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Conservation
Conservation Problems for SW
• Locally generatedHuman population growth
• From elsewhereGlobal warmingIntroduced speciesMigratory networks (birds, bats, etc.)
Impact on SW of Local People• Human population growth and
development has led to habitat modification and reduction.
• We’ve talked about this off and on through the semester.
Huachucas 1909
Impact of Local People• First Clovis hunters came from Siberia • We soon lost the megafauna
Impact of Local People 1880• Large scale introduction of cattle• Overgrazing, flooding erosion, down cutting
of most riparian habitats.
Huachucas 1909
Impact of Local PeopleWe’ve talked about what this did to the
native fishes, otters, mesquite invasion, extirpation of large animals: wolf, grizzly, jaguar, beaver.
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Modern Population Growth• Pre 1950 = frontier period• Post 1950 modern urban period• Arizona population growth numbers:
1940: 500,000 1960: 1,300,000 (up 2.5x) 1980: 2,700,000 (up 2x) 2000: 5,100,000 (up 1.9x) 2014: 6,731,484 (up 1.32x in 14 yrs)
Modern Population Growth
Phoenix Area 1950: 330,000 2013: 4,300,000
Phoenix 1885
Modern Population Growth
• Tucson Area: 1950: 118,000 2010: 1,020,200
Impact of all these people• Large land areas are consumed by urban
development.
Species-Area Curves• There is a well-established relationship between the
number of species in an area and the size of the area.
Species-Area Curves• There is a well-established relationship between the
number of species in an area and the size of the area.
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Development• Tucson and Phoenix are undergoing massive conversion
of natural areas to urban and suburban use.Tucson 1920
Effects of Reduced Natural Areas• What happens when
areas are reduced?• Many species are
doomed though it may take time to reach the new equilibrium number of species determined by habitat loss.
Species loss• Bighorn sheep were in the
Catalina Mts until the turn of the century.
• Pusch Ridge Wildernesscreated in 1978 to protect them.
• Too much population pressure from humans, dogs, etc. with the development of Oro Valley and the foothills of the Catalinas
• (Back for now due to aggressive management plan)
Impact of all these people
• More water use means dams, diversions, lower water tables disappearance of rivers and riparian areas.
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Impact of all these people
• Invasive species: buffelgrass, bass, mosquito fish, bull frog
Bull frogs• Largest US frog• Not native west of Mississippi• Eat anything, snakes, frogs• Prolific and spread on their own• Transmits a disease of frogs.• Eat natives like leopard frogs and fish
Impacts from Outside the SW• Migatory species affected by what goes on elsewhere
We’re part of a larger fabric Migratory bats, birds, butterflies, etc. Vampire bats parasitize cattle in southern Mexico In some places bats are indiscriminantly killed They’re our pollinators and insect controllers!
Impacts from Outside the SW• Global Warming –
2007
Impacts from Outside the SW• Global Warming –
It has started and cannot be stopped (easily or soon). Has become a partisan issue in American politics! There is a scientific consensus that climate
change is occurring, and that human activities are the primary driver.
One study: 13,950 climate change articles in peer-reviewed journals, only 24 rejected anthropogenic global warming
70 percent of Americans now believe that global warming during the last 40 years is real and supported by solid evidence
Most models say SW will be drier, all models say it will be hotter – in your lifetime.
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Impacts from Outside the SW• Scientists tell us –
Many impacts of climate change have already been observed: including glacier retreat changes in the timing of seasonal events (e.g.,
earlier flowering of plants) including some evolutionary changes
Organisms moving up in altitude. changes in agricultural productivity. Caused by a world temperature increased 0.8
degrees C (1.4F) during the 20th century.
Impacts from Outside the SW
• Scientists use models to predict the future – Predictions vary under different policy
scenarios: Stringent mitigation policies might be able to
limit global warming (in 2100) to around 2 °C (actually 1.1–2.9 °C) or below.
With continued high emissions, global mean temperature increase 4.0 °C (7.2 °F), with a "likely" range of 2.4–6.4 °C (4.3–11.5 °F).
Impacts from Outside the SW• Physical effects of world temperature
increase:
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Impacts from Outside the SW• Effects on weather:
Changes have been observed in the amount, intensity, frequency, and type of precipitation.
medium confidence conclusion: human influences had contributed to an increase in heavy precipitation events at the global scale
Predictions: 1) Overall increase in world precipitation 2) dry regions will in general become drier, wet
regions will become wetter.
Impacts from Outside the SW• What about us?
Western US mountains - decrease snowpack, increase winter flooding, and reduce summer flows, more competition for water.
Pests, diseases, and fire will increase in forests, with extended periods of high fire risk and large increases in area burned (already happening).
Early decades of the century: projected increase yields of rain-fed agriculture by 5-20% in North America
But problems due to inadequate water in SW where drought duration and severity have increased – negative impact on agriculture.
