CORNERSTONES: Wild Forces That Can Change Our World
Benedict Macdonald
Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2022, 256 pages
Hardback: £17.99 | ISBN 978-1-4729-7610-9
TENACIOUS BEASTS: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think About Animals
Christopher J. Preston
The MIT Press, 2023. 319 pages
Hardback £21.35 | ISBN: 9780262047562
Review by Peter Taylor
These two books mine the still rich seam of ecological restoration, conservation and rewilding topics and contain nuggets for even the most experienced in these fields.
Tenacious Beasts deals with American examples, many of which I thought I was familiar with, like the return of wolves to Yellowstone, as well as the European, such as the recovery of coastal whale species in Norway and migration of wolf into the human occupied terrain of the Netherlands and Belgium. Cornerstones is largely British-based and focuses on the cascade of effects that the return of keystone species has prompted, and it considers the further potential of positive ecosystem impacts if we grasp opportunities. In their different ways, these two books show us what we can learn from animals and trees, not only for our own enjoyment and wonder at the intricacies of Nature, but for our own ecological and spiritual wellbeing. In Tenacious Beasts, Preston presents us in some detail with the dilemma of hands-on intervention and constant management versus letting the natural world take over.
If academic courses in conservation offered these two books (and I would add Isabella Tree’s Wilding) – much of wildlife ecology and the potential of rewilding would be conveyed in a very short reading list.
For ‘corner’ stones read keystone. It is not made clear why the author thought it necessary to change the usual well-used term. Macdonald’s main theme is trophic cascades (and their surprises) when keystone species return to habitats long without their influence, such as boar and beaver in Britain, wolf south of the Canadian border, and the great whales in the Atlantic.
Much of Macdonald’s treatment extrapolates under his rich but highly informed imagination, whereas the American examples in Tenacious Beasts are more directly experiential, relating often to individual personalities encountered in Preston’s explorative missions. His interviews with wildlife biologists engaged in curtailing (by shooting) the human-aided expansion of Barred Owls across from the eastern States into the western stronghold of the critically endangered Spotted Owl is telling, and highlights the discussions about wildlife ethics. Closer to home, he explores the potential introduction of bison and wildcat to Blean Woods in Kent, where the former will be satellite monitored and kept away from the public by high fences and sat-nav technology that will shock them if they wander where they shouldn’t – losing, as he noted, their wild bison-ness.
Macdonald is a prize-winning British writer – author of the admirable Rebirding, a treatise on avian rewilding. Here he brings the same quality to debates on wild boar, the return of the goshawk and white-tailed eagle, beaver re-introductions, the role of cattle and horses in the ecosystem and the problematic potential return of lynx and wolf. His treatment of the cascade effect is thorough and highly readable.
Preston raises an issue close to my own concerns. In describing the British based Wildwood Trust’s prospective wildcat re-introduction of genetically screened, health-checked, vaccinated and highly controlled release into England and Wales – where it seems obvious to me that random moggies will do for them what they did for Scottish wildcats, and that is ‘dilute’ their genes. Similar issues arise with ‘wild’ boar and (I did not know) beefalos in the USA – bison with introduced cattle genes.
As often the case, climate-change becomes part of the narrative, in a way which is in my view distracting and unjustifiably alarmist. It is described by Preston as the ‘terrifying whirlpool’ of feedback loops bringing “suffering” that will be “immense”. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is uncritically quoted saying there are widespread and rapid ecosystem changes and that human emissions of greenhouse gases are responsible. In fact, the
IPCC ascribes most of the warming to human emissions only since 1950, and then can gain consensus only on 60% of the half-degree rise to the year 2000 – and says nothing of the percentage influence prior to 1950, also half a degree. Simple arithmetic on the centennial rise gives about 65% natural. That fact, plus the one-thousand year cycle that saw white stork nesting on Edinburgh Cathedral during Norman times during the last peak, and pelican in Somerset during previous peaks, never seem to feature. Likewise, when these authors urge mankind to reduce emissions, there is no consciousness of the means to do so and its impact worldwide – hydro-dams, biofuel plantations, wind turbine infrastructure, tidal barrages and deserts covered in solar panels. These are developments that can impact wild nature and can compete for land for rewilding projects.
Both books raise questions of how we relate to animals, to nature and to wild-ness, and the past emphasis in nature conservation on species rather than processes. They also link wild nature to our own loss of wild-ness in the human soul. These impressive and complementary books deserve more than this short review. I highly recommend them for making intricate ecological issues accessible to lay-readers.