Rewilding America

When I first heard of this, this past week, I thought, cool, let's let wild lions and cheetahs loose in North America. The only way to control their populations is hunting, and this would mean those of us who could never afford a trip to Africa could get a chance at big-game hunting right here in the good ol' U.S. of A!

My second thought was, nope, can't be that simple, Bubba.

Some spokesman (I didn't catch his name) was on NPR's Science Friday this week. Now Ira Flatow isn't really one to ask hardball questions, but this spoksman was so lame that Ira actually kept asking him the same question at least twice, maybe three times. The basic question was, Yeah, but how are you actually going to do it?

The spokesman seemed to be about three hints short of a clue. All he could do was go back to a species of tortoise that is nearly extinct here, and by starting with them, re-introducing them back to the wild, and using a "science-based process," we would eventually work up to lions, cheetahs, elephants, and camels. These are all animals which had prehistoric counterparts living on this continent some 15,000 years ago, so it only follows that these modern-day versions of them should thrive here now. His logic, not mine. Personally, I would love it if a wombat population were established here, because I just love the word "wombat" and try to work it into everyday conversation as often as possible, but I guess there were never any sabre-toothed wombats living in this neck of the woods.

(By the way, camels were given a chance already, and didn't make it. The Army tried using them in place of horses in the southwest back in the old days. Eventually the project was discontinued and all the camels were set free. They weren't able to establish themselves and survive. But then, they weren't subjected to a "science-based process," whatever that is).

This person also loved using the reintroduction of wolves in the west as an example. Of course, these were the same kinds of wolves that were essentially wiped out within the lifetimes of humans living today. He failed to clarify how this was the same kind of thing as reintroducing contemporary cousins of prehistoric species.

But, it's really worse than just some goofball coming up with some goofball idea. Liberty Matters has a good roundup on this, of which I will quote some, and although this is an older article, its age shows that this has been brewing for a long time:

The Wildlands Project is a massive program for restructuring society around nature as the organizing principle. The concept is Foreman's, but the plan was developed by Dr. Reed Noss under grants from The Nature Conservancy and the National Audubon Society. It was first published in Wild Earth, a publication of the Cenozoic Society, of which Foreman is chairman.

Funded by the Ira Hiti Foundation for Deep Ecology, 75,000 copies of the plan
were produced and distributed. The Wildlands Project was set up as a corporation with offices in Arizona and Oregon; Foreman is Chairman of the Board; Reed Noss is a Director.

Working in tandem with the Wildlands Project is the Biosphere Reserve Program, a creation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The objective of the program, conceived in 1971, has been to designate sites worldwide for preservation and to protect the biodiversity of chosen sites on a global level. Toward that end, the Sierra Club has redrawn the map of North America into 21 "bioregions."

In turn, each of the 21 bioregions has been divided into three zones:

1) Wilderness area, designated as habitat of plants and animals. Human habitation, use, or intrusion is forbidden.

(2) Buffer zones surrounding the wilderness areas. Limited, and strictly controlled, human access is permitted within this zone.

(3) Cooperation zones, the only zones where humans will be permitted to live.

According to Dr. Michael Coffman of Environmental Perspectives, Inc., a strategy to implement reserves and corridors (in the northern Rockies, for example, see map on page 4 [Ed. Note: Not reproduced here; see maps at http://www.libertymatters.org/MapWild.html ]) would be to:

1) Start with a seemingly innocent-sounding program like the "World Heritage Areas in Danger." Bring all human activity under regulation in a 14-18 million acre buffer zone around Yellowstone National Park.

2) Next, declare all federal land (except Indian reservations) as buffers, along with private land within federal administration boundaries.

3) Next, extend the U.S. Heritage corridor buffer zone concept along major river systems. Begin to convert critical federal lands and ecosystems to reserves.

4) Finally, convert all U.S. Forest Service, grasslands, and wildlife refuges to reserves. Add missing reserves and corridors so that 50 percent of landscape is preserved. [Based on United Nations World Heritage Program; United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 8a-e; United Nations Global Biodiversity Assessment, Section 10.4.2.2.3; U.S. Man and the Biosphere Strategic Plan (1994 draft); U.S. Heritage Corridors Program; and "The Wildlands Project," (published in Wild Earth, Dec. 1992). Also, see Science, "The High Cost of Biodiversity," Vol. 280, June 25, 1993, pp.1868-1871.]

Investigative reporter Karen Lee Bixman, in her article, "The Taking of America," states that "each of the 21 bioregions will be governed by bioregional councils. Although in its infancy stage, the setting up of such a council is taking place [now] in the south in conjunction with the Smokey Mountain National Park in Tennessee. When these councils come into play, local, state and national government will not be able to interfere with their enforcement. It will be under the strong arm of the UN.Environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy and other green organizations will be given the green light [to be] the enforcement arm of these councils at the local level." [Karen Lee Bixman, "The Taking of America," The Investigative Reporter (Huntington Beach, CA), March 1996, .3.]

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this is a radical agenda designed to control not just the land, but all human activity, as well. Under the Wildlands Project, at least 50 percent of the land area of America would be returned to "core wilderness areas" where human activity is barred.

Those areas would be connected by corridors, a few miles wide. The core areas and corridors would be surrounded by "buffer zones" in which "managed" human activity would be allowed, provided that biodiversity protection is the first priority. Reed Noss's words put it very, very plainly: "the collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans." ["Rewilding America," eco-logic Magazine (Publ. By Environmental Conservation Organization, Hollow Rock, TN), November/December 1995, p.20.]

That's a big quote, but then it's a long article. And yes, this is just another facet of the "all humans must die so that the earth can be preserved" movement.

Maybe I'm way behind the curve on this one, and maybe I'm wrong. But it seems plenty sinister to me. Note especially the words I emphasized in the last quoted paragraph above. Sinister, because he is talking about animals that do not even live on this continent now, and never did (although their prehistoric cousins did).

I still think it would be cool to go elephant hunting in Arizona. All I would need is to find somebody who would rent me a .416 Rigby.