And the situation doesn’t look good. Instead of charting its own path, the administration is working off an illegal Bush administration plan for endangered salmon.
Because they return to the biggest, highest and best-protected habitat in America, endangered Snake River salmon are slated as the West’s best chance to save salmon for future generations in an environment threatened by climate change. These cold, crisp waters of spanning three Western states — Washington, Oregon and Idaho, will remain cold under warming climates, protecting these one-of-a-kind salmon with a one-of-a-kind habitat. Making the wrong decision on these rivers would effectively dam (pun fully intended) these salmon to extinction.
The Columbia-Snake Rivers may not be in your own backyard, but the effects of this decision certainly will be. Take action today to save salmon and protect America’s endangered species.
These fish are fighting right now to survive — tackling a gauntlet of dams, escaping predators and climbing higher than any salmon on Earth. They’re doing their part. Now let’s do ours.
Take Action!

“What is at stake here goes far beyond the issue of salmon recovery. To me, it raises the question of whether we have the courage and the will to reconcile the growing contradiction between the world we say we want to leave our children and the one we are actually creating through the decisions we make today. And it calls into question our capacity to take explicit and intentional action to shape our own future rather than to simply react to circumstances, allowing by default our future to become a matter of chance. It’s time to fight for salmon. It’s time to fight for us. It’s time to fight for our future.”
— John Kitzhaber, former governor of Oregon and currently running for a second term, said in a 2007 Sea Grant-hosted keynote address.

">

Save Wild Salmon from Epicocity Project on Vimeo.

Biodiversity 2010

2010-05-05T12:56:00.010-04:00

The iLCP produced a multimedia piece for the GEF (Global Environment Facility) as their celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity, 2010. It premiered on Capitol Hill on April 13, 2010 in the Cannon Caucus Room in the Cannon House Office Building. The International Conservation Caucus Foundation co-sponsored the event which also honored the President of the Republic of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal - ARROYO.

Sincere thanks to all of the iLCP photographers involved!
(full list found here)

ACT
More on the piece and GEF's involvement in the Year of Biodiversity

Biodiversity 2010

Flathead RAVE _celebrating the progress and continuing the fight!

2010-04-29T12:10:00.010-04:00

FLATHEAD - April 28, 2010, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

There was a fantastic turn out for this reception celebrating the protection of the Crown of the Continent and the North Fork of the Flathead River. The reception featured iLCP images from the Flathead RAVE both as a digital exhibit and as a printed exhibit. Special Guests included Senator Max Baucus, Senator Jon Tester, and His Excellency the Ambassador of Canada, Gary Doer.

Attendees included Harvey Locke of The Wild Foundation and Will Hammerquist of National Parks Conservation Association- two of the true heroes of the Flathead campaign.

The Flathead RAVE partners continue to use the breathtaking images made on the Flathead RAVE as tools to further their campaign. We are thrilled by the progress you have made in protecting this amazing landscape.

The event was sponsored by The National Parks Conservation Association, National Wildlife Federation, American Rivers, Earthjustice, and The Wilderness Society.

HELP KEEP THE FLATHEAD WILD - ACT
The National Parks Conservation Association
National Wildlife Federation
American Rivers
Earthjustice
The Wilderness Society
Flathead WILD

About the Flathead RAVE
The Photographers
The Film - documenting the story behind the Flathead and the RAVE
check out more iLCP RAVEs

Earth Day is still rockin' at 40! Climate Rally in DC

2010-04-26T11:51:00.025-04:00

On Sunday, April 25th, a teeming crowd of revelers came out to the National Mall in Washington, DC to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, rallying around the fight against anthropogenic climate change and in support of the global conservation agenda. The crowd, 150,000 strong, heard speeches by leading thinkers in the conservation community and danced to performances by engaged musicians.

James Cameron, Margaret Atwood, Bob Wier, Joss Stone, Jimmy Cliff, Sting, Jesse Jackson, The Roots, John Legend, Passion Pit, and iLCP's own Cristina Mittermeier jazzed people with remarks and songs from 11am until after 7pm. Cristina focused on the important role that photographers play in bearing witness to our changing planet. The Climate Rally organizers also interviewed iLCP Fellow Joel Sartore for a video clip about extinction.
Though the forecast was for rain, the sun came through the muggy DC humidity, and by early afternoon an enthusiastic and sprawling crowd packed the National Mall. The urgent need to pressure Congress to pass pending U.S. climate policy legislation was a theme touched on by many speakers.

Check out the iLCP slideshow that played below.

The Climate Rally

More images and News from the Rally

STRONGHOLDS, HOPE FOR WILD PACIFIC SALMON

2010-04-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

Produced in partnership with the Wild Salmon Center with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Strongholds, Hope for Wild Pacific Salmon premiered on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.

April 21, 2010 Salmon Strongholds: short film premiere and Congressional briefing

Capitol Building, Washington D.C.

Wild Salmon Center and the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) hosted a special short film premiere and Congressional briefing on Salmon Stronghold conservation across the North Pacific. With special remarks from Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-1st), Valdis Mezainis (Director of U.S. Forest Service International Programs), Robert Glenn Ketchum (iLCP fellow), and Guido Rahr (President of Wild Salmon Center).

About the Wild Salmon Center Strongholds campaign:
In 1892, Livingston Stone, a Minister and avid fisherman called upon the US government to create a salmon park, saying “Let us now, at the eleventh hour, take pity on our long persecuted salmon and do him the poor and tardy justice of giving him, in our broad land that he has done so much for, one place where he can come and go unmolested and where he can rest in safety.” We have yet to pay attention to those great words, stated over a century ago.

While recovery efforts are critical in some areas, the nations of the North Pacific must work together to create and maintain a network of strong, healthy salmon ecosystems – strongholds of diversity and abundance. This proactive investment in robust salmon ecosystems provides an alternative to waiting until near extinction to try to reverse the effects of habitat degradation and overharvest.

Fortunately, there are rivers across the North Pacific still intact and teeming with wild salmon.

By identifying and protecting strongholds of robust salmon productivity in key rivers around the North Pacific Rim, we can direct our efforts toward conserving still healthy and intact salmon ecosystems. Wild salmon rivers are core centers of abundance and diversity, serving as the foundation for healthy wild fisheries, healthy economies, and healthy communities.

Protection of wild salmon strongholds must be at the heart of every federal, regional, tribal, and local conservation strategy.

We need your help. ACT.