Sustaining Wild Things - Species

Endangered Species Glossary http://www.fws.gov/endangered/glossary.html

Extinct species A species that no longer exists. For ESA, a species currently believed to be extinct.

Endangered species An animal or plant species in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Threatened species An animal or plant species likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Museum specimen of the Passenger pigeon that became extinct in 1914.

Credit: © Ken Lucas/Visuals Unlimited 178223

Peter (Pehr) Kalm (1716 - 1779)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalm

Kalm's journal of his travels was published as En Resa til Norra America (Stockholm, 1753–1761). It was translated into German, Dutch, French, and into English in 1770 as Travels into North America. Another American edition was translated by Adolph B. Benson and published in 1937; it is an important standard reference regarding life in colonial North America.

Peter KalmMarch the 3rd (1749) “Wild pigeons (Columba macrour or migratioia) flew in the woods in numbers beyond conception, and I was assured that they were more plentiful than they had been for several years past. They came this week and continued here for about a fortnight, after which they all disappeared, whence they came. I shall speak of them more particularly in another place.”

June the 29th (1749) “Wild pigeons. We saw immense numbers of the wild pigeons which I have previously described flying in the woods, and which sometimes come in incredible flocks to the southern English colonies, without the inhabitants there knowing where they come from. They have their nests in the trees here, and almost all night make a rustling, whirring noise and cooing in the trees where they roost.”

Peter Kalm

“The French shot a great number of them, and gave us some, in which we found a great quantity of the seeds of the elm, which evidently demonstrated the care of Providence in supplying them with food; for in May the seeds of the red maple, which abounds here, are ripe, and drop from the trees and are eaten by the pigeons during that time: afterwards, the seeds of the elm ripen, which then become their food, till other seeds mature for them. Their flesh is the most palatable of any bird’s flesh I have ever tasted.”

Peter Kalm

John Burroughs(1837-1931)

Burroughs, J. 1871. Wake Robin (Richard F Fleck (ed.)) Gibbs-Smith Publishers.

John Burroughs

“Wild pigeons, in immense numbers, used to breed regularly in the valley of the Big Ingin and about the head of the Neversink. The treetops for miles were full of their nests, while the going and coming of the old birds kept up a constant din. But the gunners soon got wind of it, and from far and near were wont to pour in during the spring, and to slaughter both old and young. This practice soon had the effect of driving the pigeons all away, and now only a few pairs breed in these woods.”

Edwin Way Teale (1899 – 1980)

Teale, E. W. 1960. Journey into Summer: A Naturalist’s Record of a 19,000-Mile Journey through the North American Summer. Dodd, Mead & Co, N.Y., N.Y.

Edwin Way Teale “We were north of Petosky, following the shore road, when we climbed through woodland onto an immense promontory that overlooked the upper end of Lake Michigan. Gazing out over the white-flecked expanse of blue, I felt an old excitement stirring within me. This was the first large body of water I had ever known, the lake of my childhood. Our first river, our first lake, our first mountain, our first forest – none encountered later ever leaves an impression so indelible.”

Edwin Way Teale “At last we turned and let our eyes wander over the wooded land that stretched away as far as we could see into the interior. The sky above all this forest land, above our promontory, above the waves of the lake shallows had been cut and crisscrossed, hardly a century ago, but the million passing wings of the now vanished passenger pigeon. Except for being larger, having a blue-gray head, and lacking the black spot behind the eye, this bird closely resembled a mourning dove.”

Edwin Way Teale “The place-names of the region – Pigeon Lake, Pigeon Hill, Pigeon River – are echoes of the days when the uncounted hosts of these wild birds nested here. In pioneer times a single continuous nesting area near Petoskey covered more than 260 square miles. Across Lake Michigan, another nesting area extended for 100 miles through central Wisconsin. Literally obscuring the sun, the migrating flocks streamed north and south in flowing rivers of birds.”

Edwin Way Teale“Alexander Wilson tells of one such living torrent that passed above him hour after hour near the Kentucky River. He calculated that it was at least a mile wide and 240 miles long and contained more than 2,000,000,000 birds. No one can even estimate how many billions of passenger pigeons once lived in this land where not one single bird of its kind breathes today.”

Edwin Way Teale “So densely packed were the roosting birds that small oaks bent to the ground with their weight. They often rested one upon another. Sometimes the masses were a dozen pigeons deep. Cotton Mather describes vividly such a roosting place: “Yea, they sat upon one another like Bees, till a Limb of a Tree would seem almost as big as a House. As many as a dozen birds were reported killed by a single rifle ball fired into such a mass. And the firing continued incessantly.”

