12 Ways You Can Increase Land For Wildlife

Wildlife has just 9.5% of U.S. land. No wonder we've lost 70% of wildlife in the past 50 years. Let's give it back.

Julie Smith, 5/13/26

This is a summary of Chapter 12, The Land, in the book, “2050: What’s it Gonna Be?”.  You can download the full chapter, as well as other chapters.  References are here.

Of the 2.4 billion acres of total land in the United States, we humans have commandeered 90% of it, leaving a measly 9.5% of land for wildlife.  Clearly, this is a long way from the minimum goal of 30% of space for wildlife, much less the significantly more effective target of 50%.  This 9.5% of land that’s set aside for wildlife includes small portions of National refuges, conservation areas and wilderness that’s been officially set aside, that doesn’t allow grazing, logging, mining or drilling.

In addition, wildlife does live in other types of federal lands, such as National Forests, National Parks, National Monuments and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land.  However, extensive exploitation, including logging, mining, drilling and cattle grazing are also allowed in most cases, so the land definitely isn’t really land for wildlife, since these activities are

destroying their habitat, interfering with their activities and generally harassing them.²  These lands are also threaded with roads that severely interfere with the natural movement of wildlife.  As mentioned already in Chapter 7, if grazing is allowed, then livestock is displacing wildlife, and ranchers and Wildlife Services see fit to murder any wildlife that happens to be in the way as well, particularly predators who dare to hunt and eat prey that remains in their previous habitat.  Think about that.

Also, while actual human settlements make up 4.8% of total U.S. land, meaning land that is physically occupied by buildings that house humans and our infrastructure, like homes, apartments, stores, buildings and factories, as well as the networks of roads and parking lots that accompany all that, the land for wildlife is less than 10%.  All the other land is managed by humans, including land for growing crops, grasslands for grazing livestock and forests for logging, as well as various forms of human outdoor recreation, like skiing, hiking, biking and snowmobiling.  These managed lands make up about 85% of U.S. land, or nearly 20 times as much land as the human settlements that we actually live in, as well as 10 times as much as the land for wildlife.  This is a huge way that our extreme population is killing our planet and our wildlife. 

In addition to providing homes for wildlife, undisturbed land also absorbs some portion of the CO₂ that we can’t seem to stop spewing into the atmosphere. This means that, obviously, if plant life on healthy land is encouraged, then this helps mitigate some of the carbon-driven temperature increase that’s warming our planet.  Carbon absorption is due to the fact that plants operate essentially the opposite of animals.  While animals take in oxygen when they breathe, and exhale CO₂, plants take in CO₂ and exhale oxygen in a remarkable sun-driven process called photosynthesis.

Not only do plants absorb CO₂, they release oxygen that animals, including humans and wildlife, need to breathe.  If left to function naturally, it’s a very balanced, symbiotic and sustainable system.

The problem is, we’re not leaving it alone.  We’ve removed so many trees that we’ve swayed the balance in the direction of CO₂ with destruction of forests, which are the biggest absorbers of CO₂, and replacing forests with agriculture that adds CO₂ to the atmosphere, mainly because of the industrial practices used to grow crops.  And worse, global warming caused by the extra CO₂ is increasing wildfires all over the planet, which not only destroys the ability of the trees to absorb CO₂, but also releases all the CO₂ that was stored in the trees over decades and sometimes centuries, into the atmosphere along with the smoke from the burning.  Does that sound like we’re once again between a rock and a hard place?  It does to me.

We can all make a difference in the land available to wildlife, which will in turn help our planet at the same time. Here are 12 ways you can increase land for wildlife and help to turn this insanity around:

1. Reduce single-use paper. Half of logging is single-use paper, including toilet paper.

2. Reduce population. The other half of logging is mainly for construction, 80% of which is due to population growth.

3. Only buy organically grown food. Wildlife can live on organic farms, while industrial agriculture kills everything except the crop.

4. Only buy certified grass-fed beef. If you must have beef, certified grass-fed beef is raised on private land using practices that sustain the natural balance of native plants and wildlife. This consumer behavior will make it difficult for grazers on public lands to profit. After all, to profit, somebody has to buy the products.

5. Stand against the outdated practice of allowing ranchers to graze cattle on public lands. Most of the grazing is for ultra-rich hobby ranchers at taxpayer's expense. Stopping this practice not only gives land back to wildlife, it would eliminate most of the murder of wildlife by Wildlife Services, also paid for by taxpayers.

6. Move towards all-electric homes and vehicles. Work toward this goal by first reducing home energy and driving, then replacing gas with electric appliances, and finally an electric vehicle. This saves on carbon emissions which, over time, will stabilize and reduce global warming, reducing forest fires that are killing the wildlife in millions of acres of forest annually.

7. Move away from fossil fuels. You can power your home with renewable energy, and charge your electric vehicle from home solar as well. This will save you money in the long-term, reduce carbon emissions with the same impact as (6) above, and will eliminate the impact on wildlife from the fossil fuel production, storage and refining operations.

8. Convert your lawn to native landscape. In the U.S., flat green lawns make up 40 million acres of land, and is unlivable for wildlife. Native landscapes provide homes for local insects, pollinators, birds and small animals. Also, native landscapes require far less, if any, water, and none of the pesticides that are currently used by homeowners to maintain artificial landscapes.

9. Support conservation. Conservation groups abound in the U.S., and there's probably a local organization in your area. You can donate or volunteer or both. They're the boots on the ground trying to save as much land as possible for wildlife and we need them to be successful.

10. Don't buy stuff you don't need. Every purchase we make requires resources to manufacture, which in turn requires mining, logging and fossil fuels. When you buy, make sure you really need it. Buy used when possible. Share, rent and borrow seldom-used equipment.

11. Say no to single-use packaging. Same reasons as for (10) above.

12. Buy local. Boycott everything you possibly can from big corp. Stop paying them to destroy our planet.