The idea behind Pleistocene Park is that recreating the grasslands that dominated Pleistocene will slow the thawing of the permafrost and “solve” climate change. The theory is that grasslands will reflect more sunlight and make the Arctic absorb less heat, while also reducing how insulated the ground is during the winter to allow the seasonal freeze to reach further into the ground and keep the permafrost frozen. Just knocking down the trees and shrubs that currently inhabit Beringia is not enough though, as they will continue to grow back. The Pleistocene grasslands were maintained by large grazing herbivores that encouraged the co-evolution of grasses; particularly mammoths, which routinely knocked down any trees that tried to grow, thereby keeping the grasslands intact. This is why the Russian scientists are attempting to bring large proboscideans back to the Arctic: so they can beat back the forests and encourage grasslands that might stop the thawing and the carbon-happy gases inhabiting the permafrost from being released into the atmosphere and making orders of magnitude increases to the effects of climate change.
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