News ArchiveItems last sent to archive: 18 Feb 2007
News Archive |
REF had the pleasure of hosting members of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Falconry Mascot Program on June 26th, 2003. Left to right: Director of Falconry, Lt Col Steven Niehoff, Cadet Third Class, Jeremiah Stuart, and Cadet Second Class, Kim Herd, met with Curator of Raptors, Anne Price. The Academy is in the early phases of redesigning their mews, and wanted to visit our facilities to see how we house and care for our falcons, hawks, eagles and owls. Cadet Second Class, Kim Herd, is holding her copy of REF's new book, Raptors. |
February, 2001-Denver: Animal or human sacrifices in the 21st Century? Barbaric you would think, but under the cloak of religion, they still occur. Amanda Bates, the young girl in western Colorado suffering from diabetes, was recently offered up on the altar of religion by her parents, whose spiritual beliefs precluded them from seeking medical attention for a condition that science could have managed. This is the third death like this from the same church in the last two years. Some reports indicate higher numbers under similar circumstances.
Our New Craft Gallery Opens
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Crafts Gallery collectibles: Our brand new Crafts Gallery opens with truly unique ways to celebrate the beauty of raptors for any sincere raptorphile. Together with our new Arts Gallery, you will be seeing the finest in raptor art, brought together for you from all over the world. Visit our Raptor Collection and see what we offer. All revenues support our environmental education and research projects. |
Sterling Corporation Donates Computers, Printers, Copiers and more...
February, 2001-Denver: Englewood based Sterling Corporation donated a significant amount
of used and near new office equipment to help REF keep its dollars directed at its mission
and not buying things like office equipment. Not only did we receive things like printers
and computers, but also a substantial amount of software programs to enhance our computer
capabilities. Many thanks to the Block Family of Denver for their continued help.
December, 2000-Continuing 15 years of supporting our environmental literacy programs, Chevron Research and Technology Company made a $4,000 year-end grant to keep our momentum going. Many thanks to Chevron, their employees and Mr. Pat O'Brien who has maintained his interest and involvement in our programs since he first discovered our environmental activities at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
December, 2000-Maintaining their fifteen year long support of the REF mission, David Wyman, Colorado representative of the Panwy Foundation presented a $25,000 grant to permit the REF continued development of their unique facility at the Lowry Nature Center. The Wyman family of Englewood, Colorado and the Panwy Foundaiton have been long-term supporters of REF's environmental education mission providing supporting gifts and challenge grants of up to $50,000. Many thanks to the Panwy Trustees and the Wyman family for their vital support of our mission.
December 2000-The Boston based Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation awarded a $10,000 grant to permit REF expansion of its environmental education programs in Southcentral Colorado. Schools in the Trinadad area will be targeted in conjunction with programs to be presented at the Stonewall Outdoor Laboratory beginning in the spring and summer of 2001. Our sincere thanks are extended to the VWCF Trustees and the Diane Scanlon family for allowing us to expand our mission into southern Colorado.
December, 2000-Adding to the year end gifts that provide much needed support to REF's mission are transfers of stocks from the Ramsay Stabler Family and Mary Anne Mills, both of Colorado. This is an excellent example of how appreciated assets can be donated with benefits to both sides of the transaction. Many thanks to Mary Anne Mills and the Stabler Family for their continued help over the past years.
