一大筆錢正用于在大平原上建造一種新型的國家公園

一大筆錢正用于在大平原上建造一種新型的國家公園

A privately funded, nonprofit organization is creating a 3.2 million-acre wildlife sanctuary — American Prairie Reserve — in northeastern Montana, an area long known as cattle country.

一個私人資助的非營利組織正在蒙大拿州東北部建立一個320萬英畝的野生動物保護(hù)區(qū)--美國草原保護(hù)區(qū)--這個地區(qū)長期以來一直被稱為畜牧國。

But the reserve is facing fierce opposition from many locals because to build it, the organization is slowly purchasing ranches from willing sellers, phasing out the cows and replacing them with wild bison.

但該保護(hù)區(qū)面臨著許多當(dāng)?shù)厝说膹?qiáng)烈反對，因?yàn)闉榱私ㄔO(shè)它，該組織正在慢慢地從有意愿的賣家手中購買牧場，逐步淘汰奶牛，用野生野牛取而代之。

Those private properties are then stitched together with vast tracts of neighboring public lands to create one giant, rewilded prairie. The organization has purchased close to 30 properties so far, but it needs at least 50 more.

然后，這些私人地產(chǎn)與鄰近的大片公共土地連接在一起，形成一個巨大的野生草原。該組織目前已經(jīng)購買了近30處房產(chǎn)，但至少還需要50處。

"I see them coming in with big money, buying up ranches and walking over the top of the people who are already here," says ranch owner Conni French. "For them to be successful in their goals, we can't be here, and that's not OK with us."

“我看到他們帶著大把的錢來，買下牧場，把已經(jīng)在這里的人踩在腳下，”牧場主人康尼·弗倫奇說。“要讓他們成功實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)，我們就不能在這里，這對我們來說是不好的。”

A new kind of national park

一種新型的國家公園

Sean Gerrity, founder of American Prairie Reserve, is standing on one of the vast ranching properties his organization recently purchased. It looks like a miniature Grand Canyon — a panorama of deep, white canyons cut through by a wide, muddy river.

美國草原保護(hù)區(qū)的創(chuàng)始人肖恩•蓋瑞蒂站在該組織最近收購的一處大型牧場地產(chǎn)上。它看起來就像一個微型的大峽谷——被一條寬闊而泥濘的河流穿過的深深的、白色峽谷的全景。

"What you're seeing here is the incredible beauty of the Missouri River out in front of us," he says. "Those beautiful cliffs and the raking light coming across in the afternoon."

他說:“你在這里看到的是我們面前的密蘇里河令人難以置信的美麗。”“那些美麗的懸崖和午后斜射過來的光線。”

The project's goal is to rewild this swath of the Great Plains and return all the animals that lived on this landscape more than a century ago, before white settlers arrived. Wolves, grizzly bears, thousands of genetically pure, wild bison.

該項(xiàng)目的目標(biāo)是讓這片大平原重新變野生化，并讓生活在這片土地上的所有動物回歸，那是一個多世紀(jì)以前，在白人定居者到來之前。狼，灰熊，成千上萬的純種野生野牛。

Gerrity points down to the valley below. "Over here would be some elk," he says. "Over here would be bison. On the riverbanks would be a mama grizzly bear with two or three little cubs walking along the mud there."

蓋瑞蒂指向下面的山谷。“這里有一些麋鹿，”他說。“這里是野牛。河岸邊會有一只灰熊媽媽，帶著兩三只小熊在泥地上走。”

These are animals one would see at Yellowstone National Park, but without so many tourists. The reserve is a new kind of national park, one that's free to the public and privately funded through both small donors and some of the wealthiest people in the world.

這些動物可以在黃石國家公園看到，但是沒有那么多游客。該保護(hù)區(qū)是一種新型的國家公園，對公眾免費(fèi)開放，并由小捐助者和一些世界上最富有的人提供私人資金。

American Prairie was founded more than 18 years ago after Gerrity moved back home to Montana from Silicon Valley, where he ran a firm that consulted for companies such as AT&T and Apple. For him, the project promised a different kind of long-term investment.

美國大草原公司成立于18年前，當(dāng)時蓋瑞蒂從硅谷搬回蒙大拿，在那里他經(jīng)營著一家為美國電話電報公司和蘋果公司等公司提供咨詢的公司。對他來說，這個項(xiàng)目承諾了一種不同的長期投資。

"To work on something — pour your heart into it — and arrange it like a giant work of art and the public would by and large appreciate and realize it would last far, far beyond my lifetime? That just seemed like a dream come true," Gerrity says.

“去做一件事——全身心地投入進(jìn)去——把它安排得像一件巨大的藝術(shù)品，讓公眾大體上欣賞和認(rèn)識到，它會持續(xù)很久，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過我的有生之年?”這就像美夢成真一樣，” 蓋瑞蒂說。

The reserve has since garnered multimillion-dollar donations from a German billionaire, heirs to the Mars Candy Co., and a handful of top executives in the finance industry, at least two of whom helped steer big investments in oil, gas and coal. Those industries have exacerbated climate change, leading to increased wildfires, floods and drought in the northern Great Plains.

從那以后，這個保護(hù)區(qū)已經(jīng)從一位德國億萬富翁、瑪氏糖果公司的繼承人、以及金融業(yè)的幾位高管那里獲得了數(shù)百萬美元的捐款，其中至少有兩人幫助引導(dǎo)了對石油、天然氣和煤炭的大規(guī)模投資。這些行業(yè)加劇了氣候變化，導(dǎo)致北部大平原的野火、洪水和干旱增加。

Some see hypocrisy in this kind of money, including Rob Reich, director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University.

一些人看到了這種錢的虛偽，包括斯坦福大學(xué)慈善和公民社會中心主任羅伯·賴克。

"The structure of global capitalism, which they had a role upholding, is partly responsible for the degradation of the environment," Reich says.

“他們所支持的全球資本主義結(jié)構(gòu)，是造成環(huán)境惡化的部分原因，”賴克說。

But Gerrity says the reserve can't afford to be that picky because almost all of his donors, big and small, are driving the climate crisis.

但是蓋瑞蒂說，保護(hù)區(qū)不能那么挑剔，因?yàn)閹缀跛械木柚?，無論大小，都在推動著氣候危機(jī)。

Besides, he argues, this is one of only a few intact grassland ecosystems in the world and he wants to fully restore it before it disappears.

此外，他認(rèn)為，這是世界上為數(shù)不多的完整的草原生態(tài)系統(tǒng)之一，他想在它消失之前完全恢復(fù)它。