SOURCE: Nature World News
DATE: October 1, 2020
SNIP: The wildfires this year have so far been the worst wildfire season on the West coast within the last seven decades, with around three million hectares in Washington, California, and Oregon burned.
The fires killed 35 people and maybe more, devastated structures, and caused pollution which threatened millions.
Scientists fear the damage to wildlife species as well as ecosystems. Habitat loss can make small populations and species with limited ranges extinct. Burned ecosystems may not rebound from the changing climate, which may cause permanent changes in the landscape ecology.
Researchers do not yet know how many wildlife species are in danger. Biologists estimate that the wildfires already killed 50% of Washington’s pygmy rabbits, which are endangered species. Their habitats are the sagebrush flats which were destroyed. Scientists think that roughly 50 of these rabbits, the smallest in North America, are still alive.
The flames are also believed to have decimated 30 to 70 per cent of Washington’s sharp-tailed grouse and sage grouse, who are also dependent on the sagebrush flats.
Meanwhile, according to RMRS or Rocky Mountain Research Station wildlife biologist Vicki Saab, in California and the Pacific North-west, the white-headed woodpecker’s pine forest habitat is also in danger. The same is true for the oak and pine forests of northern Mexico and Southwest US, home of Grace’s warbler.
New Mexico has also seen the smoke of the fires may cause thousands of scattered dead birds, which researchers speculate. They may have succumbed to respiratory ailments. Alternately, they may have also left their feeding grounds before accumulating enough fuel for use in their migratory journey.
In the 2014 California wildfires, the endangered spotted owl’s habitat has been seen with abandoned nesting areas, according to RMRS biologist Gavin Jones and University of Wisconsin biologist M. Zachariah Peery. They also observed that around 22% of the nesting sites remained empty in 2015. This year’s fires could worsen their plight further.