1.
Santa Cruz Islands
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The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands. They lie approximately 250 miles to the southeast of the Solomon Islands Chain, the Santa Cruz Islands lie just north of the archipelago of Vanuatu, and are considered part of the Vanuatu rain forests ecoregion. The term Santa Cruz Islands is sometimes used to all of the islands of the present-day Solomon Islands province of Temotu. The largest island is Nendö, which is known as Santa Cruz Island proper. Lata, located on Nendö, is the largest town, other islands belonging to the Santa Cruz group are Vanikoro and Utupua. The Santa Cruz Islands are less than five years old. The islands are composed of limestone and volcanic ash over limestone. The highest point in the Santa Cruz Islands is on Vanikoro,924 m, the native languages of the islands are classified as the Reef Islands–Santa Cruz languages, within the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Some Polynesian societies of eastern Solomon Islands built ocean-going outrigger canoes known as Tepukei, the films that Koch completed are now held by the German National Library of Science and Technology in Hanover. He brought back to the Ethnological Museum of Berlin the last still complete Tepukei from the Santa Cruz Islands, in 1971 Koch published Die Materielle Kultur der Santa Cruz-Inseln. The islands were visited by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña, the first European to sight them, Mendaña started a colony on Nendö which he named Santa Cruz, at the place also named by the Spaniards as Graciosa Bay, and he died there in 1596. During the Pacific War, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands was fought north of the Santa Cruz group and some sea planes were based in Graciosa Bay, chemical ordnance stored on Vanikoro Island was not completely removed until the 1990s. The Santa Cruz Islands were affected by the 2013 Solomon Islands earthquake, the earthquake produced a tsunami measuring 1 metre at Lata, Solomon Islands, that reached about 500 m inland. The airport and low-lying areas were flooded, killing nine people, five of them elderly, more than 100 houses on the island were damaged, and the water and electricity services were interrupted. It was reported that almost all houses in Nela village were washed away, american Caesar, Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964, by William Manchester, p.320 Melanesia Oceania Pacific Islands Santa Cruz and the Reef Islands, by W. C. OFerrall—1908 account with many illustrations by missionary in Santa Cruz from 1897-1904, john Seach, Solomon Islands page Santa Cruz, an archipelago of the Pacific Ocean, in the division of Melanesia
Santa Cruz Islands
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Tepukei (ocean-going outrigger canoe) from the Santa Cruz Islands
Santa Cruz Islands
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Map of the Santa Cruz Islands
2.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
California
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A forest of redwood trees in
Redwood National Park
California
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Flag
California
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Mount Shasta
California
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Aerial view of the
California Central Valley
3.
Channel Islands of California
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The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America. Five of the islands are part of Channel Islands National Park, the islands were first colonized by the Chumash and Tongva Native Americans 13,000 years ago, who were then displaced by European settlers who used the islands for fishing and agriculture. The U. S. military uses the islands as training grounds, weapons test sites, the Channel Islands and the surrounding waters house a diverse ecosystem with many endemic species and subspecies. Eight islands are split among the jurisdictions of three separate California counties, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, and Los Angeles County, the islands are divided into two groups, the northern Channel Islands and the southern Channel Islands. The four northern Islands used to be a single known as Santa Rosae. The archipelago extends for 160 miles between San Miguel Island in the north and San Clemente Island in the south, together, the islands’ land area totals 221,331 acres, or about 346 square miles. Five of the islands were made into the Channel Islands National Park in 1980, the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary encompasses the waters six nautical miles off Anacapa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Barbara islands. Santa Catalina Island is the one of the eight islands with a significant permanent civilian settlement—the resort city of Avalon, California. Natural seepage of oil occurs at places in the Santa Barbara Channel. Tar balls or pieces of tar in small numbers are found in the kelp, Native Americans used naturally occurring tar, bitumen, for a variety of purposes which include roofing, waterproofing, paving and some ceremonial purposes. The Channel Islands at low elevations are virtually frost-free and constitute one of the few areas in the 48 contiguous US states. It snows only rarely, on mountain peaks. Separated from the California mainland throughout recent geological history, the Channel Islands provide the earliest evidence for seafaring in the Americas. It is also the site of the discovery of the earliest paleontological evidence of humans in North America, the northern Channel Islands are now known to have been settled by maritime Paleo Indian peoples at least 13,000 years ago. Archaeological sites on the island provide a unique and invaluable record of human interaction with Channel Island marine, historically, the northern islands were occupied by the island Chumash, while the southern islands were occupied by the Tongva. Author Scott ODell wrote about the peoples living on the island in his novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. Aleut hunters visited the islands to hunt otters in the early 1800s, the Aleuts purportedly clashed with the native Chumash, killing many over trading disputes. Aleut interactions with the natives were also detailed in ODells book, the Chumash and Tongva were removed from the islands in the early 19th century, taken to Spanish missions and pueblos on the adjacent mainland
Channel Islands of California
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Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California
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Beach of Santa Cruz Island
Channel Islands of California
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Beach at San Miguel
Channel Islands of California
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Garibaldi, Catalina Island
4.
Chumashan languages
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Chumashan, Yukian, and southern Baja languages are spoken in areas with long-established populations of a distinct physical type. The population in the core Chumashan area has been stable for the past 10,000 years, however, the attested range of Chumashan is recent. All of the Chumashan languages are now extinct, although they are documented in the unpublished fieldnotes of linguist John Peabody Harrington. Especially well documented are Barbareño, Ineseño, and Ventureño, the last native speaker of a Chumashan language was Barbareño speaker Mary Yee, who died in 1965. Six Chumashan languages are attested, all now extinct, however, most of them are in the process of revitalization, with language programs and classes. Contemporary Chumash people now prefer to refer to their languages by names rather than the older names based on the local missions. Obispeño Also known as Tilhini by students of the language, after the name of the village near which the mission was founded. Island Chumash Was spoken on the three inhabited islands in the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Ineseño Now called Samala or Sʰamala by the Santa Ynez Band. This word has an S with a puff of air after it and it is the name for the language and the people. Barbareño Now called Shmuwich or Šmuwič by students of the language and this is the name for the language and the people, it means coastal. Ventureño Now called Mitsqanaqan by students of the language and community members, Obispeño was the most divergent Chumashan language. The Central Chumash languages include Purisimeño, Ineseño, Barbareño and Ventureño, there was a dialect continuum across this area, but the form of the language spoken in the vicinity of each mission was distinct enough to qualify as a different language. There is very little documentation of Purisimeño, Ineseño, Barbareño and Ventureño each had several dialects, although documentation usually focused on just one. Island Chumash had different dialects on Santa Cruz Island and Santa Rosa Island, John Peabody Harrington conducted fieldwork on all the above Chumashan languages, but obtained the least data on Island Chumash, Purisimeño, and Obispeño. There is no data on Cuyama, though ethnographic data suggests that it was likely Chumash. Kroeber suggested that the Chumashan languages might be related to the neighboring Salinan in a Iskoman grouping, edward Sapir accepted this speculation and included Iskoman in his classification of Hokan. More recently it has noted that Salinan and Chumashan shared only one word. As a result, the inclusion of Chumashan into Hokan is now disfavored by most specialists, the Chumashan languages are well known for their consonant harmony
Chumashan languages
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Pre-contact distribution of Chumashan languages
5.
Santa Barbara County, California
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Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is a county located in the southern portion of the state of California, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 423,895, the county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria. Santa Barbara County comprises the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, most of the county is part of the California Central Coast. Mainstays of the economy include engineering, resource extraction, winemaking, agriculture. The software development and tourism industries are important employers in the part of the county. Southern Santa Barbara County is sometimes considered the cultural boundary of Southern California. The Santa Barbara County area, including the Northern Channel Islands, was first settled by Native Americans at least 13,000 years ago, europeans first contacted the Chumash in AD1542, when three Spanish ships under the command of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored the area. Spanish ships associated with the Manila Galleon trade probably made emergency stops along the coast during the next 167 years, the first land expedition to explore California, led by Gaspar de Portolà explored the coastal area in 1769, on its way to Monterey Bay. The party traveled the route on the return to San Diego in January 1770. That same year, an expedition to Monterey again passed through the area. The DeAnza expeditions of 1774-76 followed Portolas trail, the Presidio of Santa Barbara was established in 1782, followed by Mission Santa Barbara in 1786 – both in what is now the city of Santa Barbara. The presidio and mission kept Vizcainos denomination, as did the city and county – a common practice which has preserved the names of many of the 21 California Missions. European contacts had devastating effects on the Chumash people, including a series of epidemics that drastically reduced Chumash population. The Chumash survived, however, and thousands of Chumash descendants still live in the Santa Barbara area or surrounding counties, a tribal homeland was established in 1901, the Santa Ynez Reservation. 604 of these grants were later confirmed by the state of California. Santa Barbara County was one of the 27 original counties of California, the countys territory was later divided to create Ventura County in 1873. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 3,789 square miles. Four of the Channel Islands – San Miguel Island, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island and they form the largest part of the Channel Islands National Park
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California
6.
Sea caves
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A sea cave, also known as a littoral cave, is a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion, sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as relict sea caves on former coastlines. Some of the largest wave-cut caves in the world are found on the coast of Norway and these would still be classified as littoral caves. Some of the sea caves are European. Fingals Cave, on the Scottish island of Staffa, is a cave some 70 m long. The Blue Grotto of Capri, although smaller, is famous for the apparent luminescent quality of its water, the Romans built a stairway in its rear and a now-collapsed tunnel to the surface. The Greek islands are noted for the variety and beauty of their sea caves. Numerous sea caves have been surveyed in England, Scotland, and in France, until 2013, the largest known sea caves were found along the west coast of the United States, the Hawaiian islands, and the Shetland Islands. In 2013 the discovery and survey of the worlds largest sea cave was announced, located on New Zealands Otago coast on the South Island, Matainaka Cave has proven to be the worlds most extensive at 1.5 km in length. Also in 2013, Crossley reported a newly surveyed complex reaching just over a kilometer in survey at Bethells Beach on New Zealands North Island, however, there are some notable exceptions as discussed below. In order to form a sea cave, the host rock must first contain a weak zone. In metamorphic or igneous rock, this is either a fault as in the caves of the Channel Islands of California, or a dike as in the large sea caves of Kauai. In sedimentary rocks, this may be a bedding-plane parting or a contact between layers of different hardness. The latter may also occur in rocks, such as in the caves on Santa Cruz Island, California. The driving force in littoral cave development is wave action, erosion is ongoing anywhere that waves batter rocky coasts, but where sea cliffs contain zones of weakness, rock is removed at a greater rate along these zones. Adding to the power of the waves is the abrasive force of suspended sand. Most sea-cave walls are irregular and chunky, reflecting an erosional process where the rock is fractured piece by piece. However, some caves have portions where the walls are rounded and smoothed, typically floored with cobbles, and result from the swirling motion of these cobbles in the surf zone
Sea caves
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Sea cave formation along a fault on
Santa Cruz Island,
California,
USA
Sea caves
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Sea cave collapse
Sea caves
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Akun Island basalt sea cave
Sea caves
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Exploring a sea cave
7.
