East Detroit High School East Detroit, Michigan 48021 ... if the Coto Donana of Spain and its lakes are not protected, within a few years, Denmark will have no ducks... This concern was expressed to hunting clubs in Denmark by a group of Spanish conservationists in the early 1960s. Similar pleas were made in many countries to raise money to help purchase and preserve a biologically active wetland in southwestern Spain-a 100,000-acre wetland on the Atlantic coast that includes a marsh, numerous

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... onds, the Guadalquivir River, a sand dune, and some scrub forest. The recent efforts of Valverde, a Spanish ornithologist, and Mounfort, a British biologist, caused the Coto Donana to be recognized as an internationally important wetland that must be preserved to avoid an ecological disaster. Intensive, cooperative efforts of teams of biologists from around the world, the World Wildlife Fund, the Spanish government, European hunting clubs, and interested philanthropists led to the purchase and preservation of the Coto Donana. This area now has official national park status-half of it is sanctioned as an Integral Reserve, half is available to casual visitors. One of my goals as a science teacher is to instill into my students respect for ecologically sound principles of conservation. My recent visit to the Coto in Spain and my recording observations on 35mm slides helped me to achieve my goal. In this article, I will share some of my observations for the benefit of other teachers with a similar goal.