Wolves = Awesome for our public lands, yet Salazar says it's OK to kill them

[G_j]

Wolves = Awesome for our public lands

This is a great article that covers in-depth the importance of top predators, like wolves, to biodiversity in ecosystems. Where wolves are found you will also find an ecosystem that is healthy and strong and teaming with biodiversity - and make no mistake about it, in the greater Yellowstone area the wolves are the reason for this re-emergence of this native species biodiversity. It's all connected. Ecosystems need balance and when they don't have top predators, as the article points out, the whole ecosystem and balance shifts. It has been documented over and over again from the sea otters in California and their relationship to sea urchins and the underwater kelp forests to the deer of the east coast that have eaten the native plants and biodiversity out of the Appalachians, if you are missing a key piece of these puzzles you will change and weaken the entire ecosystem

http://www.missoulian.com/lifestyles/territory/article_3ec9fc54-c01f-11de-bf16-001cc4c002e0.html

<snip>
She adds in historic and archival data dating back a century, stirs in radio-collar data from both predator and prey.
Her findings: Wolves increase biodiversity; wolves affect elk behavior more than elk populations; and aspen growth in elk winter range is directly related to wolves.

"It's pretty rock-solid," Eisenberg said. "The information coming out is unbelievably clear."

Her next project will take these methods out of protected parks and put them to work on multiple-use national forest lands. With help from the National Science Foundation, she'll explore wildlands in Washington state, where wolves are only now returning.

The predators are, perhaps, something like forest fire - highly controversial, once maligned as a controllable evil, later understood to be one of the keys to overall forest health.
<snip>

A huge BOOOOO! for Obama's appointment of Ken Salazar as Secretary of the U.S. Department of the

Interiorhttp://myyellowstonewolves.typepad.com/myw/2009/03/not-a-good-day-to-be-a-wolf.html

March 06, 2009

Not a good day to be a wolf

Same bad plan for wolves
Salazar strips federal Endangered Species Act protection from wolves in Idaho, Montana

WASHINGTON – Today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced he has decided to follow the Bush administration’s flawed decision to remove the protections of the Endangered Species Act from wolves in Idaho and Montana.
..more..

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005128163#list


29 wolves shot in Idaho this season
By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer


A female member of the Phantom Hill wolf pack was killed Monday, the first wolf to be shot in the Wood River Valley since hunting opened in the region on Thursday, Oct. 1.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game Senior Conservation Officer Lee Garwood confirmed that the kill occurred in the Eagle Creek drainage, north of Ketchum. He said the wolf, which had been collared for tracking purposes, was about 2 years old. Garwood said a second wolf may have been close to the female when it was shot.

"There's at least nine or 10 wolves remaining in the Phantom Hill pack," he said. "It's difficult to say exactly, as we didn't see them in a group the last time we flew over the area."

<snip>

Wolf advocate and Stanley resident Lynne Stone decried the Phantom Hill pack shooting, saying few older wolves are left in that pack, especially after the alpha male was killed by a car in June. Stone said the pack could have trouble if it's mostly made up of pups and yearlings.

"It's sad because it was the pack we were using for education," she said.
Stone said she saw another wolf near Eagle Creek on Monday and shot in the air to scare it farther away from state Highway 75.

The wolf hunt in Idaho started earlier this year after the federal government removed the state's wolves from the federal endangered species list.

[villager]

1. It was the appointment of Salazar, a rancher, in the Interior post, that was the first fat red flag

that we wouldn't be getting all that much "hope" or "change" this time 'round either...

[ThatPoetGuy]

3. Foxes running the hen house.

Salazar has been spending a fortune of our taxpayer money to hunt down and imprison wild horses. He's been hurting wolves and polar bears. A true enemy of wildlife, far worse than his predecessors in the Bush white house.

[G_j]

13. Sheryl Crow Slams Salazar's Wild Horse Plan

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/22/sheryl-crow-slams-salazar_n_366809.html

Sheryl Crow Slams Salazar's Wild Horse Plan

MARTIN GRIFFITH | 11/21/09 04:02 PM |

RENO, Nev. — Sheryl Crow is joining others in calling on the federal government to halt roundups of wild horses in the West, branding them as inhumane and unnecessary.

The Grammy Award-winning singer has asked President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to scrap a proposed roundup of 2,500 mustangs in northern Nevada.

"With one voice we are insisting that our government stop managing these beautiful and important animals to extinction," Crow said in a statement released by the Cloud Foundation, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based horse advocacy group.

Crow, who has adopted a mustang, campaigned for Obama last year. She opposes Salazar's plan to move thousands of wild horses to preserves in the Midwest and East to protect horse herds and the rangelands that support them.

"It's time for all of us to speak up for our wild horses and burros so we do not lose these living legends and inspiring symbols of our freedom in America," she said.

..more..

[roguevalley]

16. yeah. he's a bastard. If anyone sat in the dark and listened to them

call, they would never harm them. I hope for a hell when I see things like this but I doubt that it exists outside of the space between my ears and the circle of this world. I love wolves. :(

[Raine]

38. Yup that made me nervous

I should've known immediately that was the end of hope and change ... it's DOA. :-(

[corpseratemedia]

2. and wolves keep coyotes in check

coyotes now populate lands to the east of the Mississippi because wolf populations were decimated

[Lorien]

5. So true. Foxes are also on the decline because coyotes pick them off

without wolves the entire system becomes unbalanced.

[shadesofgray]

4. This is sickening.

[ShadesOfGrey]

18. Like your name and I totally agree...

Welcome to du!