United States Census Bureau
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The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureaus primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, in addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, and the Current Population Survey, furthermore, economic and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government typically contain data produced by the Census Bureau. The Bureaus various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and help states, local communities, the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States. The Census Bureau now conducts a population count every 10 years in years ending with a 0. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population estimates and projections, the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations, the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, and economy. The Census Bureaus legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code, the Census Bureau also conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, crime, health, consumer expenditures, and housing. Within the bureau, these are known as surveys and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts. The Census Bureau also conducts surveys of manufacturing, retail, service. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts, the Census Act of 1840 established a central office which became known as the Census Office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses, typically at the 10-year intervals, in 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, and in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor. The department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every 2 years, in 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code, by law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are widely used. for data collection, the Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information, all Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment. The Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government, only after 72 years does the information collected become available to other agencies or the general public
United States Census Bureau
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Census headquarters in
Suitland, Maryland
United States Census Bureau
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Seal
United States Census Bureau
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A card puncher, part of the tabulation system used to compile the thousands of facts gathered by the Bureau. Holes are punched in the card according to a prearranged code transferring the facts from the census questionnaire into statistics.
8.
United States Census, 2000
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This was the twenty-second federal census and was at the time the largest civilly administered peacetime effort in the United States. Approximately 16 percent of households received a form of the 2000 census. Full documentation on the 2000 census, including forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Microdata from the 2000 census is available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, personally identifiable information will be available in 2072. The U. S. resident population includes the number of people in the 50 states. The Bureau also enumerated the residents of the U. S. territory of Puerto Rico, its population was 3,808,610, the 2000 Census was the first time survey options for multiracial Americans were provided. S. Households had access to computers, 42% have Internet access, regionally, the South and West experienced the bulk of the nations population increase,14,790,890 and 10,411,850, respectively. This meant that the center of U. S. population moved to Phelps County. The Northeast grew by 2,785,149, the Midwest by 4,724,144, the results of the census are used to determine how many congressional districts each state is apportioned. Congress defines the formula, in accordance with Title 2 of the U. S. Code, each member of the House represents a population of about 647,000. The populations of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are excluded from the apportionment population because they do not have voting seats in the U. S, since the first census in 1790, the decennial count has been the basis for the United States representative form of government. Article I, Section II specifies that The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, in 1790, each member of the House represented about 34,000 residents. Since then, the House more than quadrupled in size, today, each member represents about 20 times as many constituents. This recommendation was followed by the Secretary of Commerce, after the census was tabulated, Utah challenged the results in two different ways. Utah was extremely close to gaining a fourth seat, falling 857 people short. The margin was later shortened to 80 people, after the government discovered that it overcounted the population of North Carolina by 2,673 residents. Utah claimed that individuals traveling abroad as religious missionaries should be counted as residents, almost half of all Mormon missionaries, more than 11,000 individuals, were from Utah, only 102 came from North Carolina
United States Census, 2000
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U.S. Census Bureau Seal
9.
Devils Peak (Santa Barbara County, California)
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Devils Peak at 2,429 feet is the tallest peak on the Channel Islands of California. It is located on Santa Cruz Island within Channel Islands National Park on land owned by The Nature Conservancy, visiting the area requires a permit. Devils Peak is the highest mountain on an island in the contiguous 48 states
Devils Peak (Santa Barbara County, California)
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Devils Peak
10.
Continental United States
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The contiguous United States consists of the 48 adjoining U. S. states plus Washington, D. C. on the continent of North America. S. The greatest distance entirely within the 48 contiguous states is 2,802 miles, the greatest north-south line is 1,650 miles. Together, the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D. C. occupy an area of 3,119,884.69 square miles. Of this area,2,959,064.44 square miles is land, composing 83. 65% of U. S. land area, officially,160,820.25 square miles is water area, composing 62. 66% of the nations total water area. The contiguous United States would be placed 5th in the list of states and dependencies by area. The 2010 census population of area was 306,675,006, comprising 99. 33% of the nations population. While conterminous U. S. has the meaning of contiguous U. S. other terms commonly used to describe the 48 contiguous states have a greater degree of ambiguity. The term was in use prior to the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as states of the United States, the District of Columbia is not always specifically mentioned as being part of CONUS. OCONUS is derived from CONUS with O for outside added, thus referring to Outside of Continental United States, the term Lower 48 is also used to refer to the conterminous United States. The National Geographic style guide recommends the use of contiguous or conterminous United States instead of lower 48 when the 48 states are meant, both Alaskans and Hawaiians have unique labels for the contiguous United States because of their own locations relative to them. Alaska became the 49th state of the United States on January 3,1959, Alaska is on the northwest end of the North American continent, but separated from the rest of the United States Pacific coast by the Canadian province of British Columbia. In Alaska, given the ambiguity surrounding the usage of continental, several other terms have been used over the years. Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States on August 21,1959 and it is the southernmost and so far, the latest state to join the Union. Not part of any continent, Hawaii is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 2,200 miles from North America, in Hawaii and overseas American territories, for instance, the terms the Mainland or U. S. Mainland are often used to refer to the continental United States, apart from off-shore US islands, a few continental portions of the contiguous US are accessible by road only by traveling through Canada. Point Roberts, Washington, Elm Point, Minnesota, and the Northwest Angle in Minnesota are three such places, alburgh, Vermont, is not directly connected by land, but is accessible by road via bridges from within Vermont and from from New York. The 48 contiguous United States are, Washington, D. C. is distinct from the state of Washington, extreme points of the United States Mainland Definition of continental Definition of contiguous Definition of coterminous and conterminous
Continental United States
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This map shows the contiguous
United States and in insets at the lower left, the two states that are not contiguous
11.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
National Park Service
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In 1916, a portfolio of nine major parks was published to generate interest. Printed on each brochure was a map showing the parks and principal railroad connections.
National Park Service
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National Park Service Arrowhead
National Park Service
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In 1934, a series of ten postage stamps were issued to commemorate the reorganization and expansion of the National Park Service.
National Park Service
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Grand Canyon National Park, south rim of canyon.
12.
The Nature Conservancy
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The Nature Conservancy is a charitable environmental organization, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. Its mission is to conserve the lands and waters on all life depends. The Conservancys work focuses on the priorities of Lands, Water, Climate, Oceans. Founded in Arlington, Virginia, in 1951, The Nature Conservancy now impacts conservation in 69 countries, the Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres of land and thousands of miles of rivers worldwide. The Nature Conservancy also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally, the organizations assets total $6.71 billion as of 2015. The Nature Conservancy is the largest environmental nonprofit by assets and by revenue in the Americas, the Nature Conservancy rates as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancys fundraising efficiency at 88 percent in its 2005 survey of the largest U. S. charities, the Nature Conservancy is led by President and CEO Mark Tercek, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs. He is the author of the Washington Post and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling book Nature’s Fortune, How Business, the Nature Conservancys Chief Scientist is Australian Hugh Possingham, who was named to this position in 2016. The current board chairman is Craig McCaw, the Chairman & CEO of Eagle River Inc, other current members include former U. S. Senator Bill Frist, chairman of the Alibaba Group Jack Ma, the Nature Conservancy developed out of an older organization known as the Ecological Society of America. The latter society was founded in 1915 and two later formed a Committee on Preservation of Natural Areas for Ecological Study, headed by Victor Shelford. The divide in viewpoints led the society to dissolve the committee, the latter group eventually took the name The Nature Conservancy, in emulation of the British agency of that name, which pursued a mission of conserving open space and wildlife preserves. The Nature Conservancy was incorporated in the United States as an organization on October 22,1951. The Nature Conservancy takes an approach to conservation, setting goals that describe the results it wants to achieve for biodiversity. The Nature Conservancy sets both long-term and near-term goals for conserving the abundance and geographic distribution of species and ecological systems. The organizations overall goal is to ensure the survival of all biodiversity on Earth. The Nature Conservancy works with all sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, the Nature Conservancy has pioneered new land preservation techniques such as the conservation easement and debt for nature swaps. A conservation easement is a way for owners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the lands potential development value
The Nature Conservancy
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Nature Conservancy of Tennessee's William B. Clark, Sr., Nature Preserve on the
Wolf River at
Rossville, Tennessee
13.
Island scrub jay
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The island scrub jay also island jay or Santa Cruz jay is a bird in the scrub jay genus, Aphelocoma, which is endemic to Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Southern California. Of the over 500 breeding bird species in the continental U. S. and Canada, the large bill size is related to its diet, incorporating the thick-shelled acorns of the island oak. They will bury, or cache, the acorns in the fall and they also eat insects, spiders, snakes, lizards, mice and other birds eggs and nestlings. This bird is a member of the family, and is one of a group of closely related North American species named as scrub jays. The relationships within the genus are not fully resolved, and most taxonomists already split it into Californian scrub jay, A. californica, and Woodhouses scrub jay, A. woodhouseii. The DNA studies also indicate that the island and coastal forms have long been isolated from their relatives inland, the scrub jays seem to be incapable of crossing significant bodies of water. Reliable historical observer records for ISSJ in addition to Santa Cruz Island include only a single 1892 account on neighboring Santa Rosa Island, only about 10 km away. There are no definite occurrences of a scrub jay on any other of the Channel Islands, or on the Coronado Islands, the historic observation on Santa Rosa Island is supported by an archaeological record of a single ISSJ femur from a Late Pleistocene-Holocene site. The island scrub jay is found only on Santa Cruz Island, the island is a nature reserve, the eastern 24% being administered by National Park Service as the part of the Channel Islands National Park and the rest of the island by the Nature Conservancy. The island scrub jay is not known to have occurred anywhere besides Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands historically and these jays are monogamous and, unlike some other jays, are not cooperative breeders. Both sexes build a nest 1 m to 8 m above the ground, the genus name, Aphelocoma, comes from the Latinized Ancient Greek apheles- simple + Latin coma hair, in reference to the lack of striped or banded feathers in this genus, compared to other jays. The species name, insularis, comes from the Latin for from an island, corvids are especially vulnerable to WNV. In addition, the occurrence of wildfires in southern California may portend a catastrophic fire there. Shrub cover has increased since the removal of Santa Cruz sheep and feral pigs from Santa Cruz Island, active conservation is limited to controlling the numbers of introduced sheep and pigs, which have caused habitat degradation in the past. In fact, overgrazing by non-native ungulates may have caused extirpation of ISSJ on Santa Rosa Island, human activities may have contributed to the presumed extinction of the island scrub jay from the smaller islands. Island scrub jay – Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center Audubon WatchList, Island scrub jay
Island scrub jay
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Island scrub jay
14.
Island fox
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The island fox is a small fox that is native to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. There are six subspecies of the fox, each unique to the island it lives on, other names for the island fox include coast fox, short-tailed fox, island gray fox, Channel Islands fox, Channel Islands gray fox, California Channel Island fox and insular gray fox. The island fox shares the Urocyon genus with the gray fox. Its small size is a result of insular dwarfism, a form of allopatric speciation, because the island fox is geographically isolated, it has no immunity to parasites and diseases brought in from the mainland and is especially vulnerable to those that the domestic dog may carry. In addition, predation by the eagle and human activities devastated fox numbers on several of the Channel Islands in the 1990s. Four island fox subspecies were federally protected as a species in 2004. Radio collars are being attached to foxes in an effort to track, to date these efforts have been largely successful. There are six subspecies of the fox, each of which is native to a specific Channel Island. Foxes from each island are capable of interbreeding, but have genetic and phenotypic distinctions that make them unique, for example, the small size of the island fox is an adaptation to the limited resources available in the island environment. The foxes are believed to have rafted to the islands between 10,400 and 16,000 years ago. The fox did not persist on Anacapa Island because it has no source of fresh water. The island fox is smaller than the gray fox and is probably the smallest fox in North America, averaging slightly smaller than the swift. Typically, the length is 48–50 cm, shoulder height 12–15 cm, and the tail is 11–29 cm long. This is due to the fact that the island fox generally has two tail vertebrae than the gray fox. The island fox weighs between 1 and 2.8 kg, the male is always larger than the female. The largest of the subspecies occurs on Santa Catalina Island and the smallest on Santa Cruz Island. The island fox has fur on its head, a ruddy red coloring on its sides, white fur on its belly, throat and the lower half of its face. In general the coat is darker and duller hued than that of the gray fox, the island fox molts once a year between August and November
Island fox
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Island fox
Island fox
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The skull of an island fox (right) compared with a skull of the related gray fox (left).
