With NWF's Great American Backyard Campout  right around the corner, (JUNE 28th 2008) I thought it would be great to post about great resources campers can use while on their own personal outdoor adventures. So to begin I'll start with the necessary items (like first aid and packing lists) and I'll finish up with some campfire activities everyone can enjoy!

Camping Essentials:

#1. Know What You're Packin':
First things first, it helps to have a thorough packing list for a camping trip. Don't forget to include items like your sun glasses, sunscreen and bug spray!(If you are a beginning camper..check out this pdf that tells you everything you'll need.)

#2. Always Remember First Aid!
Safety is always important, and so is making sure you have a handy first aid kit ! Once you create a first aid kit that includes all the essentials, you can take it with you and hopefully never use it.

#3 Be Extra Safe With These Camping and Campfire Tips.
Don't forget to read over some great tips on how to best prepare you and your friends or family for camping! Here are some safe campfire and camping tips to keep in mind.

#4 Camping-Friendly Recipes: Everything From Sloppy Joes to Cornbread.
Just because you may be far away from a traditional stove doesn't mean you have to miss out on delicious food. Here are some great camping recipes that also include some awesome pie iron tips! If you've got camping recipes to share, be sure to visit and share them on the forum!
Check them out and don't forget to pack them when the time comes...

#5 Use Wildlife Resources To Observe Your "Neighbors"
NWF encourages people to learn about their natural surroundings and that includes in your backyard or nearby park. Using great sites like Wildlife Watch and Night Watch, you can observe wildlife in a number of ways! Download wildlife lists and keep an eye, ear and nose out for fun things to spot.

#6 Camping Games and Activities:
If you are between the ages of 6-113 then you should check out these games and crafts. I'm all for crafts, and while I know that is a little unusual for a girl in her twenties, I have to admit that i'm excited to check out campfire games. And I've definitely made my share of terrariums in my day! Also, don't forget to sing along to these fine camping songs!( I personally don't subject people to my singing, but be my guest!)


For those of you who do take the time to do Campout on June 28th and would like to commemorate the night, feel free to check out our selection of t-shirts. But we encourage people to camp through out the summer and in doing so connect to our wonderful surroundings. There are some awesome resources to find the right answers to your camping questions! You can even find a campsite with ReserveAmerica and continue the adventure while learning more about wildlife.


What's the buzz around campout? Check out these awesome blogs and what they have to say...

Tree Hugger
Georgia Outdoors
Great Wild Outdoors
Life as A Mom
Newswise
Tampa Bay Newspaper

From the Associated Press:

Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.

The Fish and Wildlife Service issued regulations this week providing legal protection to seven oil companies planning to search for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska if "small numbers" of polar bears or Pacific walruses are incidentally harmed by their activities over the next five years. [...]

Exploring in the Chukchi Sea's 29.7 million acres will require as many as five drill ships, one or two icebreakers, a barge, a tug and two helicopter flights per day, according to the government. Oil companies will also be making hundred of miles of ice roads and trails along the coastline.

The National Wildlife Federation was already suspicious of the Bush administration's commitment to protecting polar bears. Now the Center for Biological Diversity calls this decision "a blank check to harass the polar bear in the Chukchi Sea."

It’s no secret that the economy has slowed down in recently months.  Gas and grocery prices are up, and we’re all looking for ways to save a buck. So what’s a backyard bird watcher to do when it’s time to refill the bird feeder with expensive seed? Resourceful bird lovers can continue to attract birds without breaking the bank with these tips.

1.  Plant Natural Feeders – Birds only use feeders to supplement the natural foods they find in the landscape, so focus of your bird-feeding efforts on your plants even in good economic times. Plants feed birds with seeds, berries, nuts, sap and nectar as well as shelter and nesting places. Once planted, they’ll provide free bird food for years to come. Get a list of the best plants for your state here.

