Natural History: Articles
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Item Open Access The Yangtze's peril, promise: exploring above and below China's Three Gorges Dam(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015-08-20) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherThe Three Gorges Dam is, by most counts, the largest dam in the world, 1.3 miles wide, and impounds more water than any other dam, creating a lake 400 miles long, about the length of Lake Superior. Three scenic wild gorges were drowned. The Yangtze River flood in 1931 killed 3.7 million. The dam is built to withstand a scale 7 earthquake, and there is uncertainty about the likelihood of an earthquake. The Communists envision what they call an "ecological civilization," although there is an omnipresent grey haze from pollution resulting from development. Three Gorges is a perfect model for Communist glory in heroic labor. This masterpiece of human construction has replaced and tamed three gorges, masterpieces of nature.Item Open Access Learning how to think like a mountain(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012-08-12) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherHolmes Rolston reports on a search to find the site where Aldo Leopold shot a wolf and watched the green fire in her dying eyes, learning to think like a mountain, Apache National Forest, Arizona. Thinking big in the big outdoors.Item Open Access Wild horses, vast desert: Mongolia's cultural and natural history both unique on Earth(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014-10-09) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherRolston travels to Mongolia to see Przewalski's horses, or takhi, the only truly wild horse, never domesticated, once extinct in the wild, and now restored to the Mongolian landscape from horses that were captive in European zoos. This distinct species has two more chromosomes than domestic horses. It became extinct in Mongolia in the 1960's and was restored by Dutch veterinarians in the 1990's, after Mongolia became independent, overthrowing the Communists. Rolston finds two groups, stallions with mares, one foal, a dozen takhi. Also, argali, the largest most robust bighorn sheep. Visit to Gobi desert.Item Open Access The spring bear hunt isn't fair: end it(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1990) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; The Denver Post, publisherArticle arguing against spring bear hunting in the state of Colorado. In the spring bear hunt, especially with dogs, cubs are separated from their nursing mothers. If the sow is killed, the cubs starve. Bear hunting is seldom for meat, largely trophy and recreational hunting. Does Colorado wish to be a state where macho men shoot nursing mothers for fun?Item Open Access Great Dismal Swamp is not a dismal place at all(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013-09-29) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherRolston account of paddling the Great Dismal Swamp along a "ditch" (canal) dug by the slaves of George Washington, in southeastern Virginia. Lake Drummond, natural and cultural history, folklore, biodiversity in the swamp, first settlers.Item Open Access Madagascar offers rare experience(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010-11-28) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherRolston's account of a trip to Madagascar in October 2010. Lemurs, endemic fauna and flora, flying foxes, conservation in Madagascar, loss of biodiversity, forests, eroded landscape, poverty of Malagasy people.Item Open Access Mystery and majesty in Washington County(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1968-11) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries, publisherRolston's accounts exploring fauna, flora, and natural history in Washington County, Southwestern Virginia, during a decade of residence there, 1960s. A tribute to the Southern Appalachian hills that once were home.Item Open Access September hawking on Clinch Mountain(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1964-09) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries, publisherFall raptor migrations observed from Clinch Mountain, Washington County, Virginia, late 1950s, early 1960s.Item Open Access Bristolian shoots rapids on America's wildest river(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1967) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Bristol Herald Courier, publisherRolston's account of a river run through the Grand Canyon, Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead, July 27-August 5, 1967.Item Open Access Wolves pack in entertainment(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherRolston's account of tracking and watching wolves in Yellowstone National Park, March 2011. Agate Creek Pack, and yearling pups. Lamar Pack and elk kills. Grizzly eating bison. Alpha 06 female, pregnant, and recollections of her chasing bears from her den. Sixteen years of wolf restoration in Yellowstone.Item Open Access Searching for tigers in India(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherRolston spots two tigers in the wild, one in Ranthambore National Park, one in Kanha National Park in India. Other wildlife seen: