The Alberta, Canada Tar Sands is in the process of becoming a killing field for Wolves with the rationale being that the less wolves, the better protection for withering Caribou herds............Let Prime Minister, Stephen Harper know how opposed you are to the aerial and/or terrestial killing of Wolves,,,,,and that improved habitat protection for Caribou is the key to their survival...........I thank Norm Bishop for his inspirational Aldo Leopold input for this Posting................."No important change in ethics was ever accomplished without an internal change in our intellectual emphasis, loyalties, affections, and convictions............ The proof that conservation has not yet touched these foundations of conduct lies in the fact that philosophy and religion have not yet heard of it............... In our attempt to make conservation easy, we have made it trivial."--Aldo Leopold

Dear Friend,

If Alberta Canada's tar sands oil fields are fully developed, an area of
boreal rainforest the size of Florida will be eviscerated, leaving in its
wake only giant ponds of toxic wastewater.

To make up for the fact that extracting tar sands oil is threatening
caribou herds by destroying vast swaths of rainforest habitat in Alberta,
the Canadian government has called for strychnine poisoning and aerial
shooting of thousands of wolves in areas of tar sands mining.
This plan is both cruel and deeply misguided.

I just signed a petition telling Canada's Prime Minister Harper to Stop
Canada's planned tar sands wolf killings.

by--Norman Bishop

 Learn more and add your name here:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/tar_sands_wolves/?r_by=34874-3219902-
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Canadian Government Plans to Poison Wolves Due to Tar Sands Project    
Los Angeles Times; Jeremey Symons

The toll of tar sands development has been largely hidden hundreds of miles to the North. Canadian forests once provided the last undisturbed refuge in North America for migrating songbirds, ducks and geese, and the vast stretches of wilderness in northern Alberta have been ideal for wild wolves and caribou that have thrived in balance with nations of native Canadians for countless generations.

CARIBOU

But that was all before oil companies moved in and took control of the Albertan government.

Alberta's carefully constructed web of secrecy was pierced this week by news that Canada is planning to poison thousands of wolves in a desperate effort to save caribou decimated by oil development. Recent scientific studies have proved that Canada's Woodland caribou herds are heading toward extinction due to habitat destruction from tar sands and other oil development. Today's Los Angeles Times article sums up the story:

Woodland caribou herds in Canada are declining, and tar sands development is a big part of the reason why. But Canada's national and provincial governments know what do about that: Kill the wolves.

The news was uncovered by the National Wildlife Federation, whose biologists concluded:

Canada's proposed solution to habitat destruction from tar sands development is to destroy the wolves that prey on caribou, instead of protecting their habitat.
Two particularly repugnant methods of destroying wolves -- shooting wolves from helicopters and poisoning wolves with baits laced with strychnine -- would be carried out in response to the caribou declines. Strychnine is a deadly poison known for an excruciating death that progresses painfully from muscle spasms to convulsions to suffocation, over a period of hours. Wildlife officials will place strychnine baits on the ground or spread them from aircraft in areas they know wolves inhabit. In addition to wolves, non-target animals like raptors, wolverines and cougars will be at risk from eating the poisoned baits or scavenging on the deadly carcasses of poisoned wildlife.

 GRAY WOLF

Americans have been dragged into this mess via the controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which would move the thick black crude under 1,700 miles of the U.S. heartland. So now the same oil companies that have ravaged Alberta's wilderness have brought their deep pockets to America to fight President Obama's prudent decision to deny a permit for this massive new tar sands pipeline.

They're running millions of dollars in TV commercials and spending millions more on lobbying. By turning tar sands into a kitchen table issue in the United States, Transcanada has drawn more scrutiny on what is really happening with the massive tar sands expansion than Alberta was prepared for.
This story is gaining a lot of attention and picking up steam and has gone viral, which isn't surprising since National Wildlife Federation is the United States' largest conservation organization with four million supporters. National Wildlife Federation was also a leading voice in the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park -- wolves imported from Canada thanks to the generous cooperation of the Canadian government in the mid-90's.

Wolves aren't the only wildlife impacted by tar sands. Waterfowl that land on the industry's toxic tailing ponds have been killed in the thousands.

We have a voice and a role to play here in the United States. Oil companies have convinced some members of Congress to try to overrule the president's prudent decision on the tar sands pipeline. Let Congress know that America shouldn't reward Alberta's oil industry by reviving Transcanada's tar sands pipeline project. This tar sands pipeline is the oil export gateway that oil companies need to drive a massive expansion of habitat-destroying tar sands operations. And it would amount to an American seal of approval for the strychnine-poisoning of Alberta's wolves.

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Norman Bishop commenting on Leopold's Land Ethic and how it is so foreign a concept to our Political Leaders...............and candidly, most of humanity

I just completed reading Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (1992. Bantam/Turner). Half a century ago, I read much the same message as Ishmael left me with. It was Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. In his foreword on P. viii, he writes, "Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

Later, in his essay, "The Land Ethic," he writes (P. 204), "In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such."

In "The Ecological Conscience" (Pp. 207-208), he decries the shortcomings of conservation education, saying, "It defines no right or wrong, assigns no obligations, calls for no sacrifice, implies no change in the current philosophy of values. In respect of land-use, it urges only enlightened self-interest." And on P. 209, "To sum up: we asked the farmer to do what he conveniently could to save his soil, and he has done just that, and only that." (Pp. 209-210):

"No important change in ethics was ever accomplished without an internal change in our intellectual emphasis, loyalties, affections, and convictions. The proof that conservation has not yet touched these foundations of conduct lies in the fact that philosophy and religion have not yet heard of it. In our attempt to make conservation easy, we have made it trivial."

In "Land Health and the A-B Cleavage," he writes (P. 223), "In all these cleavages, we see repeated the same basic paradoxes: man the conqueror versus man the biotic citizen; science the sharpener of the sword versus science the searchlight on his universe; land the slave and servant versus land the collective organism. In "The Outlook" (Pp. 224-225), he continues, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Much of my life has been spent trying to educate people on bits and parts of the above concepts. I hope they catch hold before we no longer have any options left.