I recently returned from my near annual pilgrimage to Veracruz, Mexico, to see the fall hawk migration at the biggest hawk migration site in the world.

The area on the Gulf Coast of Mexico near Veracruz City has become well known in recent years for its astounding hawk migration, a phenomenon that has become known as the “Veracruz River of Raptors.”

In a typical year, millions of raptors are counted at the two counting sites just outside of Veracruz City, with the top species being Turkey Vulture, Swainson’s Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, and Mississippi Kite. In fact, if you are lucky, you can see hundreds of thousands of individual birds pass by in a single day–its hard to top that!

Although the hawk migration is worth a trip to Veracruz in and of itself, the area immediately surrounding Veracruz City has much to offer the visiting naturalist, which is another reason I keep going back:

• Within a few hours’ drive of the city are archaeological sites such as Cempoala and Quiahuiztlan, which provide a look into the historical past of other civilizations as well as good birding. Beaches with gulls, terns and shorebirds are nearby as well as an array of forested habitats.
• To the south, there are savannah habitats where the Double-striped Thick-knee and Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture can be found.
• As you go west and up into the mountains past the state capital of Xalapa, you quickly enter magnificent pine forests with numerous migrants such as Townsend’s Warbler and resident species such as Gray Silky-Flycatcher and Black-headed Siskin.  On our recent Conservancy member tour, we found 226 species of birds in just over a week!

Perhaps the best thing about visiting Veracruz on a tour, however, is that by doing this, you can support the excellent conservation efforts of the conservation group Pronatura Veracruz. In addition to running tours to see the River of Raptors and other great birding areas in the State of Veracruz, Pronatura has implemented a series of excellent conservation projects for wetlands and forests and is responsible for the hawk counting efforts. By taking a tour, you not only get your fill of hawks and other birds, but you directly support conservation efforts in this critically important migratory crossroads of the Americas. Maybe I’ll see you there next year!

(Image: Buteo Magniurostris – Roadside Hawk — taken in in Paso de San Juan, Veracruz-Llava, Mexico. Credit: Reaper Stinky/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

This Eastern kingbird looks like he’s contemplating his next move …perhaps a trip to South America for the winter? If you’re a bird fanatic — and who isn’t? — you’ll love this incredible shot by Flicker user naathas, shared through The Nature Conservancy’s Flickr Group.

Check out all The Nature Conservancy’s featured daily nature images, submitted to the Conservancy’s Flickr group by people like you — at my.nature.org.

1. Seems fishy, but overall U.S. water consumption has declined in the past 25 years — despite a growing population and increasing water use. Huh? Tina Casey at CleanTechnica says it’s because of more efficient ag irrigation systems and better cooling schemes for power plants (which still amount to 50% of U.S. water use).
2. Barcelona climate talks update: Jeff Tollefson at Climate Feedback says the E.U. might accept a political agreement on climate at Copenhagen rather than a binding legal treaty. (Trust me: You need to know what that means.) Grist reports that European climate negotiators say success at Copenhagen is up to President Obama.
3. In case you missed it, a U.S. Senate committee passed a climate bill yesterday, with all Republican committee members boycotting the vote.  The Vine yawns, saying the real action on the bill will be separate negotiations between Senators Kerry, Lieberman and Graham.
4. Where could coastal wetlands go when sea level rises? Um…nowhere, says a new report in Environmental Research Letters — more than 50% of the land along the U.S. Atlantic coast that could have been used for inland wetlands migration is developed or soon will be. (Hat tip: Journal Watch Online.)
5. Speaking of on the move, half of 36 Atlantic Ocean fish stocks have moved north as ocean temps have warmed, says a new study by NOAA researchers. Some species have left U.S. waters altogether! Just wait until Glenn Beck gets wind of these treasonous climate-change dodgers!! (Hat tip: Yale Environment 360.)

Ecotourism is often presented as the savior for wildlife and wild places — providing local communities with financial incentives to preserve nature while also reducing poaching and development pressure.

But, lately, others question whether rich Westerners jetting around the world really help much at all: They disturb animals, create demands for new development and only employ local people in low paying jobs.

Some conservationists even consider tourism to be a significant threat to natural areas.

Which view is correct? Is ecotourism a problem, or a solution?

My biases up front: I’d rather travel for the purpose of seeing wildlife and enjoying various outdoor activities than just about anything. My wife has remarked it’s my drug of choice.

That aside, I still think the issue of ecotourism defies easy answers. Problem or solution?

It depends.

Certainly, the ecological havoc wreaked by tourists in places like the Galapagos is well documented. A fragile ecosystem, animals unafraid of humans and an increasing number of cruise ships has been a recipe for disaster.

One doesn’t have to look hard to see tourists behaving badly in nature.

