Maybe here?
Diana Beattie
Diana Beattie Interiors
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072900706.html
In the New West, Do They Want Buffalo to Roam?
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 30, 2006
MALTA, Mont. -- What are the Northern Plains good for?
The soil is bad, the weather worse and the landscape achingly dull. Collapsing barns punctuate a scraggly sea of brown grass and bleached boulders. The population peaked a century ago, and remaining ranchers cannot stop their children from running off to a less lonesome life.
But a grand new vision is taking shape for this depopulated patch of the prairie. It includes wild herds of buffalo and boomtowns of prairie dogs, as well as restaurants and hotels for high-end tourists who would descend on small towns such as Malta.
If all goes according to plan, land south of here would be resurrected as the Serengeti of North America, joining Yellowstone and Glacier national parks as must-see destinations in the West. As local acceptance allowed, wolves and grizzly bears would join buffalo, elk, moose, mule deer and bighorn sheep on a restored grassland ecosystem, similar to what 19th century explorer Meriwether Lewis described as a scene of "visionary inchantment."
The American Prairie Foundation, which is closely allied with the World Wildlife Fund, expects to have about 60,000 acres of ranchland under its control by fall. Over the next several decades, it intends to buy hundreds of thousands more acres and link them up with federal land -- much of which is now grazed by cattle -- to create a reserve of about 3.5 million acres. Buffalo would run free on much of this land, while fences, cows and cattle ranches would go away.
"This thing is huge, it will affect a tremendous number of people, and it will last a long time," said Sean Gerrity, president of the foundation, which he helped create six years ago.
There are, however, major hiccups in this scheme to re-create the prairie that wowed Lewis and Clark. Some local cattle ranchers say the plan will annihilate their livelihoods, and they vehemently object to the return of wolves to the plains. And another major conservation group, the Nature Conservancy, is pursing its own ambitious vision to conserve the prairie and most of its wildlife -- while keeping cattle and ranchers on the land.
The origin of the money behind the American Prairie Foundation is adding to ranchers' resentment. Donations are coming mostly from wealthy individuals, many of them in the Silicon Valley or on Wall Street. As in such places as Jackson Hole and Aspen, the rich are demonstrating a striking capacity to change land use in the West.
For the wealthy, the Northern Plains and their once-great herds of buffalo are a seductive and iconic cause.
"This is an easy sell," said Diana Beattie, a Manhattan interior designer who summers in Montana and is a well-connected fundraiser among Fifth Avenue's philanthropic elite. "Since the Al Gore movie, I think caring about nature and preserving its purity is on everybody's plate."
Larry Linden, who lives in Manhattan and is a retired general partner at Goldman Sachs, has pledged about $500,000. He compares the restoration of the Northern Plains to the refurbishment of the Statue of Liberty.
"There are lot of folks in New York who spend a lot of time in the West, and this appeals to them," he said. "This is not the heavy hand of the government. Over time, ranch families will find it in their interest to sell."
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MAybe this fella..........
[FONT="][h=1]Paul R. Ehrlich[/h][/FONT]
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A central focus of his group is investigating ways that human-disturbed landscapes can be made more hospitable to biodiversity. This work in "countryside biogeography" is under the direction of Professor Gretchen Daily, founder of the field, and Director of the CCB. The Ehrlich group's policy research on the population-resource-environment crisis takes a broad overview of the world situation, but also works intensively in such areas of immediate legislative interests as endangered species and the preservation of genetic resources.
A special interest of Ehrlich's is cultural evolution, especially with respect to environmental ethics, and he is deeply involved in the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB) which he co-founded with his wife Anne (policy coordinator of the CCB) and Professor Donald Kennedy. Professor Ehrlich is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor Ehrlich has received several honorary degrees, the John Muir Award of the Sierra Club, the Gold Medal Award of the World Wildlife Fund International, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (given in lieu of a Nobel Prize in areas where the Nobel is not given), in 1993 the Volvo Environmental Prize, in 1994 the United Nations' Sasakawa Environment Prize, in 1995 the Heinz Award for the Environment, in 1998 the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, in 1999 the Blue Planet Prize, in 2001 the Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and in 2009 the Margalef Prize in Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Members of Professor Ehrlich's research group have gone on to join the faculties of Princeton, Brown, and the Universities of California, Nevada, Texas, and Florida.
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Diana Beattie
Diana Beattie Interiors
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072900706.html
In the New West, Do They Want Buffalo to Roam?
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 30, 2006
MALTA, Mont. -- What are the Northern Plains good for?
The soil is bad, the weather worse and the landscape achingly dull. Collapsing barns punctuate a scraggly sea of brown grass and bleached boulders. The population peaked a century ago, and remaining ranchers cannot stop their children from running off to a less lonesome life.
