Foreword Preface Contributors Participating Institutions Acknowledgements 1. Biodiversity: Our Precious Heritage 2. Discovering Life in America: Tools and Techniques of Biodiversity Inventory 3. A Remarkable Array: Species Diversity in the United States 4. Conservation Status of U.S. Species 5. State of the States: Geographic Patterns of Diversity, Rarity, and Endemism 6. The Geography of Imperilment: Targeting Conservation towards Critical Biodiversity Areas 7. More than the Sum of the Parts: Diversity and Status of Ecological Systems 8. Leading Threats to U.S. Biodiversity: What's Threatening Imperiled Species 9. Strategies for Biodiversity Protection 10. Owning Up to Our Responsibilities: Who Owns Lands Important for Biodiversity? 11. Safeguarding Our Precious Heritage Appendix A: Extinct and missing species of the United States Appendix B: State Diversity, Endemism, and Rarity Appendix C: Kuchler Potential Natural Vegetation Types Appendix D: Principal Sources for the Natural Heritage Central Databases Literature Cited