[truedelphi]

19. Thank you! Finally found someone agreeing and even

praising someone on DU today!

And no two shades about it!

[shadesofgray]

25. Thanks! I didn't realize there was a British spelling version of the name I chose! Glad we agree!

Salazar was a horrible choice.

[niyad]

27. welcome to DU

[Angry Dragon]

6. The guy is an ass

[dimpol]

10. at least an ass

[QC]

7. Salazar is only one of many dismaying appointments.

From the beginning, I expected Obama to be corporate as hell, but even as cynical as I was, those early cabinet appointments were a shock.

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

9. Salazar is a clown in a cowboy hat

and he is what we get when we allow our party to move to the right.

[G_j]

12. not to be trite but, he looks like a Republican.

kinda reminds me of Phil Graham.

""

[QC]

17. It is entirely fitting that he should look like a Republican. n/t

[G_j]

8. link for second article in the OP

http://myyellowstonewolves.typepad.com/myw/2009/03/not-a-good-day-to-be-a-wolf.html

[saltpoint]

11. For anybody who has not yet read it, Barry Lopez's book OF WOLVES AND MEN

is absolutely terrific.

Thanks for this post.

Recommended.

[Karmadillo]

14. Who in the world appointed this loser?

nt

[janx]

15. Shhh...don't tell anybody, but

http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/es/documents/QuarterlyWolfLocationMap7-09-9-09_000.pdf


http://www.mexicanwolves.org/

[Robb]

20. Is your position "never kill wolves?"

...And does that position translate to all wildlife, or only wolves?

I'm truly curious. I don't care for killing anything, but we "manage" wildlife in this country because we've rather fucked their ecosystem beyond a natural ability to balance itself. We manage it by hunting, feeding/not feeding, fences/no fences, traffic studies, zoning laws, and a million other efforts. Hunting kills something dramatically and quickly; allowing increased housing density in rural areas does it slowly.

I'm partial to wolves, sure. They're among nature's neatest. But I certainly wouldn't claim to know so much about Idaho that I could say without a doubt this must be some kind of wolf-hating scam.

So is there an acceptable situation to allow wolf hunting as a management tool? Or should we stick to the ones that keep our consciences clean? Or is there no way to manage wildlife? What, exactly, do you want?

[G_j]

21. read the articles eom

[Robb]

22. That is not an answer.

I'd like to know your position. Too much to ask?

[G_j]

23. I read articles, such as the first one,

because I am not an expert. So I try to read what knowledgeable people have to say, and they aren't ranchers.
That's my position.

[Robb]

32. Okay, so you don't have an opinion.

Interesting.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

24. Speaking from the North woods, I'm fine with Salazars' decision.

no rec, and no un-rec either.

[winyanstaz]

26. Another example of Obama keeping the Bush policies in place....

He should be protecting the wolves and not appointing such obvious assholes to a position where they can harm the environment.

[niyad]

28. when that idiot was sen, I used to excoriate him regularly, and finish by saying,

"if we had wanted a conservative catholic republican, we could have voted for pete coors"

when he was nominated for interior, I was beyond shocked. the local indie paper ran a very clear editorial about why this appointment sucked.

[G_j]

29. a conservative catholic republican

fits the ticket :-(

[pipoman]

30. I trust wildlife scientists

at the state level to manage game populations to the benefit of each species. State game laws have proven effective in maintaining healthy populations for several decades now.

[quaker bill]

31. As a biologist

and one who enforces wetlands and wildlife regulations for a living, delisting suggests that the population as rebounded substantially. Generally declining and small populations are not delisted, virtually ever.

[Robb]

33. No, no, that's not it. Obama hates wolf puppies.

...Can't you see? He HATES the wolves, and wants to shoot them.

Salazar, since his family has been "ranching" in Colorado for generations, can't get over his family's history of wolf-hunting (somehow the wolves get into the barley and wheat the Salazars grow in Manassa). Doesn't matter what any biologists in the Department of the Interior, where he works, tell him, he just wants to shoot wolves.

Obama and Salazar are acting unilaterally to kill all the wolves they can find, through their corporatist agenda and broad wolf-hate. It's the only logical thing to infer from these actions, although I haven't figured out how Monsanto and Blackwater are involved yet.

[Tim01]

34. Enough wolves is good, too many wolves is bad.

Wolves in Yellowstone is good, wolves on a cattle ranch is bad.

It isn't all black and white.

I'm sure the best solution is to get rid of all the farms, get rid of all the cattle ranches, get rid of all the logging operations, and most importantly get rid of all of the cities. Then there will be no reason to be concerned about the populations of other animals like wolves and deer.

People are so very hysterical and irrational.

[Robb]

35. There is a balance to be struck

...But you're right, there is a lack of rational thought on the subject.

[G_j]

37. maybe

but there is no lack of rational though in the OP.
:thumbsdown:

I guess you still haven't really read it


christ, I give up!

[Robb]

39. Give up? You haven't tried.

Now we've all read what you posted, and should talk about it.

What on earth do you believe about wolves and wildlife management??

[G_j]

41. why do you want to know what I believe?

I offered some informed analysis of predators in the ecosystem. You haven't discussed anything pertaining to that.

granted, I did offer that I thought Ken Salazar was the wrong choice.
But he has behaved like a Republican on many issues, and IMO should not be trusted.

[pipoman]

40. I have read all of the articles

and agree with Tim and Robb. What are you getting at? Are you ONLY reading the quotes from the 'wolf advocates'?

[G_j]

36. another who didn't read the first article

:thumbsdown: