Human Impacts

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published February 3, 2020 at 9:00 AM EST

On the surface, it doesn't seem possible. How can we catch all the fish in the seas? Analogies do exist.

Bison were once the most numerous single species of large wild mammal on the planet. They blanketed the Great Plains of North America and were the life-blood of Plains Indian societies for thousands of years. During the 19th century, commercial hunters spurred on by government policies aimed at subduing Native Americans by eliminating their food supplies killed more than 50 million bison. The once vast herds were reduced to a few hundred individuals.

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley