Happy Autumnal Equinox Everyone!
Sep. 22nd, 2003 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanAlthough as a sun-worshipper this is a painful time of year, there can be no doubt that fall is New England's best season. Make each day as long and beautiful as you can, Mother Nature!
I just wrote out something that has been in my head in several part s for a while now. I needed the pressure of a deadline (Urban Nature Walk this coming Saturday) and the inspiration of a beautiful day and a couple cups of coffee. It's a list of actions taken by humans which have resulted in the kind of wildlife we hav e in Boston today. It's divided into three chronological movements: Colonization, including everything from about 1620 to the Civil War; Industrialization, a much shorter but more significant time period, including a fair amount of the nineteenth century right up until the Depression or so; and the Modern Era, meaning the bulk of the twentieth century up to the present. Many of the events listed were not one-time happenings, but rather movements over many years, in some cases overlapping the time period s used as outlines. They aren't in Chronological order within each subdivision necessarily, but more or less came to my head in that order.
Thanks again for having the patience to read my blog, even if it isn't very sexy most of the time.
Steps in cr eating today's urban wildlife: Boston
I. COLONIZATION
1. Clearing the land of dangerous beasts. (Wolves, mountain lions, bears, rattlesnakes, eagles.)
2. Clearing of forests to create farmland. (Loss of habitat for forest species.)
3. Introduction o f domestic plants and animals. (Weeds, escaped farm plants, cows, pigs, horses, chickens etc. etc.)
4. Hunting of game animals. (Deer and turkeys reduced, heath hen and passenger pigeon extinct, etc.)
II. INDUSTRIALIZATION
5. Pollution of water, soil and air. (Factories and power plants produce smoke, smog, acid rain, pollute rivers and harbor. Industrialization of farms increases pesticide use.)
6. Increase in temperature, year-round sources of food and shelter. (Southern animals able to migrate further north. Non-hibernating species den in man-made shelters, scavenging species take advantage of garbage.)
7. Reforestation of former farm land. (Industrialized farms form far outside of the cities, former fields turn into second-growth forest. F orest animals rebound.)
8. Creation of city parks. (Urban sanctuary created for species able to utilize city parks: squirrels, waterfowl, others. Deliberate planting of non-native trees on a grand scale.)
9. Introduction of non-native birds. (Private parties, in absence of regulation, introduce pigeons, house sparrows, European starlings, house finches, ring-necked pheasants.)
III. MODERN ERA
9. Fragmentation of suburban habitat by roads. (Human population spreads outward from city into former farmland, now new forest, forcing human/wildlife conflicts. Automobile use causes growth of road network: Habitat fragmentation threatens animals needing large territories, collisions between animals and automobiles frequent and significant.)
10. Creation of suburban lawns. (Former forest becomes grassland. Animals considered "edge" dwellers increase: deer, skunks, woodchucks, many birds.)
11. Reintroduction of extirpated animals, creation of environmental regulations. (Wild turkeys reintroduced; migrat ory bird act treaty protects raptors, waterfowl, songbirds. Endangered species laws attempt to save dwindling populations of certain wildlife.)
12 Decrease of hunting and trapping. (Considered barbaric, unsafe and unnecessary by urbanites and suburbani tes, hunting becomes relatively rare. Beavers, white-tailed deer, foxes, wild turkeys increase.)
13. Spread of previously unknown animals into vacant predator niches. (Coyote spreads into New England, formerly kept out by presence of wolves.)
›u
I just wrote out something that has been in my head in several part s for a while now. I needed the pressure of a deadline (Urban Nature Walk this coming Saturday) and the inspiration of a beautiful day and a couple cups of coffee. It's a list of actions taken by humans which have resulted in the kind of wildlife we hav e in Boston today. It's divided into three chronological movements: Colonization, including everything from about 1620 to the Civil War; Industrialization, a much shorter but more significant time period, including a fair amount of the nineteenth century right up until the Depression or so; and the Modern Era, meaning the bulk of the twentieth century up to the present. Many of the events listed were not one-time happenings, but rather movements over many years, in some cases overlapping the time period s used as outlines. They aren't in Chronological order within each subdivision necessarily, but more or less came to my head in that order.
Thanks again for having the patience to read my blog, even if it isn't very sexy most of the time.
Steps in cr eating today's urban wildlife: Boston
I. COLONIZATION
1. Clearing the land of dangerous beasts. (Wolves, mountain lions, bears, rattlesnakes, eagles.)
2. Clearing of forests to create farmland. (Loss of habitat for forest species.)
3. Introduction o f domestic plants and animals. (Weeds, escaped farm plants, cows, pigs, horses, chickens etc. etc.)
4. Hunting of game animals. (Deer and turkeys reduced, heath hen and passenger pigeon extinct, etc.)
II. INDUSTRIALIZATION
5. Pollution of water, soil and air. (Factories and power plants produce smoke, smog, acid rain, pollute rivers and harbor. Industrialization of farms increases pesticide use.)
6. Increase in temperature, year-round sources of food and shelter. (Southern animals able to migrate further north. Non-hibernating species den in man-made shelters, scavenging species take advantage of garbage.)
7. Reforestation of former farm land. (Industrialized farms form far outside of the cities, former fields turn into second-growth forest. F orest animals rebound.)
8. Creation of city parks. (Urban sanctuary created for species able to utilize city parks: squirrels, waterfowl, others. Deliberate planting of non-native trees on a grand scale.)
9. Introduction of non-native birds. (Private parties, in absence of regulation, introduce pigeons, house sparrows, European starlings, house finches, ring-necked pheasants.)
III. MODERN ERA
9. Fragmentation of suburban habitat by roads. (Human population spreads outward from city into former farmland, now new forest, forcing human/wildlife conflicts. Automobile use causes growth of road network: Habitat fragmentation threatens animals needing large territories, collisions between animals and automobiles frequent and significant.)
10. Creation of suburban lawns. (Former forest becomes grassland. Animals considered "edge" dwellers increase: deer, skunks, woodchucks, many birds.)
11. Reintroduction of extirpated animals, creation of environmental regulations. (Wild turkeys reintroduced; migrat ory bird act treaty protects raptors, waterfowl, songbirds. Endangered species laws attempt to save dwindling populations of certain wildlife.)
12 Decrease of hunting and trapping. (Considered barbaric, unsafe and unnecessary by urbanites and suburbani tes, hunting becomes relatively rare. Beavers, white-tailed deer, foxes, wild turkeys increase.)
13. Spread of previously unknown animals into vacant predator niches. (Coyote spreads into New England, formerly kept out by presence of wolves.)
›u
no subject
Date: 2003-09-28 08:50 pm (UTC)Tim E.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 12:39 pm (UTC)( tenebr8@blogspot.com )
I really like getting the feedback, by the way!
I forgot to include something on the list: part of the introduction of alien species was the introduction of certain cockroach species in shipments of slaves. Creepy.i