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Note: This webpage is being updated.
Contact TRI if you have recommendations for additions, including for
groups working on wounds.
Ecological Wounds of North America
(Adapted from
Rewilding North America)
If we are to effectively
plan conservation action that will protect and restore the diversity
of life, we need to ponder the causes of today's mass extinction.
Aldo Leopold was the
greatest American conservationist of the twentieth century. His
insights more than half a century ago still cut trail for the rest
of us. One of his tree-blazes reads:
One of the penalties of an ecological education is
that one lives alone in a world of wounds....An ecologist must
either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences
of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor
who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself
well and does not want to be told otherwise.1
In recent years, ecological and historical
researchers have greatly improved our understanding of ecological
wounds. Even in the best-protected areas, such as National Parks and
Wilderness Areas ungrazed by domestic livestock, preexisting wounds
may continue to suppurate.
The end point of human-caused wounds to the land is
today's extinction crisis—death, in medical terms.
The Rewilding Institute, the Wildlands Project, and
cooperating groups now categorize wounds to the land in the
following way:
1) Direct killing of species
2) Loss and degradation of ecosystems
3) Fragmentation of wildlife habitat
4) Loss and disruption of natural processes
5) Invasion by exotic species and diseases
6) Poisoning of land, air, water, and wildlife
7) Global climate change
Each wound has more than one cause, and many of the
causes contribute to more than one wound. The overall impact of
these wounds is greater than their sum, and they are highly
synergistic.
Among the leading causes of these wounds in North
America are overhunting, overfishing, and trapping (including
poaching); predator and “pest” extermination (shooting, poisoning,
trapping); removing native animals and plants for collectors;
agricultural clearing; livestock grazing; livestock fencing; logging
and fuelwood collection; mining; energy exploitation; industrial
recreation (ski areas, resorts, golf courses, etc.); off-road
vehicle recreation; urban, suburban, and “ranchette” (semi-rural
subdivisions) sprawl; agricultural and forestry biocides;
intentional or accidental releases of non-native species; road
building; fire suppression; dam building; irrigation diversions;
groundwater depletion; channelization of streams and rivers; air,
water, and land pollution; and human overpopulation (which is the
fundamental cause).
Wound 1: Direct Killing of Species
Causes: During the preceding five hundred
years or so, native animals—especially fish, carnivores, large
ungulates, keystone rodents, and birds—have become extinct,
regionally extirpated, or greatly reduced in number by commercial
fishing and seabirding; whaling; subsistence hunting and
game-hogging; market hunting; trapping; predator and “pest” control;
and collecting.
Wound 2: Loss and Degradation of Ecosystems
Causes: For almost four hundred years in
North America, ecosystems have been degraded and even destroyed by
agricultural clearing, logging, grazing by domestic livestock,
burning, elimination of keystone species, mining, wetland draining,
urbanization, suburbanization, exurban sprawl, bottom trawling,
dams, water diversions, groundwater pumping, channelization, and oil
and gas development.
Wound 3: Fragmentation of Wildlife Habitat
Causes:
Fish and other wildlife habitat have been fragmented by all of
the factors causing ecosystem loss and degradation, and by road and
highway building, off-road vehicle (ORV) use, pipelines, power
lines, and ranchettes.
Wound 4: Loss and Disruption of Natural Processes
Causes: Vital ecological and evolutionary
processes—especially fire, hydrological cycles, and predation—have
been disrupted and even eliminated by logging, grazing, fire
control, beaver trapping, dams and other flood control measures, and
killing of highly interactive species—especially large carnivores.
Wound 5: Invasion by Exotic Species and Diseases
Causes: Aggressive and disruptive exotic
species—plants, animals, and disease organisms and vectors—have (1)
invaded, (2) escaped from cultivation, or (3) been deliberately
introduced, threatening ecosystems and the survival of many native
species.
Wound 6: Poisoning of Land, Air, Water, and
Wildlife
Causes: Farms, feedlots, mines, factories,
smelters, power plants, agricultural and public-health biocides,
automobiles, oil pipelines and tankers, and urban areas have spread
heavy metals, toxic wastes, and chemicals in the air, land, and
water, harming species and ecosystems.
