These are useful by me!,In the blog: stocks guide ..

understanding the stock market–: i need help understanding the stock market?
i keep hearing how the stock market droped this much or it goes up this much like yesterday when it fell 4oo points. what the heck does that mean?

The answer in the following: (Hint: The answer is not necessarily.)

Answer by Eva Longoria
dont knw

Answer by Glenn Mobley
Understand of stock market it is not very easy without experience it is not possible to know every thing.

Answer by Len
It refers to an index comprised of thirty stocks that represent significant industrial sectors within the American complex. A drop of 400 points means a sampling of equally weighted stocks within that indexed listing fell $ 400 in value. A point, represents one dollar. The amount isn’t nearly as meaningful as is the fact that the drop was so precipitous. In this instance, people were caught holding the proverbial bag, hurt and dismayed, frightened and seemingly abandoned, all of which adds up to one thing only: FEAR.

Major moves downward equate with fear. Fear in the investing collective mind equals the inability to effectively manage financial affairs. This is especially important for those witnessing the demise of their retirement programs…after all, when your 401-K or IRAs decline to terrible lows, what’s your next line of defense—working until you die with no hope for retirement?

Len

Answer by drmark27
An introductory book like _Stock Markets for Dummies_ is a good place to start. This will give you a basic explanation of most things there are to know about the mechanics of stock investing including useful websites to surf.

Investors Business Daily (IBD) is a solid daily resource (and its complement, www.investors.com ). It’s a better newspaper than the Wall Street Journal and it is built around a particular approach to trading. You could read _How to Make Money in Stocks_ by William O’Neil too–he’s the founder of IBD.

Search your local library for other books on stock investing. Try to absorb as much knowledge and understanding as you can.

After you have extensively researched and gained a solid foundation/education then look to open a brokerage account and paper trade–this is trading with play money before you put real capital at risk. You should do extensively before you eventually place your first trade live. Your early live trades should be with a very small position size. Only increase position size when you have done well to limit losses when the market has turned against you.

Answer by ag318pun
On a daily basis the stock market either goes up or down.
If you are invested in a single stock and it goes down, you
lose money. If it goes up your stock is now worth more.
In the past two weeks you would have suffered a big loss.

Give your answer to this question below!

by eyewashdesign: A. Golden

understanding the stock market

Question–: Can anyone provide reliable info about understanding the stock market?
I really don’t know much about it but really want to get started. I know it risky but I also know that some people are makin money!

The following is the answer: (Hint: The correct answer provided by the users, does not guarantee the right.)

Answer by Eddie W
Understanding the stock market? Who does? What do you want to know? You have to be specific.

Answer by Nick Mandeville
Hello Kevin, A short time ago I was in the same position asking the same question. In the months to follow I have leaned this is not a step by step process. I will give you some information that I hope will help but there is A LOT of learning to do. You will NEVER understand the stock market. I doubt there is one person on this earth that can truthfully say “I know everything there is to know”. The market is huge. To make money you can not invest all you money in one stock/part of the market. You must invest in many different parts of the market.Ex putting all you money on Apple (AAPL), what happens when apple goes down the drain you loose all you money. That’s not to say you should invest in Apple(APPL), Google(GOOG), and Yahoo(YHOO) because those companies get affected in similar ways what the economy goes up and down (from my understanding). You would have to invest in many different sections. Ex, Comedies, Energy, Company’s. DO NOT WATCH THE CHARTS AND THINK BECAUSE THE STOCK PRICE IS GOING UP ITS A GOOD BUY. You have to understand financial statements and be able to compare these statement from year to year and see what company’s are doing with there money, where that money is going, how much debt the company has etc. A little research goes along way. Never invest your money without researching the company, there financial history, there plans for the future, even the CEO (You never know who has been involved in scams befor). I could go on forever with this but I will have to stop here as there is just too much. Some of my tips are research research research, don’t put all your chips in one pile, and don’t get greedy. The most important this out of any of my message is research the company. Also choose stocks you are interested in and watch them for a while befor buying seeing how the economy affects their price, how reports affect there price and what not. I know this was not the answer you were looking for but investing is not a one step process it is a lot of hard work and dedication. And don’t get sucked in by penny stocks as they are very risky and a good portion of them are scams. FOR EVER STOCK THERE HAS TO BE A BUYER AND A SELLER NO IF ANDS OR BUT, THERE IS NOT A MAGICAL POOL THAT THE MONEY SITS IN, WHEN YOU WANT TO SELL A STOCK THERE HAS TO BE SOMEONE TO BUY IT. Please educate yourself befor throwing your hard earned money away.

