Earth Day, Every Day

We recently invited award-winning Leap author Bonnie J. Doerr to share her thoughts on Earth Day with our readers. Bonnie's a passionate conservationist and an author with an amazingly generous heart. Her MG novels about adventurous teens helping rescue endangered species will soon be joined

by an exciting new novel called Tangled Lines. And it's because of Bonnie's devotion to our world's environment that we asked her to write this post.

Earth Day elicits mixed feelings for me. While it’s uplifting to see and hear people the world over appreciating the wonders of nature and the importance of protecting our environment, it’s sad that we designate one day to remind ourselves of what should be obvious every day. We depend on the environment for our existence. But we have become increasingly separated from nature, living a plugged-in life inside four walls, within cities made of boxes stacked side by side and on top of each other, rarely considering the source of our sustenance.

This boxed-in life leads to nature deficit disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv in Last Child in the Woods. One deficiency of this disorder is a careless environmental attitude. If a child  never experiences wonder at a seed’s transformation into a living plant, never truly sees it grow to provide food, raw materials for shelter or clothing; if he never contemplates the source of oxygen while breathing forest air or experiences the sensation of wading in a creek, or swimming in a lake or ocean; if she never touches, sees, smells, or hears the flora and fauna that provide food, energy, and fertilizer to sustain life... Well, truth is, if a child doesn’t interact and connect with nature, how can we expect him to care about the environment? To a child living inside four walls his environment may be fine. Especially if he controls it with a thermostat. Ecology? Conservation? Meh.

I  combine my ecological passion and love of adventure to write about teens who don’t spend all day in a box. They experience wild outdoor adventures. Like many teens, they have family, school, and friendship problems. They can’t often control trouble in their own lives, but they boldly fight to protect wildlife and their local environment.

 Readers who never venture outdoors can inside the pages of my novels safely explore the ocean, tropical forests, and rugged beaches. They can survive wild storms, heroically outwit dangerous criminals, and solve mysteries that baffle adults, all while protecting wildlife and the ecological health of their own community.

I write with the hope that my characters’ appreciation for nature will slyly leak from eagerly turned pages onto the skin and into the hearts of my readers—that they, like my characters, will realize their power and use it to protect and create a healthy, enriching, and sustainable environment.

Find out more about Bonnie's books and her mission at her blog.

Fan of coloring pages? Here's an Earth Day freebie for you! Select the image on the left and print it. When you're done enjoying your coloring page, please recycle it. 

Pelicans in Peril

The Gulf oil spill continues to endanger many animals. Leap Books wants to support the rescue efforts in any way they can. In addition to publishing books that highlight endangered animals, the company and its authors have donated money to wildlife agencies.

We hope our readers will also consider donating to the many wildlife agencies that are saving animals and birds caught in the oil spill. One of these organizations is IBRRC (International Bird Rescue Research Center).

IBRRC's Flickr shows pictures of pelicans covered with oil and how they are being cleaned. They also have this video and others at YouTube:

Though the task at times may seem impossible, IBRRC won't give up. As they say, "we maintain the belief that each individual animal is just one part of the larger population. We recognize that each life is valuable and that each animal is deserving of our care. In a world where life is not always respected and cherished we feel that preserving even the life of one bird sends an important message."

Leap Books agrees. Prior to the Gulf crisis, our author Bonnie J. Doerr had been researching pelican rescues for the third book in her eco-mystery series, Pelican Peril, so these birds are near and dear to our hearts. Please do what you can to help these pelicans and we will too. For the next few days, we'll highlight some ways you can help.

Pelicans Endangered Again

Nicknamed the Pelican State, Louisiana was once home to thriving colonies of brown pelicans. The state seal and early flag featured these nesting birds with their deep beaks for scooping up fish.

In the early 1900s about 50,000 brown pelicans lived along the Louisiana coast. Less than fifty years later, that number had dropped to 5000. By 1963 not one nesting pair could be found. The major cause was the pesticide DDT. The Mississippi River had carried it from the farms to the pelican nesting areas. DDT thinned out the eggshells, so when pelicans sat on their nests, they destroyed their eggs.

After DDT was banned, a pelican restocking program began. Wildlife refuges were set up on the barrier islands, and by the early 2000s, the pelicans had begun their return.

Now the pelicans are facing another danger. The massive amounts of oil spewing into the water off the Louisiana shore are imperiling wildlife, especially on the barrier islands and marshes.

According to the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC), a dime-sized drop of oil is enough to kill a bird. Oil clumps a bird's feathers so it has no protection from the cold and it loses its buoyancy. A bird's instinct is to preen its feathers to remove the oil, which also harms its internal organs.

Birds can even die of stress when rescuers try to wash their feathers, so refuge workers give the birds food, water, and medical treatment before they dip them into baths of dishwashing detergent and water. IBRRC estimates that it takes 300 gallons of water to clean one oil-soaked bird.

Oil isn't the only threat to the endangered pelicans. Leap Books author Bonnie J. Doerr is busy writing Pelican Peril, her third eco-mystery. Here's a picture of Bonnie helping refuge workers in the Florida Keys save some pelicans.

Find out more at Bonnie's blog, Bonnie Blogs Green.