Chapters

1. Seeking Biodiversity
2. The Trail Back From Near Extinction
3. The Origin of Species
4. The Puzzle of Inheritence
5. Soil: The Living Skin of the Earth
6. Field Trip: Predatory Bird Research Group
7. One Global Ocean
8. Champions of a Sustainable World

Agricultural Diversity

• Navdanya -- http://www.navdanya.org/ -- a programme initiated by the Foundation to conserve agricultural diversity.

Creeks

• Alameda Creek Alliance -- Alameda Creek and its tributaries historically supported anadromous fish runs of steelhead trout, coho salmon, Pacific lamprey and river lamprey, and possibly chinook salmon. ...At least a dozen native fish species have been documented in recent years, including rainbow trout, Pacific lamprey, California roach, hitch, Sacramento blackfish, hardhead, Sacramento pikeminnow, Sacramento sucker, threespine stickleback, Sacramento perch, prickly sculpin, and tule perch. In recent years, adult steelhead thought to be native to Alameda Creek have been documented in the flood control channel attempting to migrate upstream during winter spawning runs. These fish are currently blocked by impassable barriers in the creek.

Endangered Animals

• Moon Bears. March, 2005. A day in the sun for moon bears. by Lisa Owens-Viani; Earth Island Journal, Spring 2005, Vol. 20, No. 1 ... an Asiatic black bear, also known as a "moon bear" ... was taken to a grim concrete room filled with rows of tiny elevated iron cages containing other moon bears. In this room he underwent an operation in which a seven-inch catheter was inserted into his gallbladder. ...the bear farmers would "milk" bile from his gallbladder twice a day in a crude and painful procedure. ... bears are sometimes further immobilized in metal jackets, torso-squeezing devices like corsets, or in "crush" cages to keep them from protesting during the milking.... By the early 1990s, there were almost 500 bear farms operating in China, containing over 10,000 bears. ... the Chinese government estimates that less than 15,000 moon bears remain in the wild.... "Today, we have over 50 herbal alternatives and synthetic medicines that have the same efficacy as bear bile. There is no need for bears to suffer any longer." ... For more information on the China Bear Rescue, see http://www.animalasia.org.
• Grizzly bears—see also http://www.nwf.org/grizzly/
• Orangutan Foundation International
• Tiger information center-- 5 Tigers http://www.5tigers.org/
• Sea Turtles, see http://www.scistp.org/

  Here Today--http://www.heretoday.org/--free lesson plan kits on selected endangered species for teachers in Grades 4-6.

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