mrex
12-22-2005, 02:55 PM
In the New York Times no less....
>
>
>
>
>
>
> For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle
>
>
>
>
> By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NYT) 813 words
> Published: December 4, 2005
>
> Here's a quick quiz: Which large American mammal kills the most humans
> each year?
>
> It's not the bear, which kills about two people a year in North
> America. Nor is it the wolf, which in modern times hasn't killed
> anyone in this country. It's not the cougar, which kills one person
> every year or two.
>
> Rather, it's the deer. Unchecked by predators, deer populations are
> exploding in a way that is profoundly unnatural and that is destroying
> the ecosystem in many parts of the country. In a wilderness, there
> might be 10 deer per square mile; in parts of New Jersey, there are up
> to 200 per square mile.
>
> One result is ticks and Lyme disease, but deer also kill people more
> directly. A study for the insurance industry estimated that deer kill
> about 150 people a year in car crashes nationwide and cause $1 billion
> in damage. Granted, deer aren't stalking us, and they come out worse
> in these collisions -- but it's still true that in a typical year, an
> American is less likely to be killed by Osama bin Laden than by Bambi.
>
> If the symbol of the environment's being out of whack in the 1960's
> was the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catching fire, one such symbol
> today is deer congregating around what they think of as salad bars and
> what we think of as suburbs.
>
> So what do we do? Let's bring back hunting.
>
> Now, you've probably just spilled your coffee. These days, among the
> university-educated crowd in the cities, hunting is viewed as > barbaric.
>
> The upshot is that towns in New York and New Jersey are talking about
> using birth control to keep deer populations down. (Liberals
> presumably support free condoms, while conservatives back abstinence
> education.) Deer contraception hasn't been very successful, though.
>
> Meanwhile, the same population bomb has spread to bears. A bear hunt
> has been scheduled for this week in New Jersey -- prompting outrage
> from some animal rights groups (there's also talk of bear
> contraception: make love, not cubs).
>
> As for deer, partly because hunting is perceived as brutal and vaguely
> psychopathic, towns are taking out contracts on deer through discreet
> private companies. Greenwich, Conn., budgeted $47,000 this year to pay
> a company to shoot 80 deer from raised platforms over four nights --
> as well as $8,000 for deer birth control.
>
> Look, this is ridiculous.
>
> We have an environmental imbalance caused in part by the decline of
> hunting. Humans first wiped out certain predators -- like wolves and
> cougars -- but then expanded their own role as predators to sustain a
> rough ecological balance. These days, though, hunters are on the
> decline.
>
> According to ''Families Afield: An Initiative for the Future of
> Hunting,'' a report by an alliance of shooting organizations, for
> every 100 hunters who die or stop hunting, only 69 hunters take their
> place.
>
> I was raised on ''Bambi'' -- but also, as an Oregon farm boy, on
> venison and elk meat. But deer are not pets, and dead deer are as
> natural as live deer. To wring one's hands over them, perhaps after
> polishing off a hamburger, is soggy sentimentality.
>
> What's the alternative to hunting? Is it preferable that deer die of
> disease and hunger? Or, as the editor of Adirondack Explorer magazine
> suggested, do we introduce wolves into the burbs?
>
> To their credit, many environmentalists agree that hunting can be
> green. The New Jersey Audubon Society this year advocated deer hunting
> as an ecological necessity.
>
> There's another reason to encourage hunting: it connects people with
> the outdoors and creates a broader constituency for wilderness
> preservation. At a time when America's wilderness is being gobbled
> away for logging, mining or oil drilling, that's a huge boon.
>
> Granted, hunting isn't advisable in suburban backyards, and I don't
> expect many soccer moms to install gun racks in their minivans. But
> it's an abdication of environmental responsibility to eliminate other
> predators and then refuse to assume the job ourselves. In that case,
> the collisions with humans will simply get worse.
>
> In October, for example, Wayne Goldsberry was sitting in a home in
> northwestern Arkansas when he heard glass breaking in the next room.
> It was a home invasion -- by a buck.
>
> Mr. Goldsberry, who is six feet one inch and weighs 200 pounds,
> wrestled with the intruder for 40 minutes. Blood spattered the walls
> before he managed to break the buck's neck.
>
> So it's time to reestablish a balance in the natural world -- by
> accepting the idea that hunting is as natural as bird-watching.
>
>
> -:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
> :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
> Gary R. Goff
> 104 Fernow Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
> ph. 607/255-2824; fax 607/255-2815; e-mail: grg3@cornell.edu
> www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/mfo/
> http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/people/ra/profiles/goff.html
>
>
> --- end forwarded text
>
>
> --
>
> BZ Marranca
> Research Technician
> Urban Horticulture Institute
> Kenneth Post Lab
> Tower Road
>
>
>
>
>
>
> For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle
>
>
>
>
> By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (NYT) 813 words
> Published: December 4, 2005
>
> Here's a quick quiz: Which large American mammal kills the most humans
> each year?
