Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Does Arkansas have a breeding population of Pumas?..............David Goad, who represents the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, says they know mountain lions are in Arkansas............."We've had another confirmed sighting or two around the last couple of months, so we believe they're here"........."(However),there's just no evidence of it(female Pumas with kittens)"............... "We don't get pictures of cubs".......... "We do have people say they've seen cubs"................."It's just like anything else, we're biologists"........" I'm a biologist and good scientist is going to try to figure out i'f the breeding is for sure taking place"........ "Until we get evidence of cubs and reproduction, our stance is going to be the same that they are here, but there is not a breeding population"

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Game and Fish says Mountain Lions are in Arkansas but aren't bre - KATV - Breaking News, Weather and Razorback Sports Game and Fish...

When I hear narrow minded and uninformed journalists and State Wildlife Commissioners say that Coyotes are not native to their state, it really gets my goat................If an indigenous animal in the Americas expands it's range because of climate change or because we have eliminated it's enemies, this does not make the species non-native, it makes them opportunistic and to be admired for their ability to adapt and expand their range............Our Virginia Opossum is one of those to be admired as it's original range was Central and South America..........Yet as the Winters have warmed over the decades, they have taken up residence throughout the mid-atlantic and New England states.......The Virginia opossum is the only one of 70 Opossum species capable of storing fat under its skin and in its tail............ The extra bit of fat – paltry compared to the amount of fat a raccoon puts on in the fall – enabled this species to move from Central into North America centuries ago............. In the early 1600s, European settlers in Virginia encountered an abundance of these strange creatures, described by Captain John Smith as having “an Head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat.”.................. Even more marvelous, closer observation showed the opossum to be a marsupial, a mammal whose young are born quite small (A newborn opossum is about the size of a lima bean) and continue to develop in the mother’s abdominal pouch..

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Opossums Find Cold Comfort in New England’s Winters | Northern Woodlands Magazine Opossums Find Cold Comfort in New England’s Winters ...

Rachel Tilseth of WOLVES OF DOUGLAS COUNTY WISCONSIN is literally "going into the woods" to cause all of us to "LOOK UP AND TELL WISCONSIN NO TO HUNTING WOLVES WITH HOUNDS...........Right after we all stuff ourselves with Turkey and Football, a percentage of Wisconsin hunters starting December 2 will be chasing down Wolves with packs of dogs................FAIR CHASE MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-------Let's help Rachel stop this madness before it starts!

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From : Rachel Tilseth [mailto:wolvesdouglasco@gmail.com] Sent : Tuesday, November 26, 2013 08:09 PM To : Meril, Rick Subject : PRESS ...
Monday, November 25, 2013

When you keep removing the cogs in the wheel, evenutally the wheel stops rolling-----Paving over open space, killing off unwanted weeds", planting non native plants and lawns are all instruments of destruction that remove the insect food sources(critical cog in the wheel) that the Monarch Butterfly(and many other species) need to survive and prosper..................The ecological deserts that we are creating around the world are crushing blows to all the other species that we share the planet with

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butterflys ...
Sunday, November 24, 2013

The concept of forest commons is neither new nor especially radical -- though some citizens would challenge it today................ This concept is rooted in ancient tradition and finds precedent in virtually every culture on Earth................However, in the modern era, as the ideologies of individualism and capitalism have come to dominate political thought, the idea that society bears a common responsibility for the well-being of its forests has fallen into disuse and even disfavor...................I agree wholeheartedly with the following statement that came out of the FOREST COMMONS CONFERENCE at Eastern Kentucky University in 1997----"The natural reality is that the Earth and its inhabitants form an organic system in which we human beings are part of the total community".............."Private property is an expedient that facilitates civil society by affording to individuals a degree of protection and security in those things they need for sustenance and comfort through the assertion and enforcement of certain rights"..........."However, the concept of a commons -- a shared interest, respect, and responsibility for the wholeness and well-being of the Earth -- is a much greater and primordial truth"--------READ THE ENTIRE FOREST COMMONS CONFERENCE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW

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click on this link below to read the entire paper entitled-THE FOREST COMMONS    http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/AppalFor/commons.html ...
Saturday, November 23, 2013

