¶ … Environmental Effects on Species Habitats in the Southern California Mountains
Southern California is not for everybody. "Some people view the climate and laid-back lifestyle with longing. Others perceive the area, and its inhabitants, as a little too far over the edge" (Hutchings 2001:4D-Z). While the region may not appeal to all types of humans, it does attract a wide range of species who make their home in the mountainous areas of Southern California. In fact, Southern California is dotted with several mountain ranges, including the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, San Jacinto, San Bruno, Santa Rosa, Cuyamaca, the Palomar Mountains and even the Chocolate Mountains (Havert, Gray, Adams & Gray 1996). One of the most biodiverse and well-studied of these ranges is San Gabriel (Wake 1996). This paper will provide an overview of the ecosystems in these mountain ranges in general with an emphasis on the San Gabriel mountain range in particular, what species are endangered within these ecosystems and why, followed by an assessment of what is being done to correct the problem and protect endangered species in these regions. A summary of the research will be provided in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview. According to Adams, Kutner and Stein, biological inventory efforts of all types, both low- and high-tech, have provided researchers with an enormous amount of information on the identity, distribution, and characteristics of species and ecosystems in the United States. This research into how ecosystems work has paid tremendous dividends in return in the form of food, fiber, pharmaceuticals, and other useful products. Nevertheless, despite several hundred years' of biological exploration, scientists remain largely uncertain about the vast majority of species and ecosystems that comprise life on Earth (Adams, Kutner & Stein 2000). In response to growing threats to various endangered species within these various ecosystems, Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973 in order to "provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved, [and] to provide a program for the conservation of such... species" (Baur & Donovan 1997:767). Section 9 of the Act generally prohibits the "take" of any endangered or threatened species by "any person" to effect this goal; "take" includes all activities that harass, harm, wound, or kill a protected species (Baur & Donovan 1997). In the case of endangered species, the USFWS has been tasked to step intercede with the industrial forces that threaten the well-being of imperiled species or destroy their habitat and to put a stop to these destructive mechanisms that rob the planet of its diverse biological wealth (Lieben 1997)..
In addition, in 1975, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) broadly defined "harm" to include acts which "significantly disrupt essential behavioral patterns" and result in "significant habitat modification or degradation" (Baur & Donovan 1997:768). To date, the courts have upheld this aspect of the take prohibition, beginning in 1979 with an U.S. district court opinion from Hawaii holding that a state program maintaining feral sheep and goats in the critical habitat of the endangered Palila bird and causing destruction of that habitat clearly fell within the agency's definition of harm; the decision was upheld by the Ninth Circuit, which found that the district court's conclusion that the program was harming the species was consistent with the Act's legislative history showing that Congress was informed that the greatest threat to endangered species is the destruction of their natural habitat." A number of years later, the Ninth Circuit again upheld a finding that the state's game management program for a separate species of feral sheep constituted harm to the endangered Palila under the revised USFWS definition of harm; in addition, the USFWS's definition of harm was also upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court (Baur & Donovan 1997).
Effect on Southern California Species' Habitats. As a result of this and similar legislation, refuges and sanctuaries are frequently established with a view to the preservation of endangered species of wildlife or plants, particularly those whose numbers and distribution have been seriously curtailed; for example, the refuges for the California condor and the Torrey pine in California (Dasmann 2004). Similarly, the southern California mountains were protected by Congress in 2000 as the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument (Sullivan-Brennan 2004).
This southern California mountain range is something of a geographic interruption to the region, since they surge from the Sonoran desert at sea level to sub-alpine forest areas that are 10,800 feet above. The range ascends through more than six life zones: "It's remarkable that there's...
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