Good News for British Animals—and American

The otters are back in England

Two recent articles posted on the Guardian website (here) and (here), report the resurgence of wildlife in Great Britain, highlighting the return of otters to every county in England.  Some species, including five birds of prey, had become entirely extinct in Britain while others were on the verge of extinction, such as the water vole.  The otters are being seen in rivers, including the Thames, where they had not lived for centuries.  Although the increases in some of these species are still slow and fragile and many other species of living things are being lost permanently to Britain, this rebirth of life on the island signals a real success in environmental protection and the reclamation of habitats.  Researchers say that it also is evidence of the greatly improved water quality in rivers that had once been declared biologically dead.

Paul Schneider makes the same point for the Adirondacks of northern New York in his book, The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness (Henry Holt & Company, 1997).  Noting the surprise we might express at finding the huge, semi-wild Adirondack Park so close to the urban centers of the American East Coast, he writes, "Add the knowledge that only a century ago most contemporary popular reports said the park was largely hunted out, trapped out, fished out, and logged-over, and the shock of finding such a large and relatively healthy serving of wild land in the Adirondacks transmutes almost to wonderment.  This is not the direction we are used to hearing the environment take." (p. 10)

In an age where globally the environment is under ongoing and horrific attack on so many fronts, cases like Britain's environmental successes and those in northern New York are heartening.  And perhaps they can be an example for other nations, including especially those that show little commitment to preserving our global nest for future generations.  That's a prayer.  Amen.