- The location of the first case study is in the Northern Rocky Mountains. This development comes from Colby College. The main question of this case study is, “can economic incentives be altered to reduce opposition to wolf conservation?” It used to be that large predators were seen as threats to livestock and game. This means that they used to put these animals down after trapping, poisoning, or shooting them. In this module we learned about depleting resources and some great examples of them. Well in this case study, the depleting resource would be the wolves. They were nearly extinct when people used to trap and kill them. The US Fish and Wildlife Service created a recovery plan for the Gray Wolf, which was officially considered endangered in 1973. The development of wolves was drastically decreasing because of the shortened life expectancy of the wolf. After many years the public opinion was strongly in favor of reintroducing the wolf. In 1994 the Interior Department finally approved the plans to bring wolves back. (http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/end-mt.html)
- The next case study takes place in New Zealand. This case study comes from the Ministry for the Environment. The sustainable development issue in New Zealand is the freshwater quality and freshwater allocation and demand. In New Zealand, freshwater quality is declining in low rural lowland rivers, streams, and groundwater. One-third of New Zealand lakes have high nutrient levels and poor water quality. The development of the population could be affected without addressing this water issue. The knowledge of hydraulic interconnectivity of groundwater and surface water systems is important to acknowledge the concentrations of nutrients and pathogens that are emerging into the water. Development is changing the climate system and biodiversity of New Zealand in a few ways as well. New Zealand has to adapt to the changes in climate and help to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. They have favored the introduction of an Emissions Trading Scheme to help fight the amount of gas emissions. It provides incentive for New Zealanders to reduce their emissions. (http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/about-us/2-sustainability-issues-facing-new-zealand)
- The first case study is quite similar to an issue around where I live. I live in Uniontown, PA. The first paragraph talks about how the wolves were going extinct after many people killing them. They were harming game and livestock. The same thing happens around Uniontown. The development of many animals are endangered. There are many hunters around our area who will shoot at anything they see. They are endangering many species without even knowing it. There are several species of bats, owls, falcons, squirrels and herons. The Bald Eagle is a recovered species in Pennsylvania now. The case in the Northern Rocky’s differs from my hometown being that the hunter and farmers had reasons to kills wolves. The second case study is about greenhouse gas emissions and water depletion in New Zealand. This case study is not as relatable to where I live as the wolves. The water problem is actually not as big of a deal because we recycle our water through a series of rivers in my hometown. Adding chemicals is similar as well. In New Zealand, they had to have mixed chemicals with the nutrient rich water to bring it to a drinkable state. From both of these studies, development can be advanced by through not harming animals other than game and also working on decreasing our greenhouse gas emissions. The place and time of development matter to these instances because as you can see, the water in my hometown and the water in New Zealand are very different in terms of demand and health. Just as the Northern Rocky’s have different endangered species as we do in Uniontown.
2 thoughts on “The Northern Rockies and New Zealand”
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Jacob, great post! I chose to write my post about climate changes effect on disease and the epidemic going on with the world’s population of bees. Here is a link to my post:
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/26/gunderson-mod-5/
The re-population of the wolves into the rocky mountains actually hits pretty close to home for me, I’m from Colorado originally. I’ve always seen both sides of that argument. I think wolves were an important staple in their ecosystems and humans had no right to bring them to the brink of extinction. I can also view it from the other side as I have a friend who owns horses in Wyoming and has a few killed by wolves… Not only are those animals very expensive but there is also an emotional connection that a rancher has to his animals that can’t be quantified. As for New Zealand, it sounds like they have quite the task ahead of them, it’ll be interesting to see how they find a solution. Thanks for your time! Good luck with the class.
Hey Jacob,
Your post caught my eye because of the hunting endangered species issue. My hometown also has an issue with overhunting and hunting regulations not being enforced. As far as the New Zealand case goes, I think it’s a pretty interesting article. I never knew that New Zealand has water sustainability issues! If you look at my post, I wrote about the use of solar powered water pumps. I think it could tie in to the New Zealand issue too.
Hannah
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/26/solar-power-is-now-more-accessible-than-ever/#comments