Years ago, I worked for an animal advocacy organization, and wrote about greenways or wildlife corridors there. In Europe, they have been creating and using these for about 30-40 years with GREAT success. These corridors are basically just undeveloped land cutting between natural spaces, and animals choose them pretty much instinctively over trying to move through human-populated areas. There aren’t herders or anything! We are way behind in the US with this idea, and this group is trying to get the idea out there.

But I agree with you on the overpopulation issue, for sure! I’ve written about it here and try to bring it up as much as possible in conversations, but it is a difficult topic, partially because many of the population groups have (rightly) been accused of xenophobia in the past due to their being fronts for anti-immigrant politics.

It’s an interesting image, the idea of directing a bear down a “corridor”… I suppose the corridor wouldn’t look like the kind I have a work: beige walls, fluorescent lights, industrial carpet, white-shirt workers holding coffeemugs and stacks of files.

Part of this issues has to do with a form of human overpopulation… not just of the number of humans, but the way we overpopulated. The way we exercise OUR freedom, by consuming space. The limited version of human life is that we take up space for what we need, without acknowledging that other species impact what we need, directly or indirectly.

I am curious to see how long it will take before Americans a) actually realize this… and by actually I mean the bulk of the average Americans, and b) find a workaround for our current consumer lifestyle, including suburban subdivisions and HUGE homes.

Not in our lifetimes, I fear.

Elizabeth