News from Gulf - Don Norman Working to Assess Damage

News From the Gulf Oil Spill

Our friend and Native Plant guy, Don Norman is actually a Wildlife Biologist, from Shoreline, where he owns and operates Go Natives Nursery supplying Native Plants to gardeners in our area. He has done extensive bird life studies in the Gulf Habitat Areas in the past and is now offering his professional services again. He's also a principal in the Puget Sound Bird Observatory.

He is now on a mission in New Orleans area to help out on assessments of the damages from the Gulf Oil Spill. He is sending us occasional updates from the field which we'll publish here.

Don was interviewed on Nightline yesterday! We're all proud of the work he's doing.
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/lousiana-beach-gulf-oil-spill/story?id=10752755

Today, just a short greeting as things are getting underway. To help Don out on his mission, you can purchase some plants from his nursery. Check - http://gonatives.com/about_gonatives.htm


Greetings Friends:

Things are getting really grim and crazy down here.  Check out the story that nightline did on Wed on ABC news.

I am off to meet with NYT reporter...

If you are looking to a way to support efforts down here, consider the NO Musician's clinic.  

If we can't get any more seafood, we can still get the music...

More later... 

don

ABC News - Nightline Story -

Awhile later, "Nightline" joined Cathy Norman's brother, Don, a wildlife biologist and toxicologist, on a boat as he set out to do an assessment of the bird population on Wisner Trust lands.

At this time of year there are more than 50 species of birds on these lands.

As we arrived at the beach, a work team overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers was scrambling to block a breach so that oil wouldn't enter the fragile marshlands.

It was already too late. Oil contamination was widely apparent.

"It's very likely that these birds that are oiled will not survive," said Don Norman. "If the bird has actually been feeding in the water that's got oil in it, it could be ingesting [oil] on or in the organisms it's [eating]."

Oil Spill: Tracking Impact on Wildlife

For 10 years Norman has been doing a census of the bird here. He has watched the population recover from the havoc of Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav. But for the last month, he has been waiting and wondering if BP's spewing oil well represents an even bigger threat.