REWILDING by Ashby McGowan

by Jennie Richards · Published March 21, 2017 · Updated August 27, 2017

REWILDING

By Ashby McGowan

Sheep on the hill, silent, as the
Day, dark falling
Filling the pools is the swift rain – cruel and nourishing – high hill
Saturating
Into the night

With the morn,
Hordes of clegs and midges gorge themselves on the sheep
And the humans, they too shall bleed them

No sheep on the hill. No sharp hooves to break up the soil,
Make to flood. Turn to mud.
No hungry teeth eating fresh saplings. So Ash and Lime, Birch and Cherry
And birds, singing on the branches, so merry.
Tree roots embracing the soil, help to stop flooding on the ground
Look anywhere, fragrant wildflowers all around
From tree to flower to tree
Buzzes
The happy Bee

To blame the sheep isn’t fair
The shepherd places them, there and there

Published on Human Rights and Animal Rights Poetry
Website: https://humanrightspoetryashbymcgowan.wordpress.com/

Definition of Rewilding

(Mirriam-Webster) Noun: the planned reintroduction of a plant or animal species and especially a keystone species or apex predator (such as the gray wolf or lynx) into a habitat from which it has disappeared (as from hunting or habitat destruction) in an effort to increase biodiversity and restore the health of an ecosystem.

Wolves were the key to one of the best known examples of rewilding. In 1995, nearly 70 years after hunters had wiped them out, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the US. In the absence of large predators, deer populations had burgeoned out of control … — Sara Reardon, New Scientist, 1 Mar. 2014;
also: the introduction of usually large animals or ecologically similar animals to a region in which they became extinct during the late Pleistocene epoch The plan, called Pleistocene rewilding, suggests reintroducing into Arizona, the Great Plains, and elsewhere various species—such as Bactrian camels, peregrine falcons, and Old World cheetahs—that were once native to North America. — Eric Jaffe, Science News, 11 Nov. 2006