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greenmachine11235 t1_itaalzi wrote

I question the how environmentally helpful it actually is to reintroduce a species that has been gone for thousands of years. Lets use horses as an example, they went extinct in north America about 12,000 years ago about the same time as bison in the UK, they were reintroduced by the Europeans and now they are a significant environmental problem in the American South-West. I have to wonder what is the difference between introducing a species that has been gone for thousands of generations of local wild life and introducing a species that was never there.

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grab-n-g0 OP t1_itaczyd wrote

Article is about restoring wild habitat in UK, not another species in USA.

>Populations of the UK’s most important wildlife have plummeted by an average of 60% since 1970 and Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. The project [assesses] how bison act as “ecosystem engineers” to restore wild habitat.
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>Bison’s taste for bark kills some trees and their bulk opens up trails, letting light spill on to the forest floor, while their love of rolling around in dust baths creates more open ground for new plants, invertebrates and birds. The Wilder Blean project aims to naturally regenerate a former pine wood plantation.
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>The process has been surprisingly speedy, said Gibbs, who has seen slow worms basking and heard more birdsong. “We had not seen dung beetles on the site but all of a sudden, they are just thriving,” he added.
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>Vicki Breakell, conservation officer at the Wildwood Trust, said: “They’ve created tracks and pathways, which has opened up the canopy already, and they’ve been munching on the bark, which over time is going to create the standing dead wood which is so valuable for a whole host of different species.”

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greenmachine11235 t1_itaulka wrote

My point is restoring wildlands by introducing an invasive species is asking for trouble. I was using horses in the American west as an example of a species extinct in an area for 11000 years being reintroduced and the negative effect it eventually had.

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Tossacoin1234 t1_itmrpgb wrote

I don’t understand why you’re getting downvoted. You’re both talking about two different problems.

Grab-n-g0 is saying they aren’t trying to reintroduce a species but more in line with “hiring” some guys to do conversation landscaping (aka the bison).

Green machine is saying aren’t the rewilding groups worried about introducing a species that might become invasive or have dire consequences. I also live in the USA, and while some reintroductions of species have been great (red wolves in the southeast, cougars in the northeast) there have also been some that have been devastating (omg the feral pigs as an example).

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grab-n-g0 OP t1_itaxdiz wrote

You could always look up 'rewilding' and educate yourself. Or, just go up against the conservation officer at Wildwood Trust and pretend you know more.

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