After 10 days in Antigua and Barbuda, then a quick two-day trip to Salt Lake City, it is time for me to catch up on work. I am posting three research papers that some of our clients and readers will find interesting.
First, the USFWS has compiled the birding data from the 2006 national survey into a descrete publication. Titled “Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis.” According to the agency, the “report presents information on the participation and expenditure patterns of 48 million birders in 2006. Trip-related and equipment-related expenditures associated with birding generated over $82 billion in total industry output, 671,000 jobs, and $11 billion in local, state, and federal tax revenue.”
The second report is part of a continuing series of reports by Pew Internet about internet use and American life. The report, titled “Wireless Internet Use,” focuses on the growing use of wireless access, and the impact of handheld devices on this growth. Of particular interest is the way that handheld devices are bridging the racial divide in internet usage. Fermata is unquestionably committed to using these technologies to enhance our interpretive and recreational work.
Finally, I came across a fascinating article titled “Introduction: The Politics of Engagement between Biodiversity Conservation and the Social Sciences” by Buscher and Wolmer. Consider this quote from Latour;
The words ‘social’ and ‘nature’ used to hide two different projects that cut across both of those ill-assembled assemblies: one to trace connections among unexpected entities and another to make those connections hold in a somewhat livable whole. The mistake is is not in trying to do two things at once – every science is also a political project – the mistake is to interrupt the former because of the urgency of the latter.
As one who has lived through these conflicts throughout my career, I welcome this study. Enjoy!
Ted Eubanks
27 July 2009
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