Today we visited our first National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park. We did not meet with any share holders but gave us two very informative lectures about wildlife management and land usage in the park. He brought up a point that is often over looked, National Parks were not protected when our country was formed. The first national park, Yellowstone, was not formed until 1872 and Rocky Mountain National Park was not established until 1915. Most of the west was just as beautiful and scenic as the National Parks that we have now, especially in the Rocky Mountains this land was just too difficult to inhabit. In the valleys there was still ranching, we think about National Parks as being areas of untouched land, where we go to see true wilderness. This is not the case, up until 1965 ranching was still allowed. This is also true about the National Forests which surround the park, they are set up more for access then for preservation. It's weird to think that the government protects these forest just to ensure that there is enough lumber to supply our country.
Another problem with National Parks is that they are set up to be enjoyed by the people and visitors do not want to visit a park that has just had a wild fire that bu
rn down thousands of acres of forest. The problem is that those fires are natural and are needed to maintain a healthy forest. Since the beginning of the parks existence until the late 1980's all fires were suppressed. The park service believed this was the right thing to do and did not realize that they were causing the forest to become extremely unhealthy and because the fires are not killing off some trees the forests are becoming much more dense which is not natural and makes the trees much weaker. This goes with what we learned about in The Dying of the Trees. Now that the trees are much weaker they are affected by pests easier. That is why large stands of trees are being killed by the pine bark beetle, t
hey are also affected by pollution more, and less likely to survive a severe change in temperature or climate.
It is interesting listening to Patrick talk because you can stare out into this beautiful wilderness and wonder what can be better and then he will tell you that what we are looking at is unnatural and extremely unhealthy. The problem is that the picture in our head of a unhealthy forest is actually the real healthy forest. Due to our management the forest is turning into a monoculture of almost all ponderosa pines.
Another problem we have is with wildlife management. In the 1800's any animal that large we saw as a threat to us or our livestock so we destroy any thing that breathed. In the early 1900's there were no elk left in the area which would later become Rocky Mountain National Park. In 1914 49 were introduced. By 1990 those 49 reproduced to become 1600 and today there are over 3500 and have become a nuisance.
The topic of wildlife management always comes back to the Endangered Species Act. It was written to help protect species that we were destroying but the rules for managing the species is so strict that there is always a conflict of interest. For most cases any time an endangered species is found on a property nothing can be done to negatively impact the species. That means that the land cannot be touched even if construction has begun. This is a problem with species like the Canada Lynx. In the Rocky Mountains it is endangered. That mean
s that if it is found on your property you have to let it live there and cannot effect it. The problem is that the exact same species also lives in Canada and is plentiful and healthy, but those to populations never interact so it can still be listed as endangered.
Another problem with the Endangered Species act involves the wolverine. The wolverine lives high in the snow cap tops of the Rocky Mountains. It is very illusive and does not come in contact with humans very often. A study in 2010 found that the population in the Rocky Mountains was only somewhere between 28 to 52 but it is not being protected (Schwartz). The official reason is that research was done on them but not enough specim
ens were found to get accurate results. What?! So there is not enough of them left research but they are not considered endangered. I also found it
staggering that one trapper admitted to legally killing 12 in the past couple years. Thats is nearly 25-50% of the remaining population destroy by one person, legally!
Citations:
Michael K. Schwartz, Copeland, J. P., Anderson, N. J. (2010). "Wolverine gene flow across a narrow climatic niche." Ecologoy 90. Page 3222-3232. Ecological Society of America.
Picture Citations:
"Rocky Mountain National Park." Anthony Sarnoski. 2011.
"Wolverine." 1965. National Park Service.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Wolverine_on_rock.jpg
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