Answer by Raysor
Work out methodically what you think you should do. Then do the opposite.

Answer by agreeableone
Invest only after studying investment and personal finance. You do need to invest wisely in the stock market to even make a decent living throughout your life and leave some to others. I like books by Jim Cramer and Rick Edelman, for example. There are many others. Check in with a reference librarian at your public library for more.

Answer by M
The best place to get started is at a bookstore or a local library. Look for a beginners guide to stock investing or something to that extent. Not all beginner books are going to be great, but there should be enough decent information to get started.

After that, consider opening a practice trading account at a site like howthemarketworks.com. this will allow you to use fake money to practice investing in real stocks. Get familiar with reading stock quotes, get a broad understanding of all of the companies out there (there are about 8000 total). Understand all of the different industries.

Keep on reading as you go. Some really good books on investing include “the intelligent investor” by ben graham and “one up on wall street” by peter lynch. You may want to read these after you have gotten through some introductory reading and have practiced with a fake account for a while.

It takes a while to learn how the stock market works. Many people dedicate their lives to the profession, obtain a college degree in finance or economics, and go on to manage money professionally. However you don’t have to do nearly this much work to have a basic understanding and learn how to invest for yourself. Long term investing is a great way to make lots of money. It takes patience, but it can pay off big time.

Answer by acmeraven
There is more information than you can imagine about the stock market; when you enter the qualifier “reliable” then all bets are off. I condensed years and years into a simple move; split my purchase evenly between BP and KRAFT; people are going to drive and eat; and both pay a dividend.

Answer by AMax256
I’d start off by understanding the value investing principals of Warren Buffett. nttp://www.bestbooksontrading.com/2011/08/new-buffettology-proven-techniques-for.html

The general rule is that the more reward you are looking at the more your potential reward. So those people that are making money in excess of the regular moves of the market are taking on commensurate risks.

Answer by Mr.2can
If an old dog like me could tell a young dog like you one thing it would be this:

There is NO easy money in life.

For every person making money, there’s someone losing money. For every guy who picks a winner, there’s someone picking a loser.

And this might sound melodramatic, but there were people who lost their homes and who even committed suicide during the crash of 2008.

I know when you are young ‘gambling’ seems like harmless fun and ‘investing’ almost seems like a mature thing to do. But let me tell you, it’s risky.

You’d be far better off just saving up and buying a house. At least you have something to show for your money. In stocks, you could lose most of your life savings in one day if the stocks you own crash.

Answer by Mary Smith
Investing some time in understanding the Stock Market can increase your odds of good results regardless in case you are making an investment on your company or your individual personal funds. It is an entity where Shares and securities are traded and one of the greatest sources for businesses to boost capital. This permits corporations to go public, or maybe raise more money for growth. Firms inventory certificates which legally symbolize your ownership of the company. Every certificate supplies a set quantity of shares. The liquidity which this change presents provides buyers the potential to easily and efficiently promote securities. Considered an appealing facet of shopping for and promoting stocks, when in comparison with different less liquid assets.

Once you purchase a stock of a corporation, you gain ownership a portion of it. The typical investor buys inventory wishing that the price of stocks are more likely to go up, in order that the shares could be offered with earnings. This will occur if extra traders need to purchase inventory on an organization relatively than prefer to sell. Investing within the stock market or buying and selling in it’s normally influenced by hypothesis, dependent upon firm reports as well as efficiency factors.

The stock market is risky. There’s no doubt about that. But you are right some people do well too. If you’re really serious about this I’d advise you to continue to do thorough research before playing this game.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
_______________________

The following not about understanding the stock market,But funny:Every man should marry. After all, happiness is not the only thing in life.A stitch in time saves nine. There are no accidents..To make something special, you just have to believe it’ s special。！Remind of festial: International Firefighters’ Day 4/5.

Refinement :

Reflection of Art : World : Sense – The Hague ( Den Haag ) – Netherlands – The Gemeentemuseum – Norm = Form – Enjoy!:)

Image by UggBoy♥UggGirl [ PHOTO // WORLD // TRAVEL ]
View THE REFLECTION OF ART On Black

ENJOY AND EXPLORE MORE! HAVE YOU REFLECTED ON SOMETHING NEW LATELY?