Island fox
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Engraving of the Island Fox from the
Pacific Railroad survey of 1855
Island fox
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An island fox kit nestled in the brush
15.
Chumash language
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Chumashan, Yukian, and southern Baja languages are spoken in areas with long-established populations of a distinct physical type. The population in the core Chumashan area has been stable for the past 10,000 years, however, the attested range of Chumashan is recent. All of the Chumashan languages are now extinct, although they are documented in the unpublished fieldnotes of linguist John Peabody Harrington. Especially well documented are Barbareño, Ineseño, and Ventureño, the last native speaker of a Chumashan language was Barbareño speaker Mary Yee, who died in 1965. Six Chumashan languages are attested, all now extinct, however, most of them are in the process of revitalization, with language programs and classes. Contemporary Chumash people now prefer to refer to their languages by names rather than the older names based on the local missions. Obispeño Also known as Tilhini by students of the language, after the name of the village near which the mission was founded. Island Chumash Was spoken on the three inhabited islands in the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Ineseño Now called Samala or Sʰamala by the Santa Ynez Band. This word has an S with a puff of air after it and it is the name for the language and the people. Barbareño Now called Shmuwich or Šmuwič by students of the language and this is the name for the language and the people, it means coastal. Ventureño Now called Mitsqanaqan by students of the language and community members, Obispeño was the most divergent Chumashan language. The Central Chumash languages include Purisimeño, Ineseño, Barbareño and Ventureño, there was a dialect continuum across this area, but the form of the language spoken in the vicinity of each mission was distinct enough to qualify as a different language. There is very little documentation of Purisimeño, Ineseño, Barbareño and Ventureño each had several dialects, although documentation usually focused on just one. Island Chumash had different dialects on Santa Cruz Island and Santa Rosa Island, John Peabody Harrington conducted fieldwork on all the above Chumashan languages, but obtained the least data on Island Chumash, Purisimeño, and Obispeño. There is no data on Cuyama, though ethnographic data suggests that it was likely Chumash. Kroeber suggested that the Chumashan languages might be related to the neighboring Salinan in a Iskoman grouping, edward Sapir accepted this speculation and included Iskoman in his classification of Hokan. More recently it has noted that Salinan and Chumashan shared only one word. As a result, the inclusion of Chumashan into Hokan is now disfavored by most specialists, the Chumashan languages are well known for their consonant harmony
Chumash language
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Pre-contact distribution of Chumashan languages
16.
Chumash people
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They also occupied three of the Channel Islands, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel, the smaller island of Anacapa was likely inhabited seasonally due to the lack of a consistent water source. Modern place names with Chumash origins include Cayucos, Malibu, Nipomo, Lompoc, Ojai, Pismo Beach, Point Mugu, Port Hueneme, Piru, Lake Castaic, Saticoy, Simi Valley and Somis. Archaeological research demonstrates that the Chumash have deep roots in the Santa Barbara Channel area, the Chumash resided between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the California coasts where rivers and tributaries abound. Inside and around the modern-day Santa Barbara region, the Chumash lived with a bounty of resources, the tribe lived in an area of three environments, the interior, the coast, and the Northern Channel Islands. These provided an array of materials to support the Chumash lifestyle. The interior is composed of the land outside the coast and spanning the plains, rivers. The coast covers the cliffs and land close to the ocean and, in reference to resources, the Northern Channel Islands lie off the coast of the Chumash territory. All of the California coastal-interior has a Mediterranean climate due to the ocean winds. The mild temperatures, save for winter, made gathering easy, during the cold months, what villagers gathered and traded during the seasons changed depending on where they resided. With coasts populated by masses of species of fish and land covered by trees and animals. Abundant resources and a winter rarely harsh enough to cause concern meant the tribe lived a lifestyle in addition to a subsistence existence. Villages in the three aforementioned areas contained remains of sea mammals, indicating that trade networks existed for moving materials throughout the Chumash territory, such connections spread out the land’s wealth, allowing the Chumash to live comfortably without agriculture. The closer a village was to the ocean, the greater its reliance on maritime resources, due to advanced canoe designs, coastal and island people could procure fish and aquatic mammals from farther out. Shellfish were a source of nutrition, relatively easy to find. Many of the favored varieties grew in tidal zones, shellfish grew in abundance during winter to early spring, their proximity to shore made collection easier. Some of the species included mussels, abalone, and a wide array of clams. Haliotis rufescens was harvested this species along the Central California coast in the pre-contact era, the Chumash and other California Indians also used red abalone shells to make a variety of fishhooks, beads, ornaments, and other artifacts. Any village could acquire fish, but the coastal and island communities specialized in catching not just smaller fish and this feat, difficult even for today’s technology, was made possible by the tomol plank canoe
Chumash people
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Pictographs,
Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park
Chumash people
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Rafael Solares, a Samala
chief, captain of Soxtonoxmu, capital village in the
Santa Ynez Valley, photograph by Leon de Cessac, late 19th century
Chumash people
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Basketry tray, Santa Barbara Mission, early 1800s
Chumash people
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Chumash musicians at
Mission San Buenaventura, 1873
17.
Spanish missions in California
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The missions were part of a major effort by the Spanish Empire to extend colonization into the most northern and western parts of Spains North American claims. Following a long-term secular and religious policy of Spain in Latin America, Mexico achieved independence in 1821, taking Alta California along with it, but the missions maintained authority over native neophytes and control of vast land holdings until the 1830s. At the peak of its development in 1832, the mission system controlled an area equal to approximately one-sixth of Alta California. The Alta California government secularized the missions after the passage of the Mexican secularization act of 1833 and this divided the mission lands into land grants, which became many of the Ranchos of California. In the end, the missions had mixed results in their objectives, to convert, educate, today, the surviving mission buildings are the states oldest structures, and its most-visited historic monuments. Prior to 1754, grants of lands were made directly by the Spanish Crown. The missions were to be interconnected by a route which later became known as the Camino Real. The detailed planning and direction of the missions was to be carried out by Friar Junípero Serra, work on the coastal mission chain was concluded in 1823, completed after Serras death in 1784. Plans to build a mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 were canceled. The Santa Ysabel Asistencia had been founded in 1818 as a mother mission, in addition to the presidio and pueblo, the misión was one of the three major agencies employed by the Spanish sovereign to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial territories. Each frontier station was forced to be self-supporting, as existing means of supply were inadequate to maintain a colony of any size. California was months away from the nearest base in colonized Mexico, to sustain a mission, the padres required converted Native Americans, called neophytes, to cultivate crops and tend livestock in the volume needed to support a fair-sized establishment. The scarcity of imported materials, together with a lack of skilled laborers, compelled the missionaries to employ simple building materials, although the missions were considered temporary ventures by the Spanish hierarchy, the development of an individual settlement was not simply a matter of priestly whim. The padres blessed the site, and with the aid of their military escort fashioned temporary shelters out of tree limbs or driven stakes and it was these simple huts that ultimately gave way to the stone and adobe buildings that exist to the present. The first priority when beginning a settlement was the location and construction of the church, once the spot for the church had been selected, its position was marked and the remainder of the mission complex was laid out. The cuadrángulo was rarely a perfect square because the missionaries had no surveying instruments at their disposal and it was a doctrine established in 1531, which based the Spanish states right over the land and persons of the Indies on the Papal charge to evangelize them. It was employed wherever the indigenous populations were not already concentrated in native pueblos, the civilized and disciplined culture of the natives, developed over 8,000 year, was not considered. A total of 146 Friars Minor, mostly Spaniards by birth, were ordained as priests, sixty-seven missionaries died at their posts, while the remainder returned to Europe due to illness, or upon completing their ten-year service commitment
Spanish missions in California
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A view of
Mission San Juan Capistrano in. At left is the façade of the first adobe church with its added espadaña; behind the campanario, or "bell wall" is the "Sacred Garden." The Mission has earned a reputation as the "Loveliest of the Franciscan Ruins."
Spanish missions in California
Spanish missions in California
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The Missionaries as They Came and Went. Franciscans of the California missions donned gray
habits, in contrast to the brown that is typically worn today.
Spanish missions in California
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The first recorded baptisms in Alta California were performed in "The Canyon of the Little Christians."
18.
Mission San Buenaventura
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Mission San Buenaventura is a Spanish mission founded by the Franciscans in present-day Ventura, California. Founded on March 31,1782, it was the ninth Spanish mission established in California, the mission was named after Saint Bonaventure, a 13th century Franciscan saint and Doctor of the Church. The mission is located in the downtown of Ventura. Mission San Buenaventura was planned to be founded in 1770, in 1793, the first church burned down. Today, only a section of the entire mission complex still stands. It took the neophytes 16 years to build the new church, thirty-three years and one day later he raised the Cross at la playa de la canal de Santa Barbara on Easter Morning, March 31,1782. Assisted by Pedro Benito Cambon, he celebrated a High Mass, preached on the Resurrection, and dedicated a Mission to San Buenaventura. It had been planned as the third in the chain of twenty-one Missions founded by Serra but was destined to be the ninth and last founded during his lifetime, and one of six he personally dedicated. The watercourse ran from a point on the Ventura River about ½ mile north of the ruins and carried the water to holding tanks behind the San Buenaventura Mission. With plentiful water the Mission was able to maintain flourishing orchards and gardens, the water distribution system was damaged by floods and abandoned in 1862. The Mission’s first church building was destroyed by fire, the construction of a second church was abandoned because the door gave way. In 1792 work was in progress on the present church and the utility buildings which formed a quadrangle enclosing a plaza. Although half finished in 1795, the church was not completed until 1809, dedication was held September 9 of that year and the first liturgical services took place September 10. At about that time the San Miguel Chapel and the Santa Gertrudis Chapel were completed, a series of earthquakes and an accompanying seismic sea wave in 1812 forced the priests and Indian neophytes to seek temporary shelter a few miles inland. The Mexican government in 1834 issued a secularization decree divesting the priests of administrative control over the Missions, in 1845 San Buenaventura Mission was rented to Don Jose Arnaz and Narciso Botello and was later illegally sold to Arnaz. And the mission did not fully escape the impact that the Mexican-American War of 1846-1847 had on California. On January 5,1847, while on its way from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, fremont, managed to disperse an armed force of up to 70 enemy Californios near the mission. The request was granted in the form of a Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on May 23,1862, because of severe damage in the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, the Mission’s tile roof was replaced by a shingle roof
Mission San Buenaventura
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An exterior view of the restored chapel at Mission San Buenaventura in July, 2005.
Mission San Buenaventura
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Mission San Buenaventura circa 1900. Note the thickness of the chapel side wall and the massive
buttresses supporting it.
Mission San Buenaventura
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Mission courtyard
Mission San Buenaventura
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Olive oil press
19.
