|
|
- Info
Endangered by sprawl: How runaway development threatens America's wildlife
| Author: |
Ewing, R.; Kostyack, J. |
| Date: |
2005 |
| Periodical: |
Washington, D.C.: National Wildlife Federation, Smart Growth America, and NatureServe. 46 p. |
| Abstract: |
Over the next half century, up to one third of the world's plant and animal species may be lost forever. Conservation biologists regard this as the first mass extinction since the age of the dinosaurs. In the United States alone, thirty percent of the nation's plant and animal species are at risk of disappearing, and over 500 species are missing or may already be extinct. For an estimated 85 percent of these imperiled species, the loss or degradation of their habitats is the principal threat to their continued existence. The conversion of natural areas for homes, offices, and shopping centers has become one of the most serious threats to America's native plant and animal species. Indeed, by some estimates the amount of land covered by urban and suburban development has increased by nearly 300 percent since 1955 while population has increased by only 75 percent. Furthermore, the pace of land development has been accelerating in each successive decade since the 1950s. As suburban development continues to sprawl outward, habitat loss and degradation are also likely to accelerate. This report estimates the pace of land consumption in the country's fastest growing large metro areas over the next 25 years, and investigates what those metropolitan areas are doing to protect their natural lands from overdevelopment. In this report, we sometimes refer to natural lands as "green infrastructure" because it carries the implicit message that these open spaces are necessities that play important functional roles (e.g. filtration of water, wildlife habitat, etc.,) and thus are deserving of serious public planning and investment. |
|
