Environmental Defense Supports New Book By Award-Winning Species Photographers

Environmental Defense is pleased to announce the publication this month of Remains Of A Rainbow: Rare Plants And Animals Of Hawai`i, published by the National Geographic Society in association with Environmental Defense. The book features portraits of some of the rarest creatures on Earth by award-winning photographers David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton, who have studied with famed photographer Richard Avedon and now photograph imperiled species to help save them.

Sadly, Hawai`i is the epicenter of the biodiversity crisis in the U.S. More plants and animals there are threatened with extinction than anywhere else. Environmental Defense has supported Susan and David’s work on Remains of a Rainbow because we believe giving a “face” to these rare and faraway creatures is critical to saving them. Without caring intervention from humans, these species will disappear — a few already have. The stunning photographs of Susan and David reveal the unique personality of each plant and animal, helping people get to know them and recognize the importance of protecting them.

Environmental Defense works in close partnership with Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, Hawai`i’s fishermen, and environmentalists to protect endangered species in the vast and remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a pristine network of largely uninhabited shoals and atolls reaching 1,200 miles from the main islands and comprising 70% of the coral reefs under U.S. jurisdiction. The 84 million acre Northwest Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve is the last safe haven for endangered monk seals, sea turtles, and over 14 million sea birds. The Reserve — designed to protect the reef ecosystem and the small existing fishery — is an essential spawning ground for the marine life on which the state’s $700 million marine tourism industry depends.

Environmental Defense has also worked to develop cutting-edge solutions for protecting threatened plants and animals throughout the United States, including Safe Harbor agreements that encourage private landowners to protect endangered species without fear of new regulations and red tape. Landowner incentives to protect endangered species are critical in Hawai`i, where the vast majority of the land is privately owned. The endangered Hawaiian nene goose, Hawai`i’s state bird, is being reintroduced this year on private ranchland in Moloka`i under such an agreement. In fact, Hawai`i has proposed more Safe Harbor agreements than any other state.

Susan and David faced personal peril in Hawai`i to bring the wonders of these creatures to light. They balanced on a razorback ridge in a rainstorm in one case to photograph a newly discovered, very rare plant, the Cyrtandra paliku, and in the process helped discover a beautiful flightless cricket not yet known to science.

Find out more about their adventures and the work of Environmental Defense to protect these plants and animals by calling Allison Cobb in the press office of Environmental Defense at 212 505-2100 to arrange interviews and get photo permissions. Selected photos and more information can be found at www.environmentaldefense.org.