Investing in Wildlife and Habixat 



Of Herons and Humans 



83 



Om planet's STABHirv contin- 

 ues to be threatened by a 

 growing array of environ- 

 mental problems, ranging 

 from deforestation and desertification, to 

 air, water, and soil degradation. The 

 outcome of each is the continued 

 decline of habitats and the eventual 

 extinction of their component plant and 

 animal species. 



According to World Resources 1992- 

 93, "biological diversity — the variety 

 among living organisms and the ecologi- 

 cal communities they inhabit — is more 

 threatened now than at any time in the 

 past 65 million years." Further, "contin- 

 ued loss or degradation of habitats at the 

 present rate could doom up to 15 

 percent of the Earth's species over the 

 next quarter century." 



The Foundation's Wildlife and Habitat 

 Initiative allows the organization to 

 remain flexible and to address new, 

 pioneering conservation activities that do 

 not meet the criteria of its other conser- 

 vation programs. Through this initiative, 

 we hope to stem the continued loss of 

 species and habitats. In 1992, we 

 conferred a number of grants for habitat 

 protection and restoration projects. 

 Among them are acquisition and 

 rehabilitation of critical elk habitats and 

 salmon spawning grounds, conservation 

 and restoration of lands and waters 

 essential to sandhill and whooping 

 cranes, and protection and stewardship 

 of plant and animal habitats along South 

 Carolina's Cooper River and edging the 

 Connecticut River in its 407-mile-long 

 run from the Canadian border to Long 

 Island Sound. 



The Foundation supported numerous 

 projects in 1992 that are pivotal to the 

 recovery of a roster of rare or endan- 

 gered species: research on avian herpes 

 that will aid whooping cranes, construc- 

 tion of "housing " for mated pairs of red 

 wolves, purchase of radio collars for 



Wading great egrel. right. 