Edwin Way Teale “Meat hunters in one small area in upper Michigan slaughtered 700,000 passenger pigeons in a single year. Salted and packed in barrels, their bodies went to market. Live squabs, tens of thousands of them pulled from the nests and placed in wooden crates, traveled by express to the larger cities. Ruts in the forest roads were sometimes filled in with tons of the pigeon wings. Netters attracted the passing flocks by using as decoys birds with their eyes sewed shut. In the whole revolting story of man’s inhumanity to fellow creatures of the earth, the record of the passenger pigeon forms one of the darkest pages.”

Edwin Way Teale “While the State Senate of Ohio was receiving a report that concluded that the passenger pigeon would never become extinct, and Massachusetts was enacting a law to protect the netters of wild pigeons, the slaughter continued. The railroad and the telegraph hastened the end. Station agents, with their dot-and-dash messages, reported the arrival of the migrants all along the line. The railroads ran special trains for the gunners and the express companies shipped back the birds they killed.”

Edwin Way Teale“The slaughter of the pigeons became big business. Yet so great were their numbers that little decrease was noticed until about 1880. Less than four decades later, however, only a single passenger pigeon remained alive. This was Martha, a caged female at the Cincinnati, Ohio, Zoo, now one of the mounted specimens at the National Museum, in Washington. When she died, on September 1, 1914, a whole species had been destroyed; the teeming, vibrant life that was the passenger pigeon’s had disappeared forever from the earth. No remnant remained in all the woods that spread away below us where once the multitudes had fed and nested.”

Passenger pigeon

Great auk Dodo Dusky seaside sparrow

Aepyornis(Madagascar)

A few globally extinct species

Florida manatee

Northern spotted owl (threatened)

Gray wolf Florida panther Bannerman's turaco (Africa)

Devil's hole pupfish

Snow leopard(Central Asia)

Black-footed ferret

Symphonia(Madagascar)

Utah prairie dog(threatened)

Ghost bat(Australia)

California condor

Black lace cactus

Black rhinoceros(Africa)

Oahu tree snail

A few endangered species

Grizzly bear(threatened)

Arabian oryx(Middle East)

White top pitcher plant

Kirtland's warbler

African elephant(Africa)

Mojave desert tortoise (threatened)

Swallowtail butterfly

Humpback chub

Golden lion tamarin (Brazil)

Siberian tiger(Siberia)

A few threatened species

West Virginiaspring salamander

Giant panda(China)

Knowlton cactus

Mountain gorilla(Africa)

Swamp pink

Pine barrens tree frog (male)

Hawksbill sea turtle

El Segundo blue butterfly

Whooping crane

Blue whale

A few threatened species

An extremely rare, but non-endangered species – the Horned, Mudsucker.This rare bird was found at Warren Dunes along Lake Michigan on 8/4/06.

Extinct, Endangered, Threatened, and Rare… INDNR - animals and plants in Allen County, IN INDNR - Plants in Indiana PLANTS - Federal and State Protected Plants in India

na USFWS - Animals in the Midwest ICUN - Summary Statistics for Globally Threatened S

pecies

A 2000 joint study by World Conservation Union and Conservation International and a 1999 study by the World Wildlife Fund found that the following numbers of animals are in danger of extinction: 14% of the world’s plants 34% of the world’s fish 25% of the world’s amphibians 20% of the world’s reptiles 12% of the world’s birds 24% of the world’s mammals

Economic Reasons Food Fuel Fiber Lumber Paper Medicine Future products

Reasons to Preserve Biodiversity:

FoxgloveDigitalis purpurea, EuropeDigitalis for heart failure

Pacific yewTaxus brevifolia, Pacific NorthwestOvarian cancer

CinchonaCinchona ledogeriana, South AmericaQuinine for malaria treatment

Reasons to Preserve Biodiversity: Economic Reasons Ecological

Reasons – They: Produce oxygen Pollinate crops Develop soil Recycle nutrients Control pests Regulate climate Control flooding Produce clean

water

Moderate weather extremes

Decompose wastes Absorb and detoxify

pollutants Produce lumber,

fodder, and biomass Etc.

Economic Reasons Ecological Reasons Information/Scientific importance

Reasons to Preserve Biodiversity:

Economic Reasons Ecological Reasons Information/Scientific importance Recreation

Aesthetics“We need the tonic of wildness…”

Henry David Thoreau Ecotourism

E.g., Natural Habitat AdventuresE.g., Audubon Nature OdysseysE.g., GSMNP Wildflower Pilgrimage

Reasons to Preserve Biodiversity:

Economic Reasons Ecological Reasons Information/Scientific importance Recreation Philosophical basis?

