October 2011 e-Common Ground

Digging Up Bones At Petrified Forest National Park Fossil hunters have turned up over a thousand specimens—including Gertie, a 250-million-year-old Staurikosaur—at Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. Now, in a project that took years to complete, we’ve made it possible to add roughly 26,000 acres of prime badlands to the park. Read the full story here.   The Heron (Evermore) Our work in the Louisiana wetlands, near Maurepas, continues, as we save open coastal swamp and forested canopies of towering cypress and tupelo trees. Here, you can find the little blue heron, American white pelican, black tern, rusty blackbird and a rainbow of warblers. Read the full story here.   Trick Or Trees No trick: Our Go Zero® program just announced that a 2,600-acre forest carbon project at Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana earned gold-level validation under the toughest standards in the business. Read the full story here.   The Legend Of Beauty Mountain Urban San Diego County still has a wild side—and it includes Beauty Mountain Wilderness Area, whose rugged rocks and see-to-forever views beckon hikers. We just helped conserve 400 acres here—but with a key conservation law expiring, will similar saves have a ghost of a chance? Read the full story here.   Photos: Petrified Forest National Park/ courtesy National Park Service (banner).