Posted on 09/29/2006 7:08:14 AM PDT by aculeus
Does a bear leave its waste in the woods?
Of course. So do geese, deer, muskrats, raccoons and other wild animals. And now, such states as Virginia and Maryland have determined that this plays a significant role in water pollution.
Scientists have run high-tech tests on harmful bacteria in local rivers and streams and found that many of the germs -- and in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, a majority of them-- come from wildlife dung. The strange proposition that nature is apparently polluting itself has created a serious conundrum for government officials charged with cleaning up the rivers.
Part of the problem lies with the unnaturally high populations of deer, geese and raccoons living in modern suburbs and depositing their waste there. But officials say it would be nearly impossible, and wildly unpopular, to kill or relocate enough animals to make a dent in even that segment of the pollution.
That leaves scientists and environmentalists struggling with a more fundamental question: How clean should we expect nature to be? In certain cases, they say, the water standards themselves might be flawed, if they appear to forbid something as natural as wild animals leaving their dung in the woods.
"You need to go back and say, 'Maybe the standards aren't exactly right' if wildlife are causing the problem," said Thomas Henry, an Environmental Protection Agency official who works on water pollution in the mid-Atlantic.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nothing a 308 and some #4 shot can't fix.
Imagine that animals do shit in the woods.
Fish pee is clean.
I know the deer sure leave a lot of poop in my yard. I'm certainly doing my share of the work in wildlife control...bow season opened on the 15th, and I've already put one deer in the freezer...probably shoot another one next week.
Maryland raised the daily limit on Canada geese in the early season to 8 this year.
Organic fertilizer. It's called natural recycling!!
The first crack in the environmentalist’s wall appears.
Can't we take the Scientists out in the woods and leave them there to waste?
That's the flaw of many environmentalists, organics food types and other all round luddites. Nature is dirty. It is messy and it is where all infectious diseases ultimately came from. And those messes and filth are an integral part of nature.
Time to nuke all the animals....they leave waste....the b@stards. This means birds too....the nasty things poop on top of everything.
Maybe we should round up all the little critters and plug up their butthole.
Sheesh, people are just plain stupid. EVERYTHING is a 'polluter'. But even pollution can be a benefit to the enviroment (can you say fertilizer)
These people are too smart for their own good and can't see the perfection that God made when he started this perfect world.
So now bears aren't supposed to poop in the woods? It's amazing what kind of "research" money is spent on.
We've got to kill all the animals in order to protect the environment.
Now this report is a real "Catch 22".
All these years, folks have been yammering at farmers about their cows and in reality it has been the vast herds of deer pooping all over. Deer carry giardia as do beavers.
I can't help the vision this brings to mind of some historical researcher 200 - 300 years into the future discovering this article. Imagine the impression this will leave.
"Hey Vic, look at this," the researcher will whisper across the space link to his associate currently doing studies of the planet Xenon 7.
"Whatcha got, L9?", says Vic.
"People in the 20th and 21st centuries were musch dumber than we ever imagined them to be. Theyu developed computers, had primitive space travel, and even crude nuclear power - but they were clueless when it came to wildlife potty requirements."
"What!?"
"Yeah, they didn't know that bears and birds and 'coons and squirrels that live in they called "the woods" shit there!!"
"Wow. WOW, that's incredible, L9. This is a major news story!!"
"Plants are a thriving source of air pollution. Tree emissions dwarf what comes from dairy cows. Dairies are pegged as major polluters, but plants out-emit dairies by more than 30-to-1 statewide. California’s trees release some 2,000 tons of smog-forming gases daily. Dairies produce 60 tons each
day". Dispute persists over trees as polluter
I can only hope that the dilemma's they face keep getting worse.
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