The role of governance in rewilding the United States to stem the biodiversity crisis

A critical, yet underattended, feature of the biodiversity crisis is the contraction of geographic range experienced by most studied terrestrial vertebrates. In the United States, the primary policy tool for mitigating the biodiversity crisis is the Endangered Species Act (ESA). For the past two decades, the federal agencies that administer the ESA have interpreted the act in a manner that precludes treating this geographic element of the crisis. Therefore, the burden of mitigating the biodiversity crisis largely falls on state wildlife agencies, which are obligated to operate on behalf of the interests of their constituents. We present survey research indicating that most constituents expect state agencies to prioritize species restoration over other activities, including hunting. This prioritization holds even among self-identified hunters, which is significant since state agencies often take the provisioning of hunting opportunities as their top priority. By prioritizing rewilding efforts that restore native species instead, state agencies could unify hunting and non-hunting constituents while simultaneously stemming the biodiversity crisis.

Methods

We commissioned a survey of adult residents of seven eastern states (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia) as well as Minnesota and Colorado in February 2022. Respondents were recruited through an online panel maintained by the commercial sampling firm, Qualtrics (Provo, Utah). Quota-based sampling methods were used for participant selection in our study, in order to obtain (i) responses from approximately 400 individuals in each state (with the exception of Vermont) and (ii) a 1:1 male/female ratio among respondents across the nine states (though not necessarily within each state). The survey (administered via Qualtrics’ online software) was reviewed by The Ohio State University’s Office of Responsible Research Practices and determined to be exempt from Institutional Review (protocol number 2021E1229).