There is a beautiful lake in western Virginia near the West Virginia border.
It lies in an ocean of trees and steep mountains cut by plunging rocky
streams in every direction. The deep blue water of the lake is full of
fish
and the surrounding woodlands are a mix of oaks and maples and hickories and
pines. Land ownerships are US Forest Service, State of Virginia Wildlife
Management Areas, or private lands that have been in some families for
generations. All in all, the deer and turkeys and occasional lone sawyer
make it a delightful place to visit whether you are hunting or fishing or
just looking for pleasant surroundings.
Last week I camped on the shores of the lake and fished mornings and
evenings while hunting squirrels during the day in the surrounding ridges
and ravines. One night, close to midnight, I awoke in my sleeping bag to
what I thought was a dream. A loon was calling nearby out over the lake.
I
had not heard that call since the last time I was in northern Minnesota.
As I sat up and looked out to see if I could see the bird, another loon
called back from a mile or more off below me on the lake. The birds
called
back and forth for about a minute and then silence.
The next morning I glassed the lake but could see no trace of any loons.
I
did notice something else though that I had not really noted before.
There
were lots of lone great blue herons stalking the edges of the lake, making
their snake-like stabs at fish in the shallow edges. Suddenly I realized
how yet another environmental fable is shown to be the opposite of truth.
You see the lake is not really a "lake". It is a reservoir in
a steep
flooded valley. Many years ago the US Army Corps of Engineers
dammed the
Jackson River and changed a "feast or famine" rocky torrent into a
cold-water lake stocked with rainbow and brown trout and largemouth bass and
to feed them all, perch. Besides serving as a shock absorber for
downpours
like we recently experienced in Virginia from tropical storms, the fishing
and boating and swimming are greatly appreciated in the otherwise steep
woodlands and disappearing streams of the Blue Ridge mountains.
Current politically-correct thinking is that dams are bad. Man-made
lakes
are bad. Invasive (non-native) species are bad. Artificially
establishing
animals for hunting or fishing is bad. The only thing bad is such
thinking.
A man-made lake, full of Invasive Species (rainbow trout, brown trout, and
largemouth bass that, like the Invasive perch, live in a cold, deep lake but
could not survive in a plunging mountain stream that a loon could not land
or take off in anyway) was a boon to these birds that are otherwise touted
as "keystone" species or, in the case of the loon,
"threatened" by lead
fishing tackle (not true).
Those loons were migrating from the either the upper Great Lakes regions or
eastern Canada or New England to the lower Atlantic or Gulf Coast of the
United States. Like the migrating great blue herons they were taking
advantage of a lake full of tasty perch and quiet stopover spot as they
braved all the challenges of their annual migrations. Thank you US Army
Corps of Engineers. Thank you State of Virginia and all the fishermen
that
willingly pay the fishing tackle excise taxes (Dingell-Johnson funds) that
stocked the lake and maintain a great fishery.
As I thought of how we can call for eradicating such lakes and Invasive
species wholesale and how we can dwell on only the harm of some species in
order to grow Federal powers (Endangered Species, Invasive Species, etc.) I
thought of the mirror images of these issues. "Native" wolves
are now being
forced into New England (August 19, 2005 AP article by David Gram) and the
only things mentioned publicly are how similar forced reintroductions have
been a "success" in the West and in the Great Lakes states.
The western ranchers would not agree that wolves are beneficial. The
former
hunters of disappearing western elk herds wouldn't agree either. Great
Lakes dairy farmers and cattle growers are increasingly seeing the dark side
of wolves as vectors and transmitters of all manner of disease from
brucellosis and neosprosis to foot and mouth and BSE. Dog owners from
farm
dogs to hunting dogs and pets likewise either hate or fear the wolves that
kill their dogs. Hundreds of years ago, when wolves still stalked
Britain
(yes they exterminated them with good cause too) dogs wore collars with big
spikes to delay an attacking wolf long enough that a man might hopefully
drive off or kill the wolf before the dog's throat was ripped open, hence,
the origin of the "tough-dog-look" in cartoons and comics.
Many Invasive Species are valuable additions to our environment for many
sound reasons. Many Native species have no business in large areas of
the
US in the 21st century. The fish in our Virginia lake can be managed for
good or bad. The wolf in New England will reduce deer and moose herds
(and
hunting) and even when they kill stock and pets and worse as they do
routinely in other parts of the world, control will be all but impossible.
The land ownerships and owners that will protect wolves on their property
"no matter what" make the re-establishment of this native as nutty
as the
introduction of a dam and Invasive fishes in western Virginia is a wonder
for man and bird alike.
Jim Beers
11 October 2005