Heartland Coyote Coexistence Project

Heartland Coyote Coexistence Project (HCCP) started an advocacy group of concerned Nextdoor neighbors. What began as a Nextdoor group has grown into a movement promoting biodiversity, compassionate conservation, and coexistence with wildlife, native plant habitats, and ecosystem health. We’ve recently formed a collaboration with another Nextdoor group, Pollinator Pathways & Naturalistic Landscaping, founded by Master Gardener Mae Christensen. Together we have more than 220 members, which enables us to reach out to a broad audience within our Nextdoor communities, including Johnson, Douglas, and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Kansas City, MO. And we’re absolutely thrilled about our partnership with Heartland Rewilding and Project Coyote as we work together to achieve our similar visions for a thriving
ecosystem.

HCCP’s mission is to foster compassionate conservation and coexistence between people and wildlife through education, advocacy, and science-validated solutions to conflicts between people and wildlife. A key component of our mission is a strong educational campaign on Nextdoor and Facebook. Both are focused on dispelling myths, changing fear-based attitudes, and providing helpful information about the abundant wildlife sharing in our neighborhoods and urban landscapes. We’ve published a number of posts about a variety of wildlife species, and provide resources and tools to enable residents to coexist peacefully and safely. We’re also working to change laws and policies with the goal of protecting native carnivores like coyotes, bobcats, and foxes from abuse and mismanagement. In April, we initiated a petition to UnTrap Kansas. We have more than 1500 signatures so far; and have been in regular contact with Governor Kelly and other legislators. Sharice Davids has been the most supportive as we advocate for legislation that will end lethal trapping methods, including the use of poison, on public lands in Kansas. We’ve also been advocating to put an end to killing contests and derbies in Kansas and support the nationwide efforts by Project Coyote and the National Coalition to End Wildlife Killing Contests.

HCCP welcomes anyone who wants to become more involved in understanding and fostering compassionate coexistence with wildlife, biodiversity, native habitat, and balanced ecosystems to join their group. You can find them on Nextdoor and on Facebook. We hope others will join the more than 1500 supporters who have signed HCCP’s Trap Free Kansas petition and help them by reaching out to Kansas legislators to let them know we need to put an end to lethal trapping methods and killing contests.

Urban Coyote Coexistence-Kansas

Urban Coyote Coexistence-Kansas (UCC-KS) is an advocacy group working to Ban Trapping on Public Land in Kansas through Education & Legislation. We formed in March 2023 as a result of two dogs being caught in steel leg traps while walking with their owner in a public park in Mission Hills, KS a suburb of Kansas City, MO.

The resulting press prompted pet owners and wildlife advocates to attend the next two meetings of the Mission Hills City Council to voice opposition to trapping as it is cruel, inhumane, a danger to non-target pets and wildlife and does not work.

With research, it was learned Roxy’s Law was passed in New Mexico in 2021 due to Roxy, a beloved family dog, being strangled in a snare trap while hiking with her owner. Several states have successfully passed similar laws. Attendees at the Mission Hills council meetings connected and decided to work together toward banning trapping in Kansas and informing residents of the need to coexist with wildlife to preserve our ecosystem.

UCC-KS is working with Sierra Club – Kansas Chapter and a Kansas State Representative to reach out to Kansans and develop legislation. We are aware this is a long-term project and requires patience, determination, and the commitment of many advocates to accomplish our goal.

You can follow UCC-KS’s efforts by liking their Facebook Page or joining their Facebook Group. And don’t forget to sign their petition to end trapping in Kansas and share their work with your networks to help us grow our movement to bring awareness of the plight of wildlife in Kansas and all across the U.S.

Meet our Summer Interns

This summer Heartland Rewilding welcomed four fabulous interns to our team! Check out their bios and learn more about how they are helping us to create a thriving Midwestern landscape where humans and wild nature flourish.

