The New York Times published a talk by reporter Claudia Dreifus with ECWG member Jane Goodall MED 93 in its Nov. 15, 2010 editions.  The story is online with a photo of Goodall.

Two ECWG members participated in the 2010 Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree July 26-Aug. 4 at Fort A.P. Hill near Bowling Green, VA.

Membership director Robert Atwater LF ’05 was selected to be President Obama’s escort during the 100th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America at the Jamboree. However, when the president declined to attend, Bob was consoled by becoming the escort for both the Baltimore Ravens Cheerleaders and for Mike Rowe of the Discovery Channel’s Dirtiest Jobs. Continue reading →

Meredith Muth and Sarah Yukich, two graduate students who were aided by Explorers Club Washington Group Exploration and Field Research Grants, described their work at the ECWG’s annual students dinner on April 17 at the Cosmos Club in Washington.  Full story

Jason Paterniti, MN’10, carried Explorers Club Flag 24 on a February 2010 expedition to the Cochamo Valley region of Chile to identify previously undocumented stands of the endangered Alerce tree (Fitzroya Cupressoides). Full story. Continue reading →

Members of the ECWG and their guests met a cheetah cub, at the May 14, 2011 reception and cocktail hour before enjoying dinner and then hearing Dr. Laurie Marker, FI ’06, the Founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, discuss her  work to save cheetahs from extinction.

• Video of Marker’s talk available

'Nice kitty.' Jacob the cheetah cub. Photo by Darlene Shields

Attendees had their photos taken with Jacob, the cheetah cub, on the patio outside the Powell Auditorium at the Cosmos Club during the pre-dinner reception and cocktail hour

Throughout the reception and dinner, members and guests viewed spectacular cheetah photographs on the Powell Auditorium’s large screen. The photos were by Suzi Eszterhas and Chris Johns, editor-in-chief of the National Geographic. The images were selected by James Blair (FN ’09) and Gary Kopff (MN ’91).

The dinner was held in conjunction with the Cosmos Club’s Natural Resources Group.

In her talk Marker discussed her work with cheetahs since 1974. She set up the not-for-profit Fund in 1990 and moved to Namibia to develop a permanent Conservation Research Centre for the wild cheetah. The Centre’s work includes a focus on mitigating conflict between people and wildlife in African countries, with a special emphasis on the cheetah.

She was raised in a suburb of Los Angeles, where her father, trained as an agricultural economist, worked in the aerospace industry and kept horses, rabbits and other animals in the backyard. Marker went to San Francisco State University to study psychology, then transferred to Napa Valley College to learn winemaking.

She left college in 1972 to start a vineyard with her husband in Winston, Oregon. To help bankroll the venture, Marker worked at an animal park called Wildlife Safari. The sum total of what was then known about cheetahs at Wildlife Safari was that they were fascinating, standoffish and virtually impossible to breed.

Laurie Marker at the Cosmos Club. Photo by Darlene Shields

Captivated, Marker started to ask questions, read books and conduct research about the animals. In 2002, at 48, she earned a PhD from Oxford University. Her dissertation, Aspects of Cheetah [Acinonyx jubatus] Biology, Ecology and Conservation Strategies on Namibian Farmlands, is considered the last word on cheetahs.

Marker has also assisted in developing cheetah conservation programs in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Algeria, and Iran, as well as supporting a field research base in Kenya. Marker is considered the world’s preeminent cheetah specialist. If the cheetah species is restored from the brink of extinction, it will undoubtedly be due to the life’s work of Dr. Marker and the Cheetah Conservation Fund.

In the 1980s, with collaborators at the National Zoo and the National Cancer Institute, she helped identify cheetah’s exceptionally homogeneous DNA that causes one of the species great problems for survival.

Her awards and global recognition include: The 2010 Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award, a Time Magazine “Heroes for the Planet” (2000), the Gold Medal Award from the Society of Woman Geographers (2008), the Conservation Medal of Lifetime Achievement Award from the Zoological Society of San Diego (2008), Intel Environmental Laureate (2008), and the Tyler Prize Laureate for the Environment (2010).

