Wildlife

A look at the environment was the subject of a nature 'stomp' Saturday at Bristol Township's Silver Lake Nature Center. At left, the group wades through Black Ditch Creek. Above, Chris Tenaglia (left) and Mike Cherkowski examine their finds.

Will we restabilize the world's human population but still crowd out our wildlife? That seems all too likely, since the world is currently encouraging family planning but discouraging high-yield farming. Ironically, the environmental movement has fostered both policies. The environmentalists have correctly helped to elevate our priority on wildlife. Last fall's Cairo population conference pledged another $17 billion for family planning worldwide - mainly to prevent a growing human population from crowding out wild creatures.

More than 60 woodcarvers will be demonstrating their art and selling their work at the annual fall show of the South Jersey Wood Carvers, which will be held next Saturday and Sundayat the National Guard armory in Mount Holly. As it has for the last three years, the association will donate the proceeds from admission fees to Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills. Because show organizers wanted to expand the show this year from one to two days, the show has been moved from Lenape High School in Medford to the armory on Route 38. Sixty-four carvers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia will be selling carvings ranging from traditional duck decoys to elk, moose and other wild game.

FAIRFIELD, Pa. - When Tom Stoner thinks about his friend David L. Grove, the state wildlife conservation officer fatally shot on patrol a few miles from here Thursday night, the stories come spilling out. He recounts how Grove, 31, once found two young boys illegally using bait to hunt deer in his territory 50 miles west of Harrisburg. He apprehended them and then tracked down their father. "The father was teaching the kids to break the law," Stoner said. "David recognized that.

A lot more than history has accumulated at Fish House Cove since the days when Lenni Lenape Indians gathered wild rice, peas and blackberries there in the matted marsh grass on Pennsauken's Delaware River shore. Strong river currents have left their deposits: Wooden pilings and a weathered, but still inflated, basketball are visible in the cove's silty tidal flat. On the bank of Tippin's Pond, separated from the cove by a single ribbon of railroad track, are a heap of plasterboard chips, a rusted mattress spring and beer bottles.

America is squandering one of its most valuable natural resources with wanton disregard. Throughout the United States, thousands of endangered or threatened animals are killed illegally each year by hunters who cavalierly break the laws designed to protect our nation's wildlife population. Sunday at 7 p.m., the National Audubon Society and Superstation TBS examine this issue in "Greed, Guns and Wildlife," narrated by Richard Chamberlain. It is a one-hour look at the shocking reality of poaching in this country.

A casual visitor to Jeanne Cramer's office at the Animal Welfare Association's Voorhees headquarters likely would find her poring over a ledger sheet, toting up the debits and credits that are a bookkeeper's stock in trade. But Cramer, who lives in Deptford, is much more than the association's bookkeeper. She also is director of its wildlife division - which, more often than not, casts her in the role of rescuer and substitute mother of homeless wild animals. What that means, said Cramer, "is that I'm called upon to rescue wild animals and to help train volunteers in the care and feeding of animals like raccoons, opossums, skunks or rabbits until we can release them into the wild.

The venture began in a storefront on Huntingdon Pike 16 years ago and has grown into a wildlife preserve of almost 400 acres. When the Pennypack Watershed Association was formed in 1970, David Witwer was its only full-time employee - an executive director with a part-time secretary. Now, the association has eight full-time workers and one part-time employee, a 22-member board of directors, 30 regular volunteers and about 120 other volunteers. The association, located at 2955 Edge Hill Rd. in Huntingdon Valley, will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the wildlife park dedication on Saturday afternoon.

The cleanup of Haddon Lake, a project started last month by the Camden County Park Commission, has yielded bottles, toys, car tires, shopping carts and a muskrat lodge. It is the lodge that Dave Orleans, a naturalist with the commission, finds so appealing. He said the discovery was significant because, as the cleanup project continued and the water became cleaner, the lake would be able to attract "more and more" wildlife. "I think this is one of those cases where what is good for the animals is good for the people," Orleans said.

