Habitat

'Do you know any lesbians in Wyoming?" New York performance artist Sharon Hayes just kept asking people, until she hit pay dirt: a small community of lesbians in Laramie. They became part of last year's nearly four-month-long "Lesbian Love Tour," during which she toured 29 states and encountered 700 lesbians. The pilgrimage, whose grail was to find "lesbians in their natural habitat," became the basis for a 75-minute performance piece called The Lesbian, Part II of the Lesbian Love Tour.

Where most people see a blighted, abandoned corner building where drugs are sold and consumed, Ed Dreby envisions a big, freshly painted house for a family to make into a home. Dreby, a coordinator for Habitat for Humanity, wasn't always convinced the ramshackle former butcher shop at the corner of Green and St. Mary Streets in Burlington City was the perfect building for the nonprofit group to rehabilitate. "When I first saw it, I said, 'Oh, my God,' " Dreby said. The Burlington County affiliate of Habitat, a national group that remodels homes and then provides them at reduced costs to low-income and homeless families to purchase, usually takes on one or two projects a year.

RENO, Nev. - Smokey Bear has done such a good job stamping out forest fires the last half-century that a woodpecker that has survived for millions of years by eating beetle larvae in burned trees is in danger of going extinct in parts of the West, according to conservationists seeking U.S. protection for the bird. Four conservation groups filed a petition with the U.S. Interior Department this month to list the black-backed woodpecker under the Endangered Species Act in the Sierra Nevada, Oregon's Eastern Cascades, and the Black Hills of eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota.

It promised to be a dream community. Nestled in the lush pine forests of Evesham, it was called Sanctuary, offering a quiet retreat to families willing to pay to get away from the hustle and bustle of urban living. But the natural surroundings that lent the community its appeal ultimately came back to haunt it. With just a third of 300 planned homes built, endangered timber rattlesnakes slithered out of hibernation and into the path of construction workers in 1998. The Pinelands Commission, charged with regulating growth and safeguarding resources within the environmentally sensitive Pinelands, recalled preliminary approvals for the project, halting construction.

Students from Eastern University will help with household chores and yardwork this fall to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. Raking, gardening, painting and cleaning are among the tasks the students will tackle in the St. Davids area. They plan to work Saturdays through November in exchange for donations to the nonprofit organization, which builds and renovates houses for the poor. Last year, about 25 students collected $12,000 for the organization. Their work two years ago brought in $25,000 to help pay for their service trip to New Zealand.

The construction crew at 822 Cherry St. in Norristown was, to say the least, a bit unconventional. Eighteen-year-old Megan Donnelly, in yellow sneakers and blue nail polish, was gingerly hammering braces between floor beams. Helping her Wednesday was John Canty, a 61-year-old respiratory therapist from Temple Hospital who cited as his job qualifications homeownership and 39 years of marriage. A floor above, high school senior Geliece Douglas was worrying she might dirty her new footwear, so she worked in her green-and-black-striped socks.

A Burlington County farmer who damaged the habitat of a federally protected turtle species by clearing several rows of trees on his 140-acre North Hanover Township farm was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to a year's probation. James Durr, who is deputy mayor of the township, pleaded guilty in January to harassing endangered bog turtles in 2005. He removed the trees along Turtle Creek, upland from the habitat, and didn't think his actions would affect the turtles, he said.

Baseball diamonds or backyards? Those are the opposing plans for a four-acre lot that is the subject of debate by borough officials and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bucks. The lot - on the corner of Maple and Otter Streets - was donated to Habitat for Humanity last year. The group's president, Brian Reiff, says it would like to build homes for about 20 families there. But Borough Mayor Gary Tosti and council members are opposing construction of houses on the property.

Doylestown Borough officials told representatives of Habitat for Humanity this week that they could not sell them a three-quarter-acre parcel of land because state law forbids the sale. Habitat for Humanity is an international organization that builds affordable houses for needy families with the help of volunteers. The group wanted to buy the vacant borough lot on Church Street near Ashland Street to build five homes of 900 to 1,200 square feet. Borough Solicitor Charles McIlhinney said state law required real estate valued at more than $1,500 to be sold through the bidding or auction process.

For the past three weeks, Keith Kratz has been hammering nails, caulking windows, and laying floor tile all along the East Coast as a volunteer house builder for Habitat for Humanity International. "It has been a tremendous experience . . . These have been three of the more interesting weeks I've spent in my life," said Kratz, 22, of Telford, Pa. Kratz and 21 other people opted to spend seven to 15 weeks this summer in the traveling work camp of the ecumenical Christian housing ministry that enlists volunteers and the future homeowners to build and rehabilitate houses for low-income families, team leader Linda Behmke said.

