EDITORS NOTE: A RECENT PANEL DISCUSSION BEFORE A GROUP OF NATIONAL OUTDOOR WRITERS ADDRESSED THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL WARMING, AND WHETHER IT EVEN EXISTS, ON HUNTING AND FISHING
John Cooper is a Senior Policy Advisor for the Wildlife Management Institute. He’s among those who believe global warming is already happening and having an impact on wildlife and fisheries in the United States.
"Up here in my country, the prairie pothole country, we’re already seeing issues where climate change is having significant impacts on water levels and on sustainable upland nesting habitat,” Cooper said following a panel discussion on global warming in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Cooper is a native of South Dakota and has spent his life in the wildlife management business. He says early on he was skeptical about the claims of global warming, but is not convinced it’s real, man is contributing to it, and it’s adversely impacting hunting and fishing. He believes state wildlife management agencies are going to have to tackle tough management questions in the future to address the impact.
"One of the indicator species we need to be paying attention to are trout population,’ said Cooper. "If we have a warming water temperatures or lack of in stream flows into those locations that’s like the canary in the mine."
Cooper said the high mountain streams in the Appalachian Region, namely those in Virginia and West Virginia, are areas where there are strong indications of global warming’s impact.
"The native brook trout range in the Appalachians is a crucial area,” explained Cooper. "It has significant habitat needs in the form of water quality and water quantity. Climate change would have a direct impact on that probably before many of the other species we would see. That’s one of the areas where we’re really focusing our attention."
Cooper says when problems are identified; it will be up to wildlife managers to come up with solutions. He said there have already been some attempts to curb the effects in the form of infusing new water sources into streams and planting shading trees along the banks of warming mountain streams to provide future cover.