03/18/00 -- U.S. Found to Have More Species Than Previously Thought

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

U.S. Found to Have More Species Than Previously Thought

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

3/18/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

The Nature Conservancy has carried out what may be the most

comprehensive survey of biological diversity ever undertaken in the

United States, highlighting the country's exceptional biodiversity in

a new report. They have documented more than 200,000 species of

plants and animals found across the country's tremendous diversity of

habitats. This is double what had been the accepted figure. There is

no cause for complacency, as up to one-third of the species are

imperiled to some degree. Loss of habitat is the biggest threat, as

"nearly 60 percent of the U.S. outside of Alaska has lost most of its

natural vegetation." Invasions of alien species such as zebra mussels

and Asian longhorned beetles are the second leading cause of species

declines. The fact that the wealthiest country in the world has not

known how many species it possesses within a factor of two is

illustrative of the biological ignorance that exists globally. The

Nature Conservancy deserves hearty congratulations for stepping into

this void and systematically mapping and cataloguing species and

habitats, and then going out and purchasing whole habitats for

preservation, and conservation management if necessary. They are

fully cognizant that ideally long-term species viability and

protection depends upon conserving entire habitats across intact

landscapes with operational ecosystem processes. To "conserve"

species otherwise dooms them to museum status, and continual threat of

local extirpation. Following are two articles on this exciting

research.

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: U.S. Found to Have More Species Than Previously Thought

Source: New York Times

Date: March 16, 200

Byline: WILLIAM K. STEVENS

The United States is home to at least twice as many native species of

plants, animals and other wild things -- more than 200,000 in all --

than had previously been thought, according to what may be the most

comprehensive survey of biological diversity ever undertaken in

America.

The nation was also found to harbor a more varied array of ecological

systems than any other large country.

Conservation experts characterized the findings as an unexpected piece

of good news.

But as many as a third of the country's species are considered

imperiled to some degree, according to the study, whose details are to

be disclosed today in Washington by the Nature Conservancy, whose

membership of more than a million makes it the nation's largest

private conservation group.

In disclosing the results of the survey, the conservancy will also

announce that it has undertaken a five-year, $1 billion effort to

preserve large tracts of what remains of wild America.

It is said to be the largest amount of money ever devoted to a

conservation campaign by a private organization.

The inventory of species was conducted over the last 25 years by the

conservancy's Natural Heritage Network, made up of survey centers in

all 50 states, most of them parts of state governments and

universities. The network's database on species and ecosystems is

widely viewed as the most complete and detailed in the nation, and is

the country's leading source of biological information for

conservation planners, government agencies and land managers.

But until now, the information gleaned from the network's extensive

field surveys and other sources like museum collections and scientific

literature had never been pulled together to produce a portrait of the

status of wild America.

The five-year analysis found that the 50 states contain about 10

percent of the known species on earth and that the United States ranks

at or near the top among nations of the world in its variety of

mammals (mostly small ones), freshwater fishes and needle-leafed

evergreens like pine trees, salamanders, mussels, snails and

crayfishes.

Among insects, by far the most numerous group of species, there were

many interesting surprises. The United States, for instance, turns out

to be extremely rich in bees, with nearly 4,000 native species, most

of them solitary rather than swarming creatures.

And the United States harbors more species of caddis flies, mayflies

and stoneflies, which are aquatic insects that support many freshwater

ecosystems and are beloved by trout fishermen, than any other country.

At the same time, according to the survey, the United States has a

wider array of ecological regions -- big, distinctly different

swatches of nature like deserts, various kinds of forests, grasslands

and tundra -- than any other of the six largest countries.

By a calculation cited in the study, the United States has 21 of the

world's 28 different types of ecological regions, 5 more than its

nearest rival, the former Soviet Union.

So lush and variegated is the new portrait of biological variety in

America that the conservancy will also announce today its commitment

of $1 billion in new money to its long-established effort to protect

the wild landscape by buying up large parcels of land or securing

conservation easements on them.

"I think we've described biodiversity in a way that it's never been

described before," John C. Sawhill, the conservancy's president, said

of the study.

Its findings, Mr. Sawhill said, make the nation's conservation task

more urgent.

"There's a more compelling reason now to invest $1 billion to try to

protect biodiversity," he said.

Mr. Sawhill said $428 million had already been raised from private

sources for the five-year campaign, which has three more years to run.

Most of the money is to be devoted to conservation projects in the

United States, conservancy officials said, but some will be spent

abroad.

The combination of the biological inventory and the financial

commitment "is one of the most important conservation initiatives I

can remember," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, the director of the United

States Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered

Species Act.

"The two-punch effort of the knowledge and the resources is absolutely

unparalleled."

The effort comes at a time when many conservationists say their

enterprise is on the financial rise, as private gift-giving has

increased and governments have poured more money into acquiring and

protecting large tracts.

