Moose Decline in Minnesota
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has released a Moose Advisory Committee report and a 2011 moose survey [here] that avers that “Northwestern Minnesota’s moose population has declined from a population of several thousand in the late 1980s to fewer than 100.”
In NE Minnesota the moose population has dropped 25% over the last seven years:
Figure 2. Point estimates, 90% confidence intervals, and trend line of estimated moose numbers in northeastern Minnesota, 2005-2011.
and the cow/calf ratio has dropped to below 10%.
Figure 3. Estimated calf:cow ratio and % calves from aerial moose surveys in northeastern Minnesota.
As a rule of thumb, cow/calf ratios must be above 20% to maintain population levels. The current ratio portends continued moose decline. Indeed, the report states, “Estimated recruitment from this year’s survey was at an all time low.”
Surprisingly, the Moose Advisory Committee (MAC) report makes absolutely no mention of wolves or other predators. None, zip, zero, nada. This despite the fact that there are now over 3,500 wolves in Minnesota [here], ten times the population in 1974.
Restoring Rural American Rights and Prosperity
by Jim Beers
As this is being written:
* Union rioters are seizing State Capitol buildings in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio.
* State legislators are fleeing their states to avoid the wrath of their Union supporters.
* Chronic national unemployment is on everyone’s mind.
* National and State debts threaten to bankrupt and even destroy government.
* National and State Budgets cause hostility everywhere as calls for comity abound.
* Budget Cuts v. Tax Increases reflect the deep political division emerging everywhere.
* Unfunded entitlements from government pensions to social and medical promises loom.
* Housing prices and construction are in the worst shape since the 1930’s.
* Banks, loans, business futures, insurance costs, and federal funds are all questionable.
* Middle East and African governments are falling with unknowable future rulers.
* Oil and energy prices are exploding as federal policies are unclear and threatening.
Additionally, Rural America is depressed and reeling from ±40 years of federal government policies that treat federal lands as distinct from the states and local communities wherein they are located (i.e. Wilderness Declarations, Road Closures, abandonment of renewable natural resource management and use, revenue-generating and revenue-sharing management practices from grazing and timber management to wildlife uses, “Travel Management” Plans, Permits requirements, etc.); from the effects of steadily expanded and unconstitutional federal powers under the Endangered Species Act (ESA); from Taking Without Compensation and disregard for both state authorities and private property; from administrative takeover of state agencies and changing the ESA from “saving species” to selectively restoring species anywhere at will and even mortally endangering human safety with “GI” (Government Introduced) wolves; and an arrogant disregard for those affected.
more »
Wolves in Oregon
by Senator Doug Whitsett (Klamath Falls, District 28), Feb. 18, 2011 [here]
Russian news media is reporting the extreme end-game that results from the introduction and failure to control timber wolves. They report that a Siberian town of 1,400 people has been terrorized for the past three weeks by a pack of 400 wolves. Residents are describing the siege as an “animal apocalypse”. In the Verkhoyansk region, “everyone who can hold a rifle is mobilized to fight wolves”.
Starting February 18, 2011, authorities in Slettas, Norway are currently providing free transportation for school children who live more than 800 yards from their bus stop in order to protect them from wolves. Their representative in Parliament said “it has gone too far when we have to drive children to school for fear they will meet a wolf pack on the road”.
An experimental population of Canadian Gray Wolves was introduced into Montana’s Yellowstone Park in 1995. They were subsequently listed as endangered species, functionally preventing their unrestricted reproduction and migration.
During the past 15 years, they have reproduced and migrated to populate Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and parts of Utah with several thousand of these vicious, imported predators. In those states they have decimated the elk, deer and moose populations as well as causing extensive mortality and other related losses to their livestock industry.
Most recently the Canadian Gray Wolves have migrated into northeastern Oregon.
