Episode 89: Francisco Santiago-Avila On Rewilding And Coexistence In The Heartland
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FRANCISCO SANTIAGO-ÁVILA, PhD, Big River Connectivity Science and Conservation Manager
About
Fran is an interdisciplinary researcher and nature advocate with over a decade’s experience in conservation and animal science, ethics and policy issues. He is the Big River Connectivity Science and Conservation Manager for Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute, where he helps promote compassion and respect for wild carnivores and nature, their protection, and the rewilding of the Mississippi River Watershed.
His work explores the application of nature ethics to our mixed-community of humans, animals and nature, with a focus on the promotion of worldviews rooted in an ethic of care and justice towards nonhumans, and a reverence for life.
He is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras (BA, Political Science and Economics), Duke University (Masters in Public Policy and Environmental Management), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (PhD, Environment & Resources). He has worked on a variety of environmental and conservation issues, from state wildlife management to national and international impact assessments.
Topics
- Compassion and Coexistence
- Mitigating harmful impacts on the land to promote connectivity throughout the watershed
- What it’s like working on rewilding at “ground zero” in the lower 48
- How to do cores, corridors in radically developed landscapes
Extra Credit
Reading
- Science and Ethics Agree: Coexistence Must Replace Killing Wolves Part 1
- Science and Ethics Agree: Coexistence Must Replace Killing Wolves Part 2
Big River Connectivity
- Learn more about Big River Connectivity
- BRC project on Project Coyote’s site
Webinar – Science and Ethics Agree: Coexistence Must Replace Killing Wolves
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.