Juan Bautista Alvarado
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Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was a Californio and Governor of Alta California from 1836 to 1842. He was governor during the Revolution of 1836, when the territorial Diputación declared free and sovereign independence from Mexico and forced the Mexican commander, Alvarado also oversaw Californias brief rejoining with Mexico as a state. Alvarado was born in Monterey, Alta California, to Jose Francisco Alvarado and his grandfather Juan Bautista Alvarado accompanied Gaspar de Portolà as an enlisted man in the Spanish Army in 1769. His father died a few months after his birth and his mother remarried three years later, leaving Juan Bautista in the care of his grandparents, the Vallejo family and he and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo grew up together in the Vallejo household. They were both taught by William Edward Petty Hartnell, an English merchant living in Monterey, in 1827 the eighteen-year-old Alvarado was hired as secretary to the territorial legislature. In 1829 he was arrested along with Vallejo and another friend, José Castro. In 1831 he built a house in Monterey for his mistress, Juliana Francisca Ramona y Castillo, over the years, the pair had a total of at least two illegitimate daughters whom he recognized and perhaps several more he did not recognize, but he never married their mother. During this period Alvarado began drinking heavily, one of his daughters claimed that Raymunda had refused to marry Alvarado because of his excessive drinking. Alvarado supported secularization of the Spanish missions in California and he was appointed by José María de Echeandía to oversee the turn over of Mission San Miguel, even though Echeandía was no longer governor. The new governor Manuel Victoria rescinded the order and sought to have Alvarado, the pair fled and were hidden by their old friend Vallejo, who had become adjutant at the Presidio of San Francisco. However, Victoria was unpopular and Echeandía overthrew his rule and replaced him with Pío de Jesús Pico} near the end of 1831, secularization of the missions resumed in 1833. In 1834 Alvarado was elected to the legislature as a delegate, Governor José Figueroa granted Rancho El Sur, the vast wilderness south of Monterey, to Alvarado on October 30,1834. After Figueroas death in September 1835, Nicolás Gutiérrez was appointed as governor in January 1836. He was replaced by Mariano Chico in April, but Chico was very unpopular, thinking a revolt was coming, Chico went to Mexico to gather troops, but was reprimanded for leaving his post. Gutierrez, the commandant, re-assumed the governorship, but he too was unpopular. The Americans wanted California independence, but Alvarado instead preferred staying a part of Mexico, Alvarados rebellion adopted a new flag - a single red star on a white background. The flag never became a flag of Alta California, and was not used after Alvarado made peace with the central government. Alvarado, at age 27, was appointed governor
Juan Bautista Alvarado
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Juan Bautista Alvarado
20.
Ranchos of California
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The Spanish and later Mexican governments encouraged settlement of Alta California by giving prominent men large land grants called ranchos, usually two or more square leagues. Land-grant titles were government-issued, permanent, unencumbered property-ownership rights to land called ranchos, devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves after the landed gentry of Spain. Their workers included Californian Native Americans who had learned to speak Spanish, Spain made about 30 grants between 1784 and 1821, and Mexico granted about 270 more between 1833 and 1846. The ranchos established land-use patterns and place names that are still in use in California today, Rancho boundaries became the basis for Californias land survey system, and can still be found on modern maps and land titles. Ranchos were partially based on geography, such as access to river water, Land development in the 20th and 21st century often follow the boundaries of the ranchos, and often retain the original name. For example, Rancho San Diego, an unincorporated rural-burb east of San Diego, or Rancho Bernardo, during Spanish rule, the ranchos were concessions from the Spanish crown, permitting settlement and granting grazing rights on specific tracts of land, while the crown retained the title. The land concessions were usually measured in leagues, a league of land would encompass a square that is one Spanish league on each side – approximately 4,428 acres. The Spanish and Mexican governments made a number of grants from 1785 to 1846. It was not until the Mexican era that the titles to the plots of land were granted to individuals, in 1821, Mexico achieved its independence from Spain, and California came under control of the Mexican government. The 1824 Mexican Colony Law established rules for petitioning for land grants in California, and by 1828, the Acts sought to break the land monopoly of the missions and also paved the way for luring additional settlers to California by making land grants easier to obtain. Secularization was implemented between 1834 and 1836, the Mexican government allowed the padres to keep only the church, priests quarters and priests garden. The army troops guarding each Mission were dismissed, a commissioner would oversee the missions crops and herds, while the land was divided up as communal pasture, a town plot, and individual plots for each Indian family. The Mission Indians, freed from the missions, often joined other tribes or sought work on the new ranchos along the troops formerly assigned to each mission. The number of Mexican land grants greatly increased after the secularization of the missions in 1834, the Mexican rancho grants were provisional. The boundaries, on paper, had to be surveyed and marked. This produced a diseño, a topological map, to define the area. Since there were very few surveyors this requirement was seldom met, the grantee could not initially subdivide or rent out the land. The land had to be used for grazing or cultivated, some kind of residential house had to be built within a year—most were initially simple adobe walled cabins
Ranchos of California
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Sketch map or diseño of Rancho Providencia, 1840s.
21.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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With the defeat of its army and the fall of its capital, Mexico entered into negotiations to end the war. The treaty called for the U. S. to pay $15 million to Mexico, Mexicans in those annexed areas had the choice of relocating to within Mexicos new boundaries or receiving American citizenship with full civil rights. Over 90% chose to become U. S. citizens, the U. S. Senate advised and consented to ratification of the treaty by a vote of 38–14. The opponents of this treaty were led by the Whigs, who had opposed the war and rejected Manifest destiny in general, and rejected this expansion in particular. The peace talks were negotiated by Nicholas Trist, chief clerk of the US State Department, Nicholas Trist negotiated with a special commission representing the collapsed government led by Don José Bernardo Couto, Don Miguel de Atristain, and Don Luis Gonzaga Cuevas of Mexico. Instead, Article V of the treaty simply described the new U. S. –Mexico border. Comparing the boundary in the Adams–Onís Treaty to the Guadalupe Hidalgo boundary, Mexico conceded about 55% of its pre-war, pre-Texas territorial claims, articles VIII and IX ensured safety of existing property rights of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories. Despite assurances to the contrary, the property rights of Mexican citizens were not honored by the U. S. in accordance with modifications to. The U. S. also agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts that Mexico owed to United States citizens, the residents had one year to choose whether they wanted American or Mexican citizenship, Over 90% chose American citizenship, which included full voting rights. The others returned to Mexico, or in cases in New Mexico were allowed to remain in place as Mexican citizens. Article XII engaged the United States to pay, In consideration of the acquired,15 million dollars. Article XI of the treaty was important to Mexico. S, would return captives of the Indians to Mexico. Mexicans believed that the United States had encouraged and assisted the Comanche and Apache raids that had devastated northern Mexico in the years before the war and this article promised relief to them Article XI, however, proved unenforceable. Destructive Indian raids continued despite a heavy U. S. presence near the Mexican border, Mexico filed 366 claims with the U. S. government for damages done by Comanche and Apache raids between 1848 and 1853. In 1853, in the Treaty of Mesilla concluding the Gadsden Purchase, the remainder of New Mexico and Arizona were peacefully purchased under the Gadsden Purchase, which was carried out in 1853. In this purchase the United States paid an additional $10 million, however, the American Civil War delayed construction of such a route, and it was not until 1881 that the Southern Pacific Railroad finally was completed, fulfilling the purpose of the acquisition. Mexico had claimed the area in question since winning its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. About 80,000 Mexicans lived in the areas of California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas during the period of 1845 to 1850, and far fewer in Nevada, in southern and western Colorado, and in Utah
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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Cover of the exchange copy of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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"Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico. The Distrunell map used during the negotiations.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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Map of Mexico. S. Augustus Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1847.
Alta California shown including Nevada, Utah, Arizona.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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A section of the original treaty.
22.
US Supreme Court
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
US Supreme Court
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Chief Justice Marshall
US Supreme Court
–
Supreme Court of the United States
US Supreme Court
–
The Roberts Court, October 2010 Back row (left to right):
Sonia Sotomayor,
Stephen G. Breyer,
Samuel A. Alito, and
Elena Kagan. Front row (left to right):
Clarence Thomas,
Antonin Scalia,
Chief Justice John Roberts,
Anthony Kennedy, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
US Supreme Court
–
Roberts, John
John Roberts (
Chief Justice)
23.
Merino (sheep)
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The Merino or jackson sheep is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. The breed originated in Spain, but the modern Merino was domesticated in New Zealand, today, Merinos are still regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep. Poll Merinos have no horns, and horned Merino rams have long, two suggested origins for the Spanish word merino are, It may be an adaptation to the sheep of the name of a Leonese official inspector over a merindad, who may have also inspected sheep pastures. This word is from the medieval Latin maiorinus, a steward or head official of a village, from maior and it also may be from the name of an Imazighen tribe, the Marini, who intervened in the Iberian peninsula during the 12th and 13th centuries. The Merino is an excellent forager and very adaptable and it is bred predominantly for its wool, and its carcass size is generally smaller than that of sheep bred for meat. South African Meat Merino, American Rambouillet and German Merinofleischschaf have been bred to balance wool production, Merino need to be shorn at least once a year because their wool does not stop growing. If the coat is allowed to grow, it can cause stress, mobility issues. Merino wool is finely crimped and soft, staples are commonly 65–100 mm long. A Saxon Merino produces 3–6 kg of wool a year. Merino wool is generally less than 24 micron in diameter, basic Merino types include, strong wool, medium wool, fine, superfine and ultra fine. Ultra fine wool is suitable for blending with other such as silk. New Zealand produces lightweight knits made from Merino wool and possum fur, the term merino is widely used in the textile industries, but it cannot be taken to mean the fabric in question is actually 100% merino wool from a Merino strain bred specifically for its wool. The wool of any Merino sheep, whether reared in Spain or elsewhere, is merino wool, however, not all merino sheep produce wool suitable for clothing, and especially for clothing worn next to the skin. This depends on the strain of the breed. Merino sheep bred for meat do not produce a fleece with a fine enough staple for this purpose, most of the flocks were owned by nobility or the church, the sheep grazed the Spanish southern plains in winter and the northern highlands in summer. The Mesta was an organisation of privileged sheep owners who developed the breed and controlled the migrations along cañadas reales suitable for grazing, the three Merino strains that founded most of the worlds Merino flocks were the Royal Escurial flocks, the Negretti and the Paula. The Infantado, Montarcos and Aguires studs had an influence on the Vermont bloodlines, before the 18th century, the export of Merinos from Spain was a crime punishable by death. In the 18th century, small exportation of Merinos from Spain, in 1723, some were exported to Sweden, but the first major consignment of Escurials was sent by Charles III of Spain to his cousin, Prince Xavier the Elector of Saxony, in 1765
Merino (sheep)
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Australian Merino wool fibre (top) compared to a human hair (bottom), imaged using
scanning electron microscopy
Merino (sheep)
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Full wool Merino sheep
Merino (sheep)
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Merino ewe judging
Merino (sheep)
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One of the earliest depictions of a Merino. "El Buen Pastor" (The Good Shepherd) by
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, ca. 1650
24.
Santa Cruz (sheep)
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Santa Cruz sheep are an extremely rare breed of domestic sheep that once existed as a feral population on the Santa Cruz Island of the Channel Islands of California. Small and hardy, the sheep were all killed or removed from the island to prevent destruction of natural habitats, today, they number fewer than 200 animals. This breed is raised for wool. In the mid-19th century, sheep that were most likely of the Merino, Rambouillet, by the 1860s thousands of sheep grazed freely on the island. Throughout the 20th century, ranching declined on the island and most of the sheep became feral, in 1978, The Nature Conservancy gained control of the island, sheep numbers around this time were estimated to be over 20,000. Later, the Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service began to kill or remove all remaining in order to prevent overgrazing of the islands vegetation. Today, the breed has fewer than 200 animals remaining, and is considered critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, a small population of the sheep exists on the mainland, and were largely placed through adoption. Like many breeds of sheep, Santa Cruz sheep are relatively small and extremely hardy, they are good foragers. However, because of the breeds that they are derived from. Their fleeces are mostly white, but some colored sheep are known among the breed, hog Island sheep Santa Cruz sheep at the SVF Foundation website
Santa Cruz (sheep)
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Santa Cruz sheep at the
Roger Williams Park Zoo
25.