>
> It's not the bear, which kills about two people a year in North
> America. Nor is it the wolf, which in modern times hasn't killed
> anyone in this country. It's not the cougar, which kills one person
> every year or two.
>
> Rather, it's the deer. Unchecked by predators, deer populations are
> exploding in a way that is profoundly unnatural and that is destroying
> the ecosystem in many parts of the country. In a wilderness, there
> might be 10 deer per square mile; in parts of New Jersey, there are up
> to 200 per square mile.
>
> One result is ticks and Lyme disease, but deer also kill people more
> directly. A study for the insurance industry estimated that deer kill
> about 150 people a year in car crashes nationwide and cause $1 billion
> in damage. Granted, deer aren't stalking us, and they come out worse
> in these collisions -- but it's still true that in a typical year, an
> American is less likely to be killed by Osama bin Laden than by Bambi.
>
> If the symbol of the environment's being out of whack in the 1960's
> was the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catching fire, one such symbol
> today is deer congregating around what they think of as salad bars and
> what we think of as suburbs.
>
> So what do we do? Let's bring back hunting.
>
> Now, you've probably just spilled your coffee. These days, among the
> university-educated crowd in the cities, hunting is viewed as > barbaric.
>
> The upshot is that towns in New York and New Jersey are talking about
> using birth control to keep deer populations down. (Liberals
> presumably support free condoms, while conservatives back abstinence
> education.) Deer contraception hasn't been very successful, though.
>
> Meanwhile, the same population bomb has spread to bears. A bear hunt
> has been scheduled for this week in New Jersey -- prompting outrage
> from some animal rights groups (there's also talk of bear
> contraception: make love, not cubs).
>
> As for deer, partly because hunting is perceived as brutal and vaguely
> psychopathic, towns are taking out contracts on deer through discreet
> private companies. Greenwich, Conn., budgeted $47,000 this year to pay
> a company to shoot 80 deer from raised platforms over four nights --
> as well as $8,000 for deer birth control.
>
> Look, this is ridiculous.
>
> We have an environmental imbalance caused in part by the decline of
> hunting. Humans first wiped out certain predators -- like wolves and
> cougars -- but then expanded their own role as predators to sustain a
> rough ecological balance. These days, though, hunters are on the
> decline.
>
> According to ''Families Afield: An Initiative for the Future of
> Hunting,'' a report by an alliance of shooting organizations, for
> every 100 hunters who die or stop hunting, only 69 hunters take their
> place.
>
> I was raised on ''Bambi'' -- but also, as an Oregon farm boy, on
> venison and elk meat. But deer are not pets, and dead deer are as
> natural as live deer. To wring one's hands over them, perhaps after
> polishing off a hamburger, is soggy sentimentality.
>
> What's the alternative to hunting? Is it preferable that deer die of
> disease and hunger? Or, as the editor of Adirondack Explorer magazine
> suggested, do we introduce wolves into the burbs?
>
> To their credit, many environmentalists agree that hunting can be
> green. The New Jersey Audubon Society this year advocated deer hunting
> as an ecological necessity.
>
> There's another reason to encourage hunting: it connects people with
> the outdoors and creates a broader constituency for wilderness
> preservation. At a time when America's wilderness is being gobbled
> away for logging, mining or oil drilling, that's a huge boon.
>
> Granted, hunting isn't advisable in suburban backyards, and I don't
> expect many soccer moms to install gun racks in their minivans. But
> it's an abdication of environmental responsibility to eliminate other
> predators and then refuse to assume the job ourselves. In that case,
> the collisions with humans will simply get worse.
>
> In October, for example, Wayne Goldsberry was sitting in a home in
> northwestern Arkansas when he heard glass breaking in the next room.
> It was a home invasion -- by a buck.
>
> Mr. Goldsberry, who is six feet one inch and weighs 200 pounds,
> wrestled with the intruder for 40 minutes. Blood spattered the walls
> before he managed to break the buck's neck.
>
> So it's time to reestablish a balance in the natural world -- by
> accepting the idea that hunting is as natural as bird-watching.
>
>
> -:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
> :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
> Gary R. Goff
> 104 Fernow Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
> ph. 607/255-2824; fax 607/255-2815; e-mail: grg3@cornell.edu
> www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/mfo/
> http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/people/ra/profiles/goff.html
>
>
> --- end forwarded text
>
>
> --
>
> BZ Marranca
> Research Technician
> Urban Horticulture Institute
> Kenneth Post Lab
> Tower Road