On the Brink of Extinction: Animals and Home Improvements

What do endangered animals and disappearing home improvements have in common? Quite a lot, actually. External stressors and competition have pushed out formerly abundant creatures and popular home improvement choices. Meanwhile, some species and home projects get a lot more press than others. Whether you're interested in the ecological resources of the planet or the architectural legacy of our society, you're likely to be surprised by the multiple parallels seen in these extinctions.

Aluminum Siding and the Komodo Dragon
Status: Vulnerable
Reason for Decline: Competition for Food Supply
Fifty years ago, aluminum siding was at or near the top of the siding industry. Today, it's hard to find a homeowner who would choose this siding material or a siding professional who would recommend it. Advancements in vinyl and fiber-cement siding have proved problematic for aluminum, but seamless steel siding ended aluminum's dominance in the niche for metal siding. Denting and scratching, formerly insignificant complaints, have accelerated aluminum siding's downfall. Thicker aluminum panels can eliminate the risk of denting, but the rise in cost for raw aluminum has ended its reign as the siding industry's most cost-effective option.

Just as aluminum siding once reigned over the siding industry, the Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis) has no natural predators on the Indonesian islands that form its natural habitat. Held in reverence by Komodo Island natives, the Komodo Dragons are listed as vulnerable according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Loss of habitat, extirpation, and deer poaching are among the contributing factors adding to the plight of the Komodo Dragon.

Conventional, Timber-Framed Homes and the Asian Elephant
Status: Endangered
Reason for Decline: Habitat Destruction
These two endangered entities are a case study for the reality that raw numbers do not indicate the threat of extinction. There are still between 40,000 and 50,000 Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) remaining in the wild. Unfortunately, with a range that includes parts of China and India, 20 percent of the world's population lives in or near the species range. Aggressive land development for human settlement, agricultural purposes, logging, and warfare has squeezed their natural habitat to dangerous limits.

According to the U.S. Commerce Department, new housing starts hit a record low in October. Despite this temporary reduction in numbers, few experts would argue conventional home building is in any immediate danger of disappearing. What truly threatens the existence of conventional, timber-framed home building is a new generation of home building methods. When the housing market recovers, this new wave of home builders will flood the market with modular home building, insulating concrete forms (ICF), adobe homes, and compressed Earth block (CEB), among others, threatening the supremacy and existence of conventional home building methods.

Plaster Walls and the California Condor
Status: Critically Endangered
Reason for Decline: Loss of Food Source, Low Reproductive Rates
Though not yet extinct, the obstacles facing both plaster walls and the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) were virtually insurmountable. Though plaster walls have superior visual appeal and strength, the low cost and easy installation of drywall all but doomed plaster when this new method of interior walls was introduced in the 1940s and 50s. Right around the same time, poaching, lead and DDT poisoning, egg collecting, power lines, and habitat destruction had reduced the number of California Condors living in the wild to about 150.

Like the polar bear, the distinctive, nearly iconic California Condor raises a ton of public awareness, including the most expensive species conservation program ever conducted. Formerly classified as Extinct in the Wild, according to Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, as of November 2008, there are 327 California Condors left with more than half living in the wild. For plaster walls, reintroduction has taken the form of plaster veneer, an inexpensive method of imitating true Venetian plaster walls.

Wood Gutters and the Socorro Dove
Status: Extinct in the Wild
Reason for Decline: Extirpation
Nearly all extinction is caused by some form of ecological competition, whether it involves habitat or food supply, human interference or natural forces. Rarely is the case as simple as it is with the Socorro Dove (Zenaida graysoni) and with wood gutters. The Socorro Dove was extirpated by the introduction of feral cats. The same could be said to have happened to wood gutters by the introduction of vinyl and metal gutters, especially seamless steel gutters.

The birds now live mostly in zoos in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. New wood gutters are now installed almost exclusively on buildings and homes with historical significance. An aggressive and optimistic reintroduction program is underway, as the island cats and sheep are being removed and stock is being prepared for transplant. Meanwhile, wood gutters from resilient hardwoods with greater visual appeal are being marketed to discerning homeowners. And if the metaphor wasn't already strong enough, the Socorro Dove has wood-colored plumage, while interbreeding with the Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) has created several variations of color, similar to different species of wood.

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