American Civil War
–
The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
American Civil War
–
New Orleans the largest cotton exporting port for New England and Great Britain textile mills, shipping Mississippi River Valley goods from North, South and Border states.
American Civil War
–
Clockwise from top:
Battle of Gettysburg,
Union Captain John Tidball's artillery,
Confederate prisoners,
ironclad USS Atlanta, ruins of
Richmond, Virginia,
Battle of Franklin
American Civil War
–
Sen. Stephen Douglas, author of the
Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854
American Civil War
–
Sen. John J. Crittenden, of the 1860
Crittenden Compromise
26.
Sea otter
–
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg, making them the heaviest members of the family. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otters primary form of insulation is a thick coat of fur. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter lives mostly in the ocean, the sea otter inhabits offshore environments, where it dives to the sea floor to forage. It preys mostly on invertebrates such as sea urchins, various molluscs and crustaceans. Its foraging and eating habits are noteworthy in several respects, First, its use of rocks to dislodge prey and to open shells makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools. In most of its range, it is a keystone species and its diet includes prey species that are also valued by humans as food, leading to conflicts between sea otters and fisheries. For these reasons, the sea otter remains classified as an endangered species, the first scientific description of the sea otter is contained in the field notes of Georg Steller from 1751, and the species was described by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae of 1758. Originally named Lutra marina, it underwent numerous changes before being accepted as Enhydra lutris in 1922. The generic name Enhydra, derives from the Ancient Greek en/εν in and hydra/ύδρα water, meaning in the water, the sea otter was formerly sometimes referred to as the sea beaver, being the marine fur-bearer similar in commercial value to the terrestrial beaver. Rodents are not closely related to otters, which are carnivores and it is not to be confused with the marine otter, a rare otter species native to the southern west coast of South America. A number of other species, while predominantly living in fresh water, are commonly found in marine coastal habitats. The extinct sea mink of northeast North America is another mustelid that had adapted to a marine environment, the sea otter is the heaviest member of the family Mustelidae, a diverse group that includes the 13 otter species and terrestrial animals such as weasels, badgers, and minks. It is unique among the mustelids in not making dens or burrows, in having no functional anal scent glands, and in being able to live its entire life without leaving the water. The only member of the genus Enhydra, the sea otter is so different from other species that, as recently as 1982. Fossil evidence indicates the Enhydra lineage became isolated in the North Pacific approximately 2 Mya, giving rise to the now-extinct Enhydra macrodonta and the modern sea otter, Enhydra lutris. The sea otter evolved initially in northern Hokkaidō and Russia, and then spread east to the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska, and down the North American coast. In comparison to cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds, which entered the water approximately 50,40, and 20 Mya, respectively, the sea otter is a relative newcomer to a marine existence
Sea otter
–
Sea otter
Sea otter
–
Mother sea otter with rare twin pups,
Morro Bay, California. Sea otter twin births are rare, and the high demands on the mother usually result in one pup being abandoned.
Sea otter
–
Sea otter ln
Morro Bay, California
Sea otter
–
E. l. nereis
27.
Smuggler
–
There are various motivations to smuggle. Examples of non-financial motivations include bringing banned items past a security checkpoint or the removal of classified documents from a government or corporate office, Smuggling is a common theme in literature, from Bizets opera Carmen to the James Bond spy books Diamonds are Forever and Goldfinger. The verb smuggle, from Low German schmuggeln or Dutch smokkelen, apparently a frequentative formation of a meaning to sneak. Smuggling has a long and controversial history, probably dating back to the first time at which duties were imposed in any form, in England smuggling first became a recognised problem in the 13th century, following the creation of a national customs collection system by Edward I in 1275. Medieval smuggling tended to focus on the export of highly taxed export goods — notably wool, merchants also, however, sometimes smuggled other goods to circumvent prohibitions or embargoes on particular trades. Most studies of historical smuggling have been based on official sources — such as court records, according to Dr Evan Jones, the trouble with these is that they only detail the activities of those dumb enough to get caught. This has led him and others, such as Prof Huw Bowen to use records to reconstruct smuggling businesses. Grain smuggling by members of the elite, often working closely with corrupt customs officers, has also been shown to have been prevalent in East Anglia during the later 16th century. In England wool was smuggled to the continent in the 17th century, the principal reason for the high duty was the need for the government to finance a number of extremely expensive wars with France and the United States. The thievery was boasted about and romanticized until it seemed a kind of heroism and it did not have any taint of criminality and the whole of the south coast had pockets vying with one another over whose smugglers were the darkest or most daring. The Smugglers Inn was one of the commonest names for a bar on the coast, in Henley Road, smuggling in colonial times was a reaction to the heavy taxes and regulations imposed by mercantilist trade policies. After American independence in 1783, smuggling developed at the edges of the United States at places like Passamaquoddy Bay, St. Marys in Georgia, Lake Champlain, and Louisiana. During Thomas Jeffersons embargo of 1807-1809, these places became the primary places where goods were smuggled out of the nation in defiance of the law. Like Britain, a gradual liberalization of laws as part of the free trade movement meant less smuggling. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt tried to cut down on smuggling by establishing the Roosevelt Reservation along the United States-Mexico Border, Smuggling revived in the 1920s during Prohibition, and drug smuggling became a major problem after 1970. In the 1990s, when sanctions were imposed on Serbia. The state unofficially allowed this to continue or otherwise the entire economy would have collapsed, much smuggling occurs when enterprising merchants attempt to supply demand for a good or service that is illegal or heavily taxed. As a result, illegal trafficking, and the smuggling of weapons, as well as the historical staples of smuggling, alcohol
Smuggler
–
A skirmish with smugglers from
Finland at the
Russian border, 1853. A painting by Vasily Hudiakov.
Smuggler
–
The International Anti-Opium Association, Peking "The War Against Opium
Smuggler
–
A poster warning the German women and girls about the danger of human traffic in the USA (ca 1900)
Smuggler
–
Actress and
UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu spoke out against human trafficking and lauded USAID efforts to increase awareness
28.
Rum-running
–
Rum-running, or bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law. Smuggling is usually done to circumvent taxation or prohibition laws within a particular jurisdiction, the term rum-running is more commonly applied to smuggling over water, bootlegging is applied to smuggling over land. The term rum-running most likely originated at the start of Prohibition in the United States and it was said that some ships carried $200,000 in contraband in a single run. It was not long after the first taxes on alcoholic beverages that someone began to smuggle them, the British government had revenue cutters in place to stop smugglers as early as the 16th century. Pirates often made extra money running rum to heavily taxed colonies, an irony of the history of prohibition in North America is that industrial-scale smuggling flowed both ways across the Canada–US border at different points in the early twentieth century. National prohibition in the United States did not begin until 1920, as well, Canadas version of prohibition had never included a ban on the manufacture of liquor for export. Soon the black-market trade was reversed with Canadian whisky and beer flowing in large quantities to the United States, again, this illegal international trade undermined the support for prohibition in the receiving country, and the American version ended in 1933. One of the most famous periods of rum-running began in the United States with the Prohibition began on January 16,1920 and this period lasted until the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, on December 5,1933. At first, there was action on the seas. This was the start of the Bimini–Bahamas rum trade and the introduction of Bill McCoy, with the start of Prohibition Captain McCoy began bringing rum from Bimini and the rest of the Bahamas into south Florida through Government Cut. The rum-running business was good, and McCoy soon bought a Gloucester knockabout schooner named Arethusa at auction. He installed an auxiliary, mounted a concealed machine gun on her deck. In the days of rum running, it was common for captains to add water to the bottles to stretch their profits, any cheap sparkling wine became French champagne or Italian Spumante, unbranded liquor became top-of-the-line name brands. McCoy became famous for never watering his booze, and selling only top brands, although the phrase appears in print in 1882, this is one of several folk etymologies for the origin of the term The real McCoy. On November 15,1923, McCoy and Tomoka encountered the U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Seneca, a boarding party attempted to board, but McCoy chased them off with the machine gun. Tomoka tried to run, but the Seneca placed a shell just off her hull, the small, quick boats could more easily outrun Coast Guard ships and could dock in any small river or eddy and transfer their cargo to a waiting truck. They were also known to float planes and flying boats. Soon others were following suit, the limit became known as Rum Line
Rum-running
–
A liquor raid in 1925, in
Elk Lake, Ontario
Rum-running
–
Rum runner
schooner Kirk and Sweeney with contraband stacked on deck
Rum-running
–
Rum-runner
William S. McCoy, Florida area from 1900 to 1920.
Rum-running
–
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter
Seneca
29.
Santa Rosa Island, California
–
Santa Rosa Island is the second largest of the Channel Islands of California at 53,195 acres. Santa Rosa is located about 26 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, the terrain consists of rolling hills, deep canyons, and a coastal lagoon. Highest peak is Vail Peak, at 1,589 feet, the Chumash, a Native American people lived on the Channel Islands at the time of European contact. They called the driftwood wima that washed up on the beaches from the channel currents. The logs were used to build tomols, recreational activities on Santa Rosa Island include kayaking, camping and hiking. A private boat charter company offers a number of trips to the year round. A year-round charter flight service is available from Camarillo Airport for hikers and campers to Santa Rosa Island, defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block 3009, Block Group 3, Census Tract 29.10 of Santa Barbara County, California. During the last ice age, the four northern Channel Islands, including Santa Rosa Island, were conjoined into Santa Rosae, in 1960, archaeologists discovered the remains of 13, 000-year-old Arlington Springs Man, among the oldest human remains in the Americas, on the island. The remains of mammoths, which appear to have gone extinct about 13,000 years ago, have also been excavated there. The ancestors of the Chumash Indians lived on Santa Rosa for many thousands of years, establishing numerous village sites along the coast, recent research has documented the presence of maritime Paleocoastal peoples on the island at least 12,000 years ago. Governor Manuel Micheltorena made a Mexican land grant of the island of Santa Rosa to brothers José Antonio Carrillo and they gave the island to Carlos daughters, Manuela Carrillo de Jones and Francisca Carrillo de Thompson. Their husbands - John Coffin Jones and Alpheus Basil Thompson - entered into a partnership to manage the island, a claim was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, but the grant was not patented to Manuela Carrillo de Jones and Francisca Carrillo de Thompson until 1871. The acrimonious Thompson-Jones partnership ended in 1859, and by 1862 T. Wallace More owned the whole island, the island was used as a sheep ranch during the late 19th century by the More family. The More family sold the island to Walter L. Vail and J. W. Vickers in 1902, the partnership used the island for cattle ranching and a private hunting reserve. The United States Air Force maintained a base on the island during the Cold War. In the late 1970s Mobil Oil Corporation was granted exploration rights on the island, both explosive and vibroseis exploration methods were used. Extensive surveys and geological maps were made at that time, Vail & Vickers sold the island in 1986 for the appraised value of nearly $30 million, which worked out to around $550 per acre. The sale agreement allowed continuation of the ranching and hunting operation for 3 months, subsequently, the National Park Service issued a series of five-year renewable special use permits
Santa Rosa Island, California
–
Orcas near Santa Rosa Island
Santa Rosa Island, California
–
Map of Channel Islands
Santa Rosa Island, California
–
Munchkin
Dudleya, an
endemic plant species.
