Human POPULATION AND URBAN WILDLANDS As the growing human
population reaches further and further into remote areas in
search of room to build cities, housing developments, golf
courses, and new farms, it is squeezing wildlife into ever
smaller habitat refuges. For endangered species like the green
sea turtle, Mississippi gopher frog, cactus ferruginous pygmy
owl, Alabama beach mouse and California condor, there is often
nowhere else to go when the developments march in. These species
and many others are in danger of following the Lake Sammamish
kokanee salmon into extinction. The kokanee steadily declined as
Seattle sprawled eastward, polluting its water and destroying
its spawning habitat. It went extinct in 2001. And the most
recent review of the northern red-bellied cooter — a turtle that
can only be found in a few Massachusetts ponds — explicitly
deems the species still endangered due, in part, to encroachment
of residential growth and human demand for water. Case Study:
Florida Panther on the Brink The F