Rewilders

There are many definitions of rewilding. Technically, the term “rewilding” can be applied to any efforts to remove non-native plants and grasses from an area and introduce native plants to improve biodiversity and the health of the environment. But professional conservationists typically view professional-level rewilding as activities that restore ecosystems on a landscape scale. Examples of such efforts include the American Prairie Reserve (https://www.americanprairie.org), Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (https://y2y.net), Gondwana Link (https://gondwanalink.org), and the European Green Belt (https://www.europeangreenbelt.org).

There are many occupations in rewilding. One popular career path is site manager, who oversees restoration projects from start to finish. They supervise technicians and laborers who remove invasive species and replace them with native ones that better match the ecosystem. Many ecosystems are out of balance because apex predators (such as wolves, bison, dingoes, lions, and bald eagles) and keystone species (i.e., an organism that holds an entire ecosystem together) have been eliminated or reduced to small numbers. Site managers work with wildlife biologists, conservation scientists, and others to reintroduce these plants and animals to an area to re-balance the ecosystem. They also work with soil scientists, water experts, and others to study and understand the building blocks of the ecosystem to ensure that it is healthy. Site managers monitor conditions at the site and write reports and give presentations about the progress of their work to organization executives, project funders, and other stakeholders. They give interviews to the media about their work to raise public awareness and encourage people to donate to fund the project.

Other rewilding positions include environmental lawyers, who meet with landowners to negotiate land purchases or the right to use portions of their land for rewilding purposes; environmental technicians, who perform a wide range of tasks—from gathering soil and water samples and testing them in the laboratory, to removing fences and roads and re-introducing native species to re-wild an area; and fundraisers, who prepare grant requests and create publicity campaigns to encourage people to donate to conservation projects.