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Opinion by Brad Gutierrez • 1d

Brad Gutierrez© Brad Gutierrez

As the tumultuous year of 2023 comes to an end and we look forward to a potentially even more raucous 2024, it seems like a good time to remind ourselves what are the foundations of a functioning society. I call them the three C’s: civility, compassion, compromise. I would argue that, in many corners of this country, we have abandoned those three principles in recent years. What is at stake is the very soul of this nation and what it means to be the “United” States of America.

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Civility begins and ends with the simple act of treating other people the way in which you would like to be treated. This applies equally to how we act toward one another and how we speak with one another. The anonymity of the internet and the pervasiveness of social media provides the opportunity for people to say things to one another they would never dream of repeating face to face. Anyone who has engaged in a social media discussion on a social, economic or political topic knows only too well how quickly passions flare and civility disappears. Reliance upon echo chamber rants fomented by media personalities overshadow any effort to focus on evidence-based facts.

The likes of the late Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump have normalized personal ad hominem attacks on those with whom they disagree rather than debating the intellectual merits of their respective positions. The “United” in our national identity presumes a common agenda to pursue that which benefits the country as a whole. This cannot be achieved if the civility of the day casts those who disagree with us as enemies of the state rather than sincere intellectual sparring partners. 

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Compassion commands us to put ourselves in another’s shoes and recognize that everyone is carrying some burden, be it big or small. At its core, compassion is caring about our fellow human being. In a civilized society, compassion should result, at the very least, in public policy not imposing undue burdens on the lives of its citizenry. To achieve this outcome politicians and the voters who elect them need to look beyond their own particular situation and imagine what they might need if their own lives stumbled.

Recent events in Texas and Florida demonstrate the utter failure of government to fulfill its role. No one can argue that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton exercised a scintilla of compassion when he went to the Texas Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed a woman carrying a fatally defected fetus to receive an abortion. The Supreme Court’s decision to side with Paxton forced the woman to leave Texas to receive the medical care she required. Similarly, in Florida a woman was forced to carry a fetus to term even though it was medically known it would not survive outside the womb. The parents were forced to watch their newborn fight for every breath during its 90-minute life.

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Compassion in society is never achieved when policy questions devolve into a dog-eat-dog environment that prioritizes an individual sense of propriety over the collective will. 

To counter our current us versus them national existence, compromise has to experience a rebirth. Compromise is the key to nurturing a civilized society in such a diverse continental nation as the United States. The very essence of compromise is the need for everyone to cede some element of their preferred position in order for the interests of the greater whole to be realized. Unfortunately, we have seen all too frequently the unwillingness of state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to honor the call for compromise in recent years. The result has been virtually no progress on key issues around immigration, health care, social entitlement reform or tax policy. No political party or its supporters should come to the table expecting to win every battle with all preferences intact. 

Civilized society, particularly one that espouses the democratic traditions of the United States, cannot survive intact if its politicians and citizenry cannot or will not engage in the political process in a civil way prioritizing compassion and compromise. “We” has to replace “us” and “them.” If the status quo continues, these “united” states will be little more than 50 geographically contiguous jurisdictions sharing a red, white and blue flag devoid of any meaning worth celebrating. It is up to each of us to determine where this journey ends. 

More: Opinion: Too many Americans apathetic about voting: nearly 40% don’t show up at polls

More: Opinion: We deserve a better Republican choice in 2024 presidential elections

Brad Gutierrez, Ph.D., is a retired U.S. Air Force combat pilot, professor of political science, military diplomat, and senior public policy civil servant. He is currently a woodworker and nonfiction writer based in Marshall.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Abandoning 3 key principles threatens the soul of the United States

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Potential avian flu outbreak raises concerns following deaths of multiple geese in Webster

• By Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon
• Saturday, December 30, 2023 10:38am
• NEWS

• https://www.juneauempire.com/news/avian-influenza-death-of-alaska-polar-bear-is-a-global-first-and-a-sign-of-the-virus-persistence/

A polar bear found dead on Alaska’s North Slope is the first of the species known to have been killed by the highly pathogenic avian influenza that is circulating among animal populations around the world.

The polar bear was found dead in October near Utqiagvik, the nation’s northernmost community, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation reported.

The discovery of the virus in the animal’s body tissue, a process that required sampling and study by the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management and other agencies, confirmed earlier this month that highly pathogenic avian influenza was the cause of death, said Dr. Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian.

