"The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?"  -- David Attenborough 

Today, we find ourselves amidst a sudden and vicious epidemic of wildlife slaughter and illegal trade.  We are receiving reports of a potentially catastrophic slaughter of forest elephants in the Central African Republic as that nation has spiraled into chaos.

First, we heard 30 elephants were killed. Then it was 40. Now it is more than 80, and the death toll will likely climb.  Definitive numbers are hard to come by, but it is clear that the world-renowned national park, Dzanga-Ndoki, and its large elephant population is now in harm’s way.

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We in the conservation field do a lot of hand-wringing over the growing disconnect between people and nature, and there's reason to be concerned. 

America is changing: diversifying, urbanizing, gentrifying, globalizing.  And its people are increasingly de-natured and disconnected from the outdoors. 

So we worry about this disconnect and the challenges it presents.

But then something happens to remind us that while people are becoming physically disconnected with the outdoors, they are more and more fascinated with wild life. 

Lori Iverson, in charge of Education and Visitor Services at Elk National Refuge in Wyoming, took a remarkable set of photos recently that showed a confrontation between juvenile mountain lions and coyotes.

Millions of people viewed these photos on Flickr, and thousands more commented on them and shared them on Facebook.

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I am one lucky man.

I’m headed to the beautiful Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge at the south end of Washington’s Puget Sound. I’ll see herons feeding and ducks swirling while eagles watch them and me from nearby trees.

I’m meeting with representatives of two other federal agencies to review progress on one of the signature conservation initiatives in recent history.

Today I get to do two things I’ve always believed to be among the most important things any agency leader can do: get out in the field to meet the people who are implementing policy on the ground, and see how those policies are working.

And it’s Earth Day.

I am so proud – and so humbled – to be here today, representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and all the work we do and have done since that first Earth Day in 1970 and beyond.

What better way to spend this Earth Day?

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