Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Industry report shows pesticides are good for America!

(…a special installment of “Can’t Live Without ‘Em”)

That’s right. A new report from the good folks at Crop Life America identifies a cure for our nation’s prevailing economic ills: PESTICIDES!

Bald eagles were nearly wiped out in the 1970s due to the harmful effects of the pesticide DDT. Photo courtesy US Military

Turns out, pesticides create an additional $82 billion by improving crop yields, with “spin-off effects” of $166.5 billion in related industries. The report also concludes that pesticides have produced environmental benefits by quadrupling yields of corn and wheat without having to clear additional land. Who knew?

Of course, there’s absolutely no mention of the indirect costs on America’s native wildlife or public health from spilling toxic chemicals into our waterways. Nor is there any evaluation of the long-term impacts of agribusiness and industrial-scale monoculture, both of which are responsible for dismantling local food networks and putting the small family farmer out of business.

Let’s not forget that less than 40 years ago, the widespread use of DDT had virtually eradicated bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and pesticides today continue to wreak havoc on fish and amphibian species across the country.** (Read Defenders factsheet to learn more about the real impacts that pesticides have on the environment.)

Now, we all have to eat. And certainly pesticides will continue to play an important role in feeding the country. But no economic assessment can be complete without also examining the impact that pesticides have on water quality, human health, and the myriad species that must endure these poisons in their habitat.

Crop Life America has been lobbying Congress to weaken protections from pesticides that keep our drinking water safe and our people and wildlife healthy. This one-sided report is just their latest attempt to exploit our nation’s current economic downturn in order to boost corporate profits for the pesticide manufacturers and agribusinesses they represent.

Pacific salmon are just one of many species at risk from pesticide poisoning.

At-risk species like Pacific salmon and steelhead, which have tremendous economic value of their own, are now threatened with extinction in large part because of toxic run-off into our rivers and streams from farms sprayed with pesticides. The truth is that we need stronger protections to limit the damage that pesticides inflict on the environment, not weaker ones.

If pesticides are to be used, we must do a better job of making sure they don’t harm humans and wildlife. Rolling back environmental protections and dumping ever more pesticides onto the land and into our water is not a recipe for sustainable economic growth.

Help Defenders stand up to powerful special interests like Crop Life by supporting better protections from pesticides.

**NOTE: A recent survey of 583 conservation scientists found that 99.5% of respondents believe that a serious loss of biological diversity is imminent.

Only 50 Mexican wolves survive in the wild, and now they're under attack in Congress.

A weekly homage to endangered species, large and small

Earlier this year, we saw an unprecedented level of attacks on individual species orchestrated by politicians trying to undermine the Endangered Species Act for the benefit of special interests (see Defenders’ comprehensive report, Assault on Wildlife). So this summer, we interviewed several wildlife experts from outside Defenders during their recent visit to Washington, D.C., to talk about current threats to imperiled wildlife and the importance of upholding the Endangered Species Act.

Saving Mexican Wolves

Kim Crumbo of the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council was a Navy SEAL and did two combat tours in Vietnam, so he knows what it’s like to try to survive in the wild on your wits alone. That might explain why he was drawn to defending Mexican wolves–one of the rarest, most endangered species in the entire world.

As Kim points out, only 50 Mexican wolves survive today in the wild along the border between Arizona and New Mexico. But that hasn’t stopped politicians like Rep. Steve Pearce (and, more recently, Sen. Orrin Hatch) from trying to derail the Mexican wolf recovery program.

In February, Pearce tried to tack on a rider to must-pass legislation to fund the federal government that would have zeroed out funding for Mexican wolves. Then he proposed the same amendment again during FY2012 budget negotiations this summer.

Without adequate funding for the recovery program, Mexican wolves will almost certainly be doomed to extinction, and the potential benefits they can bring will be lost. Mexican wolves, like all gray wolves, play a critical role in keeping wild prey species in check and maintaining healthy ecosystems. They are part of our national wildlife heritage and have also become an important cultural symbol across many parts of the Southwest.

Enterprising individuals are finding ways to make money by offering wildlife tours in wolf country. Local businesses have started promoting wolf awareness and conservation. And many ranchers are learning to coexist with wolves by employing nonlethal techniques to prevent conflict with their livestock .

Fortunately, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has convened a group of stakeholders including scientists, wildlife experts and ranchers to draw up a new recovery plan that will ensure the long-term survival of the species. Now we need to make sure that politicians representing special interests in the livestock community do not sabotage this effort before it’s given a chance to work.

In a 2008 poll, 69 percent of New Mexicans and 77 percent of Arizonans supported the idea of restoring wolves the landscape. Clearly, some members of Congress need to start listening to all of their constituents.

Learn more about Mexican wolves on Defenders’ website and blog.

A weekly homage to endangered species, large and small

You’ve probably heard of the proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” but have you heard of the “trout in the cold stream”? Neither have I, which is why I just made it up to highlight the fact that the threatened bull trout is an equally vital indicator of the health of mountain streams.

