This beautiful poem by Wendell Berry allows me to let go, and take in the comfort that is always there for me in nature.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

     I love reporting good news!  Especially when it comes to benefiting the earth I love!  Here are four pieces of good news:

**GM is shutting down four of its large SUV plants.  The demand for these gas guzzlers just ain’t what it used to be.  GM is also looking for a buyer for its ‘ailing’ Hummer line.  (I won’t miss Hummers;  not only are they extreme gas guzzlers, but they look mean and menacing as well).  GM gets it that we’re entering a new era, that there will never be cheap gas again.  Says GM Chair Rick Wagoner:  “We don’t believe it’s a spike or a temporary shift.  We believe it is, by and large, permanent.”  Yes!

**Interest in small cars is increasing rapidly.  NADAguides, a website that provides consumers with a wide range of vehicle information, reports that consumer interest in compact cars has increased 96%, just in the two months between January and March 2008!

   **Americans are driving less!  Since last November, driving by Americans has been declining, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA).  And cumulative vehicle travel on U.S. roads has fallen by 17.3 billion miles since the preceding November, 2006.  And in March, vehicle miles driven on all U.S. public roads were 4.3% below the number of vehicle miles logged in the previous March, 2007.  This is the sharpest drop for any month in U.S. history.  

**Now for the best news of all–Greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles fell by 9 million metric tons during the first quarter of 2008!

     Of course these changes are not enough to solve the global warming crisis.  But I believe we should all take heart because we are beginning to move in the right direction.  We Americans are showing that we can change, that we can adapt to a changing reality.  And that’s very good news.–April Moore

     I have just been introduced to the writer and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams.  Her book REFUGE is a beautiful weaving of Terry’s love for and understanding of Great Salt Lake ecology and her mother’s terminal illness.  Her beautiful writing has touched a deep place in me.

     Below are an excerpt from Williams’ s REFUGE about barn swallows and cliff swallows building their nests.  For photos of these birds, click on the two links below the excerpt.–April Moore

     On my way home, I stop at a favorite pond to watch a pair of cinnamon teals.  Barn swallows fly in and out from under a bridge.  Dozens of nests are plastered with mud against the concrete beam.  A barn swallow is busy lining its cuplike nest with white down feathers.  It flies, returning seconds later, with another piece of down in its beak.  I wonder where the cache is–most likely a goose nest.

     The cliff swallows’ nests are different from the barn swallows,’ although both are built beneath the bridge.  Their nests are enclosed, with a small hole left open as an entrance.  One pair, their nest barely a shelf, takes turns bringing back dabs of mud.  Ten dabs of mud in five minutes.  Wihin an hour, I watch them pack 120 beak-loads of mud onto their new residence.  The swallows tirelessly fly to the mudflats on the edge of the pond, load up their bills, return to the construction site, vibrate their heads as they pour the mud onto the nest.  Then they vigorously pat it and shape it around their nest.  They alternate turns as the male flies from the nest to the mudflat, loads, while the female pats.  He returns, she flies out.  Over and over again, the same painstaking work, as their tiny feathered bodies quiver with purpose.  The shelf slowly, steadily, becomes a closed dwelling.

. . . . .The growth of a swallow’s nest. . . .a natural history unfolding.

http://www.nsolomonphoto.com/PhotoJournal/CliffSwallows/bird325_std.jpg

http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2001/elspeth/nest.gif

     Whether you will be honoring your dad, your husband, or other relative or friend this Father’s Day (June 15), how about doing so ’greenly?’  I’m talking about avoiding the waste involved with gift giving.   How many times have you received a gift you don’t want, have no use for, and don’t know what to do with?  And we can only imagine how many such gifts we’ve given others!  Of course all the ties, boxes of candy, sport shirts, books, and gadgets that we buy have an impact on the planet.  And that impact is all the more unfortunate when the items wind up stuffed into the back of a closet, never used.

     So how can you honor the Dad in your life in a green way?  Here are a few suggestions:

**Instead of anxiously hoping to find a gift Dad will actually like, how about doing something fun together?  Perhaps you would both enjoy setting aside some time for a bike ride or a walk in a nearby park. 

