Fragile Nature At A Glance




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First we had a need to tame the wilderness. Now we need to conserve it.

The frontiers are mostly gone now, and so is our connection to the land. No generation has ever been as far removed from the natural world as we are today. Many of us live in air conditioning and sit at computers all day. We see wildlife only on TV and in zoos. For some of us, Mother Nature is no more important than the need for an umbrella on a rainy day.

But we are all in this together. We're just now realizing that what's good for nature is good for humanity. In contrast, we live in a society that values competition so highly that the 'us vs. them' mentality is hard to ignore. It's time to think of nature as a benefactor, not an adversary.

	Bear training, Utah, 1995 What looks frightening is actually all in a day's work for Doug Seus and his Kodiak bear, Bart. Until the bear's death four years ago, the two trained together almost daily in order to perform in dozens of commercials, television shows and movies. Their efforts also produced Vital Ground, a non-profit group dedicated to saving critical grizzly bear habitat. For more information, visit www.vitalground.org.

	Charging Musk Ox, Alaska, 1995 Getting close is often required in order for the photos to be good enough for National Geographic. Provoking an unexpected charge is never a good idea, however. Fortunately, this male musk ox on Nunivak Island decided not to kill the photographer that day.

	Jonathan on Dead Alligator, Louisiana, 1991 Alligator hunting is still allowed in southern Louisiana, where tight controls on the numbers of animals taken keep the population stable. This young man was very proud of the fact that he'd "pulled the trigger and finished him off".

	El Segundo Blue Butterfly and Jet, California, 1994 This species survives only because two small patches of its coastal habitat were left intact. One of those was at the foot of the runway at Los Angeles International Airport. Intensive captive breeding efforts, plus the replanting of coastal dunes by volunteers, saved this creature from extinction.

	Caribou and Oil Refinery, Alaska, 2001 Oil in the Arctic has been a subject of great controversy in recent years. Though a handful of caribou come around the drilling rigs, refineries, and pipelines of Prudhoe Bay, it is their calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the east that have caused all the commotion. The largest herd of ungulates in North America, the Porcupine Caribou Herd, needs the pristine coastal plain of ANWR as a calving ground. The steady ocean breezes found there keep their young free of the mosquito swarms that can take so much blood the calves weaken and die. Biologists say that if oil development were allowed in ANWR, the herd would suffer irreparable harm.

	Bear Faces, Alaska, 1999 Each year, over 200 grizzly bear pelts are processed at just one tannery in Alaska. By hunting the biggest males of a species, biologists are concerned that the best genetics are being removed from the bears' gene pool over time.

	Wildlife Overpass, Alberta, Canada, 1999 Highways may not seem like a big imposition on habitat, but they often isolate populations from one another, the first step toward extinction. This wildlife overpass near Banff National Park, combined with fencing that leads animals to it, is designed to give wildlife a way to cross over the interstate. It is now thought that underpasses work better for skittish animals too shy to cross out in the open.

	Ghost Costumes, Oklahoma, 1992 At a captive-breeding center, camouflage clothing called ghost costumes keep young eagles from imprinting on humans and gives them a better chance of surviving in the wild. With legal protection and the elimination of the pesticide DDT from the environment, the species managed to make a comeback. This photograph was taken at the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, which played a crucial role in the recovery of the Southern bald eagle. For more information, visit www.suttoncenter.org.



Species fail for many reasons. Chief among them is the loss of habitat. Mankind destroys the Earth in many ways, from the logging of forests to the building of roads in once-pristine areas. All of us leave an ecological impact, though we often do not realize it. The cars we drive require metal extracted from mining. Our houses are made of wood from forests. Our food is produced through the massive use of water, petroleum, pesticides and other chemicals. To preserve our natural history, humanity must make the decision now to limit population growth and change our over-consumptive ways. Beyond saving the world's biodiversity, good choices now could save all of us in the long run. Healthy landscapes, forests, and oceans provide people with clean air, clean water, and good food. It is folly to think that we are not a part of the natural world, when in fact our very survival depends on thriving, healthy ecosystems. All of us can make a difference.

	Bonneville Dam, Washington/Oregon, 1995 Clean and inexpensive hydroelectric power from the dams along the Columbia River came at a price: the decline of the Pacific salmon. The Columbia now resembles a series of lakes more than a river, preventing young fish from making it to sea during spring flows each year.