___________________

understanding the stock market|IDB Group Agrees To Sell 49.9% Stake In Clal Industries To Access Industries
Established in 1956 and listed on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1964, Clal Industries and Investments Ltd. (CII) is one of Israel's leading holding companies, focusing on investments in market leading companies in key industries.

Read more onIDB Group Agrees To Sell 49.9% Stake In Clal Industries To Access Industries

Welcome！,In the blog: stock market for beginners ..
The following are not relevant to the content of some understanding the stock market,But funny:A bird in the hand is worth than two in the bush.God made relatives; Thank God we can choose our friends. Choose an author as you choose a friend..Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.。！Remind of festial: International Friendship Day1/8.

Level 2 “L2″ market depth is essentially a more-detailed stock quote. It show each market maker on the BID & ASK side and can provide clues for day-traders, as to where a stock might be heading. I personally use Ameritrade APEX for L2 but there are many L2 providers out there. I hope that you enjoy this video! Feel free to check out my stock market video playlist on YouTube and my other YouTube videos also. Enjoy! IrixGuy Stock Market Video Playlist: www.youtube.com

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free to use nature photos

Image by Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden
free to use nature photo set
www.flickr.com/photos/joost-ijmuiden/sets/72157625967806982/
most photos made or scanned for wikimedia commons or wikipedia but anyone is free to use them

The work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

You are free:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

for attribution just mention Joost J. Bakker or link back

The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization working to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. However, the organization also promotes commercial development of its holdings; some of these developments have resulted in the destruction of endangered species habitat and violation of indigenous persons rights to live on their native lands.

Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy works in more than 30 countries, including all 50 of the United States, with an increasingly global reach. The Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 69,000 square kilometers (17 million acres) in the United States and more than 473,000 square kilometers (117 million acres) internationally. The organization’s assets total .64 billion as of 2009.

The Nature Conservancy rates as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancy’s fundraising efficiency at 88% in its 2005 survey of the largest U.S. charities.[10] The Conservancy received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2008 and was named by that organization in 2005 on their list of "10 of the Best Charities Everyone’s Heard Of." The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Conservancy an A- rating and includes it on its list of "Top-Rated Charities."

The Nature Conservancy is America’s third-largest nonprofit by assets, and America’s largest environmental nonprofit by assets and by revenue.

