DID YOU KNOW that North Carolina has thosands and thousands of species of flora (plant life) and fauna (animal life)? But sadly we are losing more and more species every day. If you combined all the wildlife species in England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands they would not equal what the STATE of North Carolina has. When most people hear about species going extinct they think of the vast rain forest of South America and Africa. But we are on the verge of a mass extinction right here at home. So what if we lose a species here and there you ask? Well everytime we lose a species you come that much more closer to extinction yourself! Look at it this way. Remember when you were a child; you used to use cards and dominoes to build houses with. Once they were built you might then try to remove a card or domino without knocking your house down. After removing one if the house did not fall you would try to remove another. Each time you removed a card or domino the house would become a little more unstable, until the whole thing finaly collasped. Well guess what? Our natural environment is the same way. Each time a species is lost due to extinction the environment becomes a little less stable. One day the whole echosystem may come collasping down around us. Right now we still have time to avoid this. But everyone must do their part to help nature. Like it or not we are a part of nature and almost everything we do affects nature. We have to do things like curb population growth. The United States cannot support the number of people living here over the long haul. We can voluntarily curb population growth or mother nature will do it for us. And I assure you mother nature will not be kind when she does it.

The beaver is a good example; it was almost extinct in North Carolina until just a few years ago. But it was reintroduced sucessfully. Beaver dams like the one shown below can be found all over North Carolina now.



Did you know that North Carolina has one of the highest concertration of species of mushrooms found anywhere on earth?


THIS MUSHROOM IS OVER 8 INCHES IN DIAMETER!


THIS MUSHROOM IS THE SIZE OF A DINNER PLATE, THE DARK OBJECT IN THE LOWER LEFT CORNER OF THE PICTURE IS A SIZE 9 SHOE!


THE STAR MUSHROOM IS FARILY COMMON IN HALIFAX AND NORTHAMPTON COUNTY


THE STALKED PUFFBALL CAN BE FOUND IN HALIFAX COUNTY




















































All of the pictures of mushrooms were taken by Rufus Johnson in the Roanoke valley area.
NOTE: The information cited about species diversity in North Carolina is from WILDLIFE IN NORTH CAROLINA Magazine. If you want to know more about nature in North Carolina this magazine is a very good source.



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