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Published online 4 November 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/462030a
Conservation biology: Reflecting the past
Unsatisfied with merely halting environmental destruction, some conservationists are trying to reconstruct ecosystems of the past. Emma Marris travels back in time with the rewilders.
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Rewilding efforts in Europe relate a lot to the destruction caused by domestication and agriculture. But I'd oppose any rewilding in North America including non-native species. The post-Columbian devastation has been related to the express genocidal efforts of invading human cultures; these people have already introduced many alien species, to the detriment of many native species. I feel that people like Josh Donlan who'd like a Pleistocene rewilding with alien species are akin to the Holocene imperialists who also insisted on alien introductions. There is a subconscious disrespect for the indigenous peoples and the ecosystems of, say, 1491. The most important thing to be done in North America is rewlding to immediate pre-Columbian situations, including restoration of all native species still alive to their full natural ranges.
There are some interesting experiments going on; it is a pity they are short of money. I'm inclined to think that European landscape looked more like the African savanna landscape rather that the dense forest which develops today in the absence of megaherbivores. Therefore, given that albedo is significantly lowered by replacing grasslands with forest and that albedo at 65N has major effects on the climate cycles, there may well grants available if someone manages to sell these experiments as climate research.