Wildlife Thoughts

[Wandering Sagebrush]

I got out to Ridgefield NWR, my favorite local site for wildlife photography. My treat today was to see the first coyote that I've seen there in over a year. Refuge management introduced endangered Columbian white-tailed deer to the refuge, and killed a large number of the local coyote population in order to get better survival rates for the deer. I normally support the efforts of refuge management, but I couldn't support them on this one. It seemed profoundly stupid to me. In the late 1950s or early 1960s, the area around Klamath Falls was overrun by rodents because the predators were shot and poisoned on a large scale. The crops suffered as a result. Turn over a bale of alfalfa, and dozens of voles went scrambling. We never learn. Ok, rant over.


A few of the images that I have taken over the years at Ridgefield NWR...

 

[highz]

Your post reminded me of this. Environmental Science is still a developing discipline...

 

[ski3pin]

Thanks highz, that also reminded me how much I miss Pete ...................................and songs with a message

.................................... Environmental Science is still a developing discipline...

Yes it is, but then the decisions are driven by politics.

Mr. Sage, your post reminded me that I heard complaints about the feds not killing coyotes at Hart Mountain and the pronghorn numbers were suffering.

Bottom line for me is the reminder that we are all tied together in this interesting web of life. What we do has consequences. That might not give me the answer but it does tell me to be careful.

Oh, and Mr. Sage, at least you rant about meaningful subjects.

 

[billharr]

One very political decision was prop 117 in 1990. It banned the trophy hunting of mountain lions and labeled them a "specially protected mammal." This prop was pushed by environmentalists and the jury is still out. Mountain goats are on the decline and Mountain Lions on moving into areas they have not been seen in for years.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Stuff clipped...

Mr. Sage, your post reminded me that I heard complaints about the feds not killing coyotes at Hart Mountain and the pronghorn numbers were suffering.

More stuff clipped

Mr. 3pin, as I recall. It was discovered later that the coyotes were not the cause of the pronghorn fawns failing to survive. I'm thankful that the coyotes were not killed.

BTW, I miss Pete too! Especially as it seems we're going deeper than waist deep in Big Muddy. And the big fool(s) said push on.

Bill, when I first moved to Canby, the neighbor said look at this. Pug marks in the rose bed, two houses away. On the topic of cats, we saw a cougar last week near Silver Lake, Oregon. That was the first one I'd seen in about 40 years.

 

[takesiteasy]

All your comments above brought to mind the story of the wolves in Yellowstone. I ran across this blog post which sums up the conversation pretty well:

http://strangebehaviors.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/maybe-wolves-dont-change-rivers-after-all/

We think we know stuff but we still don't grasp the complexity, and then politics enters in making things worse. Nature is a dynamic system with us as part of it- constantly in flux. Seems foolhardy to mess with it, but also seems we have no choice, trying to undo the mess we have created by earlier goof-ups. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

[highz]

Well said, takesiteasy, and an interesting op-ed about the Yellowstone ecosystem. Policy should be based on science, but folks need to understand that science is a self-correcting process. There will be errors in understanding, but the scientific method will correct them, given time. The problem with politics is that a given side tries to promote policy by stopping the process at a point that is convenient for their worldview.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

This is a very interesting thread.
Al, I found that blog post video very enjoyable.
I enjoyed watching it for it's story about the wolves and seeing again some of the areas we go to and watch the animals.
I have heard the story about the elk and the trees and if you look at the Aspen trees on the hillsides of the Lamar Valley you can see how they are starting to fill out more on lower branches.
Also there are more "volunteers" around the mature trees.
Thanks for the link.
Mr.SB thanks for starting this thread.
Lots of good input.
Frank

 

[takesiteasy]

Well said, takesiteasy, and an interesting op-ed about the Yellowstone ecosystem. Policy should be based on science, but folks need to understand that science is a self-correcting process. There will be errors in understanding, but the scientific method will correct them, given time. The problem with politics is that a given side tries to promote policy by stopping the process at a point that is convenient for their worldview.

True. One of the commenters to the NYT piece said that the most endangered species we should be worried about is Science, what with all the politically motivated attacks on scientific findings of all kinds and impatience with the scientific method you describe.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

True. One of the commenters to the NYT piece said that the most endangered species we should be worried about is Science, what with all the politically motivated attacks on scientific findings of all kinds and impatience with the scientific method you describe.

+1

 

[alano]

True. One of the commenters to the NYT piece said that the most endangered species we should be worried about is Science, what with all the politically motivated attacks on scientific findings of all kinds and impatience with the scientific method you describe.

+2