(editor'snote)

As Audubon goes to press, the future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is hanging by a thread. This time all that may end up stopping the refuge's irrevocable loss to oil drilling is a coalition of 25 centrist Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who have drawn a line in the tundra. Still, this should occasion only minor rejoicing, because bipartisan support for conservation issues has been eroding steadily for the past two decades. We must broaden our base to maintain our relevance.

With this goal in mind, Audubon has been reaching out to some unexpected groups. I'm happy to report that judging from the reactions of these groups and other readers, our pragmatism seems to be paying off. When editor-at-large Ted Williams wrote “Wanted: More Hunters” (March-April 2002), which promoted hunting as a way to help limit deer damage to bird habitat, I received some of the most venomous hate mail of my career. But after Williams revisited the subject in “Public Menace” in the July-August 2005 issue, readers expressed strong support overall. One self-proclaimed “animal-rights type” thanked Ted for making him “see things in a different light.”

For their part, many evangelical conservatives heartily endorsed senior editor Keith Kloor's September-October 2005 story, “The Holy and the Hawks,” about the partnership between evangelicals and neoconservatives to cure our country's addiction to fossil fuels. In a newsletter that went out to 30 million evangelicals, Richard Cizik, a movement leader, described Kloor's article as “must reading.”

In this issue contributing editor Jon Luoma profiles enlightened landowners in New York state who have made careful choices to log in ways that can actually benefit birds and other wildlife (“Timberrr!,"). However much revving up the chainsaw might strike some as heresy, it's a far better alternative for landowners than selling their property to developers.

Reporting my feature on Challenger, America's most famous bald eagle (“NASCAR Conservationist”), I grew mightily impressed with the power he and his caretaker, Al Cecere, have to move cultural and political conservatives with resonant messages about our nation's natural heritage. I cannot claim to have been invited to a National Rifle Association dinner honoring Charlton Heston upon his retirement at which Challenger wowed the crowd. But I do share Cecere's sentiments about preaching to the unconverted: “You try not to shove it down their throats. Sometimes if you can reach the heart, it can overpower the mind.”