Announcing the 30 x 30 Campaign for Western New York
The Western New York Environmental Alliance is pleased to announce that we will be leading a campaign to follow in the policy footsteps of the United States and the State of New York to promote the adoption of local and regional policies and where appropriate, ordinances and other guidelines that encourage identifying and protecting 30% of ecologically productive land and waters by the year 2030. You are invited to participate as your voice is needed in order to accomplish this important goal which will help to protect the well-being of future generations of humans. Our initial organizing meeting was held on Saturday morning November 11, 2023 at the Buffalo Museum of science between 10 am and noon. One of the primary objectives of this meeting is to establish a leadership council. Your voice is welcomed! Please come and spread the word. MEETING INFORMATION HERE
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Please take a few minutes to fill out our 30 x 30 Questionnaire by clicking HERE or using the QR code below.
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Catch up on the 30x30 Kick-Off Meeting held Saturday, November 11, 2023
Introduction To 30 x 30
Climate change will impact life on earth including human life, for generations.
30 x 30 is an effort to address Earth’s loss of life sustaining habitat, including forests, meadows, and wetlands, by identifying 30% of Earth’s ecologically productive areas that can be conserved as by the year 3030.
This is an ambitious goal that has been adopted as U.S. Policy, and New York State Policy. This campaign is about introducing 30 x 30 to Western New York regional and local community and government organizations, promoting policies, and when appropriate, developing ordinances that benefit ecologically productive spaces in our communities.
According to Doug Tallamy, acclaimed author and ecology activist, founder of Homegrown National Park:
Climate change will impact life on earth including human life, for generations.
30 x 30 is an effort to address Earth’s loss of life sustaining habitat, including forests, meadows, and wetlands, by identifying 30% of Earth’s ecologically productive areas that can be conserved as by the year 3030.
This is an ambitious goal that has been adopted as U.S. Policy, and New York State Policy. This campaign is about introducing 30 x 30 to Western New York regional and local community and government organizations, promoting policies, and when appropriate, developing ordinances that benefit ecologically productive spaces in our communities.
According to Doug Tallamy, acclaimed author and ecology activist, founder of Homegrown National Park:
“We have turned 54% of the lower 48 states into a matrix of cities, suburbs, roads, airports, power and pipelines, shopping centers, golf courses, infrastructure, and isolated habitat fragments, with 41% more of the U.S. into various forms of agriculture. That’s right: we humans have taken 95% of the natural world and made it unnatural. But does this matter? Are there consequences to using almost all of our land to meet human needs without considering the needs of other species? Absolutely, both for biodiversity and for us. Our fellow creatures need food and shelter to survive and reproduce, and we need robust populations of our fellow creatures because they are what run the ecosystems on which we all depend. Although we like nature, we have always felt apart from it; humans are here and nature is someplace else. The idea that we could coexist in the same place at the same time has never been part of the vast Western or Asian cultures.”
We Have Taken It All- More From Doug Tallamy
The population of the U.S., now over 330 million people, has more than doubled since most of us were kids, and it continues to grow by 4800 people each day. All of those additional souls, together with cheap gas, our love affair with the car, and our quest to own ever larger homes, have fueled unprecedented development that continues to sprawl over 2 million additional acres per year (the size of Yellowstone National Park). The Chesapeake Bay watershed has lost 100 acres of forest each day since 1985. We have connected all of our developments with 4 million miles of roads, and their combined paved surface is nearly five times the size of New Jersey. Somewhere along the way we decided to convert most of our living and working spaces into huge expanses of lawn. So far, we have planted over 62,500 square miles -some 40 million acres - in lawn. Each weekend we mow an area the size of New England to within one inch and then congratulate ourselves on a job well done. And it’s not as though those little woodlots and “open spaces” we have not paved or manicured are pristine. Nearly all are second-growth forests that have been overtaken by invasive Asian plants like autumn olive, multiflora rose, Oriental bittersweet, porcelainberry, buckthorn, privet, and bush honeysuckle. To nature lovers, these are horrifying statistics. I stress them so that we can clearly understand the challenge before us. We have turned 54% of the lower 48 states into a matrix of cities, suburbs, roads, airports, power and pipelines, shopping centers, golf courses, infrastructure, and isolated habitat fragments, with 41% more of the U.S. into various forms of agriculture. That’s right: we humans have taken 95% of the natural world and made it unnatural. But does this matter? Are there consequences to using almost all of our land to meet human needs without considering the needs of other species? Absolutely, both for biodiversity and for us. Our fellow creatures need food and shelter to survive and reproduce, and we need robust populations of our fellow creatures because they are what run the ecosystems on which we all depend. Although we like nature, we have always felt apart from it; humans are here and nature is someplace else. The idea that we could coexist in the same place at the same time has never been part of the vast Western or Asian cultures.