The presence of bull trout populations are an excellent indicator of stream health in the northwestern United States.

Bull trout are a member of the salmon family and depend on pristine waters, more so than almost any other fish. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, bull trout habitat must meet strict requirements known as “the four C’s”: cold, clean, complex and connected.

Bull trout thrive in water that is below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. That explains why they’re only found in rivers, lakes and streams in parts of the northwestern United States and Canada where the water stays cold year-round. Bull trout embryos are even more finicky. Studies have shown that the survival rates of offspring are much higher when they’re born in water that tops out around 46 degrees Fahrenheit.

In addition, bull trout eggs are buried several inches beneath the stream bed, usually in gravel bottom streams that provide sufficient cover for the newborn fish once they hatch. Waters must be clear and relatively free of sediment, otherwise the embryos get trapped beneath sediment and fail to hatch. Juveniles do best in streams where there are logs, pools and shade beneath river banks that offer plenty of places to find food and shelter. And adults often travel more than 100 miles from lakes and large rivers to find smaller spawning streams that meet all these requirements.

For all these reasons, bull trout are extremely susceptible to disruptions to their natural environment, whether that’s extra sediment and runoff from nearby development, changes in stream temperature that result from global warming, or competition from non-native species. So when populations of bull trout start to disappear, as they have in recent decades, you know that something is wrong.

Bull trout once filled nearly 60 percent of the Columbia River basin and could be found in large numbers across much of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, northern California and even into Nevada. Now only small populations exist in those states, they have been completely wiped out in California, and only a tiny remnant survives on the border of northern Nevada. Today, they occupy only half of their historic range in the Columbia River basin and less than a quarter of their historic range along the Klamath River.

Conservation Pays

A massive bull trout is rescued from a net.

The species was listed as threatened in 1998 and has since started to recover, especially in parts of Oregon and Montana. Where select populations are sufficiently abundant and stable, some regulated fishing is even allowed, providing a boon for local economies. Migratory bull trout can grow to sizes larger than 20 pounds, making them a favorite for recreational fishermen like at Montana’s Hungry Horse Reservoir, Lake Koocanusa and the South Fork Flathead River (see Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks bull trout fishing regulations). A recent economic study found that bull trout fishing in Montana alone results in additional income of $10 to 12 million, and double that once the money filters through the local economy.

Because of their threatened status, bull trout fishing comprises only a small portion of the regional fishing economy. But it could provide a much bigger boost if the fishery fully recovered.

Read more in Defenders’ report, Conservation Pays: How protecting endangered and threatened species makes good business sense.

A weekly homage to endangered species, large and small.

Rock gnome lichen

(Original text by Ben Ikenson)

Who cares about an endangered fungus? It’s not exactly what you would call a “charismatic” species. In fact, it basically just sits there, in the manner of a potato sitting in a cupboard or a neighbor’s junked car sitting in his yard. But unlike the neglected tuber or that eyesore across the street, the rock gnome lichen is actually doing something worthwhile as it sits there.

What good are they?

A lichen is a type of fungus that lives symbiotically with algae on rocks or tree trunks. Since they don’t move, lichen directly absorb the elements they need from the air to feed their algae partners, which means they need just the right combination of sun and water to survive. But they’re also small and grow slowly, which frees them from needing to be planted in soil like most plants that require a steady stream of nutrients. Instead, lichen survive in some of the most extreme environments on the planet, including in the highest reaches of the Himalayas and the coldest tundras of the Arctic.

Endemic to the southern Appalachian mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, the endangered rock gnome lichen is known to colonize where little else might thrive. It inhabits rock faces in high elevations where fog provides the moisture it needs or in river gorges that are cool and damp. The hearty little fungus also absorbs minerals and pollutants in rain, enabling biologists to determine various kinds of pollution.

Lichen help filter pollutants, maintaining the sweet smell of mountain air.

Too much pollution, however, continues to pose a threat to remaining rock gnome lichen populations. In recent years, airborne pollution and the impacts of an exotic insect have contributed to a dramatic decline in the spruce-fir forests adjacent to the cliffs and rock outcrops occupied by the lichen. This may lead to the drying up of sites that are otherwise moist, which the lichen prefers.  Lichens are also impacted by recreational disturbances from hikers and rock climbers that frequent the Appalachian Mountains and trample on the sensitive colonies.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which listed the species as endangered in 1995, is working with the North Carolina and Tennessee Heritage Programs, the North Carolina Plan Conservation Program, and The Nature Conservancy to determine protection priorities for the remaining populations. In 1997, The Nature Conservancy purchased a 1,575-acre tract in the Plott Balsam Range in the mountains of North Carolina, where the rock gnome lichen grows on high elevation rocky summits.

While it may be hard to sympathize with the plight of a fungus, it may be harder, in the long run, to ignore it.

A weekly homage to endangered species, large and small.

