Earlier this fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared 23 species extinct. secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, said of these species: “The story arc is essentially the same. Humans altered their habitat in a significant way, and we couldn’t or didn’t do enough to change the trajectory before it was too late.”
The news is sobering, depressing even, but the Haaland quote gives us guidance. Human development has altered habitats for the worse, and now we must fix this problem of our own making. Of course that’s no easy task. Roads, cities, buildings, farms, shopping malls, fences, and more have carved up America’s wildlands into smaller and smaller isolated islands. Wildlife ends up cornered, locked in by human obstacles. To state the obvious, this is incredibly disruptive if not lethal to migratory animals that need the space to hunt, mate or seek out new territory.
As populations of animals get isolated from one another, genetic diversity increasingly diminishes, making wildlife less able to adjust to other extinction-threatening hurdles such as disease and climate change.
Let’s assume that for the most part, we can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. That is, we can’t restore all lands to their once-wild states. If so, what is there to do?
One strategy is to reconnect smaller, isolated habitats. In other words, actively work to reconnect nature. Conservation ecology tells us this practice can make a difference.
One local example is the Henry Street salamander tunnel in North Amherst. Henry Street crosses between the wooded ridges where spotted salamanders spend most of their lives and the vernal pools where the salamanders mate and lay eggs. In the late 1980s, a community effort made it possible to build two tunnels under Henry Street and installed drift fences that guide the salamanders into the tunnels and protect them from being crushed by tires on Henry Street. A team of volunteers coordinated by the Hitchcock Center for the Environment helps maintain the tunnels and keep them free from debris.
Other examples of projects that reconnect habitats to form larger spaces for animals to roam can be found in Environment America Research & Policy Center’s recent report Reconnecting Nature. The seven examples spotlighted in the report include a “natural” bridge across the 10-lane 101 freeway near Los Angeles. This particular bridge is hoped especially to benefit cougars, who are facing serious problems related to low genetic diversity. Another example points to fencing in Wyoming, similar in concept to the drift fences installed near Henry Street. In Wyoming, the state installed fencing that guides elk, antelope and deer toward wildlife crossings over the state’s highways. This project has resulted in an 80% reduction in wildlife-car collisions.
President Biden this week signed into law the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which includes $350 million for wildlife crossings over and under our nation’s roads. Including these funds in the infrastructure package makes a great deal of sense. Infrastructure has long been synonymous with wildlife-killing roads, and this infrastructure bill is no different. But now, smartly, infrastructure also includes grant funding for states to ensure that wildlife can safely cross roads new and old.
Wildlife crossings and reconnecting habitat works to protect species like Amherst’s spotted salamanders or the mountain lions of Santa Monica. The key is to invest in these solutions to protect America’s unique and incredible collection of peculiar, beautiful, fierce and wild species and to borrow from Deb Haaland, “change the trajectory” before more of them go extinct.
In addition to the infrastructure bill, Congress should seize other opportunities to fund a broader set of wildlife corridors, including those included in the Build Back Better bill, also known as the budget reconciliation bill. And state leaders should pursue opportunities to reconnect nature for our aquatic, terrestrial and avian species.
Our lives are richer when our surroundings are teeming with life. Now is the time to reconnect with nature and give species a foothold on survival. Doing so will help us avoid future, sobering news stories like the one where 23 species are declared as extinct, forever.
Johanna Neumann, of Amherst, has spent the past two decades working to protect our air, water and open spaces, defend consumers in the marketplace and advance a more sustainable economy and democratic society. She can be reached at columnists@gazettenet.com.