Wolves and beavers have key environmental impacts in the western U.S. Here is how researchers are working to reintroduce them.
Ripple and the other authors have found 5,000 square kilometers of contiguous federal land that would accommodate a wolf habitat. The total area in all 11 states would be about 500,000 square kilometers . The states include Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
“It’s an ambitious idea, but the American West is going through an unprecedented period of converging crises including extended drought and water scarcity, extreme heat waves, massive fires and loss of biodiversity,” says William Ripple, co-author of the study and professor of ecology in the OSU College of Forestry, in a press release.
According to the National Park Service , wolves were hunted to near-extinction by the mid-1900s in the lower 48 states, including Yellowstone National Park. However, conservation efforts began in the late 1980s and early 90s. In 1995 and 1996, experts released 31 gray wolves back into“Still, the gray wolf’s current range in those 11 states is only about 14 percent of its historical range,” says co-lead author Christopher Wolf in a press release.
The researchers concluded that livestock grazing posed the biggest threat because it can cause wetland degradation, make it harder for trees like willows to grow and impact wildfire frequency. About 2 percent of grazing in the U.S. comes from federal grazing permits, the press release states. “We suggest the removal of grazing on federal allotments from approximately 285,000 square kilometers within the rewilding network, representing 29 percent of the total 985,000 square kilometers of federal lands in the 11 western states that are annually grazed,” Beschta says in a press release. “That means we need an economically and socially just federal compensation program for those who give up their grazing permits.
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Gray wolves should have over one-third of Western federal lands, experts sayResearchers recommend over one-third of federal lands in the West be set aside for gray wolf populations to help revive their numbers and improve the ecosystem. This move would also benefit beavers, who also play a key role in habitat biodiversity.
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