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In the face of the growing threats posed to ecosystems by climate change, scientists in the US have put forward an “ultra ambitious” proposal to rewild parts of the American West by reintroducing wolves and beavers.
Their plan follows President Joe Biden signing an executive order for his America the Beautiful policy that involves a conservation effort to save 30% of water and land in the US by 2030.
The administration’s plan is to address “a catastrophic extinction crisis that threatens the biodiversity of our planet and the health of the natural systems that supply our food, water, and other resources”.
It comes as NASA satellite images have revealed the impact on the largest reservoir of water in the US, Lake Mead, of the most severe drought in decades.
In a journal article published in BioScience, titled Rewilding the American West, 20 scientists propose rewilding large reserve areas owned by the US federal government to address these concerns.
They have two major calls. Firstly, to stop livestock grazing on some federal lands, and secondly to restore two key species: the grey wolf and the North American beaver.
According to the letter, the challenges of preventing grazing on these lands aren’t too severe.
Livestock farmers can be simply reimbursed for the lost grazing allotments, and meat derived from forage on federal lands accounts for only about 2% of that produced in the US, they say.
They propose building the Western Rewilding Network covering nearly 500,000 square kilometres – twice the size of the United Kingdom – across 11 states: Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
But the “unprecedented period of converging crises in the American West, including extended drought and water scarcity, extreme heat waves, massive fires triggered at least partly by climate change, and biodiversity loss” demands urgent action.
Read more: Beavers could be reintroduced into English…
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Source : skynews
