Introduction to Natural Resources

Introduction to Natural Resources

Natural resources are materials and components (something that can be used) that can be found within the environment. Every man-made product is composed of natural resources (at its fundamental level). A natural resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, and air, as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it may exist in an alternate form which must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, oil, and most forms of energy.

There is much debate worldwide over natural resource allocations, this is partly due to increasing scarcity (depletion of resources) but also because the exportation of natural resources is the basis for many economies (particularly for developed nations such as Australia).

Some Natural resources can be found everywhere such as sunlight and air, when this is so the resources is known as an ubiquitous resource. However most resources are not ubiquitous, they only occur in small sporadic areas, these resources are referred to as localized resources. There are very few resources that are considered inexhaustible (will not run out in foreseeable future), these are solar radiation, geothermal energy, and air (though access to clean air may not be). The vast majority of resources are however exhaustible, which means they have a finite quantity, and can be depleted if managed improperly.

Introduction to Wildlife Management

The term wildlife means different things to different people. To a backyard wildlifer, it may mean chickadees, nuthatches, and cardinals. To a hunter, it may mean white-tailed deer, bobwhite quail, and gray squirrels. To a sheep producer, it may mean coyotes. To a poultry producer, it may mean mink, weasels, skunks, and raccoons. To a gardener, it may mean hummingbirds and butterflies.

What is Wildlife?

It is important to identify and define what we mean by the term “wildlife” before we can answer the question, “What are wildlife management and conservation?” Early definitions of wildlife focused on wild animals (undomesticated free-ranging animals) that could be hunted for sport or food (a partial list of wildlife in the South is listed in Table 1). Early definitions restricted the term wildlife to vertebrates (animals with a backbone). From that time forward, the message has been clear: there is a separation of those organisms termed wildlife, not only from other vertebrates, but most certainly from other groups of lower animals and plants.

If you were to ask a professional biologist to define wildlife, he or she would probably identify two distinct vertebrate groups: birds and mammals. Even state and federal organizations, in their names, make a distinction between fish and wildlife: the various state wildlife agencies and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Much has happened in the field of wildlife management since early times and this is reflected in new definitions of wildlife based on a more holistic viewpoint. The beginnings of this new viewpoint of wildlife began in the 1960s. Wording in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 recognized fish and wildlife as any member of the animal kingdom, including without limitation any mammal, bird, fish, amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod, or other invertebrates (animals without a backbone).

About the same time, many states began adopting nongame wildlife programs. These programs were aimed at managing protected, endangered or threatened, and onhunted wildlife with respect to the definition of fish and wildlife provided in the ESA.

From a purely objective standpoint, wildlife should include all animals and their associated habitats. If we are to look at the big picture, it seems unnecessary to define the term wildlife along the usually rigid and nonfunctional lines of a taxonomist (a person who identifies and classifies living organisms).

How can we understand the ecology of a great blue heron without a thorough knowledge of the heron’s food source (small minnows, amphibians, etc.)? Likewise, a picture of coyote ecology would be incomplete without an understanding of how that animal’s diet shifts from small mammals and carrion in the winter to insects and fruits during the summer. Further, the relationship of an animal to its habitat (including competitors, predators, prey items, vegetation, and soil) is so interconnected as to add confusion in attempts to restrict the term wildlife. A definition of wildlife should include all living organisms out of the direct control of man, including undomesticated or cultivated plants and animals.