Poll Shows Strong Support for Wolf Recovery in Pacific Northwest

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

More than two-thirds in OR, WA, CA favor continued protections for wolves

19 Sep 2013 10:05

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(ENEWSPF)–September 19, 2013. Most residents of California, Oregon and Washington believe wolves should continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to a new poll released by Defenders of Wildlife. The poll comes as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes public comment on its proposal to strip federal protections for gray wolves across most of the lower 48. This includes northern California and the western halves of Oregon and Washington, where there is still excellent, unoccupied wolf habitat.

The poll, conducted in early September for Defenders by Tulchin Research, shows that most Californians, Oregonians and Washingtonians want wolf recovery efforts to continue:

More than two-thirds in each state agree that wolves are a vital part of the America’s wilderness and natural heritage and should be protected in their state (OR – 68%; WA – 75%; CA – 83%)

More than two-thirds in each state agree that wolves play an important role in maintaining deer and elk populations, bringing a healthier balance to ecosystems (OR – 69%; WA – 74%; CA – 73%)

At least two-thirds in each state support restoring wolves to suitable habitat in their states (OR – 66%; WA – 71%; CA – 69%)

Large majorities in each state agree that wolves should continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act until they are fully recovered (OR – 63%; WA – 72%; CA – 80%)

The following is a statement from Suzanne Stone, Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife:

“These poll results confirm what we already know – that most people in the Pacific Northwest want to see wolves fully recovered. Over the years, I’ve met countless wolf supporters in the region who are excited for these iconic animals to return to wilderness areas in their states. They understand the essential ecological role that wolves play in maintaining nature’s healthy balance, and they think the species ought to be protected.

“With only about 100 wolves split between Oregon and Washington and none in California, we’re still a long ways from fully restoring wolves to the Pacific Northwest. It’s disappointing to see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service giving up prematurely when so much great wolf habitat remains unoccupied in the region. Only the Endangered Species Act can provide safe passage for wolves between neighboring states by ensuring there are adequate protective measures in place to allow for dispersal into more suitable habitat.

“Our primary hope now is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will listen to the millions of wolf supporters in California, Oregon and Washington who want to see wolves fully recovered in their states. Sadly, the administration has been turning a deaf ear so far to the many voices asking it to abandon the Service’s short-sighted and premature delisting proposal instead of abandoning America’s wolves.”

Background:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will host public hearings on its delisting proposal in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 30 and in Sacramento, Calif. on Oct. 2. Written comments can be submitted until Oct. 28. Details here.

Links: http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science/science-a-environmental/46347-poll-shows-strong-support-for-wolf-recovery-in-pacific-northwest.html

Read Defenders’ response to FWS’ announcement about the public hearings

Learn more about the national gray wolf delisting proposal

Read the latest wolf news on Defenders blog

Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than 1 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit http://www.defenders.org/newsroomand follow us on Twitter @DefendersNews.

Source: defenders.org

Don’t roll back federal protections for wolves

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

Don’t let the government remove Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Lower 48 states, argues guest columnist Amaroq Weiss.

By Amaroq Weiss
Special to The Seattle Times

AS Washington state lawmakers and wildlife managers fine-tune the state’s wolf conservation and management plan, they need only look to the nation’s capital for some tips on what not to do.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering dropping Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across most of the Lower 48 states even though wolves have recovered to only a fraction of their past range and numbers. Wolves face aggressive hunting and trapping in all of the states where protections have already been removed.

The anti-wolf policies in our nation’s capital and many western states stand in sharp contrast to what most voters and top wolf scientists are calling for.

A 2011 Colorado State University report showed that 3 in 4 Washington residents wanted wolves protected. Across the nation, almost 2 out of 3 people surveyed opposed federal plans to drop protections for wolves, according to a report by Public Policy Polling this summer.

The nation’s leading wolf researchers concur that wolves need continued protection to sustain the recovery of a genetically robust population.

Yet there’s mounting evidence that bureaucrats in the nation’s capital have been actively working to muzzle some of those scientists. Earlier this month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service excluded three wolf researchers from participating in the scientific peer-review of the proposal to drop federal protections for wolves in the continental U.S.

