Biodiversity Guide - The Intertwine

Chapter 7 Threats and ChallengesThreats and ChallengesChapter7Currently in the greater Portland-Vancouverregion we face the challenge of providing forgrowing human populations and needs whilesimultaneously addressing the needs of nativefish, wildlife, and plants and protecting importantecosystem services such as water quality andplant pollination. Unfortunately, maintainingthe status quo is not good enough. Many nativespecies already are at risk, from habitat loss anddegradation, the presence of contaminants fromurban and agricultural sources, diseases bothfamiliar and new, and hazards associated withhuman activity. If the predicted influx of peopleto the region becomes a reality, many more nativespecies are likely to decline across the regionunless we become better at conserving andenhancing their habitat.The information in this Biodiversity Guide andthe Regional Conservation Strategy can help usconsider the needs of native species as we identifyhow our activities can be modified to improvefish and wildlife habitats. For each threat there arestrategies we can choose to implement to reduceboth current and future impacts to native species.The chapter describes each threat, its impact,and provides possible strategies for conservingthe region’s biodiversity. This chapter does notprioritize among the threats. Instead, the descriptionsof threats and challenges are meant toprovide a reasonably comprehensive frameworkto guide individuals and organizations in makingsound decisions about how they invest their timeand resources, given their unique priorities andinterests.Habitat LossHabitat can be defined as an area that providesthe food, cover, water, and space that living thingsneed to survive and reproduce. Species diversityand population numbers can be attributed to thequality, extent, distribution, and size of particulartypes of habitat. When a watershed or individualnatural area is changed by human activities—suchas agriculture, commercial or residential development,logging, road construction, or water diversion—thearea may no longer be able to providethe necessary food, water, cover, and space toenable adult survival and successful reproduction.Obviously people need places to live and work,yet our patterns of settlement typically reduce theavailability, quality, and function of habitat for123