Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.
The best-known wildlife recoveries in the U.S. are often associated with the West. Yet some important gains have occurred east of the Mississippi, among cities, roads, farms, and landscapes altered over several centuries.
Andrew Moore’s new book, Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness, examines the decline and partial return of animals that once occupied the region in abundance. Before European settlement and large-scale land conversion, eastern habitats supported bison, elk, moose, woodland caribou, cranes, black bears, passenger pigeons, and Carolina parakeets. Many disappeared as forests were cleared, wetlands drained, and wildlife hunted.
Some losses were permanent. Other species have returned through reintroductions, habitat restoration, hunting restrictions, and long-term management, reports Mongabay’s Erik Hoffner. The state of Kentucky now has roughly 10,000 elk (Cervus canadensis) across a 16-county restoration zone, the largest herd east of the Mississippi. At Nachusa Grasslands in the state of Illinois, conservationists have restored tallgrass prairie on former farmland and reintroduced bison (Bison bison). Forest regrowth across parts of New England has helped moose, bears, fishers, and otters expand their ranges.
These recoveries have also brought some problems. An animal may find enough food and cover while still struggling to coexist with people. Elk damage crops, browse vegetation, and get hit by vehicles. Pumas (Puma concolor) could survive in much of the East, where forests and deer are plentiful, although proposals to restore them would probably meet strong resistance.
Development remains another constraint. Suburban growth, distribution centers, data centers, and new roads continue to divide rural and forested land. Wildlife crossings can reduce collisions and reconnect isolated habitat, including within the range of North Carolina’s critically endangered red wolves (Canis rufus). Their value still depends on preserving enough land on either side.
The eastern record suggests that wildlife restoration can work in heavily settled regions. It depends on suitable habitat, steady funding, public acceptance, and agencies able to manage animals after their numbers begin to rise. Returning large species may create costs for farmers, drivers, and nearby communities. Those effects need to be anticipated rather than treated as evidence that restoration has failed.
Read Erik Hoffner’s interview with Andrew Moore here.
Banner image: A group of elk traverses an active mine site between forest patches in Kentucky. Image courtesy of Brittany L. Slabach.