Last Tuesday an Enterprise cattle rancher found two of his cows that had been killed by wolves in the most cruel way imaginable. The wolves had dragged the heavily pregnant cows down by their hamstrings without inflicting a killing bite wound. These sadistic creatures had then proceeded to eat the still living cows from behind, ripping their live calves from their reproductive tract, and partially consuming the still living fetuses. Wildlife Services, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have all confirmed that the cows and their calves were killed by wolves.
The interaction with wolves began in Oregon starting back in March of 2010. Agencies have confirmed at least 11 cattle kills in Oregon. Another 23 calves and 9 cows are missing and presumed lost to predation. It is difficult to document livestock killed by wolves on rangeland because these cattle are often not seen by their owners for weeks at a time. If the remains are found the evidence required to confirm a wolf kill is usually long gone.
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Debt for Nature — Financing American Endangered Species on Foreign Soil
by Karen Budd-Falen, Karen Budd-Falen Law Offices LLC, Cheyenne WY [here]
See also: Western Legacy Alliance [here]
Let me see if I have gotten this straight:
1. President Obama has stated that America is going to be more restrained in foreign internal affairs.
2. Yet the U.S. federal government has listed 568 foreign species on the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). These are species who never set one paw or foot or leg on American soil, ever.
3. And once listed, the ESA authorizes the U.S. Treasury to spend American taxpayer money acquiring foreign land, water and other property interests to “protect” these species.
4. As one way for America to spend money on foreign property, Congress and the federal bureaucracy have also authorized several “Debt for Nature swaps” which allow the U.S. Treasury to forgive (“trade”) foreign debt or loans made by the American taxpayers to foreign countries with the hope that the foreign country will stop property use and development to protect species on the American endangered species list.
5. Some of these Debt for Nature swaps include non-governmental organizations like The Nature Conservancy or World Wildlife Fund buying the foreign debt to the U.S. for “pennies on the dollar.”
There are several types of Debt for Nature programs which are being used to exert the opinions of a small group of radical environmentalists that “nature is more important than people.” Debt for Nature was modeled after a program started in the early 1990s called Enterprise for the Americas Initiative (“EIA”). Under that program, the U.S. restructured, and in one case sold, debt owed to the American taxpayers by Latin American countries equivalent to a face value of nearly $1 billion. Basically the U.S. Treasury forgave or restructured monetary debt owed to American taxpayers for the Latin American country’s adoption of certain social and property use goals related to environmental, natural resources, health protection, and child development projects.
An official governmental “Debt for Nature” bill was passed by Congress in 1998 called the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (“TFCA”). Since passage of the TFCA, although the reports are somewhat conflicting, at least $128.4 million has been used to fund 15 separate transactions which allegedly “conserve” tropical forests within 13 debtor foreign countries.
MT Governor Notifies Interior of New Wolf Management Directives
News Release, governor.mt.gov, 2/16/2011 [here]
(HELENA) – Governor Brian Schweitzer today sent a letter to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar notifying Interior of new directives regarding wolf management in Montana. Text of the letter below (and attached):
February 16, 2011
To: The Honorable Ken Salazar
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20240
Dear Secretary Salazar:
I write to you today regarding wolf management in Montana.
While almost everyone acknowledges that the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf population is fully recovered, as the Governor of Montana I am profoundly frustrated by the lack of any actual results that recognize Montana’s rights and responsibilities to manage its wildlife. Montana has for years done everything that has been asked: adopting a model wolf management plan; enacting enabling legislation; and adopting the necessary implementing rules. Our exemplary efforts have been ignored. I cannot continue to ignore the crying need for workable wolf management while Montana waits, and waits, and waits. Therefore, I am now going to take additional necessary steps to protect the interests of Montana’s livestock producers and hunters to the extent that I can within my authorities as governor.
First, for Montana’s northwest endangered wolves (north of Interstate 90), any livestock producers who kill or harass a wolf attacking their livestock will not be prosecuted by Montana game wardens. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) wardens will be directed to exercise their prosecutorial discretion by not investigating or citing anyone protecting their livestock.
