Lions and tigers and bears...and the Wildland Project

by Joel Kretz

If the world of salmon recovery isn’t bizarre enough, there’s a movement afoot that will make salmon recovery look almost sensible. We’ve all seen the proposed Wildland Project maps returning most of America to wilderness populated only by wildlife and elitest biologists. We’ve watched as the federal government has planted large predators like wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions amidst rural communities. We’ve heard about plans to depopulate the Midwest and establish the “Buffalo Commons.” As radical as those projects appear in the eyes of an increasingly nervous rural population, the next phase in the plot to “rewild” America puts earlier efforts to shame.

The latest proposal recently floated by a group of Ivy League ecologists involves “rewilding” America with, get this, African wildlife, and no, I’m not making this up. Incredibly, the group advocates releasing African species such as lions, elephants and cheetahs in North America in an effort to replace large megafauna like sabor toothed tigers and wooly mammoths that went extinct thousands of years ago. And I’m sure if they had a source for sabor toothed tigers and wooly mammoths we’d have them rooting around the orchard too.

One of the plans authors, young Josh Donlan, a graduate student at Cornell University admits that African lions in Kansas might be a hard sell. “Lions eat people” he muses, “there has to be a pretty serious attitude shift on how you view predators.” Hmmm, yes, a serious attitude shift indeed. I personally am not that fond of cougars rummaging around my back porch, but African lions is a real non-starter for me. Elephants in the orchard are problematic and I’d rather not have to keep an eye out for crocodiles in Lake Osoyoos.

Think about it folks, lions and tigers and bears, right here in our own backyard. Sounds like a great employment plan for excess fish biologists. But I think it’s kind of telling that the proponents of the plan seem to live almost exclusively on the East Coast. Of course, they’ll want to visit, driving about the country on eco-tours in their land rovers, clad in khaki shorts and Australian hats. But live here? No thanks! Those lions eat people, doncha know.