Linda Heron writes: “Most of the dam removal projects with which the Ontario Rivers Alliance has been involved have aimed to increase resilience to climate change by improving water quality, reducing stream temperature, and increasing brook trout habitat. To date, the Ontario Rivers Alliance has worked with…” Continue reading Dam removal for climate and nature [Eastern Canada] – part two
Linda Heron writes: “Ontario is littered with hundreds of old and decaying concrete, log, and earthen millpond dams, hydropower dams, control dams and diversion dams that have blocked stream flow and filled with sediment over the last 100 years or more. There is a myriad of reasons for removing dams from freshwater streams…” Continue reading Dam removal for climate and nature [Eastern Canada] – part one
Wayne Tyson writes: “I’ll begin with a case of Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana) restoration by the City of San Diego that started over half a century ago. As a new park construction inspector for the city, I was assigned an already-designed project for native plant revegetation, which consisted of the “hydroseeding” of the cut slope and fills along a highway known as Torrey Pines Road (hydroseeding involves…” Continue reading Torrey pines: Mistakes and progress [Western USA]
Laurie Lawlor writes: “The eight-acre lot in the small, rural town of Eagle, Wisconsin, appeared anything but promising. Over the years, the dumping ground of rusty cans, bottles, and old tires had become so choked with buckthorn and other invasive plants that nobody knew what was inside the municipally owned property between the local elementary school and the public library. Students traveling on foot…” Continue reading Rewilding ourselves: A project of hope [Midwest USA]
Sally Zaino writes: “Connecting the Susquehanna River to the Schuylkill River with a canal was William Penn’s idea, before 1700—but construction was not begun for another hundred years. The canal was to be known as the “Golden Link”. However, construction suffered many stops and starts, while engineers struggled to create a canal that, from west to east, would rise 92 feet and fall 311 feet, that was prone…” Continue reading Rewilding itself: the Union Canal [Northeast USA]
Judith S Weis writes: “During much of the previous century, the New York–New Jersey (NY–NJ) Harbor Estuary was severely degraded due to the effects of heavy industry, including the unregulated discharge of raw sewage and all kinds of industrial pollutants into the water, as well as the filling-in of marshes for development (e.g., three major area airports were built in this way). Major…” Continue reading Life’s revival in a natural harbor [Northeast USA]
Tony Hiss writes: “Some years ago, E. O. Wilson, the great conservation biologist, took me on a rewilding field trip to meet M. C. Davis, a friend of his who was growing a forest in the Florida Panhandle. Davis, a multimillionaire commodities trader, grew up there in a trailer and raised his first stake playing poker. Like Wilson, Davis was tireless and an elaborately courteous southern charmer (Wilson…” Continue reading Rewilding the piney woods [Southern USA]
Jon Leibowitz writes: “What if someone told you a rewilding story that took place on a grand scale—the size of entire countries? As the story goes, a primeval forest disappears practically overnight (geologically speaking) leaving a landscape reminiscent of modern-day Scotland. Entire forests are brought down, first for lumber and charcoal and then pasture and farms. Carnivores like wolves…” Continue reading Rewilding in an unlikely landscape [Northeast USA]
Jay Tutchton and Nicole Rosmarino write: “Nearly 25 years ago, the Southern Plains Land Trust (SPLT) sprouted, based on a simple idea: let’s buy as much land as we can, just for the wild ones. SPLT’s vision is to bring back the diversity and abundance of wildlife of the American Serengeti by rewilding the shortgrass prairie of the southern Great Plains. What does “rewilding” mean to us? Let’s start with…”
Continue reading Rewilding the southern Great Plains [Western USA]
Bruce Byers writes: “A breeze was just starting up as we parked along Quarry Road in Brisbane, California, on the eastern slope of San Bruno Mountain. I tagged along with a local butterfly conservation scientist and a two-person team from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Mission of the day: to capture and translocate some endangered Mission Blue butterflies from this area to Sweeney Ridge…” Continue reading Mission Blues [Western USA]
Jerry Freilich writes: “Removing the two dams on the Elwha River in Olympic National Park (Washington) was like turning around a giant ocean liner at sea. Although science and economics clearly showed that the dams needed to be removed, it still took 25 years of hard work and tenacity before public and political opinion was turned around making the seemingly impossible – possible…” Continue reading The Elwha story [Western USA]
Tom Horton writes: “If I were the Choptank River, it’s on Nick and Margaret Carter’s place I’d want to be born, to meander some 70 miles toward Chesapeake Bay, swelling from a sweetwater trickle old Nick can hop across, to my salty mouth, five miles wide down by Tilghman Island. From the Carters’, above the reach of tides and salt, the river seeps cold and clear and steady from beneath the mossy roots…” Continue reading Beginnings: Nick and Margaret’s Place [Southern USA]
Rewilding Successes 