Common loons {Gavia immer), a migratory waterbird that breeds in northern lakes, have come to represent the soul of northern lake country. As a journalist for National Geographic writes, "For many North Americans, loons are a much-beloved bird, symbolizing the solitude of the deep-woods wilderness with their distinctive, haunting wail that echoes over the northern lakes where they breed in summertime."117 This essay explores tensions between changing ideas of wild nature and the growing risks of avian extinction. We argue that White settler beliefs about an association between loons and remote wilderness have influenced the ways wildlife managers have treated loons. Indigenous perspectives on loons as kin, with special powers of vision and insight, have historically had less influence on loon wildlife management. Initially, the settler association with loons and wildness led to a campaign to exterminate loons. Now, the association leads to the opposite: efforts to protect loon nests and restore habitat. Yet an association between loons and wilderness may obscure the ways that political decisions about toxic substances, fossil fuel combustion, and extractive industries affect loon populations breeding thousands of miles away.
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