Our Disappearing Wilderness
Rufous Hummingbird, Wind River Canyon,Wyoming - 1st Place - 48th Cody Art ShowHummingbirds of the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming, 1st Place-48th Cody Art Show.
I was reading an article, on the Audubon website, about Habitat Fragmentation this morning; it stirred up interest enough that I hit the link to the online article in Science Advances. It's a professional publication that was written by nearly two dozen professors from around the globe.
Forest Fragmentation experiments are some of the largest and longest-running experiments in
ecology; this data is culled from 76 studies, on 5 continents over the last 35 years! As this article relates to every single hummingbird and animal that I photograph, I read through this scientific analysis of global forest fragmentation, and tried to understand enough to make some sense of it at the source.
Farmland will increase by an estimated 18% by mid-century, and urban centers will triple by 2030; all of this human growth increases forest fragmentation and reduces biodiversity around the globe. But all of this data from 35 years leads to one fact alone: 70% of the remaining forests on this planet are within 1km of the forest's edge! This means there are very few large wilderness areas left on this planet that haven't been touched by the hand of man. If our forests are the heart and lungs of this Earth, then we are choking ourselves and future generations, and it will continue.
Fact - half of all the Earth's forests are within 500 meters of the forest edge. Habitat fragmentation of this magnitude reduces biodiversity by 13 - 75%; which to those of us that still
Osprey with Trout, Wind River Canyon, WyomingOsprey with Trout in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.
live on this planet, it means less wildlife, and less food for those wild animals that remain. It also reinforces something I've been learning over the last decade of nature photography; my hummingbirds, and all wild animals, have nowhere to go. Every good lake and river has a millionaire's cabin nearby, and eagles and osprey have fewer places they can raise their young.
On a global scale man dominates the landscape, and Mother Nature will suffer the consequences. Extinction of wild animals will continue to increase, and the wilderness they need to live and reproduce will disappear at an ever increasing rate of speed. Our great-grandchildren will see birds I have photographed, here in the Wind River Canyon, only on their "smartphones." How smart is that?
Blog and Photography by Michael John Balog - Hogbats Photography