The e-cards come in 3 categories – Wildlife, Romantic, and Christmas.

The 23 Wildlife e-cards include 3 new ones. They show pictures of animals ranging from a feeding humpback whale to a Bush Baby to a Polar Bear.

The Romantic e-cards, which can be used either on Valentine’s Day or any day that you’re feeling romantic, feature animals as well. The Swan with Cignets (baby swans) is particularly beautiful.

The Christmas e-cards (is it too early to mention these?!) feature some Christmas themes but also have some with more generic winter themes.

To use the e-cards is easy. All you do is:

1. Choose a free Wildlife eCard (click on an image to select the card and view it full size)
2. Personalise the card and compose your message
3. Address your card (names and email addresses will only be used for sending and receiving cards)
4. Preview and send (now or at a future date)

Enjoy!

You can search the directory by using either the plant’s name, or by entering your region and desired plant type. When I entered Annual and BC, I got the familiar Common Sunflower, and the not so familiar Pursh’s Lotus. The Lotus photo didn’t load on my computer – it may just be my computer, but if you find the same thing you can always search for the name using Google images.

Annual and Ontario brought up just one result – the Partridge Pea. Many more results were shown for searches for Ontario and Perenial, Ontario and Ground Cover, Ontario and Shrub, and other searches.

So with the summer weather here, it’s time to get outside and gardening is one way to do it. So do your research, tend your plants, and Enjoy!

As part of the new arrangement, UK Power Networks is supporting each Trust financially and intends to arrange 27 employee team day events each year, three for each wildlife trust. Teams of employee volunteers will help the trusts with activities such as stumping trees (so they grow better) and digging drainage trenches. The 27 employee team day events are manageable by the company which has about 5,500 staff members.

This new agreement builds on an already established level of helping the local Trusts and are one way of the company showing that they care about the environment.

Given that wildlife doesn’t recognise county boundaries, it’s significant that UK Power Networks has chosen to support nine Trusts across their distribution area in the East of England, South East and London.

As well as this new partnership, UK Power Networks asks its employees to:

• Not to attempt works that are likely to damage a nest or cause birds to desert a nest.
• To seek advice from an environmental representative if they suspect their work location is near a badger sett.
• To obtain guidance from an ecologist if planning work within 500 metres of a pond.
• Check for any protected species of plants before commencing work.
• Look out for bat roosts and dormice nests to minimize disturbance when trimming trees to keep them clear of overhead power lines.

UK Power Networks has also made a great reduction in the amount of road waste it sends to the landfill, reducing that amount from 80% to just 3% over the past four years. This 3% is made up mainly of contaminated materials which cannot currently be recycled.

Overall, UK Power Networks seems like a company that really cares and is establishing themselves as a company that can inspire other companies to act on behalf of our planet.

 The details were announced at the recent BC Wildlife Federation Convention in Surrey, BC.  The largest beneficiary was the BC Wetland Partnership Program, which received $250,000   Wetlands are biological diverse and productive ecosystems, but are constantly threatened by urban development, industrial expansion and climate change.  The money will go towards the maintenance and management of wetland habitats for fish and wildlife throughout BC.   This funding was closely followed by $238,000 for Wild BC to manage programs and resources in environmental education.

Other initiatives include money for protecting and studying endangered species, such as bats and Boreal caribou.  Bat populations all over North America are being decimated by “white-nose disease”, a fungal ailment, while Boreal caribou are being severely challenged by habitat fragmentation.  As the HCTF is largely funded by fees from anglers, hunters and trappers, there are also programs planned for the monitoring and development of improved management systems for salmon and trout species, and habitat restoration and conservation of game species all across the province.

In total, over 150 projects will be supported by this funding.

The HCTF  was founded in 2007 and acts as Trustee of the Habitat Conservation Trust, which was created in 2007 as an amendment to the BC Wildlife Act.  The HCTF succeeded the Habitat Conservation Fund which ran from 1981 to 2007.  Since 1981, the HCTF/HCF has invested over $120 million in conservation projects throughout British Columbia.

Researchers found that one-third of wild condors are suffering from chronic lead poisoning at levels that cause toxicological effects and sublethal impacts. The amount of lead in free-flying condors, which can scavenge on carcasses tainted with lead ammunition fragments, differs markedly from that in pre-release birds.

The research also demonstrates that lead exposure causes chronic, long-term health effects in condors as well as acute poisonings. Lead-poisoned condors must routinely be removed from the wild and subjected to stressful chelation treatment to save their lives.

The good news is that one study found that since lead ammunition was banned in condor habitat since 2008, lead has been effectively removed from the habitat. As a result, lead poisoning in condors, golden eagles and turkey vultures has been significantly reduced in those areas.