Santa Rosa Island, California
–
Torrey Pine Grove on Santa Rosa island. View towards
Santa Cruz Island.
30.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
31.
Cold War
–
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
Cold War
–
Photograph of the
Berlin Wall taken from the West side. The Wall was built in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing and to stop an economically disastrous drain of workers. It was a symbol of the Cold War and its fall in 1989 marked the approaching end of the war.
Cold War
–
Allied troops in
Vladivostok, August 1918, during the
Allied intervention in the
Russian Civil War.
Cold War
–
The "
Big Three " at the Yalta Conference:
Winston Churchill,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Joseph Stalin, 1945.
32.
Pacific Missile Range Facility
–
PMRF is the worlds largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range. The US military and subcontractors favor its relative isolation, ideal year-round tropical climate and it is the only range in the world where submarines, surface ships, aircraft and space vehicles can operate and be tracked simultaneously. There are over 1,100 square miles of instrumented underwater range, the base itself covers roughly 2,385 acres. The base includes a 6, 000-foot runway with operations and maintenance facilities and it has roughly 70 housing units and various recreational facilities for those who can access the base. The base has support facilities at Port Allen, Makaha Ridge, in 1921, the land area known as the Barking Sands was acquired by the Kekaha Sugar Company and became a runway for private planes. The U. S. Army acquired the land in 1940, named it Mana Airport, additional land acquired in 1941 expanded the facility to 2,058 acres. Private airlines frequently utilized the airport, and World War II incurred a great deal of flight operations. The base was officially designated Bonham Air Force Base in 1954, U. S. Navy operations at Bonham began in 1956, with testing of the Regulus I missile. In 1958, the Pacific Missile Range Facility was established to support the demand of the Navy at Bonham. In 1964, the Pacific Missile Range Facility and Bonham was transferred to the Navy, becoming Pacific Missile Range Facility, in 1962, the U. S. military conducted the Frigate Bird Test of the Operation Dominic program near PMRF. The military launched a ballistic missile with a live warhead from the USS Ethan Allen. The nuclear warhead flew toward Christmas Island and detonated in an air burst at 11,000 feet, the Navy is currently using PMRF to test hit to kill technology using direct collision of the anti-ballistic missile with its target. This destroys the target by using only energy from the force of the collision. The THAAD program relocated their operations from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. On 27 April 2007, the U. S, the Navy is currently working with the State of Hawaii and Kauai County to ensure the long-term viability of PMRF. For many decades, the adjacent to PMRF was used for sugarcane fields. Since Kekaha Sugars closure, the Navy has become wary of encroachment, incompatible developments, under the PMRF Agriculture Preservation Initiative the Navy would have the roughly 6,000 acres of land adjacent to PMRF preserved solely for agricultural use. When North Korea threatened to launch Taepodong-2 ICBMs toward Hawaii in 2009, Maurer, Maurer, ed. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II
Pacific Missile Range Facility
–
2004 aerial view
Pacific Missile Range Facility
–
A ballistic missile launch from Barking Sands
33.
Channel Islands National Park
–
Channel Islands National Park is a United States national park that consists of five of the eight Channel Islands off the coast of the U. S. state of California, in the Pacific Ocean. Although the islands are close to the shore of densely populated Southern California, the park covers 249,561 acres of which 79,019 acres are owned by the federal government. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages 76% of Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park is home to a wide variety of significant natural and cultural resources. It was designated a U. S. National Monument on April 26,1938, and it was promoted to a National Park on March 5,1980. Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary encompasses the waters six nautical miles around Channel Islands National Park, the Channel Islands were originally discovered in 1542 by the explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. In 1938 the Santa Barbara and Anacapa islands were designated a national monument, San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands were combined with the monument in 1980 to form modern-day Channel Islands National Park. On January 28,1969 an oil rig belonging to Union Oil experienced a blow-out 6 miles off the coast of California, the resulting spill was, at the time, the largest oil spill to occur in United States territorial waters. Following the spill, tides carried the oil onto the beaches of the Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa Rosa and this spill had a large impact on native wildlife of the Channel Islands. Much of the seabird population was affected, with over an estimated 3,600 avians killed. Meanwhile, seals, dolphins and other sea life died and washed ashore on both the islands and the mainland and this spill is the third largest oil spill in the United States, only surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon and the Exxon Valdez oil spills. It resulted in a 34,000 acres expansion of the Department of the Interior buffer zone in the channel, the islands within the park extend along the Southern California coast from Point Conception near Santa Barbara to San Pedro, a neighborhood of Los Angeles. Park headquarters and the Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center are located in the city of Ventura, however, only three mammals are endemic to the islands, one of which is the deer mouse which is known to carry the sin nombre hantavirus. The spotted skunk and Channel Islands fox also are endemic, the island fence lizard is also endemic to the Channel Islands. One hundred and forty-five of these species are unique to the islands, Marine life ranges from microscopic plankton to the endangered blue whale, the largest animal on earth. Archeological and cultural resources span a period of more than 10,000 years, the average annual visitation to the parks mainland visitor center was around 300,000 in the period from 2007 to 2016, with 364,807 visiting in 2016. The visitor center is located in the Ventura Harbor Village, the visitor center contains several exhibits that provide information regarding all five islands, native vegetation, marine life and cultural history. Also, visitors can enjoy a film, free of charge. The visitor center is open day, except Thanksgiving and Christmas, from 8, 30AM–5
Channel Islands National Park
–
Channel Islands National Park
Channel Islands National Park
–
Diver and juvenile
sea lions, Anacapa Island
Channel Islands National Park
–
Sea fan, Anacapa Island
34.
University of California Natural Reserve System
–
The University of California Natural Reserve System is a network of protected areas throughout California. The UCNRS is part of the University of California Office of the President, Office of Research, the UCNRS consists of 39 wildland sites that include over 756,000 acres, making it the largest university-administered reserve system in the world. Most major California ecosystems are represented, from coastal tide pools to Sierra Nevada forests, from deserts to chaparral, the reserves also serve as a gateway to more than a million acres of public lands. Founded in 1965 to provide undisturbed environments for research, education, and public service, harrison, S. Waddell, S. M. and Boucher, V. L.2004. UC Davis Natural Reserve System-Four-Year Report, studying Nature in Nature, The History of the University of California Natural Reserve System. Reprinted from Chronicle of the University of California, No.3, University of California Office of the President. Official UC Natural Reserve System—UCNRS website UC Natural Reserve System Information Management The UCNRS is part of the UC Office of Research and Graduate Studies UC Natural Reserves Photos
University of California Natural Reserve System
–
Bodega Marine Lab,
Bodega Marine Reserve
35.
Lichen
–
A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi in a symbiotic relationship. The combined lichen has properties different from those of its component organisms, Lichens come in many colours, sizes, and forms. The properties are sometimes plant-like, but lichens are not plants, Lichens may have tiny, leafless branches, flat leaf-like structures, flakes that lie on the surface like peeling paint, or other growth forms. A macrolichen is a lichen that is either bush-like or leafy, here, macro and micro do not refer to size, but to the growth form. Common names for lichens may contain the word moss, and lichens may superficially look like and grow with mosses, Lichens do not have roots that absorb water and nutrients as plants do, but like plants, they produce their own food by photosynthesis. When they grow on plants, they do not live as parasites, Lichens occur from sea level to high alpine elevations, in many environmental conditions, and can grow on almost any surface. Lichens are abundant growing on bark, leaves, mosses, on other lichens and they grow on rock, walls, gravestones, roofs, exposed soil surfaces, and in the soil as part of a biological soil crust. Different kinds of lichens have adapted to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, arctic tundra, hot dry deserts, rocky coasts and they can even live inside solid rock, growing between the grains. It is estimated that 6% of Earths land surface is covered by lichen, there are about 20,000 known species of lichens. Some lichens have lost the ability to reproduce sexually, yet continue to speciate, Lichens may be long-lived, with some considered to be among the oldest living things. They are among the first living things to grow on fresh rock exposed after an event such as a landslide, the long life-span and slow and regular growth rate of some lichens can be used to date events. In American English, lichen is pronounced the same as the verb liken, in British English, both this pronunciation and one rhyming with kitchen /ˈlɪtʃən/) are used. Lichens grow in a range of shapes and forms. The shape of a lichen is determined by the organization of the fungal filaments. The nonreproductive tissues, or vegetative body parts, is called the thallus, Lichens are grouped by thallus type, since the thallus is usually the most visually prominent part of the lichen. Thallus growth forms typically correspond to a few basic internal structure types, Common names for lichens often come from a growth form or color that is typical of a lichen genus. When a crustose lichen gets old, the center may start to crack up like old-dried paint, old-broken asphalt paving and this is called being rimose or areolate, and the island pieces separated by the cracks are called areolas. The areolas appear separated, but are connected by an underlying prothallus or hypothallus, when a crustose lichen grows from a center and appears to radiate out, it is called crustose placodioid
Lichen
–
A tree covered with leafy foliose lichens and shrubby fruticose lichens
Lichen
Lichen
–
A crusty
crustose lichen on a wall
Lichen
–
A leafy
foliose lichen on a branch of a tree
36.
Golden eagle
–
The golden eagle is one of the best-known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle, like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. These birds are brown, with lighter golden-brown plumage on their napes. Immature eagles of this typically have white on the tail. Golden eagles use their agility and speed combined with powerful feet and massive, Golden eagles maintain home ranges or territories that may be as large as 200 km2. They build large nests in high places to which they may return for several breeding years, most breeding activities take place in the spring, they are monogamous and may remain together for several years or possibly for life. Females lay up to four eggs, and then incubate them for six weeks, typically, one or two young survive to fledge in about three months. These juvenile golden eagles usually attain full independence in the fall, once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many areas which are now more heavily populated by humans. It is the largest and least populous of the five species of true accipitrid to occur as a species in both the Palearctic and the Nearctic. Due to its prowess, the golden eagle is regarded with great mystic reverence in some ancient. The golden eagle is one of the most extensively studied species of raptor in the world in some parts of its range, such as the Western United States and the Western Palearctic. The golden eagle is a large, dark brown raptor with broad wings, ranging from 66 to 102 cm in length. This species wingspan is the fifth largest amongst extant eagle species, in the largest race males and females weigh typically 4.05 kg and 6.35 kg. In the smallest subspecies, A. c. japonica, males weigh 2.5 kg, in the species overall, males may average around 3.6 kg and females around 5.1 kg. The maximum size of species is a matter of some debate. Large races are the heaviest representatives of the Aquila genus and this species is on average the seventh-heaviest living eagle species, the golden eagle ranks as the second heaviest breeding eagle in North America, Europe and Africa but the fourth heaviest in Asia. For some time, the largest known mass authenticated for a female was the specimen from the nominate race which weighed around 6.7 kg. No comprehensive range of weights are known for the largest subspecies, captive birds have been measured up to a wingspan of 2.81 m and a mass of 12.1 kg, respectively
Golden eagle
–
Golden eagle
Golden eagle
–
In flight
Golden eagle
–
Subadult, note white in tail and dark neck
Golden eagle
–
Golden eagle flying in dihedral with food
37.
