Rattlesnakes may be poisonous, but they don't want to bite anything bigger than they can swallow.

 

This year, higher number of rattlesnakes means higher chance of finding one on your property. Leaping Lizard Rescue is a non profit organization that rescues animals using humane tactics. Hear Barbie Hoffman describe her approach below:

 

 

Listen below to hear Barbie Hoffman describe the largest rattlesnake she's had to deal with.

 

 

 

To visit the Leaping Lizard Rescue website, and see  a list of Do's and Don'ts on handling Rattlesnakes, click here.

The California Department of Fish and Game also has some advice pertaining to rattlesnakes here .

Leaping Lizard Rescue Center will also be part of the Tolay Fall Festival at the new county park above Lakeville Highway, where they will host the Creepy Crawly Critter Room. Find event details here .

 

 

 

The most critical natural resource on the planet is at risk, but its not one we’re accustomed to thinking of as endangered.

 

Dr. Vandana Shiva is the founder of Navdanya International , an India-based science and policy research center. Its mission: "To protect nature and people's rights to knowledge, biodiversity, water and food."

 

Dr. Shiva notes that pesticide use contributes to the "desertification" of soils, a process that is accelerated when the soil is poor to begin with.

One little-known consequence of the widespread adoption of genetically modified cotton seed by farmers in India has been a surge in suicides by debt-ridden farmers whose crops do not earn enough to pay their seed bills. Dr. Shiva says that a generation ago, suicide was rare in India, but the numbers now suggest there is a new death approximately every 20 mintes.

On August 27^th, the Jackson Theater at Sonoma Country Day School in Santa Rosa will host an evening with Dr. Shiva, advocate and author as well as winner of the alternative Nobel Peace Prize. For more information about the speaking event, click here . KRCB will also record her presentation for later broadcast next month.

 

There’s more economic benefit to letting scuba divers see live sharks swimming off the California coast than there is in fishing for them.

  
Click here to read a summary of the new study Sea The Value:  Quantifying the Value of Marine Life to Divers. 

           

 

 

 

Palm Oil

First the ethanol boom created a surge in corn prices; now bio-diesel made from palm oil is threatening tropical rain forests.

 

 

 

 

 

To view a continually growing list of products that use palm oil, click here.

To see the website for the Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign, click here.