People harass and feed wild bison, leave trash strewn across the Himalayas, demand resorts in places they shouldn’t be — the list is long.

And then there’s the whole carbon footprint issue. We all know that flying has tremendous impacts, so can we really justify flying off to some far-off corner of the world to see animals or scenery?

These are important concerns. Without a doubt, ecotourism can be a threat. But is it always?

After all, would there even be a Galapagos left as we know it if it wasn’t for tourism? Really?

Consider other island ecosystems and how difficult it is to conserve native island wildlife. If it wasn’t for those tour boats, the Galapagos would likely be a highly developed, rat-infested island devoid of wildlife.

Yellowstone may at times be crowded with tourists behaving badly, but would there still be herds of bison and packs of wolves and grizzly bears without those tourists?

The Serengeti faces issues, to be sure, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the wildebeest population there continues to migrate, during a period of time when so many other large mammal migrations have disappeared.

Private ranches in places like Brazil’s Pantanal and Namibia still have large populations of wildlife, in part because many ranchers here now attract tourists. It seems naïve to expect that they will keep conserving wildlife if visitors quit showing up.

Ecotourism, ultimately, is a complicated issue. And in that way, it’s not so different from most other conservation issues.

Some conservationists have the tendency to declare activities as simply “good” or “bad” — whether it’s ecotourism, ranching, timber harvest, invasive species, hunting, fire, or agriculture. All have their proponents and detractors.

However, we should make decisions based on the reality of our world, not on utopian fantasies where humans no longer have any impacts on nature.

We can work to make sure that ecotourism is done in appropriate ways that benefit wildlife and local communities.

And as the saying goes, conservationists can’t “let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

Ecotourism isn’t perfect.

In many cases, though, it’s the best solution we have.

(Photo: Caimans draw tourists to Brazil’s Pantanal. Credit: Matt Miller/TNC.)

1. The Conservancy’s very own Duncan Marsh was quoted in this Associated Press article about an unfortunate hold-up at the U.N. climate talks happening right now in Barcelona.  Marsh says that further delays could be “tragic,” preventing necessary discussion on emissions targets.
2. It might be toxic to your wallet, or to your emotional and physical well-being, but the city of Las Vegas is the least toxic of 40 major metropolitan areas, reports GreenBiz.  Based on its number of Superfund sites, facilities that release toxic chemicals and air quality ranking, it turns out it’s Atlanta we’ve got to be really worried about.
3. Strange bedfellows Glenn Beck and PETA (yes, really) are ganging up on climate warrior Al Gore, claiming the former VP’s a hypocrite for his meat-eating ways.  Huffington Post Green says new BFFs Beck and PETA prez Ingrid Newkirk called Gore a “baby” and “steakaholic” on Beck’s Fox News show last night.  BURN!
4. German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, with the goal of encouraging the U.S. to “to fall in line with Europe” on climate change issues and legislation, according to Twilight Earth.  Hey, if Glenn Beck and PETA can team up for a cause, anything’s possible.
5. Treehugger reports that super-high-end fashion houses Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Balenciaga have pledged to significantly reduce their carbon footprints by December 2010 by reducing the amount of paper they use, avoiding fiber from high conservation value forests, and purchasing only recycled or FSC-certified products.  Let’s celebrate by you buying me a Balenciaga handbag!

Yes, global warming is a big deal and a big challenge. But sometimes I get so frustrated by conservation and environmental NGO’s for not being able to chew gum and walk at the same time — in other words, for failing to appreciate the real lesson of greenhouse gas emissions.

The real lesson is there is no such thing as succeeding at local conservation (and no such thing as protecting your backyard or local community’s natural heritage) without paying attention to global pollution as a whole – of which greenhouse gases are but a few of many.

The National Academy of Sciences has just released a study of global sources of local pollution that is revealing and compelling in its analysis of the long-range transport of pollutants into and out of the United States.

Do you know what’s landing in your backyard? Try ozone, particulate matter, mercury and persistent organic pollutants that have all traveled halfway around the globe from Asia and North Africa, according to the study.

We also give what we receive — the pollution we produce travels to Europe and Canada. There is haze in the Arctic because of particulate matter “imported” from thousands of miles away, and the western United States has experienced several episodes of dust being dumped on it from Asia.

These pollutants are not a vanity or aesthetic issue — they take a huge toll in human health, affecting especially children and other vulnerable portions of our population:

• Ozone is linked to the rate of child admissions to hospitals for asthma.
• The health impacts of particulate matter may account for millions of deaths worldwide per year.
• Organic pollutants impair hormonal, nervous, immune and reproductive systems.
• And perhaps most insidious of all is mercury — which interferes with the developing nervous systems of human fetuses and young infants.