But a grand new vision is taking shape for this depopulated patch of the prairie. It includes wild herds of buffalo and boomtowns of prairie dogs, as well as restaurants and hotels for high-end tourists who would descend on small towns such as Malta.
If all goes according to plan, land south of here would be resurrected as the Serengeti of North America, joining Yellowstone and Glacier national parks as must-see destinations in the West. As local acceptance allowed, wolves and grizzly bears would join buffalo, elk, moose, mule deer and bighorn sheep on a restored grassland ecosystem, similar to what 19th century explorer Meriwether Lewis described as a scene of "visionary inchantment."
The American Prairie Foundation, which is closely allied with the World Wildlife Fund, expects to have about 60,000 acres of ranchland under its control by fall. Over the next several decades, it intends to buy hundreds of thousands more acres and link them up with federal land -- much of which is now grazed by cattle -- to create a reserve of about 3.5 million acres. Buffalo would run free on much of this land, while fences, cows and cattle ranches would go away.
"This thing is huge, it will affect a tremendous number of people, and it will last a long time," said Sean Gerrity, president of the foundation, which he helped create six years ago.
There are, however, major hiccups in this scheme to re-create the prairie that wowed Lewis and Clark. Some local cattle ranchers say the plan will annihilate their livelihoods, and they vehemently object to the return of wolves to the plains. And another major conservation group, the Nature Conservancy, is pursing its own ambitious vision to conserve the prairie and most of its wildlife -- while keeping cattle and ranchers on the land.
The origin of the money behind the American Prairie Foundation is adding to ranchers' resentment. Donations are coming mostly from wealthy individuals, many of them in the Silicon Valley or on Wall Street. As in such places as Jackson Hole and Aspen, the rich are demonstrating a striking capacity to change land use in the West.
For the wealthy, the Northern Plains and their once-great herds of buffalo are a seductive and iconic cause.
"This is an easy sell," said Diana Beattie, a Manhattan interior designer who summers in Montana and is a well-connected fundraiser among Fifth Avenue's philanthropic elite. "Since the Al Gore movie, I think caring about nature and preserving its purity is on everybody's plate."
Larry Linden, who lives in Manhattan and is a retired general partner at Goldman Sachs, has pledged about $500,000. He compares the restoration of the Northern Plains to the refurbishment of the Statue of Liberty.
"There are lot of folks in New York who spend a lot of time in the West, and this appeals to them," he said. "This is not the heavy hand of the government. Over time, ranch families will find it in their interest to sell."
- - - Updated - - -
MAybe this fella..........
[FONT="][h=1]Paul R. Ehrlich[/h][/FONT]
[FONT="]
President, Center for Conservation Biology, Bing Professor of Population Studies
Department of Biology 371 Serra Mall Room 409 Herrin Labs Stanford, CA 94305-5020 Phone: 650.723.3171
Research Interests:
Conservation Biology - Evolutionary Biology - Ecology - Population Dynamics - Coevolution
Paul R. Ehrlich received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. Co-founder with Peter H. Raven of the field of coevolution, he has pursued long-term studies of the structure, dynamics, and genetics of natural butterfly populations. He has also been a pioneer in alerting the public to the problems of overpopulation, and in raising issues of population, resources, and the environment as matters of public policy. Professor Ehrlich's research group covers several areas. It continues to study the dynamics and genetics of natural populations of checkerspot butterflies (Euphydryas). This research has applications to such problems as the control of insect pests and optimum designs for nature reserves.Conservation Biology - Evolutionary Biology - Ecology - Population Dynamics - Coevolution
A central focus of his group is investigating ways that human-disturbed landscapes can be made more hospitable to biodiversity. This work in "countryside biogeography" is under the direction of Professor Gretchen Daily, founder of the field, and Director of the CCB. The Ehrlich group's policy research on the population-resource-environment crisis takes a broad overview of the world situation, but also works intensively in such areas of immediate legislative interests as endangered species and the preservation of genetic resources.
A special interest of Ehrlich's is cultural evolution, especially with respect to environmental ethics, and he is deeply involved in the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB) which he co-founded with his wife Anne (policy coordinator of the CCB) and Professor Donald Kennedy. Professor Ehrlich is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor Ehrlich has received several honorary degrees, the John Muir Award of the Sierra Club, the Gold Medal Award of the World Wildlife Fund International, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (given in lieu of a Nobel Prize in areas where the Nobel is not given), in 1993 the Volvo Environmental Prize, in 1994 the United Nations' Sasakawa Environment Prize, in 1995 the Heinz Award for the Environment, in 1998 the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences, in 1999 the Blue Planet Prize, in 2001 the Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, and in 2009 the Margalef Prize in Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Members of Professor Ehrlich's research group have gone on to join the faculties of Princeton, Brown, and the Universities of California, Nevada, Texas, and Florida.
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