GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS 

First, the Good News from The Wall Street Journal:

“The Supreme Court’s most important ruling this year may have been its unanimous decision in BOND v. UNITED STATES, which held that individual citizens can challenge federal statutes when they encroach on authority the Constitution reserves to the states.”

“Ms. Bond was subjected to federal prosecution under a statute designed to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention.  In defense, she argued that the law exceeded Congress’s power because its violation required no link to interstate commerce or any other specific federal interest.  The government argued that because (Pennsylvania) was not party to the suit, Ms. Bond could not defend herself by attacking that law on federalism grounds.”

“The Supreme Court disagreed.  With an unusual unanimity, the court held squarely that individual citizens have every right to challenge federal laws on the ground that they exceed the limited and enumerated powers vested in Congress by the Constitution.  The court stated without equivocation that ‘by denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power.  When government acts in excess of its lawful powers, that liberty is at stake.’” 

Please read that again and think:

Endangered Species Act.

Wilderness Act

Endangered Species UN “Convention”

UN Small Arms Treaty

Public Land Closure and Non-Management/Use Laws and Regulations

USFS/BLM/USFWS/NPS Purchases/Easements

Government “Partnerships” with TNC/DOW/NWF/Audubon/etc., etc.

Wolves/Buffalo/Sage Grouse/Salmon/”Invasive” Sp./”Native” Sp./”Native” Ecosystems

Federal Gun Laws on federal lands. 

Now the Bad News from the Saint Paul (MN) Pioneer Press:

I have been a lonely voice about wolves as vectors or carriers of over 30 diseases and infections.  I have been subjected to much ridicule because I am not a veterinarian and there are no overall comments or studies on this matter from wildlife “scientists”, University mavens, or nationally recognized “experts on this matter.  As a consequence, the list of these threats to people, wildlife, and domestic animals (I will provide it upon request) that I first presented to the Oregon State Legislature’s Agriculture Committee last year has provided little more than laughs to those that have read it.

Today’s Saint Paul Pioneer Press reported a new addition to my List.  It seems a Northern Minnesota (the heart of Minnesota wolf country) just died from “the state’s first ever death from a brain infection caused by Powassan virus – a rare virus transmitted through the bite of an infected tick.”  Another man in Northern Minnesota is recovering from a similar “brain infection”.  We are told it is like West Nile virus in causing a severe disease of the central nervous system. 

Since 2009, a child was found with the disease and five deer ticks carrying the disease have been found in three Northern Counties.  As I mentioned on my List, the Minnesota Health Department reports that these ticks are carrying Lyme Disease, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis.  Minnesota reported record numbers of Lyme Disease in 2010 up 21% in one year. 

Since the federal government seized control of Minnesota wolves, wolf numbers have exploded from a few hundred to many thousands.  As wolves increased, moose have decreased and will soon no longer be hunted.  Deer have also decreased in wolf country.  Wolves are now habituating to backyards as they kill dogs and endanger children.  Wolves are killing more and more livestock while government funding availability to pay for losses and kill offending wolves disappears. 

Wolves do not get “shots”. Wolves carry lots of diseases in their guts, organs, mouths and on their fur and between their toes contracted from all sources as they wander widely and investigate and eat everything that walks, crawls, or flies.  As they wander about the countryside (far wider and more continuously that any other LARGE mammal) they pickup, host, and drop lots of ticks (thanks to their size) in yards and in dog areas as well as mixing these ticks far and wide with other ticks and their infections ad infinitum. 

But what do I know?  When I tell Minnesotans that the wolves are likely killing moose calves at increasing rates (thus the drop in moose numbers) I am told “The DNR says its Climate Change reducing moose habitat”.  When I mentioned this interface between overpopulations of wolves and ticks and disease, I am laughed at.   

All I can do is tell you and put one more wolf-borne disease on my List.  

Jim Beers

30 June 2011

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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 Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.