March 2009
Habitat Restoration
In doing research for QuickReads I’ve come across some interesting websites containing science and social studies content. Just early this year I came across this story about habitat restoration and it has stayed with me since then. The Discover magazine article got me thinking about a book we had used for a QuickReads topic called How the Forest Grew. Of course I started to wonder if there are other wonderful books on habitat restoration. Here are a few that I found.
Enjoy!
p.s. A few weeks ago NSTA released their 2009 list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for K-12.
The Prairie Builders
Written and photographed by Sneed B. Collard III
A prairie is habitat where animals that depend on grass, and wild grass live. As the American settlers moved west most of the prairie land was turned into farmland. By the 1980’s Iowa had “less than one tenth of one percent” of its original prairie left. One congressman and a team of scientist began the journey to rebuild Iowa’s prairie. This book is about the progress as the scientists reintroduce native plants, and animals. The book raises and interesting question at the end; Is it really a prairie if it looks and acts like a prairie? That is to say can an entire ecosystem be replaced if not all of its components are understood or known?