**Do something for Dad.  Make him a lunch, a special dessert, breakfast in bed.  Or clean a part of his home.  Tidy up his yard or garden.  Organize a small gathering of people he enjoys being with.

**Is there something that’s hard for Dad to do but easy for you?  Maybe he would be grateful if you organize his papers, put his photos into an album, help him buy the new computer or appliance he has found difficult to choose on his own.  

**Show Dad how interesting he is.  Interview him for posterity.  Sit with him and ask him to tell you family stories he heard growing up about his own parents and grandparents.  Ask about his childhood, his career, about funny things he remembers from raising children.  Write up what he tells you and share it with Dad and other family members.  Very likely, Dad’s reminiscences will be treasured by your family for years to come, and  Dad will feel very loved.

**If you would really rather give a tangible gift, make sure it’s something Dad actually wants.  A good way to do this is to give a gift certificate to a store he likes.  When Dad picks out his own gift, you’ll know he’s getting something he’s glad to have.–April Moore

     Please click on the link below to view a wonderful series of photos depicting the first three weeks of a hummingbird’s life!  I would like to credit the photographer, but haven’t been able to locate him or her.–April Moore 

http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/

     You may remember that two years ago George Bush designated nearly 140,000 square miles of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.  This creation of the world’s largest protected marine area by perhaps the most anti-environment president in U.S. history came as a wonderful surprise!

     Now, this vast national monument is about to receive even greater protection.  The  International Maritime Organization has declared the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument a “particularly sensitive sea area.”  This means that internationally recognized measures are being implemented to protect ecologically significant marine resources from damage by ships. 

     These major protections for a marine area 100 times the size of Yosemite National Park are extremely valuable.  This region contains the largest, healthiest, and most untouched coral-reef system in the United States.  And the area is rich in undersea forests and mountain ranges.  The northwestern Hawaiian Islands archipelago is home to more than 7,000 marine species, a quarter of which are found nowhere else on earth!  And this area of the Pacific is also the primary home of the 1,400 surviving Hawaiian Monk Seals, virtually the entire population of this critically endangered species.  And the area is the breeding ground for about 90% of the threatened Hawaiian Islands Green Sea Turtle population.  Numerous species of ducks, seabirds, and plants will also be protected. 

        This new monument is truly historic.  It is the largest single area dedicated to conservation in U.S. history.  The Monument’s ten islands and atolls stretch 1,400 miles, about the distance between Chicago and Miami.    

  The area’s National Monument status means that resource extraction and dumping of waste will be banned, and commercial fishing will be phased out over a five-year period.    The national monument designation also includes protection for Native Hawaiian archaeological treasures and traditional worship sites that dot the islands.  In fact, the name–Papahanaumokuakea–chosen by Hawaii residents, reflects the Hawaiian legend related to the  birth of the islands.  Papahanaumoku is the goddess who birthed the islands, and Wakea is her husband.

     The Monument will be managed by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and the Interior, together with the state of Hawaii.  Citizen volunteers are also involved.  For example, volunteer divers have removed more than 120 tons of nets and gear abandoned by fishermen. 

      To see some truly fabulous photos of individual plants, fish, and birds who live in the Monument area, click below.  But first, a caveat:  There is a part of the photo show that may be very painful:  a young bird dies because it has consumed so much plastic and other man-made debris.  This young bird’s death underscores the need for protection for this wondrous area.  

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/sights_n_sounds/index.html  

     I love this poem for Abbey’s deep love of the natural world.  Yet I have mixed feelings about the last lines.  While I agree with Abbey that we are deeply blessed to live on this beautiful planet, I find his final judgment at odds with a feeling of true oneness with the planet.

How strange and wonderful is our home, our earth,
With its swirling vaporous atmosphere
Its flowing and frozen climbing creatures,
The croaking things with wings that hang on rocks
And soar through fog, the furry grass, the scaly seas. . .
How utterly rich and wild. . .
Yet some among us have the nerve,
The insolence, the brass, the gall to whine
About the limitations of our earthbound fate
And yearn for some more perfect world beyond the sky.
We are none of us good enough
For the world we have.