Environmental Defense Fund ecologist Wilcove's important report takes readers on a chilling tour of the killing fields of America: the abused ecosystems where one-third of all U.S. plant and animal species are in immediate danger of extinction or are severely threatened. Written with great clarity, this survey underscores that the much publicized decline of songbird populations is only one tragic example of the assault on nature through habitat destruction, hunting, air and water pollution, disease and the introduction of alien or nonnative species.