Cuba 2009
Cuba 2009 – Images by Tom McMurray Cuba is a remarkable place in so many different ways. It is a Caribbean paradise with some of the most pristine reefs in the sea, it’s history is rich with culture, food and music, it’s sophisticated people and it still lives under the vestiges of the Soviet style [...]
BP Oil Spill Damage Assessment
On July 27, 2010, I accompanied wetlands restoration ecologist Professor Curt Richardson from Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment to New Orleans to assess the oil spill damage to the Delta wetlands. Via tow helicopter flights and two boat trips, we covered most the Mississippi delta wetlands in Plaquemines and Jefferson Parrishes down to the [...]
Colorado River Delta
Here are some aerial photos taken with our two partners, The Lighthawk Foundation and the Sonoran Institute, in May 2010. Colorado River Delta – Images by tom mcmurray
Colorado River Delta
We were invited to do an aerial survey of the Colorado River Delta from Yuma south to the Gulf of California. While it was a majestic 2 million acre wetland back in the 1920s, the people of the West have drained the water from the Colorado River so that the delta has dried up. Once [...]
Looking back at Midway
Back from Midway Atoll now. These immersive experiences are always intense but wonderful. Since it was my second trip to Midway, I was prepared for most of what we saw – 500,000 albatross, 25 endangered monk seals, endangered Laysan ducks and slowing crumbling infrastructure from 40 years of Navy presence on the Atoll. But [...]
Midway Atoll Photos
I am posting some of the many photos taken on Midway in the past 4 days. We have been engaged in three areas: albatross conservation, Hawaiian monk seal counts and marine debris cleanup. See what you think. Tracy getting up close to ID a monk seal on West Beach. Most monk seals are tagged but [...]
Midway Atoll, 177.4 West, 28.5 North
MIdway Atoll is 1200 miles NW of Honolulu, HI. Part of the new Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Midway atoll is composed of three islands, the largest being 1100 acre in size, famous for the critical battle in WWI, home to over 1,000,000 albatross and my home for 10 days this month. I am here with a [...]
Blog repaired and back online…
We had our blog hacked by someone with a web address in Russia a couple weeks ago. We had to rebuild it and are still working to get the photos and video links reestablished. Hopefully we will get everything back to the way it was. In the meantime 2009 has gone and 2010 arrived. And [...]
Fall Fires
It has been a while since we last posted. We have been focused on analyzing our aerial photos from this summer and preparing for the last shoot on the Henrys Fork before the snows come. We should have around 6,000 aerial photos hosted on the web and available to the community in the next [...]
Yellowstone wolf: native species or invasive species?
Living in Jackson Hole has its pluses and minuses. And like anywhere in America, once you head out of town and talk to people you find different opinions about important matters. Ranchers in the West are the old breed, the people who tamed the West, the people who work through the long hard winters [...]
The Cove…
I would recommend you watch this trailer from the movie The Cove… While there are always cultural issues between countries, some things are considered sacred regardless. And we each have the right to speak out for what we believe is right and just. These people did that and more. Decide for yourself.
What’s up on the Henrys Fork?
Water quality testing is what’s been happening on the Ranch. We completed a series of tests at six locations from below Island Park Dam down to Fish Creek at Wood Road. The water samples were sent off to a Idaho state certified lab in Pocatello and we should have results this week. We did [...]
New MVF web pages online now!
Joe, McCain and Maddie checking the BAP rig at the Stock Bridge in Harriman State Park, ID. We recently updated the MVF website with a new section describing our aerial photographic work on the Henrys Fork. Included are some sample full resolution datasets from aerial flights in June, 2009. You can click here to view [...]
Spread Creek Recon
We are up and running full speed here in Jackson Hole for the summer focused on a couple of key conservation projects. Along with the work on the Caldera Project on the Henry’s Fork, we are also exploring and baselining a few critical cutthroat trout spawning creeks in the Snake River ecosystem. One of those [...]
Ethiopia Clean Water Project
You wonder sometimes whether your efforts to make this planet a better place to live produces results or just is more churn. This guy started wineforwater.org and in my book… he delivers… and he inspires me to do more. The Ethiopia Project from Wine For Water on Vimeo.
New water video…
Here is a new bottled water video that will premiere in Maine this summer. I read that review a couple years ago that described the environmental cost of drinking bottled water. So I stopped buying it except on road trips and stuff. My current bottled supply stock consists of 5 reused 16 oz diet coke [...]
Rio Parana Conservation Video
We are working on a conservation video from our latest expedition to the Rio Parana in Northern Argentina. This massive river is second in size the the Amazon River in South America and is home of the national fish of Argentina: the Golden Dorado. The river is also home to all the forces that slowly [...]
Cap and Trade Fishing
I think we all have struggled to understand the current carbon cap and trade debate. I don’t totally understand the rules of how the cap is set and what are the trading rules. But there is a new proposaed cap and trade that is easy to understand and has real merit – that is the [...]
Snake River Spring Runoff Update
It is that time of year when I start planning for the summer work in the Wyoming and Idaho. And working there is always about the snow melt runoff. Above is the latest report on the Snake River drainage and resevoir levels. Water storage has been high all thru 2008 and this year looks like [...]
