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Re: [RC] wolves and end of arguement here - heidiHeidi, I will agree to disagree and thank the lucky stars the next generation is growing up environmentally friendly and willing to look at the natural order of things and the way nature has operated long before mankind set his footprint upon the earth. Gee, that's funny--I've spent my entire life being "environmentally friendly," caring a great deal about the natural world around me, and looking at "the natural order of things and the way nature operated" before mankind was here. What makes you think your ivory tower gives you a monopoly on that? I do not agree with anything you have to say, and I was born and raised in Penn by a hunting family and have seen the ranges as I've travelled quite extensively across the United States. My degree is geography with an emphasis on resource managment and I am confident in my opinions. Golly, gee, I have a bunch of degrees tucked away as well, and it is nice to have them. But unless you brush them off and USE them in the actual real world, they aren't worth the powder to blow them away. A degree isn't an end in itself--it is a tool to go out and learn. And once you get out and actually dirty your hands in the real world, one of the first things you discover is that they didn't always tell you the truth in college. BTW, I have likewise "travelled quite extensively across the United States" and I wouldn't even DREAM of feeling qualified to make policy regarding an area where I had not spent extensive time actually getting out in the field and learning the facts. One thing I've learned even endurance riding is that you have to get off the highway to even BEGIN to see what is out there. Come ride range up here for a year, and THEN tell me some of your claptrap. The world is much more crowded now, polluted and greedy and I am thankful for heroes like John Muir who had the foresight to fight for wildlands and the creatures on them. John Muir would roll over in his grave at a great deal of what you and your cronies espouse, even though he was pretty extreme in his views. His contemporary Gifford Pinchot, who was the one who actually set out to preserve, manage, and make sure that there was a sustained yield and multiple use of public lands, made a great deal more sense and had a much more realistic view of managing natural resources and keeping them healthy for generations to come. He and Muir often disagreed, and quite frankly, Pinchot made a great deal more sense. Nonetheless, I doubt that even Muir could have imagined how far from reality his disciples have traveled. Gifford Pinchot, for the record, was the founder of the USFS and is the real father of sensible public land management. Our cultures appear to be quite different and since you were an adult in the 50s during the high use of pesticides and poisonings you should know better. Gee, I was BORN in the 50s. I ain't THAT old. But I also have a considerable background in chemistry and a very good understanding of poisoning and pesticide problems. What that has to do with man interfering with nature by introducing wolves into a situation where they are not natural and where there is an opportunity for their explosive reproduction is simply irresponsible. Your entire line of logic would seem to frown on that sort of interference--but apparently that sort of consistency doesn't fit your anti-human agenda. just please think about what the world would be like without our predators and the ecology needed to support them. It would be a boring closed in pasture indeed. At NO time in this discussion have I suggested wiping out predators! What I objected to was a political ploy on the part of the federal government to cover up the facts and to introduce predators that did NOT belong in an attempt to alter the lives of the people in the area. There has been as much coverup in the wolf program as there was in the lynx hair issue in Washington. And I further object to sanctimonious folks who label anyone who objects to a federal agenda to lock up public lands and get all human use off the land as some kind of rabid "right wing" extremist anti-nature slobbering heathens. Those of us who espouse sensible management, balance, and multiple use happen to care a great deal about the land too, and happen to strive to use science, common sense, and some realism in the management of that land. Heidi ============================================================ Of course things aren't perfect, perfect doesn't exist on this earth. Doesn't mean we won't go on trying to get better at what we do. Besides, if everything was perfect today, what would you do tomorrow? Slamming each other doesn't get anything done. ~ Dot Wiggins ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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