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January, 1999

albrightseed.com Wins Learning Award
The Albright Seed Company web site—http://www. albrightseed.com—was recently given the Learning Fountain award. The award is presented to interesting and informative web sites. albrightseed.com is cited as a "Learning Fountain" for its many fascinating articles.

And They Make a Great Cheese
Laguna Beach, California is employing a herd of goats to help prevent wildfires like the ones that did tremendous damage to the area in 1993. The animals eat the grass and brush that fuel the devastating fires that frequently strike Southern California. The Laguna Beach goats have proven more effective than machinery and hand crews at removing the flammable vegetation. Los Angeles County firefighters are taking steps to follow suit with their own goat herds.

Some Need Fire
Mountain whitethorn is a favorite food for deer but mature plants do not provide the same level of protein as younger plants. The plants require periodic fire to release dormant seeds before germination can take place. The U. S. Forest Service is conducting controlled burns in northern Ventura County on and near Mount Pinos to stimulate new plant growth and benefit the deer in the area.

But Can it Find Nuggets?
The journal, Nature, reports that scientists in New Zealand have found a plant that will mine gold from soil. Potherb mustard (Brassea juncea), which is used as a cooking green in Japan, has been found to have the ability to absorb gold through its roots as it does water and nutrients. After the plant's leaves are dried and ground up, each gram of the plant yields 57 millionths of a gram of gold.

Call the Bomb Squad
Mix a caterpillar and a wasp and what do you get? A time bomb! Scientists have found that injecting wasp eggs into the looper caterpillar causes the caterpillar to treat the wasp larvae as though it is its own progeny. The caterpillar increases its feeding to support the growing wasps inside it. Eventually, the wasps kill and eat the looper before metamorphosis. To what purpose? The caterpillars are proposed for use in eradication of kudzu—an invasive exotic vine from China, and a favorite food of the looper—that is taking over the southern United States. The supercharged caterpillars will eat kudzu at twice their normal rate.

Wind Spinners
The benefits of wind-driven electric generation are undeniable, using wind—an inexhaustible, nonpolluting resource. So what is the problem? Some wind farms reportedly contribute to the deaths of some endangered birds—including golden eagles—that are electrocuted or battered by the spinning blades. A new bird-friendly design for the windmills raises the blades above normal flight paths and turns the enlarged blades slower to make them more visible to birds.

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