TAYLOR PARKER
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Just a little conservation journal...

I generally focus on conservation issues effecting biodiversity, land use/abuse, research, and job opportunities that I have come across. Most of the opportunities come from the Opps page and you can click on the button below to take you there.
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Never Make the Same Mistake Twice

6/10/2016

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This was an article that I wrote on behalf of the Endangered Species Coalition for newspapers in Oregon. The Eugene Weekly ran it and I copied it below
​Earlier this year, Governor Brown signed a bill affirming the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s decision to remove wolves from the state Endangered Species Act and essentially block judicial review. Although the delisting decision and subsequent passage of HB 4040 dealt wolf recovery a blow, the wolf conservation and management plan ultimately determines the fate of this keystone species.
 
Eight years ago there were no wolves in Oregon. Twenty five years ago there were no wolves in the west. There are currently not just wolves in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, but in Northern California as well. Ecologically wolves have been described as ecosystem engineers, keystone species, and natural “vaccines” for disease spread. Through their predation of deer and elk they decrease browse time which allows appropriate plants to grow, they increase the available scavenger food source for a wide variety of other animals, they decrease the abundance of destructive mesopredators (raccoons, coyotes, skunks, etc), and they thin otherwise healthy herds of elk and deer of chronic wasting disease.  
 
Ecologically, wolf conservation is smart. In extrapolating how much time, energy, and money I spent in the past couple years trying to photograph wolves in the wild, I imagine conserving this species makes economic sense as well. The argument that wolves are devastating livestock operations and harming humans doesn’t stand the test of time. Sure, there are some livestock losses and in those rare instances that they occur, ranchers are compensated.  However the depredation of livestock does not outweigh the benefits wolves bring to our ecosystem.  It’s baffling to me that the “big bad wolf” myth is still perpetuated and ultimately creating more fear and anger.
 
The modern human and wolf interaction is novel. With the policies we enact and the support or opposition we provide we collectively decide how we want to live with other species and within our ecosystem. Wolf protection and management is an experiment for future large carnivore recovery in this country and globally. For the last ten thousand years humans have done a terrific job of killing the monsters of our nightmares: saber-tooth cats, mastodons, short-face bears, and American lions -- all the way up to the wolves. I’m pleased to see that as a society we’re investing in wildlife and fostering recovery for the many predator species we nearly wiped out: grizzly bears, wolverines, jaguars, and mountain lions. 
 
We can continue to deny protection or we can use these interactions as opportunities to learn how to cohabitate better. Wolves embody not just the image of wilderness but the definition of a natural system working. If we make decisions that give them that chance, we are not only supporting the natural resources of Oregon but also contributing to the legacy of our state. The wolf question needs to be answered but constructive and mutually beneficial results do not occur from removing their protection and ultimately, the species. 
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A Quick List of 2015 Environmental Wins

1/8/2016

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  • Paris Climate Change Accord
  • Population of World's Big Cats Rebound
  • Endangered Catalina Island Fox Populations rise
  • Population of Giant Pandas rise 17%
  • First wild Condor nest in Southern California found
  • Wood Bison reintroduced to Alaska after a century 
  • First fish, Oregon Chub, removed from ESA List
  • American Airlines bans shipping Shark Fins
  • Obama asked Congress to designate Arctic Wilderness
  • Nova Scotia seal hunt declared non event
  • US District Court rules Navy violates MMPA
  • Obama cancels Arctic drilling leases
  • California rules SeaWorld can't breed Orcas
  • Mexican Wolf Population grows to 100
  • Endangered WA state Salmon populations rise
  • Previously thought extinct bird rediscovered
  • Oregon Gray Wolf populations rebounding
  • Baby Tortoise found in Galapagos first time in over 100 years
  • Ca adopts and begins to implement Non-lead Ammo for Condors
  • Colombia heads plan to create Ecological Corridor
  • Woodland Caribou Downlisted
  • TransCanada stopped building oil export terminal
  • USFWS lists Northern LongEared Bat as Threatened
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Handling the Goat

3/31/2015

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PictureSome of the darting tools used in the course
How do you get a 3 inch dart through the skin on the rump of a snared grizzly that’s staring at you ferociously? When you’ve got an unresponsive antelope that has stopped burping, where do you position the nose in relation to the larynx? If the heart of a wolf stops beating how many CC’s of Dopram V do you give? Hurry up, you have to answer these questions quickly – but calmly – or else that wild animal you’ve been trying to capture for months dies or takes out its frustration on you.

