Report: Agriculture robs habitat, drives extinctions

National Pollinator Week 2017, which creates a little buzz every June about the plight of bees and other beneficial insects, concludes today.

Given that humans depend on large-scale agriculture, the importance of pollinators cannot be exaggerated. And because bees, butterflies and bugs belong to Earth no less than do humans, maybe the small and useful creatures deserve more deference than they get.

Not that planting a pollinator garden is a meaningless gesture, but it’s not sufficient to save what's being lost. Evidence suggests that a reordering of priorities and practices related to land use is required.

Some Ohioans know the fate of the monarch butterfly is linked to the milkweed plant, which is losing turf to sprawl and agriculture. Worldwide, the fate of more creatures is in doubt, so much so that many scientists believe the planet is in an extinction episode similar to what has occurred only five previous times in the 3.8 billion years since microbic life appeared on the planet.

At stake is the survival of thousands of bird and mammal species, some iconic and all filling some ecological niche. Their existence hinges on how food is produced for the billions of humans that compete with animals for sustenance, land and water, says a report in this month’s Nature.

Agriculture, the study’s authors say, plays an immense role in the fragmenting of habitat, a contributor to species loss. Ohio’s bobwhite quail, which were all but wiped out by cold winters in the late 1970s, have never recovered in most of the state because of fragmentation.

Another threat is hunting, researchers said, though not the kind of responsible hunting familiar to many Americans. Agriculture is the most significant factor among 80 percent of threatened species worldwide, but the killing of animals for meat and body parts could result in the undoing of 40 to 50 percent of the threatened species.

“With so many people on Earth now, and the numbers increasing by another 3 or 4 billion before we finally level off at our carrying capacity, the impact on extinctions is really great,” said David Tilman, the study’s lead author. “People will win out over any other organism. It’s hard for large species to live around humans because humans take up so much of their habitat and break it into little pieces.”

Some means already are available to temper some effects of industrial agriculture. One involves the use of fertilizers, the main driver of toxic blue-green algae outbreaks familiar in many Ohio lakes, including Lake Erie.

A 25 percent reduction in fertilizer use without significant effects on crop yields is achievable, the researchers said. Whether algae can be linked to animal extinctions is questionable, but it sure isn’t healthy for people.

Few takers

Despite efforts by conservation and sportsmen’s groups to press for increases in price for resident hunting and fishing licenses to generate revenue for the underfunded Ohio Division of Wildlife, it’s doubtful hikes will be included in the budget bill.

The bill, which must be sent by the General Assembly to Gov. John Kasich for signing no later than Friday, likely will include a $50 increase for non-resident deer hunters. That could generate as much as $2.4 million annually for the division, though that falls far short of needed revenue.

License and permit fees have stayed at their current level since 2004.

Team players

James Bressler, Julian Dent, Mike Abbott and Ryan Kovatch of the central Ohio-based Hartley’s Hawgs Piglets fishing club, competed last week in the Bassmaster Junior National Championship team event in Huntingdon, Tennessee.

The tournament was for qualifying two-angler teams of 7- to 13-year-olds.