leopard, cheetal, sambar, barasinga, nilgai, gaur, wild pigs, jackals, Sarus cranes, bar headed geese. Conservation of tigers in India.Item Open Access Komodo dragons highlight Indonesian adventure(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherRolston account of a September 2011 trip to see Komodo dragons in the wild, on Komodo and Rinca Islands, Indonesia. Also Orange-footed Scrubfowl, or Megapodes.Item Open Access The Pasqueflower(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1979) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; American Museum of Natural History, publisherThe Pasqueflower surviving through winter, blooming at the Pasque, Easter, offers a glimpse of the precocious exuberance of life, a token of the covenant of life to continue in beauty despite the wintry storms. To pause at first encountering it in spring is to find a moment of truth, a moment of memory and promise. Let winters come, life will flower on as long as Earth shall last.Item Open Access We should preserve our western skyline(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1981) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherAdvocating saving Horsetooth Mountain as a county park, with a referendum for sales tax increase enabling purchase of land owned by a farmer and threatened by development. Horsetooth Mountain should be preserved as the most distinctive of the foothills peaks between Denver and Wyoming. The logo of the city of Fort Collins is this mountain, with a skein of geese, chosen as a scene distinctive to our home landscape.Item Open Access Save Poudre as signature of eternity(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1979-1989) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherAdvocating saving the Poudre River as wild and scenic, against development and dams for irrigation and residential water. The Poudre River canyon is an age-old gorge with a river still flowing free, an impressive signature of time and eternity. Having it near a growing metropolitan area, Fort Collins, is especially important for keeping a sense of perspective in the Rocky Mountain West. Saving the Poudre preserves wildness and simultaneously keeps those who visit it better proportioned persons.Item Open Access Siberia: beautiful, bleak, full of uncertainty(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1997) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherReport on a trip to Siberia and Lake Baikal, with a focus on conservation biology, led by Russian scientists, and sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Riding the Trans-Siberian railway across its wildest stretches and exploring the oldest and deepest lake on Earth, with 1,500 endemic species. What should Siberia be? Forever wild? Developed? Certainly, not further exploited and impoverished.Item Open Access Exploring the great migration of the Serengeti(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherReport on trip to see the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti, Tanzania. In the vast wildebeest migration, a million and a half ungainly antelope migrate a thousand miles showing an endurance that belies their clumsy appearance. The American West once had a more vast migration: over 30 million bison, and we lost that greater wonder. Tanzanians, among the poorer nations, are quite resolved to keep the wildebeest free on their landscape. Older than human history, today this is the greatest wildlife show on Earth.Item Open Access Galapagos: following in Darwin's footsteps(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherReport on trip to the Galapagos Islands. Rolston recalls Darwin's experience encountering hundreds of "most disgusting, clumsy lizards," three-foot marine iguanas. Not "pretty," but then again not "disgusting." He is not surprised that the weird wildlife had set the young Darwin thinking. Strangely, Darwin's genius at recognizing these remote islands as an evolutionary hotspot led to a revolution in the human view of who we are, where we are, and even of life itself.Item Open Access Nature of the beast: in Uganda, people and primates face unique struggles(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2003) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherReport on trip to Uganda: gorilla and chimpanzee conservation and development. Uganda primate encounters leave a more lasting searching both for human origins and future hopes. Here the human species, exemplified in these Ugandans overcoming tragedy and hardship, is seeking to conserve these nearest of our primate kin. Paradoxically, in that very caring, we reveal the still quite stupendous divide that separates us from them.Item Open Access Nepal: sublime surrounds simple life(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1998) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Fort Collins Coloradoan, publisherReport on trip to Nepal, environmental conservation, and human development, 1998. A trek in the Himalayas proves a stimulating mix of the sublime majesty of nature and the simple life of the Nepalis. They eke out a living, terracing steep slopes with manual labor. They seem backward; there is personal integrity in their weathered faces. Everest is an icon of this dialectic of majesty and poverty.