National Geographic
Now Offering USGS Maps For Free

One-click printing on any standard printer and at no cost.

by Christophe NoelPublished on August 15th, 2016

Many of us remember the days when paper USGS topo maps sold for as much as $12 a sheet. That’s assuming you could even find them. When they were eventually made available digitally, they still weren’t cheap and printing them off on a standard printer was a complete headache. All of that is behind us now.

The map mavens at National Geographic recently launched a new web-based service which offers all of the 1:24,000 quads in the USGS inventory for the low, low price of––free. Even better, they created a new system which allows users to easily print their desired map sections with the click of a button, and on a standard printer.


Locating the quads you need is as simple as using your computer mouse to drill down into the online map guide. As your focus narrows on a particular area, the site even gives prompts if that region is also covered with one of National Geographic’s folding recreational maps, which I think are the best in the business.


When your target quad is selected and printed, the system automatically prints five individual maps. The first is the area key showing the quad as it sits within neighboring map segments. The other four detail the information in the quad in four quarters. National Geographic went a step beyond and added hill shading for easier reading of the chart’s topography.
As much as I love GPS units, phone apps, and other whiz-bang navigational tools, the paper map is still the adventurer’s first choice. I print my quads on National Geographic’s Adventure Paper, which is virtually indestructible. Easy and free. What’s not to love about that?

Visit their website and start printing: National Geographic Maps

National Geographic Now Offering USGS Maps For Free

Supervising Youth - Training Available

USFWS Youth Leadership and Supervision Program

Our Youth Leadership and Supervision curriculum strand targets Service supervisors and team leaders working directly with the next generation of conservation leaders, providing them with tools and resources to solve complex environmental and natural resource problems using management strategies that will work most effectively and productively for them.

Youth Leadership and Supervision Catalog

+ Course schedule available.

OUT8045-Online - Online Self Study - Supervising Young Adults in Conservation Webinar

OUT8050-Online - Online Self Study - Mentoring the Next Generation - Voices of Experience - Online

OUT8081-OLT - Online Self Study - Mentoring: Getting Started with Your Mentee

OUT8082 - Online Self Study - Mentee Training: The Journey to Meeting Your Mentor

If you are interested in an Instructor Led or Online Instructor Led course that does not have a schedule available (+), view the Course Detail for additional information or request information about upcoming classes from the contact listed for the course. Self Study courses are always available.

+ Course schedule available.

HHMI Mass Extinction Film

View the film at  www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/mass-extinction-life-brink

HHMI also has teaching guides and other resources on mass extinctions.

Apps for Environmental Stewardship

from Edutopia:

3 Apps for Teaching Environmental Stewardship

by Monica Burns,  APRIL 11, 2016

Earth Day lessons are perfect for getting students interested in the world around them. Whether you're looking for an activity to use this April or want to infuse environmental awareness during another part of the school year, there are a variety of tools that can help students explore new things and share what they know. As a teacher in an environmental stewardship magnet school, I saw just how interested students could be in worms crawling in a compost heap, and how kids can work together to make recycling a priority.

3 Favorite Tools

As you pick and choose your focus for an Earth Day lesson, take stock of student interest, your learning goals for the year, and what topics you are passionate about. The following three Earth Day lesson ideas provide an opportunity for both teacher and student choice. You might direct students to a particular topic, give them a handful of choices, or set them loose to explore.

1. BrainPOP

I've been a huge fan of BrainPOP for some time now thanks to their engaging, informative movies. Each clip answers a question to provide information on a topic. One of BrainPOP's new features is Make-a-Map, in which kids can watch a short clip and make a concept map to show their thinking about a topic. It's an open tool that provides images and key vocabulary words from each movie, making it easy for students to create a concept map around a task that you've set.

For Earth Day, you can check out one of their movies on natural resources,Wangari Maathai, or wind energy. Each of these movies lets BrainPOP users Make-a-Map to demonstrate their understanding of big ideas around the topic. It's a great way to share new Earth Day-themed content with students in a short lesson when you might have trouble dedicating more time in your schedule to exploring ideas around environmental stewardship.

2. Book Creator

Another terrific creation tool that I love is Book Creator. With versions for iOS, Android, and Windows devices, this app presents a great option for classrooms with a mix of devices. It lets users make their own multimedia book with audio, videos, texts, images, and illustrations. Kids can make a final product that is

Building the Tree of Life

Foxes Surviving without Genetic Diversity

Foxes That Endure Despite a Lack of Genetic Diversity

by Carl Zimmer

MATTER APRIL 21, 2016

An island fox. Researchers say one community of the species has the least genetic variation in a sexually reproducing species. Credit Chien Lee/Minden Pictures

The Channel Islands, off the coast of Southern California, are a natural laboratory for a particularly adorable experiment in evolution.

A unique species called the island fox has lived there for several thousand years, shrinking over the generations until now each is smaller than a house cat. Adult island foxes weigh as little as 2.35 pounds.

Now a team of scientists has discovered another way in which island foxes are extraordinary: Genetically, they are nearly identical to one another. In fact, a fox community on one island has set a record for the least genetic variation in a sexually reproducing species.

Oliver A. Ryder, the director of genetics at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, said the new research posed a biological puzzle.

It’s an axiom of evolutionary biology that low levels of genetic variation put species at risk of extinction. Yet the delicate island foxes are still racing across meadows and bounding up trees.

“How can the island foxes get away with it?” asked Dr. Ryder.

The new study, published on Thursday in Current Biology, was led by Robert K. Wayne, a geneticist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Wayne has been studying the DNA of island foxes since the early 1990s, hoping to understand their remarkable makeup.

