Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions.
This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization.
Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. -
Blogger Rick
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The New York Dept of Environmental Conservation has a general attitude of avoiding hassle i.e. complaints, phone calls, calls for game wardens and wildlife employees to respond.
This attitude, while not absolutely subscribed to by every single employee, is pervasive and colors all DEC policies.
Bears are regarded as a headache. Bears raid bee hives, damage bird feeders, tear through garbage cans, kill calves, etc. All these bear activities mean phone calls and complaints. More bears mean more complaints especially in areas where bears have been absent for decades.
The job of public education on how to live with bears is work. It is easier to increase the bear kill to stop or slow their return to suitable habitat.
As soon as a few bears show up in an area, NY DEC opens hunting. That serves to slow the expansion.
The black bear population in New York is growing in recent years largely due to bears from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. NY bear hunting policy pretty much prevented NY bears from increasing enough to expand their range.
Despite NY DEC heavy bear hunting quotas, bears are increasing and expanding their range and hopefully will continue to return to their historic habitat.
Dave,,,,,,,,,,,truly a sad commentary........ironic that NY and Penn were the source for the initial NJ black bear expansion.........and now it is Jersey, despite the recent annual hunts, that are feeding bears back into NYS
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