ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604230006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALWYN MOSS
AS WE approach Earth Day 1996, here in Virginia well over 2,000 species of animals, plants and other life species are listed as seriously threatened. Some 54 species, at last count, were in imminent danger of extinction in this state.
Among the 54 - and some may already have disappeared from within our borders - are the snowshoe hare, fox squirrel, Northern flying squirrel, fisher, water shrew, oak toad, wood turtle, Eastern tiger salamander, yellow-crowned night heron, the great egret and the piping plover. The gray timberwolf and the mountain lion no longer inhabit our mountains and forests.
"Worldwide, and in Virginia, habitat loss is the biggest problem wildlife faces today," James Fraser, an associate professor wildlife science at Virginia Tech, wrote in 1991. The situation has deteriorated since. More than 3,000 acres of Virginia's wetlands have vanished yearly between 1956 and1977, and there have been sharp reductions in funding for Endangered Species Act operations. Fraser sees "efforts to protect the habitat in which our endangered species live and are dependent brought to a virtual halt."
Only about one-eighth the total number of species in the world are actually known to science. But according to the recent Global BioDiversity Assessment compiled by more than 1,000 international scientists and published this past November by the United Nations, "Half of all birds and mammals will be extinct within three hundred years ... [and] far sooner if trends continue to accelerate as they are doing at present."
The single most important cause for today's shockingly high rate of extinctions - more than 10,000 times the normal incidence that has occurred since life first appeared on Earth - is cited in the U.N. report as due to "the clearing of forests and other natural habitats for timber, crop production and the steady pressure of urbanization and suburbanization...."
Every paved or bulldozed new corridor in a previously green or natural area brings habitat disruption to bird, mammal and other species' movements and patterns of life. This is registered in the scientific biographies of threatened and endangered species. Habitat fragmentation due to logging, highways, power lines, forest roads, major housing and other developments - prisons, racetracks, sports arenas, military establishments - brings death and diminishment to millions of creatures struggling to survive, and is the path by which species not yet endangered become so.
A stand of trees may be the habitation of a species whose name we do not yet know but that may have a value for human life or that may protect the resources on which human life depends. The cutting down of a single tree ends a universe of existence - birds and squirrels, nests with young, insects and other beings working to sustain the air, soil and water that makes their and our environment livable and sustainable.
Most developers make careful economic projections before starting a project, but seldom include the loss of living things or natural resources in their calculations except when an environmental-impact statement is required. A system known as "resource accounting" is in use today in Canada, France, Norway and Costa Rica, and includes the impact of a development on local plant life, waterways, animals and birds, etc. Such an approach could make a difference in the entire process of decision-making for planners and local officials, and could give the public a greater share of responsibility and understanding of what is involved in a proposal besides the normal economic figures.
As the process of growth and development moves into high gear in Southwest Virginia, altering our lives and hastening the extinction of species, there are those telling the public that the sacrifices in this glorious bio-region are essential. Others ask: Are we really so desperate?
Economic indicators report good employment and income figures for this area. Preservation and protection can also create jobs - meaningful work that could enhance our lives as well as this region, and slow the snowball of environmental devastation before it is too late. After all, this is our habitat too, and if we care about it, and about the wealth and variety of life it is trying to sustain, then time is short.
According to almost every major environmental group in Virginia and in the nation, we must strengthen, not weaken, the Endangered Species Act - the slim framework of protective legislation and regulations that are barely holding the line for our forests, waterways and wetlands. The act may have some problems, but most have been addressed and other changes are in the works. Reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 is our best and probably only chance to save struggling species listed or not yet listed.
In the summer of 1995, a six-month moratorium on listing new endangered or threatened species was imposed by Congress. Such limitations, combined with the slashing of already sparse Endangered Species Act budgets, is making the work of tracking and protecting endangered species almost impossible, and represents a serious gap in the body of current bio-environmental literature.
Last year, Sen. Charles Robb of Virginia expressed his intention to "help pass a responsible ESA reauthorization bill in the 104th Congress." There is an urgent need for him and for all legislators to hear from the public on this issue.
This Earth is our home and everything alive on, above and in it lives in deep relatedness. To lose any part of the planetary life system is a serious and awesome matter. Every species is the result of millions, even billions of years of creative struggle.
"No element of an interlocking cycle can be removed without the collapse of the cycle," writes Carolyn Merchant in "The Death of Nature." From the Psalms of the Old Testament to the sacred books of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, all great religious creation-literature rings with praise for Earth and its life. It is disappointing to see how few religious services today remind us of our responsibility and opportunity to protect this heritage - at the very least for our children and theirs.
Alwyn Moss of Blacksburg is an art teacher and member of the Sierra Club.
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: RICHARD MILLHOLLAND/Los Angeles Timesby CNB