Bald eagle
–
The bald eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States and it is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. The bald eagle is a feeder which subsists mainly on fish. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any species, up to 4 m deep,2.5 m wide. Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years, Bald eagles are not actually bald, the name derives from an older meaning of the word, white headed. The adult is brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are about 25 percent larger than males, the beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown, the bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States of America. The bald eagle appears on its seal, in the late 20th century it was on the brink of extirpation in the contiguous United States. Populations have since recovered and the species was removed from the U. S. governments list of endangered species on July 12,1995 and it was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the Lower 48 States on June 28,2007. The plumage of an bald eagle is evenly dark brown with a white head. The tail is long and slightly wedge-shaped. Males and females are identical in coloration, but sexual dimorphism is evident in the species. The beak, feet and irises are bright yellow, the legs are feather-free, and the toes are short and powerful with large talons. The highly developed talon of the toe is used to pierce the vital areas of prey while it is held immobile by the front toes. The beak is large and hooked, with a yellow cere, the adult bald eagle is unmistakable in its native range. The closely related African fish eagle also has a body, white head and tail
Bald eagle
–
Bald eagle
Bald eagle
–
Juvenile with
salmon,
Katmai National Park
Bald eagle
–
With freshly caught fish in
Kodiak
Bald eagle
–
Head details
38.
Threatened
–
Threatened species are any species which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of critical depensation and this quantitative metric is one method of evaluating the degree of endangerment. Species which have not been evaluated, or do not have sufficient data also are not considered threatened by the IUCN, Threatened species are also referred to as a red-listed species, as they are listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Subspecies, populations and stocks may also be classified as threatened and it is the less protected of the two protected categories. The Bay checkerspot butterfly is an example of a threatened subspecies protected under the ESA, for example, the trumpeter swan is threatened in the state of Minnesota, while large populations still remain in Canada and Alaska. The EPBC Act also recognises and protects threatened ecosystems such as plant communities, some species, such as Lewins rail, are not listed as threatened species under the EPBC Act, but they may be recognised as threatened by individual states or territories. Biodiversity Action Plan IUCN Red List Illegal logging Rare species Red and blue-listed Slash-and-burn Threatened fauna of Australia Sharrock, S. and Jones, conserving Europes threatened plants Botanic Gardens Conservation International
Threatened
–
by
IUCN Red List category
Threatened
–
IUCN Red List
Threatened
–
By
region
Threatened
39.
Fennel
–
Fennel is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become naturalized in many parts of the world, especially on dry soils near the sea-coast. It is an aromatic and flavorful herb with culinary and medicinal uses and. Florence fennel or finocchio is a selection with a swollen, bulb-like stem base that is used as a vegetable, fennel is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including in its native range the mouse moth and the Old-World swallowtail. Where it has introduced in north America it may be used by the anise swallowtail. The word fennel developed from the Middle English fenel or fenyl and this came from the Old English fenol or finol, which in turn came from the Latin feniculum or foeniculum, the diminutive of fenum or faenum, meaning hay. The Latin word for the plant was ferula, which is now used as the name of a related plant. The Greek name for fennel is marathon or marathos, and the place of the battle of Marathon. The word is first attested in Mycenaean Linear B form as ma-ra-tu-wo, as Old English finule, fennel is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in the 10th century. In the 15th century, Portuguese settlers on Madeira noticed the abundance of fennel, and used the Portuguese word funcho. Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, is a perennial herb and it is erect, glaucous green, and grows to heights of up to 2.5 m, with hollow stems. The leaves grow up to 40 cm long, they are finely dissected, with the ultimate segments filiform, the flowers are produced in terminal compound umbels 5–15 cm wide, each umbel section having 20–50 tiny yellow flowers on short pedicels. The fruit is a dry seed from 4–10 mm long, half as wide or less, fennel is widely cultivated, both in its native range and elsewhere, for its edible, strongly flavored leaves and fruits. Its aniseed flavor comes from anethole, a compound also found in anise and star anise. Florence fennel is a group with inflated leaf bases which form a bulb-like structure. It is of cultivated origin, and has a mild anise-like flavor, Florence fennel plants are smaller than the wild type. The inflated leaf bases are eaten as a vegetable, both raw and cooked, several cultivars of Florence fennel are also known by several other names, notably the Italian name finocchio
Fennel
–
Fennel Foeniculum vulgare
Fennel
–
Fennel, from Koehler's Medicinal-plants (1887)
Fennel
–
Fennel flowerheads
Fennel
–
Fennel seeds
40.
Fodder
–
Fodder, a type of animal feed, is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Fodder refers particularly to food given to the animals, rather than that which they forage for themselves, Fodder is also called provender and includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and sprouted grains and legumes. Most animal feed is from plants, but some manufacturers add ingredients to processed feeds that are of animal origin, in many cases the production of grass for cattle fodder is a valuable intercrop between crops for human consumption, because it builds the organic matter in the soil. Some agricultural byproducts fed to animals may be considered unsavory by human consumers, alfalfa Barley Birdsfoot trefoil Brassica spp. This practice is now banned in most countries where it has occurred, the US Dept. of Health and Human Services regulates drugs of the Veterinary Feed Directive type that can be present within commercial livestock feed. Fodder in the form of sprouted grains and legumes can be grown in small, systems have been developed recently that allow for many tons of sprouts to be produced each day, year round. Sprouted grains can increase the nutritional value of the grain compared with feeding the ungerminated grain to stock. In addition, they use less water than traditional forage, making them ideal for drought conditions, sprouted barley and other cereal grains can be grown hydroponically in a carefully controlled environment. Under hydroponic conditions, sprouted fodder at 150 mm tall with a 50 mm root mat is at its peak for animal feed, although products such are barley are grain, when sprouted they are approved by the American Grassfed Association to be used as livestock feed. Cannon fodder Factory farming Feed manufacturing Forage Grain Pasture Karl Heinrich Ritthausen Die Eiweisskörper der Getreidearten, beiträge zur Physiologie der Samen der Kulturgewachese, der Nahrungs- und Futtermitel, Bonn,1872 from Google books. Compar Fresh or Ensiled Fodders on the Production of Greenhouse Gases Following Enteric Fermentation in Beef Cattle, université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue,2011. UK Food Standards Agency, Animal feed legislation and guidance FAO Feed Safety guidelines Fodder Plants at Agriculture Guide An article from Agriculture Guide
Fodder
–
A fodder factory set up by an individual farmer to produce customised cattle feed
Fodder
–
Round
hay bales
Fodder
–
Newton of Cawdor stack of bales, sweet-smelling fodder stored for winter
Fodder
–
Cut green fodder being transported to cattle in
Tanzania
41.
Feral
–
A feral animal is an animal living in the wild but descended from domesticated individuals. As with a species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some cases. Other definitions define a feral animal as one that has changed from being domesticated to being wild, natural, some common examples of animals with feral populations are horses, dogs, goats, cats, and pigs. Wild species naturalized into a new territory are not normally considered feral animals, domesticated plants that revert to wild are referred to as escaped, introduced, naturalized, or sometimes as feral crops. Individual plants are known as volunteers, large numbers of escaped plants may become a noxious weed. The adaptive and ecological variables seen in plants that go wild closely resemble those of animals, the unintended presence of genetically modified crop plants or of the modified traits in other plants as a result of cross-breeding is known as adventitious presence. Certain familiar animals go feral easily and successfully, while others are less inclined to wander. Some species will detach readily from humans and pursue their own devices, others depart and are gone, seeking out new territory or range to exploit and displaying active invasiveness. Whether they leave readily and venture far, the criterion for success is longevity. Persistence depends on their ability to establish themselves and reproduce reliably in the new environment, neither the duration nor the intensity with which a species has been domesticated offers a useful correlation with its feral potential. The cat returns readily to a state if it has not been socialized when young. These cats, especially if left to proliferate, are considered to be pests in both rural and urban areas, and may be blamed for devastating the bird, reptile. A local population of cats living in an urban area. As feral cats multiply quickly, it is difficult to control their populations, animal shelters attempt to adopt out feral cats, especially kittens, but often are overwhelmed with sheer numbers and euthanasia is used. In rural areas, excessive numbers of cats are often shot. More recently, the method has been used in many locations as an alternate means of managing the feral cat population. The dog has some difficulty reverting into a feral state, not as efficient in predation like their wolf ancestors or even their big cat rivals, The goat is one of the oldest domesticated creatures, yet readily goes feral and does quite well on its own. The dromedary camel, which has been domesticated for well over 3,000 years, a substantial population of feral dromedaries, descended from pack animals that escaped in the 19th and early 20th centuries, thrives in the Australian interior today
Feral
–
Feral bull in Sierra Nevada, Venezuela
Feral
–
A feral horse (an American
mustang) in
Oregon, US
Feral
–
Soay sheep in
St Kilda,
Scotland
Feral
–
Alfalfa plants, Medicago sativa, colonize roadsides.
42.
Pig
–
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig and its ancestor, the common Eurasian wild boar, along with species, related creatures outside the genus include the peccary, the babirusa. Pigs, like all suids, are native to the Eurasian and African continents, juvenile pigs are known as piglets. Pigs are highly social and intelligent animals, with around 1 billion individuals alive at any time, the domesticated pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet. Pigs are omnivores and can consume a range of food. Pigs can harbour a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans, because of the similarities between pigs and humans, pigs are used for human medical research. The Online Etymology Dictionary provides anecdotal evidence as well as linguistic, saying that the term derives probably from Old English *picg, found in compounds, apparently related to Low German bigge, Dutch big. Another Old English word for pig was fearh, related to furh furrow, from PIE *perk- dig and this reflects a widespread IE tendency to name animals from typical attributes or activities. Synonyms grunter, porker are from sailors and fishermens euphemistic avoidance of uttering the word pig at sea, a superstition perhaps based on the fate of the Gadarene swine and it is entirely likely that the word to call pigs, soo-ie, is similarly derived. A typical pig has a head with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is an acute sense organ. There are four hoofed toes on each trotter, with the two larger central toes bearing most of the weight, but the two also being used in soft ground. The dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.33.1.4.3, the rear teeth are adapted for crushing. In the male, the teeth form tusks, which grow continuously and are sharpened by constantly being ground against each other. Occasionally, captive mother pigs may savage their own piglets, often if they become severely stressed, some attacks on newborn piglets are non-fatal. Others may cause the death of the piglets and sometimes, the mother may eat the piglets and it is estimated that 50% of piglet fatalities are due to the mother attacking, or unintentionally crushing, the newborn pre-weaned animals. Scientists have recently discovered that pigs can exhibit a bias and are optimists or pessimests. In a study by the University of Lincoln,36 pigs were tested and they were placed in a room with two food bowls at each end of the room
Pig
–
Pig
Pig
–
Domesticated pig
Pig
–
Pig in a bucket
Pig
–
A pig trained to find
truffles.
43.
Santa Cruz sheep
–
Santa Cruz sheep are an extremely rare breed of domestic sheep that once existed as a feral population on the Santa Cruz Island of the Channel Islands of California. Small and hardy, the sheep were all killed or removed from the island to prevent destruction of natural habitats, today, they number fewer than 200 animals. This breed is raised for wool. In the mid-19th century, sheep that were most likely of the Merino, Rambouillet, by the 1860s thousands of sheep grazed freely on the island. Throughout the 20th century, ranching declined on the island and most of the sheep became feral, in 1978, The Nature Conservancy gained control of the island, sheep numbers around this time were estimated to be over 20,000. Later, the Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service began to kill or remove all remaining in order to prevent overgrazing of the islands vegetation. Today, the breed has fewer than 200 animals remaining, and is considered critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, a small population of the sheep exists on the mainland, and were largely placed through adoption. Like many breeds of sheep, Santa Cruz sheep are relatively small and extremely hardy, they are good foragers. However, because of the breeds that they are derived from. Their fleeces are mostly white, but some colored sheep are known among the breed, hog Island sheep Santa Cruz sheep at the SVF Foundation website
Santa Cruz sheep
–
Santa Cruz sheep at the
Roger Williams Park Zoo
44.
