Episode 94: George Wuerthner On The Proposed Western Rewilding Network
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George Wuerthner, Author, Rewilding Leadership Council
About
George Wuerthner is an ecologist, former river ranger for the Alaska BLM and backcountry ranger in the Gates of the Arctic NP in Alaska. He has visited more than 400 designated Wilderness Areas and approximately 200 National Park units. A prolific author, he has published 38 books including such titles as California Wilderness Areas, Alaska Mountain Ranges, Nevada Mountain Ranges, Montana’s Magnificent Wilderness, Forever Wild: The Adirondacks, Welfare Ranching-the subsidized destruction of the American West, Yellowstone: A Visitor’s Companion, Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness–Foundation for Conservation. and Wildfire; A Century of Failed Forest Policy.
George is a well-known writer on conservation issues, having published 38 books and innumerable articles, essays, and opinion pieces. He’s given hundreds of presentations around the country on Wilderness, wildfire, livestock grazing, wildlife protection, and other public land issues. George is also a wildlands explorer extraordinaire, having hiked and paddled in more than 400 designated Wildernesses and more than 180 national park units. Be sure to check out George’s work with RESTORE: The North Woods.
Topics
- The impact of bringing back wolves and beavers in a big way to the American west.
- A bold call for a western rewilding network as an ecologically, scientifically defensible answer for 30×30.
- Landscape amnesia and the danger policy decisions based on a poor understand of what the landscape was like before.
- How many species and landscapes can restored populations of wolves and beavers protect and recover?
- How to make this happen and how you can help!
Extra Credit
Read the paper: “Rewilding The American West.” (3 of the authors, George Wuerthner, Eileen Crist, and Reed Noss serve on the Rewilding Leadership Council. Some others are long-time associates and friends of The Rewilding Institute.)
(Some of) George’s Books:
Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction Of The American West
by George Wuerthner and Mollie Matteson
Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy
by George Wuerthner
Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth
by Tom Butler and George Wuerthner
Thrillcraft: The Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation
by George Wuerthner (editor)
Keeping the Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth
by George Wuerthner (editor), Eileen Crist (editor) and Tom Butler (editor)
Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness, the Foundation for Conservation
by George Wuerthner and Eileen Crist
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.