Dr. Mark Elbroch

And in fact, that's probably, you know, in terms of a reintroduction of this species, the bigger issue.

And I think it's fair to say that at this point we have yet to identify

a champion, and by that I mean a person or a state or a group of individuals that are either legislators, governors, leadership in a state wildlife agency that are genuinely enthused about this idea and are ready to kind of carry it through the inevitable pushbacks that will come up.

And I say inevitable not because there isn't public support,

but because state wildlife agencies have so much old inertia because they are still running themselves as they were designed to do over 100 years ago.

And it's just not conducive to embracing and reintroducing large carnivores.

But I do think it's important to emphasize that all of these state agencies are strapped for cash.

They all have the list of things they'd like to do, and they all have a budget that doesn't meet those desires.

And so when an outside group comes in and says, hey, we'd love you to do reintroduction of mountain lions, it isn't even on their radar.

Of course, the response is like, my goodness, we can't even keep up with our current priorities.

And if we were given money, would this be one of our top priorities?

I believe it's possible.

I'm not the decision maker.

You know, if it were up to me, I'd say absolutely.

All we need is that political champion who says, let's do this.

I want part of my legacy to be rebuilding the health of these local ecosystems that we can, as a community of people, embrace that reintroduction as well and be proud of it.

Sure.

My pleasure.