Story & Photo by Karen Bossick
Preserving the Hailey Hot Springs Ranch, also known as the Democrat Hot Springs Ranch, could help make the pronghorn and other animals that use that area more resilient to climate change, a leading conservationist told a full house at The Community Library last week.
Gary Tabor, who has worked on large-scale conservation projects around the world, told listeners that fragmentation of landscapes is exacerbated by climate change, making it harder for wildlife to adapt to changing conditions.
It can also lead to the spillover of disease from animals to humans. Case in point: The flying fox, a megabat native to Australia.
As a bat, it is a primary vector for deadly virus transmission from animals to humans. When high temperatures limit the nectar they get from eucalyptus trees, they move into urban areas to feed on fig and mango trees.
“When they don’t have habitat to go to for food, they go to where humans are and spread disease,” Tabor said. “How are we going to save the planet if the world is so fragmented?”
Tabor works to protect animals by combatting habitat fragmentation through his nonprofit Center for Large Landscape Conservation.
The Bozeman, Mont., environmentalist co-founded the Bwindi Mgahinga Mountain Gorilla Trust in Uganda and led a drive to transform the Philippines’ Kibawe Forest, which has the highest concentration of chimpanzees in the world, into a national park.
He also co-founded the Heart of the Rockies Conservation Initiative, a regional partnership of 30 land trusts in the Rocky Mountain West, and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, whose mission is to connect 2,100 miles of habitat from Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon.
Since the latter was founded in 1993, 12 Yellowstone National Parks—or 24 million acres—have been protected to provide habitat for grizzly bears, bighorn sheep and other large mammals.
Tabor looks at conservation through a health lens. And he believes that the biggest threat to wildlife’s health is the growing habitat fragmentation around the world as land becomes developed into subdivisions and more roads are built.
“We don’t see how fast things are changing. We look at conservation is if it’s static. But, really, it’s very dynamic,” he said.
More than 50 percent of the planet is now human-dominated landscapes. By 2040 there will be 25 million new roads—all to the detriment of wildlife, Tabor said.
More than 100 million large mammals are killed in wildlife vehicle collisions every year in Asia, Africa and South America.
Tabor pointed to the case of a grizzly who made 46 attempts to cross interstate 90 near Drummond, Mont., over 29 days. He has worked with others to save thousands of creatures from such deaths by designing wildlife bridges that replicate the animals’ natural paths across roads.
President Biden spent $350 million to create wildlife crossings and every state in the West but Idaho took advantage, said Tabor.
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