Here is one way to help stem the further dismemberment of Nature.
President Obama has launched a national dialogue about conservation in America to learn about some of the smart, creative ways communities are conserving outdoor spaces.
The voting tool is available to encourage interaction among those interested in America's Great Outdoors. All comments submitted will be considered.
Go to: http://www.greatoutdoorsamerica.org/
Meanwhile you can also send a comment to the President by email
ago@ios.doi.gov
Here are my opinions as submitted.
President Barack Obama
The Whitehouse
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
Thank you Mr. President, for making America's Great Outdoors a priority. Thank you too for this chance to comment on what I believe to be of enormous value to this nation, the world, and most certainly the future of our species.
My comments are based on my professional knowledge, training, and experience that spans over four decades. I have a Ph.D. in chemistry that allowed me to pursue 30 years of biomedical research, drug discovery, and medicinal chemistry at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda where I ended my time as a section chief in 1999. I then became Professor and Chair of Chemistry at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff where I served for eight years. During that time I was also appointed a Full Investigator at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and also appointed as Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Medical School. I have published over 200 scientific papers, edited four books on drug discovery and medicine, been granted several patents, and was the co-founding scientist of a start-up company.
My concern expressed here is about the dependence of the drug discovery process on products of the natural world. Fully half of the medicines in use today arose from plant, microorganism, or animals. In the case of anticancer therapeutics, that number approaches 70% or more. The 1990’s saw big pharma turn away from natural product drug discovery efforts in favor of what appeared to be less expensive, more productive means of discovery. The tough lesson learned is that our science is not advanced enough for that, and a path is being beaten back to the natural world as a source of novel medicines as well as clues on what artificial molecules could be of medical use. While the challenges poised by common infectious diseases, metabolic and genetic diseases, and cancer are mind numbing, we must also bear in mind the growing threat of emerging infectious diseases, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and bioterrorism. We will never run out of the need for novel medicinals.
However, even though we are faced with medical problems as great as any in history, we will-nilly continue to impoverish the natural cornucopia that has given the best medicine in history. I refer here to the present human-induced extinction crisis. I hope you have had time to read the writing of Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, as well as such pre-eminent authorities as Stuart Pimm, Michael Soulé, John Terborgh, to name a few. I trust you are familiar with the findings of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and related scientific organizations. The message from all these sources is the same. We are destroying the fabric of life on this planet. Humans are causing extinctions at a rate approaching that at the end of the age of dinosaurs (Cretaceous), the one initiated by a massive asteroid impact. And perhaps we are going to compete with the one at the end of the Permian (250 million yrs ago) when life itself nearly disappeared from Earth. We also KNOW that at least 20% of mammals, 30% of amphibians, and 12% of birds, 30% of flowering plants, 20% of reptiles, 40% of freshwater fishes, and 70% of freshwater mussels, and 20% of ferns, currently are threatened with extinction. And that's just a few examples. The scientific fact is that humans use over 40% of the primary productivity of this planet! That is 40% of the products of photosynthesis every year go to human use, directly or indirectly. We are only one species out of millions, and we depend on all the others for our food, clean water, clean air, pollination, medicines, wood and fiber, recreation, and many more services.
I argue here from just the single perspective of a biomedical scientist. As we willy-nilly extinguish species, we also willy-nilly, destroy the future of a host of medicines for the American people and, indeed, the people of this Earth. Imagine the repercussions if someone had caused the extinction of the Pacific Yew tree before we discovered Taxol which has given breast and ovarian cancer patients hope. Or what if the Rosy Periwinkle of Madagascar had been doomed to extinction before we discovered the anticancer drugs contained therein. Vinblastine and vincristine have totally revolutionized the treatment of childhood cancer, turning a nearly certain death sentence into a almost certain survival to lead a full productive life. Even the lowly and ancient horseshoe crab contributes mightily to our nation’s health by making possible the detection of highly toxic bacterial toxins in medicines made for injection.
Presently, the greatest threat to species loss is the appropriation of habitat by humans. The most effective way to counter this is through habitat preservation, and more specifically through the setting aside of large tracts of wildlands, places where the forces of nature are dominant and humans have but a minor influence. I subscribe to a definition put forth some time ago: "[wilderness] is the ultimate source of health-terrestrial and human." That encompasses all the values encapsulated by the Wilderness Act in a short simple phrase. It recognizes that for wilderness to remain "untrammelled", it must also serve as a Noah's Ark in an age when least 20% of mammals, 30% of amphibians, and 12% of birds, 30% of flowering plants, 20% of reptiles, 40% of freshwater fishes, and 70% of freshwater mussels, and 20% of ferns, and many more, are threatened with extinction. Fortunately we have a mechanism for accomplishing this aim: the National Wilderness Preservation System. However just over 2.5% on the lands in the lower 48 states is protected as wilderness. Much more is of wilderness quality. Your administration needs to work diligently with Congress to place many more lands under Wilderness status. Such designation is also of benefit to humans in terms of non-motorized recreation, watershed protection, wildlife, fisheries, carbon sequestration, and rural economies. I suggest that your Presidential Legacy should involve the designation of at least 50,000,000 new acres of wilderness. And baring the ability of Congress to act quickly enough, you should reach into your administrative tool-kit to protect these lands by regulations and Executive Orders (e.g., National Monuments).