“This is the first polar bear case reported, for anywhere,” Gerlach said. As such, it was reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health and has gotten attention in other Arctic nations that have polar bears, he said.

This was also the first Endangered Species Act-listed animal in Alaska known to fall victim to the disease. Polar bears, dependent on sea ice that is diminishing because of climate change, were listed as threatened in 2008.

While polar bears normally eat seals they hunt from the sea ice, it appears likely that this bear was scavenging on dead birds and ingested the influenza virus that way, Gerlach said. Numerous birds on the North Slope of various species have died from this avian influenza, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.

However, the bear need not have directly eaten an infected bird to have become sick, Gerlach said.

“If a bird dies of this, especially if it’s kept in a cold environment, the virus can be maintained for a while in the environment,” he said.

The polar bear death is a sign of the unusually persistent and lethal hold that this strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza has on wild animal populations two years after it arrived in North America, officials said.

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“What we’re dealing with now is a scenario that we haven’t dealt with in the past. And so there’s no manual,” said Andy Ramey, a U.S. Geological Survey wildlife geneticist and avian influenza expert.

No longer just a poultry problem

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is called that because it spreads rapidly in flocks of domestic poultry, often requiring massive culls to control the contagions. Such outbreaks have been of concern in the past because of their economic consequences for global agriculture. Until recently, wild birds were afterthoughts. Though they were known to carry the viruses, ferrying them between domestic poultry populations, they were largely unaffected.

That has changed dramatically. The prior U.S. outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, in 2014-15, resulted in some wild bird infections, and some influenza-caused bird die-offs occurred in Europe shortly thereafter. But the current version is considered unprecedented in its effect on wild birds and other wildlife.

“Across North America, and really around the world, lots of wild birds these days – I mean, thousands of wild birds these days, tens of thousands in some cases — are dying because of these highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses,” Ramey said.

The deaths are of particular concern when they occur in populations that are already vulnerable, he said. An extreme example he cited is the highly endangered California condors, with a population of just a few hundred. After 21 influenza deaths were documented, federal wildlife officials launched what promises to be a challenging vaccination program in that population.

The disease has also killed a variety of mammals around the world.

In Alaska, three foxes, a black bear and a brown bear have died from this avian influenza. Elsewhere, more bears have been found dead after being infected by the virus, along with skunks, raccoons, mountain lions and large numbers of seals in eastern Canada and off the coasts of Maine and Washington state, as well as outside of North America. The nation’s first detection of the disease in a squirrel was confirmed earlier this month in an animal found in Arizona.

To Gerlach, the polar bear case was not surprising, considering that black and brown bears have died. It is possible that more polar bears succumbed to the disease, but in remote places out of the view of people to record the events, he said.

“You’re really dependent on the public that’s out there, or the wildlife biologists that are doing surveillance,” he said. Documenting cases in any wild mammal population can be difficult, he added: “How long is a carcass going to be in the wild before it gets scavenged or eaten by something else?”

Aside from the large and wide-ranging death toll in the wild, the current outbreak has some other differences, particularly its durability, as seen in its persistence away from domestic flocks.

The virus that caused the 2014-15 outbreak spread in the wild bird populations for a while, but it “sort of fizzled out,” Ramey said, probably because it was eventually stamped out in poultry operations.

But this one continues to be maintained in the wild, as evidenced by monitoring in Western Alaska, a place far from any big farms raising chickens or turkeys, he said.

Gerlach gave the same assessment. “After the second year, that all of sudden disappeared,” he said of the 2014-15 version. “It didn’t stick around, where this virus seems like it’s sticking around.”

Rather than winding down, it is continuing to spread across the world, he noted, even into bird populations in Antarctica, as has been recently documented. There are signs that it is now endemic in the wild, a fixed feature into the foreseeable future, he said. If so, “it’s not going to go away. It’s going to be here, and we have to have some way to deal with it,” he said.

Alaska a disease crossroads

For Alaska, “a mixing area” for global bird migrations, spread of avian diseases is always an issue, Gerlach said. “Alaska is a catchall area for birds from North America or the Americas, as well as from Asia,” he said.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza of 2014 and 2015 was introduced from Asia to North America by wild birds migrating through Alaska. The current influenza is also crossing continents through Alaska, though from multiple directions, Ramey’s research has found.

