This blog tells the story of the River Stewards at the University of Dayton. For more information about the River Stewards program or the Rivers Institute, please visit our website at http://rivers.udayton.edu.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Mike Fugagli, 1986 UD Grad, and the Gila River in New Mexico
I found it interesting that he began his discussion by delving into the importance of the river as an ecological baseline due to the fact that it has never been dammed. Then one of his final points was that the words "native" "nonnative" and "natural" are losing meaning. These two point by themselves seem to contradict one another to me. How can this river's value be based on naturalness when naturalness has lost (or is losing) its meaning? But then he brings it back together by saying that a conservation biologist shouldn't look to create an ecosystem that is "natural" to the area, but one that is most likely to survive the changes that are taking place globally. This theory of saving biodiversity rather than the naturalness of ecosystems has really answered a lot of questions for me about conservation biology.
I found it interesting that he began his discussion by delving into the importance of the river as an ecological baseline due to the fact that it has never been dammed. Then one of his final points was that the words "native" "nonnative" and "natural" are losing meaning. These two point by themselves seem to contradict one another to me. How can this river's value be based on naturalness when naturalness has lost (or is losing) its meaning? But then he brings it back together by saying that a conservation biologist shouldn't look to create an ecosystem that is "natural" to the area, but one that is most likely to survive the changes that are taking place globally. This theory of saving biodiversity rather than the naturalness of ecosystems has really answered a lot of questions for me about conservation biology.
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