The Nature Conservancy is led by President and CEO Mark Tercek, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, and an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. The organization draws from all segments of the community. Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of coalition forces during the First Gulf War, was a member of the Conservancy’s President’s Conservation Council.
1915
The Ecological Society of America is formed. From its beginning, there is some disagreement about its mission: Should it exist only to support ecologists and publish research or should it also pursue an agenda to preserve natural areas?
1917
From the activist wing within the Ecological Society, the Committee for the Preservation of Natural Conditions, chaired by Victor Shelford, is created.
1926
The Committee publishes The Naturalist’s Guide to the Americas, an attempt to catalog all the known patches of relatively undisturbed nature left in North America and in parts of Latin America.
1946
The Committee reforms itself as the Ecologists’ Union, resolving to take “direct action” to save threatened natural areas.
1950
The Ecologists’ Union changes its name to The Nature Conservancy.
1951
The Nature Conservancy is incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the District of Columbia on October 22.
1954
The Nature Conservancy grants its first official chapter charter in Eastern New York, thereby launching the first in a network of chapters and field offices that grows to cover the entire United States. Later that year, the Conservancy acquires its first piece a property – the Arthur W. Butler Memorial Sanctuary. This donation started a suite of land acquisition projects. The organization still uses donated land as an important land conservation and fundraising tool.
1955
Land acquisition, a key protection tool for the Conservancy, continues with a 60-acre (240,000 m2) purchase along the Mianus River Gorge on the New York/Connecticut border. The Conservancy provides ,500 to finance the purchase, with the provision that the loan be repaid for use in other conservation efforts. The revolving loan fund that results — the Land Preservation Fund — is still the organization’s foremost conservation tool.
1961
The Nature Conservancy embarks on its first partnership with a public agency, the Bureau of Land Management, to help co-manage an important old-growth forest in California.
The Nature Conservancy receives its first donated conservation easement, on 6 acres (24,000 m2) of Bantam River salt marsh in Connecticut. The easement allows the landowner to retain title to the ecologically valuable property while giving the Conservancy the right to enforce restrictions on certain types of harmful activities.
1965
A gift from the Ford Foundation enables the Nature Conservancy to hire its first full-time, paid president, Tom Richards, a former IBM executive. Richards introduces management techniques from IBM.
1966
The Nature Conservancy purchases Mason Neck, Virginia, as part of a plan to later sell it to the federal government. It is the first such deal of this magnitude with the government — an arrangement that comes to be known as a government co-op. Pat Noonan is president.
1970
Robert E. Jenkins joins the Conservancy as Chief Scientist. He focuses TNC on the central mission of preserving biodiversity and leads the organization ultimately to create and foster, beginning in 1974, a 50-state biological inventory, introducing scientific rigor to land acquisition choices.
1972
The Nature Conservancy helps create the Golden Gate National Recreation Area – one of the most visited national parks in the United States. Huey Johnson – Western Director of the Conservancy – convinces the Gulf Oil Corporation to cancel a housing development project called Marincello and sell the land to the Nature Conservancy for .5 million. This key part of the Marin Headlands was then transferred to the GGNRA to help make up the national park surrounding the Golden Gate.
1974
The Natural Heritage Network is launched by the Science Division. The network ultimately comes to reside in and be supported by the governments of all 50 states, most of Canada, and a dozen other countries in the New World. The first state is South Carolina, the second Mississippi, the third, a few months later, Oregon. A core methodology is developed over the following decades based on strictly comparable "elements" of biodiversity, assessment of their status, and locating occurrences of those most imperiled. The methodology becomes the national standard and is adopted by numerous partner organizations, university researchers, and agencies of the federal government.
1980
The Nature Conservancy expands and relaunches its International Conservation Program, focused on Latin America, to identify two things: areas in need of protection and conservation organizations in need of technical and financial assistance. William D. Blair is president.
1988
With the purchase of 0,000 in Costa Rican debt, The Nature Conservancy completes its first “debt-for-nature” swap to support conservation in Braulio Carrillo National Park. The Conservancy signs a landmark agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to assist in managing 25 million acres (100,000 km²) of military land.
1989
With funding from the United States Congress, The Nature Conservancy launches the Parks in Peril program, designed to protect 50 million acres (200,000 km²) in Latin America and the Caribbean by helping local nonprofit and governmental organizations provide effective park stewardship. Frank Boren is president.
The Nature Conservancy purchases the 32,000 acre (130 km²) Barnard Ranch in Oklahoma’s Osage Hills and establishes the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Here, the Conservancy has undertaken its largest restoration effort to date, re-creating a fully functioning tallgrass prairie by reintroducing bison and fire to the ecosystem.
1990
A new office in Koror, Republic of Palau, represents The Nature Conservancy’s first expansion beyond the Western Hemisphere.
1991
The Nature Conservancy launches its Last Great Places: An Alliance for People and the Environment initiative, a multinational, 0 million effort to protect large-scale ecosystems by making people part of the solution. The initiative emphasizes core reserve areas surrounded by buffer zones, where appropriate human uses are encouraged. John Sawhill is president.