For whom? Genesis 1:11-13, 20-25 Ps 104:10-30 Job 12:7-12

Reasons to Preserve Biodiversity:

"What value has wildlife from the standpoint of morals and religion? I heard of a boy once who was brought up an atheist. He changed his mind when he saw that there were a hundred-odd species of warblers, each bedecked like to the rainbow, and each performing yearly sundry thousands of miles of migration about which scientists wrote wisely but did not understand. No 'fortuitous concourse of elements' working blindly through any number of millions of years could quite account for why warblers are so beautiful. No mechanistic theory, even bolstered by mutations, has ever quite accounted for the colors of the cerulean warbler, or the vespers of the wood thrush, or the swansong, or -- goose music. I dare say this boy's convictions would be harder to shake than those of many inductive theologians. There are yet many boys to be born who, like Isaiah, 'may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this.' But where shall they see, and know, and consider? In museums?“ -- Aldo Leopold, "Goose Music" in Round River (Oxford University Press, 1953)

Characteristic Examples

Low reproductive rate(K-strategist)

Specialized niche

Narrow distribution

Feeds at high trophic level

Fixed migratory patterns

Rare

Commercially valuable

Large territories

Blue whale, giant panda,rhinoceros

Blue whale, giant panda,Everglades kite

Many island species,elephant seal, desert pupfish

Bengal tiger, bald eagle,grizzly bear

Blue whale, whooping crane,sea turtles

Many island species,African violet, some orchids

Snow leopard, tiger, elephant, rhinoceros, rare plants and birds

California condor, grizzly bear, Florida panther

How do species become endangered?

Some have characteristics that make them prone to extinction.

Habitat Loss, Degradation, And Fragmentation Conservation biologists summarize the most

important causes of premature extinction as “HIPPO”: Habitat destruction, degradation, and

fragmentation Invasive species Population growth Pollution Overharvest

***Habitat loss

***Habitat degradationand fragmentation

***Introducing nonnative species

Overfishing

Climate change

Predator and pest control

Secondary Causes

***Population growth• Rising resource use• No environmental accounting• Poverty

Basic Causes

Pollution

Commercial hunting and poaching

Sale of exotic petsand decorative plants

Direct Causes of Species Degradation:

*** = Big causes

Ivory-billed Woodpecker Ivory-billed Woodpecker FWS brochur

e Black Footed Ferret Black-Footed Ferret FWS site

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: ***Habitat Loss, Degradation, and Fragmentation

Range 100 years ago

Indian Tiger

Range today(about 2,300 left)

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Range in 1700

Black Rhino

Range today(about 3,600 left)

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Probable range 1600

African Elephant

Range today

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Range today(34,000–54,000 left)

Asian or Indian Elephant

Former range

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Video: Penguin Rescue

From ABC News, Biology in the Headlines, 2005 DVD.

PLAYVIDEO

Purple loosestrifeLINK

European starlingLINK

African honeybee(“Killer bee”)

Nutria Salt cedar(Tamarisk)

Marine toad Water hyacinth Japanese beetle Hydrilla European wild boar(Feral pig)

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: ***Deliberately Introduced Species

Sea lamprey(attached to lake trout)

Argentina fire ant Eurasian muffleBrown tree snake Common pigeon(Rock dove)

Formosan termite Zebra musselLINK

Asian long-hornedbeetle

Asian tiger mosquito Gypsy moth larvae

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: ***Accidentally Introduced Species

Direct Causes of Species Degradation:***Accidentally Introduced Species Dutch Elm Disease American Chestnut Blight

Peter KalmJune the 2nd (1749) “This morning we left Trenton, and proceeded towards New York. We rode in an ordinary open wagon which in stony places came near shaking liver and lungs out of you, otherwise the better class people travel with their own horses whether they ride in a wagon or chaise, or on horseback; the latter is the more common method of travelling. The country I have described before. The fields were sown with wheat, rye, corn, oats, hemp, and flax. In several places, we saw very large pieces of ground planted with hemp. We saw an abundance of chestnut trees in the woods.”

Invasive Species in Indiana INPAWS Indiana DNR PLANTS – Indiana State Invasive and Nox

ious Weeds A “New” Invasive Exotic – The Emerald A

sh Borer

A very few species that are so common that we don’t even know that they don’t belong here… European Starling House Sparrow Dandelion White Clover Broadleaf Plantain

Peter KalmSeptember the 26th (1748) “Plants. The broad plantian, or Plantago major, grows on the highroads, foot paths, meadows, and in gardens in great quantity. Mr Bartram had found this plant in many places on his travels, but he did not know whether it was an original American plant or whether the Europeans had brought it over. This doubt had its rise from the savages (who always have an extensive knowledge of the plants of a country) pretending that this plant never grew here before the arrival of the White Men. They therefore gave it a name which signified the (Englishman’s) foot, for they say that wherever a European had walked, this plant grew in his footsteps.”

Characteristics ofSuccessful

Invader Species

• High reproductive rate, short generation time (r-selected species)

• Pioneer species

• Long lived

• High dispersal rate

• Release growth- inhibiting chemicals into soil

• Generalists

• High genetic variability

Characteristics ofEcosystems Vulnerable

to Invader Species

• Similar climate to habitat of invader

• Absence of predators on invading species

• Early successional species

• Low diversity of native species

• Absence of fire

• Disturbed by human activities

Invasive SpeciesPrevention is the best way to reduce threats from invasive species, because once they arrive it is almost impossible to slow their spread.