Wound 7: Global Climate Change
Causes: Since the beginning of the industrial era, air
pollution from cars, power plants, smelters; carbon dioxide releases
from logging; and other human activities have increased the
percentage of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases,
leading to rises in the sea level, and changes in temperature and
precipitation.
Healing
the Wounds Goal Setting
A hallmark of recent conservation is ecological
restoration. Unfortunately, much of what is called ecological
restoration falls far short of the mark. Michael Soulč warns against
“restoration” that seeks only to put back the process, but not the
community. He writes that “it is technically possible to maintain
ecological processes, including a high level of economically
beneficial productivity, by replacing the hundreds of native plants,
invertebrates and vertebrates with about 15 or 20 introduced, weedy
species.” Continental Conservation cautions that “process and
function are no substitute for species.” Without native species, the
land is domesticated or feral, not wild. Unmanaged land without
native species is not a wilderness, but a wasteland.
Much restoration has focused on small sites—a patch
of tallgrass prairie, a salt marsh, a suburban creek. These efforts
are vital for protecting and recovering imperiled species with
narrow habitat requirements, but we also need to do restoration on a
landscape level. Less than landscape-scale restoration produces
“ecological museum pieces—single representatives of communities
that, although present because of unusually large restoration and
maintenance investments, do not exist in any ecologically meaningful
way.” (Continental Conservation.) A medical analogy would be
that of keeping a patient alive on life-support indefinitely and at
great expense when there is no hope that she will ever be able to
survive on her own.
To rewild North America, we must have a vision that
is bold, scientifically credible, practically achievable, and
hopeful. The practically achievable part requires specific goals and
action steps—organized to heal the specific wounds.
Although ecological restoration is essential for an
overall conservation strategy, it is painfully clear that, in the
twenty-first century, wildlands and wildlife will continue to be
imperiled by human activities. A frontier approach to exploiting
Nature still rules in much of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and
Central America. Restoration will come to naught if further wounding
of the land is not stopped. Therefore, each of the seven
healing-the-wounds goals is twofold: (1) to prevent additional
wounding, and (2) to heal existing wounds.
Goal 1: Permanent protection of extant native
species from extinction or endangerment, and recovery of all species
native to the continent except those already extinct.
Goal 2: Permanent protection of all habitat
types from further degradation and loss, and restoration of degraded
habitats.
Goal 3: Protection of the land from further
fragmentation, and restoration of functional connectivity for all
species native to the region.
Goal 4: Restoration and permanent protection
of the functioning of ecological and evolutionary processes.
Goal 5: Prevention of the further spread of
exotic species (including pathogens), and elimination or control of
exotic species already present.
Goal 6: Prevention of the further introduction
of ecologically harmful pollution into the region, and removal or
containment of existing pollutants.
Goal 7: Management of landscapes and wildlife
to provide opportunities for adaptation and adjustment to climate
change.
These are heady goals. With nearly half a billion
people living in North America (including Central America), they can
be gained in the near term only in part or even in small part for
much of the continent. They completely apply only to wildlands
networks in regions still wild or suitable for major restoration.
Moreover,
these goals are comprehensive, and should be embraced in principle
by the whole conservation movement and land managers. No one
organization can tackle them all, but all who love Nature should
adopt them as overarching goals for twenty-first-century
conservation. They must be carried out on local, regional, and
continental scales.
(From
Rewilding North America
by Dave Foreman (chapters 5, 6, and 7). Copyright © 2004 by the
author. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington, D.C.)
Resources
(Links directly
to recommended resources are forthcoming)
Rewilding Institute Website Resources include books, scientific
papers, popular articles, reports, and links to groups working on
continental-scale conservation. Among the books, Rewilding North
America covers all of these wounds and Continental
Conservation covers many of them—both are available directly
from TRI. Other books may be ordered directly from Amazon from
this website. All it takes is a click.
Key
articles, whether peer-reviewed or popular, are listed under each
topic in four categories: (1) Those in PDF form that can be
downloaded; (2) those that are available in listed books; (3) those
that are available from a link to another site; and (4) those we
cannot yet offer electronically.
(Note:
This part of the website is still under construction.
Unfortunately, many scientific journals do not seem to be interested
in making papers available for educational purposes and thus will
not allow us to offer PDFs from this website. We will add
downloadable articles as we receive permission to offer them.
