New Feature: Southeast Watershed Forum Community Resource Mapper
[Copyright: Southeast Watershed Forum]
This month the Southeast Watershed Forum launches a new and valuable resource for land and water protection. The Community Resource Mapper provides a free, user-friendly, on-line mapping service that will help communities integrate natural resource protection into their land use planning efforts.
Explore the Southern Appalachian Information Node's purpose, projects, partners, and contact information. Download the node factsheet and strategic plan.
Hog wild in Cades Cove; Park trying to control Smokies' hog population The invasive wild boar continues to cause problems in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Current estimates place the wild hog population throughout the Park between 500 to 1,000 individuals. ( Wednesday, September 17, 2008 )
Traces Of Drugs Found In Tennessee River Analysis by scientists at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga shows a wide range of pharmaceuticals are found in the river's waters. ( Wednesday, September 17, 2008 )
Georgia turtles' future slippery Collection of wild freshwater turtles in Georgia threatens the future of these reptiles, biologists say. Hundreds of thousands of wild-caught turtles are sent to Asia, feeding a voracious demand for turtles native to Georgia and other Southeastern states. Last year, federal figures show, national turtle exportation was a $10 million industry. ( Sunday, September 14, 2008 )
Much worse than kudzu Kudzu is known as "the vine that ate the South." Still, there are many invasive species that are far more serious invasive species threats, including privet, cogon grass, bermuda grass, and European stilt grass. ( Friday, September 12, 2008 )
Chattanooga: Environmental concern grows on campuses Campus Environment 2008, a recent report published by the National Wildlife Federation, ranked Tennessee as among the top 15 states in the country with university sustainability programs. ( Wednesday, September 3, 2008 )
2nd Annual Blogger BioBlitz! Sept 20 - 28, 2008
This is a great citizen science effort that can lead to wider engagement of the public with conservation and natural history; it also has the potential to provide a rich and ongoing observational biological dataset at national and continental scales.
During the first Annual Blogger BioBlitz, conducted last fall, people around the country went out into their local neighborhoods, recorded the flora and fauna they observed, and blogged individually about all of the species they encountered. The NBII and Encyclopedia of Life are both lending support to this effort.
NBII Custom Search Now Available The NBII Custom Search is available on the upper right side of your screen on all NBII pages. Use it to search all NBII sites, all U.S. Geological Survey Web sites, and select high quality biological information sites.
Community Resource Mapper Now Available The Southeast Watershed Forum Community Resource Mapper provides a free, user-friendly, on-line mapping service that will help communities integrate natural resource protection into their land use planning efforts.
Frogs and toads of the region are now spotlighted under the SAIN Animals and Plants of the Region: Amphibians pages. With 42 species, regional frogs and toads include narrow-mouthed toads, neotropical frogs, tree frogs, true frogs, and spadefoots. The new pages present regional species with state distributions grouped by genera with links to detailed NatureServe species profiles and National Wildlife Federation species overviews. For a geographic perspective of frogs and toads of the Southern Appalachian region, visit the SAIN Frogs and Toads (order Anura) pages.
Invertebrates of the region are now featured under SAIN Animals and Plants of the Region. Invertebrate populations in the Southeast are global center of biodiversity. More importantly, invertebrates are a critical component of many healthy ecosystems. Reflecting the importance of invertebrates, SAIN has developed content about both freshwater and terrestrial invertebrate taxonomic orders including gastropods such as snails, decapods such as crayfish, and mollusks such as freshwater clams. For more information about invertebrates of the Southern Appalachian region, visit the new SAIN Invertebrates pages.
The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Office of the U.S. Geological Survey
![Resource Management thumbnail graphic [Image: modified from NASA image, retrieved February 18, 2008 from http://science.hq.nasa.gov/earth-sun/applications/theme4.htm]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080923054148im_/http://sain.utk.edu/ptapps/intropt/Resource-Management-Emblem.gif){kind=small}
