Exurb growth challenges U.S. cities
Urban centers feel the pinch as people move beyond the 'burbs

OPINION: Choking off wildlife The Tennessean

Sprawl Pushes Wildlife to the Brink eMagazine.com

Sprawl Called A Threat To Wildlife CBS

Report: Sprawl threatens species' habitats The Charlotte Observer

Clark County ranks high on list with imperiled species Las Vegas Sun

WASHINGTON, DC — The rapid consumption of land in the nation’s fastest-growing large metropolitan areas could threaten the survival of nearly one out of every three imperiled species, according to the first study ever to quantify the impact of sprawling development on wildlife nationally. In at least three dozen rapidly-growing counties found mostly in the South and West, open space on non-federal lands is being lost so quickly that essential wildlife habitat will be mostly gone within the next two decades, unless development patterns are altered.

According to the report Endangered By Sprawl: How Runaway Development Threatens America’s Wildlife, produced by the National Wildlife Federation, Smart Growth America, and NatureServe, the rapid conversion of once-natural areas and farmland into subdivisions, shopping centers, roads and parking lots has become a leading threat to America’s native plants and animals.

For more information please contact:

David Goldberg, Smart Growth America
202-412-7930 or dgoldberg@smartgrowthamerica.org

Lisa Swann, National Wildlife Federation
703-438-6083 or swann@nwf.org

Rob Riordan, NatureServe
703-908-1831 or rob_riordan@natureserve.org