Carolina Paroquet Mexican Prairie Dog – “The Mexican Prairie

Dog was first reported in 1956. By the 1980s its habitat was less than 800 km² (310 sq mi). Viewed as a pest and an obstacle to agriculture and cattle raising, it was frequently poisoned, and became endangered in 1994. Mexican Prairie Dogs currently inhabit less than 2% of their former territory.”

Dog Be Gone

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: Predator and Pest Control

DDT in fish-eatingbirds (ospreys)

25 ppm

DDT in largefish (needle fish)2 ppm

DDT in smallfish (minnows)0.5 ppm

DDT inzooplankton0.04 ppm

DDT in water0.000003 ppm,Or 3 ppt

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: Pollution (Biological Amplification)

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: Commercial Hunting and Poaching

Passenger Pigeon

Illegal Cambodian market with baby Macaques, adult Porcupine, and Crocodile skulls.Credit: © Robert Fournier/Visuals Unlimited

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: Commercial Hunting and Poaching

Because of scarcity of inspectors, probably no more than 1/10th of the illegal wildlife trade in the U.S. is discovered.

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: Commercial Hunting and Poaching

Rhinoceros are often killed for their horns and sold illegally on the black market for decorative and medicinal purposes.

Direct Causes of Species Degradation: Commercial Hunting and Poaching

Tiger bones in sesame oil for illegal sale in Myanmar market, folk medicine.

Credit: © Robert Fournier/Visuals Unlimited 302744

Solutions

Treaties and Laws Lacey Act of 1900 Endangered Species Act of 1973 CITES – 1975 Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species Habitat Conservation Plan National Wildlife Refuges Gene Banks (Wheeler Orchid Collection,)

Botanical Gardens, and Farms Zoos and Aquariums Wildlife Management Fishery Management

Reconciliation Ecology Reconciliation ecology involves finding ways

to share places we dominate with other species. Examples include: Replacing monoculture grasses with native

species. Maintaining habitats for insect eating bats can

keep down unwanted insects. Reduction and elimination of pesticides to protect

non-target organisms (such as vital insect pollinators).

Solutions – Native Plant Gardening Clay Busters & Plants for Medium Soils Grow Native! National Wildflower Research Center Sustainable Urban Landscape Information

Series United States Environmental Protection Ag

ency, Green Acres_ Green Landscaping with Native Plants

Using Reconciliation Ecology to Protect Bluebirds

Putting up bluebird boxes with holes too small for (nonnative) competitors in areas where trees have been cut down have helped reestablish populations.

• Do not buy furs, ivory products, and other materials made from endangered or threatened animal species.

• Do not buy wood and paper products produced by cutting remaining old-growth forests in the tropics.

• Do not buy birds, snakes, turtles, tropical fish, and other animals that are taken from the wild.

• Do not buy orchids, cacti, and other plants that are taken from the wild.

• Spread the word. Talk to your friends and relatives about this problem and what they can do about it.

What Can You Do?

Protecting Species

Sustaining Wild Things - Ecosystems

Biodiversity Genetic diversity – Variety within a species. *Species diversity – Variety among the species

in a habitat. (The number of species in an area) Ecological diversity – Variety of communities

(forests, deserts, etc.) Functional diversity – biological and chemical

functions such as energy flow and matter cycling

The Species Approach The Ecosystem Approach

Goal

Protect species frompremature extinction

Strategies• Identify

endangered species

• Protect their critical habitats

Tactics

• Legally protect endangered species

• Manage habitat

• Propagate endangered species in captivity

• Reintroduce species into suitable habitats

Goal

Protect populations ofspecies in their naturalhabitats

Strategy

Preserve sufficient areasof habitats in differentbiomes and aquaticsystems

Tactics• Protect habitat areas

through private purchase or government action

• Eliminate or reduce populations of alien species from protected areas

• Manage protected areas to sustain native species

• Restore degraded ecosystems

Two Ways to Save Biodiversity

U.S. Public Lands – Habitat Protected through Government Action Multiple Land Use

National Forest System – allow logging, mining, livestock grazing, farming, oil and gas extraction, recreation, sport hunting, sport and commercial fishing.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – emphasizes the production of energy and strategic minerals and rangeland for livestock

Moderately Restricted-use Lands National Wildlife Refuges – Protects land for waterfowl and big game.

A few protect endangered species. Some allow for sport hunting, trapping, sport and commercial fishing, oil and gas development, mining, logging, grazing, some military activities, and farming.

