Disappearing Wildlife

Disappearing Wildlife

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Dr. Bruce Stein has spent much of his career on the topic of wildlife biodiversity in the United States, and edited a book on the topic. Bruce Stein also authored a recent report, Reversing America’s Wildlife Crisis: Securing the Future of Our Fish and Wildlife, which found that one-third of America’s wildlife species are at increased risk of extinction.

Amphibians, for example, have been declining rapidly. Many species of frogs and salamanders declining and some of them even are reaching the point of extinction. We're seeing declines in other groups of critters, mammals, freshwater mussels, which many people don't think too much about, that our aquatic life like mussels and crayfish and stone flies, those are particularly hard hit in part because of the way in which we've treated or maltreated the nation's waterways.

So with declines in these marine animals, one would presume that that's also going to impact fish in some way or form.

Absolutely. And fish, in fact, freshwater fish, there's quite a number of those that have declined. And of course, you can just look to salmon in the Pacific Northwest and the massive population drops there. Much of that related to the construction of dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers and things of that sort that's impeded the migratory behavior of those fish outdoorsman, like any conservation effort, get involved.

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