An odd question makes the front page of today's Washington Post. Are there any skunks left in Arlington?"We're 40 percent paved over, so there's not much nature left," he said, shrugging. With a growing population of 200,000, the 26-square-mile county might be reaching a "critical mass" of dense urban landscape, [Arlington County naturalist Greg Zell] said, where even the hardiest wild survivors, such as skunks, can no longer make it.To connect the pieces of the puzzle, the National Wildlife Federation has created the Backyard Wildlife Habitat program, helping people make their properties friendlier to birds and animals. Thanks to the efforts of Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, Arlington was one of the first places in the country to be certified as a Community Wildlife Habitat.
[Earl] Hodnett, a wildlife biologist in Fairfax County, which has a healthy skunk population, says he has a hard time believing the animals have disappeared from Arlington. "It would really raise questions about our own quality of life," he said. "If a skunk can't make it here, how are we doing?" [...]
Zell has mapped all the green spaces in the county, the largest of which is Arlington National Cemetery. What shows up looks like the disjointed pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. "Nothing is connected," he said. "The natural open space that's left is all isolated. Like little islands." Maybe that's why there might be no more skunks, he said. The islands are small. And it's dangerous to move between them.
But while Arlington is home to deer, raccoons, foxes, snakes, hawks and other critters, apparently skunks haven't been able to put down roots here.
How concerned should Arlingtonians be? It's never a good thing when our community is no longer hospitable to a native resident. But is there something Arlington should be doing differently? We already protect open spaces and have a terrific parks system. Issues like lowering our carbon footprint, protecting streams and improving public transportation are still the big environmental priorities.
4 comments:
I'm kind of surprised that there would be no skunks in the greenway along the river, especially near Roosevelt Island. It seems like there ought to be enough open/edge areas connected with more wild areas there to support at least a few. But the county naturalist knows better than I do. It's a sad development, if true.
I wish Greg Zell would come to our neighborhood. We have a skunk(deduced by smell) Grey and red foxes and a stream with eels (from the Sargaso Sea) as well as fish,owls,hawwks etc. Our group is fighting to keep the stream from becoming another Arlington ditch. The stream connects the green way and the wildlife. Send Greg here. We need support Save Little Pimmit Run ...off Old Dominion at 38th st and Dumbarton
I wish to assure Greg Zell that there has been at least one skunk in Arlington in the last year around Bluemont Park--It's scent was quite strong.
(And I know of which I speak, having been sprayed by a skunk once.)
There seems to be at least one skunk in South Arlington as well. My husband smelled a strong skunk odor near the bus shelter on S. Stafford near 35th in Fairlington a few days ago. Maybe it's an escapee from nearby Alexandria, but we also have foxes in Fairlington and I saw a deer in Shirlington.
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