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''Wings for My Flight: the Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock'' is a book by Marcy Cottrell Houle. The book focuses on Houle's efforts to save the then-endangered peregrine falcons from extinction. By 1975, peregrine falcons had been reduced to 324 pairs in the United States, primarily as a result of DDT, a widely used pesticide. DDT inhibited the production of calcium and caused eggs to thin and break during incubation. Recovery efforts for the peregrine have been successful: DDT was banned by the U.S. in 1972 and efforts to breed and train peregrine falcons in captivity to later release to the wild were effective. In 1999, the peregrine falcon was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species list. After graduating from Colorado College in the 1970s, Houle was employed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and assigned to Chimney Rock, where one of the last pairs of peregrine falcons was discovered. ''Wings for My Flight'' documents Houle's observations of the Chimney Rock peregrine falcons, as well as the Chimney Rock community, in the summer of 1975. In order to protect the falcons, Houle had to halt a multimillion-dollar project to build a tourist attraction for ancient Anasazi Indian ruins in the area and faced harassment by the Chimney Rock community as a result. ''Wings for My Flight'' was originally published in hardcover by Addison-Wesley in 1991. The book was republished in 1999 by Pruett Publishing and in 2014 by the University of New Mexico Press. Critical reception to ''Wings for My Flight'' has generally been positive. The book co-received the Oregon Book Award in 1991 and was also awarded a Christopher Award for books in 1992. The ''Library Journal'' described the book as "well-crafted and compelling," while the ''Los Angeles Times'' referred to the book as "heartfelt", although "naive and overdrawn at times". ==Background== Marcy Cottrell Houle wrote ''Wings for My Flight'' in the several decades following a major decline in the peregrine falcon population, which occurred between 1950 and 1970. During the 1930s and 40s, an estimated 1000 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons inhabited the western United States and Mexico, coupled with 500 pairs in the eastern U.S. By the 70s, there were no peregrine falcon nests discovered east of the Rocky Mountains,〔 and in the West, peregrine falcon populations had declined by 80 to 90 percent.〔 By the events of ''Wings for My Flight'', which take place in 1975, only 324 pairs of peregrine falcons were known to reside in the United States, with only seven pairs in the Rocky Mountains region, and one at Chimney Rock National Monument in southwestern Colorado.〔 In the midst of the peregrine falcon decline, Houle studied biology at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. The institution's block scheduling system allowed Houle to frequently travel to experience various biological ecosystems in addition to her academic studies. Upon leaving college, Houle began working for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and her first field assignment was to observe peregrine falcon activity along the Rocky Mountains for four summers, two of which were spent at Chimney Rock. Following the experience, Houle had to decide whether to continue pursuing wildlife biology or to instead commit to her passion of writing. ''Wings for My Flight'' merges both fields and documents Houle's observations of the peregrines and the community at Chimney Rock during her first summer there. The peregrine falcon became an endangered species primarily due to the use of organochlorine pesticides, especially DDT,〔 whose breakdown lowered estrogen levels in the female peregrine bloodstream and inhibited the production of calcium, causing eggs to grow thinner by up to 20 percent. Since peregrine falcons lay their eggs on rocky ledges rather than nests, the thinned shells break under the stress of both the rocky ledge and the weight of the parents during incubation. Following 1970, recovery efforts for the peregrine falcon population commenced globally. The agricultural use of DDT was banned in the United States in 1972,〔T. J. Cade, J. H. Enderson, C. G. Thelander & C. M. White (Eds): ''Peregrine Falcon Populations – Their management and recovery''. The Peregrine Fund, Boise, Idaho, 1988. ISBN 0-9619839-0-6.〕 and recovery teams in North America and Europe were successful in breeding and training peregrines in captivity to later release to the wild, a procedure called hacking. In 1999, the peregrine falcon was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species list.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wings for My Flight」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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