Biologists from seven countries are banding together to protect a large, ancient fish. Earlier this month, scientists launched what they call the “World Sturgeon Conservation Society.” The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Patty Murray has more:
Transcript
Biologists from seven countries are banding together to protect a large,
ancient fish. Earlier this month/last month (March) scientists launched what they
call the “World Sturgeon Conservation Society.” The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Patty Murray has more:
Sturgeon are among the oldest fishes in the world. They’ve been around
since the pre-historic era.
But modern pressures are testing the fish. That’s why sturgeon biologists
recently formed the “World Sturgeon Conservation Society.”
Ron Bruch is a sturgeon biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources.
He says North American sturgeon stocks are fairly healthy. But Bruch says
that’s not the case in the Caspian and Black seas where the fish often wind
up on the illegal caviar market.
“The stocks there are on track to collapse in the next 15-20 years because
of poaching, problems with habitat and pollution. There’s a real need in
the sturgeon community for international help to pull that situation out
before it’s beyond repair.”
Bruch says members of the World Sturgeon Conservation Society will share
research that can help reduce illegal sturgeon harvest. One idea is to
raise sturgeon on aquaculture farms to offset the need for black market
caviar.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Patty Murray.
The federal government has downgraded the Gray Wolf from “endangered” to “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The move reduces the amount of federal protection for Gray Wolves. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:
Transcript
The federal government has downgraded the Gray Wolf from “endangered” to
“threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The move reduces the amount
of federal protection for Gray Wolves. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mark Brush has more:
The downlisting of the wolf finalizes an action first proposed by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service three years ago.
Back in the early 1970’s wolves in the lower 48 states were only found in
extreme Northeast Minnesota. Now, confirmed populations are found in more
than eight states including Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Ron Refsnider is an endangered species biologist with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. He says the status change gives officials a new
way to deal with wolves that are killing livestock or domestic animals.
“Live trapping was the only way that those problem wolves could be handled.
Now that these wolves are being reclassified to threatened status. We’re
relaxing the protections for them, and those problem wolves… those wolves
can be killed by the DNR and by native American tribes on reservations.”
Refsnider says that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will now look at
delisting the gray wolf altogether. Delisting the wolf could lead states to
establish a hunting season for wolves.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
This hunting season there’s a lot more testing for a disease that’s killing deer in parts of the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
This hunting season, there’s a lot more testing for a disease that’s killing deer in parts of
the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Chronic Wasting Disease is similar to Mad Cow Disease. In this instance, it attacks deer
and elk, causing them to waste away, become disoriented, and eventually die. It’s been
found in captive animals in Minnesota, in the wild deer population in Wisconsin and just
recently a deer in Illinois was found to have Chronic Wasting Disease. Carol Knowles is
with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. She says about 4,000 samples of
tissue from deer are being taken during the hunting season. They’ll be sent to labs to see
how far the disease has spread in that state. But because the labs are being swamped with samples, it
will take a while before anything is known.
“It will take months to get all of those results back, yes. But we hope to expedite the ones in northern Illinois where we know we had at least one
confirmed case.”
Other Great Lakes states are also testing for Chronic Wasting Disease in their deer herds,
hoping to stop the disease from spreading quickly.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
For more than one hundred years, man has made changes to rivers and lakes. Locks, dams, and redirecting waterways has raised water levels and increased river flows. One effect has been the near disappearance of islands that once provided habitat for fish, plants, and birds. Some groups are trying to rebuild those islands. But the concept of a man-made island is not universally accepted. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:
Transcript
For more than one hundred years, man has made changes to rivers and lakes. Locks, dams,
and redirecting waterways has raised water levels and increased river flows. One effect
has been the near disappearance of islands that once provided habitat for fish, plants, and
birds. Some groups are trying to rebuild those islands. But the concept of a manmade
island is not universally accepted. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl
reports:
Jim Baldwin is driving his small boat along an island in the Illinois River, the body of
water that connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. He is an environmentalist
that has been watching this portion of the river for years, and likes what he sees. He’s retired now,
and spends most of his time either at his cabin on the riverfront just north of Peoria, Illinois
or working with environmental groups looking to preserve rivers and streams. These
islands are not natural. The Army Corps of Engineers made them ten years ago. Baldwin
says since then, it’s not uncommon for him to take his boat out and see fifty to a hundred
pelicans.
