There have been many questions about what will become of the existing "No Mans land" that has been unoccupied by both North and South Koreans since the 1952 Korean War cease fire went into effect...............Should President Trump and his negotiating team get to the point with their Korean counterparts of de-nuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, will the two Korea's begin to initiate industrial and forestry activites(as well as building human settlements), significantly denting the most diverse wildlife region of the combined Korean nations?..............As Bill Ripple and Andrea Laliberte discovered in researching the journals that Lewis & Clark compiled during their journey to the Pacific from St. Louis during 1804-1806, the wildlife species density that the Corp. of Discovery encountered was greatest in the "no mans land" regions between warring Indian tribes............Where human density was at its highest and where peace between tribes allowed for utilizing horses to hunt bison and other animals, a significantly lesser number of Bison, Elk, Pronghorns, Griz, Wolves and other endemic species were seen

Click on link to read full article
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/53/10/994/254987

Wildlife Encounters by Lewis and Clark: A Spatial Analysis of Interactions between Native Americans and Wildlife

William Ripple, Andrea Laliberte; 2003

Species richness on the Lewis and Clark trail. Line width indicates the number of species present along the westbound and eastbound trails. Thicker lines indicate more species encountered. Of nine mammals surveyed, a maximum of seven were encountered at selected locations. The overview map illustrates the ecoregions and the Lewis and Clark trail.

ABSTRACT

The Lewis and Clark journals contain some of the earliest and most detailed written descriptions of a large part of the United States before Euro-American settlement. We used the journal entries to assess the influence of humans on wildlife distribution and abundance. Areas with denser human population, such as the Columbia Basin and the Pacific Coast, had lower species diversity and a lower abundance of large mammals. 

Depiction of Lewis & Clark hunters killing Grizzlies

The opposite effect was observed on the Plains. We believe that overhunting before Euro-American contact and the introduction of the horse, which heightened the effects of hunting, may have been major contributors to the historical absence of some species that are present in the archaeological record. The results show considerable human influence on wildlife even under relatively low human population densities. This finding has major implications for conservation biology and ecological restoration, as human influence is often underestimated when considering presettlement conditions.

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The Lewis and Clark expedition was the brainchild of President Thomas Jefferson. On 20 June 1803, Jefferson gave Captain Lewis specific instructions for the expedition. Its main mission was to find a waterway connecting the Missouri River with the Pacific Ocean: “The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan [sic], Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce”

Depiction of Indians using horses to kill more Bison

Others have studied the Lewis and Clark journals with regard to wildlife. Martin and Szuter (1999a) examined Lewis and Clark's wildlife observations on a broad scale, labeling areas where wildlife was abundant and humans were not as “war zones” and areas with abundant humans and less wildlife as “game sinks.” Those authors concluded that human predation was responsible for the observed wildlife distribution. Lyman and Wolverton (2002) reexamined the same data and concluded that boundaries between war zones and game sinks were not abrupt, as suggested by Martin and Szuter (1999a), but rather were gradual, and that there was variation within each zone. Lyman and Wolverton attributed the wildlife distribution to a combination of human predation, biogeographic history, habitat differences, and climatic influences.
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/wildlife-thrives-dmz-korea-risk-location-180967842/

How Korea’s Demilitarized Zone Became an Accidental Wildlife Paradise

Hundreds of rare animal species take shelter in the 155-mile no man’s land between North and South Korea

Jennifer Billock, 2/12/2018

Before the Korean War, much of the DMZ, particularly the low wetland areas, was cultivated farmland. But where people are unable to go, nature has a tendency to take over, and the DMZ, which varies dramatically in landscape from mountains to marshes, has morphed into an unexpected haven for rare wildlife. According to the Republic of Korea Ministry of Environment, 5,097 animal and plant species have been identified in the area, including 106 that are labeled as endangered or protected.

Along the DMZ, separating North and South Korea, run several levels of highly guarded fences. (Flickr, Christopher John SSF)