1994
The Nature Conservancy opens its first South American office, in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia.
1995
The Nature Conservancy adopts Conservation by Design, a cutting-edge ecoregional approach for setting conservation priorities and taking action. Drawing on the lessons learned through the Last Great Places initiative and guided by scientific data from the Natural Heritage Network, the Conservancy begins to employ this framework for identifying the suite of sites that must be protected to conserve the biological diversity of the Western Hemisphere.
1999
The Nature Conservancy’s membership surpasses 1 million.
2000
The Conservancy announces The Campaign for Conservation, an effort to raise billion to preserve 200 Last Great Places and complete a Conservation Blueprint identifying the places that must be conserved to ensure lasting protection of our natural heritage. The Campaign concluded at the end of 2003 after raising a total .4 billion.
The Conservancy spins off its 85-center Natural Heritage Network into a new independent organization, the Association for Biodiversity Information (later named NatureServe).
The Conservancy and the Association for Biodiversity Information publish Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States, the most comprehensive analysis to date of biodiversity in the United States. Precious Heritage warns that 1/3 of the plant and animal species found in the United States are in peril.
2001
Steve McCormick begins as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Nature Conservancy in February.
The Nature Conservancy turns 50. In celebration, 12 renowned photographers, including Annie Leibovitz and William Wegman, capture the rich and complex splendor of some of the Last Great Places in the Conservancy’s "In Response to Place" photography exhibit.
The Nature Conservancy acquires property for Oregon’s Zumwalt Prairie Preserve on the edge of Hell’s Canyon in Wallowa County. The Nature Conservancy’s 42-square-mile (110 km2) preserve includes extensive native bunchgrass prairie habitats and wooded canyons descending to the Imnaha River. Creeks on the preserve harbor spawning grounds for endangered Snake River steelhead and chinook salmon. Zumwalt Prairie is also renowned for its concentrations of breeding hawks and eagles and other wildlife.
2002
The Nature Conservancy signs an agreement in January to purchase about 97,000 acres (390 km²) of one of Colorado’s largest and most important natural areas – the Baca Ranch. The acquisition is the first of a complex series of transactions that by 2005 is expected to create the Great Sand Dunes National Park and a new Baca National Wildlife Refuge, as well as add land to the Rio Grande National Forest.
With a commitment of .1 million from The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund, the U.S. and Peruvian governments sign a historic agreement in June to protect 10 tropical rainforest areas covering more than 27.5 million acres (111,000 km²) within the Peruvian Amazon.
2003
Transforming a bankruptcy into a conservation opportunity, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund partnered with Chilean environmental organizations to protect the rare plants and wildlife on 147,500 acres (597 km2) of biologically rich temperate rainforest in the Valdivian Coastal Range in southern Chile.
The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service jointly purchased the 116,000 acre (469 km²) Kahuku Ranch in Hawaii for addition to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The purchase increases the size of the 217,000 acre (878 km²) park by fifty percent, and is the largest land conservation transaction in Hawaii’s history.
2004
After more than a decade of work to conserve the 151-square-mile (390 km2) Baca Ranch in Colorado, The Nature Conservancy completes the last of a complex set of real estate transactions, clearing the way for the protection of the ranch and the designation of the nation’s newest national park, the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
During a five-week expedition through Indonesia’s systems – limestone caves, cliffs and sinkholes – a team of international scientists led by The Nature Conservancy discover several new species, including a “monster” cockroach that is believed to be the largest known species of cockroach in the world.
2005
The Nature Conservancy, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and other partners announce that the ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to have gone extinct in 1946, had been rediscovered in the Big Woods of Arkansas.
2006
Through the Micronesia Challenge, five Micronesian governments commit to conserve 30 percent of nearshore marine resources and 20 percent of forest resources by 2020.
The Nature Conservancy launches its Africa program.
2007
The Conservancy protects 161,000 acres (650 km2) of forest in New York’s Adirondacks, the last big tract of privately owned timberland in the park. The transaction allows selective logging to continue for 20 years, helping to preserve 850 jobs at a local mill.
The Conservancy and Conservation International broker the largest ever debt-for-nature swap under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act. The forgiven debt provides million in conservation funding for Costa Rican tropical forests identified as conservation gaps by the Conservancy.
2008
Mark Tercek, former head of the Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets, begins as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Nature Conservancy in July.
The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land launch the Montana Legacy Project, a plan to purchase 320,000 acres (1,300 km2) of western Montana forestland owned by Plum Creek Timber with money from the Federal government. This region has sustained all of its species — including grizzlies, lynx, moose and bull trout — since Lewis and Clark.
Based in Bariloche, Rio Negro, Patagonia, Argentina, the first Argentinian office opens to protect the Patagonian Steppe’s grasslands.
2009
The Nature Conservancy announces a 10% reduction in staff due to the worsening economy, a drop in donations and other losses.
Approach

