Human management of the environment is based on a lot of trial and error. Even if we're willing to fix the errors, how far back do we go?
The first humans to affect the landscape didn't take notes, so there's a lot of guessing... and no guarantees that we've considered the myriad of variables.
Former park/forest ranger Jordan Fisher Smith points out the difficulties in managing wilderness and other land types in his book Engineering Eden, now in paperback. The author joined us in 2016; we pick up the conversation anew.