Conservation Lecture: "The Beasts of the East"

The “NCTC Conservation Lecture Series” is our monthly public program from the Byrd Auditorium at the National Conservation Training Center. Today's presentation: On Thursday June 25, 2026, at 7:00 pm, author Andrew Moore presented his new book, “The Beasts of the East - The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness” at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV. Before skyscrapers and smokestacks rose across the eastern U.S., elk, bison, wolves, and cougars roamed. Typically imagined as icons of the West, these large mammals are in fact native to what was once a kind of Eden—towering forests in the Northeast, rolling prairies in the Midwest, and cypress swamps in the Deep South. But, in mere decades, industrialization and unregulated hunting brought these emblems of the East to the precipice of extinction. Now, eastern wildlife are staging an unlikely comeback. Herds of bison graze on Illinois prairies, red wolves lurk in North Carolina’s coastal marshes, and abandoned coal mines in Kentucky are now home to thousands of elk. Such recovery promises to restore balance to eastern ecosystems and return one of the most biodiverse regions in the world to its former luster—but not without challenges. In The Beasts of the East, we follow environmental writer and James Beard Award finalist Andrew Moore as he meets conservationists, hunters, biologists, and nature lovers as they confront herculean challenges: How can we enable wildlife migration in the midst of suburban sprawl? Are these success stories viable in the long-term? When humans and wildlife come in close contact, how do we define wilderness? About Andrew Moore: Andrew Moore is the author of Pawpaw: In Search of America's Forgotten Fruit, which was a James Beard Foundation Book Award finalist in Writing and Literature. Pawpaw was featured on PBS News Hour and in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Saveur, The Washington Post, and more. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and The Daily Yonder. He lives in Pittsburgh. Closed Captions for Program: When the program goes live, click the toggle switch on the lower right to enable automatic captions for your stream. These talks are a part of the NCTC Conservation Lecture Series, which is cosponsored by The Friends of the NCTC - http://www.friendsofnctc.org. Previous sessions have been recorded and are available for viewing: https://www.fws.gov/broadcasts. https://www.fws.gov The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the oldest federal conservation agency, tracing its lineage back to 1871, and the only agency in the federal government whose primary responsibility is management of fish and wildlife for the American public. The Service helps ensure a healthy environment for people by providing opportunities for Americans to enjoy the outdoors and our shared natural heritage. We manage the National Wildlife Refuge System with more than 560 National Wildlife Refuges as well as small wetlands and other special management areas encompassing more than 150 million acres. Under the Fisheries program we also operate over 70 National Fish Hatcheries and 65 fishery resource offices. The Ecological Services program has 86 field stations across all 50 states. The vast majority of fish and wildlife habitat is on non-federal lands. Voluntary habitat protection and restoration programs like the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program and the Coastal Program and other partnership programs are the primary ways we deliver habitat conservation on public and private lands. The Service employs approximately 9,000 people at facilities across the U.S. The Service is a decentralized organization with a headquarters office in Washington, D.C., with regional and field offices across the country. Our organizational chart shows structure and also provides information on senior management.