Mention lawn ornaments, and some noses get turned up and brows get furrowed: "I hate those pink flamingos. " Although a drive through just about every Bucks County community could probably turn up at least a small flock of the often disdained birds, lawn ornaments this year, in general, seem to have moved away from the bright and gaudy. In their place, many homeowners have erected ornaments that reflect the county's own abundant wildlife, according to experts at local garden centers.

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.

A city commission is taking public comments on a proposal to locate a wildlife conservation center at a former reservoir basin near the city's Strawberry Mansion section. The center would be developed jointly by the National Audubon Society and Outward Bound Philadelphia at the East Park Reservoir, between Fairmount Park and 33d Street south of Diamond Street. The 37-acre west basin of the reservoir has become "a prime stopover site for migratory birds, including several spectacular waterfowl species," the two nonprofits said in their project overview.

SMYRNA, Del. - Wildlife officials have rescued two duck hunters whose boat capsized in the Woodland Beach marsh flats near Smyrna. Fish and Wildlife Enforcement agents were on marine patrol about 9:30 a.m. Thursday when they spotted two men in the water about 100 yards from shore. Two agents pulled Mario Cipolla, 36, of New Castle, and Kenneth Tolite, 24, of Wilmington, aboard their boat. They were taken to shore and treated for hypothermia. Cipolla was cited for hunting with an unplugged shotgun, agents said.

I'll never forget sailing on a glass-bottom boat from Store Bay in Tobago to Buccoo Reef, one of the most spectacular treasures of the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. At the Coral Gardens, the boat stopped to allow those who wanted to swim, snorkel, or scuba dive to get off, while the rest of us stayed on to survey the fantastic coral formations and watch the varied marine life swimming in the turquoise water beneath the boat. At the Nylon Pool, a naturally formed pool within the reef itself, I got out of the boat with the other passengers and jumped into the warm water.

Tony Croasdale has been coming to this particular splotch of wetlands, woods, and water since he was 9 years old. Back then, he was told stories about how his grandfather had come here during the hungry years of the Depression to trap muskrats. Now, it's the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum - both the most urbanized refuge in the nation and the largest wetland of its kind in Pennsylvania - and Croasdale comes to this South Philadelphia spot several times a month to check out the wildlife.

Tony Croasdale has been coming to this particular splotch of wetlands, woods and water since he was nine years old. Back then, he was told stories about how his grandfather had come to the spot during the hungry years of the Depression to trap muskrats. Now, it's the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum - both the most urbanized refuge in the nation and the largest wetland of its kind in Pennsylvania - and Croasdale comes to this South Philadelphia spot several times a month to check out the wildlife.

Murky storm-water ponds, ugly waste-water lagoons and threatened wetlands may soon find a friend that helps them look and feel better. The tonic appears in the form of small floating islands filled with beneficial plants that help improve water quality, curtail erosion, and benefit wildlife. In southeastern Virginia, these grant-funded islands have been planted and are being studied and evaluated at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia Institute of Marine Science at Gloucester Point, Virginia Zoo in Norfolk and Elizabeth River sites.

ILKEEK-LEMEDUNG'I, Kenya - Crouching at dawn in the savannah's tall grass, the lions tore through the flesh of eight goats. Dogs barked, women screamed, and men with the rank of warrior in this village of Maasai tribesman gathered their spears. Kenya Wildlife Service rangers responded to the attack, but arrived without a veterinarian and no way to tranquilize the eight lions and remove them from Ilkeek-Lemedung'I, a settlement of mud and stone homes not far from the edges of Nairobi National Park.

The bald eagle was lying on its back in a pool of blood in, of all places, a Broomall parking lot. Joe Simmonds, the maintenance man at Congregation Beth El-Ner Tamid, spotted its dark form as he emptied trash into a Dumpster. He put a traffic cone by the huge bird so no one would run over it, and he called 911. The bird was breathing. It was alive, just barely. Wildlife officials trying to coax it back to health now think the male eagle was beset by a triple dose of misfortune.