“Everybody tells me that until this island was built, they never even stopped here. Now
some of them stay year round.”
The Corps built the islands by dredging silt and sediment that had been clogging nearby
portions of the river. The theory is the manmade islands would provide a buffer from the
river flow, and create an area of deep water that could provide habitat for sport fish. It
would also provide a feeding area for migrating birds.
John Marlin is a researcher with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. He says the
program has been a success.
“The islands stop the large waves that come across the lake and there is a calm area behind
the islands the waterfowl seem to appreciate. Also, the birds such as pelicans and alot of the wading birds are using
the islands as resting areas.”
Marlin says the islands are growing thick vegetation, and the soil dredged from the river
has proven to be free of any pollutants that are present in some river sediments.
But not all environmentalists sing the praises of manmade islands. Some believe these
new islands will suffer the same fate of the natural islands that are now gone.
Tom Edwards is the head of River Rescue, an environmental group focusing on rivers. He
says the man made islands are only a temporary fix:
“The islands are an illusion. All of the wonderful that they say are going to result from the islands are not going to result. We have 113 islands in the river right now, and it hasn’t
resulted from a single one of them. So let’s learn from what’s here right now. So they are
going to dig the water deeper around these islands and hope that’s going create deep water.
It will be very temporary. Deep water amounts to a silt trap.”
Edwards says it is just a matter of time until the sediment fills up the deep water areas created by the manmade islands. He says until there are significant changes in land-use policy that keep sediment from entering rivers, manmade islands will only be a quick fix.
But river activist Jim Baldwin says many states and local governments are starting to adopt
land use policies that will keep sediment out of the Midwest Rivers and streams. He also
says using dredged materials to create the islands will help alleviate the problem. He says most importantly, the manmade islands are getting the job done.
“It does two things. Number one is it provides the deep water that we need for fisheries.
The island itself will grow trees and habitats for all kinds of birds. It will do that. That’s what it’s all based on is those two things.”
While the debate over man made islands continues, the Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to build two more islands on the Illinois River in the coming years.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.
As far back as the Boston Tea Party, taxes have stirred passions. In campaign season, the word “tax” is tossed around like a grenade, often prompting politicians to duck and hide. But Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator, Julia King, thinks politicians should stop running from the “Tax-and-Spend” label and instead defend taxes – and the many vital services they fund:
Transcript
As far back as the Boston Tea Party, taxes have stirred passions. In campaign season the
word “tax” is tossed around like a grenade, often prompting politicians to duck and hide.
But Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator, Julia King, thinks politicians should
stop running from the “Tax-and-Spend” label and instead defend taxes – and the many
vital services they fund.
Despite a shaky economy, a looming war, despite rising numbers of uninsured
Americans, somehow there are still politicians who peddle tax cuts as cure alls.
It’s about time we clear something up: When a candidate says, “I’ll lower your taxes,”
he’s put forth only half of an idea. The other half of that idea involves cutting programs
that could be important to many of us.
I recently stood on a Northern Indiana lakeshore and admired a crisp, autumn scene. But
instead of inspiring me the quiet water and the changing landscape filled me with a dull,
nagging worry. I imagined a future without such places – or at least without public
access to them.
Like countless other venues around the country, the Indiana Department of Natural
Resources recently suffered the loss of 8.2 million dollars in permanent budget cuts, cuts
that forced the elimination of arts and cultural programs in state parks, the closing of
some parks, and the “downsizing” of many that stayed open. Still others were turned
over to private operators who increased fees to cover actual costs, making visits now
unaffordable for some people.
