Colcom Foundation Connects Sprawl and Extinction to Population Totals
Urban sprawl is often treated as a planning problem or a housing market failure. The Colcom Foundation frames it differently as an ecological consequence of a growing population that needs to put land to use. The foundation’s historical data on land conversion makes the progression clear, and it uses that data to argue that sprawl and the species loss that accompanies it cannot be solved without addressing the number of people driving demand.
In 1990, roughly 133,000 square miles of U.S. land had been converted to human-made surfaces. By 2000, the figure was 156,000. By 2020, it exceeded 187,000 an increase of 31,000 square miles in just two decades. Alongside those 20 years of development, North American wildlife populations declined 20 percent. The bird population fell from 7.6 billion to 7.1 billion. The number of species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act reached 1,300.
Agriculture and Conservation Competing for Land
The land use picture is particularly stark when viewed across the full U.S. landscape. By 2020, 52 percent of the national land base was in agricultural use, while only 13 percent had any level of conservation protection. The 30×30 initiative which calls for protecting 30 percent of U.S. land for other species would require substantially expanding conservation coverage from that 13 percent baseline. Colcom Foundation argues this goal becomes harder to reach as population growth continues to push development onto undeveloped land.
Colcom Foundation’s Two-Pronged Response
The foundation can fund land purchase and conservation projects in addition to popular media initiatives like the Environmental Integrity Project, the National Aviary, and Tree Pittsburgh. With this help, the Allegheny Front radio show, which focuses on environmental concerns, can better reach its listeners. The foundation’s grantmaking reflects a belief that conservation and population policy must advance together. It funds organizations working to expand and protect natural areas, recognizing the value of habitat preservation as a direct tool. But it also funds work aimed at reducing U.S. population growth through immigration reform, viewing that as the longer-term solution. Without slowing the demographic expansion that is converting land at tens of thousands of square miles per decade, the foundation argues, conservation funding will always be playing catch-up with sprawl. Read this article for additional information.
Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://www.privateequityinternational.com/institution-profiles/colcom-foundation.html