Meanwhile, mercury and organic pollutants can also wreak havoc on wildlife, with well-documented impacts on fish and birds.

What does conservation have to do with this? Simply put, air pollution is the quintessential issue that links ecosystem health and human health and global land use and conservation. For instance:

• Dust storms can result from poorly managed arid lands.
• Organic pollutants are products of unsustainable agriculture.
• The Nature Conservancy’s own analysis of mercury found it to be a major threat to our conservation goals in northeastern United States.

Conservation has historically and consistently neglected pollution. Look at most conservation science textbooks and you will find long sections on invasive species, on deforestation, on greenhouse gas emissions…but almost nothing on pollution. Of course greenhouse gases are now categorized by the EPA as a pollutant — but that was only recently, and most of the public would not think of greenhouse gas as pollution in the same way mercury is.

The Nature Conservancy did publish last year a report on air pollution and wildlife in the eastern United States. But I do not understand the lack of uproar about pollution on the part of the Conservancy and other conservation NGOs. Pollution is the threat to biodiversity and people that can tie us all together in a common cause. If we purchased 90 percent of all the private land in the United States and set it aside for conservation but did not address these global sources of pollution, it would all be for naught.

I am all for focus — with Copenhagen coming up, it is natural that we talk and talk about emissions reductions. But climate change is simply one symptom of a general failure to think clearly about the costs and benefits of our actions in terms of general human well-being and ecosystem health. And climate change is but one of many threats to conservation that can only be dealt with by international agreements.

Let’s hope that negotiations at Copenhagen and beyond that are aimed at reducing greenhouse gases pave the way for future international cooperation regarding a wide variety of global pollutants.

(Image: Air pollution and power lines in China. Credit: AdamCohn/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

1. Big snakes are becoming a big problem, says the United States Geological Survey.  The group just issued a report concluding that, should the Burmese python and other species of giant constricting snakes continue to make themselves cozy in the U.S., they could completely destabilize ecosystems and wipe out vulnerable native species.  (Hat tip:  dotEarth.)
2. The University of Maryland at College Park and Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona will share the title of “America’s Greenest Campus,” reports Green Inc.   In addition to bragging rights, each school gets $5,000 toward new green initiatives.
3. The state of California has legalized “gray water” systems, allowing residents to water their lawns with the runoff from showers, sinks, dishwashers and laundry machines, reports The Vine.  Technically, it’s a huge victory for water conservation, but it turns out a lot of people were already doing it anyway.
4. Does buying green products make you a bad person? According to GreenBiz, a recent report found that people feel better about justifying white lies and other minor infractions after purchasing “green” items– kind of like canceling out a bad behavior with a good one.
5. Keep your chins up, mates!  A new study found that Aussies are losing their enthusiasm for the fight against climate change, and it scarily reflects the current situation in the U.S., says Environmental Capital.

Yes, I’m an avid birder and professional bird conservationist — but that doesn’t mean I don’t take time for other flying things…like hundreds of thousands of bats.

I took a few days off in late August and went down to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico, an easy drive for me from my home in Albuquerque. The main reason to go there in late summer and early fall is to see the evening bat flight. Carlsbad Caverns harbors a maternity colony of Mexican free-tailed bats and, in the late summer, the evening flight is especially large since the young bats are out flying and feeding, along with the adults.

Evening bat flights are amazing — something everyone interested in nature should experience. Carlsbad Caverns is certainly not the biggest U.S. bat colony (that distinction belongs to Bracken Cave, Texas, about 20 million bats) nor the most famous (that distinction belongs to the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas, about 1.5 million bats), but it is very accessible in a natural setting with some 400,000 bats.  You can watch the show from the bat amphitheater while listening to an informative bat talk from the park rangers and buy bat memorabilia at the souvenir stand.

I had a spectacular visit to the Carlsbad Caverns bat flight: several hundred thousand bats, rainbows, a beautiful sunset over the Chihuahuan Desert, and many interesting birds (Cave Swallow, Canyon Wren, and the Rufous-crowned Sparrow).

It’s truly a multi-sensory experience: you see thousands of bats literally wafting over the desert landscape; hear the wind from their wings (and the bird songs); and smell the aroma of guano from the cave — nothing like it, I guarantee.  There is plenty of other stuff to see there, too. For example, I saw a ring-tailed cat on the drive home after the bat flight. There’s plenty of good birding in the area, especially at the Rattlesnake Springs Picnic Area (which is also partly a Nature Conservancy preserve). And rumor has it there is a large cave system to be visited, too.

(Image: Mexican free-tailed bats flying out of Carlsbad Caverns. Credit: Toika Rover/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

Tom Cassidy is director of of The Nature Conservancy’s federal land programs.

