Newsgroups: bit.listserv.biosph-l
Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 1992 20:32:22 EDT
Reply-To:     "Norman C. Saunders" <NYS@NIHCU.BITNET>
From:         "Norman C. Saunders" <NYS@NIHCU.BITNET>
Subject:      FWS, USGS Release Poster On Wetlands

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Geological Survey

For Release: September 29, 1992

Trudy Harlow  703-648-4460
Megan Durham  202-208-4131


                Interior Department Launches New Poster
                    To Teach Students About Wetlands


     The Interior  Department's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and
U.S. Geological  Survey (USGS) today announced publication of a new wet-
lands educational  poster to  aid teachers  of science and environmental
topics.

     The poster,  "Wetlands: Water, Wildlife, Plants and People," offers
fun classroom activities for elementary and middle schools to help chil-
dren learn  about the many values of wetlands.  The poster is a coopera-
tive venture  by FWS,  USGS, the  Army Corps  of Engineers, the National
Science Teachers  Association, and the American Water Resources Associa-
tion.

     "We want  to help  teachers show  kids why we need to conserve wet-
lands," said  John Turner,  director of  the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice.  "The future of our remaining wetlands depends on our children."

     "Wetlands represent  complicated crossroads  on the  land surface,"
said USGS Director Dallas Peck, "where biologic, hydrologic, and manmade
forces meet  and mingle.   This  poster provides  a good tool for under-
standing both  the complications and the need to protect the wetland en-
vironment."

     The poster shows various kinds of wetlands and how people use them.
The back  of the poster explains wetland types, defines important terms,
and suggests  activities teachers  can use  to help students learn about
wetlands.   The poster  is available in three versions, including two in
color: elementary level (kindergarten through grade 5) and middle school
(grades 6  through 8).   A  black and  white version with no text on the
back is also available for younger children to color.

     The wetlands  poster is  being distributed  to approximately 50,000
science teachers  through "Science  Scope" and  "Science and  Children,"
publications of  the National  Science Teachers  Association.   An addi-
tional 200,000  copies of  the poster  will be  distributed to educators
through other channels.

     Wetlands--which include  swamps, marshes, bogs, potholes, and other
permanently or seasonally flooded areas--provide vital wildlife habitat,
help control floods, and improve water quality.

     "Wetlands" is  the third  in a  series of nine posters on water re-
sources education,  initiated in  response to President Bush's Education
2000 challenge.   "Wetlands" can be attached to the first two posters to
create a  mural.   The other two posters are called "Water, the Resource
that Gets Used and Used and Used for Everything," and "Wastewater Treat-
ment."   They were produced by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation
with the  Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency, American Water Resources Association, and
the National Science Teachers Association.

     Copies of "Wetlands" can be obtained from:  U.S. Geological Survey,
Branch of  Distribution, Box  25286, Denver  Federal Center,  Denver, CO
80225, or  from the  U.S. Fish  and Wildlife Service, Publications Unit,
4401 North  Fairfax Drive,  MS 130, Arlington, VA  22203.  Copies of the
first two  posters in  the series are available  from the American Water
Resources Association,  5410 Grosvenor  Lane, Suite  220,  Bethesda,  MD
20814-2192, and  the National  Science Teachers  Association, 1742  Con-
necticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC  20009.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU