Together with more than a dozen conservation partners, the Rewilding Institute has submitted a letter to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in response to the agency’s potential exclusion of wolf, cougar, and lynx from the 2025 State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP).
Last summer, DEC signaled that it was open to including these ecologically vital carnivores in the SWAP, plans in which states establish priorities for species conservation that last for a decade. In response, we and partners provided DEC with strong, fact-based arguments and extensive scientific information on the need for New York to include species such as wolf and cougar in the SWAP.
But now the state appears to be backtracking. In the coming months, as New York and states across the Northeast finalize their SWAPs, we will continue to push them to include the protection and restoration of native carnivores. They should do nothing less, for the sake of the animals who may already be here and those who could one day return to make our forests healthier and wilder.
Nadia Steinzor is an environmental consultant with 25 years of experience in policy analysis, research, writing, and communications. She has developed and managed projects to investigate the oil and gas industry’s impact on the climate and communities, secure governmental protections for air, water, land, and wildlife, and engage the public in advocacy efforts. Nadia works with the Rewilding Institute to ensure that wolves and other carnivores thrive and roam in the Northeast and beyond. Nadia holds an M.S. in environmental policy from the Bard College Center for Environmental Policy.