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
Biodiversity is a very important aspect in the environment, and more so recently, that diversity has been diminishing due to manual changes by humans, naturally, and various other practices. For example, the manufacturing of corn. Corn used to come a multiple number of varieties, in various colors and flavors. Nowadays, our standard vision of corn is the typical sunny yellow plump seeds sitting on a foot long-ish cob. Many species are being manually forced into extinction, particularly plants and domesticated animals. In order to meet the industry standard, companies, such as Monstromo, buy out other companies, preserve and remove other companies’ seeds from the market, and set only Monstromo’s seeds available for consumers to eat. I think in order for a particular species to survive natural selection, biodiversity yis crucial. Without biodiversity, an entire species of animals could ultimately be wiped out if, for example, a virus attacked and none of the animals had any variation to survive the attack. The corridor idea sounds fantastic, and the only issue I have with it is the level of execution these projects will undertake. Of course a mediocre effort will result in a mediocre result. I think this may be a good opportunity to integrate into our urban societies. For example, parts of a city could contain a greenhouse/wildlife wonderland. The buildings around the area could be solar powered, and made of sustainable materials. Similar to that of an oasis in a desert, an oasis in the middle of a city would not hurt. Artists can help create an aesthetically pleasing environment in these efforts, so that other human beings can equally enjoy these habitats as the animals migrating through them can. One issue that may come up, however, is that animals may choose not to use these corridors at all.
ReplyDeletePost 13
Daisy
Week 12
ReplyDeleteThis week in ADP, I enjoyed the Biodiversity lecture. I especially enjoyed the photography of Ansel Adams and Bradford Washburn. When I researched more of Ansel Adams, I saw more of his famous photographs of the Yosemite Valley. His photographs show the increase of commercial and man-made developments being made for tourism. He compares what the Yosemite Valley used to look like to what it looks like now. His photographs express beauty in places that are now National Parks. I like that instead of creating pictures of environmental damage, Adams photographs picture of beautiful landscape.
I also like the idea of the corridors. It will encourage more artists to be involved with creating work that interacts with the environment, which is what we need now. When I thought of the corridors, I imagined a bridge running across New York City filled with animals running across. It seems like a unlikely idea to create in urban environments and I don’t know if the animals will actually use the corridors, but it is a start to encourage more biodiversity. Like we learned in lecture, biodiversity is essential to natural selection and evolution. Without variety among a species of animals, that species can be so susceptible to extinction.
The lecture also reminded me of a picture I recently saw, a polar bear stuck on a square foot of ice, surrounded by nothing but miles of water. The picture made me upset that polar bears are becoming extinct because of the environmental damage that humans are causing.
Connie In