Few politicians seem willing to admit that slashing taxes means shrinking public service
and even public safety. Yet this is the time to connect the dots, to thread together rhetoric
and reality. It’s a long list of things that make a society — our society — livable. A
thriving park system is just one piece of the delicate mosaic we call civilization.
Is there ever mismanagement of public funds? Sure, and it deserves attention. But,
seriously, when’s the last time you saw a park naturalist in an Armani suit or behind the
wheel of a Rolls Royce? For the most part, government employees are not whooping it
up on your tax dollars. And never mind Enron – in Indiana the salaries of just 10 of our
highest paid executives could support the entire Indiana Department of Natural
Resources’ general fund. That’s a story that plays out in nearly every state across the
nation.
Right now — in the midst of campaign season — is the time to sort through national and
local priorities. Whether anyone acknowledges it or not, cutting taxes means cutting
away at the fabric of society.
Surely if our nation can find the money and the will to fully fund war and death, we can’t
claim poverty when we’re challenged to enhance life.
Julia King lives and writes in Goshen, Indiana. She comes to us through the Great Lakes
Radio Consortium.
Most of us think of earthworms as beneficial creatures. Gardeners are always happy to spot a worm in the flowerbed because they add fertilizer to the soil. Many anglers say they’re the best thing for catching fish. But scientists are beginning to learn worms aren’t so friendly to Great Lakes forests. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
Most of us think of earthworms as beneficial creatures. Gardeners are always happy to spot a
worm in the flowerbed because they add fertilizer to the soil. And many anglers say they’re the
best thing for catching fish. But scientists are beginning to learn worms aren’t so friendly to
Great Lakes forests. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports.
(fade up Girl Scouts)
This Girl Scout troop is learning about worms. Judy Gibbs is a naturalist at the Hartley Nature
Center in Duluth. She shows the girls how to coax worms out of the soil. They pour water laced
with powdered mustard into the worms’ burrows.
It irritates the worms and they come squiggling up by the hundreds.
“Pour it in. Wait a minute. Here it comes. It doesn’t like the mustard and it comes right up.
Look at this one (laughter). oh, there’s another one. Look at it go!” (shrieks)
On their walk through the woods, the girls look for dead leaves. There aren’t many. Judy Gibbs
explains why.
“Here’s a leaf stem that’s being pulled into this hole. Who’s doing this? Ants! No. Worms.
There’s big night crawlers. You know what a night crawler is? They grow straight down into the
ground, and they come up at night and pull leaves down into their burrows. And they eat the leaf
right off. That’s why we’re not finding any leaves.”
Worms eating leaves might seem natural, but it turns out these worms aren’t native to these
woods. The last glacier buried most of what is now the Great Lakes region. When it melted,
plants and animals returned to create a community of maples, pines, songbirds, and tender plants
growing on the forest floor, like trillium…but not earthworms.
Cindy Hale is a biologist who studies the native wildflowers that grow in northern hardwood
forests. She loves the spring bloomers that take root in the spongy layer of decaying leaves on
the forest floor. Trillium, bloodroot, solomon’s seal.
Hale says many of these plants are disappearing.
“Sites that forty years ago were carpets of trillium have been slowly over the last two decades
declining to almost nothing, and people were scratching their heads, trying to figure out just
what’s going on.”
Earthworm populations are thickest close to cities. But Hale says people bring worms with them
when they come to the woods.
At first, settlers carried them in, along with the animals and plants they brought from Europe or
the east coast. These days, worms are spread by people who drive in the woods – loggers, ATV
riders…
“But in particular, fishing bait is a huge way that worms get moved around in our region.
Because there’s so many lakes and so much fishing.”
Hale and her colleagues set up test plots along an advancing line of worms in the Chippewa
National Forest in central Minnesota. The worms crawl about three yards further into the forest
each year. Hale is studying how the soil and the plants have changed as the worms advance.