Mr. President, conservation biologists will tell you that, in order to ensure species long-term survival, these wilderness “cores” must be connected by means of wildlife corridors. You should order that Federal Agencies adopt policies to establish such corridors immediately, and then your administration should work to have these embodied as the law of the land. Furthermore, since many of our key core wilderness areas are beset with potential destructive private “inholdings”, you should seek funding to buy out as many of these as possible. This does not have to add to the administrative burden of your Presidency. There already exists a very effective non-profit, The Wilderness Land Trust (www.wildernesslandtrust.org) that pursues this goal. They just need some additional funding to make it happen. In the interest of full disclosure, I proudly serve on the Board of Directors of that organization.
And I must make a special plea for my home region of Southwest Oregon called Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion. It is in the northernmost part of the California Floristic Province, one of the Earth’s 25 Biodiversity “Hotspots.” These “hotspots” are biogeographic regions with a significant reservoir of biological diversity that are under intense threat from humans. Together they contain about 60% of the Earth’s known species.
The California Floristic Province is a zone of Mediterranean-type climate and with high levels of plant endemism characteristic of such regions. The Klamath-Siskiyou region bridges the coastal mountain ranges of California and Oregon, and is home to the most diverse temperate coniferous tree community in the world.
Here in the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion, we are blessed since almost 63% of the landbase is in federal ownership, thereby providing a huge opportunity for forward thinking biodiversity preservation actions.
This ecoregion has been regarded as an area of global botanical significance by the World Conservation Union (IUCN – 1992), a proposed “World Heritage Site” and UNESCO “Biosphere Reserve”, a global “center of plant diversity” and a “Global 200” ecoregion by the World Wildlife Fund.
The area is however being severely threatened and degraded by both federal and private actions.
1. There exist here low levels of protection (12%) compared to other temperate conifer ecoregions in the United States.
2. Extensive habitat fragmentation is common with more then 30,000 miles of roads in the ecoregion. Moreover, intensive logging has replaced biodiversity-rich old-growth forests with sterile-tree plantations at a rate of about 50,000-acres per year since the 1970s.
3. There are 154 terrestrial species here with state or federal conservation status. This is largely a result of habitat fragmentation and degradation.
4. The have been five extirpations: grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), gray wolf (Canis lupus), pronghorn (Antiolocapra american), California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), and big horn sheep (Ovis canadensis).
5. Over half of the ecoregion’s 877 watersheds show extensive degradation and are in rapid decline. This is caused by road building, logging, barriers to fish passage, livestock grazing, fire suppression, over-allocation of instream flows, and water quality problems contribute to poor watershed health
6. Exotic species here are akin to a “biological wildfire. Most notably, the endemic Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) has been devastated by an exotic root-rot fungus (Phytophorus lateralis) that is threatening the functional role of this cedar as a keystone species of riparian areas.
7. Finally, there is a decline of endemics and globally imperiled communities.
Once these species are gone, or once they reach a “living dead” population level, and once these ecosystem begin to unwind, we will lose more than the imagination could ever fathom. Not only will miracles like Taxol disappear, but an all-but-invisible vital support and subsidy source will greatly decrease the economic and well-being status of every American. This is a national security issue of paramount importance to address.
Fortunately, we have many of the tools already at hand to rescue much of this biological and ecological wonder that supports us as humans. I refer to the Antiquities Act and the Wilderness Act. One of the priorities in my specific region would include the designation of a million acre Siskiyou Crest National Monument. With a single designation, you could protect the wondrous biodiversity of this key biogeographic region, provide a destination for recreationists of many kinds, stimulate local economies, and provide a biological corridor for genetic flow and climate change adaptation.
A second priority encompasses what we here call the Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Salmon and Botanical Area. This would establish robust, cohesive protections for the forests and watersheds of five Wild & Scenic Rivers on public lands. To conserve them, commercial logging, mining and off-road vehicle use will be restricted. Roadless areas will be protected as Wilderness, and nine candidate rivers will be given Wild & Scenic River status. A key piece of this would be protection of southwest Oregon's Rogue River and the neighboring forests. You must nudge Congress in the right direction here for the benefit of America.
Enormous opportunities await you administration if you are willing to chart a robust and healthy future for natural world which framed America and led her to be the envy of the world. For us, for our children and onto the Seventh Generation, I implore you to act on behalf of all the species of this beautiful Earth.
We here who care about the future stand ready to inform your administration about the needs of people and nature in our ecoregion. Give us a chance.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on your American Great Outdoors Initiative.
Yours sincerely,
Paul F. Torrence, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Northern Arizona University
Williams, OR 97544-9562
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