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Not trying to hijack the thread here but since I brought it up in a slightly different context.....do you all have feral pigs yet?
Talk about wiping out agriculture, native, nonnative species - they are a disaster and spreading at an alarming rate. They are going to be a billion dollar mistake. I wouldn't have thought they could live in northern Michigan but they have been seen and shot. Why? Because they are part Russian Boar escapees shoot in the barrel hunting farms. Non native species shouldn't be let in anywhere! Then there are all the boa's that are eating everything alive in Florida. Man. Our tax payers are going to have to pay for someone elses desire to shoot a non-native species (rather than flying their sorry a&&es to Russia) and have a snake for a pet.
Wolves are the least of our problems. They are a serious serious problem in the south and getting more and more so farther north. Talk about having an impact on hunting, if your worried about wolves your looking in the wrong direction.
If feral pigs can live in northern Michigan I would assume they can live in Idaho. Hopefully not. Michigan DNR said they had the smallest of windows to get a handle on this and it doesn't look like they are going to make it.
www.wzzm13.com : Grand Rapids : Muskegon couple shoots feral pigs: Warning - graphic images (http://www.wzzm13.com/news/most_popular_story.aspx?storyid=108378&provider=to p - broken link)
24 hours after my post about the NE OR ranchers--came back to 5 more pages of discussion!
Sactown, I feel for you, but don't grovel so much.
Some folks don't seem to understand how crazy-making it is to be told by government officials that one may not defend oneself or one's loved ones [including 4-legged family members] against predation, whether it be by wild animals or human predators. THAT goes against nature IMHO.
24 hours after my post about the NE OR ranchers--came back to 5 more pages of discussion!
Sactown, I feel for you, but don't grovel so much.
Some folks don't seem to understand how crazy-making it is to be told by government officials that one may not defend oneself or one's loved ones [including 4-legged family members] against predation, whether it be by wild animals or human predators. THAT goes against nature IMHO.
Sactown wasn't "groveling". What a rude and ignorant thing to say.
Actually, I think he's a pretty secure guy to listen and take into consideration other's points of view.
24 hours after my post about the NE OR ranchers--came back to 5 more pages of discussion!
Sactown, I feel for you, but don't grovel so much.
Some folks don't seem to understand how crazy-making it is to be told by government officials that one may not defend oneself or one's loved ones [including 4-legged family members] against predation, whether it be by wild animals or human predators. THAT goes against nature IMHO.
Just out of curiosity though...which government official is keeping someone who is being attacked by any animal from shooting said animal?
Is this a big issue for you in the wilds of Portland? Or do you just usually swallow hook, line and sinker, the propaganda put out by agenda driven groups or political parties?
Really, if you ferriners really think we have a wolf problem here in Idaho, why not just buy a wolf hunting tag and come spend your money. We won't mind...honest.
No feral hogs here Giesela. I was almost going to invite you to send some our way after your earlier post but had no idea they were such a problem. I like eating piggies, especially if I don't have to feed them every day.
Giesela, I used to hunt feral hogs in Texas with dogs. When I relocated to KS, they DO have feral hogs but decided to spend their taxpayers' money to hire a helicopter which machine gunned the hogs. I don't think they got all of them to be honest. They allow hog hunting with dogs but you have to go thru a lot of steps to get anywhere near something called hog hunting. You can't call it that way in KS, just call it hog removal assistance. Totally stupid. I'm seriously trying to find a job in Oklahoma so I can get back to hog hunting with dogs.
I have a question regarding the article posted by Mistyriverranch, FTA: bolding mine "While the predators have surely had a hand in thinning herds, Rachael said, many people have ignored a number of other significant factors, including the state's history of wildfire suppression. Fewer wildfires have resulted in denser forests, inhibiting the ability of elk and deer to find food."
In a state where 70% of it is federally controlled, what is the reason for suppression? Doesn't suppression leave the forest floor a tinderbox and the populace in jeopardy from a devastating fire? Is this a problem for all of you?
You just opened up a whole new policical discussion here. Your assumption is correct, Idaho is a tinderbox, with literally millions of acres (20 million in FS land in the state) that has overgrown, unhealthy stands with species that are not historically climax species. Many forests have very large swaths of dead timber, ripe for fire.
As to suppression, nearly a century of fire supression has created this condition. Now, these forests are too dense to do controlled burns without loosing the entire forest. The solution in most areas is to aggressively log, either thinning or clearcutting and replacing with site-suitable species (in most cases P-pine, larch and white pine), then maintaining these areas with controlled burns.
Unfortunately, federal regulation and the well-meaning but often ignorant environmental community have largely eliminated logging on federal lands. I have heard that 70%+ of the propety in the state is owned by the federal government, but supplies only 10% of the timber cut in the state. In general, you'll find that private and state timber lands are much healther than lands managed by the feds. I suspect that one of these years we'll have a blowup that will make the 1910 fire (which burned some 3 million acres) look like a weenie roast.
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