Rewilding in the Media #21

Editors’ note: In this periodic summary, we list some of the latest research and rewilding projects, ideas, and notable stories in the media about protecting and restoring wild Nature that the TRI board and staff discover and discuss. These are some highlights from summer 2024. We urge sharing links to the ones you find most inspiring, and we invite you to send us links to important rewilding stories we may have missed.

1. UVM Today, “To Save the Forest, Should We Move the Trees?” by Joshua Brown [March 20, 2023]

“As the woodlands of New England face a hotter future, UVM researchers are exploring the promise and peril of ‘assisted migration.’”

2. Science Daily, Non-native plants and animals expanding ranges 100 times faster than native species [June 19, 2024]

“Summary: An international team of scientists has recently found that non-native species are expanding their ranges many orders of magnitude faster than native ones, in large part due to inadvertent human help. Even seemingly sedentary non-native plants are moving at three times the speed of their native counterparts in a race where, because of the rapid pace of climate change and its effect on habitat, speed matters. To survive, plants and animals need to be shifting their ranges by 3.25 kilometers per year just to keep up with the increasing temperatures and associated climactic shifts — a speed that native species cannot manage without human help.”

3. Yahoo News, Conservation groups celebrate major victory as US Forest Service halts massively destructive logging project: ‘It never should have been approved’ [August 3, 2024]

“Conservation groups scored a victory in the courtroom in July after the U.S. Forest Service announced its decision to withdraw a logging permit that would have impacted at least 147,000 acres within the Ashley National Forest in Utah.”

4. If you use Facebook, we recommend that you follow Chris Bolgiano—an uncommonly funny, as well as wise, advocate for and practitioner of rewilding: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisBolgianoNatureWriter

5. Rewilding Global Alliance, Rewilding helps to combat desertification by Magnus Sylvén [August 14, 2024]

“How can rewilding help reduce desertification and its effects? This was the question set by the UN University in Bonn, Germany, in its assessment of seven ‘new’ land and water management approaches, of which rewilding was one. That the Global Rewilding Alliance took part in the process is a clear indication that rewilding as a relatively new perspective for the future management of land and water is receiving increasing attention outside the narrower conservation and wildlife community.

6. The Global Rewilding Alliance has created the Global Rewilding Volunteer Talent Pool. Check it out if you’d like to sign up to be a volunteer or if you have an organization looking for volunteers!

7. EcoWatch, Nearly 25% of Europe’s Landscape Could be Rewilded, Research Finds [August 15, 2024]

“Abandoned farmlands in Europe — which make up nearly 25 percent of the continent’s landscape  — have the potential to be rewilded, according to a new study published in Current Biology.”

8. New York Times, One day, Doug said: ‘I wonder if we could do a national park?’[Sept. 7, 2024]

“Douglas and Kristine Tompkins were the world’s most eminent land conservationists, investing $350 million of their own money. Kris talks to Lisa Grainger about continuing her husband’s legacy.”

9. New York Times, Solar Farms Have a Superpower Beyond Clean Energy [Sept. 5, 2024]

“The sites fight climate change and can help with another global crisis: the collapse of nature. But so far, efforts to nurture wildlife habitat have been spotty.