Next year, “rewilding” will officially be a part of the conservation approach in Illinois.
A new state law explicitly includes the concept as part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ strategy. It’s the first time a U.S. state has included rewilding in its legislation, people working in conservation said.
The goal of rewilding is to reintroduce native species and restore whole ecosystems. Advocates often describe it as helping nature help itself, or putting nature back in the driver’s seat.
Cynthia Kenner is the executive director of Prairie State Conservation Coalition in Illinois. She said the new law formalizes the work happening in the state already.
“It's allowing the continuation of practices that are already in place, but it brings more meaning to really letting nature come back,” she said.
An example of rewilding is occurring in the northern part of the state in Rockford, where the Severson Dells Nature Center is working to transform a former golf course into 170 acres of prairie, forest and wetland habitats. The area will serve as a wildlife corridor as well, allowing species to pass through to other nature preserves in the area.
Rewilding often focuses on repairing habitat suited for apex predators like mountain lions and keystone species like beavers and bison. The idea is when these species can succeed, other species will start to recover around them, said Jason Kahn, board president of the Rewilding Institute, which supports large-scale conservation projects across North America.
Perhaps the most well-known example is the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s. In South Dakota, black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced to Badlands National Park, and bison are roaming prairies in Illinois and Iowa. These keystone species have helped to recover native habitats in the area.
“It doesn't cost a lot of money,” Kahn said. “Nature knows how to take care of itself. If we stop insulting and abusing it, all you would need to do for something is to let it grow, let it mature and let it be. And the wildlife will find a way in.”
Lindsay Keeney is the chief programs officer with the Illinois Environmental Council. She said that writing rewilding into Illinois law could mean more longevity for the approach in the state.
“It ensures that future administrations [can be] sure that they can use that as a strategy, and it ensures that if there were any federal funding tied to rewilding, or any grant programs, that our state would be eligible to access those funds as part of our state conservation strategies,” she said.
Rewilding isn’t just about restoring large swaths of the landscape away from humans, said Cathy McMullen, a faculty member in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University. She said one of the most meaningful approaches to rewilding can take place on your block.
“There's a buy-in for everybody, say, in a neighborhood,” she said. “You plant a pollinator patch, and you maintain that pollinator patch, and if you scale that up to a whole neighborhood, no one person gets overwhelmed by all the work. Everybody's doing their piece. In the process, they’re going to learn some bugs and birds and make a connection to nature.”
The idea of rewilding can intimidate people, especially if they’re worried about weeds or wildlife running wild in their backyards, McMullen said. But she said that a more participatory approach to these concepts can make a big difference.
In Illinois, there has been some pushback to the new bill, particularly from hunters worried that predators will shrink deer numbers.
Illinois Environmental Council’s Keeney said that some residents are concerned that the bill opens the door for the department to unleash predators into urban backyards. But she said that’s not the case.
“This bill adds rewilding as a strategy that the agency can implement,” she said. “They are also already doing many of these practices, and they already have the ability to consult with their ecologists, the biologists and the folks that make these decisions for the state to add species to the landscape.... This doesn't give them any new authority.”
The law goes into effect at the start of next year.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
