Defenders' Experts
Threats to Wildlife Due to Habitat Loss
Habitat loss is the largest threat to biodiversity in the
U.S. and
around the world.
With an estimated 6,000 acres of open space lost each day in the U.S., habitat loss is more prevalent and negatively affects more species than ever before due to increased sources of stress such as pesticides, invasive species, logging, climate change, and more.
The result: wildlife is simply running out of space.
What is Habitat?
Habitat is the food, water, cover, and other resources necessary for a species’ survival and successful reproduction. Wildlife need healthy, connected habitat to live and thrive.
What is Habitat Loss?
Habitat loss can mean many things:
- destruction - eliminating natural areas
- fragmentation - dividing large natural areas into isolated islands of habitat
- degradation - changing habitat so it no longer supports as dense or diverse an array of species
When a threatened, endangered or imperiled species’ home range is bulldozed (destruction), broken into many pieces (fragmentation), or overrun by invasive species or water pollution (degradation), the species must struggle even more in order to locate the resources it needs to survive.
Another way of thinking about habitat loss is a number of sources causing a stress. Climate change, pesticides, and road building are all sources which contribute to the stress of habitat loss.
What Are We Doing to Help?
Defenders of Wildlife works with on-the-ground programs to address the sources of habitat loss like sprawl, roads, and climate change.
Through pressing for stronger wildlife protection laws and law enforcement, partnering with government agencies and other non-profit organizations, and through engaging the public in education and other activities, Defenders strives to stop habitat loss in its tracks.
Defenders works diligently to protect all the major habitat types found in the U.S. and the world:
Our Focus Areas
Below are some details on issues we are working on to help solve the problem of habitat destruction.
Sprawl and Development
Sprawl – housing and commercial development pushing into open land with little regard for smart land use planning – can become a major issue for wildlife as it continues to encroach on sensitive habitat. Species like the desert tortoise in the American southwest have been decimated by increased urban development, which has destroyed and fragmented much of the tortoise’s habitat. In fact, despite their protected status, 35% of all federally listed endangered and threatened species continue to be threatened directly by commercial land development.
People care about stopping sprawl and preserving open space, water, and their local culture. On the local and regional scale, a full 80% of ballot measures to preserve open space in communities throughout the U.S. have passed, allowing communities more control over how their future neighborhoods will look.
Defenders works to control sprawl by partnering with national and state resource agencies to promote funding and protecting open space, and to incorporate land protection into regional growth plans. Defenders also promotes educational campaigns and outreach to officials and residents alike on the harms of sprawl and the benefits of living in existing suburbs and urban areas.
Climate Change
Climate change is a major threat to species all over the world as it continues to rapidly exasperate habitat loss. Unless emissions are curbed and stronger efforts to conserve and protect wildlife habitat are soon put in place, the many complex negative impacts of climate change will continue to worsen.
Some cases, like the loss of pack ice and its devastating impacts on polar bears, are a clear cause-and-effect example of how climate change is harming wildlife through the loss or degradation of habitat. But the impacts of climate change on habitat are not always so obvious, and the harmful consequences may only become apparent over the course of years or several decades.
For example the spectacled eider, an endangered sea duck which winters on islands in the Bering Sea southwest of Alaska, has seen its prey base slowly decrease, the wetlands it relies upon dry up, and climate-change-induced erosion wash away much of its breeding ground.
Read 10 reports about the impacts of global warming on Arctic wildlife in our Navigating the Arctic Meltdown series.
To address both the immediate and long-term threats caused to wildlife and their habitat, Defenders is taking proactive approaches to protect habitat from climate change by pressing for increased protection of our National Wildlife Refuges, lobbying for laws to reduce emissions and to assist wildlife adaptation, creating public information campaigns, and many other activities.
Invasive Species
Invasive species are plants, animals, and microbes that are out of place and out of control. Scientists believe 3,500 invasive plants exist in the U.S. outside of farming, and at least 2,300 invasive animals. Nearly half of the species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act are threatened by invasive species.
After habitat loss and climate change, invasives are considered the third most serious threat to biological diversity. Invasive species are also tied to habitat loss as they degrade the quality of healthy habitat, forcing both predators and prey to search for more suitable habitat.
To counter invasive species, Defenders works with and lobbies for state agencies to promote the identification and management of invasives. Defenders also hosts events for its members and the public to help weed invasive plants on protected conservation lands such as wildlife refuges.
Roads
Four million miles of roads in the U.S. keep America moving. But such a permanent man-made scar across the landscape also causes a whole host of negative impacts to wildlife, the most obvious being road kill. Besides road kill, highways and bridges can harm wildlife and destroy habitat in less obvious ways, such as through encouraging more nearby residential and commercial growth, which leads to further habitat destruction.
A new or widened road can also fragment previously undisturbed habitat, making the surrounding wild areas no longer as productive for wildlife. Some species which need a large area to roam, like the grizzly bear in the northern Rocky Mountains, are extremely shy when it comes to roads and are very reluctant to approach one even if very few cars use it.
Defenders focuses on protecting species from the negative consequences of roads, road kill, and habitat destruction through programs like the Habitat and Highways Campaign, the Federal Lands program and Conservation Planning.
Learn more about our programs:
Habitat and Highways Campaign
Watch Out for Wildlife
Conservation Planning
Federal Lands Program
Working Lands
Forty percent of threatened and endangered species are found only on private or state lands. What is more, 38% of endangered and threatened species’ habitat is directly threatened by agriculture. Agricultural development can negatively impact many species by destroying or fragmenting habitat through altering waterways, destroying native vegetation, and more.
These issues make agricultural land incredibly important for conservation efforts. If the proper conservation tools and incentives are in place for farmers, agricultural lands can benefit many species. The end result can be reduced erosion and runoff, increased native vegetation, and wetland and grassland restoration.
In order to ensure that agriculture can continue to provide livelihoods to America’s farmers while also providing essential habitat to a number of endangered and threatened species, Defenders is actively involved with the federal Farm Bill.
Defenders also works with local land trusts to protect and enhance habitat through the Living Lands Project. Through Defenders efforts, voluntary incentives have made it easier for farmers to restore and conserve the natural resources on their farms.
Livestock grazing on public federal land can also lead to conflicts with wildlife. Together the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service manage 270 million acres of land. The agencies issue 10 year grazing permits for herds of cows, sheep and other animals to graze on the these lands. Without proper planning and oversight, conflicts such as depredation from wolves or grizzlies can occur, or overgrazing can degrade wildlife habitat. Over its history Defenders has worked collaboratively with ranchers and federal agencies, lobbied for legislation, and has been involved with litigation when a law has been violated.
Border Issues
One-quarter of the 1,950 mile U.S.-Mexico border lies within public lands. This includes hundreds of miles within the National Park system alone, running through such national treasures as Big Bend National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. In 2007, The Department of Homeland Security waved over a dozen environmental laws to begin construction on over 300 miles of walls along the border. These barriers traverse some of the most sensitive ecosystems in North America, causing irreparable harm.
Along with other national and local partners, Defenders has been involved with lawsuits in the federal court system to demand that these federal actions adhere to the regulations designed to protect these and other pristine environments.
Learn more about our work to resolve border wall issues.
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