Hunters love to shoot them and birders love to watch them, but both groups understand that they can save the bobwhite quail only by working together. The groups came together for a three-day conference to talk about preserving the scarce and secretive game bird and identify other areas of common interest, ranging from fighting invasive species and maintaining healthy forests to managing New Jersey's growing population of black bears. The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs held their first joint conference from Friday through Sunday with a view to identifying common interests and fostering cooperation.

Early on a chilly morning, my 25-year-old son and I could detect the odor of burning garbage as we walked down a dirt road in a poverty-stricken section of Santa Fe, Argentina, bordered by ditches full of stagnant water. Ahead of us lay a day of construction work with a group of volunteers and local families, most of whom we had met only a few days earlier. We could not have been happier. Such is the experience you can expect on a Habitat for Humanity Global Village trip. I was the team leader for our group of 14 during a week in which we worked hand-in-hand with three "partner" families to repair and expand their homes.

SAN FRANCISCO - For the first time in years, a river otter has made San Francisco its home, taking up residence in the ruins of a 19th-century seaside bath near the Golden Gate Bridge. Since then, the otter has mystified and delighted conservationists, who are piecing clues to figure out how he got there. The whiskery one was first spotted by birdwatchers in September. River otters once thrived in the Bay Area. But development, hunting, and environmental damage in the 19th and 20th centuries has taken its toll on the once-thriving local population.

Haiti has lost 99 percent of its native forest, but every time Pennsylvania State University biologist Blair Hedges explores the tiny patches that remain, he finds dozens of species of frogs, some previously unknown to science. With their forest habitat fast disappearing, the only future for these creatures may be here in Philadelphia. On Wednesday, a group of Haitian government officials and environmental activists visited their country's native frogs at the Philadelphia Zoo, the only facility in the world raising these critically endangered animals in captivity.

RENO, Nev. - Smokey Bear has done such a good job stamping out forest fires the last half-century that a woodpecker that has survived for millions of years by eating beetle larvae in burned trees is in danger of going extinct in parts of the West, according to conservationists seeking U.S. protection for the bird. Four conservation groups filed a petition with the U.S. Interior Department this month to list the black-backed woodpecker under the Endangered Species Act in the Sierra Nevada, Oregon's Eastern Cascades, and the Black Hills of eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota.

A Burlington County farmer who damaged the habitat of a federally protected turtle species by clearing several rows of trees on his 140-acre North Hanover Township farm was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to a year's probation. James Durr, who is deputy mayor of the township, pleaded guilty in January to harassing endangered bog turtles in 2005. He removed the trees along Turtle Creek, upland from the habitat, and didn't think his actions would affect the turtles, he said.

Andre G. Susanin, 78, of Wynnewood, a retired company owner and volunteer, died Friday, March 9, of pancreatic cancer at Lankenau Hospital. A native of Palmerton, Pa., Mr. Susanin earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Yale University. After graduating in 1955, he was with the water-treatment division of Rohm & Haas Co. in Philadelphia. From 1978 until five years ago, he operated Susanin Equipment Co. in Narberth, selling and distributing industrial equipment. For 15 years, Mr. Susanin was a volunteer driver for Wheels of Wellness, chauffeuring patients to medical appointments.

HAPPY 5-Oh to rocker-actor-good-guy-hot-dad-part-time-Philadelphian Jon Bon Jovi. On Friday, when it comes to first centuries, the Jersey native is halfway there. (He's no longer, of course, livin' on a prayer.) Why does Philly love him so? Could be his work with Habitat for Humanity and Project H.O.M.E. Could be his devotion to the Soul. Or, it could be the hot part. Jon Bon's astrological motto for the coming year is simple: Change is good. Embrace it. Then, embrace us. (Sorry.) Happy b-day today to Flyer Braydon Coburn, who secures 25. Tomorrow, Cherry Hill beauty Ali Larter acts 36, and former Birds lineman and recent "Biggest Loser" runner-up Antone Davis works out 45. Friday, short-lived Miss America and Mays Landing gal Suzette Charles sparkles 49. - Lauren McCutcheon

If you wonder what drives Pat Sutton, come on in. Clues are everywhere inside her 19th-century farmhouse in Goshen, Cape May County, a tiny dot of a place between Delaware Bay and the ocean. The shower curtain is imprinted with butterflies. Owls decorate throws on the sofa. Piles of plant and bird books cover the coffee table. Had you gone around to the backyard, you'd have no need for clues. The key to understanding Sutton is staring you in the face: It's her wildlife garden.

Lugging a 60-pound bag of cement up two flights of stairs, Justine Italiano and Lori Blake were clearly struggling. "We can do it. We got this," Blake said, walking backward up the rubble-strewn stairs of the rundown rowhouse in Norristown. That could be the motto of the week for the 120 Villanova University students, staff, and faculty rehabbing the three-story house as part of a Habitat for Humanity "Blitz Build. " Working in 10- to 12-person shifts, the group will spend the week hammering, sawing, and gutting the nearly 200-year-old house.