WOLVES ON THE HORIZON!
This from Boston and Rhode Island newspapers -
"Judge orders feds to promote wolf restoration in Northeast
By David Gram, Associated Press Writer | August 19, 2005
MONTPELIER, Vt. --In what environmentalists hailed as a major victory, a
federal judge on Friday ordered the Bush administration to step up efforts
to restore the gray wolf to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.
"The wolves are howlin'" in celebration, Patrick Parenteau, director
of the
environmental law clinic at Vermont Law School, said with a laugh.
Parenteau, lead attorney in the case, said his students "did all the hard
labor in the case. It's a nice victory for our students."
Welcome aboard New England. The western US and the Midwestern US and
lately
the southern US have kept a seat open for you on the Endangered Species Act
train. You know, the train all your Federal politicians have loved to
death
for so many years. That this latest "environmental
achievement" was wrought
by a State University Law School and is characterized by State employees (I
know we no longer think of professors as State employees but sad to say they
are) as "a nice victory for our students" is both ironic justice and
not
surprising to those harmed by the Act in the past throughout the rest of the
Nation.
Perhaps, now a New England politician or two will emerge in a year or two to
not fight the need for Endangered Species Act reform and perhaps even
support it. Why do I say this? Because you are about to experience
what
your city newspapers (and a few rural ones too) and your politicians and
your professors and your rather large contingent of environmentalists and
animal rights folks have repeatedly said is either greatly exaggerated or
does not exist. Unchecked Federal authority, property loss, game animal
disappearance, steady hunting/fishing/trapping reductions, public land
restrictions, loss of valued pets, and general societal mayhem for which
there is no remedy but checking the authority of the Endangered Species Act
and Federal bureaucracies and courts.
How will wolves affect New England? Let me count the ways.
- Deer numbers will markedly
decrease and stay decreased (what else
will they eat to start? How much easier to close roads, stop logging,
declare Wilderness when deer permits are like Arizona desert bighorn permits
( a drawing for 18) and the number of hunters rivals the number of whalers?
- Moose will soon decrease.
First calves, then birthing females,
and then wintering adults as hunger, opportunity, and experience favor the
wolves. See Isle Royal National park in Lake Superior for confirmation.
What doesn't happen for ten years suddenly happens after a certain snow and
rain and ice and wolves suddenly gain unlimited access to wintering animals
with horrific results. This will be described as "natural" or
some
mysterious "balance" or some "ecological function".
- Coyotes and foxes will all
but disappear and you will yearn for
the days when coyote damage was thought excessive.
- Pets like your golden
retriever and hunting dogs will be killed
and injured at increasingly appalling rates. Soon you will not be able
to
let your dog out and if your gun laws are strict you will not be able to
walk him on a leash (oh I forgot, a wolf cannot be killed if it is
"only"
after a pet or stock - only if you can "prove" it was threatening a
human.)
Ask a western rancher what the investigation of this is like when the
Federal agents are looking to "make an example".
- Bird hunting and rabbit
hunting (while it is still allowed) will
have to be done without a dog. Ask Wisconsin rabbit hunters and bear
hunters and bird hunters what wolves do to their dogs. Ask for a
picture.
- Grandkids and children will
have to be watched constantly in rural
homesteads and during winter (especially) school bus stops.
- People walking or working
alone or camping or fishing in rural
settings will have to exert caution and fight the urge to discontinue such
pastimes.
- Livestock from your
daughter's foal to sheep to adult steers and
horses and llamas and emus and ostriches will die horrible deaths and there
will be great financial and emotional losses that will of course be denied
and minimized by newspapers, professors, and bureaucrats.
- The disappearance of deer
and moose will be accompanied by a bevy
of professors and government "scientists" in daily news coverage
saying it
is caused by everything from global warming to Invasive Species. Once
you
understand this, such "sound science" articles can be immensely
amusing.
- State agencies will be
forced to show their previously hidden
acquiescence to Federal grant writers and a US Congress that they look to
heel to for potential new and steady Federal funding. (Who will they answer
to then?) This will cause some voters to wonder if they need State
politicians that stand up to Federal usurpers rather than cohabit with them.
I could go on but space is limited. The real beauty of what you are
about
to experience is that NO ONE, not the Federal bureaucrats, not the State
"partners", not the radical students, not the radical professors,
not the
politicians, not the judge WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING. As an old
bureaucrat, let me assure you it doesn't get any better than that.
Welcome
aboard.
Jim Beers
20 August 2005