THE NATURAL MOMENT 



UP FRONT 



~* See preceding two pages 



Too much of a good thing can 

 be overwhelming — raw fish, 

 supersize meals, even water. An 

 overabundance of the latter has 

 beleaguered the Netherlands for 

 a millennium. The Dutch have 

 struggled to control fifty-four rivers 

 with dikes, levees, pumps, wind- 

 mills, and more, all the while wag- 

 ing a never-ending battle with the 

 North Sea. In the past fifty years 

 the country has spent more than 

 $15 billion upgrading flood-control 

 systems (which engineers in New 

 Orleans are now studying). 



Yet all that water is also one of the 

 country's greatest resources — and 

 among the many benefits, it attracts 

 more than 350 species of birds. 

 Photographer Jasper Doest spent two 

 months near his home inVlaardingen, 

 in southwestern Holland, watching a 

 mated pair of freshwater diving birds 

 known as great crested grebes grow 

 to a family of six. 



Every morning and every evening 

 Doest pulled on his waders before 

 easing into a shallow canal to watch 

 the grebes. He documented their 

 courtship, nest building, egg lay- 

 ing, and, finally, their parenting of 

 four zebra-striped chicks. Near the 

 end of his stint, Doest caught the 

 two-week-old chick pictured here 

 mid-meal. The fish in its gullet, 

 a bream served up by one of the 

 parents, had been duly offered to 

 the other chicks. But try as they 

 might, none of them could swal- 

 low the wriggling fish — too much 

 of a good thing for them to choke 

 down. Finally one of the parents 

 retrieved the catch and swallowed 

 it in one gulp. — Erin Espelie 



Seeking Fresh Waters 



Maybe my questions are naive, "dumb," or impertinent, but 

 my job as a journalist is to ask them. How, I wonder, can 

 the world be plagued with a worsening water crisis? After 

 all, at least in the developed world, sophisticated water treatment brings 

 sweet water out of the tap. And if water is treatable, doesn't that make 

 it a fully renewable resource? So what's all the fuss about? I take up 

 my questions with Eleanor J. Sterling, the director of the Center for 

 Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York, who introduces this single-topic issue on fresh- 

 water resources ("Blue Planet Blues," page 29); who writes, with Merry 

 D. Camhi, about biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems ("Sold Down 

 the River," page 40); and who, not incidentally, is the curator of a 

 new exhibition, "Water: H 2 0 = Life," which opens at the American 

 Museum on November 3. 



As an educator and curator as well as an expert, Sterling understands 

 where I'm coming from. "It's true," she replies, "water doesn't disap- 

 pear from the surface of the earth. But what we're doing to it is mov- 

 ing it from underground into surface- or ocean-water systems, and not 

 replenishing it in the areas where it started. We're also moving it from 

 one river basin into another, and in the process, moving organisms that 

 may have a heavy impact on the new system." 



Does that mean there are freshwater ecosystems that should be set 

 aside as natural areas? "I think there are," she tells me, but it ought 

 to be done on a case-by-case basis. "There's the Pantanal [a region of 

 marshland in southwestern Brazil], the Congo River [in west-central 

 Africa], the Okavango delta [in Botswana]" — areas that need to be 

 maintained for their "incredible diversity of human populations as 

 well as wildlife." Other systems — the Florida Everglades come to 

 mind — have already been badly damaged. "But the great thing about 

 freshwater systems is that, while they're quick to react if we start to 

 damage them, they are also often quick to revive." 



To listen to an audio recording of my interview with Sterling, go to 

 our Web site (www.naturalhistorymag.com); you'll find the audio link on 

 our home page. 



• • • 



Many times in the past five years as the editor of this magazine, 

 I've enjoyed working with curators, writers, and scholars such 

 as Sterling, who speak knowledgeably and passionately about their 

 expertise. At times, I've envied the depth of their specialized knowl- 

 edge. But I've also thrilled to the rich variety of topics that editing 

 this magazine has continually given me license to sample. 



Still, life is short, and I've concluded it's time to move on, to 

 rebalance the trade-off between depth and survey that I've lived with 

 for the past five years. Beginning with the next issue, my friend and 

 colleague Vittorio Maestro will take over as editor of Natural History. 

 Vittorio knows as much about this magazine as anyone else alive, hav- 

 ing spent almost thirty years on the staff. He, too, has the magazine 

 editor's fascination with variety, and he'll bring his own fresh perspec- 

 tive on the natural world that Natural History has covered for 107 years. 

 I think you'll like what he brews up. — Peter Brown 



naturai him dry November 2007 



