Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, January 18, 2013
www.issaquahreporter.com
Trying again
EARNING HER STRIPES
Task force for Klahanie annexation gets to work BY LINDA BALL LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
Cougar Mountain Zoo curator Robyn Barfoot travels to India to help save an endangered species from extinction BY LINDA BALL LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
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tart a conversation about big cats with Cougar Mountain Zoo general curator, Robyn Barfoot, and you quickly learn how passionate she is about tiger conservation – and all wildlife in general.
Barfoot will leave Saturday for a three-week trip to India to promote conservation of these magnificent cats, and bring that knowledge back to the patrons of the zoo. India holds over 1,700 tigers, about half the world’s tiger population. Nepal and Bangladesh are also home to tigers. This is not her first time to India – and the zoo does not pay for her trip. Barfoot, who received her degree in biology with an emphasis in wildlife conservation from Arizona State University, made the journey two years ago after meeting her now good friend, Danita Daniel, who lives in India. Daniel, who works on tiger conservation in India, came to Issaquah a few years ago to meet Barfoot after learning that the small zoo had acquired four tigers. “We instantly clicked,” Barfoot said. They both have passion for tigers and how they can save them from becoming an extinct species. “We’ve lost 97 percent of the tiger population in the wild in the last 100 years, due to illegal hunting of tigers,” Barfoot said. “There were nine sub-species 100 years ago, now there are six.” One sub-species, the North China Tiger, only exists in captivity and there are only 30 of them remaining, Barfoot said. The tiger is valued, particularly by the Chinese, for traditional Chinese medicines. They use the entire animal – whiskers, bones, everything – to make various “cures” for various ailments, none of which have been scientifically proven to work, according to Barfoot, but it’s hard to change traditions that have carried on for years, she added. An undercover investigation by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2005 revealed that the trade in tiger and leopard body parts in China continues to thrive, operating without any hindrance from the Chinese government while driving India’s wild tigers closer towards extinction. Barfoot said there is even a huge black market for tiger parts in San Francisco, where they use tiger for everything from aphrodisiacs to body creams. “The only way to save the tiger is to educate people,” Barfoot said. “The zoo’s purpose is to educate the public that tigers are endangered.”
Robyn Barfoot with Bagheera, a Bengal tiger at Cougar Mountain Zoo. The top photo was taken at 3-years-old. The bottom photo was taken the last time she was able to have full contact with him at 11-months-old. CONTRIBUTED BY COUGAR MOUNTAIN ZOO There are several tiger preserves in India, which are protected on three sides, Barfoot said. The fourth side is left open to encourage SEE TIGERS, 8
After failing in 2005, the issue of annexing Klahanie to Issaquah is being revisited. Nine individuals appointed to a task force by Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger met for the first time Wednesday Jan. 9 to discuss the potential impact of the city annexing Klahanie, which is an unincorporated pocket of King County smack between Sammamish and Issaquah. The citizen task force includes four Issaquah residents: Mary Lou Pauly, Bernadette Anne, Al Erickson, a lifelong resident of Issaquah, retired after 35 years with the Issaquah Parks Department and former Issaquah Mayor, Rowan Hinds. Klahanie residents on the task force include Barb Justice, Rob Young, a 24-year resident of Klahanie who initiated the effort last year, Dick L’Heureux and Brent Marshall, who played a key role in the annexation of Eastgate to Bellevue. “Most of the people we’ve talked to thought it was a done deal,” Young said. The task force also includes Don Smith, who is on the board of fire commissioners of King County Fire District 10, and also a retired fire chief. Pauly, Anne and Justice served on the previous annexation task force. “It’s a good mix of people with varying views,” said Issaquah city councilman Fred Butler. The task force members are all volunteers, but the consultants hired by the city, Tom Nesbitt, of Nesbitt Planning and Management, Inc. along with independent consultant Cynthia Stewart, will be paid SEE KLAHANIE, 2