rewilding

Abandoned farmland and the environment

September 4, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Abandoned farmland has been increasing dramatically in recent decades. Estimates are that a billion acres – an area half the size of Australia – have been relinquished from cultivation globally. While more and more of the tropics have been cultivated in recent times, the global amount of land used for agriculture has been in decline since 2001. In the past 30 years, arable land in the United States has declined by almost a sixth. The situation in Europe is similar. Huge amounts of the former Soviet Union now lie abandoned.

Farmland is abandoned for various reasons. It may suffer from damaged soil so that crop yields are too low to be worth the effort. Farm owners may become too old or be physically unable to continue farming. Many younger people head for jobs in the cities and more attractive opportunities. Wars, natural and man-made disasters, and political turmoil have all contributed.

Another form of largely ignored lands are so-called degraded forests. These are forests that were logged in the past but are no longer productive and aren’t protected either. These places also represent unused land with great potential value.

Ecologists point to the potential of these lands as neglected resources for rewilding efforts, improving biodiversity, and for increasing natural ways to capture carbon. Left to its own devices, nature will usually reclaim abandoned places. This generally provides benefits for biodiversity and climate. But mapping, studying, managing, and protecting the increasingly vast tracts of abandoned land could increase their potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and the restoration of species and their habitats.

**********

Web Links

Abandoned Lands: A Hidden Resource for Restoring Biodiversity

Photo, posted January 26, 2023, courtesy of Larry Syverson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Beaver Believers | Earth Wise

August 18, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Beavers are ecosystem engineers based on their ability to construct dams and create ponds. By doing so, they create wetland habitat for other species. They create biodiversity by allowing plant species to emerge in new places as they clear out existing trees and other plants. Beavers improve water quality and their dams store water during droughts. Their handiwork minimizes flood risk and mitigates flooding impacts.

Before beavers were widely trapped, there were beaver dams just about everywhere in the American west. Now beaver rewilding is trying to restore many western ecosystems. In places like Idaho, ranchers have gone from seeing beavers as a nuisance to actually recruiting them onto their land. One cattle rancher began stream restoration on his land with beaver rewilding in 2014. By 2022, he was a firm “beaver believer”. There are now over 200 beaver dams along Birch Creek near Preston, Idaho, and the stream now flows 40 days longer into the year.

NASA has established a team to investigate the extent to which beavers can have an outsized and positive impact on local ecosystems. The team is using NASA’s Earth Observation satellites to observe the effects beavers are having. Satellites can collect data from large areas and can pass over the same areas regularly and across seasons. The goal is to support people on the ground who are implementing beaver rewilding efforts to increase water availability and to increase habits for fish and other species. NASA’s project will run through 2025 and it plans to expand it to other states with similar terrain and water management strategies.

**********

Web Links

Researchers Become “Beaver Believers” After Measuring the Impacts of Rewilding

Photo, posted February 23, 2021, courtesy of Deborah Freeman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Rewilding The American West | Earth Wise

September 14, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Oregon State University scientists have proposed a series of management changes for western federal lands aimed at re-establishing ecosystems there. Their proposal would result in more gray wolves and beavers in nearly 200,000 square miles of federal lands in 11 states.

In each of those states, the researchers identified areas containing prime wolf habitat. Gray wolves were hunted to near extinction in the West but have been gradually reintroduced in some areas starting in the 1990s. Wolf restoration offers significant ecological benefits by helping to naturally control the population of grazing animals such as elk. This in turn facilitates the regrowth of vegetation species such as aspen, which ultimately supports diverse plant and animal communities.

Beaver populations, which used to be robust across the West, declined roughly 90% after settler colonialism and are now nonexistent in many areas. By felling trees and shrubs and constructing dams, beavers enrich fish habitat, increase water and settlement retention, maintain water flows during droughts, and increase carbon sequestration.

According to the researchers, the biggest threat to these western lands is livestock grazing, which has degraded ecosystems to a great extent. They recommend the removal of grazing on about 30% of the federal lands being used for that purpose and instead would have rewilding efforts go on.

The American West is going through a period of converging crises including extended drought and water scarcity, extreme heat waves, massive fires, and loss of biodiversity. Rewilding is a way to reestablish long-standing ecosystems.

**********

Web Links

More wolves, beavers needed as part of improving western United States habitats, scientists say

Photo, posted October 1, 2020, courtesy of Tina DaPuglet via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.