Preserve Wildlife With Preserved Parks

By Cassie W.

 

National parks are parts of land or bodies of water that are protected and preserved by the government. They are places where plants and animals can live freely without humans always trashing their homes or causing disruption. These places are vastly crucial in many ways, the salvation of some endangered animal species and ecosystems being just two.

Cecil was a black-maned lion and a leader of a pride. Black-maned lions are very rare. One day, Cecil was in a protected park where hunters could not hurt him.  An American trophy hunter lured him with an elephant carcass out of a park’s protected area and then shot him with an arrow. Cecil then suffered for hours before his murderers trailed him down to blow the gunshot that ended his life.

That sorrowful story about Cecil is dismally a very common event all over the globe and is an example of what is called trophy hunting. Trophy hunters are hunters who kill animals, not for food, but to display parts of the animals for pride and bragging rights. This is one event out of many that other organizations like the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife allow if they get their hands on land before it can become a protected or national park. Additionally, these organizations also allow harmful activities such as logging, livestock grazing, oil and gas drilling, and growing crops with GMOs* and pesticides. The events listed can all also be attributed to the increasing rate of animal species extinction. These organizations are grabbing more of our land before the government can protect them, therefore making them an environment pointed in the wrong direction for the sake of our animals living nearby.

On average, American trophy hunters import around 126,000+ animal parts, or wildlife trophies, per year; that is equal to 345 imports a day! Although trophy hunting is not the only reason for animal species extinction, it sure does make a huge impact. According to the Sierra Club, more national parks could decrease the animal species extinction rate to half of what it is now. If you are wondering how more protected parks could slash that animal extinction rate in half, well, the answer is quite simple; more national, or protected parks, makes less places where events that some organizations allow can exist, therefore a more secure place for animals that is out of harm’s way.

          Besides the fact that these parks can save the lives of thousands of animals, they can also do their part to withdraw the ongoing extremity of climate change from Earth. “In addition, more protected forests, grasslands, and waters would fight climate change by sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide. They would also safeguard the full range of native plant and wildlife diversity,” says Michael Kellet, the executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a wildlife conservation group. National parks can do three things at once to fight climate change: store carbon, keep ecosystems intact, and provide healthy spaces for humans and animals. There are other ways to try to prevent the everlasting issue of climate change and others involving the environment’s well-being or human health and elation, but most cannot achieve all three listed previously at once.

People. People love going to national parks, especially since the most recent pandemic has occurred. “Our national parks are breathing spaces in a society increasingly holding its breath,” states Terry Tempest Williams. Because of the pandemic, the amount of people going to these parks has aggrandized. Unsurprisingly, many of those people would support more national parks so that the size of crowds decreases. Some people think that national parks are not ideal because all of the visitors may sometimes create trampling vegetation, but the notion is that if more protected parks are created, less people would be at each of the parks, therefore decreasing the severity of that problem. One source states that a plentiful chunk of people feel it necessary to save up to 50% of the Earth for wildlife. Ask yourself, do you feel it necessary to save more land for wildlife? Visitor spending to national parks has contributed around $28.6 million to the U.S. economy. That has aided 234,000 various jobs across the country that regards professions in recreation, transportation, and hospitality.

If you haven’t been convinced yet that the lack of protected parks is a relentless and severe problem, then think back to Cecil. He had a son, Xanda,  who died from a very similar situation a couple of years later. The amount of places in this world where wild animals are put at a perilous risk is exceedingly high. We do not need more places where these terrible events keep occurring over and over again; our Earth needs many additional places where every species is protected and the environment is healthy.

 

 

 

*GMOs=Genetically Modified Organisms