America’s national parks are a constant in my life, both with my family and my work as the Conservancy’s director of federal land programs.

And sometimes the parks, the Conservancy and my work and family come together…as in June 2008, when I traveled to Badlands National Park – first, to celebrate the acquisition and protection of two ranches in South Dakota’s Conata Basin with our staff, trustees, neighbors and officials from the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Forest Service, and then to explore other NPS sites in the western Dakotas with my wife and 15-year-old son.

The work of the Conservancy, the Park Service and other partners in the Badlands exemplifies the stories told by Ken Burns in his recently concluded PBS film series on the National Parks: citizens working to protect our nation’s wonderlands.

A portion of one ranch lies within Badlands National Park. Most of the Conservancy’s land will continue to be a working ranch and managed in collaboration with partners to advance the recovery of the black-footed ferret, North America’s most endangered mammal, and the prairie dog whose ecological needs extend well beyond the boundaries of the national park. We were privileged to spend time in this area with Badlands Park Superintendent Paige Baker, who generously shared insights informed by his Native American heritage. My family will always treasure our time with him on Sheep Mountain overlooking Badlands National Park and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The Conservancy’s supporters and partners are a part of the living history of our national parks. Great Sand Dunes National Park, the nation’s most recently established park, was made possible in 2004 by the Conservancy’s acquisition of the 100,000 acre Baca Ranch for $32 million. With support from Secretaries of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Gale Norton (and our current Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, when he was Colorado’s attorney general), Congressman Scott McInnis and Senators Wayne Allard and Ben Nighthorse Campbell and the citizens of the San Luis Valley, we worked for more than five years to ensure Congress appropriated the funds necessary to protect this area of great human and ecological significance. Approximately 12,000 acres of the Conservancy’s Medano-Zapata Ranch are within the Park boundary.

The Nature Conservancy is also a significant owner of lands within other national parks:

• For example, the Conservancy owns all but 30 acres of the nearly 11,000-acre Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas’ Flint Hills, and collaborates with NPS on natural resource planning and management.

• Santa Cruz Island is the largest of Califonia’s 8 channel islands and the largest within Channel Islands National Park.  The Conservancy purchased 90 percent of this 62,000 acre island in 1978.  In 2000, the Conservancy gave the NPS 8,500 acres (14 percent of the island) — valued at more than $68 million, one of the largest gifts to the Park Service in its history.

Today, the Conservancy continues to own 47,000 acres and co-manages the island with NPS.  In addition, we are working with NPS and other partners to implement one of the most successful park restoration projects in the world.  By removing cattle, sheep and most recently, feral pigs, and ensuring the return of bald eagles to this island paradise, we will secure the long term vitality of island’s unique vegetation and rapid recovery of the rare island fox, the island’s largest native mammal.

• The Conservancy is a significant landowner in Florida’s Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, where we partner with NPS and the State of Florida to protect the wild wetlands of the St. John’s River. This highly productive estuary, where the Conservancy own 9,500 acres of coastal islands and saltmarsh, is full of oyster reefs and provides habitat for sea turtles and manatees.

• Just a few miles from the Capitol, we partner with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park to protect the globally rare habitats of the Great Falls of the Potomac River flood plain, including Bear Island — site of the popular Billy Goat Trail, which we co-own with the NPS.

This is just a sample of the numerous land protection projects the Conservancy and NPS have collaborated on over the years.

Ken Burns’ film has popularized the description of the National Parks as America’s best idea. It is a privilege to work with so many Conservancy colleagues and the National Park Service to be a part of the great story of protecting the lands and waters essential to the long-term viability of our legacy of protected lands.

(Image: The author overlooks Badlands National Park. Courtesy of Tom Cassidy.)

1. What does your beloved pet kitty cat have in common with Florida’s Burmese pythons?  More than you’d think:  The New York Times reports that, according to some wildlife researchers, an urban housecat on the loose could be considered an invasive species.  (Hat tip:  The Vine.)
2. Although it won’t be available for another year, the battle for control over “dot-eco” is heating up, says Green Inc.  Whoever controls the .eco web suffix could make millions in registration fees from groups hoping to do business under the domain.
3. Tailgating:  It’s not just damaging to your liver.  Check out the aftermath of a recent University of Georgia tailgate– bottles, cans…human feces?  C’mon, people!  You’re in COLLEGE!  (Hat tip:  Treehugger.)
4. Grist’s Ask Umbra gives advice to Girl Scouts seeking to kick off an anti-idling campaign at their school.  Did you know that idling is almost always unnecessary, and contrary to popular belief, doesn’t damage your car’s starter?  Now you do…and you’re welcome.
5. Impress your friends with your cutting-edge knowledge of climate change issues!  The Daily Green delivers six new global warming facts.