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Name: Doc. J
From: ShiloBrats
Name: Doc. J
From: ShiloBrats
Comments:
The article on skinks and Errol Bredin was available for everyone to read when the link was first posted in InterActive! Now it seems even newspapers have pay per view. This was the part of the article about Errol.
LOCAL CHAMPION
Much of what is known about skinks is thanks largely to one man who has been chasing them for 47 years.
As a typical boy growing up on the Shilo military base, Errol Bredin spent his summers pocketing frogs, scrutinizing rocks for fossils and mastering the art of catching the small lizards darting around the sand hills. It's a tricky skill: A skink can drop its tail and regrow it later, so it's best to lay an open, gentle slap over the lizard's body and scoop it up, lest you are left with just a twitching tail.
For decades, Mr. Bredin, 58, felt like the only one interested in skinks. Even today, lifelong locals can be surprised to discover that they have a lizard in their midst.
But as the years passed, the field naturalist became increasingly concerned at what he was seeing. Sandy, open sites where he used to study skinks as a teen now lie deep in aspen forest. The march of the trees happened before his eyes.
"In a lot of ways, it's a natural succession, or they say it is. I don't necessarily agree with that," Mr. Bredin says from his home near the Carberry Sandhills, south of Austin. "They [skinks] are threatened, and it's going to go beyond that relatively quickly if we let things go the way they are."
Though he has no formal science training, Mr. Bredin has written numerous scientific papers on the northern prairie skink and has become the
go-to man for everything skink-related.
He penned the report that prompted the Canadian government to list the northern prairie skink as threatened in 1989 and it was his fieldwork that helped to raise their federal status to endangered in 2004. (In Manitoba, the species is listed as threatened and its status is under review by the Endangered Species Advisory Committee.)
"For a long time, I was like a voice in the wilderness, and when that paper came out 'endangered,' that kicked in the federal guidelines. ... It was like passing on the torch. I knew they would be protected," Mr. Bredin says of his "little skink friends."
Now, he hopes to see others champion the cause to implement serious management measures. "If they're very tardy on that," he acknowledges sadly, "then I don't hold a lot of hope. Thirty, 40, 50 years from now, they could be gone."
It's not the end of days yet. The skinks emerged late this year because of a spring cold snap, but they did emerge, and skink supporters believe that there is still time to turn things around.
If they succeed, their efforts will reach beyond these native lizards and into the sandy hills they call home.
"The mixed-grass prairie ecosystem, there are some very, very serious threats to it," Dr. Rutherford says. "I don't want to call them an indicator species. I don't think that's the right language." But their habitat is disappearing, she says.
"Saving a skink isn't going to cure cancer, but they're an important part of an ecosystem that is declining and I think that has some important consequences."
The article on skinks and Errol Bredin was available for everyone to read when the link was first posted in InterActive! Now it seems even newspapers have pay per view. This was the part of the article about Errol.
LOCAL CHAMPION
Much of what is known about skinks is thanks largely to one man who has been chasing them for 47 years.
As a typical boy growing up on the Shilo military base, Errol Bredin spent his summers pocketing frogs, scrutinizing rocks for fossils and mastering the art of catching the small lizards darting around the sand hills. It's a tricky skill: A skink can drop its tail and regrow it later, so it's best to lay an open, gentle slap over the lizard's body and scoop it up, lest you are left with just a twitching tail.
For decades, Mr. Bredin, 58, felt like the only one interested in skinks. Even today, lifelong locals can be surprised to discover that they have a lizard in their midst.
But as the years passed, the field naturalist became increasingly concerned at what he was seeing. Sandy, open sites where he used to study skinks as a teen now lie deep in aspen forest. The march of the trees happened before his eyes.
"In a lot of ways, it's a natural succession, or they say it is. I don't necessarily agree with that," Mr. Bredin says from his home near the Carberry Sandhills, south of Austin. "They [skinks] are threatened, and it's going to go beyond that relatively quickly if we let things go the way they are."
Though he has no formal science training, Mr. Bredin has written numerous scientific papers on the northern prairie skink and has become the
go-to man for everything skink-related.
He penned the report that prompted the Canadian government to list the northern prairie skink as threatened in 1989 and it was his fieldwork that helped to raise their federal status to endangered in 2004. (In Manitoba, the species is listed as threatened and its status is under review by the Endangered Species Advisory Committee.)
"For a long time, I was like a voice in the wilderness, and when that paper came out 'endangered,' that kicked in the federal guidelines. ... It was like passing on the torch. I knew they would be protected," Mr. Bredin says of his "little skink friends."
Now, he hopes to see others champion the cause to implement serious management measures. "If they're very tardy on that," he acknowledges sadly, "then I don't hold a lot of hope. Thirty, 40, 50 years from now, they could be gone."
It's not the end of days yet. The skinks emerged late this year because of a spring cold snap, but they did emerge, and skink supporters believe that there is still time to turn things around.
If they succeed, their efforts will reach beyond these native lizards and into the sandy hills they call home.
"The mixed-grass prairie ecosystem, there are some very, very serious threats to it," Dr. Rutherford says. "I don't want to call them an indicator species. I don't think that's the right language." But their habitat is disappearing, she says.
"Saving a skink isn't going to cure cancer, but they're an important part of an ecosystem that is declining and I think that has some important consequences."
Added: July 19, 2008
Name: ShiloBrats web team
From: ShiloBrats
A year ago, Lynn (Davis) posted the idea to create the Remembering page for ShiloBrats in our web team forum. Discussions and ideas about how it should look, what should be included, how complex, how simple all followed to form the page being presented today. As this page will always be evolving, the information included can only be as accurate and complete as to what is provided to ShiloBrats. There has to be a starting point and this is where it begins.
Some names did not have a photo that could be used from the yearbooks, dates of life and names of brothers and sisters are still wanted to complete the memory plates. If you see any inaccuracies, or are able to provide photos and more complete information for the memory plates, please contact Lynn (email is in What’s New) or use the Contact form in the side menu.
The Remembering page is a continuing work in progress and will be updated periodically as new and more complete information comes forward.
This may be a sensitive area for some, please tell us your thoughts on this new addition to ShiloBrats.
PS, if you follow the post numbers in InterActive and notice a big drop soon, it is all those discussions in the web team forum being removed now that the Remembering page has been added.