Saturday, July 18, 2009

Is climate change cooking Delmarva hunters' goose? Biologist thinks so

Freddy Valencia in DelmarvaNow.com: On Thursday night in front of a small audience at Gander Mountain, Ed Perry, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, gave a presentation on the impact of climate change on fish and waterfowl. For hunters and fishermen who are starting to wonder where all the ducks and fish have gone, Perry has an answer.

"The level of emissions that we are using today is skyrocketing, and it's something that affects every natural system," he said. "Every state has gone up at least one hardiness zone, and some have gone up two. For example, southern Pennsylvania's hardiness zone now is what North Carolina's was 15 years ago."

Basically, plants that were once growing in the South are now able to make their way further north, and because many lakes in the West aren't freezing over anymore, the migratory patterns for ducks and geese have changed drastically. At the level that we are now, there appears to be no quick fix either….

1 comment:

Denise Thornton said...

In Wisconsin a group of University of Wisconsin Scientists and other state agency researchers have been compiling their best predictions of what climate change is going to mean in the Midwest and similar latitudes. We are indeed seeing profound changes to wildlife already. I summarized their research for organic farmers, including some wildlife repercussions. Check it out with this link to the article.
http://digginginthedriftless.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/climate-change-what-experts-expect-for-the-upper-midwest/
Denise Thornton
http://digginginthedriftless.wordpress.com