http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2006/cougar-predation-key-to-ecosystem-health.html
This made me stop and think a bit. As much as I don't like the idea of wolves, cougars, and bears close by, they obviously have a tremendous NECESSARY impact, clear down to the loss of cottonwoods along the banks of streams. Who would have thought their presence has such a wide-reaching effect? Or that deer and elk do too? I always loved the local elk herd when I was in Colorado and hated to see them hunted, but we had almost no predators left, so obviously this was a right thing. Hunters do have an important function in the balance of nature. When we remove the predators, SOMEBODY has to assume their job or bad results do follow, as this article so clearly shows.
A bit of a necessary reminder for me, because I hate to kill anything. Did enough of that as a Marine and surely did lose my taste for it. But the balance of nature is important to me, treehugger that I am.
Rusty
This made me stop and think a bit. As much as I don't like the idea of wolves, cougars, and bears close by, they obviously have a tremendous NECESSARY impact, clear down to the loss of cottonwoods along the banks of streams. Who would have thought their presence has such a wide-reaching effect? Or that deer and elk do too? I always loved the local elk herd when I was in Colorado and hated to see them hunted, but we had almost no predators left, so obviously this was a right thing. Hunters do have an important function in the balance of nature. When we remove the predators, SOMEBODY has to assume their job or bad results do follow, as this article so clearly shows.
A bit of a necessary reminder for me, because I hate to kill anything. Did enough of that as a Marine and surely did lose my taste for it. But the balance of nature is important to me, treehugger that I am.
Rusty