Wildlife Corridor

Lab 6     

     The great gift we have living in Arizona, especially the central and northern parts of the state, we share the same spatial and topography with a wide range of species.  It is this diversity that can be a great gift that at times may be neglected causing an edge effect or geographical isolation.  In edge effect, the population or community structures near the boundary of a habitat can be radically changed due to its connection or nearness to another habitat.  Whereas, geographic isolation, populations of species may become separated by certain barriers and this could lead a species to becoming a separate species.  Geographic isolation, which can be caused by both human and natural barriers or impediments.  These impediments can be in the form of mountains, lakes, highways, housing, and industrial development. Housing and industrial development can bring various pollutants with them, one of which is light pollution, which can impact the beauty of nature’s darkness to reveal the stars and environment around us.  It can also, drive wildlife away from its existing habitat.   In a habitat, impediments caused by either natural or human means, leading to geographic isolation and habit fragmentation can be detrimental to the wildlife population. 

     In the Prescott and the greater northern Arizona area, we share a topography with Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and elk (Cervus Canadensis). In sharing this topography with wild life such as the deer and elk, we have brought certain impediments to their habitat, causing habit fragmentation.  People have developed more housing, factories, and highways in the deer and elks habitat.  The housing and factories will push deer and elk out of their habitat and then a highway can easily separate a habitat making it two habitats.  The deer and elk will need to travel from one habitat to the other for food and breeding.  A highway can bring danger to the deer and elk population, along with those humans driving on the highway.  Often we will hear of someone hitting a deer or elk, killing the animal, damaging the vehicle, and even sometimes leading to great injury and death to the driver of the vehicle.  Driving through northern Arizona it can be a sad common sight to see a dead deer or elk on the side of the highway.  Even if the wildlife is not killed, it may be injured or cause the vehicle to have an accident by swerving to miss the animal. 

     As the human population grows and spreads into the wildlife habitat, the question must focus on how we mitigate or lessen the impact on the wildlife, we have encroached upon.  We must place greater time, talent, and treasure towards developing wildlife corridors.  A wildlife corridor is area of habitat that connects a wildlife population that has been separated by human impediments like development through housing, industry, and roadways.  Wildlife corridors can be a great mitigation example of how to work with both the development of humans and the existing wildlife populations.  We should begin the wildlife corridors where the greatest need is present.  In the Flagstaff and Williams area, along the Interstate 40, there are often fatalities to human and wildlife, due to deer and elk crossing the highway. In working with the area, I would propose several corridors in the form of either wildlife under or overpasses. Theses passes would simply be a well designed bridge to help wildlife like deer and elk cross through their habitat without having to cross the highway and risk life.  The wildlife corridor would be strip of land from about a quarter to half a mile wide.  It would have all the landscape of the surrounding vegetation.  Without the highway, it would simply blend in with the area.  The blending in is critical for the animal to feel comfortable traveling across this wildlife corridor.  I would be open to either over or underpasses due to the existing highway structural impediments.  These wildlife corridors would be life saving to the deer and elk and beautiful open space to us as we drive by these beneficial corridors. 

     Now just building a wildlife corridor for deer and elk is half the battle.  The other half of the battle is how can you get them to use it.  For most humans, we know not to cross a busy street, wherever we might think is most convenient, but instead we know to look for special designated crosswalks.  This behavior to look for crosswalks was something that was taught to us.  So in turn, deer and elk must be taught and shown where their crosswalks are located.  This can be done several ways.  First, wildlife corridor underpasses will be easier to guide the deer and the elk towards because they will like the more camouflaged aspects, then an overpass.  Second, the greater area beyond the pass will have to be looked at for growing natural vegetation like shrubs and grasses that the deer and elk will feed and will travel towards the corridor.  Picture the surrounding area like a funnel.  The surrounding vegetation should be leading the deer and elk towards this corridor and the funnel may be begin several miles away from the corridor.  A third way to get the deer and elk to the corridor would be to block off other highway access with more natural boundaries like shrubs and trees, as a natural fence to the wildlife. 

     The bottom line, we have disrupted the core habitat, by entering into their habitat.  Through our development of homes, industry, and roadways, we have brought light pollution and impediments, and this has in turned caused great habitat fragmentation.  The habitat fragmentation has led to lower birth rate of certain wildlife, inbreeding, and the lowering of the rich biodiversity, which we have come to appreciate in our surrounding environment.  We must develop wildlife corridors to mitigate the negative impacts on the deer, elk, and other species we share a topography with both in time and space.

Citation

Miller, Tyler, and Scott Spoolman. Essentials of Ecology. Belmont: Brooks/Cole, 2012. Print.