Two seemingly unrelated incidents have me thinking lately about wildlife, and the future of it, in the Concord area.

I read an article in the latest issue of the quarterly publication that a conservation organization I belong to publishes.

That article, which cited data from Nature Conservancy studies, found that the vast majority of impacts from human recreation on wildlife are negative. One study found that an increase in mountain biking, hiking, and dog walking in the warmer months and skiing, fat biking, and snowshoeing in the winter had caused elk herds around major Rocky Mountain resort towns to dwindle almost to the point of extinction.

Another study mentioned similar negative impacts on other species. There is far more data than I have room to mention in one letter. Suffice to say it all points to a simple problem of volume: too many trails filled with too many humans results in a wide range of negative impacts on a variety of species.

After reading this article, I watched the most recent meeting of the Concord Conservation Commission, an organization that does much valuable work.

Nevertheless, in the 90 minutes I watched, the only discussion that was even remotely wildlife-related was regarding dogs off leash on hiking trails. Finally, one of the board members brought up the fact that “dogs and humans on hiking trails can have serious impacts on wildlife.”

This was followed by much head-nodding, as if this gentleman had just reminded the entire group what their actual purpose was. It was a breath of fresh air for a meeting which seemed to be nothing more than a discussion of “how many more trails can we put in, and where, and how soon?”

It is our responsibility as humans to see that we share what little wilderness we have left on this planet with the wildlife that we stole the rest of it from. The first constituents of the Concord Conservation Commission, in my mind, are the wildlife of Concord and their habitat.

I hope that when the long-awaited Trails Master Plan finally comes out, it considers the needs of wildlife, and is humble and honest enough to admit that we don’t need to put a trail in every patch of remaining wilderness. And I hope in the future that the CCC will devote a larger portion of their time and resources to studying the impacts of existing trails, rather than planning new ones.

(Dan Williams lives in Concord.)