Mark Smith
Published on Jun 7, 2017
I followed a pair of nesting Sandhill Cranes for 3 months. In that short time span, I captured hours worth of incredible footage and walked among these majestic birds. The things I learned humbled me, saddened me and taught me more than I could ever have imagined. Take a small peek inside the incredible life of these awesome birds.

Contributing Editor Nate Morris’ Facebook post about 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre goes viral
By The Black Wall St Times on June 4, 2018



Ninety-seven years ago today, the first bombs ever dropped on American soil fell on the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, OK.

Greenwood ― the most preeminent black community in the United States at the time ― was home to 10,000 residents and contained scores of black-owned businesses, hotels, restaurants, law offices, doctors offices, movie theaters, and more. Following an incident between a young black man and a young white woman in a downtown elevator, many of the nearly 3,200 Klan members in Tulsa and countless more white vigilantes armed themselves with firearms and marched north to Greenwood.

They opened fire in the streets, set businesses and homes ablaze, and dropped napalm-like bombs from fertilizer planes flying overhead.

With the help of the National Guard and the local police force, they arrested nearly 6,000 black residents and forced them into temporary internment camps in the Brady Theater ― now a popular Tulsa music venue ― while their thriving community was systematically leveled. Many of those imprisoned were starved, beaten and killed in the same space the city hosts jubilant concerts in today.

More: https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2018/06/04/contributing-editor-nate-morris-facebook-post-about-1921-tulsa-race-massacre-goes-viral/

Snakes in a bag
Service and partners work together to bring back the iconic Eastern indigo snake

By Dan Chapman, Public Affairs SpecialistMay 25, 2018

Andalusia, Alabama — A gaggle of biologists, zookeepers, college students and government officials traipsed through the Deep South longleaf pine forest one recent, gorgeous spring morning carefully clutching white pillowcases.

They were looking for holes. More specifically, gopher tortoise burrows into which they could deposit their precious cargo of Eastern indigo snakes, aka “Emperors of the Forest.”

The smooth, black, long — longest in North America — indigo snake is listed as federally threatened under the Endangered Species Act and in dire need of propagation and restoration to historical habitats. An all-hands-on-deck approach towards saving the much-loved, non-venomous indigo from extinction creates odd bedfellows.

Tony Brady, deputy project leader at Welaka National Fish Hatchery.
Photo by Dan Chapman, USFWS.

“There he goes,” said Tony Brady, a fishery biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as a snake slithered from his pillowcase into a burrow at the Conecuh National Forest. “When we release them, we know we’ve done our job.”

https://www.fws.gov/southeast/articles/snakes-in-a-bag/