Oregon Department of Kick Ass

As there are so very many things, and they are disappearing at such an alarming rate, it was difficult to know where to begin. In 2005, while at graduate school at the NYSCC, I gathered a random collection from the red list (a comprehensive site categorizing endangered and vulnerable plants and animals) and presented this much smaller list to an invited group of artists and writers, asking them to explore whichever topic they liked in whatever manner they deemed appropriate. From these submissions, I created a website.

The second phase involved inviting more people to illustrate and write about vulnerable species that interested them. I was so delighted with the work submitted that I determined to make a book out of it. I am publishing it online at lulu.com, in the hopes that someone will be interested in publishing it in the real world.

This list is just the tip of the iceberg (which is also disappearing by the way). The idea is not to educate but simply to consider some of these things because they exist right now and in the future they might not, and we might miss them. Some day we may have trouble imagining they ever existed at all.

These *things include plants, animals, trees, clean air, clean water, rain forest, languages, etc.

Thank you for your attention.

Melody Owen
creator/editor