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| Betty White of television's Golden Girls fame visiting Denver in conjunction with her long-term association with the Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) met with several of her animal friends during an early morning tribute on KUSA 9 to Morris Animal Foundation's work with companion animals and their wild brethren. Appearing with REF's Golden Eagle is Peter Reshetniak, REF President, and KUSA Channel 9 weatherman Ed Green. For those of you unfamiliar with MAF, just think of the Digit Fund aka Dian Fossey and the gorrillas that made her famous. Our appearance on Channel 9 ocurred during Earth Week celebrations. |
Okay, Tiny is back with the sequel to his first book, Wildlife Wars, and this book has the same problem that the first one had. Don't open it up unless you are free for a couple of days...a couple of days of the most engrossing adventures trying to protect America's wildlife, especially the waterfowl wintering in the northern San Joaquin Valley. Not only protecting them from hunters reaching for a few over their legal limit, but those black-hearted nasty fellows who come in with specially modified shotguns, under the cloak of darkness, and murder hundreds of ducks and geese to supply the black market. In the process, for every duck that is killed several cripples are left behind. |
This time, however, Terry begins his true-life episodes when he starts his career at the federal level as a Game Management Agent with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The adrenaline level is much higher as a "contract" is put out on Terry's life for busting a guy who had too many frogs, and then a mysterious fellow who enjoys cooking his legal duck(in the blind) immediately after shooting it, all the while protected by two body guards hidden in the surrounding reeds shows up and eliminates Terry's threat while Terry has a gun at his head and watches the whole thing....double adrenaline latte with a testosterone infusion-see if Starbucks can do that. |
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| You gotta get this one! If your book store does not carry it call
Johnson Books at 303-443-9766 to find out where you can get it. Peter Reshetniak |
From the Wall Street Journal, October 10, a little letter that says it all: "When you run the numbers, as I did for nine years teaching a course, "Air Pollution From Combustion Sources," in the 1970s, the water averages out as 97% of the thermal trapping, with a top limit of 99%, with carbon dioxide as the balance of 1 to 3%. In other words, the carbon dioxide is less than the "noise" in the variations in the water. Thanks to Robert H. Essenghigh, Professor of Energy Conversion, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ohio State University.
Should we let the same philosophy and government ego's that brought us the Everglades (now wanting to re-do their mistake) bring us the swamp of Kyoto?
Remember, Nature is best described by the Chinese word "tzu- zan", what is so of itself. If we cannot learn to understand Nature's spontaneous responses and try to impose our political will upon it, we can never improve anything.. The more we try to "correct" what we barely understand, the more the unintended consequences will came back, as they have in the Everglades to bite us.
August 19th, REF staff presented its Raptor Summit to the owner and guests of the Blue Valley Ranch near Kremmling, Colorado. This beautiful 22,000 acre ranch is home to a heron rookery, nesting golden eagles, an active sage grouse lek, along with a population of elk, mule deer, and bison. The owner is insuring the habitat on the ranch is wildlife friendly by working with experts to enhance and protect the ranch ecology. REF was pleased to be part of the ranch's education programs. Pictured below- the audience meets a barn owl- other raptors included both eagle species, peregrine falcon, and harris' hawk.
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| On the way to the program at the Blue Valley Ranch, just a few hundred yards north of Silverthorne, Colorado, REF staff saw an osprey family hanging around their nest platform. One of the adults had just caught a fish out of several nearby ponds. Another great example of community interest in providing habitat to accommodate a threatened species. Kudos all around!! |  |
| On May 30, the young red-tailed hawk on the right had just fledged its nest in a tall cottonwood tree the day before. Since early April, REF has been involved in studying an urban red-tailed hawk with a six year track record of successfully raising youngsters in an urban setting. The data being gathered is for a private client engaging REF's Natural Solutions Consulting Services. In the photo directly below, one of the parents is on the nest -easily visible in April before the leaves come out. Below right, the youngster on its willow perch sitting very quietly waiting for parents to show up with food. |  |
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Solar storms, occurring on the average of every 11 years have been shown to have a strong correlation with increases and decreases in the earth's temperature. For those tired of the politically correct blather about global warming, we invite you to visit the following web sites that will provide you a clearer look. The information certainly has to be weighed according to your abilities to separate good from bad science, but we think that these sites have more common sense associated with them, than most of the politically proffered wisdom. Visit Science & Environmental Policy Project, or click on www.marshall.org, or www.sunspotcycle.com. We encourage you to peruse these sites to inform yourself about what some politicians wish to coerce you into by barraging you with dubious information.
Recent stock and dollar contributions continue momentum for REF's efforts to build the Lowry Nature Center. The Ramsay Stabler family of Littleton, Colorado donated shares worth approximately $1,000 while the Robert P. Koehler family of Englewood, Colorado contributed a $1,000 cash gift, and the Susan Raymond family of Boulder, Colorado presented REF a $5,000 cheque. Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone for supporting our continuing progress. Belated thanks are due to Denverite, Jack R. Thompson and Kansas City Southern Industries, Inc., for his $1,500 contribution.