Restricted-use lands National Parks National Wilderness Preservation System - Four federal agencies of the

United States government administer the National Wilderness Preservation System: the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Park Service

National parks and preserves National forests (and Xs) National wildlife refuges

Support energy flow and chemical cycling

Reduce soil erosion

Absorb and release water

Purify water and air

Influence local and regional climate

Store atmospheric carbon

Provide numerous wildlife habitats

Forests

Natural Capital

Fuelwood

Lumber

Pulp to make paper

Mining

Livestock grazing

Recreation

Jobs

EconomicServices

EcologicalServices

Benefits of Forests

Forest Types and Man’s Effects Forest types: tropical (rain, deciduous, dry),

temperate, and boreal (polar.)

BiomedistributionForest Types

Dry woodlands and shrublands (chaparral)

Temperate grassland

Temperate deciduous forest

Boreal forest (taiga), evergreen coniferousforest (e.g., montane coniferous forest)

Arctic tundra (polar grasslands)

Tropical savanna,thorn forest

Tropical scrub forest

Tropical deciduous forest

Tropical rain forest,tropical evergreen forest

Desert

Ice

Mountains(complex zonation)

Semidesert,arid grassland

Tropic ofCapricorn

Equator

Tropic ofCancer

Forest Types and Man’s Effects Old growth (Virgin, frontier) forest- never been

cut. It may take hundreds or thousands of years to form.

Second-growth forest- forms by succession after cutting or clearing by natural activities.

12.0, 10.0, 13.733.3Dead Tree Cavities

(per hectare)

49.3, 59.0, 55.746.7Live Tree Cavities

(per hectare)

68.120.8Downwood Volume (m3/hectare)

3.11.7Snag Basal Area (m2/hectare)

22.637.6Standing Snags (trees/hectare)

29.423.2Basal Area (m2/hectare)

271319 Density (stems/hectare)

More than 10080-110Age (years)

Davis Purdue Research Forest

Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest

Donaldson’s Woods

Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest

Hoosier National Forest

Location

Old GrowthMature, Second GrowthCharacteristic

Old Growth Forests in Indiana

INDNR - Old Growth Forests

IN Division of Forestry – Indiana’s Old Growth Forests

Forest Types and Man’s Effects Forest types: tropical (rain, deciduous, dry),

temperate, and boreal (polar.) Old growth (Virgin, frontier) forest- never been

cut. It may take hundreds or thousands of years to form.

Second-growth forest- forms by succession after cutting or clearing by natural activities.

Tree Plantation - Managed tracts of uniformly aged trees of one species that are harvested by clearcutting as soon as they become commercially valuable.

Years of growth30

2515

10

5

Clear cut

Weak treesremoved

Seedlingsplanted

Harvesting Trees

Effects of clear-cutting in the state of Washington, U.S.

Global Outlook: Extent of Deforestation Human activities

have reduced the earth’s forest cover by as much as half.

Losses are concentrated in developing countries.

Forest Resources and Management in the U.S. U.S. forests cover more area than in 1920. Since the 1960’s, an increasing area of old growth and

diverse second-growth forests have been clear-cut. Often replace with tree farms. Decreases biodiversity. Disrupts ecosystem processes.

Paper Industry Laying Waste to North American Forests

• Identify and protect forest areas high in biodiversity

• Grow more timber on long rotations

• Rely more on selective cutting and strip cutting

• Stop clear-cutting on steep slopes

• Cease logging of old-growth forests

• Prohibit fragmentation of remaining large blocks of forest

• Sharply reduce road building into uncut forest areas

• Leave most standing dead trees and fallen timber for wildlife habitat and nutrient recycling

• Certify timber grown by sustainable methods

• Include ecological services of forests in estimating their economic value

• Plant tree plantations on deforested and degraded land

• Shift government subsidies from harvesting trees to planting trees

Sustainable Forestry

Solutions

We have taken over, disturbed, or degraded 40-50 % of the earth’s natural land surface.

We use, waste, or destroy 40% of the earth’s terrestrial primary productivity.

We have reduced forest cover by 20-50% We have increased the extinction rate by 100 to

10,000 times the natural rate.

Examples of Ecosystem Loss in the World

Cut 95-98% of the virgin/old-growth forests in the lower 48 since 1620

98% of the tallgrass prairie 99% of California’s grasslands, 91% of its

wetlands, and 85% of its redwood forests. 90% of Hawaii’s dry forests 81% of the nations fish communities more than 50% of our wetlands.

Examples of Ecosystem Loss in the U.S. - 1999 U.S.G.S. survey:

What was it like in the U.S.?

Readings from explorers…

…we have lost 99% of California’s grasslands…

John MuirMuir, J. 1894. The Mountains of

California. The Century Company, N.Y.

John Muir (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) was one of the first modern preservationists. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, and wildlife, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, were read by millions and are still popular today. His direct activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. His writings and philosophy strongly influenced the formation of the modern environmental movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

John MuirCHAPTER XVI THE BEE-PASTURES

“When California was wild, it was one sweet bee-garden throughout its entire length, north and south, and all the way across from the snowy Sierra to the ocean.”

