|
We envision a time when human beings
accept the puma, the wolf, and their wild kin as citizens
in the community of life - a time when, instead of hunting
and trapping them for sport and profit we live peacefully
with them, when instead of exploiting and despoiling land
without restraint we accommodate their habitat and survival
needs in our way of living. This will be a time when we have
come to view nature quite differently from the traditional
way that sees it only as a resource to be exploited or an
enemy to be subdued - a time when we have adopted gentler
life-ways that recognize and respect not only the fragility
and sensitivity of natural systems, but also our own physical
and spiritual dependence upon them.
Western Wildlife Conservancy was founded
on November 1, 1996 as the Predator Education Fund, a tax-exempt
education branch of the young Utah Cougar Coalition. Within
a few months PEF replaced the Utah Cougar Coalition. The name
was changed to Western Wildlife Conservancy on August 1, 2000
to better reflect the expanse of our region and the breadth
of our mission, which is to: restore and and protect native
wildlife and wildlife habitat in the intermountain West through
research, education and advocacy. Our primary focus remains
on native mammal predators. These include the following families
and species:
Ursidae (grizzly bear and black bear)
Felidae (mountain lion, Canada lynx and bobcat)
Canidae (gray wolf, coyote, and the gray, red, swift and kit fox)
Mustelidae (wolverine, fisher, marten and other members of the weasel family)
Since the arrival of pioneer settlers
in the mid-nineteenth century, most species of mammal predator
in the intermountain West have suffered reduced ranges, with
some having been completely extirpated from large portions
of their historic range. Those which have been extirpated,
or nearly so, from Utah and surrounding states, include the
gray wolf, the Canada lynx, the grizzly bear, the wolverine
and the fisher. Our challenge is to protect the habitats that
these species depend upon and to do what is possible to aid
natural restoration of viable populations of them to suitable
habitats. In some cases reintroduction may be advisable, as
in the case of wolves being reintroduced into the Yellowstone
area and in central Idaho. In others, natural recolonization
should be fostered. The Canada lynx is a case in point. The
stage is set to allow lynxes to recolonize significant portions
of their former range in the Central and Northern Rockies,
including portions of northern Utah.
Modern conservation biology recognizes
the fundamental importance of predator species to the health
and proper functioning of ecosystems, which in turn is essential
to the protection of watersheds. When predators are removed
from an ecosystem, the naturally fluctuating balance among
plant communities, herbivores and carnivores is upset, resulting
in trophic cascade effects. This involves an unnatural proliferation
of some species and a dying off of others. This in turn may
adversely affect riparian habitats (streams, rivers and marshes).
For example, removal of the wolf and the cougar (as in the
case of Yellowstone National Park) may result in a proliferation
of elk and a tendency for them to congregate in riparian areas
without fear of predators, which may in turn drastically reduce
willow and aspen stands, which may in turn lead to an extirpation
of beavers and otters. This may in turn alter the entire character
and seasonal flow of the stream, thus destroying native fish.
And so on. The old myth that predators rob from the community
of life and provide nothing in return, is completely erroneous.
We must learn to appreciate the fact that they are an essential
and integral part of the community of life. They are the regulators
of ecosystems. |