Working with staff from a variety of different organizations, REF Curator Anne Price and REF Docent, Megan Wallace (featured on the back cover-upper right working with one of REF's peregrines), added their contribution to this eight page focus on the peregrine falcon. Concern about the issues facing all migratory birds prompted this on-going effort celebrated during International Migratory Bird Day, the second Saturday in May. Subject matter in the pamphlet covers What is A Falcon, Where Girls Rule, Nesting on The Edge, Satellite Tracking, Mapping Migration, Fascinated By Falcons, A Party For The Birds,. and Nature On Paper. Kudos to Susan Bonfield for a great job of writing and producing this wonderful pamphlet. For more information about festivals just click:Bird Festivals. The pamphlet is being distributed nationally.
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BULLETIN
On March 2, 2000 the Goshawk described in the paragraphs below finally
succumbed to a senseless human act and died from the bullet wound she suffered two weeks
ago. Despite valiant efforts from the veterinarians at 7-Hills Veterinary
Clinic in Aurora, Colorado, the battle to save this beautiful creature's
life yielded to the consequences of one stupid action by person(s) unknown.
REF and its members, have joined members from the Colorado Falconry community and the general public to offer a $1,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the responsible party. You may call REF or the Colorado Division of Wildlife at the numbers given below. 7-Hills will carry out a necropsy to learn anything they can that might benefit future raptors suffering from similar trauma. The history of this sorry episode follows:
On Thursday February 17, 2000 an adult goshawk was discovered struggling on the ground, at about the northbound ramp of I-25 heading out of Larkspur, Colorado. Upon inspection, a massive head wound was noted, and the bird was taken by a Castle Rock resident to his ranch. He did not think the bird would live through the night, but it did. A few days later, the person called REF offices for advice on what to do. He was informed of the legal aspects of his situation, and an REF representative went to pick up the goshawk. Subsequently it was delivered to our veterinary support (7-Hills Veterinary Clinic), where upon close examination and after two x-rays, the goshawk was discovered to have had a projectile (about .22cal. in diameter) enter behind the right eye, and exit behind the skull, without penetrating the skull, although a small fracture was apparent after more examinations. Both eyes were intact, although damaged from the shock of the impact. No bone or metal fragments were evident from the x-rays.
This beautiful goshawk, most likely, had been shot with a .22 caliber rifle and left to die. Further examinations concluded the goshawk was also blind as a result of the incident. The veterinarians indicated that had a person taken a shot like the one the bird had survived, that person in all likelihood would be in a coma. The bird cannot be released, and its current state of life is very tenuous- evaluations are being conducted to see if anything might be done to overcome this tragedy. Northern goshawks face a variety of challenges from shrinking habitat to stupid people with guns. They are one of America's most beautiful raptors, and not all that common. Anybody with information that might shed some light on who is responsible for this stupid act, is asked to call REF at 303-680-8500 or the CDW at 303-297-1192. You may e-mail. us with the information. A $1,000 dollar reward will be given for any information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) involved.
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Another victim of stupidity. This beautiful goshawk died on
March 2nd, two weeks after being shot. Can you help find the person(s) responsible
for this criminal act? Anybody in the area of the north I-25 Larkspur, Colorado exit
around February 17th might have important information that could prove helpful in tracking
down the goshawk's killer. Please call 303-680-8500 or e-mail. us with the information. |
On July 20th, 1999 Panwy Foundation representative David Wyman presented the final installment of Panwy's $50,000 Challenge Matching Grant to REF officials. The $19,677.00 cheque is being applied to continuing the development of the Lowry Nature Center. Because of Panwy's generosity $100,000 has been invested in creating the National Raptor Collection at Lowry Nature Center, developing marketing and partnership materials, preliminary designs, along with numerous grant applications. The success of these efforts are shown by the brief news piece below. Many thanks to the Panwy Foundation and the Wyman family for their continuing support.
