FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Re: TWRA article

[Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>]

Troy,

Thanks a lot for your reply.  I was surprised that I hadn't heard
about this before.  It's good to know that people noticed it and that
something has already been done about it.

Keep up the good work.

Charlie

PS - I did notice the other mistakes...such as the fact that
Cataloochee is not in this state, etc...  Maybe this issue was just
the "bad egg" and that those guys have used up all their mistakes for
the year!

--- Troy Ettel <Troy.Ettel@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Charlie and TN-Birders:
> 
> My phone was ringing about this before my copy of TN Wildlife
> magazine had even been delivered.  Ken Dubke from Chattanooga was
the first to break the news, but not the last one to sign off on
this.  Though I greatly trust Dubke's judgement, I didn't believe it
until I located a copy and saw the caption and picture with my own
eyes.  TWRA's Information and Education Division received several
phone calls and letters from concerned readers (including threats to
cancel subscriptions), all of whom were just as aghast as Charlie and
me that this somehow got into the magazine.  This was an issue full
of such mistakes; read on and you'll find even more like them in that
edition.
> 
> As a response to the complaints and after I and several others had
talked to the magazine staff about this, the magazine ran a
> Correction in the  March/April edition on page 14 and agreed to try
and get some technical review of articles before they go out from
hence forth.
> 
> For the record, house sparrows receive no sort of legal protection,
federal or state in Tennessee and is certainly NOT a declining
songbird.
> 
>          
> 
> Troy Ettel
> State Ornithologist
> Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
> P.O. Box 40747
> Nashville, TN 37204
> (615) 781-6653
> Troy.Ettel@xxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> >>> cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx 03/06/02 03:20PM >>>
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> I just got around to checking out the Nov/Dec issue of Tennessee
> Wildlife, and was rather irritated by the irresponsible, and, well
> for lack of a better word, stupid item I found on page 10.
> 
> This was in a (not-well-written) self-congratulatory article
> written
> by Jerry Bailey about the things being done by Tennessee Wildlife
> Resources Foundation.  The article (ad?) was about the money TWRF
> is
> getting on the behalf of TWRA.  I understand this is much-needed
> money for an organization that recieves no state funding - that is
> not my beef here. 
> 
> My problem is that the first picture you see, centered at the top
> of
> the page, is a **House Sparrow**  Yes, a non-native pest that is
> one
> of the biggest problems faced by our native Bluebirds, woodpeckers,
> Chickadees, Titmice, swallows and Purple Martins.  At first I
> chuckled, thinking that some copy editor who can't tell a Wood Duck
> from a Flamingo put in a pretty picture, not knowing what it was. 
> But the caption was the real killer - the evidense that SOMEONE
> doesn't know what end is up...
> 
> "Money to preserve the habitat for our declining songbirds like
> this
> house sparrow..."  
> 
> What do they propose to do, build more houses?  Return horses to
> city
> streets?  And who says the HOSP is declining?  I wish it were true.
> 
> Then, to add insult to injury, at the end of the article, Bailey is
> listing some of Tennessee's wonderful biological diversity, and
> mentions boars!!  Another non-native animal that is actively
> reducing
> native diversity.  If this is what "wildlife experts" write in a
> magazine, it's no wonder that we suffer the environmental woes we
> do.
> 
> Ok, the soapbox is now free to the next bellyacher...
> 
> Charlie
> 
> 
> 
> 
> =====
> **************************************************
> Charlie Muise, Senior Naturalist
> Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
> Townsend, TN  lat 35 deg, 38'23"  long 83 deg, 41'22"
> 
> "Do something. If it works, do it again. If it does not work, do
> something else. But above all else: Do Something." (Franklin Delano
> Roosevelt)
> 
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> 


=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Senior Naturalist
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Townsend, TN  lat 35 deg, 38'23"  long 83 deg, 41'22"

"Do something. If it works, do it again. If it does not work, do something 
else. But above all else: Do Something." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

__________________________________________________
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Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email!
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
        jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx      (423) 764-3958
=========================================================