Doing The Numbers

Since its founding, NWF has witnessed some dramatic changes in the wildlife and natural environment it was created to protect

SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 1936, the National Wildlife Federation has witnessed some dramatic changes in the wildlife and natural environment it was created to protect. Here are a few of them:

• Change in total U.S. fossil fuel consumption per person, per year between the mid-1930s and today: +102 percent

• Estimated number of adult wild salmon and steelhead entering the Columbia River and its tributaries, mid-1930s: 10-16 million

• Estimated number of adult wild salmon and steelhead entering the Columbia River and its tributaries, today: 500,000

• Number of dams built in the Columbia River Basin since the 1930s: More than 200

• Acres of Louisiana coastal wetlands lost to river diversion projects since the 1930s: One million

• Number of whooping cranes in North America, mid-1930s: 16

• Number of whooping cranes in North America, today: 453

• Change in the number of bald eagle pairs nesting on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, 1936–1977: -530

• Change in the number of bald eagle pairs nesting on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, 1977–today: +576

• Number of gray wolves living in Yellowstone National Park, 1936: 0

• Number of gray wolves living in Yellowstone National Park, today: 300