Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Much progress has been made in last 20 years

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at [email protected].

This is a busy week. Not only is it the week when applications for big-game hunting tags were due and Easter Week, but it's also National Wildlife Week. Culminating Wildlife Week is the 20th Earth Day.

Just how is the earth faring 20 years after Earth Day became a part of our psyche? It was a different country in 1970. Richard Nixon was president. No matter what we think of him as leader of our country, he was responsible for major leaps forward in terms of protecting the environment for people and for wildlife.

The Environmental Protection Agency was formed under Nixon's leadership to consolidate and strengthen federal environment programs. The first celebration of Earth Day led to the passage of major environmental legislation, such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Remember the oil embargoes of the late 1970s? By 1977 when Jimmy Carter was president, he declared energy conservation a national imperative. As attention was turned to trying to secure future oil stores for a country thirsty for oil to run its automobiles and heat its homes and businesses, hungry eyes turned toward the "Last Frontier." While the fight still continues over the minuscule amount of oil available under the Alaskan tundra, a powerful new group of constituents has developed to fight drilling in what's now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Another step forward in protecting the earth during the past 20 years was the discovery that chlorfluorocarbons (CFCs) from spray cans and refrigerators can destroy the planet's ozone layer. Late in 1978, the U.S. banned the use of CFCs in aerosol cans.

During the 1980s, conservation issues were put on the back burner, although a few issues raised our conservation consciousness during the decade. We were alarmed to hear that acid rain was having a real impact on our streams. The first hints that global warming was a reality were published mid-decade.

There have been some major victories and some major setbacks for threatened or endangered species since the first Earth Day.

The alligator was removed from the endangered species list in 1987. Captive breeding programs were established for both the condor and the black-footed ferret to try to help animals on the brink of extinction. The release of wolves in Yellowstone National Park reflected the interest in ecosystem health, as did the listings of several salmon and trout species in the Pacific Northwest.

Meanwhile, species disappeared from the earth at a fast pace. Those particularly in trouble include amphibian populations around the world.

There was a federal phaseout of the use of toxic lead shot that was poisoning waterfowl. That spawned controversy among hunters and environmentalists. The hatchet was buried, however, when the ban was phased in and good alternatives to lead shot were introduced by the ammo industry.

In Nevada, in the past 20 years, wildlife habitat has been lost or converted to other uses or overused in a grand scale fashion as cities have sprawled. The drawing process for big game tags has resulted in big game populations that have stabilized or increased, resulting in the maintenance of healthy ecological balances.

While the laws that have been enacted in the past 20 years probably had more to do with cleaning up our environment, it is the attitude that the environment and all God's creatures on Earth are important that are crucial to protecting them. It's this attitude that will be important during the next 20 years that we inhabit this planet.

* WILDLIFE BOARD: The Clark County Wildlife Advisory Board to Manage Wildlife will review big-game quota proposals during their public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Clark County Government Center, 500 South Grand Central Parkway. Recommendations from the board will be given to the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners for consideration during its meeting on Saturday, May 6, in Henderson.

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