Further, I am directing FWP to respond to any livestock depredation by removing whole packs that kill livestock, wherever this may occur.
Still further, to protect the elk herds in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley that have been most adversely affected by wolf predation, I am directing FWP, to the extent allowed by the Endangered Species Act, to cull these wolves by whole-pack removal to enable elk herds to recover.
At this point, I can do nothing less and still maintain my commitment as Governor to uphold the rights of our citizens to protect their property and to continue to enjoy Montana’s cherished wildlife heritage and traditions.
Sincerely,
Brian Schweitzer
GOVERNOR, State of Montana
pdf is [here]
Wolfish Judicial Games
by Mike Dubrasich, Exec Dir W.I.S.E.
The latest twist in the judicial wolf saga [here] is complicated and merits some discussion of the history vis the courts and wolves. We offer a partial history as follows:
On Aug. 7, 2008 US District Court Judge Donald W. Molloy issued a wolf decision [here] that began with his usual flowery though unintelligible verbosity:
This case, like a cloud larger than a man’s hand, will hang over the northwest states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming until there has been a final determination of the complex issues presented.
In that case (CV 08-56-M-DWM) the Defenders of Wildlife et al. challenged the February 27, 2008 US Fish and Wildlife Service delisting of the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf distinct population segment (DPS). The USFWS RM wolf DPS included all of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and northern Utah.
Molloy reinstated (relisted) wolves as endangered because, as he reasoned, the USFWS had made “no plausible showing of genetic exchange” between wolves in Yellowstone and wolves in Montana and Idaho.
This was a strange finding, since the Canadian gray wolves in Montana and Idaho were direct descendants of the Canadian gray wolves the USFWS dumped in Yellowstone in 1995. They were the exact genetic strain. Was Molloy saying that brother and sister wolves were failing to mate, or first cousins, or what? It was difficult to decipher his irrational rationale, but he did mention “genetic exchange” no less than 67 times in that decision and concluded:
Absent genetic exchange, the wolf will not likely be able to withstand future environmental variability and stochastic events. 1994 EIS, App. 9. Plaintiffs therefore have demonstrated a possibility of irreparable harm.
The reaction to this nonsense was swift and loud, and more than a little bit derisive [here, here]. Obviously there was genetic exchange. The wolves were one big happy family. They not only interbred, they mongrelized with dogs, coyotes, and attempted to do so with whatever they came across that looked half way mate-worthy, successfully or not.
Wolverine Madness
The new “charismatic” predator of the month is the wolverine. Wolverine news is popping up all over. For instance:
Wolverine population threatened by climate change
NCAE & UCAR News, February 03, 2011 [here]
BOULDER—The aggressive wolverine may not be powerful enough to survive climate change in the contiguous United States, new research concludes.
Wolverine habitat in the northwestern United States is likely to warm dramatically if society continues to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, according to new computer model simulations carried out at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The study found that climate change is likely to imperil the wolverine in two ways: reducing or eliminating the springtime snow cover that wolverines rely on to protect and shelter newborn kits, and increasing August temperatures well beyond what the species may be able to tolerate. …
Peacock’s research focused on mountainous regions of the Northwest, the primary habitat of the wolverine population in the contiguous United States. The study did not look into the impacts of climate change on regions where wolverines are more numerous, such as Canada, although other research has indicated those areas will likely warm significantly as well. …
The study was published last week in Environmental Research Letters. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR’s sponsor.
Note that “computer model simulations” are the source of this alarming news. In actual fact, winter temperatures in wolverine country have been trending downwards for the last 20 years at a rate of -.53°F per decade, and a whopping -5.24°F over the last 10 years.
NCDC Climate Services and Monitoring Division, Climate At A Glance [here]
Winter (Dec-Feb) Temperatures, West North Central Region, Winter (Dec-Feb) 1990 - 2010 Trend = -0.53 degF / Decade
Winter (Dec-Feb) Temperatures, West North Central Region, Winter (Dec-Feb) 2000 - 2010 Trend = -5.24 degF / Decade
Evidently nobody told the computer making the simulations. The wolverine alarmists don’t care about the actual facts, however, and are content to spew insane tales of horror no matter what the facts are.
