Saturday, September 24, 2016

The last of the "Grizzly Bear Brothers", John Craighead passed yesterday at age 100..................."John Craighead and his twin brother, Frank, were intrepid explorers and pioneering conservation biologists who helped reshape our scientific understanding of grizzly bears, the migration patterns of predators, and the ecology of the greater Yellowstone system"............ "They chronicled their explorations in the pages of National Geographic magazine, starting in 1936, when they were 20 years old"............."In 1998, John Craighead received the Aldo Leopold Award, and both twins were named among America's top scientists of the 20th century by the Audubon Society".............

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/john-craighead-yellowstone-bears-biologist/...
Friday, September 23, 2016

While we hear from so many nimrods who continually demonize and call for "intense year long harvesting" of Pumas, Wolves and Bears, science and "old school" evidence on the ground back up the fact that the age old dance of predator and prey has never been responsible for extermination of the prey animals...........The "proof is in the pudding" as "Big Sky Country", Montana has demonstrated in its most recent Elk hunting season..............Hunters there had their single best year on record with 31,000 Elk killed in 2015..............And the two years prior to that were not too shabby either for these "sportsmen" with 25,700 in 2014 and 20,100 in 2013 removed from Montana's open space,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,And how about this fact-------"The region where more elk are consistently taken is Region 3 in southwestern Montana"........... "This seems a bit odd considering that Region 3 surrounds the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, an area rich with predators like wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions".............And with an estimated 163,000 Elk statewide, annual hunter kill is only 19% of the population, barely denting Elk recruitment--same for the "take" of the carnivore suite living in Montana--minimal denting the health of the Elk...............As the name of this Blog states----COYOTES, WOLVES(BEARS, BOBCATS, LYNX, FISHERS, MARTENS) AND COUGARS FOREVER!!!!!.......Calling on all State Game Commissions to stop viewing Carnivores as vermin------------Let them thrive and no more demonizing of them------------They and the Elk, Deer and Moose they hunt will all endure if we provide them with land---room to roam!!!

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/montana-hunters-killed-record-number-of-...
Thursday, September 22, 2016

Another reiteration that Eastern coyotes(30-55 pound heavyweights) are not true deer eating carnivores like Eastern(Red) and Gray Wolves,,,,, and Pumas............We have commented on biologist Jacqueline Frair's (past couple of years) New York State Coyote Study on several previous occasions and her revelations about the fact that while Eastern Coyotes can and do take adult deer periodically, and kill fawns in the Spring after they are first born, they are not a primary control or "dampening agent" of "Bambi",,,,,,,,,,,,,,Beaver and Hares are preferred prey and the Coyotes do compete with Fishers, Bobcats, Red and Gray Foxes for that fare...............All of these meso-carnivores have re-arranged their allignment in our Eastern woodlands and all continue to "punch out" a living off of the prey base that exist there..................As stated over the Summer months on this Blog, rewilding the Appalachian Chain with a large enough "sample" of Eastern(Red) Wolves(and Pumas) is the key to reducing whitetail Deer degradation of our Forests.............Put enough Eastern(Red) Wolves back on the ground and the need to hybridize with Eastern and Western Coyotes would be decreased exponentially as the Wolves would have their own kind in proximity to mate with,

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https://northernwoodlands.org/discoveries/deer-in-the-diet Deer in the Diet by Todd McLeish Summer 2016 Discoveries Augu...
Wednesday, September 21, 2016

I have some very good friends who are hunters and fishermen and I applaud their love of the outdoors and their $$ contributions to various wildlife causes via their license tags.................The philosophy that I want to encourage further among all who shoot, trap and fish is that their love of nature must extend to the entire natural system,the carnivores and the non-game animals-----not only the animals and fish that they pursue in their outdoor endeavors............Once again citing the person who hits the nail squarely regarding the importance about optimizing the circle of life is our great 20th century naturalist Aldo Leopold -----“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" ..........."If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not"............. "If the biota, in the course of eons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts?"......... "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering"

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From: AZGFD [mailto:e-news@azgfd.gov] Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2016 1:43 PM To: Meril, Rick Subject: Contributions ...
Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Wisconsin is about to undertake a 5 year study of how predators impact Deer in the southwestern portion of the state............Chronic Wasting Disease, a brain disease causing Deer to to go mad and ultimately die, impacts roughly 9 to 10% of Wisconsin's deer herd.............So Governor Walker and his Natural Resource folks want to see if predators are upping the ante and casuging Deer herds to shrink precipitously because of the weakened state that CWD puts deer in.................As Wolves and Pumas do not exist in southwest Wisconsin where the study is taking place, it seems silly to be spending $3 million on a study that will target coyotes and bobcats, neither of which have been shown to be debilitating predators of deer in the nearby northeastern states of NY and Pennsylvania.............In fact, if Wisconsin really wants to lower the incidence of CWD, they should try to create as favorable a habitat as possible for Wolves so that these key deer predators can knock off as many disease ridden deer as possible.......Optimize biodiversity by reducing the current 15 to 30+ deer per square mile back down to less than 10--- and you will see a drop off in this "crowding fueled" plague

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.startribune.com/wisconsin-dnr-plans-deer-predator-study/393977511/&ct=ga...
Monday, September 19, 2016

We humans are almost hard wired to feel that we must "actively manage" our work and homelife for optimum results to occur..........The same philosophy pervades our thinking on re-growing forests after logging /fire/hurricanes/disease or pest infestation destroys them..............New research negates this "active management" paradigm,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,David Foster, our friend and Director of the HARVARD FOREST states that: “Forests have been recovering from natural processes like windstorms, fire, and ice for millions of years"........... "What appears to us as devastation is actually, to a forest, a quite natural and important state of affairs"..........Read below to see why

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http://northernwoodlands.org/discoveries/doing-nothing-forest-recovery Doing Nothing For Forest Recovery by Todd McLeish Spr...