John Muir

“Wherever a bee might fly within the bounds of this virgin wilderness--through the redwood forests, along the banks of the rivers, along the bluffs and headlands fronting the sea, over valley and plain, park and grove, and deep, leafy glen, or far up the piny slopes of the mountains--throughout every belt and section of climate up to the timber line, bee-flowers bloomed in lavish, abundance. Here they grew more or less apart in special sheets and patches of no great size, there in broad, flowing folds hundreds of miles in length--zones of polleny forests, zones of flowery chaparral, stream-tangles of rubus and wild rose, sheets of golden composite, beds of violets, beds of mint, beds of bryanthus and clover, and so on, certain species blooming somewhere all the year round.”

John Muir “But of late years plows and sheep have made sad havoc in these glorious pastures, destroying tens of thousands of the flowery acres like a fire, and banishing many species of the best honey-plants to rocky cliffs and fence-corners, while, on the other hand, cultivation thus far has given no adequate compensation, at least in kind; only acres of alfalfa for miles of the richest wild pasture, ornamental roses and honeysuckles around cottage doors for cascades of wild roses in the dells, and small, square orchards and orange-groves for broad mountain-belts of chaparral.”

What was it like in the U.S.?

Readings from explorers…

…Cut 95-98% of the virgin/old-growth forests in the lower 48 since 1620

…more than 50% of our wetlands.

Peter KalmApril the 4th (1749) “About sixty years ago, the greatest part of this country was covered with tall and large trees, and the swamps were full of water. But it has undergone so great a change, as few other places have undergone in so short a time. At present the forests are cut down in most places, the swamps drained by ditches, the country cultivated, and changed into grain fields, meadows, and pastures. …”

What was it like in the U.S.?

Readings from explorers…

…98% of the tallgrass prairie

Aldo LeopoldLeopold, A. 1949. A Sand County Almanac.

Oxford University Press, London.Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 - April 21, 1948)

was a United States ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness preservation. Aldo Leopold is considered to be the father of wildlife management in the United States and was a life-long fisherman and hunter. Leopold died in 1948 from a heart attack, while fighting a brush fire on a neighbor's farm.

Leopold wrote A Sand County Almanac, which has been read by millions and has informed and changed the environmental movement and a widespread interest in ecology as a science. By the same token, the Wilderness Society and Leopold’s work in it were important precursors to the environmental movement that coalesced around the time of the first Earth Day.

Published in 1949, shortly after Leopold's death, A Sand County Almanac is a combination of natural history, scene painting with words, and philosophy. It is perhaps best known for the following quote, which defines his land ethic: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold

Aldo Leopold

“Every July I watch eagerly a certain country graveyard that I pass in driving to and from my farm. It is time for a prairie birthday, and in one corner of this graveyard lives a surviving celebrant of that once important event.”

Aldo Leopold“It is an ordinary graveyard, bordered by the

usual spruces, and studded with the usual pink granite or white marble headstones, each with the usual Sunday bouquet of red or pink geraniums. It is extraordinary only in being triangular instead of square, and in harboring, within the sharp angle of its fence, a pin-point remnant of the native prairie on which the graveyard was established in the 1840's.”

Aldo Leopold“Heretofore unreachable by sythe or mower, this

yard-square relic of original Wisconsin gives birth, each July, to a man-high stalk of compass plant or cutleaf Silphium, spangled with saucer-sized yellow blooms resembling sunflowers. It is the sole remnant of this plant along this highway, and perhaps the sole remnant in the western half of our county. What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked.”

Aldo Leopold“This year I found the Silphium in first bloom

on 24 July, a week later than usual; during the last six years the average date was 15 July.”

“When I passed the graveyard again on 3 August, the fence had been removed by a road crew, and the Silphium cut. It is easy now to predict the future; for a few years my Silphium will try in vain to rise above the mowing machine, and then it will die. With it will die the prairie epoch.”

Aldo Leopold“The Highway Department says that 100,000 cars

pass yearly over this route during the three summer months when the Silphium is in bloom. In them must ride at least 100,000 people who have 'taken' what is called history, and perhaps 25,000 who have 'taken' what is called botany. Yet I doubt whether a dozen have seen the Silphium, and of these hardly one will notice its demise. If I were to tell a preacher of the adjoining church that the road crew has been burning history books in his cemetery, under the guise of mowing weeds, he would be amazed and uncomprehending. How could a weed be a book?”

Aldo Leopold

“This is one little episode in the funeral of the native flora, which in turn is one episode in the funeral of the floras of the world. Mechanized man, oblivious of floras, is proud of his progress in cleaning up the landscape on which, willy-nilly, he must live out his days. It might be wise to prohibit at once all teaching of real botany and real history, lest some future citizen suffer qualms about the floristic price of his good life.”

What was it like in Indiana?

