The American West is
growing and changing,
and nothing
indicates there is
going to be any
slowing to the development and
sprawl into what was once considered
"natural landscapes." How
people and wildlife fare as they
attempt to coexist will determine
whether or not people place a
value on large tracts of open
space.
In 2000, Bill Riebsame of the
Department of Geography at the
University of Colorado-Boulder,
presented a paper titled, "Life in
the New West: Human and Wild,"
at the Western Association of Fish
and Wildlife Agencies conference
in Redmond, Oregon. During that
presentation, Riebsame said the
American West was "experiencing
rapid demographic, economic, and
cultural change," and was growing
faster than any other region in the
United States. Most of the growth
is occurring in what he called
"exburbs," or non-metropolitan
areas next to cities. Exburbs are
characterized as having one house
per 10 to 40 acres, and it is these
areas that will likely have the mosteffect on wildlife management in
the future.
The Center for the American
West has a web site called
Western Futures at www.centerwest.
org. The purpose of the site is
to describe projected growth in the
American West. F
rom 1960 to
2050, exburbs are projected to
grow from about 10.5 million to
40.8 million. The human population
in the West is expected to
grow from 61.3 million in 2000 to
109 million by 2050. Every state
is expected to show an increase
in urban, suburban and exburb
areas, and a loss of rural areas
as 2050 approaches.
Land developers can make well intentioned
attempts to incorporate
natural escape cover near areas
where mule deer can find adequate
food. But overall, attempting
to create habitat for mule deer in
and around urban areas is a bad
deal for both people and deer.
Why?
- Large numbers of deer in urban
areas create havoc with local
landowners who don’t appreciate
mule deer eating their expensive
yard shrubs.
- More deer in and around urban
areas results in more vehicle/deer
collisions.
- Urbanization may change movements
of mule deer, causing deer
that were once migratory to become
yearlong residents.
- When wildlife become concentrated
in an area, there is greater possibility
for spread of disease.
What can be done to discourage
the presence of mule deer in
developed areas?
- Human transportation corridors
such as highways, railways and
canals pose threats to both people
and game mammals, especially when
those corridors cross a traditional
migration path. To minimize interactions
with mule deer, vegetation
along transportation right-of-ways
should be planted with species that
are undesirable to wildlife.
- Construction that disrupts wildlife
migration paths should be avoided.
- Passage structures along transportation
corridors should be designed to
minimize wildlife loss.
- Creating wildlife habitat in urban
interfaces should be avoided.
Instead, set aside good wildlife habitat
in areas removed from urban
sprawl to keep wildlife away from
human populations.
As the human population continues
to grow, more pressure will be
placed on wildlife forced to adapt to
the effects of urbanization and habitat
fragmentation. Fragmentation of
land from development of all kinds,
whether it be homes, ranchettes or
gas and oil wells, poses one of the
greatest challenges to land managers
who must balance the needs and
wants of a citizenry that values
open spaces and wildlands, yet
whose very presence compromises
that goal.
The pace of development and
human immigration into
western states and provinces
has caused of rapid loss of
mule deer habitat. In a sixyear
period from 1992 to
1997, 16 million acres in the
United States were developed.
A large percentage of those
acres were in places occupied
by mule deer.
