Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Unity College Black Bear Study of the past three years has revealed a recolonization of Western Maine in the making...........In the late 1800s, there wasn’t even a tree left for a bear to hide in this part of the state as the land had been virtually completed cleared of forest and converted to fields for agriculture....................With woodlands returning and the overall state population of Bears estimated at some 30,000, there is "forward pressure" for yearlings to push out and create new territories of their own, with the middle and western sections of Maine seeing that colonization taking shape.........

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjHpKzi9P3JAhUX42MK...

The Harvard Forest Dioramas vividly depict the history of eastern forests from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River(New England is the example depicted below of what occurred from Maine to Florida)................Perhaps 1% of the lower 48 states are virgin woodlands, prairies, chaparral as defined as the land cover that existed at the time of European colonization, circa AD1500

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 CLICK ON ALL BOLDED HEADLINES BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE HISTORY OF LAND USE IN THE EASTERN USA Download high-res ima...

How are the re-introduced Lynx faring in Colorado forests hammered by native Spruce Bark Beetles whose periodic natural "explosion" has been spurred to un-natural "borg-like" infestation via climate change?.......... Hundreds of thousands of acres of lynx habitat in the Southern Rocky Mountains was likely reduced in quality as mortality to overstory spruce trees approached 100%...................... However, the subalpine fir component and understory spruce in many of these forests survived the initial insect outbreak, and anecdotal observations indicate lynx and snows.shoe hare are still present.................. Biologists are in the very difficult position of being required to evaluate the consequence of management actions to lynx, such as timber salvage, without a scientific basis to support their decisions relative to recent changes to lynx habitat due to insect infestation............... The key question is how can the expected increase in proposed timber salvage be conducted in ways that also facilitate lynx conservation and species’ persistence on the Rio Grande National Forest

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.chieftain.com/news/region/4259319-120/lynx-beetle-forest-spruce&ct=ga&c...
Friday, December 25, 2015

The 28 year Red Wolf Recovery Program in the Outer Banks of North Carolina moves into 2016 without a YES OR NO decision regarding its continuation...............Without any filter on my mouth, I just have to say "that truly sucks",,,,,,I am a believer that both Coyotes and Red Wolves can co-exist,,,,,,We just have to get a sizeable population into multiple locales so that hybridizing between the two species is minimal(as now is the case with the Eastern Wolves in Algonquin Park(eastern Canada) and the Eastern Coyotes abutting the Park,,,,,,,Still waiting for the Obama Administration to take action on endangered species in a meaningful way................And our Eastern(Red) Wolf would be as high a visible species in which to make a statement positive about----------Mr. President, let us hear from you on this prior to the Summer 2016 date that your Wildlife Agency has "put in place as a "red line", "do not cross" moment

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://wfae.org/post/2015-brings-no-conclusions-red-wolf-recovery-program-eastern-nc&c...

This time of year, owls are working overtime to find food............And even though we associate the "hooting" of Owls with the evening hours, cold and snowy conditions will have them up and about during the day to find food..............Owls have poor peripheral vision but like other raptors, have the ability to turn their heads up to 270 degrees, assisting with their ability to hear the sounds of prey on the ground and in the trees.........An Owl has the ability to hear a rodent below two feet of snow and through that auditory ability can adjust it's angle of descent from the sky in attacking prey with the deadly silence of a "Klingon Cloaking Device"

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http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001qGOdBU0JDshCjy-ssRLsQERLKSYODBeDIyUYC8uWszi6sF6UEh3kQRwPMzC-D3syqHEHoIQASKLme8Ku3AY1iFmVoAz-uGkGhKxS8i0SzxsSy...

As any of you who have been to Southern California know, the Los Angeles to San Diego corridor is one unbroken sea of development, making it perilous for all other lifeforms(some would say all lifeforms) except humans to thrive................We have previously discussed the proposed L.A. 101 Freeway wildlife overpass being contemplated to assist Puma, Coyote, Deer, Bobcat, et al. gene flow,,,,,,,,,,Today, we focus on the recent UC Davis study pointing to the fact that only one of the 42 Pumas investigated in the Santa Ana Mountains during 2001-02 had genes characteristic of the those cats in the Peninsular Ranges running east of San Diego...................Wildlife overpass/underpass near Temecula, California would greatly assist in driving down the incidence of interbreeding now very much in evidence in this region

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http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewild/mammals/habitat-loss-hurts-mountain-lions-in-santa-ana-mountains-too.html Habitat Loss Hurts Mo...