We here at 10,000 Birds tend not to wear our politics on our sleeves, preferring to focus on birds, bugs, nature and conservation.  But the current election for President of the United States is critical: after eight years of the Bush Administration gutting environmental regulations and being almost completely inactive on global warming (when not [...]

We the people own in common all sorts of physical resources, valuable commodities that certain business entities or organizations would love to get their greedy talons on. Since you and I lack the time, infrastructure, or, frankly, the expertise to manage our massive portfolio, we appoint agents to manage them for us. Actually, we elect [...]

Of course there is much more to the American commons portfolio than mineral wealth waiting to be extracted, air and water resources eager to be bent to man’s will. Our dominion, as some describe it, extends over countless flora and fauna. Many of these species serve as commercial goods as components of textiles, construction, or [...]

Real estate comprises a substantial portion of what we consider the American commons, but as important as land is, we can’t forget about those assets that lie beneath, grow upon, or billow above it. Clean air, for example, is a priceless commodity. Those who believe otherwise have never seen smog settle like a [...]

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose.
The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.
The poor and wretched [...]

The Cato Institute is far from the only organization spinning the snake-oil salesman line about how the commons are best preserved by being sold off and exploited. It is no coincidence that the advocates of privatization are also rampant opponents of conservation. Consumerism all the way, baby!
Who opposes the protection of the commons? I [...]

For many, the idea of assets and ecosystems is too abstract. Commodities like timber are too dry (sometimes literally) and boring to care about. Let’s get to the good stuff. What are some of the really cool things we the American people own? How about these:
Acadia National Park
Arches National Park
Big Bend National Park
Denali National [...]

What exactly are these commons you’re supposed to protect? You, as an American citizen, own an incredible wealth of natural resources. Maybe the magnitude of this windfall hasn’t sunk in yet. The concept of purple mountains majesty and fruited plains seems so ambiguous. What exactly is included in the American commons?
The US encompasses six, count [...]

In 2006, I penned a series of posts explaining the myriad reasons why we (meaning the United States) as a nation need to protect our commons. The shameless efforts of the Bush Administration to sell off public lands and assets to private corporations were what initially drove me to explore these issues, but my frustration [...]

How can there be peace when the people who cause war still clamor for the perpetuation of our misery? The arrogance that lives in the government palaces and the houses of the lords of land and big business is still screaming for war and death for our race; they won’t tolerate the idea that indigenous [...]

When it comes to conservation, everything is connected to everything else.  Most of the birds that pass throught the United States during migration either winter elsewhere, breed elsewhere, or, in many cases, spend the majority of their lovely, little lives elsewhere. Thus, efforts to protect wildlife can’t begin and end in one’s own backyard.  We [...]

I was logging into my Yahoo account just now and I noticed - at the bottom of the page - this charming mail from a concerned citizen (”They Can’t Deport Us All” - who in his Yahoo profile calls himself “a crazy mexican”) wondering whether shooting a fly-over Wood Duck in the way he did [...]

BirdLife International reported last week that the EU Commission has announced that the ban on imports of birds caught in the wild is to be made permanent throughout the European Union later this year. A temporary ban was enacted in October 2005 in reponse to the discovery of H5N1 avian influenza in a UK quarantine [...]

Seth, online bookseller extraordinaire and ally to the Core Team, brought to my attention a while back the writings of an ardent conservationist better known for his modest success in politics. I’m talking, of course, about Theodore Roosevelt. A chapter in his 1916 work, A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open is titled “Bird Reserves At [...]

On a day as fraught with peril and opportunity as this, one likes to trot out George Bernard Shaw’s old chestnut that “democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” Well, I respectfully disagree. The American people have yet another chance to break the stranglehold of the most [...]

I got a fair amount of stick a few weeks ago when I posted a photo of a young lad holding a trio of blood-stained, dead American Woodcock. The debate that followed ending up being about hunting vs non-hunting - which missed the point I wanted to make. After years of watching wildlife and wildlife [...]

So the proposed constitutional amendment that would have enabled Congress to ban desecration of the American flag   failed by one (only one?!?) vote. Fortunately, all is not lost for those lawmakers willing to tamper with the Bill of Rights to prove their all-consuming patriotism. Senator Mel Martinez (R, Florida) said any desecration of the flag [...]

Two owls in the Genus Strix populate North America. The first of these, the Barred Owl, is highly adaptable, common throughout the eastern United States and much of Canada, and in the process of expanding its range. The second, the  Spotted Owl, is sedentary, rare, and specialized, requiring very specific habitat to survive. The two [...]

Some of you may have noticed that politics hasn’t been a very welcome topic on this blog since early November. Like so many other patriots, I’ve been open-jawed in amazed disbelief at the way events have unfolded. All of my fears regarding the environment, economy, and social policy are coming true, and with gas at [...]

It’s Friday and I’m sure we all want to have a little fun. Have I got a film for you!
FAHRENHEIT WHATEVER (whatever temperature it takes to make a house made entirely out of matches BURN) is a funny and compelling drama of what happens when an ordinary family asks Bush for a practical solution to [...]