These were actual questions and actual scenarios posed to me as I sat front row, mouth agape, in Dr. Mark Johnson’s Chemical Immobilization and Wildlife Handling course in Belgrade, Montana at the end of March 2015. Because of this class I now have a certificate earned through Dr. Johnson’s company, Global Wildlife Institute, which says I can answer these questions in the heat of the moment. And while darting and handling lions, tigers, and bears might seem a little dramatic, this is exactly what we talked about throughout each of the day’s activities. 



PictureDr. Johnson showing how use one of the air pistols


Dr. Mark Johnson has been teaching this course and several others for almost two decades. His resume and experience read like the list of a weekend marathon on the National Geographic channel: Yellowstone veterinarian during the 1995 wolf reintroduction, dog handling in Tibet, feral dog capture in the Caribbean islands and Indian sub-continent, Alaskan Grizzly Bear captures, and Desert Bighorn relocations. With a black belt in Aikido and accompanying build as well, imagine Steven Seagal mixed with Jeff Corwin and the gentleness (and patience) of a 3rd grade teacher and you get something resembling Dr. Johnson.



PictureAfter sedating our animal, the team I was on had to do physical exams as well as draw blood
The stories and videos shown in class ended with: “and that’s how you capture a ram from a helicopter” or: “now remember, a black bear in a tree is in a compromised position and you need to let the animal be your teacher.”  Out of context, these are just great sentences that caught me unawares each time. Within the frame of this course, it still didn't seem exactly normal but it made sense that these are the maxims gathered from a life of experience working with wildlife. That experience has developed something else, something unique. Compassion is intrinsic to Dr. Johnson’s ethic and how to keep your animals and you as optimal as possible while still achieving your tasks is a lesson taught over and over. For example, when trying to draw blood my frustration was mounting because the animal we worked on started to come out of anesthesia. While still sedated and calm, it began to make noise and move and I was ready to give up. Dr. Johnson came over and said: “Now imagine you’ve been searching for this endangered animal for a year and finally have this one chance to collar it and get vital data from it for the survival of the species. Having this wild rare animal in your hands is a wonderful gift! Putting more drug might threaten the animal so what do you do?” That mind game helped focus my attention and I got the work done but it was the sense of wonder that is innate to Dr. Johnson’s methods that captured my attention. He’s right: having these wild animals in our hands is something special and something worth our compassion and diligence.

Now, I doped a goat. The previous course Dr. Johnson taught worked on wolves and the next course will work on mountain lions in the Dakota Zoo. I got a goat. To assuage my initial let-down (or more likely, the affront to my manly manliness of not handling a wild beast with giant teeth), I was told that working on ungulates is actually harder and if you can handle a goat, a wolf is no problem.  Those sound like somebody’s last words but I’m not going to push it because you know what? I liked that goat. I’m glad I got to work on that goat. That goat smelled pretty bad when I put the thermometer in his rectum and it smelled even worse when it belched but it was a terrific goat and even better teacher. That goat taught me how to keep an animal with an airway system that seems designed to die without warning alive. That goat taught me how to draw blood through dense hair and while constantly bleating a fragile sound intended to make your heart break for even wishing to take this animal’s blood out of it. Because of Dr. Johnson’s methods I found a weird sense of awe after our goat stumbled onto its hooves, looking dazed like it escaped an alien abduction –because, it, well, kind of did. 
PictureA curious kid from the goat farm that supplied our test animals/teachers
Our team’s goat, and all of the 5 goats our class worked on, got back in the truck feeling, I’m sure, a little confused but without incident otherwise. It was probably an analogous feeling that I and my classmates felt after the week of studying ketamine doses, ideal dart sizes, optimal pressure on our dart guns, and proper compassionate handling of animals that would rather be running as far away from you as possible or finding your jugular with their canines. We walked out of the class with tons of information in our heads and for me a realization that this is not only a skill that professionals employ for critical research and management but also a philosophy that underlies their motives. The course and the experience once again showed me that those who choose this type of work for their profession are tapping into a different source of inspiration than what motivates many others. Conservation professionals who purposefully choose to utilize Dr. Johnson’s ethic of diligent compassion or those that come by it on their own are implementing their skills in some exciting ways. I am looking forward to putting both the practical and the equally important intangible skills I learned into practice.

You can find Dr. Johnson’s course and company on his website and Facebook:
 http://www.wildliferesources.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/wildlifehandling?fref=ts

For more photos of the class, please visit my Flikr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/118319178@N03/sets/72157649315441424/


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