Commons Governance Work Group
Our Mission: We seek to assist in the creation of an integral model of co-governance that can be applied both within existing and emergent commons in various developmental stages and contexts. The Commons Defined: We understand the commons to be a sphere of life that is distinct, both from the public sphere of government provision and distribution, a ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Feb 26, 2009
Updated: Nov 19, 2009
Membership: Open
Semi-Private
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About [Edit]
Vision
We envision a time when human beings accept the puma, the wolf, and their wild kin as citizens in the community of lifeóa time when, instead of hunting and trapping them for sport and profit we live peacefully with them, when instead of exploiting and despoiling land without restraint we accommodate their habitat and nutritional needs in our way of living. This will be a time when we have come to view nature quite differently from the traditional way that sees it only as a resource to be exploited or an enemy to be subduedóa time when we have adopted gentler life-ways that recognize and respect not only the fragility and sensitivity of natural systems, but also our own physical and spiritual dependence upon them.
History
Western Wildlife Conservancy was founded on November 1, 1996 as the Predator Education Fund, a tax-exempt education branch of the young Utah Cougar Coalition. Within a few months PEF replaced the Utah Cougar Coalition. The name was changed to Western Wildlife Conservancy on August 1, 2000 to better reflect the expanse of our region and the breadth of our mission, which is to: preserve and protect wildlife native to the intermountain West through research, education and advocacy. Our primary focus remains on native mammal predators. These include the following families and species:
Ursidae [grizzly and black bear]
Felidae [mountain lion, Canada lynx and bobcat]
Canidae [gray wolf, coyote, and the gray, red, swift and kit fox]
Mustelidae [wolverine, fisher, marten and other members of the weasel family]
Since the arrival of pioneer settlers in the mid-nineteenth century, most species of mammal predator in the intermountain West have suffered reduced ranges, and some have been completely extirpated from large portions of their historic range. Those which have been extirpated, or nearly so, from Utah and surrounding states, include the gray wolf, the Canada lynx, the grizzly bear, the wolverine and fisher. Our challenge is to protect the habitats of these species and to do what is possible to aid natural restoration of viable populations of them to suitable habitats. In some cases reintroduction may be advisable, as in the case of wolves being reintroduced into the Yellowstone area and in central Idaho.
Modern conservation biology recognizes the fundamental importance of predator species to the health and proper functioning of ecosystems, which in turn is essential to the protection of watersheds. When predators are removed from an ecosystem, the naturally fluctuating balance among plant communities, herbivores and carnivores is upset, resulting in ìtrophic cascadeî effects. This involves an unnatural proliferation of some species and a dying off of others. This in turn may adversely affect riparian habitats [streams, rivers and marshes]. For example, removal of the wolf and the cougar [as in the case of Yellowstone National Park] may result in a proliferation of elk and a tendency for them to congregate without fear in riparian areas, which may in turn drastically reduce willow and aspen stands, which may in turn lead to an extirpation of beaver and otters. This may in turn alter the entire character and seasonal flow of the stream, thus destroying native fish. And so on. The old myth that predators rob from the community of life and provide nothing in return, is completely erroneous. We must learn to appreciate the fact that they are an essential and integral part of the community of life.
We envision a time when human beings accept the puma, the wolf, and their wild kin as citizens in the community of lifeóa time when, instead of hunting and trapping them for sport and profit we live peacefully with them, when instead of exploiting and despoiling land without restraint we accommodate their habitat and nutritional needs in our way of living. This will be a time when we have come to view nature quite differently from the traditional way that sees it only as a resource to be exploited or an enemy to be subduedóa time when we have adopted gentler life-ways that recognize and respect not only the fragility and sensitivity of natural systems, but also our own physical and spiritual dependence upon them.
History
Western Wildlife Conservancy was founded on November 1, 1996 as the Predator Education Fund, a tax-exempt education branch of the young Utah Cougar Coalition. Within a few months PEF replaced the Utah Cougar Coalition. The name was changed to Western Wildlife Conservancy on August 1, 2000 to better reflect the expanse of our region and the breadth of our mission, which is to: preserve and protect wildlife native to the intermountain West through research, education and advocacy. Our primary focus remains on native mammal predators. These include the following families and species:
Ursidae [grizzly and black bear]
Felidae [mountain lion, Canada lynx and bobcat]
Canidae [gray wolf, coyote, and the gray, red, swift and kit fox]
Mustelidae [wolverine, fisher, marten and other members of the weasel family]
Since the arrival of pioneer settlers in the mid-nineteenth century, most species of mammal predator in the intermountain West have suffered reduced ranges, and some have been completely extirpated from large portions of their historic range. Those which have been extirpated, or nearly so, from Utah and surrounding states, include the gray wolf, the Canada lynx, the grizzly bear, the wolverine and fisher. Our challenge is to protect the habitats of these species and to do what is possible to aid natural restoration of viable populations of them to suitable habitats. In some cases reintroduction may be advisable, as in the case of wolves being reintroduced into the Yellowstone area and in central Idaho.
Modern conservation biology recognizes the fundamental importance of predator species to the health and proper functioning of ecosystems, which in turn is essential to the protection of watersheds. When predators are removed from an ecosystem, the naturally fluctuating balance among plant communities, herbivores and carnivores is upset, resulting in ìtrophic cascadeî effects. This involves an unnatural proliferation of some species and a dying off of others. This in turn may adversely affect riparian habitats [streams, rivers and marshes]. For example, removal of the wolf and the cougar [as in the case of Yellowstone National Park] may result in a proliferation of elk and a tendency for them to congregate without fear in riparian areas, which may in turn drastically reduce willow and aspen stands, which may in turn lead to an extirpation of beaver and otters. This may in turn alter the entire character and seasonal flow of the stream, thus destroying native fish. And so on. The old myth that predators rob from the community of life and provide nothing in return, is completely erroneous. We must learn to appreciate the fact that they are an essential and integral part of the community of life.