Posted on 03/11/2006 11:00:51 AM PST by george76
Gnawing leisurely on the remains of a moose carcass, the wolf pack's alpha male seemed unaware that mortal danger was coming ever closer.
Suddenly the eight-member rival pack burst into view. The alpha scrambled to his feet, but too late.
Howling and barking, the enemy chased him down and mercilessly attacked, killing the hapless victim within a couple of minutes.
It's not unusual for the gray wolves on Isle Royale National Park to target each other, said John Vucetich, a Michigan Tech University wildlife biologist who witnessed the carnage from an airplane in January.
But the rival pack's brazen invasion of another's territory was a sign the wolves are hungry.
The reason is a steady decline of moose, now at their lowest ebb in the 48 years ...
The moose population at 450 this winter, down from 540 last year.
Only four years ago, they totaled an abundant 1,100 in the national park...
Presently, there are about 15 moose for every wolf. The normal ratio is 40 to 50 moose per wolf.
Wolves feast mostly on calves and elderly moose, both of which are in short supply...
The moose's historic low ...
"One-third of the kills this winter were calves," Peterson said. "The wolves need to go down to give more calves a chance of reaching adulthood."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ted was (and may still be) the largest private landowner in America. He has/had land all over the place.
There was a recent large grass fire on one of his estates/farms in Nebraska. The local volunteer (not paid) fire department spent days fighting his fire. Not only did the fire fighters take time off from work, but they also lost a fire truck to the fire.
Apparently, his financial and other response was less than impressive. I am trying to be polite.
Second, he has lands in Montana and elsewhere. He is infamous for not being a good neighbor.
He bought a fishing stream (back east somewhere) on a nice piece of land, then promplty denied the locals their historical access.
All of the above was likely vetted by the lawyers and therefore legal. But not nice.
Awwww jeez, bird flu! We're friends with both that lady and her husband. They raise chickens and turkeys,besides a good size garden. They donate the extra eggs to the church foodbank. I'm sure you saw the article here recently about them wanting to tag every darn animal in the US. Yeah, now what's that for?
It's difficult for me to absorb all the information I get here, but it seems to me that the government wants us all to be totally dependent on them for everything. We rent, so we're a little challenged on what we can do, but it's a big property and the owners don't care what we grow. The land lady expressed interest in buying our friends eggs, but I keep forgetting to mention it to him.
Fermenting, like pickles? I have to be careful of our salt intake. I wouldn't mind trying my hand at watermelon pickles. My mom used to buy them when I was young. The texture is tender and tastes like sweet gherkins.
My point precisely. Same thing. Bureaucracy favors those with the economies of scale to afford the investment: big concerns at the expense of the sole proprietor.
Fermenting, like pickles?
Like sauerkraut. You can ferment squashes, green beans, carrots, anything firm. The key advantage is that it requires no energy. Just make certain that the surface of any ceramic container is a lead free glaze. I'd bet glass would work if you painted or taped it black, but it needs a water break similar to beer making.
Wasn't there a big stink in Colorado about him denying locals access to a stream? No, he is apparently not a good neighbor. Doesn't the Donald own a lot of property?
All you have to do is look at his choice of a now ex wife. The French radicals took advantage of the average French citizen's anger about callous abuses, and the French Revolution was born. Regarding the Nebraska fire, Mr. Turner has ample resources to replace that fire truck, and also compensate them for not only the time the guys put in, but also because they risked their lives for his property. These guys will remember this, and they won't be polite. Hell if it happens again, they might not even show up.
Legal as hell, I'm sure. Fostering good relations with your neighbors, NOT.
Sauerkraut is actually good. I was worried about the suggestion of kimchee ;-)
I've got cookbooks dating back to the 30's. If anything grows this year, I'll look into it. Probably won't do it because everyone I know is picky.
Remember the Farm Aid concert fundraisers? Family farms are being decimated to provide huge megafarms that actually hurt the environment. Haven't seen the concerts advertised for many years now. Guess they gave up. There are a few farms and ranches located here, but I don't know their bottom line.
Isle Royale is just about completely isolated. The wolfpacks and moose herds were established when Lake Superior had a good freeze (not the ice age, within the past century). What exists there is a natural predator-prey balance, which just happens to turn out to be cyclical. So this population ebb has nothing to do with global whining, as some of the ecofascists would like to blame the sun rising in the morning (it's Bush's fault!). The wolf population goes into a slump, next thing you know the moose population climbs. The wolf population lags, so goes the cycle.
"The micromanagement of certain species is screwing everything up"
A corollary to this is the micromanagement of natural parks areas. One such example is Yellowstone, and the wildfire there that destroyed a vast area. After a history of putting out every little fire, the big one hit. The little fires serve a purpose. Clear out the underbrush. Certain tree species require fire for seeding (likely clearing the ground cover). The big one literally sterilized the ground. The Department of the Interior I think failed to learn the lesson, and that partly contributed to the runaway fire in the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico.
" a side effect, I'm sure many of the locals now have to ask for government assistance. It's really sickening."
