Before skyscrapers and smokestacks transformed the eastern United States, the region was home to an abundance of wildlife. Elk roamed Illinois, bison grazed the prairies of Indiana, and wolves and cougars moved through forests and wetlands stretching from the Northeast to the Deep South. Environmental writer Andrew Moore, author of The Beasts of the East, revisits this largely forgotten landscape and shows how, in just a few generations, industrialization and unregulated hunting pushed many of these animals to the brink of extinction.

Moore follows conservationists, biologists, hunters, and local communities working to return these animals to their native habitats—from bison grazing on restored Illinois prairies to elk thriving in the hills of Kentucky and red wolves roaming coastal North Carolina. As wildlife begins a remarkable comeback, Moore holds that these efforts raise questions about conservation, coexistence, and the meaning of wilderness in a modern landscape shaped by cities, suburbs, and highways.

This Smithsonian online presentation on August 18 at 7 pm is $25 for Smithsonian Associates, $35 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org