The scientists were excluded because they signed a letter calling out the service for mischaracterizing the scientists’ own research to justify dropping federal wolf protections. After public outcry, the agency backtracked.

Wildlife managers in Washington have lots of evidence about what Washingtonians want and what scientists think.

Over a five-year period, Washington residents funded and participated in a broad collaborative effort to develop the Washington’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, which was enacted in 2011. The compromise plan underwent careful review by 43 scientists and more than 65,000 members of the public commented.

It is now up to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, with oversight by Gov. Jay Inslee, to ensure that Washington’s wolf plan is faithfully implemented with the best interest of wolves in mind.

Last year the department authorized killing the entire Wedge Pack in response to livestock depredations in Eastern Washington. These wolves were killed though the rancher who lost cattle was using risky husbandry practices that involved spreading a small breed of cattle over a large area of public lands with known wolf activity.

The state Fish & Wildlife should not be in the business of killing wolves to benefit ranchers who do not use proven methods to protect their cattle.

The state department also recently enacted an emergency rule that allows permitless killing of wolves caught in the act of attacking livestock. Like the authorization to kill the Wedge Pack wolves, such a rule has the potential to provide incentives to those ranchers with long-standing anti-wolf biases to do even less to avoid conflicts with wolves in order to see them killed.

Whether Washington’s wolves, and those across most of the continental U.S., will once again be pushed to the brink of extinction, is yet to be seen.

What’s clear is this: Politicians and bureaucrats considering critical wolf-management decisions are more than willing to ignore the facts and broad public opinion whenever the voters tolerate it.

And when it comes to the future of our wolves, there’s never been a better time than right now for Washingtonians to speak up.

Public-comment periods are under way on both the federal plan to delist wolves and on new Washington state proposals on wolf management.

Comments on the federal delisting proposal must be submitted by Oct. 28, at http://seati.ms/opwolfcomment . Comments on Washington’s proposals must be submitted by Sept. 20 at Wildthing@dfw.wa.gov

Amaroq Weiss, a biologist and former attorney, is West Coast wolf organizer for the Center for Biological Diversity. Email: aweiss@biologicaldiversity.org

Weapons seized in hunting homicide

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

by K.C. Mehaffey

Sept. 4 CHESAW — Sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday seized weapons and ammunition from a Chesaw residence, across a remote road from where a grouse hunter was shot and killed on Monday.

The hunter, whose wife was notified Tuesday night, was Michael R. Carrigan, 52, of Hoquiam, said Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers.

Rogers said no one has been arrested, but deputies searched a home at 470 Pontiac Ridge Road and questioned the residents, a father and son.

He said the house is about 100 yards from where Carrigan was shot.

Carrigan’s hunting partner, George R. Stover, 65, also of Hoquiam, near Aberdeen, told deputies that they were driving up Cow Camp Road at about 7 p.m. when they saw a grouse, and Carrigan got out of their truck to shoot it. After firing twice and missing, he heard another shot and turned to see Carrigan with blood on him fall to the ground. When Stover heard a second shot, he slid over to the driver’s seat and drove away, the sheriff said.

He called for help from another residence.

Rogers said when deputies arrived, Carrigan was dead.

He said deputies are investigating the scene as a homicide, and have been assisted by state Department of Fish and Wildlife officers, U.S. Border Patrol agents, and the Washington State Crime Lab.

“We seized a lot of evidence,” Rogers said. He said the homeowners are currently considered “persons of interest,” and the son was arrested on an unrelated warrant.

Letter: Humans caused geese “problem”

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

The following is my Letter to the Editor, printed recently in a Seattle area paper…

Dear Editor,

Whenever I read an article like “Canadian geese euthanized at Lake Sammamish State Park” (Aug.7, 2013) I’m appalled by how indifferently someone can report on the extermination of entire families of intelligent, social animals. If people knew geese as personally as I do, they would surely think the species every bit as worthy of respect as our own.

