August 2024 Newsletter
the power of PLACE
We are as gods
“We are as gods and might as well get good at it”. Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalogue, 1968.
“We are as gods and have to get good at it”. Interview with Stewart Brand, Edge, 2009.
Humans have transitioned from being a thread in the tapestry of life, to being the image within which all threads are woven. Reaching back to the Greeks, the Moirai, or the fates, were the three goddesses, perhaps best known as the witches of MacBeth, that wove the fate of humans. However, humans have taken over the loom; the tapestry that lays out our fate is of our own weaving.
Nitrogen is a critical part of the warp (vertical threads) and weft (horizontal threads). Three percent of our bodies are made of nitrogen, following oxygen (65%), carbon (18.5%), and hydrogen (9.5%). Nitrogen is critical to the proteins which are building blocks of our bodies, the nucleic acids that store our genetic information, and the ATP molecules that we use to manage energy.
Ian Billick | PhD
Executive Director, RMBL
sciencestories
Wolves welcome
Eric Odell wasn’t raised by wolves, but he’ll be living with them, along with the other people who call western Colorado home.
Eric is the Wolf Conservation Program Manager at Colorado Parks and Wildlife. He’s in charge of the agency’s plan to reintroduce and manage gray wolves (Canis lupis) in western Colorado. The project is mandated by state law. In 2020, Colorado citizens voted to begin reintroducing wolves in the state by December 31, 2023.
So, partnering with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Colorado Parks and Wildlife captured 10 healthy wolves (six females and four males), fitted them with GPS collars, and released them on public land in Grand and Summit counties in December 2023. Among the newcomers, one pair has already mated and delivered pups.
Next year, CPW plans to bring another 10 to 15 animals to the state. The goal is to establish a population of wolves that are self-sustaining.