Why Did I Create R4R?

By: Francesca Mundrick, Founder of R4R

Hello Everyone! Welcome to Rewilding4Republicans! My name is Francesca and I am the Founder of this platform.  

My ideas for Rewilding4Republicans started about two years ago during my early PhD coursework. The mission of R4R connects directly to my lived experience, identity, and my professional work. I am so excited to finally be launching this platform!

Everything that exists on Earth is here for a reason. From the smallest microbial life in the soil to the largest whale in the sea, every living thing has a role to play in the intricate relationships of the natural world at a far more complex level than we can even conceive.

With the continued degradation of the Biosphere due to pollution, over-exploration, and land use development, biodiversity, habitat diversity, and ecosystem services have been destroyed globally. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) states that we are in the midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction due to the steep decline of mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, plants, and more globally. We have not made room for other forms of life as we progress and change. Building back the Biosphere is arguably the most significant action that we can do to support the health and function of the Planet.

We have been groomed to treat nature like it is our enemy. We have been told that we should fear nature, control nature, and even hate nature. It has been normalized to put nature last- even when it is what we need first in order to be successful. I believe this to be intentional. Nature is not our enemy; it is in fact part of our freedom.

Americans were once extremely connected to local land and resources. Americans were once great stewards. Americans were once truly resilient, self-sufficient, purposeful, and sustainable. The breakdown of these cultural norms come from the advent of convenience born from globalization, technology, corporate monopolies, and, most of all, increasing government regulation of localism.

Attacks on the protection of public lands, endangered species, local open space, farmland, and wildland is a direct attack on our liberty. Our health is being impacted, our access restricted, our lifeways altered. Resources are being taken from us, resources that come from nature, resources that we could potentially rely on for our own sovereign actions such as homesteading, hunting, fishing, foraging, and more. It is up to us to steward the lands in which we call home. No one is coming to save us.

There is good news to report, however. The good news is that rewilding, a revolutionary, adaptive, and most of all, hopeful practice, is redefining restoration ecology and conservation worldwide. Rewilding prioritizes nature-first, nature-led conservation strategies that maximize relationships and functionality within ecosystems by allowing biodiversity to drive balance. While rewilding is historically predicated on megafauna reintroduction, wilderness conservation, and the Three Cs Model- Cores, Corridors, and Carnivores, rewilding in practice is now seen as any net gain of biodiversity- led by average people and scalable to all locals and communities.

We are rewilding to support nature and we are rewilding to support ourselves. Rewilding is not a cause; it is the restoration of our living world and the transformation of how we live. This is the revolution that we need in our changing, complex modern world.

Rewilding, as a discipline, was first authored by a Republican. His name was Dave Foreman. Dave was a devout conservationist. He founded EarthFirst! and The Rewilding Institute, however, one of his main lifelong missions was to engage Republicans in environmentalism. Dave passed away in 2022- his legacy is finally coming true with the growth of the modern conservative environmental movement.

The Republican mind is pragmatic, patriotic, and civic. Applying these ideals to environmental leadership is essential. Republicans work to conserve liberty, culture, family values, and economy – why not the environment too? It is detrimental that we have allowed stereotypes, social norms, narratives, assumptions, and group think to determine our relationship with nature and how we choose to live. What’s more, it is even more mystifying that we continue to allow monopolized corporate interests to guide the free market and the decisions that are made for the people of this Constitutional Republic. It is time that we allow nature to bring us back to reality. There are pathways forward, through policy and practice, that work to support conservation while balancing human prosperity, economy, and health. The Republican Party should be leading the way with innovative policies that safeguard our liberty and environment.

I created R4R to build an educated, actionable, nature-first community for Republican voters and political leaders. R4R is helping to shape the future of environmentalism by transforming socio-political culture- allowing rewilding to lead the way.

To an America wild and free,

Franny