Ecologists, conservationists, and others increasingly ask questions that require a reliable understanding of natural conditions in the past. For example, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) under the Federal Endangered Species Act, there was a need to know the historical status of this species in the northeastern US. The natural history writings of Manly Hardy, a successful, nineteenth-century businessman and respected amateur naturalist from Brewer, ME, proved useful in assessing the lynx's historical status. Because of the wide array of potential uses of Hardy's writings, the objective of this paper is to make biologists and other scholars aware of Hardy, especially his 15 surviving journals, 1852-1899. Hardy left the most extensive published record of any of the naturalists who wrote about wildlife in Maine from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. His articles and essays covered a wide range of subjects about a variety of bird and mammal species. A recently published biographical sketch of Hardy contains an annotated bibliography of his publications along with the republication of 14 of his mammalian works. In contrast, this article contains an example of his unpublished journal writing with significant wildlife observations.
The Northeastern Naturalist is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary scientific journal with a regional focus on northeastern North America, including eastern Canada. It features research articles on terrestrial, fresh-water, and marine organisms, and their environments. It focuses on field ecology, biology, behavior, biogeography, wildlife and fisheries management, taxonomy, evolution, anatomy, physiology, geology, and related fields. It is co-published with the Southeastern Naturalist (ISSN # 1528-7092). Both journals are identical in focus, format, quality, and features, thus providing an integrated publishing and research resource for eastern North America.
The Eagle Hill Institute (formerly the Humboldt Institute) is located on the eastern Maine coast and is perhaps best known for the advanced and professional-level natural history science field seminars it has offered since 1987. The Institute actively promotes collaboration in education, research, and publishing by working together with scientists from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Latin America. It publishes the Northeastern and Southeastern Naturalists, two natural history science journals for eastern North America. The Institute has a special interest in the legacy of Alexander von Humboldt, the most renowned natural scientist of the early 19th century. The Institute is working with the Eagle Hill Foundation in developing a retreat style study and meeting facility on the summit of Eagle Hill and in developing the Foundation's first journal, the Journal of the North Atlantic, focusing on peoples of the North Atlantic, their expansion into the region over time, and their interactions with their changing environment.
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Northeastern Naturalist
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