Photo courtesy of NOAA

Coral reefs are the ocean’s jungles, teeming with biodiversity unlike anywhere else on the planet. Warm tropical waters create ideal living conditions for coral polyps, the tiny creatures that secrete limestone and thus build the world’s coral reefs. These coral systems are extremely rare, occupying less than one tenth of one percent of Earth’s oceans, yet they contain an estimated 25 percent of all marine species (see wiki citation).

That’s why the rapid decline in health of the world’s coral reefs is so devastating. For example, elkhorn and staghorn corals have declined by 90 percent just in the last 30 years, landing both species on the endangered species list in 2006. And another 82 species are likely to be considered for federal protection under the ESA in the next year. These coral species have been wiped out by disease which has been aggravated by hurricanes, predation, bleaching and the increasingly damaging effects of global warming, which is both raising the temperature and acidity of our oceans.

The loss of coral reefs is not just a conservation concern, however. Hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses on Florida’s southern coast benefit from coral-related tourism. Each year, tourists flock to southern Florida for fishing, diving, snorkeling and boating tours along the coral reefs that add more than $4 billion to the region’s economy. This boom provides an estimated 70,000 jobs with a total payroll of more than $1 billion. (See NOAA report, Socioeconomic Study of Reefs in Southeast Florida)

Healthy coral reefs are the basis of a sustainable fishing industry. Photo courtesy of Krista Schlyer/Defenders of Wildlife

Coral reefs also provide a number of ecosystem services that we are only beginning to fully appreciate. The value of fisheries alone has been estimated to be worth between $15,000 and $150,000 per square kilometer, depending on the type of fish available (see pg. 12 of coral reef management sourcebook). Harder to quantify are the value of storm protection, erosion control and sand replenishment, all provided by coral reefs essentially free of charge. (See UNEP report, In the front line: shoreline protection and other ecosystem services from mangroves and coral reefs.) Without healthy reefs along the coast to dissipate waves and create more sand, the costs of storm damage, beach cleanup and finding more sand would all skyrocket.

The biodiversity along coral reefs is so high that they are also a promising place for pharmaceutical development. These hotbeds of sea life force creatures to eke out a living in close proximity to each other, where the ongoing battle for survival is almost always won by chemical weaponry, creating just the kind of proving ground biochemists dream of. This relatively new field of research is already producing results with the discovery of a potential replacement for the popular cancer drug Taxol—which coincidentally comes from another endangered species, the Pacific yew tree.

Protecting coral reefs ensures that we can continue to probe its makeshift laboratory for miracle cures, provide food and jobs for our families, and maintain our first line of defense against storm damage. Now that’s getting a lot of bang for our buck.

Learn more about the value of coral reefs in Defenders’ report, Conservation Pays: How protecting Endangered and Threatened Species Makes Good Business Sense.

Barton Springs salamander

A weekly homage to endangered species, large and small.

What do Robert Redford and a two-inch salamander have in common? They both learned to swim in Barton Springs pool in Austin, Texas. True to its name, the Barton Springs’ salamander is found only in Barton Springs­—a set of four natural water springs where Redford supposedly learn to swim when he was 5 years old.

Salamanders are amphibians, meaning they spend at least part of their lives in the water. Typically they have long tails, moist skin, and slender bodies. Adults can grow up to 2.5 inches long and usually have a purplish grey coloring. The tiny critters feed on brine shrimp, and other small crustaceans underwater. They have bright red external gills and unlike many other species that move from the water to the land during adulthood, Barton Springs salamanders remain in the water their entire lives.

One thing not unique about the salamanders is that they—like so many related species—are critically endangered. Nearly one third of all documented amphibian species around the world face extinction, and the Barton Springs salamander is no exception. They rely on the pure, flowing currents of the Barton Springs to survive, and urban expansion and development in the area continues to severely contaminate the water.  According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the sediment runoff from construction clogs the salamanders’ gills, smothers their eggs, reduces the availability of spawning sites, and lessens water circulation and oxygen. In 1997, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Barton Springs salamander as an endangered species.

WHAT GOOD ARE THEY?

The cleanliness of the Barton Springs is a critical issue for both salamanders and humans since the springs provide much of Austin’s municipal water supply. Salamanders are particularly sensitive to contaminants and the Barton Springs salamander serves as a very important indicator of the health of a water supply used by much of southern Austin. Even while they distribute clean water to the city, the springs themselves are also a treasured place that people want to see protected, and the Barton Springs salamander is a key indicator of the springs’ health. Researching them has even led to the discovery of another endangered species—the Austin blind salamander.

The Barton Springs salamander evolved under such unique and specific conditions that they might also provide valuable information to scientists about the development of the ecosystem and possibly even help in the development of modern medicine.

Luckily for us, there are a number of things people can do to help the salamanders, and none of them involve abstaining from swimming in the popular Barton Springs pool. The salamanders require clean and consistent water flow which means no dumping chemicals or waste into the springs. There are even things you can do at home to help. Little changes like shutting off water while brushing your teeth or washing dishes helps reduce the amount of water used which helps keep it in the springs for the salamanders.

Continual monitoring and protection efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the local communities will be essential if we hope to continue swimming with these special and rare creatures in the future.