How much wild nature does society need?

Since establishing the Endangered Species Act in 1973, many species are recovering form the brink of extinction.

However, it has become apparent that not everyone is thrilled by the successful vitality of these wild animals.

In the media we read articles about dolphins and pelicans washing up on shore along the Gulf Coast with suspicious injuries – including one dolphin impaled with a screwdriver in its head. Last winter, eight Red Wolves were shot in North Carolina. Now less than 100 left in the wild.

In Hawaii, the past four years have been a murder-mystery of Hawaiian Monk Seals. Starting back in 2009, a man was charged with shooting a pregnant monk seal with a .22 on Kauai.  Between November 2011 and April 2012, four other Monk Seals were found slain on Molokai and Kauai.

In May 2013, The New York Times Magazine published an article addressing Hawaiian Monk Seal killings. It also introduced the issues that the recovering endangered species populations are causing for humans.

An environmental legal scholar from UC Berkeley was quoted questioning if, “how much wild nature society needs, and how much society can accept,” was considered in the decision to protect these threatened species. 

Here lies the true issue I want to address: How much wild nature society needs… Perhaps the scholar was correct that society was not considered in the installment of the endangered species act. But I full-heartily believe they are wrong in their approach.

We also need to consider that the majority of the species on the endangered species list are there directly because of humans.

There should be no question as to how much nature we should ‘need’ or ‘accept.’ We share this Earth with millions of other species – humans do not have priority and should not dictate what of how much of something is allowed to live of die.

Wolves are a key stone species and have proven important for the ecological balance of their communities. But ranchers and farmers see wolves as pests and go out of their way to kill them. The fact that a group of people are not accustomed to the existence of another species does not make it acceptable to terminate their existence.

Like every other creature, if we wish to survive then we need to evolve and learn to coexist. What society needs is to remember that humans are apart of nature, not above it.