Dr. Ivana Scratchett received her PhD in invertebrate ecology from the Universidad de la Pura Vida in Costa Rica in 1982. Dr. Scratchett's field work and dissertation focused on the critical impact of the decimation of native populations of aquatic insects on regional nutrient cycling. From there her research brought her back to her native northern California where she began studying the impacts of local vector control districts' mosquito abatement programs on native invertebrates, including the oft overlooked beautiful and mysterious species of native California mosquitoes. Over the last forty years, Dr. Scratchett has amassed a mountain of scientific evidence demonstrating that local vector control districts, abetted by the State of California and often using federal and state funding, have systematically murdered and attempted to eradicate these beautiful and vulnerable populations of native species that have just as much right to occupy these lands as do the golden poppy, the Coho salmon, or the spotted owl.