Yunfeng (Carol) Ge

Carol is an intern from Shandong, China. She is currently a rising senior majoring in Ecology and Evolution and minoring in interdisciplinary environmental analysis at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.  She is planning to attend graduate school after graduation and is looking forward to working in the field of ecology and wildlife conservation. 

Carol has been interested in wildlife conservation since a very young age. She has been working as both a lab and field technician in the field of behavioral ecology and wildlife conservation, including the breeding ecology of Kentish plovers, wildlife-human conflicts in Southwest China, and fire ecology for bird communities. 

She also runs an Instagram account (@wustl_nature_explore) to share her wildlife photography and stories. She believes that sharing knowledge and stories about wild canines with the public is very important for changing people’s views on them. She believes that conservation is not just the duty of scientists; it requires interdisciplinary collaboration and a change of mindset. In China, the U.S., and many other parts of the world, there is always a strong bias against wolves and other canines with many considering them pests and believing they need to be eliminated. To really save wildlife, we need to truly respect nature and understand that there is always a way to coexist. 

As an intern with Heartland Rewilding, Carol is working with Dr. Francisco Santiago-Ávila and Dr. Adrian Treves on a project looking at wolf recovery management in the U.S. She is helping with extracting and analyzing data from multiple states’ wolf management plans, which aims to reveal potential scientific biases and misinterpretations in these state plans. The results can provide guidance for future wildlife plans on how to propose scientifically accurate policies and strategies. We are so happy she was able to join our science team this summer and help with this important research! We will share the article she, Fran, and Adrian are working on when it is approved for publication. 

Lindsay Hoppestad

Born and raised in Colorado, Lindsay grew up hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains, which fostered her love and respect for nature. From a young age, she also had a love for wolves. It was through witnessing how misunderstood wolves were that she developed a passion for speaking up for other misunderstood predators, as well as a love for them. Her studies for her biology degree have since reinforced the need to advocate and speak up for these species.

Lindsay is a senior at Metropolitan State University of Denver, pursuing her B.A. in Biology with a minor in Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing. Through her major and minor, she has been able to marry her love of nature with her love of writing. Throughout her biology degree, Lindsay has learned about and had the opportunity to research animal behavior, specifically wolf behavior, which has further fostered her belief that all animals should be treated with respect. It has also led to her passion for educating people on the importance of learning about the behavior of the animals they live amongst for successful coexistence. Throughout her undergraduate studies, she has become more aware of the issues wildlife faces and more passionate about wanting to help people learn how to coexist with wildlife.

Through this internship, Lindsay hopes to better understand how best to advocate for and work toward the protection of different species. She looks forward to putting her love of research/nature and writing to work and learning all that she can, as her dream job would be to work in an organization that advocates for wildlife and human-wildlife coexistence.

As an intern with Heartland Rewilding, Lindsay will create a Volunteer Community Advocate Toolkit. This toolkit will help us empower community advocates across the Mississippi River watershed and beyond as they work to promote coexistence and end cruel practices. We are excited to have her with us this summer and can’t wait to share more about her and her work throughout the summer!

Mackenzie (Mack) Cote

Mack is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received her B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and a certificate in American Indian & Indigenous Studies. She is currently living and working in Palmer, Alaska, which occupies Dena’ina homelands. Mack is from Connecticut, where she grew up with a strong drive to care for and protect land and nonhuman beings.

In her final semester at UW-Madison, Mack chose to focus her independent research on the controversies around coyotes in the United States, as well as an integrated critique of the field of Wildlife ‘Management’. Her paper, Exploring the Frameworks of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Western Science: A Critical Discussion of Wildlife Management and a Tandem Analysis of the Coyote, works to problematize the dominant structures in which the nation’s wildlife policies are based on. Through this research, Mack is passionate about ways in which care and Indigenous knowledge can be turned to in restructuring wildlife policy.

Mack has worked with the Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy in Litchfield, CT, a loggerhead turtle patrol in Kiawah Island, SC, and a wild horse rescue and rehabilitation center in Wilton, CT. She also has spent time in a workshare program with Rooted, a nonprofit farm in Madison, WI that specializes in urban farming techniques. These experiences have powered Mack’s sense of stewardship, as well as her connection to her various communities.

