1. A stream corridor connecting forest and native grass habitats
2. The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, crucial to the long-term recovery of grizzly bears and other wildlife labeled as one of the most endangered wild lands in the U.S.
Today in Professor Trumpey's lecture we heard about the importance of biodiversity and efforts to restore corridors for animals.
Groups around the world are working to establish "wildlife highways" with varying degrees of success. "In North America, the Wildlands Project is pushing for a huge "Yellowstone-to-Yukon" wildlife corridor. In Central America, conservationists are slowly and sporadically working on the Meso-American Biological Corridor. The dream: A monkey should be able to go up a tree in Panama and not have to climb down till it reaches Mexico," (Windstar Wildlife Garden Weekly)
"The corridor idea is relatively new: conservationists once thought that [preserves were enough. But groups of animals isolated from their species become genetically homogeneous, and don't develop the diversity necessary to adapt to threats- especially that of climate change," (Brandon Keim in Corridors Help Animals Flee From Climate Change).
What are your thoughts on these animal corridors?
They appear in our landscape as green, peaceful and graceful efforts to restore the natural environment and a natural way of life (migration) for animals... what else?
How might artists be a part of these efforts?
How do you imagine these corridors expanding into our world?
How might they extend into our urban spaces?
Also feel free to use this space to respond to the lecture as a whole, focusing on the importance of biodiversity.
Read More:
Corridors for a Healthier Environment
Article: Earth Times, San Diego
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
North Carolina State University Corridor Research
5 comments:
On terms of biodiversity, my immediate thoughts revolve around the butterfly effect and the food chain. Each organism on this planet develops or benefits from certain others in one way or another, either directly or indirectly. A minute localized change on such a complex system like our own ecosystem can have vast effects elsewhere. An organism that we may consider unnecessary or unimportant could show serious side effects in the ecosystem, should it become extinct and no longer contribute to the intricate workings of the environment. I keep asking myself how the human race would eventually be effected if hypothetically, the vast number of beetle species should deplete, or even more directly, should any of our primary food sources become extinct like cows or chickens. I find myself thinking about just how much I hate spiders and wish there were none to concern me, especially when I notice one lurking in the corner of my ceiling while I’m trying to fall asleep. But then I come to realize I’d be even more miserable if the mosquito population were to explode due to a lack of arachnids. Biodiversity among animals and plants is extremely important in order to retain the workings of our ecosystem and to keep the ecosystem alive. I have a firm belief that we are all connected and need most, if not all of the two million (or millions more) species on our earth in one way or another in order for the ecosystem chain of events to continue successfully without any gaps or holes.
On terms of the animal corridors being constructed to help retain biodiversity, I’m slightly skeptical of how useful this method really is. I think the idea of creating a natural flow through ecosystems for species to travel and evolve is important, but I’m not sure if the corridors we’re making are going to achieve that goal. The only way these corridors can be successful is if the species that they are intended for just happen to be near a corridor when traveling. It can only work by chance. Mammals, reptiles and insects are not going to look for such corridors intentionally, just come by them randomly. There are no street signs directing nature where to go. I’m not sure of a solution to this problem except for the possibility of creating a huge number of corridors to increase the chance that traveling animals will cross them. The problem with this solution however is that by creating more corridors, we’re using more resources to do so, which inadvertently will harm the environment. Unfortunately, almost every environmental decision seems to come at a cost.
Rachel Less
12/2/08
Section 5
I found the animal corridor idea to be really interesting. I think they look beautiful and what’s even better is that they’re helpful to the environment. My only question regarding them is that I am curious if they actually work or not. I feel like animals would be too scared to walk over a highway, for example, especially with all of the noise from the traffic. The tunnel for the turtles seemed more plausible, but I wondered if the concrete would deter the animals from walking on it. I think land artists will be able to use these methods as both a benefit for themselves and nature. I think it’ll be good that they are doing work hat is helpful to the environment, as opposed to hurting it as they did in the past (yes, I know that was a long time ago, but still). Building and designing animal corridors is probably one of the best ways that artists and designers can use their talents to go green.
I think it would be really interesting if you were to find something like this in a major city like L.A. or New York. I can’t really see it working because the cities are tightly compacted, but I still think it would really change the way we think of a city. However, I think in less populated cities, especially in the suburbs, it would work really well. I would definitely be up for seeing an animal corridor where I live.
http://www.floridahabitat.org/picture-gallery/Miami%20et%20al%20110%20copy.jpg/image_preview
Lindsay Bienick
Response # 10
I believe these animal corridors are imperative to sustaining biodiversity in animal species. The idea of a species becoming homogeneous due to isolation is terrifying to think about. I suggest we think of this problem in terms of humans. If a group of humans were to be put into isolation for an extensive period of time we know that it would lead to numerous painful living situations, such as fights over resources or incest. Since we do not allow this isolation to happen to us, why should we allow it to happen to other animals? We have human corridors everywhere, such as plans, boats, and automobiles, which allow us to navigate anywhere we want around the world. Thus, why should the natural movement of an animal be cut off?