“They’re like dodos,” Dr. Wayne said in an interview. “They have no notion of human fear. You can just put them in your lap.”

Some scientists suspect that island foxes are fearless because of a long relationship with humans.

Native Americans first settled the islands about 13,000 years ago, and they may have brought along gray foxes from the mainland. Previous studies indicate that island foxes share a common ancestor with gray foxes that lived 9,200 years ago.

It’s unlikely the foxes made the trip on their own; the islands are separated from the mainland by 12 to 70 miles of open ocean. Another clue pointing to human help: Native Americans painted foxes on rocks and gave them ceremonial burials. Foxes may have had a spiritual importance to them.

However the animals arrived on the Channel Islands, they adapted quickly. The oldest island fox fossils date back 7,000 years and show that they were small even then. The Great Shrinking required less than 2,200 years, it seems.

Dr. Wayne has focused on genetic variation among the island foxes. He and his colleagues started off by examining a few genetic markers, finding striking similarities between the animals. But the scientists couldn’t be sure just how similar the foxes were until technological advancements made it possible to sequence their entire genomes.

There are six subspecies, each living on a separate Channel Island. In their new study, Dr. Wayne sequenced the genome of one fox from each of five subspecies. On the sixth island, San Nicolas, they sequenced two genomes.

Like other animals, island foxes carry two copies of each gene, inheriting one copy from each parent. In large populations with a lot of genetic variation, there can be many versions of any given gene. An animal may inherit two varying copies of a gene from its parents.

But the scientists discovered virtually no differences in the DNA the foxes had inherited. “We call it genetic flatlining,” Dr. Wayne said.

While each subspecies has very little diversity, the foxes on San Nicolas are almost like identical twins, a record.

Low genetic variation can pose a serious threat to survival. When a new threat appears — a new disease, for instance — some individuals may have the genes to resist it while others lack them. In a population with low genetic variation, none of the animals may have the right genes to survive.

Inbred populations also often share mutations that are bad for health, shortening life spans or reducing the number of offspring. Dr. Wayne and his colleagues found that island foxes have many more harmful mutations than gray foxes on the mainland.

On the face of it, the island foxes should have vanished long ago. “But that hasn’t happened to them in thousands of years,” Dr. Wayne said. “They’re an exception to the paradigm.”

Dr. Wayne speculated that island foxes might enjoy some sort of special protection. It’s possible, for example, that as top predators on a small island, they didn’t have to face the challenges that other inbred animals do. Or perhaps the people who lived on the islands even helped them survive.

Or, while the genes of island foxes may be almost entirely identical, maybe they are activated in the animals in varying patterns. Experiences early in life can program genes to switch on and off, a phenomenon called epigenetics.

“It might also be some combination of all of the above,” Dr. Wayne said.

Other researchers suggest that island foxes had been protected in more familiar ways. Newly arrived foxes could have rejuvenated the Channel Island gene pool with some fresh variation.

“Their study has not ruled out occasional immigrants reaching the islands,” said Richard Frankham, a geneticist at Macquarie University in Australia.

But Dr. Wayne said his new study cast doubt on that possibility.

Each subspecies of island fox is genetically distinct, showing no sign of newly introduced genes moving from island to island. “There’s no evidence of gene flow,” Dr. Wayne said.

Understanding the evolutionary history of the island foxes is important to ensuring they have a future. A rapid population decline led to four subspecies of island foxes being declared endangered in 2004.

It’s likely that several causes helped drive down their numbers.

In recent decades, golden eagles have arrived on the islands and begun killing off the foxes. They have also faced new diseases introduced by raccoons and other invasive animals.

Island fox pups on Catalina Island Video by Karl Huggins

Some researchers are concerned that their genetic similarity could increase the risk. “If we care about the persistence of island foxes and other small populations, we should be concerned about low genetic variation,” said W. Chris Funk, a biologist at Colorado State University.

Writing in the journal Molecular Ecology last month, Dr. Funk and his colleagues suggested one way to help the foxes: move animals between the islands. If the subspecies mix genes by interbreeding, they may be able to increase their variation.

Scientists have already used this procedure, known as genetic rescue, to help other species. In Florida, for example, the resident panther population has had a difficult time producing new cubs. Researchers introduced panthers from Texas, and their new genes have helped the Florida panther population grow.

Based on his new research, Dr. Wayne said he didn’t think island foxes need genetic rescue, at least until scientists find strong evidence that they are suffering because of low genetic variation.

“I would really hesitate to move foxes around,” Dr. Wayne said. “Each island is genetically distinct. I would be loath to destroy that.”

Keystone Species

from HHMI:

Some Animals Are More Equal than Others: Keystone Species and Trophic Cascades

Summary

Keystone species and trophic cascades are fundamental concepts in ecology.  This short films tells the story of how these concepts were first established through the pioneering experiments of two young researchers: Robert Paine and James Estes.

Short Film:   (Duration: 19 min 29 sec)   Play Short Film

The short film opens with two questions: “So what determines how many species live in a given place? Or how many individuals of the species can live somewhere?” The research that provided answers to these questions was set in motion by key experiments by ecologists Robert Paine and James Estes. Robert Paine’s starfish exclusion experiments on the coast of Washington state showed that removing starfish from this marine ecosystem has a big impact on the population sizes of other species, establishing the starfish as a keystone species. James Estes and colleague John Palmisano discovered that the kelp forest ecosystems of the North Pacific are regulated by the presence or absence of sea otters, which feed on sea urchins that consume kelp. These direct and indirect effects of sea otters on other species describe a trophic cascade. These early studies were the inspiration for hundreds of investigations on other keystone species and trophic cascades, as well as ongoing studies into the regulation of population sizes and species numbers.