	Housing Development, California, 1994 This is California but it could be anywhere, from Florida to Nebraska. Suburban sprawl is now a major cause for concern due to the land it consumes. The housing shown here has decimated the delicate sage scrub habitat once common along California's coast, home to plants and animals found nowhere else.

	Mosquito Spraying, Florida, 1991 They say that south Florida would be uninhabitable if it weren't for air conditioning and mosquito spraying. In Lee County, the latter is done by fleets of DC-9 aircraft, which carpet the county weekly with a deadly mixture of Malathion and diesel fuel. The pesticide affects more than mosquitoes, however. The spraying affects the very base of the food chain, killing most other insects as well, from butterflies to beetles.

	Clear-cut Logging, Idaho, 1992 The U.S. Department of Agriculture controls the U.S. Forest Service. As such, trees have been thought of as a crop for many years. An example is this clear-cut in Idaho's Salmon National Forest. Across the United States, more than 95 percent of the old-growth forests are now gone. Recently some lumber companies have become more interested in sustainable, selective harvests of trees in which clear-cuts are avoided. Many environmental groups praise such new logging methods for their less severe impacts on landscapes and watersheds.

	Houston Ship Channel, Texas, 2001 Man's need for energy led to the refinery boom along the Texas coast-and some of the worst air pollution in the country. Industrial sprawl such as this leaves little room for any native species to survive.



The areas along our northern Pacific coast are wonderfully diverse, yet many places are also in great peril. Generally speaking, where man has left things alone, species are thriving. Most of Alaska is still as grand and wondrous as ever, as if time has stood still. In southeast Alaska and coastal British Columbia, however, logging has been going on for years, jeopardizing temperate rainforests in ways so complex that science has yet to fully understand them.

	Black Bear and Salmon, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, 2000 Ever hear of a salmon tree? Biologists in Canada have discovered that bears take many fish from spawning streams and deposit them-either as waste or half-eaten arcasses-in the woods nearby. Core sampling has revealed trees containing more than a thousand fish each.

	Sundew Plant Eating Mosquito, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, 2000 Ample rainfall and boggy conditions breed mosquitoes, but nature has provided an unusual predator. Meet the sundew, a diminutive carnivorous plant only an inch high. Any small insect attracted to its sticky tentacles is enveloped and consumed in just a single night.

	Pink Salmon, Alaska, 2002 Adak Island is remote, to say the least. Located on the far western end of the Aleutians near Russia, it is known as 'the birthplace of wind'. It is a harsh, cold landscape. The salmon don't mind, though. Each fall, thousands crowd virgin streams to spawn in a landscape unscathed by human activity.

	A Salmon's Final Hours, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, 2000 Her spawning complete, a female sockeye salmon spends her final hours out of the current too swift for her to stay upright. After spawning, salmon stay and guard their nests for as long as they can before they weaken and die. Their decaying bodies provide a nutritional bloom for the stream, feeding aquatic invertebrates, which in turn become a food source for hatchling salmon in the months ahead.

	Big Leaf Maple Tree, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, 2000 Though it looks burdened, the big-leaf maple actually wants other plants to hitch a ride. By exuding calcium on its bark, the tree attracts a variety of mosses, lichens and other plants. These plants in turn create a nutrient-rich soil the tree absorbs via a secondary root system which covers its boughs.

	10,000 Bull Walrus, Alaska, 1995 Like one-ton sardines, thousands of bull walrus pack together at a 'haul out' on the Alaska coast. Walrus numbers remain stable simply because their habitat and food sources remain intact.

	Up Close and Personal, Alaska, 1995 With poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell, walrus are fairly easy to photograph. The key is to stay downwind and move very slowly. This photograph was taken at Togiak National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaskan peninsula.

	Seabird Nesting Cliff, Alaska, 2002 The thousand-foot cliffs of St. Paul Island comprise the world's largest breeding colonies of red-legged kittiwakes. Rich fisheries just offshore provide plenty of food for rearing chicks in this remote part of the Bering Sea.



	Grizzlies are exciting. They are smart, fast and powerful. They're the stuff of legend. Yet bears fear us, and for good reason. They're killed routinely by a growing human presence. Our roads and developments continue to splinter and fragment the last of their habitat in the American west and Canada. Protecting bear habitat is a good idea any way you slice it. Bears need big areas to survive. By saving areas of wilderness that support bears, we protect all other creatures that dwell there, great and small.

	The Ultimate Scavenger, Alaska, 1999 "A fed bear is a dead bear." This is the mantra of bear biologists everywhere. Nowhere is this more true than in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, where the oil industry leaves lots of eftovers. This leads to bears becoming dependant on humans for food, and their rummaging spreads to homes, garages and vehicles. Many 'garbage bears' end up being shot and killed.