In a newly published study, Ramey and his research partners found what is likely to have been three separate and independent introductions of highly pathogenic avian influenza into Alaska last year. His research, with colleagues from the USGS and other agencies, used genetic analysis to trace one form of influenza to North America and two to Asia.

“To have three introductions in Western Alaska, two from East Asia and one from the Lower 48, I mean, we haven’t seen anything like that before,” he said. “It really, I think, exemplifies how these viruses now are clearly able to be maintained.”

That study examined birds harvested in the fall of 2022 by hunters in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge area at the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula. Ramey and his colleagues found only a tiny number of hunted birds that were infected with the currently active highly pathogenic influenza virus: out of 811 swab samples taken directly from birds and another 199 samples from feces, the only harvested birds identified as infected were eight pintails, one cackling goose and one widgeon.

It can take months to get test results from samples, so what happened to those harvested birds is unknown, he said. But their meat was safe to eat as long as it was properly cooked to the recommended 165 degrees, he said. “Heat is remarkably good at deactivating viruses,” he said. Along with the cooking advice, there are other longstanding recommendations about safely handling hunted birds, such as regular handwashing and avoidance of obviously sick animals.

There is little evidence that the current avian influenza wave poses an infection risk to humans. Only a few cases have been documented in the world, and those were general among people working with poultry.

For Alaskans dependent on wild game, this highly pathogenic influenza poses a different type of risk: possible food-security problems. If large numbers of birds wind up dying, that might mean less food on the table in rural Alaska, Ramey and Gerlach said.

“Obviously, less birds could equate to less availability, and also less resiliency in the population from things like disease, or climate change, or toxins, et cetera, that could in fact, impact these populations of birds,” Ramey said.

Plenty of stressors already exist in wild populations, he said, “so adding another threat to these populations isn’t doing them any favors.”

Now that Colorado has wolves — some of which have a history of killing cattle in Oregon — Wyoming ranchers are banking on Wyoming’s “shoot on sight” policy for whenever those wolves cross over. “They’re classified as predators and they can be removed,” said one rancher.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/12/28/some-of-colorados-new-wolves-have-history-of-killing-oregon-cattle/

Mark Heinz

December 28, 20234 min read

After Colorado released wolves earlier this month, many which have killed livestock in Oregon, some Wyoming ranchers said the Cowboy State’s “shoot on sight” wolf policy can protect ranches here.

“On the positive side, if any of those wolves cross over into Wyoming, they’re no longer protected. They’re classified as predators and they can be removed,” Jim Magagna, a sheep rancher and executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, told Cowboy State Daily.

Meanwhile, Wyoming ranchers can emphasize with the plight of their counterparts in Colorado, even if they can’t do much to change the Centennial State’s wolf policy, said cattle rancher and Wyoming Livestock Roundup publisher Dennis Sun.

“There’s really not a lot that Wyoming ranchers can do, except show support for the Colorado ranchers,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

Already Cattle Killers?

Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program has drawn criticism after it was revealed that some of the wolves transplanted from Oregon and released in Colorado earlier this month might have been involved in killing livestock in their home state.

Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program was initiated by Proposition 114, which Colorado voters passed in 2020 by the slimmest of margins, 50.91% to 49.09%. The goal was to put wolves on the ground in Colorado by the end of this year.

Colorado at first struggled to find wolves for reintroduction after Wyoming, Montana and Idaho all refused to provide any. This fall, Oregon agreed to give 10 wolves for Colorado’s initial reintroductions.

Those plans were realized Dec. 18 when Colorado Parks and Wildlife released five wolves at an undisclosed location in Grand County, Colorado. The event was by invitation only.

The secrecy of the event was criticized, as well as the fact that some of the wolves that were released had reportedly come from Oregon packs that had killed livestock.

Magagna said that might increase the chances that those wolves will start going after sheep and cattle in Colorado. Even so, he added that any wolves have the potential to kill livestock.

“I’m not convinced that there is any wolf or any pack of wolves that isn’t capable of becoming acclimated to killing livestock,” he said.

Wolves had already migrated from Wyoming into Colorado, forming Colorado’s North Park Pack around 2020. That pack later killed several livestock animals and dogs, Sun noted.

He wondered if Coloradans were starting to have buyer’s remorse over passing Proposition 114.

“It’s kind of a bad deal how it got crammed down everyone’s throat in Colorado. I think if they had to do it over again, they wouldn’t vote to have wolves,” Sun said.

