The bad news: Grey wolves are back to being endangered and the common Night Hawk is on the brink of extinction as are Atlantic Salmon and Brook Lamprey.
But there's something worse ... we've eliminated a species altogether.
If you've never seen a Golden Trout before, you never will. They're all gone. We've over fished them, forced them to compete with introduced species and simply neglected them as a vital part of our ecosystem. Now they're gone forever.
I'm reading this book titled The World Without Us by Alan Weisman in which he describes what would happen to the planet if people just simply disappeared. In it, Weisman not only examines what the future would be like, he also addresses the effect the human race has had on the planet so far that has entirely altered Earth's existence. Did you know that at one point in time North America had more megafauna (very large animals) than Africa does today? Want to know why we don't see them today? Humans killed them all. Giant sloths, wild horses, American elephants and mammoths ... human beings- homo sapiens- killed every last one. Some scientists refer to this as the Blitzkrieg Theory. I believe it. An despite the overwhelming evidence that proves that as we extinguish species we are faster approaching our own impending doom, animals like the Golden Trout are being lost with little to no concern on the part of society.
It makes me really very sad to know that there's nothing that can be done to change this. A majority of people would respond, "It's just a fish. We have plenty of trout in New Hampshire."
And there-in lies the problem. All animals (and humans, don't worry I'm not damning us) are here for a reason. We are all part of a delicate balance. We need to learn to coexist with the rest of nature. We need to do it now.
For more information on New Hampshire's threatened, endangered and extinct species, visit www.wildnh.com.
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