Congress has appropriated about $1 billion for that purpose over the

last three fiscal years, and in 1999 an additional $1.8 billion was

provided at the state and local level, according to figures supplied

by the conservancy.

"We're now entering the era of big conservation, and this is not a

moment too soon," said Dr. Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard University

biologist and biodiversity expert, a member of the conservancy's

board.

Most of the world's species are found in the tropics, and this has led

conservationists and scientists to focus much of their attention

there. The surprisingly high-diversity ranking of the United States,

Dr. Wilson said, results partly from the fact that most scientists who

study such matters live and work in the Northern Hemisphere.

The ranking of the United States will fall when the tropics are better

studied, he said.

Indeed, experts say, countless species are still to be discovered

around the world.

The new study says the United States itself may actually contain

double the number of species documented so far.

New ones are being discovered all the time; the study says 30

previously unknown species of flowering plants turn up in North

America every year.

Despite the uncertainty, the study's authors say, it is clear that the

United States "ranks quite high in terms of its biotic diversity."

Dr. Bruce A. Stein, a conservancy scientist who is one of the study's

editors, put it this way: "We have an amazing amount of stuff.

The bad news is that a lot of it is not in very good shape.

But there is time to protect it."

The study found that 500 species were extinct or missing. Of the more

than 200,000 species, 7 percent were found to be critically imperiled,

8 percent imperiled, 16 percent vulnerable and about two-thirds were

secure or apparently secure.

Five special "hot spots" of imperilment emerged from the analysis;

that is, places where high numbers of species found nowhere else are

at risk: the San Francisco Bay area, Southern California, the Death

Valley region, the southern Appalachians and the Florida Panhandle.

ITEM #2

Title: "Precious Heritage" Documents 200,000 Species in the USA

Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/

Date: March 16, 200

Byline: Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, March 16, 2000 (ENS) - The United States is home to

more than 200,000 species of plants and animals, about 10 percent of

the world's known species, a new book announced today. The new total -

more than double previous official estimates of the nation's species -

is just one result of the most comprehensive analysis of U.S.

biodiversity ever conducted.

INSET with photograph:

The United States has a greater diversity of large-scale ecosystems

than any other nation on Earth, from these desert shrublands along

Arizona's Verde River to Hawaii's subtropical rainforests and Alaska's

arctic tundra.

The bad news is - up to one third of the nation's species are at risk.

At least 539 species have already gone extinct or are missing. The

single biggest threat to species survival is loss of habitat, with

almost 60 percent of America's landscape already severely altered.

"The good news is - Americans enjoy an incredibly rich natural

heritage, from rare fish surviving in desert oases, to the world's

tallest trees - California's coast redwoods - to Hawaii's

honeycreepers, colorful birds whose evolutionary story rivals that of

the famous Darwin's finches," says the report's lead author, Dr. Bruce

Stein. "The bad news is that Americans risk losing much of this wealth

if current trends continue."

"Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States"

was written by scientists from The Nature Conservancy, the nation's

largest private conservation group, and the Association for

Biodiversity Information (ABI), a leading source for scientific

information on rare and endangered species.

The findings of this groundbreaking report, published as a 400 page

book, were announced today at the Smithsonian Institution's National

Zoological Park by Nature Conservancy president and CEO John Sawhill

and ABI Board chair Mary Klein.

INSET with photography:

The U.S. is a global center of diversity for aquatic life, such as

this rare ringed map turtle. Freshwater species are at particular

risk, however, due to alteration and pollution of the nation's rivers,

streams, and lakes.

The U.S. is revealed as one of the most diverse countries on an

ecosystem scale, harboring a high percentage of the world's broadleaf

forests, temperate grasslands and Mediterranean climate vegetation. In

fact, the U.S. supports a broader variety of large scale ecosystems,

such as prairie and tundra, than any other nation on Earth.

The assessment shows the U.S. is far richer in species and ecosystems

than previously believed - a global center of diversity for many life

forms. The report documents 204,700 species that have been described

by science, including 768 birds, 799 fish, 416 mammals and over 15,000

plants.

The book is illustrated with maps pinpointing biodiversity "hot spots"

around the U.S., including a special section on aquatic species and

the difficulties they face. It points out the abundance of unique life

forms found only in America's streams, rivers and lakes.

The nation is particularly rich in aquatic life, such as fishes,

turtles, salamanders and mussels. More fishes are found in a single

river in Tennessee, for example, than in all of Europe.

"The United States is the clear world leader for entire groups of

organisms, particularly those that depend upon fresh water," said

Sawhill. "The United States turns out to be far more important

ecologically that we had thought."

INSET with photograph:

Hawai'i's mid-oceanic isolation has resulted in the evolution of a

spectacular array of unique life forms, such as this flowering

lobelia. But nearly 250 Hawai'ian species already are extinct or

missing.