2.    Say No to Insecticides – Before you reach for the bug killer think about this: 96 percent of bird species in  North America feed their babies insects. Most adult birds rely on insects as a source of protein too, but even those that primarily eat plant foods as adults still feed their young insects, including hummingbirds. Make sure you have plenty of insect life for the birds by going organic and eliminating insecticides. Let the birds control the insects for you.

3.   Go Native – Native plants that grow naturally in your area provide birds with the foods they’ve been eating for thousands of years and thrive in local soils and weather. Many exotic plants don’t provide seeds or fruits that birds can eat and those that do have become invasive pests. Native plants also support up to 60 percent more insects than exotics and therefore more birds. Luckily, many natives are ornamental and commercially available (check out American Beauties native plants).

4.   Attract Birds with Water – Even if you can’t provide food, a simple bird bath with clean water will attract plenty of birds to your yard. Replace the water every three days to keep the bath clean and to avoid mosquito problems.

5.   Free Food – Make your own suet by recycling bacon grease. Next time you fry up a batch of bacon, pour the grease into a plastic container and freeze it. You can then put it out in a suet cage or mesh onion bags as a high calorie treat for birds such as woodpeckers, jays and chickadees. Saving the plastic packages from store-bought suet and using them again to make your own will save you even more.

6.  Buy in Bulk – If you are addicted to watching the constant activity of birds visiting your feeders, consider buying seed in bulk to save some cash. Avoid seed blends which often have “filler” seeds that most birds toss aside and feed black-oil sunflower seed, which all feeder birds relish. Store seed in a metal container with a secure lid to keep moisture and other critters out.

7.  Grow Your Own Feeders – Plant sunflowers instead of buying expensive sunflower seed. The flowers look beautiful and also provide nectar for bees and other beneficial insects. In the fall, cut the flower heads and hang them in the yard as home-grown bird feeders.

For more tips on attracting wildlife, check out the series I host on Animal Planet called Backyard Habitat (which just came out on DVD)  and my book Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife.

You can also have your yard or garden recognized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat by National Wildlife Federation.

Photo Copyright © 2008 National Wildlife Federation and its licensors.

With each issue of National Wildlife® magazine reaching more than 1 million homes, it's a pretty high honor for the photographers who are featured on the cover. Guess what? You can be one of those lucky shutterbugs by entering the 38th Annual National Wildlife Magazine Photo Contest!

I was lucky enough to talk to Jill Stanley, one of NWF's photo editors and contest judges to find out all the dirt on the contest and on getting your photos published on the cover of National Wildlife. Here are a few tips for entering and making this goal a reality, even if photography is only a hobby for you.

Who was last year's contest winner?
Piotr Kwatera

Was he an amateur or professional?
He was an amateur from Krakow, Poland!

What percentage would you say of people who enter are amateur vs. professional?
Because we only recently opened the contest up to the Pros within the last few years, the professional numbers have been on the low side. I would say that about 80% of our entrants are amateur--which has been great for them. That said, however, we've really beefed things up with the photo contest this year and have made the competition more attractive to professional photographers, so we have higher expectations this year in terms of an increase in exceptional photography!

In the past five years, who won more often? Amateurs or pros?  
Definitely amateurs. They surprise us every year with stunning entries. Amateurs tend to also submit more entries per submission so their chances of being recognized is higher. Professional photographers really tend to edit down their submissions and sometimes limit themselves by only entering a few. 

Do the winning pics always include wildlife?
Not all winning entries include wildlife.  We have other categories like "Connecting People and Nature," "Landscapes and Plant Life" as well as a "Backyard Habitats" category. We've tried to be as wide open as we can in terms of wildlife and nature photography.

How do you recommend people to choose the photos they enter?
It's a good question. I think anytime you submit your photographs to a magazine, photo contest or a photo editor, strongly consider your audience and tailor your submission to suit their tastes. In this case, we represent Wildlife and nature. I can't tell you how often we continue to get photos of Aunt Vera's cat "Fluffy" or someone's dog sitting on the back porch just as cute as can be. They are great, but they're not for our photo contest.

