Wildlife Restoration

CURRENT RESEARCH

Wildlife recovery following natural disasters

Given the restricted range of many wildlife species, natural disasters can often severely harm wildlife populations. In 2025 we started a new, large collaborative project with the U.S. Forest Service to investigate the response of wildlife to Hurricane Helene. Helene devastated the southern Blue Ridge Mountains of North and South Carolina, which are a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot, and at the national level, a priority conservation area.

We are taking a community approach to understanding the impact of Helene on wildlife, and provide guidance on how to best restore wildlife populations as crews work to restore roads, forests and human communities.

Bringing back beavers

Beavers have made a remarkable comeback across the southeastern US. As an ecosystem engineer, they create wetlands that are host to a myriad of species. But beavers also create management concerns, leading to often lethal removal. Removal of beavers is often only a short-term solution, as other beavers tend to move in shortly after the removal of a problem beaver. We are working with partners to identify ways of managing beavers through water flow devices and other means. A technology that is not new, but has not been rigorously tested in the southeastern US.

In the Great Plains of the American West, beavers have a longer road to recovery. We are working with scientists in central Montana to understand how recolonizing beavers (and man-made structures meant to resemble beavers) are impacting the ecosystem.

Project collaborators: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Smithsonian Institution

Wildlife restoration in working landscapes

Restoring wildlife is never as simple as just putting animals back on the ground. Careful planning and outreach needs to happen well before the release of animals to ensure local stakeholders support populations of the reintroduced species. In 2018 we started a new integrative and interdisciplinary project that links ecological and human dimensions data to help define the patterns and processes that have driven and will drive the future of success of restoring wildlife on working lands. Our focal area for this work has been the Northern Great Plains, where there are ongoing efforts to restore entire communities of once extirpated species. However, the lessons we are learning and framework we are developing have applications globally as practioners increasingly realize the need to work with diverse stakeholder groups to ensure long-term restoration success.

Project collaborators: Clemson Institute for Parks, World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, University of Montana

Related scientific papers:

Titus, K. and D.S. Jachowski. In press. Mapping human-carnivore coexistence: Approaches to integrating anthropogenic influences on carnivore distribution and connectivity modeling. Animal Conservation.

Titus, K.L., K. Bly, A.F. Jakes, and D.S. Jachowski. 2024. The human side of rewilding: Attitudes towards multi-species restoration at the public-private land nexus. Biological Conservation 294:110652.

Jachowski, D.S., M.J. Aguerre, G. Lascano, K. Titus, and T. Scott. 2022. Using multidisciplinary, conflict-based experiential learning to train students on how to address controversy at the public-private land interface. North American College Teachers of Agriculture Journal. 66:37-45.

Titus, K., and D.S. Jachowski. 2021. Persistent negative stakeholder perspectives limit recovery of a critically endangered carnivore. Conservation Science and Practice 3:e526.

Bringing back bison

In central Montana, there is an attempt underway to create the largest bison herd in the world. Bison have been termed by some as a keystone species on the Great Plains, driving the structure and function of the prairie ecosystem. However, there are concerns regarding the impacts of year-round bison grazing and its potential impacts on grassland plants. We are evaluating the impact bison restoration has on plant community dynamics both now, and with the establish long-term monitoring plots, long into the future.

Project collaborators: Bureau of Land Management, American Prairie, Smithsonian Institution

Related scientific papers:

Yu, S.W., K.E. Kunkel, D.L. Hagan and D.S. Jachowski. 2023. Evaluating riparian plant communities after restoration of plains bison in the Northern Great Plains of Montana. Rangeland Ecology and Management 90:186-194.

McMillan, N.A., K.E. Kunkel, D.L. Hagan and D.S. Jachowski. 2020. Assessing large herbivore management strategies in the Northern Great Plains using rangeland health metrics. Natural Areas Journal 40:273-280.

McMillan, N.A., K.E. Kunkel, D.L. Hagan and D.S. Jachowski. 2019. Plant community responses to bison reintroduction on the Northern Great Plains, USA: A test of the keystone species concept. Restoration Ecology 27:379-388.

Restoration planning and implementation

Pulling from the lab's >20 years of experience in the field of wildlife restoration and a global network of collaborators, in 2016 we published the book "Reintroduction of Fish and Wildlife Populations" which is a step-by-step guide to planning, implementing, and evaluating the successful re-establishment of fish and wildlife populations.

Since that book, we regularly advise species restoration and recovery projects, and publish articles on frontiers to advance the field.

Recent popular press about this work:

Why protecting very large swaths of land matters for wildlife - PBS Newshour

In protecting land for wildlife, size matters – here’s what it takes to conserve very large areas - The Conversation

Recent related scientific papers:

Jachowski, D.S., S.N. Harris, A. Jensen, M.P. Keating, M.S. Muthersbaugh, D. Nelson, B. Pruitt, E. Rosales, E. Saldo and K. Titus. 2024. Assessing the space between science and practice in endangered species conservation. Biological Conservation 293:110609.

Jachowski, D.S., A. Boyce, and R. Baldwin. 2023. Shifting the conservation Overton Window. Conservation Biology 37:e14080 [recipient of a 2024 outstanding publication award from the Society for Conservation Biology]

Jachowski, D.S. 2023. Why conservation cloning won't save endangered species. BioScience 73:5.