It all relates back to the same idea that many people seem to miss understands in this world: we as humans share an equal amount of importance in the world as an animal so small as an ant. People do not realize that without biodiversity of species in this world, our human survival would be put at risk. Sadly, we may see this come into effect with speculation what the 6th major extinction is on its way.
As an artist, I feel that there is great potential to educate others on the reality of the current rate of extinction and the importance of species biodiversity. These corridors are a great start. I can just imagine a project that involves the design of corridors to be more welcoming to animals and to be integrated to blend in as a natural part of the environment so that an animal would never question using it. The ones right now seem to be slightly frightening when placed over a busy, roaring highway. Maybe placing one over a river would be more pleasant. I hope to find these corridors start to appear all over. When I start to think of locations to put these, I can’t help but drawn to thinking about my hometown of Rochester. Rochester is fairly urban, yet is extremely overpopulated with deer due to the amount of rivers and wooded areas we have located on the northern side of the city, thus to continue their movement, the deer are forced to travel across many roads. It kills me to see, especially in this time of year, at least 2 dead deer on the side of the road each day. I would love to see and think it is necessary at this point for these corridors to be integrated into my town to prevent these accidents and restore the survival of deer to nature’s way. I picture these being green and lush with trees, with a slim path that allows the deer to travel safely to the other side without notice of a car’s bright headlights.
Here is a site with hundreds of links on the 6th extinction topic:
http://www.well.com/user/davidu/extinction.html
Here is an example of one species loss and its effects:
http://www.ramsar.org/pictures/bio14.jpg
I, too, am interested in these animal corridors, but am skeptical about their effectiveness. When I first saw them in the lecture, I wondered what was forcing the animals to travel along that particular path in nature. As Kelsie mentioned, they will only happen upon these these trails by chance. How often will they occur? Once a mile down a highway? That doesn’t seem like enough to encourage an animal to cross a road. They won’t realize that they need to walk south a few hundred yards before they can walk east.
On the other hand, if they were guaranteed to work, I think this would really benefit from artistic interference. Artists could design these corridors, brainstorming ways to make them less threatening to animals. If they did enough research, they could design each corridor to cater to a local ecosystem; they could determine which species lived there, and what they liked to eat and inhabit. They could use this data to build a synthesized version of an animal’s ideal habitat. If these corridors were widespread enough, they could open up several job opportunities for artists.
It’s a good thing that people are realizing that preserves are not enough. Biodiversity is a great thing, and preserves seemed to prevent species from interacting and adapting to an ever-changing environment. Even though we are attempting to preserve that land, it is naive to think that our actions in big cities are not affecting other areas in some ways. If the preserve is anywhere near a populous area, air pollution and water pollution may eventually drift into it. How can we expect the animals adapt to this, if we haven’t let them? Even if these corridors do not work, we need to figure out a way to get these animals into the open.
—Eleanor Schmitt
Rachel McGuffin
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the special ingredient that makes earth the best recipe for planet life. It never ceases to amaze me how unclear it is to some people that diversity is important. Each species is unique and designed to fit a specific niche. Not every bird can eat big seeds and not every plant can grow tall. Each has its order and place in a complicated cycle and food web. Diversity is important because when conditions change the more options an ecosystem has the more likely it is to succeed. Think of it this way, you have a system of 3, grass, rabbits and hawks. If an outside force condemns one of those things, draught killing grass for example, then everything that depends on that grass fails namely the rabbits. Then the hawks go hungry and the circle of life comes to an abrupt halt. On the other hand, let’s say there are 2 different types of grass in the area and one is more draught resistant. Then the system does not fail and life is sustainable. Of course on earth this model is vastly larger on an incomprehensive scale of tens of thousands of species seasonally migrating and several unstoppable abiotic forces. Which should mean that life on earth is very sustainable. Unfortunately this is not true. Life is intensely fragile, always changing and adapting. Like a web the more connections you cut, the less it can withstand. We need biodiversity. We depend on it. We’ve cut it at the wick and we need to start replenishing it. Seed banks and rare animal breeds are a good start. Making “animal highways” if you will to make sure the animals can migrate and have a larger gene pool. We’ve deconstructed the normal migration routes and feeding grounds making links between large tracts of land and through agriculture and roads gives the animals a more stable environment. (and plants.)
Rachel McGuffin
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