Indiana State Seal

State QuartersCalifornia Indiana

Marion T. Jackson

Photo taken 11/3/06Jackson, M. T. 2000. The Natural Heritage of Indiana. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

Marion T. JacksonPerspective: The Indiana That Was

“During the late eighteenth century, Indiana was part of the great wilderness of deciduous hardwoods that stretched unbroken ‘beyond the Ohio’ to the evergreen forests of the ‘north country,’ and to the vast prairies westward, beyond the limit of trees.”

Marion T. Jackson “According to the best information available on pre-settlement Indiana, the 36,291-square mile area contained about 20 million acres of forestland, 2 million acres of prairie, 1.5 million acres of water and wetlands, plus glades, barrens, and savanna totaling perhaps another 1 million acres.”

Marion T. JacksonThe Wildlife – “For millennia, thousands of these huge, shaggy beasts {bison} had periodically moved southeastward from the Illinois and western Indiana prairies, crossed the Wabash River near Vincennes, and stolidly sauntered along the famed Buffalo Trace … to the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, on their journey to Big Bone Lick and the barrens of Kentucky to obtain minerals and salt.”

Marion T. Jackson “In densely wooded regions the bison were primarily transients, but in meadows and prairies they abounded. From the summit of a hill near Ouiatenon, a report of 1718 stated, ‘Noting is visible to the eye but prairies full of buffaloes.’”

Marion T. Jackson “But as prevalent as they once were, the bison were essentially wiped out in a score of years and were gone from the state by 1830. Elk, panther, black bear, fischer, and beaver disappeared with almost equal rapidity; all nearly gone from Indiana by 1850. Even the tenacious timber wolf, the white-tailed deer, and the bald eagle had been extirpated by the beginning of the twentieth century.”

Marion T. Jackson The Forests - “Indiana’s original forests were among the finest broadleaved hardwood forests anywhere in the world. Stanley Coulter, in his 1891 publication The Forest Trees of Indiana, stated that ‘forty-two kinds of trees in the Wabash Valley attain a height above 100 feet.’”

Marion T. Jackson “Groves of the finest black walnut trees the world has ever known grew on Indiana’s most fertile soils, some individuals of which were 4 to 6 feet in diameter and 100 to 150 feet high. The General Land Office surveyors recognized the close correlation between soil fertility and the presence of black walnut trees when they entered such land descriptions into their field notes as ‘sugar tree and walnut land, excellent for growing corn.’ Most were cut and burned to clear the land for crops.”

Marion T. Jackson “Robert Ridgway, and eminent naturalist who studied and photographed the forests of the Lower Wabash River during the 1870s and 1880s, described the stands of timber of that region as ‘an exceedingly heavy virgin forest, some of the heaviest hardwood forest I have ever seen – as I have twice visited the Tropics (Central America) – covering almost the entire floodplain on the Indiana side.’”

Marion T. Jackson “Ridgeway measured several sycamores at 25 to 30 feet in circumference with overall heights of 160 to almost 200 feet. Several cypress stumps were measured in Knox County at 8 and 9 feet in diameter above their buttressed bases. He also measured a tuliptree, now rarely encountered on floodplains, that taped 25 feet in girth, 91 feet to the first limb, and 190 feet total height. The maximum diameter he recorded for a tuliptree was 11 feet; the average diameter of 18 measured specimens was 6.2 feet. Heights ranged from 110 to 168 feet, averaging 143.5. Ridgeway’s measurements were of felled trees, so we can be confident of his data.”

Marion T. Jackson “… But the most impressive feature of the primeval forests of Indiana was not their size or height of the trees. Rather, it was the dense shade that all but excluded sunlight. In the words of Amos W. Butler in his presidential address to the Indiana Academy of Science in 1895: ‘Over the greater part of this state were spread dense forests of tall trees -heavy timber- whose limbs met, and branches were so interwoven that but occasionally, could the sunlight find entrance. There was little or no undergrowth in the heaviest woods and the gloom of these dense shades and its accompanying silence was terribly oppressive. Mile upon mile, days' journey upon days' journey, stretched those gloomy shades amid giant columns and green arches reared by nature through centuries of time.’”

Marion T. Jackson “If the 20 million acres of forestland believed extant in Indiana in 1790 contained 110 trees above four inches in diameter on a average acre … then prior to settlement, Indiana must have contained approximately 2.2 billion trees, or about 400 trees for each Hoosier resident today.”

“An original forest of 2.2 billion trees, harboring a deer heard of perhaps 400,000, but only 10,000 to 12,000 wolves – this must be an object lesson in food chain structure and dynamics of wilderness ecosystems!”

