davidinthewilderness
Inactive
With Agenda 21 heating up for Rio it is time to add a little bear salsa to the immigration/border fence issue. Citizens can't go anyplace without official identification, but you just gotta love those bears, and let them go anywhere they want in the Sky Island Archipelago (corridors) even if it results in the destruction of two countries.
I wonder how many bears they had to truck in for this study?
https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/12/u-s-report-border-fence-threatens-bear-population/
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon get unsolicited advice from a group of U.S. government scientists that claim fencing along the Mexican border threatens the black bear population.
The esteemed researchers recently published a study warning that the border wall erected to protect the country from illegal immigration and drug smuggling is an obstacle that blocks bears in migration. This may threaten the black bear population in parts of Arizona, they say. The findings were published recently in a science research journal so it didn’t get much publicity until a mainstream newspaper picked it up this week.
The newspaper article goes into considerable detail about how the probe was conducted, mainly by using pieces of barbed wire to capture genetic samples of “foraging” bears. This helped scientists track various bear populations in Arizona. The population density of the border bears was substantially lower than the bears living farther north, which had a wider habitat that was less vulnerable to development, the researchers found.
The bear study is simply the latest of many to make a case against the southern border fence in the name of preserving wildlife. A number of others have made similar arguments, some even claiming that the barrier will lead to the extinction of certain species of wildlife. One example is a University of Texas study that found more than 300 species of amphibian, reptile, and mammals are threatened by the border barrier.
Another accuses the U.S. government of ignoring scientific research and historical evidence of the border fence’s negative effects to wildlife and conservation lands. A fence is slated to traverse important ecological areas, including the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and the Sabal Palm Audubon Center and Sanctuary, according to this particular university paper.
Other studies, less publicized by the mainstream media, have exposed how the constant traffic of illegal immigration (where there is no fence) has destroyed hundreds of acres of national forests and their habitat. Illegal immigrants have devastated national parks by leaving mountains of trash and human waste, with recurring fires and by despoiling natural springs and vandalizing historic sites. The migrants have also created damaging illegal trails and roads that destroy sensitive and federally protected vegetation.
The bear researchers will conveniently omit this sort of information when they meet with DHS officials and other state and federal agencies to “generate innovative solutions” that take bears into consideration when border security is discussed. They want the well-being of all large carnivores to be considered when crafting border security policies.
Link to the Deep Ecology study but you have to pay for it: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320711003016
Todd C. Atwooda, b, Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, Julie K. Youngc, d, Jon P. Beckmanne, Stewart W. Breckb, Jennifer Fikef, Olin E. Rhodes Jr.f, Kirby D. Bristowa
a Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA
b United States Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA
c United States Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Predator Research Facility, Logan, UT 84322, USA
d Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-5295, USA
e Wildlife Conservation Society, North America Program, Bozeman, MT 59715, USA
f Purdue University, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Received 5 April 2011; revised 7 July 2011; Accepted 1 August 2011. Available online 3 September 2011.
Abstract
Landscape features such as rivers, mountains, desert basins, roads, and impermeable man-made structures may influence dispersal and gene flow among populations, thereby creating spatial structure across the landscape. In the US–Mexico borderland, urbanization and construction of the border fence have the potential to increase genetic subdivision and vulnerability to isolation in large mammal populations by bisecting movement corridors that have enabled dispersal between adjacent Sky Island mountain ranges. We examined genetic variation in black bears (Ursus americanus) from three regions in central and southern Arizona, US, to assess genetic and landscape connectivity in the US–Mexico border Sky Islands. We found that the three regions grouped into two subpopulations: the east-central subpopulation comprised of individuals sampled in the central highland and high desert regions, and the border subpopulation comprised of individuals sampled in the southern Sky Islands. Occupancy for the border subpopulation of black bears was influenced by cover type and distance to water, and occupancy-based corridor models identified 14 potential corridors connecting border Sky Island habitat cores with the east-central subpopulation. Biological quality of corridors, defined as length:width ratio and proportions of suitable habitat within corridors, declined with Sky Island dispersion. Our results show that black bears in the border subpopulation are moderately isolated from the east-central subpopulation, the main population segment of black bears in Arizona, and that connectivity for border bears may be vulnerable to anthropogenic activities, such as those associated with urbanization and trans-border security.
Highlights
► We modeled connectivity of black bears in the Arizona border Sky Islands. ► Based on genetics, bears were grouped into eastcentral and border subpopulations. ► The border subpopulation was moderately isolated from the eastcentral subpopulation. ► Further isolation due to urbanization and border activities is likely. ► We identified corridors that will maintain connectivity between border Sky Islands.