More government promulgated insanity: all citizen visits to the Sawtooth National Recreation Area are to be banned because of wolverines. Wildlife pseudo-biologists have determined that the mere presence of a human being causes wolverines to curl up and die.
The Boise, Payette, and Sawtooth National Forests are developing “Wildlife Conservation Strategies” that will eliminate recreational use of their “Recreation Areas” and wildernesses because of the fragile sensitivities of wolverines [here].
Note that all three Forests have deliberately and with malice aforethought promulgated megafires over the last five years. The fires have eliminated almost all recreational use across thousands of square miles, but not affected the wolverines in the slightest (evidently). A crown fire ripping through 100,000 acres is no great burden to wolverines, but the presence of human being on that same tract of land is fatal to them, according to the USFS and USFWS.
The hidden objective is to de-humanize vast tracts of public and private land, in accord with the Wilderness Project dreamed up and promulgated by Earth First!. The former radical underground eco-terrorist group is now mainstream and has taken over the US Forest Service.
The wolverine is not endangered. They are doing quite nicely in Canada, and the US population is growing. The fur trapping days are over. That’s what mainly caused wolverine population declines over the last 200 years. Not human sighting.
De-humanizing the West will not do anything for wolverines. Pseudoscience notwithstanding.
The radical anti-humanists are not retreating, however, despite their failure to get wolverines listed:
Wolverines denied federal protection
Given ‘candidate species’ designation
By Katherine Wutz, Idaho Mountain Express, Dec. 15, 2010 [here]
Even though wolverines are threatened with extinction [BS Alert - false statement by a journo-lista], they will not receive federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday.
Wolverines will be listed as a “candidate species,” meaning that they are eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, the service said there are other, more high-priority species on the same list, and listing wolverines under federal protection will have to wait for now, though the species will undergo an annual review.
“There are reasons to be concerned about the long-term persistence of wolverines,” said Robin Garwood, a wildlife biologist with the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. “Even though wolverines won’t be protected by ESA for now, I think it highlights the importance of ensuring that remaining habitat, including habitat on the Sawtooth Forest, is kept as intact as possible.”
To the Sawtooth NF, “intact” means keeping the public out, with armed federal agents if necessary. You might disturb a wolverine, so you are forbidden to go upon federal land. You are requested, however, to pay the salaries of the federal agents like Mr. (or Ms.) Garwood, or else go to jail. That’s how the System works.
It’s not your land, it’s not my land. The land belongs to the Government and that means not you and not me. Only certified federal agents and eco-terrorists are allowed. Exclusion of the public is necessary to “save” the non-endangered wolverines.
Grizzly Bear Cognitive Dissonance
For decades the US Fish and Wildlife Service and state fish and game departments have promoted grizzly bear worship. Now they seem to be sliding into apostasy.
The allegedly “iconic and charismatic” predators have been placed on the high altar of the Endangered Species Act, even though they are in no way, shape, or form endangered. Anti-human rights groups have used grizzlies to scam hundreds of $millions out of little old ladies burdened with liberal guilt, and the agencies have milked that cow for all it’s worth.
The latest insult to intelligence was Judge Molloy’s refusal to delist grizzly bears because of global warming! That’s right sports fans, da judge said that gloooobal waaaaarrming is gonna kill off da bears, and so they must remain sacrosanct wards of the State [here].
The judge based his decision on the junk pseudoscience that spews from our wonderful wildlife agencies, the same folks who drug grizzlies and them leave them to wake up grouchy in your back yard [here]. If you get attacked, killed, and eaten, it’s your fault.
There is no accounting or audit of what the taxpayers have forked out for decades so that gummit employees can live like kings while spewing junk science and pagan grizzly bear worship, and packing your neighborhood with 1,000 pound man-eaters. Just another public service from a government that’s here to help. And as usual with helpful gummit services, money is no object.
