The Wolfman: Rewilding Scotland’s Alladale Wilderness Reserve From A Cyclist’s Perspective
Alladale Wilderness Reserve is a rewilding work in progress. Day by day, the 23,000 acres gets a bit wilder. The video below, by PACHAMAMA Cycling, is a brilliant look at the marvel that is Alladale.
“The goal is to see wolves back in the area.” —Paul Lister, Alladale Wilderness Reserve Custodian
Video Summary
🌍 Active conservationist’s journey of change and reflection at 40 after father’s illness
🌲 Scotland’s once wild and diverse landscape has been devastated by deforestation
🌱 Alladale: a wilderness reserve focused on nature recovery and rewilding
🚵♀️ Cycling as a way to connect people to nature and appreciate its beauty
👥 Community engagement and employment opportunities in the area
🐺 Ultimate aim: reintroducing wolves as apex predators for ecosystem balance
⚖️ Embracing change, working with nature, and enjoying the journey
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.
Good on ’em for planting native trees and bringing back wolves! However, cattle, roads, motor vehicles, and even bicycles don’t belong in wilderness, and their presence there means that it’s NOT wilderness by definition. Europeans have a grossly misinformed concept of wilderness if they don’t realize that all those things are unnatural and therefore harmful. Additionally, openly denying how HUMAN overpopulation harms and destroys ecosystems and the life there while acknowledging that deer overpopulation is a problem is very human supremacist (anthropocentric).
Overall, this is a step in the right direction, but there are substantial problems with the way they’re doing it and their delusion that they can have their cake and eat it too. If you want to have real wilderness (which we should strive to restore to the entire Earth!) the only humans who can be there must limit themselves to walking (hikers, backpackers, and hunter-gatherers) and must not leave anything except natural and native material, and their numbers must be strictly limited to what the ecosystem and the native species there can handle without causing any unnatural ecological harm.