Keywords: Border fence; Corridor; Genetic connectivity; Landscape connectivity; Ursus americanus
From the trenches of liberty,
Celeste
I wonder how many bears they had to truck in for this study?
https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/12/u-s-report-border-fence-threatens-bear-population/
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon get unsolicited advice from a group of U.S. government scientists that claim fencing along the Mexican border threatens the black bear population.
The esteemed researchers recently published a study warning that the border wall erected to protect the country from illegal immigration and drug smuggling is an obstacle that blocks bears in migration. This may threaten the black bear population in parts of Arizona, they say. The findings were published recently in a science research journal so it didn’t get much publicity until a mainstream newspaper picked it up this week.
The newspaper article goes into considerable detail about how the probe was conducted, mainly by using pieces of barbed wire to capture genetic samples of “foraging” bears. This helped scientists track various bear populations in Arizona. The population density of the border bears was substantially lower than the bears living farther north, which had a wider habitat that was less vulnerable to development, the researchers found.
The bear study is simply the latest of many to make a case against the southern border fence in the name of preserving wildlife. A number of others have made similar arguments, some even claiming that the barrier will lead to the extinction of certain species of wildlife. One example is a University of Texas study that found more than 300 species of amphibian, reptile, and mammals are threatened by the border barrier.
Another accuses the U.S. government of ignoring scientific research and historical evidence of the border fence’s negative effects to wildlife and conservation lands. A fence is slated to traverse important ecological areas, including the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and the Sabal Palm Audubon Center and Sanctuary, according to this particular university paper.
Other studies, less publicized by the mainstream media, have exposed how the constant traffic of illegal immigration (where there is no fence) has destroyed hundreds of acres of national forests and their habitat. Illegal immigrants have devastated national parks by leaving mountains of trash and human waste, with recurring fires and by despoiling natural springs and vandalizing historic sites. The migrants have also created damaging illegal trails and roads that destroy sensitive and federally protected vegetation.
The bear researchers will conveniently omit this sort of information when they meet with DHS officials and other state and federal agencies to “generate innovative solutions” that take bears into consideration when border security is discussed. They want the well-being of all large carnivores to be considered when crafting border security policies.
Link to the Deep Ecology study but you have to pay for it: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320711003016
Modeling connectivity of black bears in a desert sky island archipelago
Todd C. Atwooda, b, Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, Julie K. Youngc, d, Jon P. Beckmanne, Stewart W. Breckb, Jennifer Fikef, Olin E. Rhodes Jr.f, Kirby D. Bristowa
a Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix, AZ 85086, USA
b United States Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA
c United States Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Predator Research Facility, Logan, UT 84322, USA
d Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-5295, USA
e Wildlife Conservation Society, North America Program, Bozeman, MT 59715, USA
f Purdue University, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Received 5 April 2011; revised 7 July 2011; Accepted 1 August 2011. Available online 3 September 2011.
Abstract
Landscape features such as rivers, mountains, desert basins, roads, and impermeable man-made structures may influence dispersal and gene flow among populations, thereby creating spatial structure across the landscape. In the US–Mexico borderland, urbanization and construction of the border fence have the potential to increase genetic subdivision and vulnerability to isolation in large mammal populations by bisecting movement corridors that have enabled dispersal between adjacent Sky Island mountain ranges. We examined genetic variation in black bears (Ursus americanus) from three regions in central and southern Arizona, US, to assess genetic and landscape connectivity in the US–Mexico border Sky Islands. We found that the three regions grouped into two subpopulations: the east-central subpopulation comprised of individuals sampled in the central highland and high desert regions, and the border subpopulation comprised of individuals sampled in the southern Sky Islands. Occupancy for the border subpopulation of black bears was influenced by cover type and distance to water, and occupancy-based corridor models identified 14 potential corridors connecting border Sky Island habitat cores with the east-central subpopulation. Biological quality of corridors, defined as length:width ratio and proportions of suitable habitat within corridors, declined with Sky Island dispersion. Our results show that black bears in the border subpopulation are moderately isolated from the east-central subpopulation, the main population segment of black bears in Arizona, and that connectivity for border bears may be vulnerable to anthropogenic activities, such as those associated with urbanization and trans-border security.
Highlights
► We modeled connectivity of black bears in the Arizona border Sky Islands. ► Based on genetics, bears were grouped into eastcentral and border subpopulations. ► The border subpopulation was moderately isolated from the eastcentral subpopulation. ► Further isolation due to urbanization and border activities is likely. ► We identified corridors that will maintain connectivity between border Sky Islands.
Keywords: Border fence; Corridor; Genetic connectivity; Landscape connectivity; Ursus americanus
From the trenches of liberty,
Celeste