Where the Wild Things Were
Channel: Friends of Merrymeeting Bay
Date: 2023-01-13

Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s (FOMB) fourth presentation of their 26th annual Winter Speaker Series, Where the Wild Things Were; features author Will Stolzenburg and FOMB Chair Ed Friedman.
More and more, scientists have begun understanding the ways in which many ecosystems are driven top-down by the presence of predators, whether starfish, sea otters, wolves or cougar. Unfortunately, beginning with the relatively rapid elimination of mega-fauna, two-legged predators have taken an ever-increasing role as poor substitutes for nature’s apex wild predators. We are not doing a very good job. For example here in Maine, deer and rodent populations are out of control which in turn fosters unnatural excesses of ticks, diseases, weeds and invasive plants. With cougars and wolves eliminated we now set our rifle sights on coyotes, a poor replacement for the virtually extirpated former top predators but still better than nothing.