User:Bdolmage/sandbox

Conservation of Rare Habitats
Within Saskatchewan there are areas where unique geography or topography allows for rare or distinctive organisms to thrive. These rare habitats and their species will be facing a great deal of stress as human-driven climate change continues to raise temperatures both world-wide and in Saskatchewan. Within the province, these increases in temperature will cause effects such as changes in wind patterns, an increase in rare weather events , a decrease in water availability and cause a northward shift in the ecozone boundaries. These changes to the natural landscape can have large detrimental effects on the conservation efforts made to protect these rare areas.

Examples of areas within Saskatchewan which are currently conserving rare habitats include Provincial Parks such as the Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park, Cypress Hills Provincial Park, and National Parks such as Grassland National Park. Each of these parks protects areas of land which are unique compared to the dominant landscape of commercial agriculture in Saskatchewan. For example, the Grasslands National Park preserves rare grass communities such as mixed grass prairie and short-grass prairie, as well as the many unique and endemic species, such as the black-tailed prairie dog, that depend on these grasses for ecological community preservation. The reason for the establishment of the park was that over 80% of all previous mixed grass prairie and short-grass prairie has been lost in Saskatchewan due to current agricultural practices, and preservation of these species is vital to ecosystem health and biodiversity.

Preservation of these natural habitats is becoming a challenge with the changing climate. Park boundaries, set out for conservation purposes, may be rendered moot as ecozones shift northwards and as increasing fragmentation of the natural landscape occurs due to these ecozone shifts. Increasing temperatures may increase rates of forest fires, flooding and drought in these rarer habitats where species diversity may be low and therefore susceptible to change. Protected area managers need to examine policies in light of these coming changes, and look at possible mitigation techniques such as buffer zones, flexible boundaries and connective corridors to help mitigate the possible loss of rare and endemic species and landscapes in Saskatchewan.