Endangered species sure cause us a lot of problems in every sense of the word. First of all, they are endangered. That is the keystone problem. Also, they are endangered by thousands of acts of man from construction to agriculture, to the use of environmental toxins, and plain stupidity and disregard. It seems that anywhere man alters his surroundings, some critter is harmed.
Problems both large and small are mounting. Malathion is “likely to adversely affect” 97-percent of 1,782 endangered species, according to the Envionrmental Protection Agency. In Washington D.C. the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project is halted and under fire for neglecting to research its impact on endangered species. California’s Delta Water Tunnel Project is being stymied because it imperils running salmon. Lakes Tahoe and Pyramid almost lost their Lahontan cutthroats because of the introduction of char that gobble baby cutthrouts.
There are dozens of pesticides containing neonicotinoids made by not just dreaded Monsanto, but by Bayer and Ortho and other chemical manufacturers that are highly suspect in the colony collapse deaths of millions of honey bees.
Lawsuits are being filed daily at both ends. One group will sue to put an animal on the endangered list, and others will sue to have an animal removed. Sage grouse, wolverines, the delta smelt, and the bone cave harvestman spider are just some examples.
In 2014 the EPA under orders from President Obama formed the Pollinator Health Task Force. Their goal is to further study and restrict the use of neonicotinoids and other toxic herbicides.
When scouring their sites I got the general plan, but they stopped short of listing specific corporations or brand name products and instead focused on ingredients that many of them share. Further research brought up companies and specific products, but there are too many of them to name in this article. You’ll have to dig them up yourself if you’re interested.
Too many humans are of the belief that it doesn’t really matter if certain living organisms go extinct. Big deal if there’s one less bug or bear. However, jigsaw lovers know how annoying it is to finish a 1,000 piece puzzle only to find one piece missing. It negatively impacts the picture and the pleasure. Sailors who weigh anchor know what happens if one link in the chain fails. They become adrift in shifting seas. Programmers know how a missing comma can crash the most sophisticated computer systems.
It’s not too far-fetched or freakanomic to one day discover that pollen allergies become lethal and people drop dead by the thousands because of some new herbicide on the market. We don’t seem to yet have the respect for symbiosis that we need to survive and thrive together with all the other living creatures on this spinning ball of protoplasm. Let’s hope we figure it out before an environmental disaster disrupts our preternatural calm.
Here is a happy story. The face of Yellowstone has been drastically improved by the reintroduction of 14 wolves in 1995 after 70 years of their eradication from the region. Fourteen wolves changed their world. Even the rivers changed. The story is told more vividly in a YouTube video titled “How wolves change rivers” by a group called Sustainable Human.
Trophic cascade is what happens when a predator alters the behavior of its prey so that the prey’s victims once again thrive. The wolves began killing a scant few of the many deer roaming the park. The deer began avoiding valleys and gorges where wolves had the advantage. As a result, the vegetation eaten by the deer began to blossom again. Trees quintupled size in six years. This brought the birds back that ate and deposited seeds.
Beaver returned and their dams reinvigorated the lives of otters, muskrats, ducks, fish, frogs, and other reptiles. Wolves killed coyotes which brought back rabbits, mice, and foxes. Hawks and weasels returned to eat the mice and rabbits.
The bears returned in greater numbers because more berries could be found in the replenished forests. In turn the bears killed more deer and accelerated the trophic cascade.
Rivers changed. They meandered less. Vegetation reinforced banks and kept rivers from flooding low-lying plains. Erosion diminished. New pools formed for fish. The entire landscape was altered by these original 14 wolves.
Put the year 2048 on your apocalypse calendar. That’s the year that experts now predict all our oceans’ edible fish will go extinct. Already 29-percent of all edible salt-water fish have declined by 90-percent. Over-fishing is heavily to blame. However, the acidification of the oceans from excess carbon dioxide is causing tremendous stress on hordes of sea creatures. Where is the carbon dioxide coming from? About one quarter of all the carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil, and gas ends up below the ocean’s surface. Some call it climate change’s evil twin.
These are problems no one country, one agency or one corporation can fix. These massive systemic disruptions to our ecosystem are caused by everybody everywhere and must be fixed through global unity and focus. When will we have that? Perhaps not until we hear the wolves howling at our doors.

Steve Gibbs is a retired Benicia High School teacher who has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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