• The Cheetah Conservation Fund
• Dr. Laurie Marker

Robert E Hyman, LF93 was the executive director on a new short documentary called “Paradise in Peril”. Paradise in Peril follows an expedition organized to document the destruction of this UNESCO World Heritage Site and collect testimony from the native peoples who rely on the Río Platáno for survival. Fewer than 400 individuals have ever completed this strenuous expedition from the rivers headwaters to the Miskito coast of Honduras.

You can view this short documentary at”  http://skyshipfilms.com/paradise-in-peril or http://vimeo.com/skyshipfilms/paradise-in-peril to see this short documentary.

Members of The Explorers Club Washington Group and their guests enjoyed a summer outing at the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens on Saturday, June 25. Full story.

This year’s Explorers Club Washington Group’s annual fall outing–The Bombash–will be three days of exploring the historical treasures of southern Maryland from September 30 through October 2.

Highlights will include:

The Drum Point Lighthouse at the Calvert Marine Museum.

• a visit to the Calvert Marine Museum on on Solomon’s Island
• a visit to the Drum Point lighthouse
• a sightseeing cruise on the Wm. B. Tennison, which was built as a nine-log sailing bugeye in 1899 and converted to an oyster buy-boat in 1906-07. The hour-long sightseeing cruise will be  through busy Solomons inner harbor, underneath the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge and back to Pt. Patience and the Naval Recreation Center.
• a walking tour of St. Mary’s City
• a Saturday dinner talk on “The Status of Crabs in Chesapeake Bay by Dr. Thomas Miller, Director and Professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
• a tour of tthe 18th century Manor House at Sotterkey Planation
• The Riverside WineFest at Sotterley 2011! with wine tastings; live music; local artisans with fabulous hand-crafted items for purchase; food vendors featuring such Southern Maryland specialties as crab cakes, fried oysters, stuffed ham, pit roasted meats and freshly made ice cream; exhibits, demonstrations, tours, children’s activities, and more in a breathtaking Patuxent riverside setting.

The cost will be $130 per person, which includes all of the tours, a Saturday box lunch, Saturday evening dinner, and admission to the Riverside WineFest.

Those attending need to make their own  transportation and hotel arrangements. Rooms are available at the group rate of $89.00 per night per room. including  continental breakfast, plus tax at: The Sleep Inn & Suites 23428 Three Notch Road; California, MD 20616; Phone: 301 737-0000, Fax 301 737-442

Details in the full announcement

Reservations must be made by noon on Monday, Sept. 12 with: Frank R. Power; 13208 Glen Mill Road; Rockville, MD 20850; 301 294-9377; frankrpower@aol.com

The Washington DC area explorers reported a variety of activities during the last three months of 2011.

On Dec. 29 National Public Radio’s Morning Edition featured an interview of Wade Davis, HON’  87 about his  latest book, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest.  You can listen to interview here. Knopf in the U.S.  and Canada, and The Bodley Head in the UK published the book that Davis worked on for more than a decade:  Davis considers it “by far the best book I have ever written,” and reviewers agree. For example: “Brilliantly engrossing. . . . A superb book. At once a group biography of remarkable characters snatched from oblivion, an instant classic of mountaineering literature, a study in imperial decline and an epic of exploration.” —Nigel Jones, The Guardian, UK.  Davis described this trip and answered questions at the ECWG Nov. 19, 2011 dinner.

Marilyn Engle FN’03 took a flag to study human health impacts of mercury emissions from gold refining shops in two regions of Peru, the Amazon and high altitude locations. Mining accounts for about 30% of all human-related mercury release.

Dr. Lee Talbot MED’57 and Marty Talbot FN’04 explored the remote, roadless Nam Theun watershed in the high Annamite Moun- tains of Laos. At the behest of the Lao Government and World Bank, they surveyed a mostly unknown remote forest and grassland area, gained important information about rare or threatened wildlife, and demonstrated that Vietnamese poachers have free reign in the area.

Robert Atwater LF’05 took a flag with other Club members Josh Bernstein FR’04 and Curt Bowen FN’11 to the Yucatan and located Mayan pottery and human remains after diving in over 50 cenotes. Bob also went with Shellie Howard AN’10 and Idee Belau AN’10 and a team of explorers led by Jim Thompson FN’05 to the Mojave Desert to conduct surveys of ancient lava tubes for a NASA Mars project near the town of Baker. Bob was elected to the Board of Directors of the Institute for Nautical Archaeology (INA) located at Texas A&M.

