Steve Leonard Dupage County Forest Preserve 3 S 501 Naperville Road Wheaton, IL 60187 To Mill Street School Students The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources are asking for your help to raise smallmouth bass in your classroom. We need a commitment from you to raise approximately 10 smallmouth bass from September 9 till October 23. The bass are 2-3" long and grow to 4-5" by October. The 1-2 inches of growth will give them a better chance of surviving in the streams. By releasing the bass, we are also increasing the diversity of life, called biodiversity, in the streams throughout DuPage County. Smallmouth bass used to be abundant in local streams, but have declined in numbers due to the variety of pollution problems effecting their habitat. Bass are predators whose presence indicate a variety of habitats and a biologically diverse ecosystem since they feed upon a variety of macroinvertebrates and smaller fish species.    For the bass to survive, you will need to do more than just raise the bass in your classroom. You will need to: INVESTIGATE where and what kind of biologically diverse ecosystems you have in your community. INVENTORY and MONITOR local biodiversity. TAKE ACTION on your scientific discoveries on how to protect and improve biodiversity. The bass will survive if we all preserve and protect biodiversity throughout DuPage County. Please fax me the Letter of Agreement if you, as a group, would like to take on this responsibility of raising the fish and protecting the biodiversity in our communities. I hope to hear from you you soon, Steve Leonard Naturalist