Introduction of group will be as follows:

Donna- I'm Dennis's wife, mother to Jennifer & Brent, and first time visitor to Minnesota & the Amazon

Our group felt that possible themes surrounding the Amazon could be:

River Systems, Diversity, Environmental Issues, Watershed, Culture

I'd like to introduce you to Pat's daughter, Richard's partner, and newest friend to an Airborne Ranger to give you some ideas for River Systems (Kathy)

Amazonia can be studied by the dominant water colours:

white water falls from the western skies in the form of snow and rain
black water flows from the North Rio Negro and is darkened by vegetation
blue water flows from the south, filtered by the white sand of the central Brazilian highlands
brown water of the Amazon mainstream is coloured by suspended, eroded sediment

the assigned colours furnish a way of sorting out the mountains and plains, forests and savannas, tributaaries and mainstreams- as well as the life forms that live in the basin of the rivers Amazon.


Next we have Marcella's daughter, Eric's wife and Ann's partner to present
Diversity (Diane)

The Amazon River has been described as a place where almost anything can live and almost everything does. The diversity ranges include:
2 million kinds of insects
2600 types of birds
2000 species of fish
1300 species of plants, of which only 1% has been studied
600 different mammals
200 cultures

To present Environmental Issues ideas we have Carol's husband, Steve's roomate and Kathy's partner (Richard)

There are many issues to choose from:
Reforestation- resources- focus on causes- immigration from cities
-demand for wood from outside
-plantations & cattle ranches

-focus on effects- land devastation, river destruction
due to run off & erosion
-loss of resources for medicine (50%
have origins in rain forest
-loss of gene pool for plants
Compare to deforestation in the Pacific Northwest
Climatic changes
Economic issues

Moving on to Watershed ideas we'll hear from Thairn & David's mother, John's wife and Donna's traveling partner (Shirley)

Start with a local river to talk about streams that flow into it
Deal with the Hudson's Bay watershed
Amazon- start at the headwaters, talk about elevation and influence of the Amazon when it hits the ocean
compare to the Okavango Delta

Last but not least, here is Urla's daughter, Gary's wife and Diane's partner to give you some ideas on Culture (Ann)

speaking a person's name directly calls on evil spirits- thus the intros
research the different cultures- there are over 200 of them
not many Indians- no more than 3 million at any time- violent, head hunters etc.


Resources

Books: Amazonia by Loren McIntyre
The Amazon-The World's Wild Places by Time/Life books
Amazon Basin, Vanishing Cultures by Jan Reynolds
Other Printed materials: National Geographic, May 1984
" January 1983
Geo Guide lesson plans
The Urban Outback-Wetlands for Wildlife/Toronto
Zoo
Patterns In Physical Geography-Gr.9
River System- Sudbury Board of Education
Inernet : Amazon:South America's River Road
Geographic on Tour
Amazon:Divergent Evolution and Divergent Views
Monitoring Secondary Succession and Land-use Change in
Amazonia
Adventure in the Amazon Rain Forest