National Wildlife Magazine: National Wildlife Federation’s award-winning, full-color nature magazine!

Treatment of America's wild creatures and places through full-color photo galleries, natural history features, outdoor adventure articles and news items of ecological concern. Conservation-minded magazine of nature and the environment. (Amazon.com)

The National Wildlife Federation is the largest American conservation organization, with over 5 million members and supporters in 47 state-affiliated organizations; its annual budget is over $125 million as of 2006. Its mission statement is: "inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future."

About This Issue
By Mark Wexler, Editorial Director

Harsh Conditions and Sheer Courage

THOUGH WE QUOTE wildlife scientists extensively in every issue of National Wildlife, we don’t always describe the lengths they go to in their efforts to collect data. Consider the researchers who study one of the nation’s largest seabird colonies in the Farallon Islands off California.

Battered constantly by high winds and huge waves, and with no source of freshwater, the barren islands are hard to visit and even more difficult to live on. But for decades, scientists have been braving these harsh conditions for months at a time to learn about the behavior and status of such species as tufted puffins and Cassin’s auklets—birds that most of us will never have an opportunity to see in the wild. And as this issue’s feature “Seabird Signals” explains, the lessons they’re learning could have important ramifications for all of us. “The seabirds’ food web appears to be unraveling, and the scientists suspect that global warming is at the heart of the problem,” reports author Doreen Cubie.

According to studies in the Farallones and elsewhere along the Pacific Coast, warming water temperatures may be reducing ocean productivity and a number of seabird species are having trouble finding enough food for their offspring. In some areas, the animals’ populations are plummeting. The birds, observes one scientist, “are shouting at us.” Turn to the article to find out why we should be listening.

In this issue you also can read about another researcher in California who goes to incredible lengths to study the diversity of life in a place where no one had ever traveled before: the crowns of coast redwood trees, more than 300 feet off the ground. To work at such heights, Humboldt State University botany professor Steve Sillett relies on ropes, athleticism and sheer courage—“an unimaginably dangerous feat,” observes writer David Lukas. To learn more, see Lukas’ article “Climbing into an Unexplored Frontier.”

Lukas’ text is accompanied by images made by Tim Laman, who had to go to extraordinary lengths himself to photograph the scientist. “I had done some tree climbing before, but never to heights like that,” says the Massachusetts-based photographer, who pulled himself up to the redwood canopy on a single, 300-foot length of rope that Sillett had rigged up. “It was certainly exciting,” adds Laman.

Read National Wildlife Magazine, August/September 2008 Online

FEATURES:

Survivor
By T. Edward Nickens
New science is helping biologists understand how some bobcats can thrive in landscapes heavily altered by humans

Seabird Signals
By Doreen Cubie
Off the U.S. West Coast, several seabird species are suffering, and biologists suspect that global warming's impact on the Pacific is to blame

Hidden Treasures of the Wild West
By Paul Tolmé
Conservationists are seeking to safeguard 26 million acres of little known federal lands ideal for watching wildlife

Restoring Louisiana's Broken Ecosystems
By Melissa Gaskill
A special NWF program is helping to restore Gulf Coast marshes and woodlands damaged by the 2005 hurricanes

The Beauty in the Beast
By Michael Lipske
During countless hours spent observing Africa’s Nile crocodile, a pair of photographers have documented the reptile’s strength, speed and surprising gentleness

Monkeys on the Mend
By Sharon Levy
Rain forest trees growing anew on Central American farmland are helping scientists find ways for monkeys and agriculture to benefit one another

Face Time
Photograph by Paul Nicklen
With razor-sharp teeth, powerful jaws and remarkable agility in the water, the leopard seal is one of Antarctica’s premier predators

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