It\u2019s a chilly winter morning on the 1,500-mile flight from Virginia as Janice Newman, pilot of the Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop, starts her descent for a refueling stop in Branson, Missouri. On board: fellow pilot Tom Haas and Linda Moore, former senior biologist at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park\u2013and three Mexican wolves, the smallest and most endangered wolf species.<\/p>\n Newman and Haas are volunteer pilots with LightHawk, a nonprofit with deep roots in Maine whose mission is \u201cto champion environmental protection through the unique perspective of flight.\u201d They are delivering the wolves to the Wildlife West Nature Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the two four-year-old females and one eleven-year-old male will live as part of a binational captive breeding program, the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan (MWSSP). The goal: a transcontinental \u201cdate\u201d across the Basin and Range Province to help reintroduce Mexican wolves into the wild.<\/p>\n Hidden from view, the shy animals lie curled up in deep beds of hay in burlap-covered dog crates set in the rear of the cabin. Moore, the wolves\u2019 caretaker during the flight, detects their growing agitation. She taps Newman on the shoulder, signaling her to slow the descent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019ve got baby ears. I now know you have to plan the descent so as not to hurt them,\u201d explains Newman, looking back on her first \u2018wolf flight\u2019 more than a year ago. Flying out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, she and Haas have since ferried other Mexican wolves to pre-release facilities in Washington state, Missouri, New York, and Arizona in order to accommodate breeding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do over 1,000 flights each year for hundreds of environmental groups,\u201d says Portland-based Rudy Engholm<\/strong>, LightHawk\u2019s executive director. A former lawyer and long-time environmental activist who lived off the grid for ten years, Engholm founded Northern Wings, an environmental flying service similar to LightHawk, in 1992.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing these kind of flights connects you in a very special way to the land, the creatures, and the issues. When no one knew what a million acres of clear-cut Maine woods looked like, we were able to bring that understanding.\u201d When Northern Wings merged into LightHawk in 2003, Engholm joined LightHawk\u2019s board of directors, becoming its executive director four years later. \u201cThere\u2019s such a sense of passion in this organization about what can be accomplished with this tool [the small plane] and great people.\u201d<\/p>\n LightHawk flights, all of which are provided free of charge to LightHawk partners, are either scientific and technical (involving research, data collection, aerial photography, or wildlife transport) or educational, designed to show policy-makers, stakeholders, and the media the consequences of their decisions.<\/p>\n LightHawk flights have enabled Maine Audubon to make an aerial survey of loons on the state\u2019s northern lakes\u2013important since loons in the wild are said to be a barometer measuring the effects of climate change, mercury and lead contamination in lakes, \u00a0 and land lost to development. The organization has also provided dozens of flights to Maine\u2019s land trusts, helping them monitor and better understand the thousands of acres in their care.<\/p>\n While LightHawk isn\u2019t an advocacy group, the issues it helps illuminate often are controversial. Engholm explains, \u201cWhenever you have resource issues that deal with land, you have multiple points of view. A lot of what we do is showing people what\u2019s at stake\u2013and often you can\u2019t do that easily from the ground, whether it\u2019s logging issues or California\u2019s Marine Life Protection Act,\u201d a highly contentious issue that\u2019s had LightHawk flying missions over the state\u2019s coast for the last five years. \u201cFrom the air, you try to see what unites people\u2013not what divides them. As one official [in California] said, \u2018We found common ground in the air.\u2019 Only when they could see it together could they come together.\u201d<\/p>\n LightHawk flies missions all over the U.S., Canada, and south into Central America. Engholm admits that in Mexico planes have been met by armed soldiers, and there are places like southern Panama where the organization won\u2019t fly. Having its small planes mistaken for drug traffickers\u2019 is one risk it won\u2019t take.<\/p>\n Risk is what LightHawk tries to take out of the flying equation. Each flight is meticulously planned; many flights require countless hours of advance planning, securing special permits, working with government agencies, translating documents, and handling all the necessary technical aspects.<\/p>\n According to Engholm, \u201cOur single most complicated flight was probably flying rare Orange-breasted Falcon chicks from Sheraton, Wyoming, to Belize last June.\u201d Since the plane\u2013carrying a biologist, the 42-day-old chicks, and 150 pounds of frozen quail (\u201cthe chicks\u2019 in-flight meal\u201d)\u2013wasn\u2019t allowed to stop in Mexico, the turboprop refueled in Texas, a stop which had to be cleared with U.S. Fish and Game. The importance of the birds\u2019 safety was paramount: Fewer than 30 nesting pairs are in Central America today, and a significant percentage of Central America\u2019s Orange-breasted Falcon DNA was on the flight.<\/p>\n The 12-member staff, spread across the U.S. and Mesoamerica, coordinates all the missions flown by nearly 170 volunteer pilots. \u201cWe run a decentralized, multi-national [concern] with the number of people who can fit around a family dining table. We try to be judicious about what we do,\u201d Engholm says, noting that LightHawk uses highly efficient aircraft and purchases carbon offsets so the operation is carbon neutral. He estimates this year\u2019s carbon footprint, including staff travel and all mission-related flights, will be about 272 metric tons, assuming 25,000 gallons of aviation fuel. \u201cA single one-way trip from San Francisco to Rio de Janeiro in a 747 would use roughly 40,000 gallons. If society is willing to \u2018spend\u2019 these vast amounts of emissions on so many other activities, doesn\u2019t it make sense that we at least invest a small amount of our energy in saving the irreplaceable pieces of wild nature?<\/p>\n \u201cThe first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces [according to Aldo Leopold in A Sand County Almanac<\/em>],\u201d concludes Engholm. \u201cThat\u2019s the perfect analog for what we do. We try to protect all the pieces of nature\u2013the wildlife, habitats, and diverse ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"incomparables\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/incomparables1.jpg\")
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