New Wildlife Book
Explore the Relationship Between Wildlife and Private Forestlands
California features amazingly diverse wildlife populations, but how do animals choose where to live? Throughout history, events like fire, landslides, earthquakes, windstorms, volcanic eruptions, climate changes and disease have led to dramatic changes in the forest landscape and profoundly affected wildlife. For at least 10,000 years, Native Americans have managed the land to provide hunting grounds, shelter and grow grasses for basket making. These events shaped both forests and forest wildlife, and created a mosaic of forest conditions on the landscape with patches of dense trees, sunlit openings and trees of all sizes and ages. Wildlife has constantly adapted to change and animal populations develop where the habitat best suited their needs.
This book is intended as a general guide to the types of animals found in our private forests. It can serve as a starting point for lessons plans about wildlife, biodiversity, ecosystems, and change in relation to today's sustainable forest management.
Do you have ideas for using this resource in a classroom or informal educational setting? Contact us for information on having your ideas posted to the website.