	Moving Target, Alaska, 1999 Opening wide, a bear waits for lunch at Brooks Falls. The famous fishing bears here use a variety of fishing techniques to capitalize on the bounty of each summer's salmon run, from running fish down in shallow water to snatching them from the air.

	Bear Paparrazi, Alaska, 1999 This is what the scene really looks like-two dozen at a time, some 30,000 visitors attempt to get the same action shots of the few bears that fish from atop the falls. It is estimated that more than a million photos are taken at this spot during each year's six-week salmon run.

	The Eyes Have It, Alaska, 1999 Bobbing for sockeye in the Kulik River, a coastal brown bear forages nearly around the clock for the fish that are crucial to the fat reserves he'll need to get him through the coming winter.

	Close Encounters, California, 1999 Separated from them by a yellow wire he thinks is an electric fence, Whopper the trained bear impresses some Boy Scouts. His trainer dreams of setting aside enough wild land in California so that the state animal can roam as it did before it disappeared from the state in the 1920s.

	Nap Time, Alaska, 1999 After gorging itself on fish in the nearby river, a grizzly sleeps in the fall colors of Katmai National Park.



	Wolves were once eradicated from most of their historic range in the lower 48 states. But thanks to a changing public perception about them, gray wolves now roam again in several parts of the American west. Captive breeding has also enabled the red wolf and Mexican gray wolf to return to the wild, though with limited success.

	Wolf Pack, Minnesota, 1997 A wolf pack prepares to hunt at dusk on a frozen lake in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area.

	Carcass Cam, Minnesota, 1997 Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? For centuries wolves have evoked both fear and admiration from humans. To get an iconic photo that gets at the myth of the big bad wolf, a radio-controlled camera was placed inside a dead deer at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. Here the alpha female of the pack warns the others to stay away until she has eaten her fill.

	Predator and Prey, Wyoming, 1998 For the first time in decades, wolves again chase elk through the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone. The reintroduction of wolves has been a great success, drawing a new generation of visitors to the park.

	Wolves in Blizzard, Wyoming, 1997 The Druid Peak pack walks through a blizzard in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone. Gray wolves have oversized feet that help them deal with the deep snows that otherwise hinder their prey.

	Running Red Wolf, Washington, 1994 Captive breeding saved the red wolf, such as this animal at the Tacoma Park Zoo. Reintroduction into the American southeast has been trickier, however. All wolves roam far and wide. If they stray from their refuges, the wolves are often shot on sight by landowners.

	Mexican Gray Wolf, Wichita, 1998 Similar to the red wolf, Mexican gray wolves do quite well in captivity. Upon their release, however, many are illegally shot by those who don't want to see them regain a foothold in the desert southwest. This father and pup were photographed at Wichita's Sedgwick County Zoo.

	Lone Wolf, British Columbia, Canada, 2000 An unlikely hunter looks in vain for a handout along the shores of Vargas Island. This wolf was part of a pack that had been scavenging handouts from hikers. He was eventually shot for becoming too aggressive with the tourists who fed him.



Between the plow and the rifle, America's Serengeti was all but eliminated by 1900. When the smoke cleared, one of the richest ecosystems on the continent was reduced to a whisper in the wind. Now many are hopeful that some sections of the Great Plains can be restored. With fewer souls per square mile today than in pioneer times, many areas out west have tremendous potential to regenerate. Given proper stewardship, we can bring back the bison and the prairie dog in a series of large grassland preserves. Managing some areas for wildlife could also bring economic opportunities to towns that have been losing jobs and population steadily for decades. One group in Lincoln, the Grassland Foundation (formerly the Conservation Alliance of the Great Plains), is working to bring back the prairie in a way that benefits everyone. For more information, visit www.grasslandfoundation.org.

	Face Off, Oklahoma, 2000 Two lesser prairie-chickens square off in a cattle pasture at dawn in Beaver County. Hoping to claim the right to breed with any passing females, the males compete each spring to see who's fittest in a series of plumage displays, vocalizations, and stare downs.

	Walking Sticks, Kansas, 1990 Evolution on display, these vegetarian insects are perfectly adapted to blend in with their tallgrass prairie home.

	Black-Footed Ferret, Wyoming, 1994 Long a symbol for conservation, the black-footed ferret was feared extinct until a Wyoming rancher's dog brought a dead one home in the 1980s. The discovery of this last remnant population allowed captive breeding efforts to begin and save the species. Today, many ferrets have been returned to the wild, though inbreeding and disease threaten its survival over the long term.

	Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, Montana, 1995 Small as it is, few species are as controversial as the prairie dog. Ranchers don't like the way they compete with cattle for forage. Environmentalists contend that this species is the key to any prairie ecosystem. A series of conservation reserves large enough to let the species flourish may be a solution both sides can live with.

	Bison and Calf, Oklahoma, 2002 Once hunted to near-extinction, the American bison is back from the brink. Though often confined by fencing, herds roam again in the west. Their grazing patterns and dirt wallows alter the landscape, creating openings in the grasslands for other species.

	Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Oklahoma, 1999 Rearing its head to a human intruder, a western diamondback rattlesnake makes its presence known. Snakes are valuable additions to the prairie-not only do they eat rodents, but they're also a source of food themselves for raptors.



	From the high Andes to the tropical rainforest, South America's plants and animals are often unique and spectacular. They may not last forever, though. Deforestation of the Amazon basin continues unabated, threatening the myriad species within. Experts say there are 25 years' worth of trees left in Brazil at current logging rates. Besides providing a home for thousands of life forms, these trees help clean our air. Without them, increased air pollution traps heat from the sun, resulting in a 'greenhouse effect' and climate change on a global scale.

	Desert Fox, Chile, 2001 An Andean fox patrols a cactus forest in the southern end of Chile's Atacama desert. Rain falls so seldom here that the plants have adapted to live off nothing more than a daily coastal fog.

	Macaws in Flight, Bolivia, 1998 A mated pair of red and green macaws flies home to a nesting cliff in Madidi National Park. With an estimated 1,400 species of birds, this place is thought to be one of the most biologically diverse parks on Earth.

	Jaguar in the Rain, Bolivia, 1998 With an intimidating stare, a female jaguar turns away from a carcass in the rainforest of Madidi National Park in the Bolivian Amazon. A wild pig, one of the jaguar's main food sources, probably caused the wound on this endangered cat's shoulder.

	Caiman and Bee, Bolivia, 1998 Insects are a constant part of life in the tropics, and are critical in forming the base of the food chain. They are also equal-opportunity annoyances, even to the tough-as-nails caiman that dwell on the riverbanks of Madidi National Park.

	Flamingos at Dawn, Bolivia, 2001 Puffed up against the morning cold, flamingoes stand in the day's first light on Laguna Colorada. This high-altitude saline lake actually freezes at certain times of the year, trapping the birds in a thin layer of ice until the sun thaws them out.

	Viscachas, Chile, 2001 Part rabbit, part chinchilla, a viscacha and her young rest during the heat of the day in Chile's Atacama desert.



When the noted biologist E.O. Wilson spoke on the University of Nebraska campus a few years ago, he noted that we are now in the middle of 'The Sixth Extinction'. Not since the end of the dinosaurs has the earth seen so many species vanish so quickly. This time, though, the problem is caused by man. Species go extinct for a variety of reasons. Disease such as avian cholera spreads from snow geese to whooping cranes cramped together in ever-decreasing wetlands. Houston's suburban sprawl has reduced the Attwater's prairie-chicken to just one final booming ground near Texas City. Many Hawaiian plants have been exterminated by introduced, non-native species too formidable to compete with. Without a reduction in the amount of human activity on the planet, as much as 25% of all species will fade into oblivion in our lifetimes. As much as 50% of the diversity of life on Earth could be lost by the year 2100.

	Dead Whooping Crane, New Mexico, 1995 A juvenile whooping crane lies dead of avian cholera at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. As humans take more water from the desert southwest, migrating birds are forced to share remaining wetlands, increasing the chance of disease transmission. In this case, snow geese brought in the cholera that killed this crane.

	Mother and Young, Texas, 2001 Safe for the moment in an enclosed flight pen, a mother Attwater's prairie-chicken guards her chick and nest at their namesake refuge near Eagle Lake. After hatching, the flight pen was opened so that the hen could begin raising her young on the coastal prairie preserve. They were killed by a predator just three days later. Captive-raised birds often lose some of their wild instincts and face tremendous challenges to survive.

	Mahoe Plant, California, 1994 With veined leaves resembling road networks from the air, the mahoe is one of nearly 200 plant species from Hawaii now listed as endangered. Hawaii has more endangered plants and animals than any other state in the union.

