Cougar Recovery in Eastern North America?
Cougars (a.k.a. mountain lions) once roamed throughout the east coast, but are now gone. Are these predators now making their way back to the Northeastern U.S.? And can they live with humans?
The search for the eastern cougar is one of the great riddles in North American natural history. In this presentation, Christopher Spatz, a former president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation, takes us on a personal journey looking for signs of the cougar’s return. Along the way, he discusses cougar biology, behavior and their current range, and explains why restoring this magnificent predator could be imperative for the recovery of critically declining eastern forests. (Recorded on June 15, 2023.)
Note: This presentation was presented as part of the Third Thursday Environmental Series which is a program of free, online events, organized by members of the Rochester, Marbletown, Rosendale, Gardiner, and Olive Environmental Conservation Commissions (ECC’s)—all located in Ulster County, NY. Each month—every third Thursday—the series will present a free, online program on an environmental topic of general interest. To receive notification of future talks, send an email to th*****************@gm***.com.
Christopher Spatz, inspired by Dave Foreman announcing the birth of Earth First! on the Today Show in the early ’80s, procured a copy of Eco Defense and began his peripatetic pursuits as an eco-gadfly. Yanking surveying stakes, canvassing for Greenpeace in Boston, performing for Trenton, NJ’s Klark Kent eco-street theater troupe, directing the Gunks’ Climbers Coalition, and advocating for puma recovery as the president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation were some of his ventures. He lives and writes from the Shawangunks in southern New York State.