The report draws on more than 25 years of information compiled by

Natural Heritage programs from all 50 states. Operated in most cases

by state agencies, Natural Heritage programs maintain databases that

contain the most reliable scientific information on the condition and

location of species across the country.

For the first time, the information housed in each of the state

Natural Heritage programs has been collected and analyzed from a

national perspective, providing the most comprehensive look yet at the

nation's overall biological health.

While not revealing the existence of any new species, the report draws

together the best available information on all species groups,

providing a better estimate of the nation's biodiversity than any

prior report.

The most commonly cited estimate of the nation's biodiversity was

100,000 species, published in the journal "Science" in 1995 by Dr.

Edward Wilson, a Harvard University biologist and biodiversity expert,

and a member of The Nature Conservancy's board.

That estimate included only land and freshwater species. The new

estimate of 200,000 species also encompasses the ocean environment and

pays special attention to Hawai'i, the most diverse state in the U.S.

INSET with photograph:

The U.S. has a rich variety of plant life and is second only to China

in its diversity of conifers and related plants. Bristlecone pines are

the world's oldest living trees, with some dating back nearly 5,000

years.

Yet Sawhill says even that estimate may be much too low, as scientists

are just beginning to catalog the nation's vast stores of insects and

microscopic life forms.

Every year, some 30 new species of plants are being discovered in

North America, Sawhill says. "It points out the poor condition of our

knowledge of these species," he says. "That's the real point."

As Wilson notes in his forward to the book, "Few people, including

many scientists who specialize in biodiversity, have grasped the full

magnitude of the American biota as summarized by the 'Precious

Heritage' authors."

The report is intended to help guide land managers and legislators in

making informed conservation decisions. "You've delivered exactly what

we need to save the best of what's left," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark. "Now we have this book ...

that brings the power of all Heritage Programs together at one time."

"Just imagine what we can do for conservation now," said Clark.

But the exceptional richness of the U.S. is in danger, with one-third

of U.S. species at risk. Aquatic life is particularly vulnerable.

Almost 70 percent of the nation's freshwater mussel species and more

than half its crayfishes are in trouble, for example.

The single biggest threat to species survival is loss of habitat.

Nearly 60 percent of the U.S. outside of Alaska has lost most of its

natural vegetation

Alien species invasion, such as zebra mussels and Asian longhorned

beetles, are second only to habitat loss as a cause of species

declines.

Yet there is still time to protect the nation's natural heritage, the

report's authors note hopefully.

"For nearly 50 years, The Nature Conservancy has been committed to

conserving America's natural riches, from wetlands, to prairies, to

barrier islands, so in some ways these findings confirm what we've

believed all along," said Sawhill. "The news in 'Precious Heritage,'

both good and bad, provides us with an even greater impetus to protect

these priceless landscapes for future generations of Americans."

Towards that goal, The Nature Conservancy today announced plans to

invest $1 billion in private funds over the next five years to protect

sites considered critical to conservation around the U.S. and abroad.

The group plans to devote $737 million to land protection, targeting

200 U.S. sites for outright purchase or conservation easements.

Another $113 million will help manage and restore lands that have

already been acquired.

About one-third of U.S. species appear to be at risk due to their

rarity or threats from human activities. This figure is based on

assessments of more than 20,000 species representing the best known

groups of U.S. plants and animals, such as mammals, flowering plants,

and butterflies

The remaining funds will go toward other important conservation

initiatives, particularly the protection of freshwater ecosystems, as

well as the creation of a conservation blueprint for The Nature

Conservancy's future activities.

"We've made outstanding progress toward mobilizing these funds," said

Sawhill. "Over the first 18 months of this campaign, we've already

raised $437 million."

The Conservancy has been operating as a modern-day "Noah's Ark" for

almost 50 years, acquiring and protecting land where rare and

endangered plants and animals still cling to existence. In an effort

to get out in front of the extinction curve, the Conservancy has

broadened its conservation work in recent years to focus on protecting

entire landscapes before their species become endangered.

In 1999, the Conservancy and its partners in the Natural Heritage

Network joined forces to create ABI, an independent nonprofit

institution dedicated to producing top-quality scientific information

for use in conservation planning. 'Precious Heritage' is one of the

first fruits of that venture.

"Lack of knowledge about the condition and distribution of our species

and ecosystems is one of the greatest impediments to protecting the

nation's extraordinary diversity of life," says Mary Klein, board

chair of ABI. "By providing ready access to this critical information,

ABI and the state Natural Heritage programs provide a vital tool for

balancing efforts to meet the needs of our natural world with the

needs of a growing human population."

In the coming months, ABI plans to make much of the information from

the report available as part of a searchable online database.

"Precious Heritage" is available from the Oxford University Press.