Rewilding the East

John Davis, Executive Director of The Rewilding Institute

Wednesday, April 11, 7:00pm
Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick

John Davis

Join John Davis, Executive Director of The Rewilding Institute as he speaks of and shows us the need for a continental-scale Eastern Wildway—an extensive wildlife corridor linking eastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This is the seventh presentation of the 21st Friends of Merrymeeting Bay winter speaker series. The event takes place 7pm in the Morrill Meeting Room of Curtis Memorial Library on Wednesday, April 11.  The Eastern Wildway contains some of North America’s most beloved national parks, preserves, scenic rivers, and other wild places, from the wilderness of Quebec, the Adirondacks, and the Shenandoah Valley, to the Great Smoky Mountains and Everglades National Park. Protecting and expanding these and other key core areas is crucial to rewilding the East. This Wildway traverses a wide array of eco-regions and climates, arctic to tropical. An equally broad diversity of wildlife inhabits these eco-regions, including wolves, cougars, American martens, and other native carnivores. Many resident plants, birds, fish, salamanders, and butterflies are found nowhere else on Earth—particularly those in the southeastern U.S., recently identified as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.  Rough extant of Eastern Wildway The Eastern Wildway Network (EWN) is building a strong coalition of conservation organizations, academic institutions, and state and federal agencies to map conservation and land acquisition priorities in the East. Key to success is EWN’s outreach strategy addressing the importance of large-landscape conservation and the need to restore apex carnivores. EWN hopes to incorporate these ideas into law and policy, and most importantly, to inspire more conservation activity on-the-ground. Long-distance conservation athlete, John Davis, cofounded Wildlands Network 25 years ago and served as editor of Wild Earthfor several years. His current priorities as Executive Director of The Rewilding Institute include advocating for carnivore recovery and critical wildlife corridors through outreach and ultra-trekking. An avid naturalist, John spent much of his childhood exploring eastern forests, having grown up in a family devoted to the natural world. He has also been greatly influenced by conservation mentors, especially deep ecologists Dave Foreman and Michael Soulé. With sponsorship and guidance from Wildlands Network, Rewilding Institute, and other conservation partners, John completed TrekEast in 2011 (Florida-Quebec) and TrekWest (Mexico-B.C.) in 2013. All Speaker Series events are free, open to the public and supported by Patagonia, Inc. in Freeport. The final FOMB presentation of this season on May 9; Charles Allen’s Kennebec in Photos: 1898-1907, features State Historian Earle Shettleworth. This event takes place in the Morrell Meeting Room of Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick.  For more information contact FOMB at 207-666-3372 or edfomb@comcast.net.  Presentation Slides Only (no audio) Presentation Recording Rewilding the East: Part 1   Presentation Recording Rewilding the East: Part 2