Ecosystem expert says landowners key to saving endangered species

When it comes to managing nature, humans aren’t naturals. “We have this idea that if you just took your hands off the system, put a fence around what you want to conserve, it would go back to a natural state,” said Paul Robbins, a University of Wisconsin-Madison geographer and natural resource management scholar. “But everything inside the fence is going to change anyway. It turns out, if you don’t want things to change, you have to do lots of things instead of not doing things.” That’s especially true where wild animals are involved. Whether endangered species like grizzly bears or popular game animals like elk, Robbins said people have to make some tough choices to keep those critters on the landscape. They may have to spend money or change policy. Or they may decide to let some creatures disappear as they’re overwhelmed by habitat loss, livestock conflicts, population collapse or failure to compete with more successful newcomers (Montana wolves, for example). “You’re turning knobs on a very complex machine with lots of downstream side effects,” Robbins said. “What I’ve found is if you care about endangered species, you have to care about landowners,” Robbins said. “They’re an intrinsic part of how you craft environments to promote the wildlife you want.”...more