Yup, Welfare and food stamps puts them under the thumb of those socialists.
And takes away their spirit of self responsibility and self respect.
Nice. /s
Sounds like a self-regulating system to me. :')
I met one of those junior rangers at a Yellowstone National Park toll booth.
She thought that the recent massive fires were good. She was hoping for more massive fires.
Major air pollution during the fires was ok, later major water pollution by the ash (even if it killed fish and other life) after the fires was ok, and soil destruction (including organic materials) from high, long term heat during the fires was ok.
Even global warming caused by the fires and the released materials was ok.
She was against removing any beetle killed trees...even when they were near historic buildings that might be burnt or near the lodges where people were sleeping and eating or near the roads where the dead trees could fall onto people or vehicles.
She did not care if peoples homes nor businesses were destroyed. She did not worry if people (including fire fighters) might be killed.
Her reason..."We should not mess with nature."
Because we demand products from farms for which we do not pay. Were there a market in integrating food production with habitat management, family farms would have an advantage.
I think the small controlled burns are good to make up for the lack of natural burns, it does somewhat correct the previous misguided policy. But this junior ranger was actually for this catasrophic burn in Yellowstone?!?! What resulted in the catastrophic burn was decades of misguided management. A normal burn would not have sterilized the soil like that megaburn, but instead prepped the ground for new growth, as nature intended. A megaburn is about equivalent to nuking the area. That junior ranger either does not know what the he!! she is taking about, or is secretly in bed with ELF.
Pinon pines need their seeds roasted in order to sprout. We were thinking of throwing some cones on the barbie in order to have a few trees on the property. Of course they take forever to grow...
The non clearance of deadwood cause that fire a couple of years ago. Went through a couple of states? The envirotwits were fighting brush clearance, I guess. Well that was one excuse I heard. Everyone who lives in an area that is prone to fires has to clear their property on a regular basis. It's the law around here. It's just crazy. That one Big Bear fire freaked us out. It was threatening to roar into Hesperia. I was still down in the city, and I kept calling my daughter to pack her car, just in case.
There were a lot of diseased trees, dead trees and brush, but it just sat there. You'd think that the nutcases would have been clamoring for the removal of dead brush for the critters.
There have been some big fires around Mesa Verde National Park also.
The junior Rangers there successfully fought to prevent the dead and dying trees next to their sleeping and living buildings from being removed. "Logging is not natural."
When one of the fire storms blew up, the fire fighters had no available defensive space near the buildings. The obvious happened.
Well, if they have to get food stamps, then hell...send the bill to Ted! It is very embarassing to have to pay for your groceries with food stamps. It is so much better to be able to fend for yourself, but sometimes it gets impossible. The people that Ted screwed over are not the type of people who like having to ask anyone for help.
"Here is the math question.
The moose population at 450 this winter...Only four years ago, they totaled 1,100.
If the wolves killed 650 moose in the last four years, how many moose will there be in three years ?"
But this is a question of biology, not simple arithmetic. Population dynamics don't follow linear trends. I do know that wolves and moose have coexisted for thousands of years, and if we disappeared tomorrow would probably find some sort of balance in the future.
Also don't forget that our government actually paid farms NOT to grow certain crops. If we could go back to the "old ways", we could produce good crop yields and not incur damage to the water table, etc.
They were able to feed themselves for centuries until Ted and his friends closed the valley's roads to the hunting areas.
When the "wilderness" signs went up...no firewood, no logs for homes, no deer skin clothes...
Otero County, New Mexico, 2000 (Cloudcroft). The envirofacists forbade the Otero County Electric Coop from clearing vegetation around the right of way. Stuff was getting awful close to the conductors. The fascists reason: spotted owl. Well, the vegetation came in contact with the power line, eventually started the big fire. Then the fascists forbade the volunteer firemen from clearing some abandoned logging roads to access the fire, all in the name of the spotted owl. This was when the fire was getting close to towns.
When the fire was done, what was found? Quite a few well done.......spotted owl. Did it taste like chicken?
This was the year of the New Mexico wildfires, including the cluster**** at Bandelier National Monument. People in New Mexico (especially the Pueblos) were practically calling for then Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt's head.
Spotted owls are wreaking havoc in New Mexico? Didn't they tell us that they lived in trees, therefore killing the lumber industry up North? Now they live in vegetation as well? Wow, they sure are adaptable. /sarc
We have friends who live in New Mexico. The fires didn't come close to them, but we were watching it on tv. I don't know what spotted owl tastes like, but years ago I found a parody of Hamburger Helper in the LA Times of all places. It was a mock up of a box with Spotted Owl Helper, and a funny pic on it. It hung on my fridge for years. Some folks don't realize my screen name is sarcasm directed at the stupidity and corruption that surrounds the enviroMENTAL entities.
How stupid is it not to clear brush? In some places, you can get fined if you don't clear out dead brush. The President takes working vacations to keep his ranch clear.
Spotted Owls in New Mexico. Wait until the owls start eating some precious turtles or kangaroo rats, lol!
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