There are safe and available nontoxic alternatives for hunters and anglers that could be used in place of lead. Last November the Center, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and the hunting group Project Gutpile, filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to regulate the use of toxic lead from hunting ammo and fishing gear that frequently poisons and kills eagles, swans, cranes, loons, condors, and other wildlife. Sadly, the EPA denied a formal petition to ban the lead in the ammo and tackle, in spite of nearly 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers showing the ill effects of continuing to use lead.

So there’s a campaign on to end the use of toxic lead ammunition and fishing tackle. So far, 117 organizations in 30 states have joined the call for a federal ban on lead ammunition and fishing tackle to prevent wildlife poisoning and safeguard human health. Hopefully the government will listen to them and enforce a lead ban.

The Games and Activities are in 8 categories, ranging from wildlife to climate change to land use and more. For this Friday File, I enjoyed playing several of the games in Wildlife.

Ladybug Breakdown is an enjoyable way of passing time. Clicking on similar colored ladybugs seems so easy at first, till you’re into the game and realize your options are becoming limited and perhaps you should have done some strategic thinking along the way.

Frog Spotter is all about frog identification. I found that matching the frogs with their name was easier than I first thought, because often animals’ names are linked to how they look.

If you like faster games, try Fishing Frenzy. You can do it at your own speed, but to get anywhere close to 50 fish means you would be playing the game in hyper speed.

There are lots of other games and activities on the EcoKids website. So have a look. Enjoy!

Native woodland is one of the richest habitats for wildlife. Within 12 years of planting, the Woodland Trust writes, trees will have become a young flourishing wood which is home to many species. New woodland rapidly attracts wildlife; and butterflies, insects and open-habitat birds are the first to appear. Next come the small mammals and woodland birds, followed by bats and hedgehogs. Soon the whole ecosystem is thriving. Some woodlands even attract endangered species which enjoy the food sources and the protection that trees provide.

Woodland can be created on almost any land but the most benefits come from extending and connecting existing woods and hedges, or creating new habitat and shelter on open land. Planting alongside streams and tracks, widening existing hedges and filling in hard-to-work field corners also offer easy opportunities to give extra space to wildlife. It is ideal to have woodland that offers both a year round food supply and shelter through a mixture of trees and shrubs. Flowering shrubs at woodland edges provide a nectar source for vulnerable bees, as well as providing nest space for birds and shelter for hedgehogs.

Part of the reason for this call is that UK native tree cover is at a low of 4% and thus it is important that new woodland be created to protect and sustain the wildlife. Trees not only enhance the landscape and welcome wildlife; a well designed shelterbelt can protect livestock from the elements and even help homeowners reduce their heating bills, suggests the Woodland Trust.

The Trust has a special team of woodland creation advisers who will give free advice (including cost sharing) to anyone in the UK interested in planting trees and creating woods.

The State/Provincial award was given to James Sutherlin of Port Arthur, Texas, for his work with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He is an example of a conservation manager who applies a large, landscape-level approach to restore and enhance wetlands. In particular, he has achieved conservation within the Chenier Plain marshes in southeast Texas. He has also attracted $3 million in grants to work on habitat conditions and management along the Texas coast.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels also won an award, for conserving thousands of acres of state land along the Muscatatuck River in southern Indiana and along the Wabash River in the western part of the state, reports the Chicago Tribune. 

A Special Award was given to Dave White, who was the driving force behind the establishment of the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative after the Gulf Coast oil spill. He is chief of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Science, and used his resources to maximize habitat and available food resources for the wintering wildfowl that could have been harmed by the oil spill. He launched an evaluation project to measure his success. The NRCS achieved a single year enrollment record in which farmers and ranchers joined the Wetlands Reserve Program.

If you’d like to learn more, The Outdoor Wire has the complete list with the Award winner’s bios on their website.

As an example of biodiversity, the NWF explains what someone can often find in a pond. Starting with the obvious water lilies through to the birds and then right down to the microscopic bacteria.

Then their biodiversity section introduces the NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat, which gives ideas for creating a backyard wildlife mini reserve. All you need, they write, is Food, Water Sources, Places for Cover, Places to Raise Young, and Sustainable Gardening.

The items you need for a backyard wildlife reserve include items such as a birdbath that are fairly easy to obtain. Check out your local nursery or bird friendly store. There’s a special kind of joy involved with watching birds bathe safely in your birdbath all summer long.

Enjoy!

UK councils and government agencies have reportedly spent almost £8.5 million on at least 270 animal friendly safety features in the past two years. They include tunnels to guide otters, badgers, newts and water voles beneath roads; a bridge that dormice can cross to get over a highway; and roadside barriers to ensure that birds such as owls fly high enough off the ground to avoid being hit by trucks. The projects also include fish ladders and otter shelves.

Apparently the UK has laws that require developers to submit wildlife protection plans before construction proposals are approved. Some critics suggest the money could be used elsewhere, but the money is just a small part of the annual development costs and the new safety features will help endangered animals live and breed.