A County of Ostriches

Fairfax County is engulfed in serious and life-threatening wildlife issues.
Overabundant deer (over 400/sq. mile in certain areas) cause hundreds of
auto accidents (many fatal) while spreading Lyme Disease and denuding
gardens and landscaping.  Canada geese crowd every wet spot, park,
schoolyard and waterway spreading disease and pollution and even attacking
springtime workers on lunch breaks and unwary children.  Abundant coyotes
and raccoons and foxes course through yards threatening rabies and injury to
children and adults raised on Disney anthropomorphisms.  So what is the
response of one of the richest ($5.8 BILLION annual budget!) counties in the
United States ?

They "want an additional $138, 099" "to hire a second assistant wildlife
biologist" "tasked with helping residents co-exist safely with wildlife" and
"community outreach" and "representing the Animal Services Division at
'community' meetings".  We are told the current bureaucrat "can hardly find
time to oversee all wildlife programs, including deer and waterfowl
management, as well as return the more than 20 calls he gets from citizens
every day."  Shades of "the kids are all flunking so let's pay the teachers
more".  Is it still OK to invoke divine help?

This problem has been festering and growing for years right under the noses
of County bureaucrats and taxpayers.  Most wildlife is benign and enjoyable
from a rabbit in your yard to a cardinal singing from the top of your
highest tree.  Many of the others as noted above are problematic and cause
far more issues than any purported "ecological" good claimed by folks that
would neither kill an animal nor allow someone else to do so.  The problem
species mentioned above MUST be reduced severely in numbers and areas of
occurrence on a continuing basis.  There is no other solution.

The "answer" is population reductions and sustained programs to keep the
numbers and distribution tolerable in such a densely populated area.
Ironically, the excitement and enjoyment of seeing wild animals is greatly
increased when they are relatively rare and not seen as either
life-threatening or as an environmental contaminant.  This means killing
them (transplanting, like "birth control" and "learning to live with them"
are foolish, ineffective, and merely wishful thinking) and not tolerating
(as County policies to date demonstrate) propaganda, pandering to radical
agendas and the waste of funds and personnel (miniscule as it may be)
masquerading as some sort of "management" program.

The question is really, how much longer can a rich County delude a County of
taxpayers with their heads all buried in the sand that the answer to this
deadly and costly dilemma is "co-existing"?  As a retired US Fish and
Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist take it from me; the reason there were
no ostriches in North America was because when they buried their heads in
the sand, coyotes and wolves thought it was a scent post but after duly
marking it they realized what it was and ate the ostrich.  These critters
are still doing the same thing to the taxpayers of Fairfax County .

Jim Beers
7 April 2007

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- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist,
Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.
He was stationed in North Dakota , Minnesota , Nebraska , New York City , and
Washington DC .  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western
Pacific and on Adak , Alaska in the Aleutian Islands .  He has worked for the
Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security
Supervisor in Washington , DC .  He testified three times before Congress;
twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60
Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to
expanding Federal Invasive Species authority.  He resides in Centreville ,
Virginia with his wife of many decades.