| In 1980, REF, was officially organized, but before it could get off the ground, special authority had to be granted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The person in charge was Terry Grosz, Special Agent in Charge, Law Enforcement, in Region Six, and it was his support and oversight that permitted REF's formation. Terry's interest in education helped REF overcome many bureaucratic roadblocks. |  |
During our recent Volunteer Banquet, because of his great service to environmental education and the cause of environmental protection, REF awarded Terry its highest honor in the form of an exclusive certificate and picture of REF's first Bald Eagle, Liberty, a shooting victim whose story reached million of people across America. Terry retired from the Service 2 years ago and has become an author, writing about his 32 years enforcing the "thin green line" protecting our natural resources from the most rapacious predator of all- Homo sapien. Photo: Terry Grosz (L), Anne Price, Peter Reshetniak
Rocky Mountain PBS has begun shooting material for a documentary on REF, to be featured in a new segment of their Spirit of Colorado program. The film crew is using brand new digital cameras, and the good people at KRMA-Channel 6 will permit us access to some great images to use here on this site. Stay tuned!
And if you think you're already seeing us on Denver's Channel 6, you are! A Spirit of Colorado segment was created some years ago, and Foundation birds are included in the series' introduction of each episode.
December 5th, you will be seeing many of the REF Docents and staff on Channel 6 between the hours of 11:30 to 5:30 pm. You will have to look carefully- we will be the ones handling the phone banks during the fund raising efforts for Channel 6. Look for our green shirts. Your pledges will help PBS continue to provide wonderful nature programs.
If you are headed for skiing at these world famous Colorado resorts, look for REF birds and programs in conjunction with the World Championships. We will be located in different areas on alternating days, and our programs will be introducing the birds that are the namesakes for the championship runs at Beaver Creek. During this appearance we will also be raising funds for our new facility, the Lowry Nature Center, and promoting our other activities. January 30th you will find us participating in the opening ceremonies and we will be there through February 12. World wide television broadcasts on ESPN and NBC.
Sponsorship provided by the Vail Valley Foundation and BMW.
Closing Update 14 February 1999: Our final appearance for this event was at the Beaver Creek Mall during a very chilly afternoon. Despite the cold we had a strong response to our programs. Other venues, especially the Beaver Creek Race Stadium venue had very enthusiastic receptions. Our raptors and staff appeared on Italian, German, Austrian, and local television. We were featured in the Vail Daily newspaper, and were interviewed for Swiss Radio. Many visitors from across the United States took our materials home with them, and we have already started to see enquiries for future business.
Thanks to the staff at the Vail Valley Foundation for making this opportunity available to us. We know we have given the Birds of Prey run a real live connection with our magnificent raptors, and visitors took home a much better understanding of raptors and the ecosytems they depend on.
The Hawk Charities, a fund of the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation sent REF a great Christmas present to be used in several areas. Please keep your self tuned to this site, as we will be promoting special school programs connected to the development of our new home at the Lowry Nature Center. This will involve giving away (yes- free!) our school programs, Promoting Environmental Literacy, for up to 5,000 students. These programs will involve developing educational partnerships with various schools and the Lowry Nature Center, Denver's first urban nature center. Programs restricted to Colorado schools.
Remember, stay tuned to this site for breaking information.
The Hawk Charities are part of the same group of community funds that include the Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rockies, Denver Broncos, and the Denver Nuggets. These community funds are part of the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation's goals to improve the social and economic environment in seventeen cities throughout the United States.
Thanks to Hawk Radio at 99.5 FM and the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.
12/15/98
Last year, the Panwy Foundation of Greenwich, Connecticut issued a $50,000 Challenge Grant towards development of our new home at Lowry Air Force Base. The week of January 10, we received formal notice that their first installment would be delivered that same week.
The Panwy Foundation has been supporting REF endeavors for more than a decade. Their representative in Colorado has been to our new location, and is very enthusiastic about the final outcome of our multi-year search. We are too.
As you can see, every dollar pledged to our new facility automatically doubles because of Panwy's generosity. Special thanks to the Koehler family, Mary Anne Mills, Marie Bolster and Helen Johnson for their help in triggering a major portion of this week's gift.
Special recognition is also due the Wyman family of Englewood, Colorado for their decade-plus involvement and encouragement of our efforts. Without their genuine interest and support we would probably not be here today.
Thanks to all of our members for your monthly pledges and your additional gifts towards this challenge.
1/10/99
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Last revised:
February 18, 2007