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Dedicated land for wolves, beavers can help improve climate in Western U.S., report says

The path to a healthier climate will come from a “rewilding” of federal land for gray wolves and beavers in the American West, according to one team of researchers.

A report published last week in the journal BioScience said a dedicated sanctuary for the animals that also reduces the available lands for grazing and logging can lead to a climate-friendly revival out west.

“Although gray wolves and beavers currently have low risk of extinction, we are very concerned that these keystone species have been lost from many ecosystems across the American West,” report co-author Christopher Wolf, who is a postdoctoral scholar in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University in Corvallis, told CNN.