We also will add articles when we can figure out other ways to make
them available to you. We are currently creating PDFs for many
articles from Wild Earth journal and will list them as soon
as the PDFs are available.)
For
some topics, we also provide links to longer reports, other
material, and even comic books. Please suggest other books,
papers, and reports on these subjects so we can make this resource
more comprehensive.
Click-on links to organizations working on different aspects of
ecological wound healing are also provided. These websites have
considerable information on wounds and healing them. Instructions on
how to sign up for newsletters, email updates, and the like are
given for those groups that offer such resources.
The
resources available at this time here are minimal. Many more
books, articles, reports, and groups will be added in the future.
Our emphasis is on the wounds of species loss, habitat loss, and
fragmentation because they are most important to continental-scale
rewilding.
Note: The following resources come in two sections: (1) information
about the wounds and their causes; and (2) information about healing
the wounds and the groups working to do so.
General Wounds
Books:
Rewilding North
America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st
Century by Dave Foreman (Island
Press 2004). Includes a detailed discussion of the seven ecological
wounds in North America, and a continental program for how to heal
them.
Order
from The Rewilding Institute.
The World According to Pimm: a scientist audits the Earth
by Stuart L. Pimm (McGraw-Hill, NY, 2001). A leading
conservation biologist methodically calculates how much net primary
productivity humans are using. Order from Amazon.
Status and Trends of
the Nation’s Biological Resources (2
vols.) edited by M. J. Mac, P. A. Opler, C. E. Puckett Haecker, and
P. D. Doran (U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological
Survey, Reston, VA, 1998). A detailed reference by leading
biologists on the ecological wounds in the United States. Order from
Amazon.
Southern Rockies Wildlands Network Vision: A Science-Based
Approach to Rewilding the Southern Rockies
by Brian Miller et al. (Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project and
Colorado Mountain Club Press, Golden, CO, 2004). Covers ecological
wounds and healing ecological wounds in Southern Rockies. Order from
Amazon.
Sky Islands Wildlands Network Conservation Plan
by Dave Foreman et al. (The Wildlands Project 2000).
Covers the ecological wounds and how to heal them in the Sky Islands
of southern New Mexico and Arizona (this is the initial discussion
of the healing-the-wounds approach). Available from Kim Vacariu, The
Wildlands Project, at 520-884-0875 or
kim@wildlandsproject.org.
New Mexico Highlands Wildlands Network Vision
by Dave Foreman et al. (The Wildlands Project 2003). Covers the
ecological wounds and how to heal them in New Mexico. CD only
available from Kim Vacariu, The Wildlands Project, at 520-884-0875
or
kim@wildlandsproject.org.
Wounds by Wound
(1)
Loss of Species
Books:
Wildlife in America (revised
edition) by Peter Matthiessen (Viking, NY, 1987). A classic history
of wildlife extermination in North America by one of our greatest
authors. Order from Amazon.
The Condor’s Shadow: The Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in America
by David S. Wilcove (Freeman, NY, 1999). By one
of the world’s leading conservation biologists and experts on
extinction. Order from Amazon.
Saving America’s Wildlife: Ecology and the American Mind,
1850-1990
by Thomas R. Dunlap (Princeton University
Press 1988). An excellent history of the actions and attitudes in
America’s war on predators. Order from Amazon.
Endangered Animals: A Reference Guide to Conflicting Issues
edited by Richard P. Reading and Brian Miller
(Greenwood Press 2000). Species experts around the world analyze how
humans have endangered 49 species, from the jaguar to the
leatherback turtle. Order from Amazon.
Wild Hunters: Predators in Peril by
Monte Hummel and Sherry Pettigrew, illustrated by Robert Bateman
(Key Porter Books 1991). Hummel (head of WWF Canada) and Pettigrew
look at the polar bear, grizzly bear, black bear, wolf, cougar, and
wolverine, and offer a conservation strategy for large carnivores in
Canada. Order from Amazon.
The Grizzly in the Southwest by
David E. Brown (University of Oklahoma Press 1995). A classic
history of the extermination of the grizzly from the southwestern
United States. Order from Amazon.