J. J. Kelley SM’07 released his documentary about paddling home- made wooden boats down the 1300 mile Inside Passage from Alaska to Seattle with a friend. Featured previously on PBS via National Geographic’s Wild Chronicles, Kelley’s film features unusual encounters with unexpected marine life.

Scott Wallace FN’06 recently returned from exploring several remote jungle

Scott Wallace with Ashénkinka elder on the Alto Tamaya River, Perulocations in the watersheds of the Peruvian/Brazilian Amazon border. These rugged headwaters frontier regions contain uncontacted indigenous communities which remain in isolation from the world. Traveling by helicopter, bush plane, canoe, and on foot, this three month expedition into the land of the flecheiros (Arrow People) is chronicled in his forthcoming book entitled The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes. We are pleased that Scott returned unscathed as the flecheiros are known to repel intruders with showers of deadly arrows.

locations in the watersheds of the Peruvian/Brazilian Amazon border.  These rugged headwaters frontier regions contain uncontacted indigenous communities which remain in isolation from the world.   Traveling by helicopter, bush plane, canoe, and on foot, this three month expedition into the land of the flecheiros (Arrow People) is chronicled in his forthcoming book entitled The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes.  We are pleased that Scott returned unscathed as the flecheiros are known to repel intruders with showers of deadly arrows.

Dr. Lew Toulmin MN’04 organized a survey with Federal and state archaeologists to find the missing plantation of his ancestor, Brig. Gen. Andrew Williamson (1730-1786), near Greenwood, S. C. Williamson was a Patriot leader in the American Revolution, then took British protection, and was reviled as the “Benedict Arnold of South Carolina.”  Later it was revealed that he spied on the British for a year while in their headquarters, making him America’s first important double agent.  His plantation, White Hall, was a fort, depot, prison, military base and battlefield during the war. The survey team found Revolutionary War-era evidence of a structure that will be the site of future field research.

ECWG members appeared in the media as well over the past few months.  Jack Williams FN’03 was a guest of the NPR Kojo Nnamdi Show discussing the effects of Hurricane Irene.  As the recently retired founding weather editor of USA Today, Jack is a frequent resource for weather and climate issues for the media and government.  Among his recent publications is one from July 2011 Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine on why lightning doesn’t knock airliners out of the sky when it hits them.  His recent book The AMS Weather Book: The Ultimate Guide to America’s Weather is a highly respected resource and he is completing a book for the National Geographic Society.

Dr. Thomas King FN’02 was interviewed about his work as the senior archaeologist with The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) on the search for Amelia Earhart, on Fairfax County VA Public Television.  He also presented a paper at the World Archaeological Congress’ Intercongress on Heritage Management in East and Southeast Asia, in Beijing, as a guest of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In other news, Dr. Michael Manyak MED’92 was recently named to the board of directors of the National Eagle Scout Association (NESA) of the Boy Scouts of America.  He also was an invited guest speaker at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business graduate program to lecture on aspects of expedition medicine.  Dr. Manyak also presented his experiences in expedition medicine as the dinner program speaker for The Adventurers Club of Chicago.  Anyone interested in a fascinating artifact display should visit this club which shares common roots of Teddy Roosevelt involvement and remote travel with The Explorers Club.

Most importantly, we welcome new members to ECWG and look forward to their participation and contributions to our chapter: James Abely MN‘11, Michael Blakely MN‘11, Jacob Bressman SM‘11, Carrie-Lee Early AN‘11, Kenneth Kambis FN‘11, Michael Max FN‘05, and Nicolas Temnikov FN‘78.

–Compiled by Dr. Michael Manyak

Scott Wallace, FN’07 told the story of his National Geographic assignment in the summer 2002 to journey deep into the Amazon with the renowned Brazilian explorer and Indian rights activist Sydney Possuelo to gather information on an uncounted indigenous group known as the “People of the Arrow” without making contact. Wallace recounts  the story in his new book The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes.

• Scott Wallace’s Web site