Marion T. Jackson “How do you consume a wilderness resource of 2.2 billion trees, two-thirds of which were cut down before 1870? Assuming that relatively few trees were removed prior to 1800, either by Native Americans or pioneers, it would require the cutting of an average of 20 million trees annually for 70 years – a rate almost equal to that of an average-sized county per year, or more than 7000 acres per day, on average. Our ancestors did to the Indiana wilderness what is presently occurring in the tropical forests of Brazil, Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, Zaire, and elsewhere. But did we as a human species gain much ecological wisdom from what our forebears did to Indiana?”

Marion T. JacksonThe Prairies - “{Northeast Indiana} Here grasses – tall enough to hide a rider on horseback – on the best prairie soils were intermixed with a multitude of forbs, or broadleaf prairie wildflowers.”

“Today, less than 1000 acres of the original 2 million acres of virgin prairie remain, most of it occurring only as small, often degraded, remnants in pioneer cemeteries or transportation right-of-way. With the loss of the prairie habitat, the prairie chicken followed suit, extirpated from Indiana during the early 1970s.”

Marion T. JacksonThe Remnants - “Today, much less than 1 percent of the state remains in high-quality natural area. It is indeed sobering to realize that of the 20 million acres of original primeval forest that once occurred in Indiana – nearly enough to encircle the world one and a quarter times as a mile-wide band – today scarcely enough remains of high-quality old-growth forest in private ownership to encompass the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the same one-mile width.”

Aldo Leopold Leopold, A. 1949. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford University Press, London.

Aldo Leopold introduced his Sand County Almanac by stating, “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who can not. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.”

Henry David Thoreau(1817 – 1862) Thoreau, H. D. 1854. Walden.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Published in 1854, it details Thoreau's life for two years, two months, and two days in second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond, not far from his friends and family in Concord, Massachusetts.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden

Edwin Way Teale (1899 – 1980)

Teale, E. W. 1956. Autumn Across America: A Naturalist's Record of a 20,000-Mile Journey through the North American Autumn. Dodd, Mead & Co, N.Y., N.Y.

Edwin Way Teale “Decades ago, John Muir declared that the Olympic Park would be attacked again and again. His predictions has been amply vindicated. Men who see no more in a tree than board feet, elected officials who refer to the nation’s public lands as being ‘locked-up resources’ – as they might refer to songbirds as being ‘locked-up light meat and dark’ – these men we will have with us always and always they will pose a threat to our national parks. Only the vigilance of conservationists over the long haul, only an alertness to attack in a thousand guises, can prevent raids and invasions and destructions within these areas that the people believe have been permanently saved.”

Edwin Way Teale “On June 17, 1853, Henry Thoreau noted in his journal; ‘If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen – making earth bald before its time.’ That attitude is not one that disappeared when the Walden Woods were felled. It is current in every generation. It is ranged against every effort to save wild places. Those to whom the trees, the birds, the wildflowers represent only ‘locked-up dollars’ have never known or really seen these things. They have never experienced an interest in nature for itself.”

Ecological Restoration Restoration: trying to return to a condition as

similar as possible to original state. Rehabilitation: attempting to turn a degraded

ecosystem back to being functional. Replacement: replacing a degraded ecosystem

with another type of ecosystem. Creating artificial ecosystems: such as

artificial wetlands for flood reduction and sewage treatment.

Ecological Restoration Five basic science-based principles for

ecological restoration: Identify cause. Stop abuse by eliminating or sharply reducing

factors. Reintroduce species if necessary. Protect area form further degradation. Use adaptive management to monitor efforts,

assess successes, and modify strategies.

What Can We Do? Eight priorities for protecting biodiversity:

Take immediate action to preserve world’s biological hot spots.

Keep intact remaining old growth. Complete mapping of world’s biodiversity for

inventory and decision making. Determine world’s marine hot spots. Concentrate on protecting and restoring lake and

river systems (most threatened ecosystems).

What Can We Do? Ensure that the full range of the earths ecosystems

are included in global conservation strategy. Make conservation profitable. Initiate ecological restoration products to heal

some of the damage done and increase share of earth’s land and water allotted to the rest of nature.

• Adopt a forest.

• Plant trees and take care of them.

• Recycle paper and buy recycled paper products.

• Buy sustainable wood and wood products.

• Choose wood substitutes such as bamboo furniture and recycled plastic outdoor furniture, decking, and fencing.

• Restore a nearby degraded forest or grassland.

• Landscape your yard with a diversity of plants natural to the area.

• Live in town because suburban sprawl reduces biodiversity.

Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity

What Can You Do?

The creation reveals God to us. Indescribable by Chris Tomlinhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlKhw_o6kzEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuihT9wRc34

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea Creation's revealing Your majesty From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring Every creature unique in the song that it sings All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God Incomparable, unchangeable You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same You are amazing God You are amazing God

Indescribable by Chris Tomlinhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuihT9wRc34http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlKhw_o6kzE

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea Creation's revealing Your majesty From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring Every creature unique in the song that it sings All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God Incomparable, unchangeable You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same You are amazing God You are amazing God