Student: Maya Bon
Graduation date: May 2018
Capstone type: Non-thesis
Capstone project:
Rewilding in Yellowstone National Park
Capstone file(s): Show file | Show file
This project explores what it means to be wild in the specific context of Yellowstone National Park through the reintroduction of the wolves. After seventy years, the wolf that was removed from Yellowstone in 1926, was successfully reintroduced in 1995. It is evident that the ways we perceive the wild influences how we construct and manage landscapes, ecosystems, and species. Throughout history, the wild has taken many shapes and forms in the human imagination and, so too have the ways that we relate to it; attitudes towards the wild have shifted from a feared place to a romanticized and revered place. These shifts influence our relationships with wild species like the wolf. Yellowstone National Park approaches gaining tourist interest partially through the projection of the wildscape. The human within the wildscape is inherently a tourist, inherently a visitor, who enters, experiences, and leaves. Eleven thousand years of Native histories that are embedded within Yellowstone have been systematically erased and ignored in the attempt to create a haven from humanity, a gem in the wake of the rapid expansion into and construction of the West.
Listen to the 'What is Wild' podcasts here: https://soundcloud.com/user-640266169