Mack is an avid reader, a barista, an aspiring writer, a mediocre chess player, and a horse lover. As a Heartland Rewilding Intern, she will be working to develop a Coyote Friendly Communities (CFC) Program toolkit. We look forward to sharing this toolkit with everyone this fall as part of our Coexisting with Wildlife Program. Be on the lookout for updates on Mack’s work this summer!

Melissa Varelas

Melissa is originally from the mountains of Siskiyou County in Northern California but currently residing in Elizabethtown, KY. She is completing her final year of a B.S. in Environmental Science with a concentration in Natural Resources and Conservation and a Minor in Communications at Southern New Hampshire University. Melissa has always felt a strong responsibility towards safeguarding the environment and realized after a 20-year career in the Army that she wanted to pursue her true passion of education and awareness through photography.

Melissa’s goals include making a difference regarding environmental policies and sustainability of natural resources, becoming a Conservation Photographer, and participating in any way that she can to make positive impacts in local and global communities. While Melissa continues her journey in education, she is a volunteer advisor for her county’s Conservation District and works closely with agriculture and water and soil health. Learning about agriculture and assisting farmers to modify their practices has been rewarding and a huge impact on conserving water and creating healthier soil ecosystems. She hopes that her area can be an example for other farmers to emulate.

When Melissa is not working or completing schoolwork, she is exploring outside with her family, traveling, and perfecting her photography. As a Heartland Rewilding intern, Melissa is assisting with the Capture Coexistence Campaign which features wildlife photographers and their contributions to end wildlife killing contests and to coexist with misunderstood carnivores. This internship is also giving Melissa a strong background to advocate for coexistence in her area. Melissa is a fantastic addition to our intern team and we are so excited to have her creative talents with us this summer. Be sure to follow Heartland Rewilding on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with Melissa’s work on the #CaptureCoexistence campaign. 

Make a Gift to Protect Wild Nature

We need your help reconnecting, rewilding, and promoting coexistence across North America’s grandest watershed. Your tax-deductible gift will go directly toward our efforts to create a thriving Midwestern landscape where humans and wild nature flourish.

Join us for one or more of our upcoming events!

Outreach and education are cornerstones of Heartland Rewilding’s work. We are dedicated to sharing a message of compassionate and respectful coexistence and so we invite you to join us at our upcoming events this summer.

• 7/13: Webinar– ‘Connecting the Dots: How Bison Promote Rewilding’ with Scott Heidebrink, Director of Bison Restoration at American Prairie
• 7/18: Live Presentation- ‘You, Me, and Nature’ with Kelly Borgmann, Programs & Outreach Manager at the East Side Library in Des Moines
• 7/21: Live Presentation– ‘Wild Iowa: Discovering Nature in Our Backyard’ children’s program with Kelly Borgmann, Programs & Outreach Manager at the East Side Library in Des Moines
• 8/17: Live Presentation– ‘Wild Iowa: Discovering Nature in Our Backyard’ children’s program with Kelly Borgmann, Programs & Outreach Manager at the Forest Ave Library in Des Moines
• 8/24: Webinar– ‘Wolves of the Great Lakes’ with John Vucetich, a renowned biologist at Isle Royale National Park
• 9/13 & 9/20: Virtual– Midwest Beaver Summit with Superior Bio-Conservancy, the Illinois Beaver Alliance, and more

If you are interested in partnering with Heartland Rewilding for an event please reach out to us at HeartlandRewilding@ProjectCoyote.org!

Empowering the Heartland Through Outreach

In a world filled with diverse challenges and disconnected communities, the significance of Heartland Rewilding’s outreach efforts cannot be overstated. Outreach serves as a bridge that connects individuals, organizations, and communities, igniting a transformative journey toward shared goals and aspirations. It is a powerful tool that breaks down barriers, fosters understanding, and cultivates meaningful relationships.