The Wolf in the Southwest: The Making of an Endangered Species
edited by David E. Brown (University of Arizona Press 1983). The
history of the extermination of the wolf from the southwestern
United States. Order from Amazon.
Borderland Jaguars: Tigres de la Frontera
by David E. Brown and Carlos A. Lopez Gonzalez (University of Utah
Press 2001). The history and natural history of the jaguar on the
U.S.-Mexico border. Carlos Lopez’s field research found the breeding
population of big spotted cats in northern Sonora that the Northern
Jaguar Project is now trying to protect.
Mountain Lion: An unnatural history of pumas and people
by Chris Bolgiano (Stackpole Books 1995). David Brown writes, “This
is an extraordinary book. Well-researched and authentic, [it] tells
the story of America’s love-hate relationship with its biggest cat
in a literate, yet highly readable prose.” Order from Amazon.
Cougar: The American Lion by Kevin
Hansen, Foreword by Robert Redford (Northland Publishing 1992). An
excellent and readable reference to the cougar. Illustrated. Order
from Amazon.
Desert Puma: Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation of an Enduring
Carnivore by Kenneth A. Logan and
Linda L. Sweanor (Island Press 2001). Dave Maehr writes, “Logan and
Sweanor’s ten-year research marathon is a benchmark of field
biology. Along with an important synthesis of puma ecology and a
critique of human relations with America’s lion, their
population-scale experiment—unprecedented in research on the
species—is destined to be a classic.” Order from Amazon.
The Florida Panther: Life and Death of a Vanishing Carnivore
by David S. Maehr (Island Press 1997). Maehr is a
Rewilding Institute Fellow and former head of the Florida Panther
Study Project. Carl Hiaasen writes, “No one knows more about the
spectral Florida panther than David Maehr—and no one has done more
to save the great cat from vanishing forever from this earth.” Order
from Amazon.
Prairie Night: Black-Footed Ferrets and the Recovery of
Endangered Species by Brian Miller,
Richard P. Reading, and Steve Forrest. (Miller is a Rewilding
Institute Fellow.) This is a thorough natural history of the ferret
and a history of its near extinction. It is also an honest, shocking
look at the chicken-shit struggles within the wildlife agency
bureaucracy that almost lost the ferret forever. Order from Amazon.
Papers:
Not
yet available:
David
S. Wilcove et al. “Quantifying Threats to Imperiled Species in the
United States,” BioScience 48, no. 8 (August 1, 1998):
607-615.
Many
more to be added.
(2)
Loss and Degradation of Ecosystems
(3)
Fragmentation of Wildlife Habitat
Books:
No Place Distant: Roads and Motorized Recreation on America’s Public
Lands by David C. Havlick, Foreword by
Mike Dombeck (Island Press 2002). Reed Noss writes, “David
Havlick’s well-written book does a splendid job of illuminating the
many challenges that roads and motorized recreation pose to our
society.” Order from Amazon.
Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the
Modern Wilderness Movement by Paul S.
Sutter (University of Washington Press 2002). Sutter clearly
shows that Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and the other founders of The
Wilderness Society and the wilderness area movement were primarily
motivated by the threat automobiles and the “good roads movement”
posed to the dwindling backcountry after WWI. He also shows
how the natural areas movement, led by ecologist Victor Shelford,
began separately but came to influence wilderness leaders so that by
1940 both unmotorized recreation and unmodified ecosystems were the
essence of wilderness areas. Order from Amazon.
The Big Outside by Dave Foreman and
Howie Wolke (Crown 1992). A detailed inventory of the large
roadless areas in the United States (100,000+ acres in the West,
50,000+ acres in the East). Out of print but sometimes
available at Amazon. Order from Amazon.
Articles:
Not
yet available:
Bruce
A. Wilcox and Dennis D. Murphy, “Conservation Strategy: The Effects
of Fragmentation on Extinction,” American Naturalist 125
(1985): 879-887.
Stephen
C. Trombulak and Christopher A. Frissell, “Review of Ecological
Effects of Roads on Terrestrial and Aquatic Communities,”
Conservation Biology 14, no. 1 (February 2000), 18-30. The
definitive and essential overview of all of the ways roads harm
Nature.