Worms eat the decaying leaves on the forest floor. They mix that organic matter into the mineral
soil beneath it. And in time, they can use up all the organic matter and leave only mineral soil
behind.
That means the plants that have evolved to take root in the leaves on top of the soil have lost their
home.
Hale says these changes could affect every plant and animal that lives in the woods. She says,
for instance, even birds have declined by nearly 50% in the last fourteen years.
“Because ovenbirds nest in that forest floor, so if you lose the forest floor, then you may well
affect ground-nesting birds such as that. So when you start thinking about it, the potential
ramifications across the ecosystem get really wild.”
Hale says one of the big challenges in studying this problem is that there’s been very little basic
research – like how many worms are there are and where.
To gather more information and to get more people involved, Hale created a web-based learning
program. She’s asking teachers from around the country to have their classes do worm counts
and other research. Hale plans to add their data to the web page.
In Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources is working with interest groups to try to slow
the spread of worms. Next year’s fishing regulations will include instructions not to dump your
worms at the end of a day of fishing.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill in Duluth.
Biologists release bass, gills laced with Higgin's Eye Pearly Mussel larvae, into the Mississippi River. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources.
Biologists lock through a dam on the Mississippi River. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources.
Up and down the Mississippi River, people once collected tons of mussels for the pearl button industry. Factories stamped out pearl buttons from the shells, sometimes wiping out 50,000 tons of mussels annually in the early part of the last century. In recent years, the biggest threat to local mussel species has come from the zebra mussel. That invasive species came to North America in the ballast water of ships and has since disrupted many local ecosystems. Today, there’s a new effort underway to bring back local species like the Higgin’s Eye Pearly Mussel, and it’s in an unlikely place. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Todd Melby has this report:
Transcript
Up and down the Mississippi River, people once collected tons of mussels for
the pearl button industry. Factories stamped out pearl buttons from the shells,
sometimes wiping out 50,000 tons of mussels annually in the early part of
the last century. In recent years, the biggest threat to local mussel species
has come from the zebra mussel. That invasive species came to North America in
the ballast water of ships and has since disrupted many local ecosystems. Today,
there’s a new effort underway to bring back local species like the Higgin’s
Eye Pearly Mussel. And it’s in an unlikely place. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Todd Melby has this report:
Urban areas like Minneapolis-Saint Paul might seem like an unusual
location to boost the population of an endangered species.
But it’s here, below a busy bridge that spans the Mississippi River, that
biologists are searching for a safe place for their project. Divers have
just come up from the bottom of the river with a few mussel specimens.
“Well, we’ve got Big Toe, Maple Leaf, Three Ridge. Good enough I think.”
That’s Mike Davis rattling off the names of mussel species. Davis is
a biologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The fact that
some mussels live in this part of the river makes Davis think that this
might be a good spot for the Higgin’s Eye. The Higgin’s Eye, which has an olive-
colored shell, has been languishing on the Endangered Species List since
1976.
Just two decades ago, this part of the river suffered from sewage runoff. The river is cleaner now and some mussels have returned. But not the Higgin’s Eye. And that has Roger Gordon worried. He’s a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“They function as the kidneys of the river, more or less. They siphon everything that
goes through the river. They are a very good indicator species if we have a problem in the environment. They are usually the first species to get hit hard and disappear.”
For the past decade or so, it’s been the zebra mussel that’s been hitting the Higgin’s Eye. But the zebra mussel hasn’t made it to this part of the river. That’s why biologists are on a small flotilla of boats on this morning with 800 large-mouth bass. The bass and the Higgin’s Eye have a strong connection. Attached to the gills of those bass are thousands of Higgin’s Eye larvae.
“Right now, we’re counting fish in the cage. We have a known number of fish, 25 in
this case, that we’re going to place in these cages. And hopefully over the next several weeks, they’ll drop off and we’ll have clams in the river.”
