EarthX 2024: Conservation efforts overwhelmed by immigration and sprawl

Inspired by Earth Day, Dallas-based EarthX hosted its annual Congress of Conferences last week. NumbersUSA was invited to contribute to the Natural Environment Conference with an emphasis on wildlife conservation challenges. I attended alongside our Scientific Director, Leon Kolankiewicz.

America’s sprawl problem on the agenda

In his presentation on the EarthxTV Stage, Leon highlighted NumbersUSA’s sprawl studies while reminding the audience that America still suffers from a rapid loss of natural areas equivalent to a football field every 30 seconds. Relative to past years at EarthX’s Earth Day events, I was encouraged by the amount of time dedicated to considering barriers to successful conservation. This included interactions with Astor Boozer, Western Regional Conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Mr. Boozer was eager to learn about our sprawl studies. He plans to distribute the studies to State Conservationists across NRCS’s Western Region for further review.

More immigration, more sprawl, less habitat, less wildlife

Friend and ally Dr. Karen Shragg also contributed to the conference in a meaningful way. During a panel discussion about the challenges of wolf reintroduction in America, I think Karen surprised most people in the room when she told us she’s not in favor of reintroduction. Her reason was clear: immigration-driven population growth is constraining the movements of wildlife, especially for large mammals like wolves which need room to roam. Further, projected future growth of America’s population under current federal immigration policy is likely to cause more human-wildlife conflicts.

NumbersUSA thanks EarthX for inviting us to participate at the 2024 Congress of Conferences. Opportunities like this help our Sustainability Initiative reach new audiences and empower Americans to achieve an immigration policy that’s compatible with conservation.