Nothing Wild: California’s relationship with the animal kingdom is broken. Can it be fixed?
There’s an ecological crisis underway in California’s lonely corner of the American West.
Invasive grasses are causing fires to explode. Wild horses are trampling fragile habitats. Thousands of water birds are dying miserable deaths. Wolves are settling down in hostile territory.
Sacramento Bee reporter Ryan Sabalow examines the hardline politics, romantic notions of the West and intractable idealism that have made these problems harder to solve.
What must we compromise to save this remarkable place? Can we just walk away and expect this land to heal itself? This five-part series offers some answers.
Video by Sohail Al-Jamea with footage from
Daniel Kim, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service
This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Nothing Wild: California’s relationship with the animal kingdom is broken. Can it be fixed?."