Operation Wallacea is a UK based group of scientists who have established a conservation strategy with outposts in 6 areas of the world which they consider to be "biodiversity hotspots". A rainforest area of the Island of Buton, off the south coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia is the locus of this video. Operation Wallacea's scientists have been active here for a number of years, operating by a 4 stage process in which they survey the level of biological...

The National Parks: America's Best Idea is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. As such, it follows in the tradition of Burns's exploration of other American inventions, such as baseball and jazz. The narrative traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows...

While visiting the parks was once predominantly the domain of Americans wealthy enough to afford the high-priced train tours, the advent of the automobile allows more people than ever before to visit the parks. Mather embraces this opportunity and works to build more roads in the parks. Some park enthusiasts, such as Margaret and Edward Gehrke of Nebraska, begin "collecting" parks, making a point to visit as many as they can. In North Carolina, Horace...

In the early 20th century, America has a dozen national parks, but they are a haphazard patchwork of special places under the supervision of different federal agencies. The conservation movement, after failing to stop the Hetch Hetchy dam, pushes the government to establish one unified agency to oversee all the parks, leading to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Its first director, Stephen Mather, a wealthy businessman and passionate...

Following World War II, the parks are overwhelmed as visitation reaches 62 million people a year. A new billion-dollar campaign – Mission 66 – is created to build facilities and infrastructure that can accommodate the flood of visitors. A biologist named Adolph Murie introduces the revolutionary notion that predatory animals, which are still hunted, deserve the same protection as other wildlife. In Florida, Lancelot Jones, the grandson of a slave,...

Astonishing, inspirational, even magical: a naturalist's novel about an Alabama boy who heroically tries to save a sacred forest. 'What the hell do you want?' snarled Frogman at Raff Cody, as the boy stepped innocently on the reputed murderer's property. Fifteen years old, Raff had only wanted to catch a glimpse of Frogman's 1,000-pound alligator. Thus begins the epic story of Anthill, part thriller, part parable, which follows the adventures of Raff,...

"A book about loggerhead sea turtles, and a girl's attempts to help save their babies from man-made light."--

Boy genius and inventor Frank Einstein and his robot pals Klink (intelligent) and Klank (sort-of intelligent) study the science of ecology and conservation as they try to stop classmate and archrival T. Edison and his loggers from destroying the Midville Forest Preserve.

An eleven-year-old artist shares her enthusiasm about birds through her own text and illustrations, and suggests ways in which young people can help with the preservation of bird life.