Big River Connectivity (BRC) is a new collaborative initiative in the Midwest. Much attention is paid to carnivore conservation in the American West, yet expanding and recovering populations of coyotes, mountain lions, black bears and other native wildlife demand a shift in human perceptions and behaviors to promote coexistence in Middle America. Project Coyote is strategically growing capacity in the region, raising public awareness and filling critical knowledge gaps in best practices for communicating and promoting coexistence through public education, proactive conflict prevention, and close collaboration with The Rewilding Institute (TRI). Check out the most recent work in this region: 

• • Dr. Francisco Santiago-Ávila joined us in January as our Big River Connectivity Science and Conservation Manager. Read more below!
  • We’re supporting House File 2118, which was introduced in the Iowa House of Representatives. The bill would make it illegal to hunt, trap, or otherwise harm wolves, black bears, and mountain lions in the state.
  • Kelly Borgmann sat down to talk with Jack Humphreys for the Rewilding Earth Podcast. In her interview, she describes her BRC work and her vision for the future of the Midwest.  
  • Dr. Michelle Lute was interviewed by David Condos of Kansas News Service about the resiliency of coyotes and why coexistence is better than killing. 
  • We are ramping up our social media campaign around #BRC, beginning with promoting the vision and motivation behind our initiative for Rewilding the Heartland and 4Cs. In this short film, BeWildReWild’s Roger Ross Gipple introduces us to the philosophy and values integral to rewilding and the protection of more-than-human life, including respect for otherness, wildness, self-regulation and deep ecology. We will be promoting each of these films throughout social media in the coming weeks.
  • Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for all the most up-to-date BRC news!

Project Coyote Science Advisor Dave Parsons wrote an editorial explaining his “Concern Over President’s Choice to Head Federal Wildlife Agency” and why President Biden’s nominee for the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) position, Martha Williams, is unqualified. Despite our proposed candidate Michael Phillips — whose former roles as Montana legislator and employee of both the USFWS and the National Park Service made him an exemplary candidate for USFWS Director — Williams’ nomination has advanced to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. We asked supporters to urge senators to oppose Williams’ nomination and instead support a viable and qualified candidate like Michael Phillips. But on February 17, the Senate confirmed Williams as the USFWS Director. Our work is cut out for us, but we’ll remain vigilant in pushing federal policies and practices to be informed by the best available science and conserve wildlife for their own sake.

• On February 10, a federal district judge in California restored Endangered Species Act protections for wolves outside the Northern Rockies (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) at the request of multiple wildlife conservation organizations. To raise awareness of the continued plight of Northern Rockies wolves, we recently expanded our Protecting America’s Wolves campaign with two billboards in major highway corridors in Montana and Idaho urging people to demand the federal government emergency #RelistWolves — to protect those under the most threat in the Northern Rockies.
• We alerted and encouraged our members to support Mexican gray wolf recovery and the use of best available science by providing oral and written comments to the USFWS in response to their proposed revised 10(j) management rule. Led by Dave Parsons, of Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute, we submitted 30+ pages of written comments detailing how the proposed rule fails Mexican wolves and their recovery. In collaboration with Lobos of the Southwest coalition efforts, we helped drive more than 81,000 comments supporting science-based lobo recovery.
• The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is working to update their wolf management plan. The latest ruling to restore protections to wolves outside the Northern Rockies will protect wolves in Michigan. However, we still need to ensure the DNR builds a plan that is based on science and not the wants of special interest groups. In January, we sent out an Action Alert on the wolf management plan and survey, and will continue to update on the DNR’s progress.

Last year we supported a push for a regulatory ban on wildlife killing contests in Virginia but the commission decided to shirk their responsibility to make sound wildlife decisions and instead punted the issue to the legislature. This year, legislation was introduced and we alerted our membership and offered oral testimony in support of this and several other bills: 

• HB1247 prohibiting wildlife killing contests was introduced by Del. Mark. L Keam to the Natural Resources Subcommittee of the Virginia House Agriculture Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee but failed to pass.
• HB725, 1175, 1176 prohibiting the use of steel-jawed (725) and snare (1175/1176) traps were introduced to the same subcommittee but also failed to pass.

We’re regrouping with our National Coalition to End Wildlife Killing Contests to identify what’s next in Virginia. We’re not giving up; stay tuned!

We continue to fight for an end to black bear hunting in the state. We mobilized our California supporters, offered written comments and oral testimony to the California Fish and Game Commission in opposition to a recent petition to increase available bear tags per hunter, and in support of a recent petition put forth by HSUS to place a moratorium on bear hunting. Both petitions are still under consideration by the CFGC.

Colorado Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis introduced a bill (Colorado SB22-031) to stop the trophy hunting and trapping of Colorado’s three wild cats: mountain lions, bobcats and Canada lynx. Project Coyote supported this landmark legislation in coalition with many partner organizations. Unfortunately, outside trophy hunting lobbyists spread misinformation and defeated the bill’s chances of advancement. We’ll be continuing our work in Colorado to counter the false narratives in defense of science-based policy for wild cats, wolves and all wildlife in the Centennial State.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is proposing to open three of the state’s bear sanctuaries to permitted bear hunts, at the request of the U.S. Forest Service, citing “increased human-bear interactions” without evidence. We alerted our supporter base in the state to speak up for the beloved bears in Panthertown and other sanctuaries. Most comments were in opposition to trophy hunting bears. We await news from the commission on further meetings to discuss the issue. 

Earlier this year the Vermont Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy introduced and discussed three new bills,  S.129, S.201, and S.281 to protect wildlife. All three bills will move Vermont forward and help protect wildlife: S.281 would ban the barbaric practice of abusing hounds to chase and kill coyotes (“hounding”), S.201 would ban leghold traps, and S.129 would make the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board advisory only. Similar to trapping, hounding is cruel to dogs, coyotes, and non-target wildlife. Hounds can become injured and stressed. Hunters often have no control over their hounds, who are miles away and can be hit by cars or trespass on private property while in pursuit of wildlife. Because hounds track prey for long distances, they invariably pursue and stress non-target animals including deer, moose, small mammals, and ground-nesting birds. We will continue to promote and fight for these bills and all of Vermont’s wildlife.

PhD Candidate Naomi Louchouarn and SAB member Dr. Adrian Treves, of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab, recently published results from a gold-standard experiment conducted in collaboration with rancher Joe Engelhart and Spruce co-op cattle owners in Alberta, Canada. Their experiment evaluated the effectiveness of low-stress range riding on protection of cattle from carnivores. They concluded that a well-trained range rider is effective at protecting cattle from carnivore predation, adding to a growing literature on effective non-lethal methods for coexistence.