I made a post here in another thread regarding Paul Erlich's pronouncements.
To that, I can only add that I'm not so sure that land use is increasing, but have no doubt it is changing locations for concentrations of it. Here, where I live now, just over my lifetime I've watched the land revert back to the wild. The hillside across the road from where I was raised was bald and being used as pasture for a herd of cattle when I was growing up. Now, the cattle are gone and the hillside has been retaken by a vast forest of cedars. Looking at the area in Goggle Earth, and using the timeline feature, I can actually watch the forest expanding and retaking the landscape over time. Agricultural land here is shrinking while the wild is returning.
I suppose because of the reforestation and expansion of wilderness, the animals are returning. There are many, many more bears here now than there were when I was growing up, to the point they are becoming a nuisance in some areas. Coyotes have returned, deer populations have increased, wild cats are making a comeback and increasing populations. Elk have been reintroduced, and are thriving.
Where I live now, 20 or 30 miles from where I was raised, the forest is returning as well, but is predominantly hardwoods. I was looking through some old pictures from 50 or so years ago taken in my current front yard, and the hillside across the road was clear then as well, but is now entirely covered by a hardwood forest. One of the two bears I ever saw when I was growing up was in a black berry patch just on the other side of the perimeter fence of my current yard. Now, the blackberry patch is gone, taken over by the forest - the trees take all the light, and the blackberry vines died out. Forest comes right up to my perimeter fence now, on all 4 sides. Matter of fact, I have 3 dead trees laying in my yard that storms blew down over the fence that I'm going to have to get rid of.
Long ago, in 18 years or so of living here, I saw that ONE bear on ONE occasion. The day I moved back in here, a momma bear and two cubs crossed the creek at my bridge, as if to say hi. - my very first day here. Deer regularly walk up my drive at about 7 or 7:30 am, moving into the woods for their daytime rest. A couple months ago, I saw one, a doe, 20 feet off of my deck, grazing like she had nary a care in the world. A week or two ago, I looked out the bedroom window and saw a 6 or 8 point buck grazing INSIDE my perimeter fence, in the yard between an outbuilding and the corner of my from porch. A colony of rabbits lives in my yard - much to my cat's delight.
In the next county west, where I grew up, the State has taken over two areas that my younger self roamed freely. One is an area on top of Clinch Mountain around an abandoned firewatch tower named "The Channels" now - but we called it "Hai-to-pah" when I was younger. It's a State park that I think one has to have a permit to get onto now. Another park, at the falls of Cedar Creek where it runs into Clinch River is now a park with restrictions because they found some plant in that park that grows nowhere else on Earth.
There are more people here now than there were back then, which I gather is the case just about everywhere there are people. However, the character of the younger folks is different than our character was back then, with much less hunting going on, allowing for the animals to increase. These kids now are like city kids in that almost all of their grub comes from a grocery store. In the event of the coming collapse, when supply chains go down it's going to be dog eat dog around here as people scramble to get resources out of the woods, and the younger folks try to figure out how that's done. Many have lost the abilities we had back then, even though there were fewer resources then, too. We learned how to make do with what we could get, and shepherd our resources. If all these people don't figure that out when the collapse comes, it's gonna get rough here.
My point is, the wilderness is returning, at least here. 40 years ago, I ad a friend here named Dave who always said "in the end, the wild will win". He was killed about 30 years ago, and did not live to see just how right he was.
The wild IS winning, at least here.
.
To that, I can only add that I'm not so sure that land use is increasing, but have no doubt it is changing locations for concentrations of it. Here, where I live now, just over my lifetime I've watched the land revert back to the wild. The hillside across the road from where I was raised was bald and being used as pasture for a herd of cattle when I was growing up. Now, the cattle are gone and the hillside has been retaken by a vast forest of cedars. Looking at the area in Goggle Earth, and using the timeline feature, I can actually watch the forest expanding and retaking the landscape over time. Agricultural land here is shrinking while the wild is returning.
I suppose because of the reforestation and expansion of wilderness, the animals are returning. There are many, many more bears here now than there were when I was growing up, to the point they are becoming a nuisance in some areas. Coyotes have returned, deer populations have increased, wild cats are making a comeback and increasing populations. Elk have been reintroduced, and are thriving.
Where I live now, 20 or 30 miles from where I was raised, the forest is returning as well, but is predominantly hardwoods. I was looking through some old pictures from 50 or so years ago taken in my current front yard, and the hillside across the road was clear then as well, but is now entirely covered by a hardwood forest. One of the two bears I ever saw when I was growing up was in a black berry patch just on the other side of the perimeter fence of my current yard. Now, the blackberry patch is gone, taken over by the forest - the trees take all the light, and the blackberry vines died out. Forest comes right up to my perimeter fence now, on all 4 sides. Matter of fact, I have 3 dead trees laying in my yard that storms blew down over the fence that I'm going to have to get rid of.
Long ago, in 18 years or so of living here, I saw that ONE bear on ONE occasion. The day I moved back in here, a momma bear and two cubs crossed the creek at my bridge, as if to say hi. - my very first day here. Deer regularly walk up my drive at about 7 or 7:30 am, moving into the woods for their daytime rest. A couple months ago, I saw one, a doe, 20 feet off of my deck, grazing like she had nary a care in the world. A week or two ago, I looked out the bedroom window and saw a 6 or 8 point buck grazing INSIDE my perimeter fence, in the yard between an outbuilding and the corner of my from porch. A colony of rabbits lives in my yard - much to my cat's delight.
In the next county west, where I grew up, the State has taken over two areas that my younger self roamed freely. One is an area on top of Clinch Mountain around an abandoned firewatch tower named "The Channels" now - but we called it "Hai-to-pah" when I was younger. It's a State park that I think one has to have a permit to get onto now. Another park, at the falls of Cedar Creek where it runs into Clinch River is now a park with restrictions because they found some plant in that park that grows nowhere else on Earth.
There are more people here now than there were back then, which I gather is the case just about everywhere there are people. However, the character of the younger folks is different than our character was back then, with much less hunting going on, allowing for the animals to increase. These kids now are like city kids in that almost all of their grub comes from a grocery store. In the event of the coming collapse, when supply chains go down it's going to be dog eat dog around here as people scramble to get resources out of the woods, and the younger folks try to figure out how that's done. Many have lost the abilities we had back then, even though there were fewer resources then, too. We learned how to make do with what we could get, and shepherd our resources. If all these people don't figure that out when the collapse comes, it's gonna get rough here.
My point is, the wilderness is returning, at least here. 40 years ago, I ad a friend here named Dave who always said "in the end, the wild will win". He was killed about 30 years ago, and did not live to see just how right he was.
The wild IS winning, at least here.
.