The population of the U.S., now over 330 million people, has more than doubled since most of us were kids, and it continues to grow by 4800 people each day. All of those additional souls, together with cheap gas, our love affair with the car, and our quest to own ever larger homes, have fueled unprecedented development that continues to sprawl over 2 million additional acres per year (the size of Yellowstone National Park). The Chesapeake Bay watershed has lost 100 acres of forest each day since 1985. We have connected all of our developments with 4 million miles of roads, and their combined paved surface is nearly five times the size of New Jersey. Somewhere along the way we decided to convert most of our living and working spaces into huge expanses of lawn. So far, we have planted over 62,500 square miles -some 40 million acres - in lawn. Each weekend we mow an area the size of New England to within one inch and then congratulate ourselves on a job well done. And it’s not as though those little woodlots and “open spaces” we have not paved or manicured are pristine. Nearly all are second-growth forests that have been overtaken by invasive Asian plants like autumn olive, multiflora rose, Oriental bittersweet, porcelainberry, buckthorn, privet, and bush honeysuckle. To nature lovers, these are horrifying statistics. I stress them so that we can clearly understand the challenge before us. We have turned 54% of the lower 48 states into a matrix of cities, suburbs, roads, airports, power and pipelines, shopping centers, golf courses, infrastructure, and isolated habitat fragments, with 41% more of the U.S. into various forms of agriculture. That’s right: we humans have taken 95% of the natural world and made it unnatural. But does this matter? Are there consequences to using almost all of our land to meet human needs without considering the needs of other species? Absolutely, both for biodiversity and for us. Our fellow creatures need food and shelter to survive and reproduce, and we need robust populations of our fellow creatures because they are what run the ecosystems on which we all depend. Although we like nature, we have always felt apart from it; humans are here and nature is someplace else. The idea that we could coexist in the same place at the same time has never been part of the vast Western or Asian cultures.
The Importance of Biodiversity
Biodiversity is what makes our planet ecologically healthy and supportive of life, including human life. We have lost most of our global and local biodiversity. For most of us, hearing such numbers triggers a passing sadness, but few people feelpersonally threatened by the loss of biodiversity. Here’s why you should.Biodiversity losses are a clear sign that our own life-support systems are failing. The ecosystems that determine the earth’s ability to support us are run by the plantsand animals around us. It is plants that generate oxygen and clean water, that createtopsoil out of rock, and that buffer extreme weather events like droughts and floods. It is insect decomposers that drive the nutrient cycles on earth, allowing each new generation of plants and animals to exist. It is pollinators that are essential to the continued existence of 80 % of all plants and 90% of all flowering plants, and it is birds and mammals that disperse the seeds of those plants and provide them with pest control services.
And now, with human-induced climate change threatening the planet, it is plants that will suck much of that excess carbon out of the air, build their tissues with it, and pump the surplus into the soil for long-term storage - if we would only put them back into our landscapes. Humans cannot live as the only species on this planet because it is other species that create the ecosystem services essential to us. Every time we force a species to extinction, we are encouraging our own demise. Despite the disdain with which we have treated it in the past, biodiversity is not optional.
ACTION AGENDA
The Western New York Environmental Alliance is leading an advocacy campaign to inform and engage community organizations, government agencies and representatives, and individuals, toward developing both awareness of the need to promote 30 x 30, and to develop actionable strategies for Western New York communities to adopt implementable strategies to preserve 30% of ecologically productive lands and waters by the yer 3030. One of our initial goals is to identify what areas should be considered as ecologically productive and then to identify to protect these valuable life supporting areas.
We will do this by creating and hosting an inclusive and collaborative Leadership Council/and Steering Committee.
Hosting regular meetings and strategy sessions
Introducing Policy Initiatives and where appropriate and feasible,
Promoting specific ordinances such as native plant and tree guidelines and ordinances; Landscaping and Design Ordinances, and working toward creating Nature Friendly communities.
Biodiversity is what makes our planet ecologically healthy and supportive of life, including human life. We have lost most of our global and local biodiversity. For most of us, hearing such numbers triggers a passing sadness, but few people feelpersonally threatened by the loss of biodiversity. Here’s why you should.Biodiversity losses are a clear sign that our own life-support systems are failing. The ecosystems that determine the earth’s ability to support us are run by the plantsand animals around us. It is plants that generate oxygen and clean water, that createtopsoil out of rock, and that buffer extreme weather events like droughts and floods. It is insect decomposers that drive the nutrient cycles on earth, allowing each new generation of plants and animals to exist. It is pollinators that are essential to the continued existence of 80 % of all plants and 90% of all flowering plants, and it is birds and mammals that disperse the seeds of those plants and provide them with pest control services.
And now, with human-induced climate change threatening the planet, it is plants that will suck much of that excess carbon out of the air, build their tissues with it, and pump the surplus into the soil for long-term storage - if we would only put them back into our landscapes. Humans cannot live as the only species on this planet because it is other species that create the ecosystem services essential to us. Every time we force a species to extinction, we are encouraging our own demise. Despite the disdain with which we have treated it in the past, biodiversity is not optional.
ACTION AGENDA
The Western New York Environmental Alliance is leading an advocacy campaign to inform and engage community organizations, government agencies and representatives, and individuals, toward developing both awareness of the need to promote 30 x 30, and to develop actionable strategies for Western New York communities to adopt implementable strategies to preserve 30% of ecologically productive lands and waters by the yer 3030. One of our initial goals is to identify what areas should be considered as ecologically productive and then to identify to protect these valuable life supporting areas.
We will do this by creating and hosting an inclusive and collaborative Leadership Council/and Steering Committee.
Hosting regular meetings and strategy sessions
Introducing Policy Initiatives and where appropriate and feasible,
Promoting specific ordinances such as native plant and tree guidelines and ordinances; Landscaping and Design Ordinances, and working toward creating Nature Friendly communities.
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The Biden administration recognizes the widespread support for 30x30 and the new report proposes an America the Beautiful Campaign—a “ten-year, locally led campaign to conserve and restore the lands and waters upon which we all depend, and that bind us together as Americans.” It moves the administration’s 30x30 goal forward by proposing:
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Additional Resources
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Biden Administration Lays Out 30 x 30 Vision to Conserve Nature Doug Tallamy: Homegrown National Park Homepage We Have Taken It Author and Conservation Activist Tony Hiss Rescuing the Planet Western New York Land Conservancy Western New York Wildways Project Land Trust Alliance Our Commitment to 30 x 30 The Nature Conservancy How Do We Enhance Area-Based Conservation? |