Melby: “You’re putting them in the bucket?”
“Right now we’re putting them in a bucket and placing them in the cage over the
side of the boat.”
(sound of buckets banging and water sloshing)
The bass are put in cages so they don’t swim somewhere that’s not a good home for the Higgin’s Eye. In the wild, adult females mussels shoot embryos at unsuspecting fish swimming overhead.
“The larvae have a chemo-receptor in them. When they touch flesh, they actually shut. It’s a one-shot deal. If that fish clamps on a fin or an eyeball or a lip, it’s a no-go. He’s not going to develop. But if he’s lucky, and he just happens to be going through a gill arch of a fish and it’s the right fish, the right species of fish and the right size fish, it
will shut on that gill.”
But the Higgin’s Eye population is too low to leave to chance.
(Bubbling sounds of fish hatchery)
So Gordon and his colleagues bumped up the number of mussel larvae
per fish here at a federal fish hatchery in Genoa, Wisconsin. Instead of just a
few larvae per fish, the bass dropped into the Mississippi have several dozen
larvae attached to their gills.
That prep work took place inside the “Clam Shack,” which is really
just a metal pole barn that biologists built themselves.
“We didn’t have any money to do this. We scraped up and saved up at the end
of the year. We had seven or eight-thousand dollars. The hatchery guys just got together and built this little building.”
Since beginning their work two years ago, they’ve added approximately
12,000 mussel-rich fish to rivers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.
“We’re probably going to have to build another little building
like this. But we’ll scrape along and do what we can.”
Back on the river, Mike Davis of the Minnesota DNR calls the return
of the Higgin’s Eye historic. But with the zebra mussel closing in on native
mussel species like the Higgin’s Eye, he’s also a bit wistful.
“The former dead zone of the Mississippi may become
one of the last refuges for the Mississippi’s mussel species.”
In September, divers return to that same spot to check on the Higgin’s
Eye. They hope to find thousands of young clams nestled safely in their new
home. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Todd Melby.
As efforts to restore bald eagle populations succeed (this eagle was rehabilitated and released in Colorado) researchers are finding that newer populations of bald eagles are nesting closer to humans. Photo courtesy of the USFWS.
A Minnesota research project might help get the bald eagle off the endangered species list. Any state with an eagle population needs a plan to monitor and protect the birds before they can be taken off the list. Learning where eagles nest might help protect the habitat they need to flourish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Gunderson reports:
Transcript
A Minnesota research project might help get the bald eagle off the
endangered species list. Any state with an eagle population needs a plan to
monitor and protect the birds before they can be taken off the list. Learning
where eagles nest might help protect the habitat they need to flourish.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Gunderson reports:
Jim Grier knows eagles. For 44 years he’s watched the birds and climbed
into their nests. The North Dakota State University Zoology Professor is leading the study of Minnesota eagle habitat.
(plane engine starting)
The research starts in the spring. Grier spends hours flying in a four seat
Cessna with a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources pilot, looking for
eagle nests.
“We’re gonna come real close to this one Dan, coming right around on the
right side, we’ll lift the wing. Oh man, that’s an old nest too.”
An eagle sits in tree nearby. This location is marked on a map as an active
nesting site. There are more than 700 bald eagle pairs in Minnesota.
After the nests are located and mapped, the hard work starts on the ground.
Jeremy Guinn is a graduate student. He spends weeks driving, hiking, and
canoeing to eagle nests. He typically gets to two or three a day.
As he approaches a nest Guinn peers through binoculars looking for signs of
life.
“There’s at least two up there. The other one’s hunkered down.”
A young eagle looks down from a nest high atop a cottonwood tree in a
farmer’s pasture. The adult eagles are likely fishing in a nearby lake.
Guinn conducts a detailed study of the area around the nest.