North America• It’s going to continue getting hotter!• Predicted summer and winter change by
2050:
Impacts from Outside the SW• Global Warming –
120 years precipitation for Pima County, AZ Been getting drier since 1980 but not outside historical
envelope yet.
Impacts from Outside the SW• Global Warming – What’s happening in Tucson?
120 years average temperature for Pima County, AZ Oops!
The great hope: Paris Agreement the world's first comprehensive climate
agreement! Agreed to hold the increase in the global
average T to well below 2 °C and to try to limit it to 1.5 °C.
Help people adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and lower greenhouse gas emissions development, without threatening food production.
Commitments to pay to lower greenhouse gas emissions and develop climate-resilience.
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Paris Agreement Negotiated by representatives of 195 countries
at in Paris and adopted by consensus on December 12, 2015.
Went into effect on 4 November 2016 Ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions for each country Each country reports progress every 5 years. No binding penalties, just “name and shame”
Paris Agreement Obama administration promoted the
agreement and started taking steps to achieve its goals.
Trump administration is divided over the agreement (don’t like “regulation”).
Executive orders to weaken US greenhouse gas reductions.
Much of our energy and emission policies will be hard to back out of: Legal issues Conversion to renewable energy is already
happening and has much momentum.
Conservation ProblemsNature stressedSpecies endangeredNatural habitats and processes
endangered –Especially hard hit: Riparian areas and
species found there.
Why do we care?• Two views:Humans are what really matter: nature is for us to use.
We are part of the earth system and have an ethical responsibility to the whole.
Rick Santorum’s “false theology” –people (like Obama) feel that earth comes before human beings; “radical environmentalists want to prevent mankind from utilizing the earth – endangering the future prosperity of America”.
First View• Humans are what really matter:
nature is for us to use. Traditional Consistent with many
traditional western religious interpretations of man’s role in nature.
• “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”—Genesis 1:26
First View
Irresponsible and responsible versions:Responsible:
We need to use nature wisely to optimize human well being over the long term.
To do this we need to understand nature and use resources sustainably for our long-term good.
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First View• Irresponsible version:
We should be free to do whatever we want with resources and economic markets should not be constrained by conservation considerations.
Let people make money and a living however they can.
Irresponsible because it lets us destroy or use up nature for selfish reasons that make it unavailable to other people today and in the future.
Sometimes wrapped in religion, but doesn’t seem to be ethically consistent.
• Second view:Humans do not have an inherently
special statusPart of the earth system and we have
an ethical responsibility to the whole.
Man’s Place in Nature:A Series of Demotions
Great Apes Humans
Pre-Darwin
HumansGreat Apes
1900’s
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Asian Ape
African Apes
1860 & post-1960
Humans
O G HC
1980s- Present
• Second view:As animals it is natural for us to look
after our families and social groups (which we do pretty well!)
But it is hard to defend the idea that our self interest has priority over that of other organisms.
• Surprisingly, it doesn’t matter too much which view you have (except the irresponsible version of view 1)
• Both views mean we need a strong conservation ethic.
• Yet much of what humanity does to nature today is most in keeping with the irresponsible version of view 1.
• Probably more due to ignorance than evil. • Also our natural tendency to look after
ourselves and families.
Simple Tendencies
• Fight or flight (survival)• Procreate• Acquisition
• Leads to Irresponsible View 1• Variously justified – “Unalienable right
to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”
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• It is like flying in an airplane and randomly pulling off parts of the plane and throwing them out the window, hoping they weren’t essential.
• It’s pretty reckless, regardless of whether you want to save the plane or the people.
• This is the only speck of the universe that has ecosystems that support human life within many light years.
• We have to live with what we make of it –there are no backups.
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Irresponsible view in action:The Bad Developer
• Arizona's sole native herd of 70-100 desert bighorns.
• Deep in the Ironwood Forest National Monument
• North of Marana, in the Silverbell Mountains • George Johnson, Arizona's "most notorious
developer"
Irresponsible view in action• Johnson wanted to build 67,000 homes on La Osa Ranch,
along the Santa Cruz River. • Widespread outrage about the project.• Pinal County Planning and Zoning rejects the plan in March
2004.• By then Johnson had bladed (bulldozed) 20,000 acres of
his La Osa property without permits.• Decimated an ancient Hohokam archaeological site.• Ruined Santa Cruz wetlands.
Irresponsible view in action• Johnson then put 5,000 goats on the ranch.
Irresponsible view in action• Some escaped and infected the bighorns with
blindness-causing pink eye, and mouth sores (ecthyma) that disrupt grazing and nursing.
• Game and Fish biologists began treating the sheep one-by-one.
• But about 25 percent died. • Arizona Game and Fish spent $75,000 working to
save the sheep.• THE END• (there was talk about
suing Johnson)
Responsible view in actionThe Good Rancher
• Chiricahua leopard frog• found in streams in canyons of
southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico.
