Urban Sprawl and wildlife

Leon Kolankiewicz is the Scientific Director of numbers USA, and has scientifically noted that population growth and urban sprawl have certainly reduced the numbers of farmable acres in this country. David Sparks, sportsman spotlight. Speaker2: We've been conducting a series of studies since the year 2000 on the effects of urban sprawl on farmland and natural habitat, and as an organization concerned about population size and sustainability. And certainly having adequate agricultural land is a key component of long term economic and environmental sustainability for any given country. We have always been curious. Dating back to 2000, what were the respective roles of population growth? That is an increase in the sheer number of developed land consumers. Speaker1: Another area of consequence of all of this development, of course, is reducing habitat for wildlife. Speaker2: Exactly. And that's certainly taking place around the country. Habitat loss, both globally and in the United States, is the leading cause of declines in wildlife populations. And there was a landmark study released a couple of years ago by the World Wildlife Fund, showing that there's about a 70% decline in the total number of wild animals, all wildlife species, over the past 50 years. Biologists have long documented that habitat loss and fragmentation, you know, degradation of wildlife habitat is the leading cause, more so than invasive species, than pollution included. Speaker1: In all of this. An alarming drop in the numbers of birds throughout the country.