Rewilding Arkansas

             ARKANSAS  

                                         BY

                       RICHARD MASON

                                                  Rewilding Arkansas

            Rewilding? Yes, rewilding is just what it says and means, and here in Arkansas it is a plan to restore a portion of our forests and some of its wildlife to what it was in the past. When we look back on our recent history, let's say 200 years ago, I am confident that we wouldn't recognize most of our state. We've essentially cut all of the massive, virgin timber, drained the great swamps near most of our rivers, and killed off at least 90% of the animal life. What now? Are we satisfied just to accept the disaster we have created? Or should we join a movement that has started in Europe called Rewilding Europe. This is the concept: Certain large forested and lightly inhabited areas of the European Continent would be selected to be rewilded. In other words, allowed to become as wild as possible. I know we think, if a program such as “Rewilding” was important, the United States would be leading the world in adopting it. Well, we’re not leading the pack. We’re not even in the pack. In fact very few Americans even know what ‘Rewilding’ is, so let me bring you up to date.

Rewilding is a movement to recreate an area or a species of wildlife as close as it was before it was inhabited by humans, and not just  a National Park, but a woodland where as many of the original animals that inhabited an area would once again live there.

Of course, rewilding would be selective, and essentially that’s what many of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s programs are doing now, but it would be more extensive. Restoring the turkey and deer populations are good examples, but that’s only a starting point.

Arkansas was once the Bear State because bears were so plentiful, and I would venture a guess that bears were in every county in the state. Of course, the restocking and reestablishing of the bear population has started, but it is confined and limited, and with a bear hunting season, it seems as if the Game and Fish Commission is trying to only recreate a token bear population. Why not let the bear population increase until we reach a rewilding level equal to the turkey or deer population? I can’t see how, if it’s okay to have a bear population in a couple of Northwest Arkansas counties and one Southeast county, why wouldn’t it make sense to have bears in all 75 counties again? Of course, if there is nothing wrong with having more bears, having a bear season is a stupid way to achieve that. Eliminate the bear season until the bear population has a 300 to 500% increase. That would put the bear population at something over 75,000, and it would probably have a positive effect on reducing the feral hog population.

Well, while I’m writing about increasing an already small population of wild game, why not let the elk expand their range? What’s wrong with elk being in the Ouachita Mountains or along the Red River in southwest Arkansas? Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but having an elk hunting season to keep the herd along the Buffalo River at about the same size is just one step from having a hunting season at a petting zoo. Eliminate the elk season until we have substantial herds of elk throughout the state, and yes, a substantial statewide herd of elk would be in the hundred thousand range instead of a few hundred.

Next let’s talk about the harvesting of alligators in the state. How many 12 foot alligators are left in the state after that big one was killed last month? Ten maybe fifteen; and what is the alligator population in southern and eastern Arkansas? 1500 maybe 2000? Okay, maybe you’re not ready to see more alligators in south Arkansas, but how many beaver are there? Hundreds of thousands, and more are on the way, and the over-abundance of beaver has wreaked environmental havoc by flooding thousands of forest habitat acres.  Of course, we are overrun by beaver because we have eliminated all the predators that prey on beaver, and guess what helps control beaver? Of course, it’s the alligators, especially the big ones! We should eliminate the gator season until we reach some equilibrium with the beaver population, and that would let the few thousand gators in the state expand to several hundred thousand.

Now before you start thinking I’m anti-hunting consider the effect of what I have proposed. By allowing the population of elk, bear, and alligators to expand until those populations are as plentiful as deer, would create a much better opportunity to hunt. When I grew up in South Arkansas deer were so scarce that just seeing a deer was a big deal, and now after rewilding the deer population, deer hunting is a huge part of the hunting season in Arkansas.

But just having more wild game is only part of the rewilding we need here in Arkansas. There is another large area of our state that needs more habitat restoration, and this area will surprise you. We should rewild a portion of the roadways and median right-of-ways especially on our Interstates and other major roads in the state. The Arkansas Highway Department, which has done a super job of road construction, is probably responsible for more habitat destruction than any entity in the state. I walk and jog on the 167 Bypass in El Dorado and the medians are mowed grass, and the cleared right-of-ways are 40 to 50 yards of mowed grass on both sides of the road. Multiply that extra unneeded right-of-way by a 5000 or 10,000 and you will understand the magnitude of the loss. I believe the right-of-ways could be reduced by at least 50% without any appreciable hazard to drivers. I have driven on dozens of interstate highways where the right-of-way were a third of Arkansas’s, and I have noticed the nationwide trend to plant trees and bushes in the medians and reduce the right-of-ways in surrounding states. Louisiana, Texas, and even Mississippi have tree planting programs to reforest medians and over-extended right-of-ways. Of course, by allowing part of the right-of-ways to have major vegetation instead of grass, it would save the state thousands of dollars in mowing expense.

Yes, Arkansas has already benefited immensely from rewilding, but if we will ramp up the process and rewild other species of wildlife and habitat, our state and our hunters will reap huge benefits.