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Shifting Baselines

The Cure for Planetary Amnesia

The Shifting Baselines Blog

JacquetSEED.jpgJennifer Jacquet is a Ph.D. candidate with the Sea Around Us Project at the UBC Fisheries Centre. She works closely with Dr. Daniel Pauly, who coined the term Shifting Baselines, the syndrome on which this blog focuses. <img alt=
Josh Donlan
is a conservation scientist and a Visting Fellow at Cornell University. He often hides out in the backcountry of the Teton Mountains, pondering bygone giant beavers and ground sloths. He also is also the founder and Director of Advanced Conservation Strategies and has a habit of restoring remote islands.

RODodos.jpgScientist turned filmmaker Randy Olson, founder of the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project is also a blog contributor.

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New Projects & Publications

November 27, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "Why Consumers Alone Can't Save Our Fish" at 1pm at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C.

August 2008: Josh Donlan is co-author on a new paper titled Integrating invasive mammal eradications and biodiversity offsets for fisheries bycatch: conservation opportunities and challenges for seabirds and sea turtles published in Biological Invasions.

August 2008: Jennifer Jacquet is co-author on a new paper titled Funding Priorities: Big Barriers to Small-Scale Fisheries published in Conservation Biology.

August 2008: Josh Donlan is an author on a new paper in Journal of Applied Ecology titled Diversity, invasive species, and extinctions in insular ecosystems.

July 26, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the East Coast at the Woods Hole Film Festival in MA.

July 24, 2008: Josh Donlan gives a talk on biodiversity offsets to The Alcoa Foundation and the Alcao Intalco Aluminum Plant in Bellingham, Washington.

July 22, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "A Way Forward in a Sea of Market Based Initiatives to Save Wild Fish" at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA.

July 19, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the West Coast at Outfest in Hollywood, CA.

July 17, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "In Hot Soup: Shark's Captured in Ecuador's Waters" at the Society for Conservation Biology Annual Meeting in Chattanooga, TN.

July 9, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "Flawed Data, Reef Fisheries, And Food Security: A Close Inspection Of Marine Fisheries Catches in Mozambique, Tanzania, Fiji, And The Solomon Islands" at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

June/July 2008: Josh Donlan attends training for his Kinship Conservation Fellowship in Bellingham, WA.

May 2008: Josh Donlan is an author on a new paper in Ambio titled High impact Conservation: Invasive Mammal Eradications from the Islands of Western Mexico.

May 15, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet reviews Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood at the Tyee.

April 2008: Trade Secrets: Renaming and Mislabeling of Seafood by Jennifer Jacquet and Daniel Pauly is published in Marine Policy.

April 2008: Randy Olson and the Puget Sound Partnership release the flash video Shifting Baselines in the Sound:.

Mar. 2008: Dr. Josh Donlan joins the Shifting Baselines blog.

Jan. 2008 Jennifer Jacquet launches the Eat Like a Pig Seafood Wallet Card EatLikeaPigHalf.jpg

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« Shifting Prisoners... | Main | Josh Donlan Joins Shifting Baselines! »

Animals and Urban Sprawl: Are the Two Compatible?

Category: Losing Track
Posted on: February 29, 2008 9:40 AM, by Jennifer L. Jacquet

promo200.jpgNPR has a great story today about what happened in one Nevada neighborhood after new suburbanites complained about an old neighborhood resident--a braying donkey named Gambler. Gambler was shipped out of town and his 4-acre pasture might now be sub-divided into two lots to make way for more development.

Complaints of animal noise are becoming increasingly common across the U.S. as urban sprawl encroaches on rural neighborhoods that have traditionally had a few horses, chickens, and even a donkey in their midst. In nuisance cases, the law will acknowledge only 'reasonable' complaints--but what is 'reasonable' can change as the land changes. It's a nice shifting baselines story and worth a listen.

Comments

#1

Thanks for posting this! I heard about it and missed the story.

-lara

Posted by: blings | March 1, 2008 11:23 AM

#2

Another manifestation of a culture built around the concept of entitlement and convenience, to an extent, I think.

Posted by: Luna_the_cat | March 2, 2008 7:21 AM

#3

The irony of it all would be delicious if it didn't leave such a bad taste in my mouth. Reminds me of the young families moving up to the wine country from SF, SJ and LA only to lodge complaints that the vinticulture was offensive (dust and chemicals...and noise) and reduced their poperty values.

Posted by: doug l | March 2, 2008 11:08 AM

#4

4 acres into two lots! Oh my!

Round here a plot of land (1/3 acre)was redeveloped into no less than EIGHTEEN properties

(this was the council, who have also knocked down nice streets to put in three times as many properties...luckily my street is almost all owned by now.)

Posted by: Tengu | March 11, 2008 3:24 AM

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