Island scrub-jay
–
The island scrub jay also island jay or Santa Cruz jay is a bird in the scrub jay genus, Aphelocoma, which is endemic to Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Southern California. Of the over 500 breeding bird species in the continental U. S. and Canada, the large bill size is related to its diet, incorporating the thick-shelled acorns of the island oak. They will bury, or cache, the acorns in the fall and they also eat insects, spiders, snakes, lizards, mice and other birds eggs and nestlings. This bird is a member of the family, and is one of a group of closely related North American species named as scrub jays. The relationships within the genus are not fully resolved, and most taxonomists already split it into Californian scrub jay, A. californica, and Woodhouses scrub jay, A. woodhouseii. The DNA studies also indicate that the island and coastal forms have long been isolated from their relatives inland, the scrub jays seem to be incapable of crossing significant bodies of water. Reliable historical observer records for ISSJ in addition to Santa Cruz Island include only a single 1892 account on neighboring Santa Rosa Island, only about 10 km away. There are no definite occurrences of a scrub jay on any other of the Channel Islands, or on the Coronado Islands, the historic observation on Santa Rosa Island is supported by an archaeological record of a single ISSJ femur from a Late Pleistocene-Holocene site. The island scrub jay is found only on Santa Cruz Island, the island is a nature reserve, the eastern 24% being administered by National Park Service as the part of the Channel Islands National Park and the rest of the island by the Nature Conservancy. The island scrub jay is not known to have occurred anywhere besides Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands historically and these jays are monogamous and, unlike some other jays, are not cooperative breeders. Both sexes build a nest 1 m to 8 m above the ground, the genus name, Aphelocoma, comes from the Latinized Ancient Greek apheles- simple + Latin coma hair, in reference to the lack of striped or banded feathers in this genus, compared to other jays. The species name, insularis, comes from the Latin for from an island, corvids are especially vulnerable to WNV. In addition, the occurrence of wildfires in southern California may portend a catastrophic fire there. Shrub cover has increased since the removal of Santa Cruz sheep and feral pigs from Santa Cruz Island, active conservation is limited to controlling the numbers of introduced sheep and pigs, which have caused habitat degradation in the past. In fact, overgrazing by non-native ungulates may have caused extirpation of ISSJ on Santa Rosa Island, human activities may have contributed to the presumed extinction of the island scrub jay from the smaller islands. Island scrub jay – Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center Audubon WatchList, Island scrub jay
Island scrub-jay
–
Island scrub jay
45.
Boechera hoffmannii
–
Boechera hoffmannii is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Hoffmanns rockcress. It is endemic to the Channel Islands of California, where it is known from three or four populations on two of the eight islands. A2005 report estimated a global population of 244 individual plants. It is a listed endangered species. This is a perennial herb producing one or more stems from a scaly. The stems reach a height between 50 and 70 centimeters and branch near the top. Leaves are densely clustered around the caudex in a basal rosette and they are lance-shaped, leathery with hairy undersides, and up to 10 centimeters long. There are more widely spaced leaves along the stem which are 3 to 6 centimeters long, the inflorescence bears many white or purple flowers with thick, dark sepals. The fruit is a tough, hairless silique up to 10 centimeters long containing 2 rows of seeds, the main threats to the existence of this rare plant are grazing and erosion caused by feral pigs and competition by invasive grasses. The populations of this plant are also slow to reproduce and they are monocarpic, with each individual living for a few years, fruiting once, and then dying, and each population has relatively few actively reproducing individuals in any given year. Jepson Manual Treatment USDA Plants Profile Photo gallery
Boechera hoffmannii
–
Boechera hoffmannii
46.
Arctostaphylos insularis
–
Arctostaphylos insularis is a species of manzanita known by the common name island manzanita. It is endemic to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, Arctostaphylos insularis is a large, spreading shrub reaching over two meters tall and known to exceed five meters in height. It has waxy, reddish bark and the smaller twigs sometimes have bristly glandular hairs, the leaves are shiny green and smooth, generally oval in shape and slightly convex, and up to about 4.5 centimeters long. The shrub blooms in many dense clustered inflorescences of urn-shaped flowers, the fruit is an orange-brown drupe up to 1.5 centimeters wide. Arctostaphylos insularis grows in the chaparral, oak woodland, and coastal pine forest habitat of its native island, California chaparral and woodlands California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion Arctostaphylos insularis
Arctostaphylos insularis
–
Arctostaphylos insularis
47.
Arctostaphylos viridissima
–
Arctostaphylos viridissima is a species of manzanita known by the common names whitehair manzanita and McMinns manzanita. It is endemic to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, Arctostaphylos viridissima is a shrub varying in shape and size. It may be a matted bush one metre tall to a treelike form over 4 metres in height. Its stem and branches are covered in peeling red bark and its twigs are woolly. The leaves are oval in shape, fuzzy when new and green and shiny when mature, the inflorescence is a dense cluster of urn-shaped manzanita flowers. The fruit is a fuzzy drupe just over a centimeter wide, jepson Manual Treatment of Arctostaphylos viridissima USDA Plants Profile Arctostaphylos viridissima — UC Photo gallery
Arctostaphylos viridissima
–
Arctostaphylos viridissima - at UC Botanical Garden.
48.
Endemism
–
The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species that is endemic is precinctive, the word endemic is from New Latin endēmicus, from Greek ενδήμος, endēmos, native. Endēmos is formed of en meaning in, and dēmos meaning the people, the term, precinctive, has been suggested by some scientists, and was first used in botany by MacCaughey in 1917. It is the equivalent of endemism, precinction was perhaps first used by Frank and McCoy. That definition excludes artificial confinement of examples by humans in far-off botanical gardens or zoological parks, physical, climatic, and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The orange-breasted sunbird is found in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa. The glacier bear is found only in limited places in Southeast Alaska, political factors can play a part if a species is protected, or actively hunted, in one jurisdiction but not another. There are two subcategories of endemism, paleoendemism and neoendemism, paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization. Endemics can easily become endangered or extinct if their restricted habitat changes, particularly—but not only—due to human actions, there were millions of both Bermuda petrels and Bermuda cedars in Bermuda when it was settled at the start of the seventeenth century. By the end of the century, the petrels were thought extinct, cedars, already ravaged by centuries of shipbuilding, were driven nearly to extinction in the twentieth century by the introduction of a parasite. Bermuda petrels and cedars are now rare, as are species endemic to Bermuda
Endemism
–
The
orange-breasted sunbird (Nectarinia violacea) is exclusively found in
fynbos vegetation.
49.
Chaparral
–
Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U. S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. Chaparral covers 5 percent of the state of California, and associated Mediterranean shrubland an additional 3.5 percent, the name comes from the Spanish word for scrub oak, chaparro. In its natural state, chaparral is characterized by infrequent fires, mature chaparral is characterized by nearly impenetrable, dense thickets. They grow as woody shrubs with hard and small leaves, are non-leaf-dropping, after the first rains following a fire, the landscape is dominated by soft-leaved non-woody annual plants, known as fire followers, which die back with the summer dry period. According to the California Academy of Sciences, Mediterranean shrubland contains more than 20 percent of the plant diversity. The word chaparral is a word from Spanish chaparro, meaning both small and dwarf evergreen oak, which itself comes from the Basque word txapar, with exactly the same meaning. In Central and Southern California chaparral forms a dominant habitat, the following is a short list of birds which are an integral part of the cismontane chaparral ecosystems. Transmontane chaparral features xeric desert climate, not Mediterranean climate habitats, Desert chaparral is a regional ecosystem subset of the deserts and xeric shrublands biome, with some plant species from the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. Unlike cismontane chaparral, which forms dense, impenetrable stands of plants, desert chaparral is open, individual shrubs can reach up to 10 feet in height. Transmontane chaparral or desert chaparral is found on the slopes of major mountain range systems on the western sides of the deserts of California. It is distinguished from the cismontane chaparral found on the side of the mountains. Naturally, desert chaparral experiences less rainfall than cismontane chaparral. Plants in this community are characterized by small, hard evergreen leaves, Desert chaparral grows above Californias desert cactus scrub plant community and below the pinyon-juniper woodland. It is further distinguished from the deciduous sub-alpine scrub above the pinyon-juniper woodlands on the side of the Peninsular ranges. Transmontane chaparral typically grows on the northern slopes of the southern Transverse Ranges. It can also be found in higher-elevation sky islands in the interior of the deserts, there is overlap of animals with those of the adjacent desert and pinyon-juniper communities. Canis latrans, coyotes Lynx rufus, bobcats Neotoma sp, the Chaparral area receives about 38–100 cm of precipitation a year. This makes the chaparral most vulnerable to fire in the late summer, the chaparral ecosystem as a whole is adapted to be able to recover from infrequent wildfires, indeed, chaparral regions are known culturally and historically for their impressive fires
Chaparral
–
Chaparral, Santa Ynez Mountains, near Santa Barbara, California
Chaparral
–
Southern coastal scrub in the
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
Chaparral
–
View from the
Laguna Mountains, chaparral in the foreground
50.
Bishop pine
–
The bishop pine, Pinus muricata, is a pine with a very restricted range, mostly in California, including several offshore Channel Islands, and a few locations in Baja California, Mexico. It is always on or near the coast, in San Luis Obispo County it is found alone or in stands scattered on the coastal mountains and hills from Morro Bay to Shell Beach. A few stands of the tree are seen on the hills above the Sycamore Canyon Resort in Avila Beach, within the City of San Luis Obispo, the Terrace Hill Open Space has several scattered specimens. Bishop pine seems to prefer already disturbed, unvegetated areas where it faces less competition from oaks. The common name bishop pine resulted from the tree having been first identified near the Mission of San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo and this tree has a large number of common names and other prior scientific names, due primarily to numerous variant forms. Other English names that have occasionally been used are, prickle cone pine, Obispo pine, Santa Cruz pine and dwarf marine pine. Pinus muricata is a evergreen tree growing to a height of 15–25 m, rarely up to 34 m. The species is smaller, stunted and twisted in coastal exposures. It is drought-tolerant and grows on dry, rocky soil, the needles are in pairs, green to blue-green, and 8–16 cm long. Cones occur in one to five clusters, the cones remain unopened for many years until fire or strong heat causes them to open and release the seeds. There are two Pinus muricata forms, a form with bright green needles a northern form with dark blue-green needles. The dividing line between the two is very sharp, five miles south of the boundary between Mendocino County and Sonoma County, California, bishop pine is found with several oak and cypress associates within the California Coast Ranges. There are also a number of common understory flora associates including Sword Fern, salal and it is classified an endangered species in Mexico. Pinus muricata has been used in plantations with resultant growth rates higher than in the wild and this plant has ornamental value, and is cultivated in parks and gardens. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. International Union for Conservation of Nature, sudworth Forest Trees of the Pacific Coast published by U. S. Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service, p65 The Gymnosperm Database Calflora
Bishop pine
–
Pinus muricata Bishop pine
Bishop pine
–
Growing tip of Bishop Pine, showing male cones and the long paired needles
Bishop pine
–
Growth habit
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service.
