Applicability of Research Findings to Conservation Policy.

The article responds to an article in the current 2007 issue which is critical of the authors' earlier publication in the journal. The authors agree that populations of most states are growing, that cities are sprawling, and that species around growing cities may be imperiled by urban population growth and expansion. To do an actual experiment using cities with a control would be unrealistic. The statistical findings of the authors was that there was no evidence that spatial-distribution aspects of sprawl are ecologically relevant, but that human population growth was the primary cause of species imperilment in the U.S.