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Foreman to speak at Fort Lewis College
Herald Staff Writer
Talk tonight
Dave Foreman, an environmental activist and founder of the Rewilding Institute, which promotes continental-level conservation, is scheduled to speak tonight at Fort Lewis College. The talk will begin at 7 p.m. in Noble Hall, Room 130. The talk is free.
We have to rebuild wilderness. The mountains shouldn't be death traps for wildlife.
- David Foreman
"The Southern Rockies are a hot spot as a link in a wildlands network," David Foreman said in an interview this week from his home in New Mexico. "Yellowstone (National Park) and areas such as the Weminuche Wilderness aren't big enough alone."
Foreman was a co-founder in 1980 of Earth First!, a radical group dedicated to stopping environmental degradation by any means - spiking trees to prevent logging or sabotaging power lines. A decade later he changed tactics, founding the Wildlands Project, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Rewilding Institute.
In his presentation at Fort Lewis College tonight, Foreman will discuss rewilding, which he defines as creating along the spine of the continent wilderness areas linked by corridors of safe passage so wildlife can live unmolested by the comings and goings of humans.
Linking the Weminuche Wilderness and the Maroon Bells Wilderness in Central Colorado through land easements and/or highway overpasses or underpasses is an example. Such connections would nullify some of the impacts of blacktop highways and urban development.
"Rewilding goes beyond old conservation efforts, which aimed to protect what existed," Foreman said. "We have to rebuild wilderness. The mountains shouldn't be death traps for wildlife.
"We don't have to study the issue anymore," Foreman said. "Looking at a map of road kill tells us what we need to do. The reintroduction of large carnivores, including wolves, wolverines and mountain lions, would keep the ecosystem healthy."
Public support, including private landowners, already exists for such measures, Foreman said, citing a combination of public and private interests to make the Galisteo Basin between the Sandia and Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico a safe zone for wildlife.
Foreman's presentation is part of the free Life-Long Learning Lecture Series presented by the Professional Associates of Fort Lewis College.
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