	Manatee, Florida, 1994 Slow-moving vegetarians, the manatee is a mascot for conservation all over Florida. Unfortunately, it is also hit and killed routinely by speeding power boaters. Though Florida attracts thousands of new residents each month, it is hoped that strict enforcement of no-wake zones in manatee wintering areas will help save this species from extinction.

	Artificial Mom, Texas, 2001 Captive breeding is all that stands between the Attwater's prairie-chicken and extinction. A green heat lamp will not be enough to teach this young one how to survive in the wild. Though they breed well in captivity, chicks not raised in the wild rarely survive the dangers of predation upon release.

	Dead or Alive When passed in 1973, the Endangered Species Act became the first sweeping legislation in America designed to help critically imperiled species. Though the law has saved many plants and animals from extinction, it is now apparent that entire ecosystems must be preserved to support biodiversity in the long run. Keeping species off the Endangered Species List should be our primary goal.



Most species do well if they have adequate habitat and are not killed indiscriminately. Successes give us hope that we can fix anything if we put our minds to it. But, the numbers of new species in peril grows each year. Now more than ever, we understand the key to saving life on earth is to protect entire ecosystems so that plants and animals do not become imperiled in the first place.

	American Alligator, Florida, 1996 An American alligator rises up through the duckweed of a Florida marsh. In the case of this species, the regulation of hunting allowed the species to recover.

	California Condor, California, 1995 This species is one of the conservation movement's greatest success stories. There were less than two dozen condors left on earth when captive-breeding efforts began in the 1980s. Now, there are 97 flying free and another 135 in captivity. Though it has taken an enormous amount of time and money, and the numbers are still very low, this dramatic recovery seems to have saved North America's largest bird from extinction-for now.

	Just Hatched, California, 1995 Only a few minutes old, a rare California condor chick rests in the hands of the biologist who helped it hatch at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

	All-American, Nebraska, 1995 The bald eagle has recovered thanks largely to the enforcement of penalties for shooting them and the elimination of the pesticide DDT from the United States. The chemical weakened eggshells, causing nests to fail until it was banned in the 1970s. This photo is of a captive bird at Raptor Recovery Nebraska, a group that rescues and rehabilitates injured birds. To learn about their work, visit www.raptorrecoveryne.org.



	The Salt Creek tiger beetle is found only in northern Lancaster County, NE, and is down to less than a thousand individuals in the wild. It is on the emergency list for federal protection, but that may come too late. Click Here To View In Gallery