Any insider tips?
Study our publication. Pick up a few copies of National Wildlife magazine or scroll through some of the previous winners from www.nwf.org/photozone to familiarize yourself with our style and subject and you'll get a good sense of our expectations. Additionally, don't over do it. Some entrants have come so close to winning until the other judges and I open up the file to take a closer look only to realize that a tree branch has suddenly, magically appeared out of nowhere--or--they've over-saturated or changed colors so much that it clearly is not representing true nature. We also get excited to see wildlife behavior captured in a photo!

Ready for the challenge? Submit up to 20 of your best photos today!

Check out last year's winners...

I was feeling down after my last post about the extinction of the Caribbean monk seal, only to get a  notification a few minutes later about NWF's new wildlife adoption program. 

Here's how it works.  It's a symbolic adoption, meaning that you adopt a species that needs our help rather than an individual animal. You make a $30 donation in the name of the species of your choice which supports NWF's work protecting wildlife.  As thanks, you'll get a stuffed animal plus an adoption certificate and a screensaver featuring your adopted species. (But for me, the biggest benefit is knowing that you're participating in the protection of some amazing animals that really do need our help.)

The stuffed animals are not only really cute, they've been crafted to truly resemble the real-life animal. And you can even make an adoption in someone else's name too, which makes a great gift.

Some of my favorite species up for adoption are the grizzly bear, river otter, desert tortoise and barking tree frog.  Check out the full list of species here.

The Caribbean monk seal has been officially declared extinct.  It's the only seal species to go extinct specifically from human causes.  Both the Hawaiian monk seal and the Mediterranean monk seal survive but are endangered.  As we continue to feel the impacts of global warming, there are several other seal species that might be heading down the path to extinction.

For most folks, dinner comes neatly packaged from the grocery store.  But before it reaches the shelves, all of our food comes from the land in one way or another.  And did you know that some foods that aren’t farmed at all, but are found only in nature?  Late spring is a great time to connect with natural world by trying some of these wild edibles!

Dandelion
The flowers of these sunny lawn weeds can be made into a tasty drink called dandelion wine and the greens make an excellent salad green.  In fact, all parts of this plant are edible and are chock full of nutrients.  Buy them in the grocery store – or simply harvest them from your own herbicide-free yard.

Morels
The scrumptious, earthy flavor of wild morel mushrooms is legendary.  They only grow in the wild and morel hunters across the country are in the woods in full force looking for these delectable fungi.

Garlic Mustard
This invasive exotic weed crowds out native woodland plants and the wildlife that depend on them.  Why let the weeds win when you can pull them and turn them into a tasty garlic mustard pesto?  You’ll be doing a favor for the forest -- your taste buds too!

Fiddleheads
New, unopened fern fronds are known as fiddleheads, and those of some fern species are not only edible, they’re downright delicious!

Insects and Spiders
That’s not a typo. All sorts of arthropods from crickets to cicadas to spiders are edible and surprisingly nutritious.

Wild Edibles Tips
1. NEVER eat anything that you cannot identify with 100 percent confidence.
2. Don’t harvest from areas sprayed with pesticides.
3. Search local farmers markets and natural grocery stores first before collecting from the wild.
4. Search online for local foragers groups or wild food experts who can help you identify potential foods and coordinate foraging trips.
5. If you do collect from the wild, don’t be greedy.  Leave plenty to provide for wildlife and to ensure the next generation.

Check out this video of Indy Lights racer Leilani Münter talking to TMZ about her environmental efforts! Leilani was in town for a rally in support of the Climate Security Act. Learn more about Leilani at her website.

If you haven't yet contacted your senator to ask them to strengthen and pass the Climate Security Act, visit the National Wildlife Federation's Climate Action Center.