Urge PA Legislators to Create Wildlife Corridors to Protect PA Species

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

As the administration moves forward with attempts to gut our nation’s tools for wildlife conservation, it’s critical that state officials take greater steps to protect Pennsylvania’s species today.

Ask our state legislature to support new efforts to create wildlife corridors for Pennsylvania’s species at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=34259.

President Trump’s efforts to dismantle the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) last month made national news. That’s because the ESA is arguably the most powerful tool for wildlife conservation–it brought the bald eagle, grizzly bear, Florida manatee and other species back from the brink of extinction.¹

The good news is that officials right here in Pennsylvania have proposed critical steps we can take at the state-level to protect our native and endangered species.

It’s called the Conservation Corridors Act (House Bill 1475) and was introduced by state Representative Mary Jo Daley (Montgomery County). This proposal will help address the threat of habitat loss in Pennsylvania by connecting protected areas, allowing species to move safely and freely between them. Wildlife corridors link fragmented wildlife areas and connect populations throughout a landscape, allowing for migration and supporting biodiversity.

We know this strategy is effective. For example, in Wyoming, wildlife corridors across the Red Desert support the longest mule deer migration in the United States–allowing the species to survive long winters.²

And a system of wildlife crossings in Canada’s Banff National Park connects habitats separated by a major highway. Red foxes, grizzly bears, boreal toads and more have used the wildlife corridors to migrate with changing seasons and to occupy new areas when food sources become scarce.³

Let’s implement these commonsense practices to protect our species right here in Pennsylvania today. Ask your legislator to join the effort.

We are already facing a terrifying global mass extinction event, with species vanishing at unprecedented rates–and habitat degradation, deforestation and fragmentation are a leading cause. Let’s do our part here in Pennsylvania today.

Urge your legislators to adopt the Conservation Corridors Act today to protect endangered species. Take action.

1. Jasmine Aguilera, “The Trump Administration’s Changes to the Endangered Species Act Risks Pushing More Species to Extinction,” TIME, August 14, 2019.
2. “Red Desert to Hoback Migration Assessment,” University of Wyoming, Last accessed August 15, 2019.
3. Gloria Dickie, “As Banff’s Famed Wildlife Overpasses Turn 20, the World Looks to Canada for Conservation Inspiration,” Canadian Geographic, December 4, 2017.