Richard
T.T. Forman, “Estimate of the Area Effected Ecologically by the Road
System in the United States,” Conservation Biology 14, no. 1
(February 2000), 31-35. Just how many acres are harmed by
roads? Forman gives the most credible answer.
Reports, Etc.:
Connectivity References compiled by
Kristeen Penrod. Click for PDF.
General Healing the Wounds
Books:
Continental
Conservation: Scientific Foundations of Regional Reserve Networks
edited by Michael E. Soulč and John Terborgh (Island Press 1999).
Includes a state-of-the-art chapter on large-scale ecological
restoration.
Order
from The Rewilding Institute.
Healing the Wounds by Wound
(1)
Restoring Species
Books:
Note: Only those books specifically about
recovery and restoration of species are listed here. Other books
about these species are listed above under the Loss of Species
Wound.
Large Mammal Restoration: Ecological and Sociological Challenges in
the 21st Century edited by
David S. Maehr, Reed F. Noss, and Jeffery L. Larkin (Island Press,
Washington, DC, 2001). Top field biologists discuss lessons in
restoring large mammals (including carnivores) to the wild. Order
from Amazon.
The Return of the Wolf: Reflections on the Future of Wolves in the
Northeast by Bill McKibben, John B.
Theberge, Kristin DeBoer, and Rick Bass, edited by John Elder
(Middlebury College Press 2000). A thoughtful and eloquent
discussion about possible recovery and restoration of wolves in New
England and the Adirondacks. Order from Amazon.
Articles
Articles not yet available:
Michael
Soulč and Reed Noss, “Rewilding and Biodiversity as Complementary
Goals for Continental Conservation,” Wild Earth, Fall 1998,
22.
Reports, Etc.
Groups:
General Carnivores
and highly interactive species
Naturalia.
Mexico’s leading citizen conservation group working on protection
and restoration of endangered species, including carnivores
Agrupacion Dodo A.C. Matamoros 14, Esq. M. Doblano, Col.
Pilares, 52179 Toluca, Mexico. Phone/fax: (722) 2166416. Agrupacion
Dodo is a Mexican non-governmental organization that promotes the
conservation of Nature through research and environmental education,
in many subjects, Including carnivores, keystone species, birds, and
grasslands. Several reports are available as PDFs.
Predator
Conservation Alliance. POB 6733, Bozeman, MT 59771; phone
406-587-3389; fax 406-587-3178. PCA works to conserve and restore
predators, and helps people and predators coexist in the North
Rockies and Northern Great Plains. In short, we are saving a place
for America’s predators. Provides downloadable publications from its
website, which also offers an on-line library of research on
predators of the Northern Rockies and Northern Great Plains.
Sinapu
Alliance for the Wild
Rockies
Center for Biological
Diversity. Champions recovery of the Mexican wolf as well as
gray wolves throughout the Southwest and Southern Rocky Mountains.
Also advocates legal protections for a variety of other imperiled
carnivores, ranging from polar bears to island foxes.
Conservation Northwest
(formerly Northwest Ecosystem Alliance). 1208 Bay St. #201,
Bellingham, WA 98225, 360-671-9950. NWEA is keeping the Northwest
wild, with a focus on large wild landscapes and creatures in
Washington and British Columbia. NWEA is spearheading reintroduction
of fisher to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, grizzly recovery
in the North cascades, and conservation of all native wildlife and
their habitats. Contact
info@ecosystem.org to join or to sign up for Wild Northwest
alert listserv, Ecosystem Enews, and newsletter.
Forest Guardians.
Forest Guardians uses a focal species approach where we prioritize
the protection of keystone, umbrella, and indicator species to
ensure that our biodiversity protection work leverages as much
protection as possible.
Sierra Club Wildlife and Endangered Species Committee
Defenders of Wildlife
Wolves
Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Working Group. A
coalition out of Flagstaff that promotes wolf recovery in the
greater Grand Canyon region.
Southern Rockies Wolf Recovery Project. A
coalition promoting protection and restoration of the wolf in the
southern Rockies of Colorado and northern New Mexico.
Sierra Club Southern Rockies Wolf Restoration
Campaign.
Naturalia.
Mexico’s leading endangered species conservation groups works on
Mexican wolf recovery in the Northern Sierra Madre.
