The New York Times article, “A Plea for Southern Treasures” written by Joanna M. Foster, emphasizes the threats people pose to nature by summarizing the top 10 endangered areas in the Southeast. The causes for these threats range from a variety of human attempts to alter nature.

In Alabama, the coast lines still suffer heavy damage caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  There are plans for a 4-lane highway to be built between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Asheville, North Carolina and the attempts to implement hydro-electric damns and reservoirs threaten the well being of the Catawba-Wateree River Basin in North Carolina.

Interestingly, all of these concerns were also raised by Edward Abbey in Desert Solitaire.  This article reveals that threats to nature and wilderness areas are a concern all over the country, whether it be in the lush mountain areas in Tennessee or the bare desert in Utah.  The threats listed in the top 10 endangered areas in the Southeast are all a result of the the human desire to reap economic gain from uninhabited areas.

This article poses an interesting question: where do we draw the line between development and conservation?

Chilhowee Mountain area in the Cherokee National Forest

(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/us/city-grazing.html?_r=1&ref=environment)

San Francisco has recently started a “mowing” business, but instead of humans, people are hiring goats.  For $200 to $400 weekly, including pickup and delivery, people who need some extra cleanup can rent groups between 5-20 goats, depending on your needs. All the goats were rescued, originally intended as butchered meat. A man named David Gavrich, with a master’s degree from Harvard in environmental management, began the company called “City Grazing”. This article from the New York Times relates to the Meodowlands concept of combining the wild (in this case goats) with the urban.

Check out the entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/us/city-grazing.html?_r=1&ref=environment

(Aerial View of the Meadowlands)

As a native of Colorado, I have never been nor heard of the Meadowlands. Located just 5 miles west of New York City, the Meadowlands is a half-developed, half-wild, heavily dumped on area of swampland. Throughout New York and New Jersey’s history, this area has been under constant siege to urbanize, yet somehow nature has won the war. Throughout the book, Sullivan is captivated by the complexity of how vital this land has been to urban development, exploration, history, and science.It seems no matter how much waste dumps in, or how many communities are built up in the area, nature takes back what it is theirs and preserves this half-wilderness, half-dump site as a truly unique place. Over and over people have tried to harness its land for mechanical use and envisioned utopian living accommodations, but to little or no avail.

There is an important distinction between the Meadowlands as a wilderness and a more traditional wilderness, viewed more as a place isolated of human existence. Almost everyone views places like Yosemite or the Grand Canyon as sublime and would enthusiastically support their preservation. The Meadowlands however has already been abducted, and does not demand salvation. If the general populace is taken on a tour of both the Meadowlands and the Everglades, the difference would be clear. With this book, Sullivan has ultimately highlighted a way to put into perspective the alteration of modern life on the natural world.

Raphael

The park system wants to uphold its promise to protect the land for future generations. That promise, however comes at the price of de-capitalizing and deurbanizing the wilderness; it would cease to be accessible to all. As a self proclaimed “earthiest” Abbey has no qualm about inconveniencing the public in order to restore the grandeur luster to our parks. Abbey may be guilt free about his decision, but how do you convince an entire country so spoiled with their rights and entitlements to “sacrifice” easy access to the wild, perhaps America’s most precious asset?

I’m glad that there are people like Leo available who appreciate the Meadowland and trying to help the birds that are caught between the branches. He even wrote letters to a newspaper about this issue but nothing was done.  In the last chapter Smith and Sheehan came up with many ideas and plans to make the meadowlands a better place for the society but none of it work so far. Therefore I think there should be a written law for people to not throw their waste here since it will destroy the ecosystem. It will be hard enforced but maybe it’s a start.

The Everglades

Questions to think about

Even though there were a lot of effort and campaigns to help fix the problem? What do you think we should do next? Where will the waste go then? It has to go somewhere.

This article relates to this weeks readings because just like the meadowlands, people are using fracking to cultivate gas and oil, but are not fully conscious of what this process is doing to the environment. the warming of the environment is strongly correlated with fracking. yes, fracking will help to solve problems acquireing gas and peak oil, but at the cost of the environment.

Since the ban on toxic shot for Waterfowl in the 80′s more and more states and regions are adopting this policy for other hunting especially with upland bird hunting, and other migratory game birds that are not waterfowl, and efforts are even being conducted to remove toxic shot from all types of hunting.

The article discusses how hunters view the ban on toxic shot, and to some it is a bad thing but as the author goes on to say, if the preservation of the land for hunting is wanted then those who use it should be the first to protect it.  he went on further to say that although at this point in time non toxic shot is more expensive than lead it should change in years to come and non toxic shot will be less expensive than lead.  Non toxic shot is also becoming more advanced and effective than lead when it comes to hunting leading hunters to choose it not only because they have too but because it works better.

To me these kind of changes are the ones that make a big difference and help people understand what the environment has to offer and how they can help preserve it.

This is a quote from the author of the article

“We never saw bald eagles when I was kid, but they’re a common sight along the Iowa River now that they no longer feed on DDT-laced fish and lead-poisoned waterfowl. While a lot of hunters will disagree with me, I really believe lead bans are not secret back-door attacks on guns and hunting but are acts of genuine, well-intentioned concern for the environment.”

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/43886

Silas