Federal Documentation Research Articles

The impact of climate change on endangered plants and lichen

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was a landmark protection for rare organisms in the United States. Although the ESA is known for its protection of wildlife, a majority of listed species are actually plants and lichen. Climate change will impact species populations globally. Already-rare species, like those listed in the ESA, are at an even higher risk due to climate change. Despite this, the risk climate change poses to endangered plants has not been systematically evaluated in over a decade. To address this gap, we modified previously existing qualitative assessment toolkits used to examine the threat of climate change in federal documentation on listed wildlife. These modified toolkits were then applied to the 771 ESA listed plants. First, we evaluated how sensitive ESA listed plants and lichens were to climate change based on nine quantitative sensitivity factors. Then, we evaluated if climate change was recognized as a threat for a species, and if actions were being taken to address the threats of climate change. We found that all ESA listed plant and lichen species are at least slightly (score of 1) sensitive to climate change, and therefore all listed plants and lichens are threatened by climate change. While a majority of ESA listing and recovery documents recognized climate change as a threat, very few had actions being taken in their recovery plans to address climate change directly. While acknowledging the threat that climate change poses to rare plants is an important first step, direct action will need to be taken to ensure the recovery of many of these species.

Unusual case of automutilation in a free-ranging grey wolf (Canis lupus)

• Information on Wolves in Germany aggregated by the Federal Documentation and Consultation Centre on Wolves (DBBW). • Automutilation in a wild animal are rarely documented. • Various infectious, traumatic, hereditary and psychogenic causes could lead to automutilation in animals. • The lives of individual wolves can be randomly endangered by humans. In Germany, all information about the Central European Lowland Wolf population is aggregated by the Federal Documentation and Consultation Centre on Wolves (DBBW). The dataset on wolves found dead was an important source of supplementary information for this study in particular. In January 2020, our examination of a wolf cadaver revealed a vertebral fracture that caused a complete severance of the spinal cord. Furthermore, the presence of a canid claw in the stomach of the specimen indicated that we encountered a rare case of automutilation in a wild animal, which was subsequently confirmed when the genetic analysis determined that the claw belonged to the examined wolf.

‘To the Indian Names are Subjoined a Mark and Seal’: Tracing the Terrain of Ojibwe Literature

In Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, the Ojibwe boast the first Native American literary writer in print circulation – through her husband Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s The Literary Voyager (1826–1827). While the Tsalagi (Cherokee) probably boast more individual writers in the 19th-century with the prevalence of journalism from the late 1820s onwards; and while numerous epistolary and conversion narratives, not to mention the transcriptions of traditional songs and stories, precede Schoolcraft’s publication, Ojibwe writing in all forms has proliferated. Gerald Vizenor, among others, has claimed that by the late 20th-century the Ojibwe ‘claim more published writers than any other tribe on [the North American] continent’. This essay summarises the growth of that literary archive, considering a variety of relationships to two kinds of ‘text’, the pictographic legacy of rock art and birchbark scrolls, and the littoral legacy of treaties and federal documentation, that leave their mark across a range of Ojibwe writing. It seeks to briefly outline the changing nature of Literary Criticism as it pertains to Native American literatures, while considering claims to continuity between literary culture and earlier forms of ‘textual’ record common to the Ojibwe. Looking, ultimately, at some of the ways in which the thematisation of resistance and endurance, and the prevalence of the image of the document, and the self-conscious reflection on text and textuality, characterise aesthetic and formal choices in a number of Ojibwe texts, the essay proposes several points of contact between the historical, political, and literary claims of contemporary Native American Literary studies.

The gap between the real and the ideal: the right to education amid fiscal equity legislation in a democratic culture

Lack of understanding about the relationship between federal and state educational institutions brings confusion into discussions of democracy, equity and equality in schools. The ‘right to education’ continues to be espoused by American society as a birthright, yet it does not figure in federal documentation. This matter has repeatedly come to the attention of legislative courts, who have insisted that the question of education as a fundamental right be addressed. Numerous court cases have attempted to bring closure on this issue, on the basis of such abstractions as national rights, equal access, opportunity and economic disparity among the petitions. However, legal judgments remain inconclusive, reiterating that education remains a state legislative issue. This paper explores the implications of a fundamental right to education through an examination of federal and state legal litigation, discussing the philosophical and ideological roots of discussion of rights and democratic values, and evaluating how federal and judicial participation contributes to overall misunderstanding regarding public schooling.

Assessments Validate Treatments, Enhance Care

Assessments Validate Treatments, Enhance Care

Finding a Place for the Commonplace: Hurricane Katrina, Communities, and Preservation Law

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina drew attention to commonplace landscape markers that create for a community a sense of place—that connection between people and places crucial to a sense of corporate and individual identity and heritage. There is a legal context for sense of place within extant federal preservation legislation. Nevertheless, many such markers with special meanings for residents have been overlooked in federal documentation, the cornerstone of which is the National Register of Historic Places. Grassroots efforts and national media coverage have helped forge a niche for sense of place within the recovery plans and policy emerging in the affected region. However, it is unclear whether this will carry over into practice. In terms of long‐term policy shifts, remedying the shortcomings highlighted by Katrina may require changes to the National Historic Preservation Act and its associated guidelines and regulations, or it may entail a new approach altogether.

Connecticut's New Comprehensive and Universal Early Childhood Health Assessment Form

Health assessments are required for entrance into child care, Head Start, and preschool programs. However, state and federal screening and documentation mandates vary, and programs create their own forms for keeping required data on file. Inconsistent recording formats present challenges for primary care providers who must document each child's health status and for program administrators who wish to collect data across groups of children. This article describes how the passage of new legislation in Connecticut establishing a statewide prekindergarten program presented the opportunity to develop a comprehensive early childhood health form for all early childhood programs, which promotes children's access to health services and coordination of care among health care professionals, early childhood providers, and families.

What differentiates anal rapists from vaginal rapists?

During the daily assessment routine of the Federal Documentation Centre for Sexual Offenders, important differences between rapists who commit their offense through anal penetration and other rapists became apparent. The hypothesis following these findings assumed that these and offenders would show a more sexualized behaviour than other rapists. The following differences between these two groups could be shown: violence and hypersexual desire. And rapists show a significantly higher degree in both areas, whereas, on the other side, no difference concerning psychopathic behaviour of the offenders could be proved. The preliminary conclusions that could be drawn according to these results express that anal rapists are more sexualized and, furthermore, they have a more obsessive sex life.

Avoiding fraud and abuse in complying with the new federal documentation guidelines.

Avoiding fraud and abuse in complying with the new federal documentation guidelines.

Drawing analogies between state and federal documents: A method for increasing access to state publications

As a means of expanding information about useful state documents, the author suggests drawing analogies between the more widely used federal publications and commercial publications providing access to federal information and the relevant state publications where counterparts exist. The article is accompanied by an illustrative bibliography of New York State documents which have counterparts in federal documentation. The bibliography emphasizes serial publications and monographic publications which should constitute a part of any major collection of New York State documents.