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Forest Fragment Facing Multidimensional Human-Induced Pressures
On a bike ride around College Park last week I passed through the parking lot of the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, which is near the College Park Metro Station. I was not quite surprised when I saw a family of four deer grazing on the outskirts of the parking lot, along a line of trees. The reason I was not surprised is because here on the East Coast white-tailed deer are severely overpopulated. The origin of this overpopulation is humans hunting these deer’s natural predators to extinction in this part of the country (mountain lions, cougars, etc.). Deer overpopulation has led to significant strain on forest regrowth because they browse on young trees, killing them. In many forests around here, only old growth trees remain. Another aspect of this image which strains forest regrowth is the presence of the parking lot. This parking lot is just one piece of a large infrastructure which fragments forests and has other negative side effects such as increasing runoff which can carry pollutants and excess nutrients.
Thus, this image juxtaposes two types of negative human influences on forest regrowth, one indirect and one direct. These issues fall under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #15: Life on Land. This goal calls for the protection and restoration of forests and other terrestrial ecosystems. If we want these ecosystems to regrow and sustain and if we want to slow biodiversity loss, we must address issues such as overpopulation, forest fragmentation, and harmful runoff. These issues are complex and do not have straightforward solutions, but they are caused by the “Anthropocene” and require our help to flourish again.
Forest Fragment Facing Multidimensional Human-Induced Pressures
On a bike ride around College Park last week I passed through the parking lot of the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, which is near the College Park Metro Station. I was not quite surprised when I saw a family of four deer grazing on the outskirts of the parking lot, along a line of trees. The reason I was not surprised is because here on the East Coast white-tailed deer are severely overpopulated. The origin of this overpopulation is humans hunting these deer’s natural predators to extinction in this part of the country (mountain lions, cougars, etc.). Deer overpopulation has led to significant strain on forest regrowth because they browse on young trees, killing them. In many forests around here, only old growth trees remain. Another aspect of this image which strains forest regrowth is the presence of the parking lot. This parking lot is just one piece of a large infrastructure which fragments forests and has other negative side effects such as increasing runoff which can carry pollutants and excess nutrients.
Thus, this image juxtaposes two types of negative human influences on forest regrowth, one indirect and one direct. These issues fall under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #15: Life on Land. This goal calls for the protection and restoration of forests and other terrestrial ecosystems. If we want these ecosystems to regrow and sustain and if we want to slow biodiversity loss, we must address issues such as overpopulation, forest fragmentation, and harmful runoff. These issues are complex and do not have straightforward solutions, but they are caused by the “Anthropocene” and require our help to flourish again.