CEO Note: Momentum builds for mountain lions
By Glenn Hurowitz, Founder & CEO
At a time when the people running the U.S. federal government are gutting basic protections for nature and climate, we need to both fight back and find ways to make progress that don’t depend on them.
One exciting example: I am writing today to share progress on our campaign to rewild Eastern North America by restoring mountain lions to to their former homes here.
Mighty Earth Northeast Rewilding Director Renee Seacor recently testified at the Vermont state capitol in support of a bill to study reintroducing catamounts to the state (catamount is the local name of the species also known as a mountain lion, cougar, or panther). She spoke alongside Peter Brewitt, a University of Vermont professor and researcher focused on the social and political dynamics of species reintroductions.
We’ve also been holding grassroots “Catamount Conversations” across Vermont to discuss with the public the opportunity to bring back balance to Eastern forests, starting in Vermont. It has not been a hard sell!
Catamounts are the symbol of Vermont, mascot of the University of Vermont and Middlebury College (where they’re called panthers, but it’s the same animal), as well as the namesake of the famous 200-mile long cross-country ski trail that goes from one end of Vermont to the other. So it feels a bit weird to most people that Vermont is missing actual catamounts: the last one was killed in 1881. And that includes state legislators, who are keen to bring Vermont’s ecosystem into balance.
One indicator of progress is that the agency responsible for wildlife management, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, is now publicly engaging in the conversation about catamount restoration. So far, Vermont Fish & Wildlife has on the one hand expressed sympathy with the goal of catamount restoration. However, being bureaucrats, the agency has also said more research is needed before conducting a feasibility study. Yes, this is a bit of bureaucratic absurdity: a feasibility study IS the tool designed to answer open questions.
So far, they seem to want catamount restoration to happen one day, but not while the current officeholders would have to work on it.
There are already decades of research and practical experience with mountain lions across the West. And Vermont itself has a proud history of restoring species once lost from its landscape, including beaver (1921) and wild turkey (1969), through careful planning, scientific analysis, and public engagement. Our coalition is simply asking that catamount restoration be evaluated through that same thoughtful process. We have even identified philanthropic funding sources so taxpayers would not bear the estimated $200,000 cost of the study.
We hope today’s Fish & Wildlife staff can summon some of the Yankee can-do spirit that animated their predecessors and not deny today’s Vermonters the chance to finally complete this state’s amazing forest revival.
At a time when Nature is in retreat in so much of the world – and so directly under attack in our own country – we must not let inertia bog down the exciting possibility of nature renewal. Any reintroduction should move as quickly as the science and the people of Vermont will allow.
You can see more about the issue in Renee’s recent TV appearance on Vermont’s WCAX or her opinion piece in VTDigger, “Time to bring catamounts home?”
Finally, I am also excited to share this New York Times article which looks at how people and mountain lions are learning to coexist in California – a model for Vermont and the East. A key figure here is, of course, our friend and Rewilding Advisory Board member Beth Pratt of National Wildlife Federation, who has led on the Annenberg Wildlife Crossing project featured prominently in the article.
Rewilding projects – nature restoration, species reintroduction, dam removals, and more – offer hope in a time of challenges and are an antidote to despair.
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