Alliance for the Wild Rockies. Has a major focus on wolf
protection in the U.S. Northern Rockies.
National Wildlife
Federation. Has an active nationwide wolf protection and
recovery effort and an email newsletter on wolf issues.
International Wolf
Center. Runs an educational and research center on wolves
worldwide in Ely, Minnesota and publishes the magazine
International Wolf.
Timber Wolf
Alliance. Operating out of Northland College in Wisconsin,
TWA promotes and assists in achieving a sustainable population of
wolves through public education in the western Great Lakes region.
Offers a variety of resources.
Jaguars
Northern Jaguar
Project. Works with Naturalia to protect the northernmost
breeding population of jaguars in Sonora (just south of the Arizona
border) by buying and managing ranches as a jaguar reserve.
Naturalia.
Buys, owns, and manages jaguar reserves in Sonora in cooperation
with Northern Jaguar Project.
Defenders of Wildlife Southwest Office. Plays a very active role in
northern jaguar issues.
Mountain Lions (Cougars, Pumas)
Cougar Fund
Eastern Cougar Foundation
POB 91, North Springs, WV 24869; 304-664-3812. Mission Statement: To
facilitate the return of self-sustaining wild populations of cougars
in existing and potential cougar habitat throughout the eastern
United States. A brochure, “Living with Cougars in Eastern North
America,” can be printed from the website.
Cougar Network
(2)
Protecting and Restoring Habitat
Books
Papers
Groups
(3)
Protecting and restoring permeability
Books
Southern Rockies Wildlands Network Vision: A Science-Based Approach
to Rewilding the Southern Rockies by
Brian Miller et al. (Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project and Colorado
Mountain Club Press, Golden, CO, 2004). Covers ecological wounds and
healing ecological wounds in Southern Rockies. Order from Amazon.
Sky Islands Wildlands Network Conservation Plan
by Dave Foreman et al. (The Wildlands Project 2000).
Covers the ecological wounds and how to heal them in the Sky Islands
of southern New Mexico and Arizona (this is the initial discussion
of the healing-the-wounds approach). Available from Kim Vacariu, The
Wildlands Project, at 520-884-0875 or
kim@wildlandsproject.org.
New Mexico Highlands Wildlands Network Vision
by Dave Foreman et al. (The Wildlands Project 2003). Covers the
ecological wounds and how to heal them in New Mexico. CD only
available from Kim Vacariu, The Wildlands Project, at 520-884-0875
or
kim@wildlandsproject.org.
Papers
Articles available as PDFs:
Peter
H. Singleton, William L. Gaines, and John F. Lehmkuhl, Landscape
Permeability for Large Carnivores in Washington: A Geographic
Information System Weighted-Distance and Least-Cost Corridor
Assessment (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Pacific Northwest Research Station, Research Paper PNW-RP-549,
December 2002). CLICK HERE FOR PDF.
Articles available in books listed above:
Andy
Dobson et al. “Connectivity: Maintaining Flows in Fragmented
Landscapes,” Chapter 6 in Continental
Conservation.
Articles available at another site:
Deborah
K. Davidson, American Wildlands, “Innovative Partnerships That
Address Highway Impacts To Wildlife Habitat Connectivity,” presented
to the 2004 ICOET conference.
http://www.wildlands.org/highwaywildlife.pdf.
Articles not yet available:
Reed
Noss, “A Recipe for Reserve System Design and Management,” special
issue, Wild Earth, 1992, 24.
Reed F.
Noss, “Protecting Natural Areas in Fragmented Landscapes,”
Natural Areas Journal 7 no. 1 (1987): 2-13.
Peter
H. Singleton, John F. Lehmkuhl, and William Gaines, “Using Weighted
Distance and Least-Cost Corridor Analysis to Evaluate Regional-Scale
Large Carnivore Habitat Connectivity in Washington,” A Time For
Action: 2001 Proceedings ICOET (International Conference on
Ecology and Transportation, September 24-28, 2002, Keystone, Colo.),
583-594.
Reports and Other Resources
Safe Passage Links. Compiled by Matt Clark of The
Rewilding Institute. Click-on links to various websites with good
information on connectivity restoration.
Click here.