“What kind of trees they use, what kind of forest they choose to place their
nest in. How close to the water they are. And also to determine the amount
of human activity that they choose to nest around.”
Eagles are more often choosing humans for neighbors. Because eagle
populations are growing so quickly, traditional forest nesting areas are
becoming crowded. Each pair of eagles needs their own territory, so young
pairs are often forced to look for less traditional nesting sites.
“I’ve seen eagles on powerlines, in the back yard of a cabin, some even
overlooking the cabin where the nest is hanging over the roof of a cabin. And also
more wild or traditional sites as you usually think of eagle nests.”
It appears bald eagles are quite adaptable. They need a tall tree to build a
nest, and water nearby where they can catch fish. But one of the key questions
is how well they tolerate human neighbors.
Jim Grier is heading up the study. The North Dakota State University Eagle researcher says each new generation of eagles seems a bit more tolerant.
“A lot of the eagle nests now that are in closer contact with human activity,
the young birds that grow up in those nests, looking down and seeing all
the human presence around them, as long as people aren’t shooting at them or
bothering them, as long as everybody is minding their own business the
eagles basically accept humans are part of the natural environment.”
The study Jim Grier is doing should provide a better understanding of how to
make sure eagle nesting sites are protected. States must meet two challenges before the bald eagle is taken off the endangered list. There must be a plan to monitor eagle populations in the future and eagle nesting habitat must be protected.
But monitoring eagles is labor intensive and expensive.
Eagle researchers say there needs to be a more efficient way of
checking on the birds. Some say enlisting volunteers to monitor nests may be
one answer. But there are questions about the scientific validity of that
method.
Researcher Jim Grier says it might be two or three years before everyone can
agree on a plan to protect eagles in the future.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources nongame specialist Joan Galli
says she’s not predicting when the bald eagle will come off the endangered
species list.
“This is a species where the recovery is good and the news is good and
things are going well and you would think that it would be easy to delist. And that
has certainly not been the case, it’s been quite a challenge.”
The study of bald eagle habitat in Minnesota should be completed later this
year. The Department of Natural Resources and the Federal Fish and Wildlife
Service will use the results to develop a more comprehensive plan for
managing the bald eagle across the nation.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Gunderson.
Some drinking water from the Great Lakes may be pumped underground to help communities get through dry spells and save on construction costs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach explains:
Transcript
Some drinking water from the Great Lakes may be pumped underground, to
help communities get through dry spells and save on construction costs. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
The system is known as aquifer storage recovery. Treated drinking water is injected into underground aquifers and brought back up during peak demand times or dry spells.
Communities can save money by avoiding the costs of building new water towers or
expanding water treatment plants. Wisconsin will be the first state in the region to try
the concept. Jill Jonas of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources acknowledges underground contaminants like arsenic could spoil the treated drinking water.
So, she says Wisconsin will closely analyze each proposal.
“So if there’s an area that has problems with arsenic, we have to look on a case by case basis to see if the injected water actually creates more of a resource problem than was originally there.”
Illinois and Pennsylvania are also looking into aquifer storage recovery. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee.
Researchers have found that building housing along lakeshores affects the kinds of birds drawn to the area. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Researchers have found that building housing along lakeshores affects the kinds
of birds drawn to the area. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Researchers have been looking at the differences between populations of birds along a lakeshore where houses have been built and where they’ve not. Alec Lindsay is a University of Michigan doctoral student who’s been working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, studying the birds…
“What we found is that the birds that feed on insects were found less frequently on lakes
that had significant shoreline development than lakes that were undeveloped. And on the other hand, birds that feed on seeds which are not normally associated with these sorts of habitats were found more frequently on developed lakes than undeveloped lakes.”
So, lakeshore housing developments might be discouraging the kinds of birds that eat mosquitoes and keep down other insect pests. Conservation officials suggest homeowners should plant more native shrubs and grasses to encourage the bug-eating birds to stay.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