Heartland Rewilding’s outreach work plays a pivotal role in creating a positive impact and driving collective progress. By actively reaching out and engaging with others, we have the opportunity to not only make a difference but also inspire and empower those around us. That is why our Programs & Outreach Manager, Kelly Borgmann, works so hard to host webinars, speak at events, and talk to folks while tabling at festivals and seminars.

In the last three months, we have hosted three webinars as part of our Connect the Heartland campaign. Through these webinars, we have shared information on coexistence and the value of wildlife in the Midwest with 400 different live attendees, with hundreds more watching the recordings at a later date. You can register for the last two webinars in this series by visiting our events page.

While not as easily accessible, our in-person events have been just as successful as our virtual ones. From advocating at the Wisconsin statehouse, to talking about unique Loess Prairies, and sharing the magic of butterflies Heartland Rewilding staff have been actively educating others about the importance of wild nature across the Midwest. It is some of our favorite work, and we couldn’t do it without support from individual donors and foundations like the Cottonwood Foundation, who provide us with a grant to purchase tabling and outreach materials.

Throughout the rest of the summer and year, we will continue to grow our outreach and education efforts. Check out our events page to find out more about our upcoming events, and if you or someone you know is interested in partnering with us for an event please reach out at HeartlandRewilding@ProjectCoyote.org!

Take Action for Wildlife

We need your help protecting wildlife in the Midwest and beyond! See how you can help wildlife by taking action to oppose harmful bills for wolves and support actions to restore protections for endangered species.

Update by
Francisco Santiago-Ávila
Science & Conservation Manager

Reforming the Wisconsin Conservation Congress

Since the start of our initiative, we have been deeply involved in a multi-year campaign by Wisconsin wildlife advocates to reform the Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC). While the vision for the WCC was to be impartial, democratic, and inclusive –  “to strengthen and enhance our ability to gather and convey the wisdom and influence of Wisconsin citizens in the formation of natural resource policy, research, education, and conservation”, it actually operates at the behest of recreational hunters and trappers, without regard for ethics, science or public values.

But, although there’s much more work to do, our coalition’s efforts for reforming the WCC are bearing fruit. Our recent action alerts and public opinion pieces are contributing to external and internal pressure for change. First, there are new voices on many WCC committees that are committed to respecting and coexisting with wildlife, democracy, inclusivity, and science-informed wildlife policy. Second, some WCC county delegates are increasingly holding WCC leadership accountable, and publicly challenging the latter’s proposed anti-democratic processes and procedures, intended to dismiss any wildlife-friendly resolutions and advocates. These are all meaningful and positive signs that the public is increasingly paying attention and becoming involved. We urge all Wisconsinites to continue uplifting and promoting the public’s involvement. Stay tuned for more updates and alerts this Fall, as the citizen resolution process resumes through WCC Advisory Committee meetings.

Ending Wildlife Killing Contests in Illinois and New York

Every year, Illinois is home to dozens of cruel and senseless Wildlife Killing Contests (WKCs). WKCs generally involve a day- or weekend-long contest promoting the indiscriminate killing of coyotes, foxes, and raccoons, with prizes awarded to the teams who kill the most, or largest animals. Many folks are not aware that these contests exist and are pervasive in The Prairie State, which is why, for the past year, our ongoing campaign to end WKCs in Illinois has focused on education and outreach through social media, providing the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) with the relevant data and science, presentations at environmental conferences, and promoting the involvement of other state conservation organizations.

For the last several months, we have been collaborating closely with the IL Sierra Club Chapter to submit a petition to the IDNR and the states’ Natural Resources Advisory Board to prohibit WKCs via agency rule-making, as done by five of the eight other states that have banned WKCs. We filed a joint (Project Coyote, The Rewilding Institute, IL Sierra Club) petition with both state bodies on June 26th, and will be increasing our public education and outreach efforts, to increase pressure on the IDNR and prepare the public for subsequent legislative efforts to prohibit such egregious activities.