Wildlife Crossing Data for the New Mexico Highlands Wildlands
Network. Compiled by Matt Clark of The Rewilding Institute. An
excellent bibliography of articles and reports with click-on links.
Click here.
Groups
General
The Wildlands
Project
Wildlands CPR
American
Wildlands. Guided by science, American Wildlands advocates
for the protection, restoration, and connectivity of the wild
landscapes and the mountain-fed waters of the U.S. Northern Rocky
Mountains region. For newsletter and email updates contact at
info@wildlands.org, (406) 586-8175.
Sky Island
Alliance
Yellowstone to
Yukon Conservation Initiative
Highway Barrier
Identification and Mitigation
Perhaps
the most exciting and effective new campaign by conservationists is
the identification of road barriers and other fracture zones
impairing wildlife movement in North America. Conservationists have
joined forces with highway departments, local residents, and even
auto insurance companies to stop the road-kill carnage on roads.
American
Wildlands. Over the past decade, American Wildlands has used
computers, on-the-ground science, and common sense to map all of the
U.S. Northern Rockies’ key wildlife corridors while highlighting the
places where busy roadways collide with vulnerable wildlife.
Our Safe Passages Project shares this information with private
landowners, wildlife biologists, transportation officials, and
engineers to help design more wildlife-friendly highways and
construct animal crossings over, under, and around busy roadways.
Defenders of
Wildlife. Defenders’ Habitat & Highway Campaign has two
objectives: (1) Reduce the impact of roads and highways on wildlife
and habitat. Existing roads should be modified where necessary to
allow wildlife to cross, and minimize impact on the surrounding
environment. (2) Incorporate wildlife conservation into
transportation planning. Future road development should avoid
wildlife habitats and environmentally sensitive places.
Southern Rockies
Ecosystem Project.
Works with land managers, highway department, auto insurers, and
others to identify highway barriers in Southern Rockies.
Conducts workshops on how to mitigate barriers.
I-90 Wildlife Bridges
Coalition. In the Cascade
Mountains of Washington State, bustling Interstate 90 will be
expanded from four lanes to six—right through the heart of important
wildlife corridor lands. The I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition is a
diverse group of interests that was formed to ensure that high
quality wildlife and fish passage options—both underpasses and
overpasses—be included in the highway upgrade.
South Coast
Wildlands Project. Coordinates
citizens and agencies on identifying barriers to wildlife movement
in Southern California and restoring linkages through them.
The Wildlands Project
Tucson Office. Highlights major barriers along the Spine
of the Continent MegaLinkages and assists local groups working on
barriers. Kim Vacariu, The Wildlands Project, at 520-884-0875 or
kim@wildlandsproject.org.
Arizona Wildlife Linkages Workgroup. A collaboration among
Arizona Department of Transportation, Arizona Game & Fish
Department, Federal Highways Administration, Forest Service, BLM,
Northern Arizona University, Wildlands Project, and others to
identify needs for connectivity throughout the state of Arizona,
incorporate connectivity in the pre-design of transportation
projects, and conduct detail planning for complex fracture zones
involving non-conserved lands. A report with a statewide map is due
June 2005 and will be posted at a website (pending) at ADOT. Contact
persons: Bruce Eilerts at ADOT (beilerts@dot.state.az.us),
Evelyn Erlandsen at AGFD (eerlandsen@azgfd.gov),
or Paul Beier at NAU (paul.beier@nau.edu).
Tijeras Canyon Safe
Passage Coalition. POB 11395, Albuquerque, NM 87192, (505)
922-9424. TCSPC is a group of organizations, agencies, and
individuals working to provide safe crossings for wildlife and safer
travel for people through Tijeras Canyon. Interstate 40 through
Tijeras Canyon just east of Albuquerque, NM, is a formidable barrier
to wildlife between the Sandia and Manzano Wilderness Areas.
Grand Canyon
Wildlands Council.
(4)
Restoring Natural Evolutionary and
Ecological Processes (especially fire and hydrology)
Books
Papers
Groups
(5)
Preventing the Spread of and Eradicating Exotic Species
Books
Papers
Groups
(6)
Limiting the spread of biocides
Books
Papers
Groups
(7)
Mitigating the Effects of Catastrophic Climate Change
Books
Papers
Groups
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