When I was a kid in the late 60's and 70's, the environment was not the Partisan issue that it is today..................Clean Water, Air, Wilderness, Endangered Species Acts were very much bi-partisan in their move to the Congressional floor in D.C. with Presidents Johnson and Nixon both in favor and supporting................Unfortunately, under President Reagan(who loved his California Ranch) allowed his Interior Secretary James Watt to demonize all things wild and position them as the enemy of economic progress and wealth.................We still live with this 1980's "environmental hate" today with the Republican Party almost always voting No on land protection, wilderness designation and species recovery..............Today I smiled as I read that in one of the most conservative enclaves in the USA, Phoenix, people of all political ideologies are banding together to save open space,,,,,,,,,,,and thus encourage wildlife recovery...............Residents-approved a 0.35% sales tax for land preservation, funded in part by Scottsdale's booming tourist trade.............More than one-fifth of funds from the tax come from spending by nonresidents............. Last year, the city had more than eight million visitors, while its population has grown to about 220,000 from just 3,500 in the mid-1950s...................."You could talk to the most hard-core Republican in my community," Cave Creek(like Scottsdale, another Phoenix satellite community) Mayor Vincent Francia says, "and (land) preservation is the most important thing—it's the one thing we all agree on"..................Blog Readers, let us "bottle" this "genesis development" and inject a "dose of phoenix greening" into every locale in the Americas!!!!

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Whether any of us like it or not,,,,,,,,,whether it should be the way it is or not,,,,,,,,,,,,,the fact is that money talks and everything else walks when it comes to deciding on wildlife protection and management.............Until we find another way to fund state game commissions, hunter fees will rule the decisions of those agencies as it relates to carnivore management(with carnivores getting the short end of the stick).................Interesting that $2 Billion in economic activity is generated by the 561 National Wildlife Refuges around America,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and I am guessing Billions more generated from our National Parks.................So, perhaps the Ranchers out West, and the farmers across the rest of the USA have to be further incentiviized(above and beyond the current fees paid to them to keep part of their land from the plow) to not only allow carnivores to live on their land, but to actually encourage their presence..................The Nature Conservancy is using this approach in parts of the West, allowing Ranchers to graze their livestock on Conservancy owned lands(in a biodiverse rotation) for a nominal fee in exchange for those Ranchers to encourage wildlife to utilize their properties..........I think that we have to embrace our capitalistic economic system and use it to our advantage rather than continue to take the "purist" do-the-right thing" route on conservation...............How bout that Blog readers?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Can we leave our Professorial idealism behind and step up to the plate and accomplish our goals within the confines of how most Americans think---with their wallets?...............Perhaps you feel a cop out,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I think pragmatic problem solving if in fact our goal is to win on the environment, rather than constantly taking it on the chin and going home losers

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Report: Wildlife Refuges Create $2B for Economy By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press;abcnews.com Bird watching, hunti...

With about 10 to 12 Pumas in the Santa Monica Mountains ringing Los Angeles, young male "cats" have literally no place to stake out their own exclusive territory in their natal birthplace............And with the "erector set" ring of Freeways criss-crossing the city(405/101/10 freeways), the ability to for these young males to "get out of Dodge" is virtually impossible(no wildlife under or overpasses to cross the freeways)...........No other major U.S. city has the volume of wildlife that L.A. does. There are Rattlesnakes on our hiking trails, red-tailed hawks above our freeways, skunks and raccoons and possums in our yards.............. Bobcats lurk in the brush................ In Malibu and the Palisades, mule deer graze on designer lawns............ Coyotes are ubiquitous......... Great horned owls welcome in our evening hours............ Black bears make so many trash can raids in heavily populated areas like Monrovia that U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents refer to them as “pigs in fur coats..................What a great asset SoCal has in its biodiversity...............Can we keep it that way?............Will we find the will and the $$ to build some needed wildlife crossings so that this great menagerie of wild creatures can spread their genes and stay healthy?

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Ghost Cat Source: lamag.com The city’s most mythic predators are as elusive as they are fierce. With the inevita...