COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, March 29, 2013

The Federal Government and preserving the prairie dogs.



Why do Republicans hate the gray wolf?



More than 70 members of Congress wrote to the Obama administration last week requesting that the gray wolf be removed from the endangered species list.
In a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday, 66 Republicans and six Democrats argued that the wolves, which recently lost their endangered status in the western Great Lakes region, no longer merit protection in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act.
The lawmakers wrote that the "unmanaged wolf population poses a threat to the communities and surrounding livestock and indigenous wildlife” and that state wildlife managers “need to be able to respond to the needs of their native wildlife without being burdened by the impediments of the federal bureaucracy created by the ESA.”
The letter was spearheaded by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Dems who signed off on the letter included Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Reps. Terri Sewell (Ala.) and Tim Walz (Minn.), Jim Matheson (Utah), and Collin Peterson (Minn.).
The Humane Society filed a lawsuit in February to restore federal protections for gray wolves that were lifted last year in the Upper Midwest United States. Since the protections were lifted, hunters and trappers have killed an estimated 530 wolves in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
There are roughly 6,000 gray wolves in the continental U.S., according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. About 8,000 to 11,000 roam Alaska, where they go unprotected. The wolves were one of the most common mammals in the country until unregulated hunting nearly led to their extinction. When the Endangered Species Act was introduced in 1973, there were practically no remaining gray wolves in the West.

20 comments:

  1. They really are stupid. There is no other explanation.

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    1. .

      It all comes down to money.

      Hunting deer and elk bring in big bucks in a lot of these states, the tourists, the guides, the outfitters, lodges, bars, etc, all make money off of culling the herd. Then, you have the wolves cutting into (or perceived to be cutting into) these guys profits. Naw. it cannot stand.

      .

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    2. Almost totally wrong, as expected from an expert from Detroit. There are some hunting lodges still around, But they don't bring in 'the big bucks' so to speak. That is over there at Motel Six/Sex And the Casino.

      Again, we never had these big Canadian wolves around, ever.

      Bergmann's rule
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      Jump to: navigation, search

      Bergmann's rule is an ecogeographic principle that states that within a broadly distributed taxonomic clade, populations and species of larger size are found in colder environments, and species of smaller size are found in warmer regions.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergmann%27s_rule

      This introduction of a new species has laid waste to much of our local deer and elk populations. And occasional cattle.

      bob

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    3. taxonomic clade

      Ain't that great!

      But it is true.


      bob

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    4. "It all comes down to money."

      What else from a salesman?????


      bob

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    5. The best elk hunting around here was the two generations (human) after The Great Fire.

      With the coming of the brush.

      Food for the kids, elk kids, and human kids.

      bob

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    6. The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup or the Big Burn) was a wildfire that burned about three million acres (12,000 km², approximately the size of Connecticut) in northeast Washington, northern Idaho (the panhandle), and western Montana.[1]


      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910


      bob

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  2. The lawmakers wrote that the “unmanaged wolf population poses a threat to the communities and surrounding livestock and indigenous wildlife”

    6000 wolves.

    A centu­ry ago, the United States hosted about 500,000 deer; today, that number has jumped to at least 25 million.

    There are 500,000 buffalo.

    There are 30,000 elk in Yellowstone Park alone. The Republican brain trust that believes 6000 gray wolves are up there with AQ as a threat to The Republic are probably not aware of this:

    National attention has been focused on Yellowstone’s northern elk winter range since the early 1930s. Scientists and managers then believed that grazing and drought in the early part of the century had reduced the range's carrying capacity, and that twice as many elk were on the range in 1932 as existed in 1914. From 1935 to 1968, elk, pronghorn, and bison numbers were artificially controlled by shooting or trapping and removal by park rangers. Then in the 1960s, based on new studies that suggested ungulate populations could possibly be self-regulating, elk reductions were discontinued in the park.

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    Replies
    1. Where do you get your figures? We did not see one elk in Yellowstone.

      I saw two Asian girls that were really pretty, though.

      bob

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  3. But I got wolves out my backdoor practically.

    Here are the last words between my last aunt who died at 101 and myself.

    'Were there ever any wolves out there when you grew up?'

    She thought, then said, 'wolves?......no'

    Then she said ' Do you still have the place?'

    'Yes'

    She smiled.

    That was it. She died about a month later.

    These Canadian grays are not from here. They were imported from northern Canada. They are larger than the old forest wolves in the back country that were never around the farmland anyway.

    If you want then in Philly, you can have them.

    They have nearly wiped out the deer.

    SSS


    bob

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    1. I don't believe your figures on deer, either.

      I think it is buffalo dung.

      bob

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  4. Other Influences on Yellowstone's Elk Populations

    Over-winter calf mortality, yearling mortality, and adult bull mortality all increase with higher elk population densities. Studies show that summer predation by grizzly bears, coyotes, black bears, and golden eagles takes an average of 32% of the northern range elk calves each year. Mountain lions prey upon elk, as do hunters north of the park (taking about 10% of the northern herd annually through the 1980s).

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    1. Golden eagles don't kill elk.

      They kill rabbits.

      Where do you come up with this stuff?

      bob

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    2. "adult bull mortality"

      They get old and die.

      bob

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  5. Mrs S out there is not a Republican by any means, in fact one of our stringest
    Democrats and she is sick of the wolves too.

    bob

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    Replies
    1. In fact, she was County Commissioner, elected by all of us.

      bob

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  6. Transport the wolves to Philly!!!!


    bob

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  7. Big buffalo dung thread

    Chief Plenty Coups

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  8. Compassionate?

    Someone said the wolves is compassionate?

    Like the Sioux.

    Chief Plenty Coups.



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