Why humans should worry about national parks’ effect on animals, plants – By Amy Joi O’Donoghue (Deseret News) / Jan 11, 2023
Study says parks interfere with biodiversity, ecological connectivity
National parks have long been celebrated as conservation success stories across the United States, but a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on Wednesday indicates there are some flaws that come with their establishment.
A study led by the Natural History Museum of Utah shows that while national parks are viewed as the backbone of conservation, they may just be another example of man’s interference with nature, compromising how plant and animal species thrive, and even survive, from generation to generation.
The risks to plants and animals: The authors point out that habitat loss and fragmentation are the top threats to species in lands adjacent to park boundaries, especially in western North America where those lands or reserves have become increasingly “spatially and functionally isolated in a matrix of human-altered habitats.”
