Bits and Pieces: Adopt a Wild Horse, Sulfur Dioxide, Endangered Plants and More

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PHOTO: FOTOLIA/MARI_ART
You can adopt a wild horse from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

1,700 Different Kinds of Plants from 46 States –about 8% of all the seed plants and ferns native to this country–will become the first botanic varieties to be officially listed as “endangered” under a proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Most people write off plants when they think of endangered species,” commented Keith Schreiner, Associate Director of the USFWS, “yet there are many rare insects, snails, and birds which have species-dependent relationships with plants. If the plant goes, so does the animal, and the ultimate effect could be severe.”

The Fall ’76 Edition of Consumer Information –a catalog of free or low-cost government publications on health, safety, education, housing, food, auto care, gardening, financial management, and a wide range of other subjects–is now available for the asking from Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, Colo. 81009.

Ah, Get a Load of that Country Air (Cough).
Four scientists recently took off from St. Louis, Missouri in a balloon to see exactly where that city’s air pollution–which had been intensified by a three-day period of atmospheric inversion–would eventually end up. Twenty–four hours later, they landed in a wheat field 150 miles from the starting point … and reported seeing “essentially the same concentrations of pollutants” as in the metropolitan area they had left.

Those Who Predict the Conversion of Deserts into Mechanized Gardens of Eden now have more land to work with than ever before. The Worldwatch Institute reports that Earth’s and wastelands are actually expanding as a result of erosion caused by overgrazing and increased cultivation in areas surrounding such regions. Over the past half century, for instance, the Sahara has swallowed up an estimated 250,000 square miles to the south … and its northern fringe is advancing at a rate of more than 200,000 acres per year.

According to a Recent Study by the Library of Congress, nearly half the U.S. Senate’s 138 subcommittees met less than four times last year. In fact, observes the report, 28 of the groups never held a meeting at all … but they did somehow manage to employ a total of at least 25 full-time staff members, and had budgets totaling approximately $750,000.

  • Published on Sep 1, 1976
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