The Nature Conservancy takes a scientific approach to conservation, selecting the areas it seeks to preserve based on analysis of what is needed to ensure the preservation of the local plants, animals, and ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy is one of the world’s largest environmental organizations as measured by number of members and area protected. It is a nonprofit organization supported primarily by private donations.

The Nature Conservancy works with all sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, and government agencies to achieve its goals. The Nature Conservancy is known for working effectively and collaboratively with traditional land owners such as farmers and ranchers, with whom it partners when such a partnership provides an opportunity to advance mutual goals. The Nature Conservancy is in the forefront of private conservation groups implementing prescribed fire to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems and working to address the threats to biodiversity posed by non-native and invasive plants and animals.

The Nature Conservancy has pioneered new land preservation techniques such as the conservation easement and debt for nature swaps. A conservation easement is a way for land owners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the land’s potential development value. Debt for nature swaps are tools used to encourage natural area preservation in third world countries while assisting the country economically as well: in exchange for setting aside land, some of the country’s foreign debt is forgiven.

The Nature Conservancy’s expanding international conservation efforts include work in North America, Central America, and South America, Africa, the Pacific Rim, the Caribbean, and Asia. Increasingly, the Conservancy focuses on projects at significant scale, recognizing the threat habitat fragmentation brings to plants and animals. Below are a few examples of such work:

The Nature Conservancy was instrumental in the creation in 2004 of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. The Conservancy’s efforts in China’s Yunnan province, one of the most vital centers of plant diversity in the northern temperate hemisphere, serve as a model for locally based ecotourism with a global impact. The Nature Conservancy and its conservation partner, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, are working to halt deforestation on private lands in and around the 1.8 million acre (7,300 km²) Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, along the Mexico-Guatemala border. In November 2004, 370,000 acres (1,500 km²) of threated tropical forest in Calakmul were permanently protected under a historic land deal between the Mexican federal and state government, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, four local communities and the Conservancy.

The Nature Conservancy’s programs in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are working together to build partnerships and enhance the profile of the conservation needs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by supporting voluntary, private land conservation of important wildlife habitat. Conservation easements, land acquisition, stewardship agreements, grassbanks, prescribed fires and weed districts are a few of the tools the Conservancy and its partners use to protect this region’s natural heritage. The Nature Conservancy’s worldwide office is located in Arlington, Virginia.

The Conservancy was instrumental in the 2004 establishment of the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota. Glacial Ridge is reputed to be the largest tallgrass prairie and wetlands restoration project ever.

In 2007 the Nature Conservancy made a 161,000-acre (650 km2) purchase of New York forestland from Finch Paper Holdings LLC for 0 million, its largest purchase ever in that state.

In 2008 June The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land announced they reached an agreement to purchase approximately 320,000 acres (1,300 km2) of western Montana forestland from Plum Creek Timber Company (NYSE:PCL) for 0 million. The purchase, known as the Montana Legacy Project, is part of an effort to keep these forests in productive timber management and protect the area’s clean water and abundant fish and wildlife habitat, while promoting continued public access to these lands for fishing, hiking, hunting and other recreational pursuits.

Plant a Billion Trees Campaign
The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees Campaign is an effort to restore 2,500,000 acres (10,100 km2) of land and plant 1 billion trees by 2015 in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Each donated dollar results in one planted tree in the Atlantic Forest.

Environmental Benefits

The Plant a Billion Trees campaign has also been identified as a tool to help slow climate change, as the Atlantic Forest – one of the biggest tropical forests in the world – helps regulate the atmosphere and stabilize global climate. The reforestation of the Atlantic Forest has the capability to remove 10 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The Nature Conservancy states that this is equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road. The Atlantic Forest’s restoration could help to slow the process of climate change that is affecting our planet.

The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees Campaign also aims to protect 10 critical watersheds in the Atlantic Forest that provide water and hydro power to more than 70 million people, create 20,000 direct jobs, and an additional 70,000 indirectly as part of this effort. The Plant a Billion Trees Campaign is also associated with The Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program, which consists of nine locations, including Brazil ,

Involvement in the Community

Individuals who wish to participate in The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees Campaign can plant as little as one tree at a time (for a dollar each), can track the total count of trees planted using an online widget, can start their own tree planting campaign to raise money for plants through their own Web pages or social network profiles, or can sign up to give trees as a gift or make a monthly gift to plant trees each month at www.plantabillion.org.

The Nature Conservancy also features e-cards from the Atlantic Forest, as well as video of the Atlantic Forest and detailed information about the seedlings on their micro-site at www.plantabillion.org. The Web site also features a news feed and an interactive map of the Atlantic Forest region in Brazil, as well as information on many of the plants, animals, and people that are impacted by the plight of the forest and who may benefit from its restoration.

Tree Planting

The Nature Conservancy plants one tree in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil for each dollar donated by supporters. The Conservancy makes every attempt to maintain the biodiversity of the existing forest in its restoration efforts.

