Martha the Passenger Pigeon died in a zoo on Sept 1, one hundred years ago.

In the early 1800s Passenger Pigeons were the most abundant bird species in North America. They migrated across the continent in flocks that were made up of billions of individuals. Billions!

And humans made Passenger Pigeons extinct. We killed all of them through hunting and mass deforestation.

And we've learned nothing. We continue to kill animals like it doesn't even matter. Sometime through hunting (wolves!), sometimes by mass poisoning (bees!), and mostly by mass destruction of ecosystems (everyone!).

So here is a project to bring awareness... Fold the Flock. I love their About statement:

Fold the Flock is an initiative of The Lost Bird Project, an arts-based environmental non-profit that connects people more deeply with the earth through art.

Yay Art!

Their goal is to reach 1 million origami Passenger Pigeons by the end of the year. They are currently at ~453,500.

And you know, one million sounds like a lot... but it is a tiny fraction of the billions of birds who formerly roamed North America.

Here's my first attempt...

I've never done any origami before, and you can see that my folds are not great. Regardless, it still looks good, and it stands all by itself! ha!

I hope you'll try it as well. They have a free download that fits on letter-sized paper that you can print. You will have to cut it down. And you'll have to run the instruction video many times. :)

It's fun learning some origami!

Static8 > Journal > 6 sept 2014

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