earthportal.org is an online resource for science-based information about the environment. While we continue to learn more about global warming, I found this article to be a good reminder of just how serious the issue is, and how quickly we will be noticing the increasing changes to our environment:
Global climate change could dramatically reshape America’s public lands and the government’s ability to manage them as seas rise, species are threatened with extinction and wildfire threats increase.
Global climate change could dramatically reshape America’s public lands and the government’s ability to manage them as seas rise, species are threatened with extinction and wildfire threats increase.
“On the ground, we’re seeing a lot of changes,” Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett said. “Some of them dramatic.”
Changing temperatures have spurred the movement of wildlife, forcing managers to rethink how to protect animals and habitat. “Many parks, refuges and other conservation areas were created to preserve a specific mix of species within specific boundaries,” Scarlett said. “Is on-site conservation possible within current, fixed boundaries, if species composition is changing and moving?”
And people’s use of public lands are also likely to change, said Ron Huntsinger, the Bureau of Land Management’s science coordinator.
“We can anticipate further reductions in the level of allowable uses on public lands due to the loss of productivity and capacity,” Huntsinger said. “The results are more fragile ecosystems, a greater susceptibility to the outbreaks of attacks by parasites and disease, increased vulnerability to wildland fire and erosion, and an overall reduction in the carrying capacity of the land.”
Don Neubacher, superintendent of California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, said the park regularly experiences severe winter storm damage that requires emergency spending. “The intensity of the storms and the number of storms each year has been increasing,” Neubacher said.
At Everglades National Park, Superintendent Dan Kimball is concerned about rising seas threatening the nation’s largest freshwater wetland and primary recharger of drinking water supplies for 5 million South Floridians. The park’s highest point is 11 feet above mean sea level, and 60 percent of the park is less than 3 feet above sea level.
“Sea level rise would likely push salt water into the Everglades and threaten the viability of South Florida’s drinking water supply,” Kimball said, citing the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that predicted sea levels could rise between 7 inches and 23 inches this century. http://www.earthportal.org/news/
Changing temperatures have spurred the movement of wildlife, forcing managers to rethink how to protect animals and habitat. “Many parks, refuges and other conservation areas were created to preserve a specific mix of species within specific boundaries,” Scarlett said. “Is on-site conservation possible within current, fixed boundaries, if species composition is changing and moving?”
And people’s use of public lands are also likely to change, said Ron Huntsinger, the Bureau of Land Management’s science coordinator.
“We can anticipate further reductions in the level of allowable uses on public lands due to the loss of productivity and capacity,” Huntsinger said. “The results are more fragile ecosystems, a greater susceptibility to the outbreaks of attacks by parasites and disease, increased vulnerability to wildland fire and erosion, and an overall reduction in the carrying capacity of the land.”
Don Neubacher, superintendent of California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, said the park regularly experiences severe winter storm damage that requires emergency spending. “The intensity of the storms and the number of storms each year has been increasing,” Neubacher said.
At Everglades National Park, Superintendent Dan Kimball is concerned about rising seas threatening the nation’s largest freshwater wetland and primary recharger of drinking water supplies for 5 million South Floridians. The park’s highest point is 11 feet above mean sea level, and 60 percent of the park is less than 3 feet above sea level.
“Sea level rise would likely push salt water into the Everglades and threaten the viability of South Florida’s drinking water supply,” Kimball said, citing the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that predicted sea levels could rise between 7 inches and 23 inches this century. http://www.earthportal.org/news/
