“The most important – and gloomy – scientific discovery of the twentieth century was the extinction crisis.”

Dave Foreman on the Sheenjuk River, Arctic NWR, AK © Nancy Morton

This is the opening statement of Dave Foreman’s 2004 book Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century, a spirited and well-researched rundown of the history of extinction, strategies for rewilding, and how Americans can take action. Foreman demonstrates that environmental work doesn’t end with addressing fossil fuels. Since humans set foot on the continent, North America’s ecosystems have faced novel evolutionary pressures. Rewilding North America focuses on the damage humans caused to North American ecosystems and the paths we can take to correct them.

In this book, the late Dave Foreman confronts the enormously complex issue of the human-caused extinction crisis. It’s a bold undertaking, but if Foreman will be remembered for anything, it is for his unflinching vision. As a co-founder of the radical environmental group Earth First!, Foreman stepped on a lot of toes in the environmental and bureaucratic world. This did not slow him down – except perhaps following his 1990 arrest for conspiracy to commit eco-sabotage – in his pursuit of conserving the American Wilderness.

Despite the title, much of Rewilding North America centers on the ecological depravity of humanity. Much of the book details “the unusually destructive way we have interacted with the world for the last forty thousand years.” Foreman insists that rewilding – restoring land and returning it to wilderness – is fundamentally about human humility and restraint. 

Foreman’s emphasis on human’s negative impacts on biodiversity is likely to alienate more moderate audiences. The history of the extinction crisis takes up nearly half the book. The reader journeys through the bleakest impact of Homo sapiens on the natural world. Human-caused extinctions began 40,000 years ago after humans first left Africa. First among the victims were human’s closest relative, the Neanderthals. Waves of destruction followed, claiming giant ground sloths, huge flightless owls, 24-foot-long Komodo dragons, and 500 lb ostriches.

After this detailed accounting of human’s history of ecological destruction, Foreman offers a measure of hope. Hope comes in the form of science, and with this tool, Foreman departs from his more radical opinions. The scientific tenants of conservation biology ground the remainder of the book. Foreman introduces rewilding as a conservation strategy, drawing on researchers Michael Soule’s and Reed Noss’s ideas about conservation biology. 

Three C’s anchor the explanation of conservation biology: Cores, Corridors, and Carnivores. If the greatest challenges to biodiversity conservation are that there is too little protected land, the land is too isolated, and that it cannot support diverse ecosystems, then the three C’s aim to rectify those challenges. Together, they form the building blocks of a wildlife network.

The Four Continental MegaLinkages

Foreman uses the three C’s to outline a plan to rewild North America. He proposes the creation of Four Continental MegaLinkages. These corridors would connect the Pacific, the “Spine of the Continent,” Atlantic, and Arctic-Boreal landscapes. It is a top-down approach to conservation influenced by Foreman’s near obsession with large carnivores.

Large carnivores, like cougars and bears, need huge swaths of land to thrive. If they are protected, the other animals living in their habitat are too. A connected North American wildlands network promises to give the wilderness back to wildlife. Foreman’s plan offers the possibility for humans and wildlife to both thrive.

Foreman is above all things a strategist, and the most valuable knowledge Foreman gives the reader is a guide on how to implement the rewilding strategy. There are a number of pieces to the North American Wildlife Network puzzle. Actions such as reintroducing carnivores, restoring natural fire ecology, and removing barriers to wildlife movement break the extinction crisis solution into many smaller pieces.

These are by no means small feats – accomplishing any of them is a large endeavor. However, these campaigns lie outside of what conservationists usually focus on. Foreman demonstrates that even in a world without climate change, there is much environmental work to be done. His ability to parse the issue into many smaller campaigns makes the movement feel more approachable. 

Rewilding North America is a bold but credible approach to the human-caused extinction crisis. It’s a daunting enterprise, but Foreman gives us the knowledge and tools we need to address wilderness aspects of the extinction crisis. As he says in his conclusion, “it’s all up to you.”