America’s
history is characterized by human manipulation, alteration, and exploitation of
the environment. The effects of this are
evident in Peter Marchand discussions of natural processes that have been
impacted by human activity including animal’s migratory patterns, plant succession,
and food chain dynamics. After years of
changing the environment, humans are now realizing that the livelihood of all
ecosystems are being jeopardized and this has resulted in efforts to reverse past
damage inflicted on nature.
Donovan Hohn of the New York Times explains that the concept
of changing the environment emerged in North America with arrival of European
settlers and has persisted since. Setting this precedent, French Explorer Louis
Joliet noted a single obstacle during his 1673 expedition from Canada to
Florida: the land separating the Chicago
River and the tributary of the Mississippi River. To overcome this inconvenience, Joliet
suggested a canal and in 1892 Joliet’s vision became a reality. Reversing the flow of the Chicago River, the
canal allowed the transport of Chicago’s sewage down the Mississippi. Now, over a century after the opening of the
canal, the ecological implications of the canal are becoming apparent.
Aside from the sanitation concerns
associated with expending waste into natural waterways, reversing the flow
of the Chicago River has damaged surrounding ecosystems.
Today, 103 Great Lakes’ species have been introduced in the Mississippi River
and 87 more species are threating to invade; 57 other species are migrating in
the other direction and with few natural predators in their new environments, these
species are proliferating. Ecologists
say that for now, it is “impossible to
predict just how much havoc” this will wreak on local ecosystems (Hohn,
2015).
Similar issues are evident in the
Adirondack region. Clearing cutting has
redirected successional patterns and diminished spruce populations, machines
have sparked forest fires, and fragmentation of the wilderness has led to the
demise of Wolves, the Canadian Lynx, and Caribou in the northeastern United
States and Nova Scotia. Human-incited introduction
of Beech Scale Disease continues to take a toll on the region's hardwood forests and logging has left less than twenty percent of the Adirondack Park virgin forest. Now, humans are looking to reverse the course
of these ecologically debilitating actions in the Adirondacks and Chicago.
Today, Chicago political leaders and
ecologists are advocating for restoration of the land that once separated the
Mississippi and Chicago rivers and in fact, other “reverse engineering” efforts are
occurring nation-wide. 1,000
dams have been removed in the past century and 72 were destroyed in the last
year. In the Nova Scotia in 60s and 70s, caribou were reintroduced and now in the Adirondacks the
reintroduction of wolves is being strongly considered. The Adirondack Park also staffs rangers that
work to minimize the effects of forest fires, further protecting what has
become a fragile forest. Yet, as seen
with caribou reintroduction efforts, “reverse engineering” is not always
feasible. With exploding populations of
deer in the northeast, caribou and deer inhabit similar areas, thus exposing caribou to a fatal brain worm
carried by deer. Similarly, filling in Chicago’s canal will not eliminate species migration that has already occurred. Instances like these make “reverse engineering”efforts seem too late.
Sources:
Donovan Hohn:
“Can We Reverse Engineer the Environment?”
The New York Times: February 6th,
2015.
Peter Marchand: Nature Guide to the Northern
Forest: Exploring The Ecology Of The Forests Of New York, New Hampshire,
Vermont, And Maine
No comments:
Post a Comment