Meanwhile, our campaign to end WKCs in New York is close to achieving its goal! NY is poised to become the ninth state to ban WKCs, as last week legislators passed a bill (S.4099/A.2917) to ban these cruel and ecologically destructive contests.

Stopping Federal Legislation to Delist Wolves in the Western Great Lakes

Wolves in the Western Great Lakes are once again under attack. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) recently introduced federal legislation (bill S.1788) that would force the removal of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for wolves in the Western Great Lakes, in complete disregard for broad public and Tribal support for wolves, and the best-available science. It is telling that the bill is endorsed by various Wisconsin ‘Big Ag’ and canned hunting organizations, while no Tribes or conservation organizations were consulted prior to the bill’s introduction.

The introduction and potential passing of this bill raise grave concerns for both wolves and ESA decision-making. The bill mirrors the success of using legislation to remove protections for Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) wolves and complements another bill, introduced by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) barring any judicial review of that delisting decision (also co-sponsored by Sen. Baldwin). Given how states like Wisconsin have managed wolves when delisted, these bills would open the door to the same state-sanctioned, indiscriminate slaughter of wolves that has led to their decimation in the NRM. For example, in 2021, when wolves were federally delisted, Wisconsin authorized two killing seasons in one year, even after the first one resulted in over 200 wolves killed in less than 3 days – 30% of the entire state’s population (the second killing season that year was only halted through litigation by a coalition of advocacy organizations, including Project Coyote).

We have been coordinating with other wolf advocacy organizations, including the Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance, to oppose these efforts. Check out our recent opinion piece in the Chicago Sun Times. For more information, and to take action, please see our recent action alert and talking points, and stay tuned for updates.

Reshaping the Midwest

Heartland Rewilding and Compassionate Coexistence

It was a sunny but cold morning in February when I saw my first urban coyote. I had just moved to my new city of Des Moines, Iowa, that winter and was happy for any excuse, such as a beautiful day, to get out and explore the trails around the city. So, with the sky blue and my trusty pup, Rowan, at my side, I set off walking along the 3.25-mile loop at the local park.

The trail we were on wound around a shallow lake, wove through some woods, and ran along one of the banks of the Raccoon River. It is a popular walking location for city residents. The park itself boasts multiple sports complexes, playgrounds, and beaches. In the winter the frozen lake is a popular ice fishing spot, with fishing huts scattered across the ice. But despite this human activity it still maintains abundant natural habitat and serves as a great example of urban wildlife habitat.

However, I was still surprised when I looked across the frozen lake and saw an animal trotting across the ice. I stopped Rowan and watched, thinking a dog had gotten loose from the dog park. The canine moved smoothly across the ice, skirting the fishing huts, and moving as if they hadn’t a care in the world. As they got closer, I could see it was a coyote.

Watching a coyote cross a trail 20 feet away might be scary to some folks. It certainly made Rowan perk up, although as an adventurer and former farm dog, he is accustomed to wildlife and knows to take his cue from me. I, however, took this moment for what it was, a beautiful moment of coexistence.

Introducing Heartland Rewilding

Across the world, humans and wildlife are experiencing moments like these. In some cases, there are people like me who are willing to share space with the nature around us. In others, there are those who let fear override the truth and seek to remove the wild neighbors they deem “dangerous” from their vicinity. The Midwest is one such place where we see an overabundance of this fear.

The Mississippi River watershed is North America’s largest watershed. Situated in the heart of our continent it is an essential piece of the North American rewilding puzzle. The lands and people who live here are diverse, complicated, and beautiful. However, this region has long been undervalued and under-appreciated by traditional conservationists.

That is why we started Heartland Rewilding, a conservation initiative focused on protecting, connecting, and recovering midwestern wildlands and sharing a message of compassionate coexistence throughout the Mississippi River watershed. Our goal is to promote rewilding and coexistence in our nation’s heartland by working with diverse on-the-ground partners from the private and public sectors. Our ambitious initiative will build a framework for rewilding large landscapes across the entire Midwest and wider watershed.

