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Following is an important article from Reuters. The longer, original
article, was published in the New York Times of Tuesday, 14 February.
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America's Natural Habitats on Endangered List
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Formally vibrant natural habitats across America,
once amounting to at least half the area of the contiguous 48 states, have
declined to the point of endangerment, according to a study published in
Tuesday's edition of The New York Times.
The new federal study is a first full review of the health of the
nation's landscape.
It said the plight of individual species has been the focus of public
attention, even though the health of the larger interconnected community of
plants, animals and microbes is perhaps more important.
The federal report said scores of ecosystems -- nature's functional
unit -- of widely varying types and sizes have declined on a grand but
largely unappreciated scale. If they should vanish, the report said,
species adapted to them would likely disappear as well.
According to the study's authors, a large number of the imperiled
ecosystems have declined over 98 percent of their area and are considered
``critically endangered.''
Decline was defined as destruction of a natural area, conversion of the
area to other uses such as agriculture, or ''significant degradation'' of
ecological character or function, the Times said.
``We're not just losing single species here and there, we're losing
entire assemblages of species and their habitats,'' Dr. Reed F. Noss, one
of three biologists who conducted the study for the National Biological
Service said.
The new study is to be issued by the agency as a technical report with
a month, according to the paper.
Transmitted: 95-02-14 03:21:39 EST
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David G. Orr
HOME: 916-756-9540
916-753-1326
WORK: 916-752-6970
FAX: 916-752-7456
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PO Box 74283
Davis, CA 95617
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My opinions are mine and noone else's.
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