New Mexican Pronghorn

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Male and two female pronghorn in northeastern New Mexico.

Male and two female pronghorn in northeastern New Mexico.

When Meredith and I traveled to Colorado for our minimoon last year, we were forced to take a detour off I-25 north of Wagon Mound. It wasn’t that bad, the road was fine and traffic was light, and we were still making plenty of time.

Next thing I know, there’s a herd of pronghorn outside!

I’m fairly accustomed to seeing pronghorn, since they’re active between Silver City and Deming, but this time I had the long lens I’d rented for our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Thankfully, Meredith was more than happy to let me pull over and stop for 10 minutes.

We saw a lot of great wildlife during that trip, but this was the scene that kicked it all off for us.

Another Monday at the Office

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So far this week, I’ve a) babysat a monarch butterfly chrysalis while we waited for it to eclose and b) attended an after-hours photo meetup at the National Aquarium. The butterfly was eventually released Monday afternoon (see above), and the aquarium resulted in some fun photography and a bevy of new friends on Instagram (see feed at right).

All in all, not a bad week at NWF — that’s right, this was all work related.

Prospect Special Report: The Amazon

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My mail is still kinda funky (not forwarding correctly) so I’m a bit late in catching this, but The American Prospect has a great special report this month on the Amazon. A slew of articles, sidebars and graphs examine the commercial interests vying for access to the forest, the effect on the Amazon basin, and the struggle to save the ecosystem there:

There’s a brash, risky new Amazonia out there. Pioneer entrepreneurs are making fortunes from activities long considered not feasible in this vast and challenging place, gouging ever deeper into the rainforest in pursuit of wealth. The deeper they slash into the forest and burn it, the more greenhouse gas is released into the atmosphere. The destruction of the Amazonian forest has become a leading cause of global warming, with profound climate implications and dangers within the region and far beyond it. Why all this matters so much, and what there is to be done about it, is the subject of this report.

Head on over and take a look.