The human footprint on the world is expanding more and more everyday, and people and wildlife are coming in greater contact with one another; this means that the areas humans use for activity or recreation could be simultaneously associated with the risks towards animals. Human recreation is one of the biggest exploitations to wildlife, including facets concerning public access on roads, motorized summer trails and winter trials, cross country ATV and snowmobile use trails, and/or water access trails.
Human Exploitation & Recreation on Wildlife
Wildlife experience many impacts from humans and roads in general, however, the impacts wildlife endure from human activities and disturbances can include the following: physically altering a habitat, removing vegetation or replacing native species with disturbance-tolerant non-native species, and increased noise, sight, or sound from people. Human recreation impacts wildlife through the exploitation, modification, disturbance, and pollution it imposes on the environment.
Any disturbances caused by human recreation or other activities by humans could cause wildlife species to elicit behavioral and physiological responses. These responses are usually influenced by the disturbance itself (i.e., activity type, distance away from the species, direction or movement , speed, frequency, predictability, and magnitude) and/or the location in relation to the animal itself. The type of behavioral response wildlife elicit is in the form of avoidance, habituation, or attraction; more times than not, wildlife will avoid areas where humans recreate or exploit. Examples of specific recreational activities that impact wildlife include:
- Hunting – can alter the sex and age composition, distribution, reproduction, and behavior of wildlife
- Viewing – can disturb wildlife through things such as close encounters, and cause changes in the animal’s energy expenditure, alter their nest or burrow site, and decrease the ability of their young to survive (i.e., animal’s will sometimes abandon their young when human’s are near because they are deemed as predators)
- Backpacking/Hiking, etc. – can cause increased flight risk, stress, and/or displacement of wildlife
- Boating – can alter the habitat quality or foraging quality for waterfowl species, and can also impact the quality of the water wildlife are exposed to
- RMV’s – can cause wildlife to redistribute from disturbances such as flight or stress
How Human Recreation & Exploitation Stems from Roads
The impacts described above on how wildlife endure effects from human recreation and exploitation are accessible from one of two places: roads or trails. Public access roads disrupt the wildlife’s habitat continuity to one extent or another, usually dividing a big area of habitat into smaller patches. These types of roads can also inhibit movement for animals migrating, enhance linear openings of roads that are detrimental to wildlife, and cause habitat or forest fragmentation.
Motorized summer or winter trails for ATV’s, snowmobiles, RMV’s, or even water access trails, have negative effects to wildlife, including the following: physically altering the habitat area, removing vegetation, replacing native vegetation with non-native vegetation, increased noise disturbances, reduced habitat security, and sometimes resulting in direct injury and/or mortality to the wildlife. All of these impacts to wildlife species result from any form of human recreation and/or exploitation; yet, how can we as humans make the environment a better place for wildlife to live and thrive in?
Solutions to Human Recreation & Exploitation
A current solution being used to stop the human recreation and exploitation along motorized recreational trails is to identify the standard of the forest (i.e., low standard meaning there is little to no quality left; high standard meaning there is much quality) and deciding if the trail should remain opened or closed. This is dependent on local and national level ownerships of land, and whether or not the wildlife in the area being considered will benefit from the trail closing or not be affected whether it’s open or not.
Other solutions to the issue of human recreation and exploitation from roads and trails would be to have maintenance and public information available to people who utilize human recreation areas, roads, and trails; this would help improve the public’s knowledge of where it is okay and not okay to recreate. From these solutions, road related impacts to wildlife could considerably decrease due to more people taking the necessary precautions to protect an area of land and the wildlife within it.
An example of how to humanly recreate within an environmental area that wildlife are home to could be to follow the indicated trails when going on a hike instead of detouring away from the trail. Another example could be to take the time to research the area you’re going to be recreating in and understanding the precautions needed to ensure wildlife are not harmed and/or disturbed. Recreation should be utilized, to hike, explore, and be apart of different areas of nature, but should be done so in a safe and cautionary way to protect and not exploit upon the wildlife within our environment.