Colorado Wolf Release 12-18-23 from Colorado Parks & Wildlife on Vimeo.

Cross-State Complications

Ranchers who operate on both sides of the Wyoming-Colorado state line will likely get the worst of it, Magagna said. That’s because the two states’ polices are completely different.

In Colorado, wolves will remain protected for the foreseeable future. On the Wyoming side, they’d be in the section of the Cowboy State where they are classified as a predatory species and may be shot on sight at any time without a license or bag limits.

Ranchers straddling the state line will have to ask themselves, “Is that a Wyoming wolf or a Colorado wolf that killed my livestock?’” Magagna said.

Magagna added that many sheep ranchers run their flocks on private property or federal land leases in Colorado for part of the year, and then bring them north into Wyoming for the remaining months.

Rancher and former Wyoming legislator Pat O’Toole has property divided by the state line. He previously expressed similar concerns to Cowboy State Daily. He also said that in light of massive big game winterkill losses last winter, Colorado couldn’t have picked a worse time to bring in more apex predators.

No Containing Them

Colorado plans to keep a 60-mile buffer zone between its wolf release sites and the Wyoming state line, as well as its borders with other states and sovereign Native American tribal lands.

Sun said that won’t contain the wolves for long, given the species’ propensity for wandering. It could be just a few years before wolves are pushing up against the Wyoming state line in several areas, he said.

“Despite the availability of food sources, they’re going to travel,” Sun Said. “When wolves kick yearlings out of the group, they travel.”

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• https://www.reddeeradvocate.com/news/some-unusual-avian-behavior-was-noted-in-central-albertas-christmas-bird-count-7291063

Geese a plenty were found in this year’s Christmas Bird Count.

With warm temperatures and open water available all around central Alberta, some 1,557 Canada geese were counted in the region this month. This falls just short of the record number of geese counted in December of 2017 — some 1,971.

But it’s a huge difference from the zero geese spotted in the -30 C weather during last December’s bird count.

Count organizer Judy Boyd, of the Red Deer River Naturalists, believes the unusually mild conditions so far this winter mean there was no real reason for geese to fly south.

Migration takes a heavy toll on them, she added. “They have to stop to feed, to fatten up, and then keep going. Think of how far some birds have to fly — to the Gulf of Mexico.”

In between, they must navigate many hazards, including hunters and predators, greater exposure to avian flu, and large cities with misleading artificial lights and tall glass buildings.

Boyd said a Toronto group goes around collecting the thousands of carcasses of birds killed flying into skyscrapers. Given these odds, staying put where there’s enough food and water makes sense, she added.

Another oddity in this year’s bird count — which was conducted by about 85 central Alberta volunteers on Dec. 25 — was the early return of some horned larks.

Boyd said they are supposed to arrive in this area in January, but some have come a month early. She isn’t sure whether the mild weather also played into this unusual behavior.

As well, the lack of giant flocks of red polls, bohemian waxwings, and snow buntings were noticed. Usually several hundreds of these birds can be seen flying together in the winter months, said Boyd. But during this year’s bird count, some flocks spotted were as small as 25 to 35 birds. She feels this might just be an incidental observation on that particular day, since she’s seen some larger flocks earlier in the season.

However, ornithologists have recorded changes to some bird populations over the last few decades. Boyd read that many California juncos have stopped migrating out of that State and are instead nesting there, while barn swallows are inexplicably sticking around in Argentina. “Maybe it’s climate change, I don’t know…”’

While no completely out-of-province birds were seen during this month’s bird count, Boyd knows a few were reported earlier this season.

A Harris’s Sparrow was seen in central Alberta, even though it’s supposed to nest in the Northwest Territories and head to the central U.S. for the winter. A killdeer was spotted at Riverbend — although this bird was supposed to now be in the southern U.S. and Gulf area. And an out-of-season American Kestrel was also seen.

But perhaps the strangest report was of a Eurasian eagle owl at someone’s bird feeder. Boyd said she has no clue how this exotic bird could have blown so far off course as it normally travels between Siberia and Ethiopia.

The annual Christmas Bird Count is done to compile one of the world largest sets of wildlife survey data. The results are used to assess population trends and the distribution of birds. Another bird count will be done in May.

Avian influenza death of Alaska polar bear is a global first and a sign of the virus’ persistence