What will they think of next? “Rewilding,” as discussed in Emma Marris’ Rambunctious Garden describes the strategy of reintroducing large animals to a geographic area, which they once dominated. This practice is designed to restore nature to how it was even before the arrival of the Europeans. There are various challenges that this project faces; many have doubted its effectiveness and have called the project unethical.
What prompts scientists to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone? Or, better yet, cheetahs and other exotics into the US? This “rewilding,” coined by Dave Foreman of Earth First!, has been in practice since the mid 1990s and brings back “top of the food chain” predators to their native environment. The logic behind it is simple, because these large predators are not around, medium predators like raccoons and snakes eliminate smaller animals such as songbirds. The end result is fewer species all together. The problem with many ecologists who wanted to return America to pre-Columbian times was that many species are now extinct. They thought a proxy, or replacement with similar characteristics, would suffice. In 2004, 13 well respected scientists and conservationists discussed the idea of reintroducing these proxies of extinct megafauna to the US. A problem with these proxies is that in many cases they are not the native species and can play a different role in the ecology of the area.
The ethical dilemma with this practice begs the question of should humans effectively alter these environments? Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands is a perfect example of humans altering the environment to a natural state where there is no human involvement at all, other than killing weak animals who have wandered away from their counterparts. The cattle “mows” the grasslands and therefore the forests that once inhabited the entire continent will be contained. Vera’s project has seen great success because he has lured predators such as vultures and eagles back to their natural environment. Vera, has let animals do the work instead of paying humans. His project includes wild Konik ponies, red deer, and foxes. Much of Oostvaardersplassen is quite the opposite of the preserved Białowieża. Białowieża was always in royal control and served as a hunting ground for the elite. It is heavily forested and in many ways considered as the pristine wilderness.
If Vera would have his way, humans would not interact with “natural” environments. But this is scientifically impossible because humans have always interacted in their environments since their existence. There is not one square mile on the inhabited earth that has not been touched by human hands. It is impossible to go back to the days where humans never existed and when large predators roamed wild. In Texas, there is a ranch where dozens of wild species are thriving. There is much controversy behind this establishment because people can pay $10,000 to hunt an exotic breed there, but that is what conservationists, like Vera, are trying to avoid. They want animals to exist because they should.
-Chandrapaul Latchman
