The Phoenix Sun

When people go on photo-safaris, it’s usually to capture images of large mammals like lions, giraffes, elephants, and gorillas. I understand the draw: these are magnificent animals. (Full disclosure: I spent three years diving with, photographing, and writing about sea turtles.)

But there’s a whole other kingdom out there that we often overlook: plants. Africa is brimming with an incredible diversity of plant life.

The Cape Floral Kingdom

Nearly half of all plant species found in the southern half of the continent exist on one tiny sliver of land surrounding Cape Town, South Africa. The Cape Floral Kingdom is home to an astonishing 6,200 species of plants found nowhere else on earth.

Located on the slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens is the heart of this unique kingdom. Only indigenous plants are grown here; in fact Kirstenbosch was established in 1913 to preserve the unique species of the Kingdom. Today, Kirstenbosch is recognized as one most the most important botanical gardens is the world.

Few people outside of South Africa have heard of this world-class treasure, and far fewer will ever get the opportunity to visit the garden at the very bottom of the African continent.

A View of the Garden

My plan is to visit Kirstenbosch and document as much of it as I can, allowing people to “visit” the gardens through the images I take, using everything from macro- to GigaPan photography.

I’ll make these images available in several ways. I’ll create a website devoted to the Kirstenbosch Gardens with the bulk of the photographs. The enormous GigaPan photos will be posted to the GigaPan gallery for exploration. I’ll also place them on Google Earth for viewing there.

I’ll print some of the best images and send them to project donors.

I’ll collect the best of the best images into a full-color bound catalog and send them to top donors.

Oh, one more thing: I plan on buying seeds from the Kirstenbosch collection and, if U.S. Customs allows, giving packets to donors so that you can experience a living part of Africa’s garden!

Thanks for reading about my project. If you like the idea, please consider passing the word on, via Facebook, twitter and other social media.

Go to the Kirstenbosch Project Page.

The Breast Cancer Research stamp has raised $77 million since it was introduced in 1998. Now, another “semipostal” stamp will raise funds to help endangered species worldwide, thanks to a bill passed by Congress on Thursday.

The Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC), one of 31 groups that supported and lobbied for HR 1454, praised the efforts of Representatives Henry Brown (R-SC) and Madeleine Bordallo (D-Gaum) in making the stamp a reality.

“The success of this bill demonstrates the importance of bipartisan support for conservation and the value Members of Congress and their constituents place on the world’s imperiled species,” said Marydele Donnelly, director of international policy for STC. “As the United States is faced with budget shortfalls, creative legislation like HR 1454 is enormously appealing, a situation in which all win.”

The stamp, which will be printed in 2011, will cost a few cents more than a regular first class stamp, with the extra money going to protect sea turtles, tigers, rhinos, elephants and great apes.

Mutinational Species Coalition -

Stewart Udall died today, the first day of Spring, at the age of 90. President John F. Kennedy named the Arizona-born Udall Secretary of the Interior in 1961. If anyone earned the right to be called a citizen of the “New West,” it was Stewart Udall. And Wallace Stegner.

Here’s Udall’s biography from The Center of the American West.

Inter. Sec. Udall with Ladybird Johnson

Stewart Udall served as Secretary for eight years (1961–1969) under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, during which time he successfully pressed for landmark environmental legislation, including the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Under his watch, the National Park Service added over 2.4 million acres to its holdings, including four new national parks, six national seashores, and five national recreation areas. Udall was known at the time not only as one of the most effective spokesmen for the West, but also for his ability to manage controversy and gain bi–partisan support for the Department of the Interior.

Interview with Udall

You can read a transcript of an interview with Udall from September 24, 2003 (pdf), the first in a series of interviews with former Secretaries of the Interior organized by the Center of the American West.

A prolific writer, Udall’s most important book was the bestseller, The Quiet Crisis, published in 1963 with a forward by President Kennedy.

The New York Times obituary can be found, here.

Watch Stewart Udall on “Earth Days,” an American Experience documentary, April 19, 2010