Celebrating 30 years of wetlands conservation
By Dr. Charlotte R. Milling/McGraw Fellow
Photo by Alan Grinberg/flickr
On December 13, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act will celebrate its 30
th
anniversary. NAWCA is a non-regulatory, incentive-based program that funds grants for the long-term conservation of wetland habitat for waterfowl, migratory birds and other wetland-associated fish and wildlife species throughout North America.
In the three decades since it was signed into law, 30 million acres of habitat have been protected and restored as part of 3,000 NAWCA projects in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Abundances of several species of waterfowl have reached record highs in the past ten years due in part to this habitat conservation The protections afforded under the act are vital as wetland and associated grassland habitat continues to be lost in critical breeding grounds continent-wide.
In honor of the 30
th
anniversary, I had the pleasure of highlighting NAWCA’s function, history, and achievements in an article published in
The Wildlife Professional
, the publication for members of The Wildlife Society. This was a good opportunity to bring attention to NAWCA because it is easy to become complacent towards programs of this size that have been a staple in our industry for so long.
The fact that NAWCA has been receiving unauthorized appropriations for more than half a decade demonstrates how important it is that we, as conservationists, not take for granted the fact that we have this critical source of conservation funding. What would we do if we lost it? Last week, the House of Representatives voted to extend authorization for NAWCA until fiscal year 2024. This is important progress as we look towards the next 30 years of NAWCA.
Dr. Charlotte R. Milling is the McGraw Postdoctoral Fellow at The Ohio State University.
|
|
Algae blooms threaten Erie’s fabled fishery
By Tony Briscoe/Chicago Tribune
Photo by Ohio Sea Grant/flick
r
After decades of pollution, habitat degradation, overfishing and numerous waves of invasive species, Lake Erie is still the most productive fishery in the Great Lakes and among the most valuable natural resources in the United States. Its reputation as the most fertile fishing ground in the region is owed to its warm, shallow waters that allow algae, the base of the aquatic food chain, to thrive.
The algae serves as the base of the food chain for small fish and is among the reasons why Lake Erie, which only holds 2% of the Great Lakes water volume, cradles roughly 50% of the fish. Ironically, in overabundance, this algae imperils the fishery.
Harmful algae blooms and dead zones
have killed or forced many Lake Erie fish to migrate. Government regulations limit who is allowed to fish for certain catches, potentially changing the composition of the fishery.
|
|
Animals have adolescent drama, too
By Duncan Strauss/Washington Post
Photo by Stuart Orford/flickr
There are no reported sightings of surly teenage elephants reluctantly sitting down at the family dinner table, trusty ear buds in place, occasionally trumpeting monosyllabic answers.
But adolescent elephants do exhibit other behaviors many parents of human teens would recognize, said Cynthia Moss, a researcher who has studied and written books about elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park for nearly five decades.
“They’re naive, they have a lot to learn and they make mistakes,” Moss said.
This is particularly true for males, she explained: They raid crops. They get speared. They die. “It’s just like young human males who drive too fast,” she said, “and the insurance companies know very well to make them pay higher insurance rates.”
These sorts of low-judgment, high-risk actions, and many other youthful traits that traverse species, are explored in
a recent book
, “Wildhood: The Epic Journey From Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals” by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, a Harvard evolutionary biologist, and Kathryn Bowers, a science journalist.
|
|
Should we leave dead trees where they fall?
By Brandon Keim/Anthropocene
Photo by Christian Ferrer/flickr
When trees are damaged by insects or disease, there’s often pressure to cut them down. It’s argued that “salvaging” these trees is actually beneficial for forests—but evidence is mounting that it causes long-term ecological disruption.
The latest findings come from Białowieża Forest, a 550-square-mile woodland that straddles Poland and Belarus and is a last redoubt of the vast forest that once stretched from France to Russia. Long the protected domain of aristocracy, Białowieża escaped large-scale logging; it’s one of the few places in Europe where natural cycles of wind, fire, and disease still shape a forest at landscape scales.
Only during the last century has logging taken place. A prime target is the dead trees that are present in far larger numbers than in commercially-managed forests, in particular trees afflicted by bark beetles. Salvage logging following outbreaks is presented by supporters as ecologically beneficial, but it “alters the potential for natural regeneration,” says Anna Orczewska, an ecologist at the University of Silesia.
|
|
Birds declining, but we can do better by them
USA Today
Photo by Rodney Campbell/flickr
The findings of the report indicate that America’s bird populations have declined 29% (3 billion birds) since 1970. These are concerning numbers, especially for future generations of wildlife enthusiasts. Although the report does not examine the causes of declining bird populations, we know that loss of habitat is a critical factor.
At the same time, the report is not all bad news and provides us with a path to recovering declining species and delivering conservation for birds and other wildlife.
|
|
 |
“The presence of a single bird can change everything for one who appreciates them.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To read past McGraw Reports click
here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