Despite the fact that grizzlies kill elk as well as humans, sportsman groups are far more concerned about wolves, and Rocky Mountain gray wolves in particular. As we reported [here], a move is afoot to delist wolves by Congressional action. The rest of the ESA atrocities (bears, owls, smelt, etc.) will have to wait for some other time.
The assumption is that US Congress will possibly (doubtful) do something about wolves, but are too anti-human liberal to fix the ESA, an Act that was promulgated by the UN during the Vietnam War and is perhaps the most anti-American un-Constitutional law in existence.
Gaia forbid we should sully the altar of pagan iconic animals that kill citizens in their back yards. When the Founding Fathers came up with the nutty notion that human rights are unalienable, they were smoking crack.
To be fair, more than fair, some government employee wildlife biologists are now questioning whether grizzly bears should be allowed to multiply like rabbits and freely roam the countryside in Fly-Over Land. They don’t question their own junk pseudoscience, and are still fully invested in numerous hoaxes like glooooobal waaaarming, but they are toying with the idea that wildlife management might be preferable to wildlife worship.
Grizzly bears moving out of core habitats, changing management message
By ROB CHANEY, the Missoulian, January 22, 2011 [here]
If we care about keeping grizzly bears alive, perhaps we should worry less about how they die.
The idea won a serious listen at last week’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee work session in Missoula. Since 1983, when the group of state and federal bear managers started meeting, grizzly survival has been the top job. Now science and public opinion may be heading in a new direction.
“We need to rethink our grizzly messages for the Greater Yellowstone area,” Steve Schmidt of the Idaho Fish and Game Department told the committee. “This population is recovered. We are now transitioning into management. Some bears are gonna die. That is a natural consequence of bears expanding their distribution.”
Schmidt chairs the IGBC’s Yellowstone grizzly committee, which oversees bear recovery in one of the two largest bear habitats in the continental United States. Between 2004 and 2008, grizzlies have stretched their active range around Yellowstone National Park by 34 percent. And most of their conflicts with livestock, hunters and cars are now taking place on the developed fringes of that range.
“The bears in the Yellowstone area are filling up their logical habitat,” Schmidt said. “We also believe as a committee that bears have met or exceeded their social carrying capacity. The public appetite for further expanding this bear population is very small. And the political appetite is nil.”
Scott Talbot of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department agreed.
“Last year we moved 65 bears,” Talbot said. “Our average is 28. And we are seeing a significant increase of bears outside socially acceptable areas. There used to be large amount of public support for bears. Now we’re seeing a big decline, plus growing legislative interest. That’s very concerning to us.”
Montana’s Legislature has already put forward five bills aimed at bear management, compared to just one so far on wolves. ..
“The public views these as ‘federal bears,’” Schmidt said. “They have no ownership of these bears because they’re still listed. Without state management and a chance to participate in how they’re managed, and the opportunity to harvest once in a while, they will oppose all the conservation efforts we’ve worked on so hard in the past.”
“We’ve gone from 200 bears (in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem) in 1983 to over 600 today,” Schmidt said. “We need to focus on the health of this population and less on the bears that need to be removed. Bears on the fringe aren’t essential to the health of the population. We need to start communicating that idea now.”
Hold the presses, the message is changing, maybe. Yes sports fans, the old propaganda is going to be replaced by new propaganda, possibly, or possibly not. So be prepared to undergo cognitive dissonance yet again. Or possibly not. Big Brother is confused.
Meanwhile, when you go shopping, or work in your garden, or when the kids are waiting for the school bus to ferry them to our valued government Indoctrination Centers, carry a gun. A big gun. One capable of killing a grizzly bear. Or a wolf.
Unless, of course, Big Brother has seized your guns, in which case huddle in the cold and dark and wait for your opportunity to serve the State by becoming bear chow.
