The rollback of a rule banning controversial hunting methods in Alaska's national preserves has some worried the National Park Service is ceding control to states with less conservation-oriented goals.

Popular Science, Feb. 6, 2019: “Humans have a long history of killing large animals, and it dates back thousands of years, and probably is why the mammoths and mastodons went extinct in North America,” said William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the Oregon State University College of Forestry and co-author of a new study assessing the current state of big fauna.

OSU Press Release, Jan. 30, 2019: One hundred forty-three species of large animals are decreasing in number and 171 are under threat of extinction, according to new research that suggests humans’ meat consumption habits are primarily to blame.

Newsweek, Feb 6, 2019: More populations of megafauna are threatened and have higher rates of decreasing populations than all other vertebrates put together, Dr. William Ripple, study co-author and distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University College of Forestry said in a statement.