Assisted Migration, by definition, is the practice of moving a species from their natural habitat to a new region – usually in response to the degrading effects human presence has had on their original habitats. In theory, be definition alone, the idea seems to be more realistic, ethical, and plausible than the previously mentioned “rewinding” concept.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the reason assisted migration sounds to me like a better scientific tool than rewilding is because there is actually a demonstrated need for it, and its main point is to help save species. In both Marris’ chapter on the issue as well as in Puth and Burns’ article, there are examples of species who have been dying out in their original habitat, mostly due to the anthropogenic changes in their ecosystems. Marris, for example, mentions the American pika, which cannot live in temperatures warmer that 78 degrees. The American pika has all but disappeared from lowlands and has been forced to make its way up mountains to stay in it’s comfort zone. However, even those mountains are warming up, and for the pika to go up another mountain, it must first come down – which it cannot do without dying. Similarly, Puth and Burns’ article mentions how many of the species studied in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas have shown decreasing species richness as a result of urbanization. For situations such as these, assisted migration seems to be a logical and ethical solution to help try keep these species alive, especially when they cannot help themselves, as in the case of the American pika.
Whether this practice will be useful to ecosystems, remains to be an unanswered question. Like with rewilding, because the idea is so new, there is not a lot of predictability in its implementation. There is no way to know how a species will react to its new environment, and it is possible, as was pointed out in Marris’ chapter that, perhaps the species’ old environment had some sort of unknown soil microbe or something of that nature which the new environment does not have (79); there is no way to predict those sort of variables. Similarly, there is also the fear that the species may become an invasive species in its new habitat, driving out the native species.
Because of the uncertainty that comes along with toying with nature, I believe that these waters should be treaded carefully, and only be used when necessary to save a species, not just for experimentation purposes.