• They’ve disappeared from about 70% of localities.
• Declared “threatened” by U.S. Fish and Wildlife in 2002.• Eaten by bullfrogs and green sunfish.
Responsible view in action• Gone from San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge
(southeastern AZ) by the late 1980s.• But outside the refuge, happily chugging along in
isolated stock tanks used by ranchers for watering cattle (no bullfrog or sunfish).
• Two populations still alive in watering holes on the nearby Magoffin Ranch (early 1990’s).
• Water tanks dried out in droughts• Frogs survived the 1989 drought in muddy cattle
footprints.• 1994 drought worse
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Responsible view in action• Ranchers dug a 10 foot deep pool moved
400 tadpoles there from the drying tank.• Hauled water every week to keep the
frogs alive.• Frogs made it.• Ranchers redesigned the tank so it won’t dry out in the
next drought.• All the frogs died in another tank, but recolonized after the
1989 drought.• Ranchers dug a well to supply this tank.• Half the surviving frogs today are in artificial tanks or
reservoirs.
• We need well-thought-out plans to conserve nature into the future local and global.
Solutions – individual, social, political
Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan
• The problem: Pima County consumes 7-10 sq miles of desert each year for homes, shopping areas, etc.
• Decisions largely governed by powerful developers exercising their right to “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” with weak oversight by local officials with no unified long-term vision.
• Yet one of the motives for moving and living here is the wonderful natural environment!
Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan• Need for good regional planning was loosing
out to this “pursuit of happiness.” ($$)• Development vs. conservation• The cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl
(Glaucidium brasilianum cactorum) gained federal protection as an endangered species in 1997 after biologists found only 12 of the tiny birds in Pima County.
• Now the county had to figure out how to obey federal Endangered Species laws.
• Business community and conservationists have embraced a bold scientifically-based unified plan:
• Scientifically identify critical habitats and biological corridors.
• Buy, restore, build around them.• Channel growth toward areas with the fewest
natural, cultural and historic resources.
• Started with a list of vulnerable species• Determined their habitat requirements and where
they are (>60% in riparian areas).• Combined this with information on how intact
different areas are and acquisition, protection possibilities.
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Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan
• Ranch Conservation – ranching maintains open spaces, but subdivision and urbanization is taking its toll.
• The plan proposes to help ranchers stay in business and promote good land management principles.
• E.g., purchasing development rights and conservation easements.
Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan
• Riparian Restoration – critical and vulnerable habitats for native species
• Plan identifies “most savable” riparian areas and deals with the complexities of riparian restoration (water table, exotics, re-introductions, pollution)
Oracle road wildlife crossings
• Mountain Parks and Nature Preserves• Create new ones and expand existing ones.• Tucson Mt Park has been recently expanded by 1,500
acres.• President Clinton created the 129,000 acre Ironwood
National Monument and the 496,400 acre Sonoran Desert National Monument in 2000.
• Other similar efforts• We don’t have enough preserves yet to save species.• Very powerful “city shaping” effect.
Tucson now
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• The plan has received awards and praise from regional planning organizations and conservation organizations.
• Voters here overwhelmingly approved issuing $174 million in bonds to buy land and preserve open space for the plan.
• Since the owl was listed, developers have had to navigate strict federal requirements.
• They accepted the plan to end those project-by-project negotiations — how much open space to leave, what plants to allow.
• Latest twist:• The cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl was
taken off the federal endangered species list on May 15, 2006!
• Center for Biological Diversity, first sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to force it to list the bird as an endangered species.
• Southern Arizona Homebuilders Association filed the suit to strike the owl's Endangered Species listing.
• Everyone says this should not affect the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.
Reconciliation Ecology• Another approach --• Humans live on or use much of the planet• There will never be enough reserves to solve the species
area curve problem.• Work to make the places humans use compatible for
humans AND other species.
Reconciliation Ecology• An example is the building of habitat for the
Chihuahua Leopard Frog by “the Good Rancher”
• Using info from the Tucson Bird Count to let neighborhoods design for bird diversity.
• Neighborhoods near Saguaro National Park using nest boxes and native vegetation planting to create buffers and even corridors for wildlife to move into the city.
• Individual action: What about your footprint?
Solutions – individual, social, political
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Social Action - Large Scale Solar-Thermal Facilities Large Scale Solar-Thermal
Large Scale Solar-Thermal Political
• Plans are underway to build enough capacity in the SW to supply ½ the nations energy needs.
• Solar energy can be stored as heat.• Solar tax credits.
UA offers many natural history and conservation oriented courses and majors
Keep your textbook – it is a great reference
Check out links on the Course webpage (bottom of homepage)
ResourcesGoodbye!
Don’t forget us!
Goodbye!
The End
