Coextinction

Co-Presented by:
City of Boulder Open Space Conservancy
&
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks

1. Enjoy Responsible Recreation & Get Muddy! Preservation of habitat and wildlife are key goals of both BOSC and OSMP. Going “off-trail” causes erosion so plan to get muddy! Step right into puddles. Hiking shoes dry overnight. Plants take years to recover.

2. Volunteer this summer with Open Space for trail maintenance, a climate action volunteer project, or ongoing restoration work at Mt. Sanitas by signing up at www.volunteerosmp.org.

3. Sponsor: Recommend that your employer become a sponsor of BOSC. There are multiple levels of sponsorship available on our website at www.bosc.org or contact Alyson@bosc.org

4. Donate to BOSC at www.bosc.org and help spread the word with friends, family, co-workers and especially if you know anyone who is new to the Boulder community. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

5. Join the BOSC Board: Consider joining the BOSC Board of Trustees. A commitment to preservation of our beautiful Open Space is the main requirement!

Notes from Panelist David Sutherland, Community Naturalist www.davesutherland.co

Things you can do:

1) Obvious: Generally, don’t buy farm-raised salmon (environmental impacts are severe and well-documented). In fact, check the sourcing on any sea food, since some is really not sustainably raised or fished. Here’s a resource; Seafood you buy in restaurants comes from who-knows-where.

2) Care. People not caring is how we got here.

3) Forego biological children. The problems documented in this film can all be traced back to “too many people on the planet.” If you want children, adopt. Having biological children is probably one of the most resource-consumptive things you can do.

4) Live simply so that others may simply live. Cut down your environmental footprint! Consume less (that is a subversive act, in our culture). All the cargo ships in the film are there because humans want to live resource-intensive lifestyles. Fuel from that pipeline may find its way to your vehicle. Do you need that SUV or pickup truck? That imported stuff from China? That big house that uses so much material and costs so much to heat and cool? Small is beautiful. (See #3.)

5) Support the rights of Indigenous Peoples everywhere. In this film, First Nations people were playing a key role in promoting conservation of the salmon fishery. Native peoples are vital and play an increasingly important role in conserving wild areas, ecosystems and species. (See #6)

6) Travel is resource-consumptive, but when you DO travel, pay for locally-owned ecotourism services. Your tourism dollars give local communities an economic incentive to preserve local species like orcas that can compete with or preempt more consumptive uses. Be willing to pay extra and tip well to leave your money associated with wild species in local communities to promote conservation.

7) Spread the word. Be a missionary (but avoid being self-righteous or you’ll alienate people). Inform yourself and others about these issues, and help others to care too (see #1).

8) Promote conservation of charismatic species like orcas and grizzly bears (they can often become public rallying points and act as umbrella species to protect entire ecosystems) but don’t forget to advocate for and support the conservation of endangered non-charismatic species like snails, snakes, insects or little fish.

9) When the grief becomes too much to bear, take some comfort: Life is inexpressibly resilient and adaptable. Nature will sort this all out in evolutionary time, with or without us. Every extinction opens a niche, and something new and amazing will evolve to fill it – we owe our very existence to the extinction event that wiped out countless creatures at the end of the Cretaceous. The biosphere will recover and thrive in spite of human-caused setbacks. We give ourselves too much credit when we think we can destroy the planet, but we could destroy ourselves. But Nature always wins.