Saving Species, Saving Ourselves Preserving endangered species saves all of us in the long run. We've heard it all many times...more people are alive today than ever before. Especially in developing nations, human overpopulation has reached epic proportions. All these new people spread out. All consume resources. Though we'd hoped these problems would stay overseas, it's already started here in the U.S. Especially now in the American West, this manifests itself in people fighting over water, land use, space, ways of life. As the battles continue, many conservationists are working harder than ever to save the last of our wilderness on behalf of grizzly bears, gray wolves, and other charismatic animals. But here where I live, it's the littlest things that count the most. Case in point: the Salt Creek tiger beetle. Found nowhere else on Earth, this is an insect that lives in just a couple of salt marshes on the north edge of my town, Lincoln, Nebraska. If I can get folks to stop and think about this for a minute, maybe the big picture will fall into place as well. I hope so, anyway. Here in Lincoln, we have just three places that have any semblance of nature. We've got a small patch of virgin prairie out by our airport, some woodlands surrounded by housing developments and highways, and a couple of salt marshes. The marshes are the one in the news these days because they are home to the beetle, now down to just 300-400 adults each summer, and it's about to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The ESA is a whole story in itself. It's a law designed to save species, the only one of its kind in the world. Some say the law goes too far, others not enough. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle. All I know for sure is that we're quickly running out of wild spaces, wilderness. And we need healthy, functioning wild lands and their accompanying ecosystems to survive. So in that sense, our fate is up to all of us. Awhile back I wrote up an editorial for my local newspaper on why we should care about this bug and last of our saline wetlands here in Nebraska. Much of this applies to other endangered species as well. In the end, it all boils down to a few simple questions. Do we respect nature? Do we show benevolence to all life forms? Is there room for 'us and them'? You decide. But you'd better hurry. Time's almost up for one species in Lincoln. The rest of us can't be far behind. 1) Save species and habitat to help save ourselves. To think that humans are not tied in tightly to the natural world is pure folly. In fact, we're totally dependent on healthy, functioning ecosystems for our very survival, from the air we breathe to the food we eat to the water we drink. Notice that the frogs and bird species are thinning out where you live? These things are living monitors of the health of the earth. To think that we can escape their fate over the long haul is not realistic, to say the least. 2) We're killing off the ark. All plants and animals, even the Salt Creek tiger beetle, are God's creatures. Who are we to purposely kill off any of these creations? The Salt Creek tiger beetle is our local example of the massive wave of extinction now going on around the globe, all due to human activity and overpopulation. 3) Save it for education. Ever go on a field trip to a pond or a marsh in grade school or high school? Remember the thrill at seeing the wildlife there, from frogs and tadpoles to dragonflies to the teeming life found in a single drop of water when viewed under a microscope? 4) It's about more than just a beetle. Saving the saline wetlands (or any ecosystem) benefits thousands of other animals, such as migrating ducks, geese, and shorebirds that use such critical habitat at various times of the year. 5) Small things lead to bigger ones. If people care enough to save something as seemingly trivial as a salt marsh and as tiny as a beetle, then they'll surely care about the environmentally big things, like the destruction of 'The Lungs of the World', the Amazon rainforest. Cutting down rainforests leads to global warming. They'll also think more about sustainable living, such as the kinds and amounts of chemicals they use on their lawns and pour down their drains, which end up being consumed by people downstream from their town. 6) As a famous biologist once noted, it is the last word in ignorance when a person asks 'what good is it?' We are not smart enough as a species to understand what parts are worth saving and what are not. Remember the story about a good tinker not throwing away parts until he fully understands what each does? We're not even close to knowing how everything works, whether it's the prairies, rainforest, oceans, the Arctic or even the last of the salt marshes in northern Lancaster County, Nebraska. 7) Let's save endangered species simply because we care. The beetle is just one small part of the picture. The big issue is whether or not all of us care enough to preserve what we have left. Do we want to save species and habitats, or do we want to simply pave over and sterilize as much as we can in the name of economics? If you truly care about the environment, the last islands of natural habitat remaining are all precious, whether it's a salt marsh, a virgin prairie, or a century-old cottonwood tree. To good stewards of the Earth, all are equally worth saving.



1. Be an informed citizen. Learn what the environmental issues are in your town, state, nation and even globally. 2. Reduce, reuse, and recycle whatever goods you buy. Try to leave the smallest ecological footprint that you can each day. 3. Drive a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Better yet, take public transportation or ride a bike once in awhile. If everyone did their part, there would be no need for us to drill in the last wild places left on Earth, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 4. Don't use chemicals on your lawn. They end up polluting the soil and water. And think twice before turning your sprinklers on. It's a waste of water, something that is becoming scarcer every year. You'll save time, money, and prevent pollution because you won't have to mow nearly as often. Around the U.S., many citizens have planted native vegetation instead of bluegrass, resulting in a minimal need for water and care. 5. Support groups that are trying to do the right thing such as The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund. Locally, the Conservation Alliance of the Great Plains does good work, supporting education and advocacy here in the Heartland. Joel Sartore is a founding member of this group. 6. Vote. We citizens tend to get the government we deserve. We elect politicians to represent our interests. Only when the majority of voters respect and care about nature will we begin to see the political changes needed to start saving the earth.



The National Geographic Society now publishes its magazine in 24 languages and is read by 40 million people each month. Some 250 million more see the National Geographic Channel and website. The Society has funded more than 7,000 research and educational projects over the years. They sponsored the prints in this show. Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society is one of the world's largest scientific and educational organizations. The official mission is 'to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical and natural resources'. That's what this show is all about. To learn more about the National Geographic Society and its work, visit the website: www.nationalgeographic.com.

	Nosing up to a Caiman, Madidi National Park, Bolivia, 1998

	Sick in the Amazon, Madidi National Park, Bolivia, 1998

	Sleeping with the walrus, Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, 1995

	Photographing the El Segundo blue butterfly, Los Angeles, California, 1994 In order to photograph the endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly at LAX, photographer Joel Sartore asked a biologist licensed to handle and study the species to help him build a plexiglass box to enclose the insect temporarily, as jets roared overhead. After several days of work, it paid off (see image in Man vs. Nature gallery.)



Going on assignment for National Geographic Magazine sometimes isn't all it's cracked up to be. From dodging x-ray machines to living out of a rental car, you never know what you'll run into--or what you'll really need. Logistics are often the hardest part of any wildlife shoot, so it pays to be prepared. Shown in this case are all the tools of the trade, right down to the junk food wrappers.

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