Heartland Rewilding is a partnership of Project Coyote, The Rewilding Institute, and the Half-Earth Project. These three organizations represent some of the past, present, and future leaders in the rewilding and carnivore coexistence community. With their guidance, we are making strides toward our vision of a future Midwestern landscape where humans and wild nature thrive.

My job as the Programs & Outreach Manager for Heartland Rewilding brought me to Des Moines and led to that cold but beautiful morning in February. Working for such a bold initiative in a place that has seen a 90% loss in wild nature is a challenge, but it is one I feel uniquely qualified for.

As a native Midwesterner, I am aware of the cultures and landscapes that make up this region. I grew up on a historic farm in rural east-central Indiana. My mom, a woman who grew up on a hobby farm, and my father, a man with allergies who grew up in the middle of Indianapolis, decided early on that they wanted their children to experience a safe but wild childhood. The 50-acre old farm I grew up on represented that chance but neither had any desire to raise livestock or plant crops. Instead, they taught us how to care for the land and appreciate the animals that lived there. We planted trees in the forest, swam and fished in the pond, ran through the grasses, and learned how to coexist with wild nature.

My parents still own the farm, a rewilding experiment more than 20 years old now. I still visit when I can, but in the years since I graduated with a degree in wildlife biology, I have had the chance to experience additional ways of life and coexistence. From living in the bushveld of South Africa as a field researcher to working as a human-manatee conflict scientist for the Fish & Wildlife Service, I had my share of adventures. Along the way, I realized just how special a place the Midwest is.

When I first learned of Heartland Rewilding I knew this was my chance to come home and work to make a difference in a place dear to me. Many will ask me ‘Why bother?’ or ‘Don’t you ever feel like you’re just spinning your wheels?’ These doubters cannot see though that this is a place of infinite possibility.

The Midwest and wider Mississippi River watershed have so much to offer. There are pockets of large landscape habitat like the Loess Hills, Ozarks, and Driftless regions. There are resilient wildlife populations- deer, otters, ducks, and coyotes- and the recovering ones- cougars, wolves, and bears. And there are the people, as passionate a group as you will find anywhere. I have seen what those living in the Midwest can do, human and non-human alike. I know what the landscape can look like if only there are those willing to make a stand and fight for a brighter future.

Humans and Wildlife

The urban coyote I saw on the lake in the park that day was only one of many that live in Des Moines and the surrounding communities. The city is a green oasis in a sea of corn and attracts many different species. Songbirds, deer, raccoons, bobcats, turtles, river otters, butterflies, and even an occasional traveling cougar can be found within the greater Des Moines metropolitan area. However, this can also create a recipe for human-wildlife conflict.

Des Moines has experienced some conflict already. There have been incidents of coyote-dog conflict and a rise in fear in local neighborhoods. If the city continues down the path of reactivity, lethal removal, and ignorance this conflict is only likely to escalate. Enter Heartland Rewilding.

At Heartland Rewilding we promote compassionate, respectful, and non-lethal coexistence between humans and wildlife. Our solutions are science-based and rooted in education and behavior modification. They are less expensive than traditional, lethal control methods, and are more effective at reducing conflict in the long term as they address the root of the conflict, rather than reacting to it in an indiscriminate manner.

Our biggest recommendation for urban communities that experience human-wildlife conflict, like Des Moines, is to implement a Human-Wildlife Coexistence Plan (HWCP). HWCPs empower municipalities and local wildlife management professionals to take proactive steps toward managing human-wildlife conflict. They lay out exactly how a community should monitor, communicate, and respond to incidents involving urban wildlife for the benefit of humans and animals. Communities with HWCPs are more effective at reducing conflict than those without.
Heartland Rewilding works with Midwestern communities to, among other things, draft and implement HWCPs. We also provide educational programming, talk with property owners and community residents, and advocate for the protection of wildlife. We are committed to changing attitudes towards wildlife, one coexistence community at a time, so one day more people will be able to enjoy encounters like the one I had with that coyote.