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Adopt a Species or a Habitat At-a-Glance
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| Brief Summary:
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Ways you can help protect species, or preserve natural habitats.
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| Audience:
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Ages 5-7 Ages 8-10 Ages 11-13 Ages 14-17 (High School) Ages 18-21 (College) Family/Community
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| Facility:
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Community Center Hillel Outdoors (Camp) Outdoors (Park/Wilderness) Outdoors (Urban/Suburban) Religious/Day School Synagogue Other
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| Program Type:
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Community Service Educational Program Sermon/Reading/Discussion
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| Issues:
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Shmittah/Land Use/Agriculture Tikkun Olam/Stewardship/Values and Ethics Tzaar Baalei Chayim/Biodiversity/Endangered Species
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Description
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Adopt a Species:
One way in which you can help protect species is to support organizations which have "adoption" programs to protect endangered and threatened species in their habitats.
Adopting a species or habitat can be done by: classes, youth groups, bar/bat mitzvah students, social action committees, whole synagogues, or whole schools.
Your group can research which adoption would suit their community better, and how they may go about the adoption process.
The specific Judaic aspects that can be concentrated on are: Tikkun Olam - repairing the world.
Shmitta - Land Use.
Tzaar Baalei Chayim- Endangered Species.
On a simplistic level the concept of adoption or land or species can be related back to Judaics.
On a more complicated level the educator could prepare specific Talmudic sources to back up this concept.
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Benchmarks
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Questions educators should be addressing are:
How do the issues of endangered species and habitats relate back to us as individuals?
Misuse of land and resources, extinction of species and habitats will have a definite impact on our lives.
What are possible impacts on us?
How do we make a difference?
How is adopting a species of a habitat going to make a difference?
Where in the Torah do we see the people making concerted efforts to take care of their land? (Shmitta -letting the land rest on the 7th year)
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Resources
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Adopt a Species:
Adopt-a-Bison program reintroduces this threatened species in the Nature Conservance's Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoman: 1-800-628-6860
Sponsor an Animal - such as the dolphin, wolf, grizzly bear, manatee, or wildcat through the National Wildlife Federation. Inquire about additional animals available for sponsorship- 1-800-477-5560
Check with your local zoo about adoption programs as well.
Adopt a Habitat:
Adopt-an-Acre of the Nature Conservancy to help save tropical rainforests in Latin America and the Caribbean- 1-800-84-ADOPT.
Rescue the Reef of the Nature Conservancy helps protect reefs in the Florida Keys, Dominican Republic, and Palau 1-800-84-ADOPT.
Protect-an-Acre of the Rainforest Action Network provides funding to forest peoples who live sustainable in the rainforest- 415-398-4404
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Preparation Time
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Depending on what you want to achieve with this program, I would dedicate a good hour or prep time. Think carefully what your objectives are for your students, community, and follow up.
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Activity Time
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This can be an ongoing project.
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Attached Files
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Comments
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