Some of the seeds being planted consist of:

Guapuruvu Tree (Schizolobium parahyba) – An indigenous plant of Atlantic Forest, this has one of the fastest growth rates of all the native species.
Golden Trumpet Tree (Tabebuia umbellate) – According to popular belief, when this tree’s yellow blooms appear, no more frosts will occur. The wood of a Golden Trumpet Tree has the same fire rating as concrete and is denser than water. Illegal logging activity has grown due to this tree’s growing popularity.
Ice-Cream Bean Tree (Inga edulis) – Leafy and abundant, this tree controls weeds and erosion. Its popular fruit is a long pod up to a few feet in length, containing a sweet pulp surrounding large seeds.
Capororoca Tree (Myrsine ferruginea) – Birds like the Rufous-bellied Thrush enjoy the fruit off of this tree.
History of the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign

The Nature Conservancy launched the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign in 2008 with a micro-site (plantabillion.org) that is affiliated but not hosted by The Nature Conservancy’s Web site, www.nature.org.

As a part of this launch, The Nature Conservancy pledged to plant 25 million trees as part of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)’s Billion Tree Campaign.[20] This campaign encourages individuals and organizations to plant their own trees around the world and record this action on the website as a tally. The UNEP Billion tree Campaign is currently attempting to plant 7 billion trees by the end of 2009.[21]

On Earth Day 2009, Disneynature’s film “Earth” debuted, promising to plant a tree for every ticket sold to the film in its first week. This resulted in a donation of 2.7 million trees to the Plant a Billion Trees program.

Partnerships

The Plant a Billion Trees Campaign has followed The Nature Conservancy’s approach of partnering with larger organizations (such as Disneynature, Planet Green, Penguin Books, Payless Shoesource, AT&T, Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and Visa) to leverage donations from supporters and increase efficiency and effectiveness of the campaign.

Penguin Classics sponsored a Penguin Walk to benefit the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign on June 6, 2009 as well.
Payless Shoesource sponsored the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign[26] by giving to The Nature Conservancy for every Plant a Billion Trees reusable bag sold between 4/13/09 to 12/31/09 (sold at a retail value of .99) and from each zoe&zac branded product sold between 4/13/09 and 5/4/09. Payless guaranteed a minimum total contribution of 0,000 in 2009 from these sales and the sales of other merchandise during 2009.
Panasonic has been involved by planting a tree for each customer who selects The Nature Conservancy in their “Giving Back” program.
Organic Bouquet has donated 10 percent for every flower and gift purchased during the month of April 2008 at www.organicbouquet.com/nature.
The Nature Conservancy and its scientists also work with other conservation organizations, local landowners, state and federal officials, agencies, and private companies to protect, connect, and buffer what is left of the Atlantic Forest.

Criticism
Over the years, The Nature Conservancy has faced a number of criticisms. They fall into the following main categories:

Too close to business
Some environmentalists consider the industrial development to be antagonistic to environmentalism, and disapprove of The Nature Conservancy’s policy of permitting oil drilling, timbering, mining, and natural gas drilling on land donated to the Conservancy

Questionable resale
There have been allegations of The Nature Conservancy obtaining land and reselling it at a profit, sometimes to supporters, who have then made use of it in ways not perceived by many as being sufficiently environmentally friendly. The rationale for the resale has been that the profit allows The Nature Conservancy to increase its preservation of what the Nature Conservancy claims are more important locations. However, the Conservancy does have a no-net-profit policy that has been in effect for years for all transactions of this type.

Animal rights
The Nature Conservancy has also been criticized, like many large environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund for using hunting in its management policies. Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the Commander of coalition forces during the First Gulf War, was a member of the President’s Conservation Counsel of the Conservancy, is also a member of the trophy hunting organization the Safari Club

From 2005-2007 the Nature Conservancy, along with the National Parks Service, enacted a policy of killing 4000 non-native feral pigs from the Channel Islands of California. The plan involved constructing six electric fences to enclose the island’s pig population. After the pigs were contained, they were shot by hunters in helicopters. The Nature Conservancy claimed that golden eagles had been drawn to the island by the pigs and were killing a native fox species. Channel Islands Animal Protection Association member Scarlet Newton argued: “The island fox population was robust until the Nature Conservancy took over the island….The finger goes right to the Nature Conservancy for causing the near extinction of the island fox.” She said that the Nature Conservancy chose to eradicate the non-native sheep populations of the island in the 1980s, the carcasses of which drew the golden eagles. David Theodoropoulos, author of Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience, also said of the plan, “No environmental problem exists which will require complete extermination." PETA had also criticized the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii in 1996 for using snares to control wild pigs.

Since the Nature Conservancy’s actions to reduce invasive pigs on the Channel Islands, Island Fox numbers have rebounded, from a presumed low of 100 to an estimate of 700 individuals as of the Summer of 2009.

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