Call of the Wild

Rewilding:  the practice of returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer found there.
(Webster’s Dictionary)

Since 1999, the Eastern Cougar Foundation (ECF) has sought evidence of this seemingly mythical beast from Nova Scotia to Mississippi. We have reviewed hundreds of solicited photographs. We have spent thousands of hours on the ground following up cougar sightings. We have initiated or participated in sanctioned remote camera projects with state and federal wildlife agencies and conservation organizations in seven states. The tally: zero cougar confirmations.

Meanwhile, recolonizing cougars in the Midwest were being hit, shot, and treed, were being photographed on random remote cams, and were found wandering into towns and cities. We couldn’t deny the evidence. Free-ranging cougars, even in the lowest densities, leave clear, concrete and often multiple sign to support those shadowy sightings. A decade of searching convinced us that wild, breeding cougars no longer roamed eastern forests. It was time to turn the page.

While awaiting (and waiting) recommendations from the pending USFWS 5 – year eastern cougar review, the ECF began working beyond our traditional region, to the Southeast, where we are partnering with panther advocates to jump-start long-stalled reintroductions mandated in the Panther Recovery Plan. To the Midwest, where we are scheduling first-responder training courses to ensure that those young dispersers are permitted safe passage as they recolonize the region, and teaching its citizens that the cats in their midst not only pose little threat, but are essential shepherds of intact ecosystems.

Our new mission: to restore Puma concolor throughout its former native range east of the Rockies and north of Florida. This mission, and our attendant efforts in regions outside our former base, required a name that dove-tails with our ambitions. Our officers, directors and founders have chosen one that captures perfectly developments in the conservation field wedding habitat preservation with ecology; a name reflecting how ecosystems function naturally only when patrolled by their big predators.

As we remember our founding by a humble young West Virginia coal miner and the vision he created for wild cougars in the East, we carry his grace forward committed to recovering our grasslands, forests and coastal plains by restoring our big native cat, as the Cougar Rewilding Foundation.

Respectfully,

Christopher Spatz

President

Cougar Rewilding Foundation

www.cougarrewilding.org