I’ve watched them go through their courtship and nest-building routines, seen a gander loyally guarding his mate while she dutifully incubated her eggs, day and night, throughout windstorms and heavy snowfalls during the fickle Montana spring and witnessed with delight the hatching and rearing of their precious chicks.

The goose situation is all the more maddening since, as with so many other so-called wildlife “problems,” it was brought on by humans themselves. The old growth forests that once grew to the water’s edge were felled years ago; shrubs like salmonberry or huckleberry as well as riparian vegetation that used to house frogs and provided cover for fish have been torn out and replaced with concrete bulkheads, backfill and manicured lawn grass.

The end result of this rampant manipulation is a strange new world, inhospitable for all but the most grass-loving of creatures. And it just so happens that geese, like humans, love mowed lawns. But rather than calling in the death-squad from “Wildlife Services” to fire up their gas chambers, why not try replacing some of the acres of grass with native vegetation? I guarantee the geese will move on to greener pastures.

Jim Robertson

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013

A Tale of Two Species

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

First, here’s a mini guest-rant by a friend from Seattle in reference to the round up and lethal gassing of geese by Wildlife Services (that warped, wretched little wildlife-killing agency formally “Animal Damage Control”) at a nearby lake there:

“Wtf is wrong with people!!?? Will we not be happy until we are the only species on the planet? How dare the geese leave droppings that might be picked up by some diaper-filling toddler [DFT] while visiting the park for one hour. Those beaches should be animal and bug free, and sanitized because for heaven’s sake, kids go there sometimes. Wtf!”

In just a few short, satirical sentences this rant summed up my feelings on the goose situation (and their subsequent extermination) as well as my views on the grandiose, narcissistic and intolerant species responsible for this whole mess. (Note to self: add “goose-stomping Nazi war criminals” to the list of Top 10 New Names for Wildlife “Services.”)

I do have to admit though, whenever I see poop-filled human baby diapers thrown out along the road, discarded on ocean beaches or dumped in the woods at public trailheads, I wish there was some kind of “Service” you could call to round up and do away with the people who stoop to that kind of thing. But we live in a civilized society and don’t treat others so unforgivingly—that is, unless said “other” is a goose.

If people knew geese as personally as I do (I’ve watched them go through their courtship and nest-building routines, seen a gander loyally guarding his mate while she dutifully incubated her eggs, day and night, throughout windstorms and heavy snowfalls during the fickle Montana spring, and witnessed with joy the hatching and rearing of their precious chicks), they would surely think of geese as a species every bit as worthy as their own.

This issue is all the more maddening because it’s a situation humans have brought on themselves (as with so many other wildlife “problems”).

To the casual observer, lakes in western Washington may seem relatively pristine; the water is still so clear and blue it makes you want to dip your cup in and take a long drink. But if you’ve watched the changes over the years, you’d know it’s a habitat that has seen better days.

Not only were the old growth trees that grew to the water’s edge cut down and floated off, the lakeshores themselves were sliced up and sold off as recreation lots or multimillion dollar home sites. Naturally, land owners didn’t want their tiny strip of shoreline to be just a tangle of cedar and spruce trees or shrubs, like salmonberry, thimbleberry or huckleberry, so they tore out the native vegetation, built concrete bulkheads and brought in backfill and lawn grass. Of course they would need a place to tie up their power boat or jet-ski, so pilings were pounded into the sandy shallows where periwinkles and crawdads once thrived, and docks were built, at the expense of any lily pads or riparian vegetation that used to house bullfrogs and provide cover for fish.

The result of all this rampant manipulation is a strange new world, inhospitable for all but the most grass-loving of creatures. And it just so happens that geese, like humans, love mowed lawns. But if there’s one thing in the natural world human beings have a real problem with, it’s a species who dares to do well in the world after people have done their darndest to denude the landscape, claim it all for themselves and instill a sense of “order” that only they can relate to—complete with fences, fire pits and plastic patio furniture with a half-life of roughly 100,000 years.

Disposable diapers and plastic lawn chairs are a lasting scar on the planet. Goose poop, on the other hand, adds fertilizer to the depleted, lifeless soil.

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Update from the Bear-Killing Fields of Washington

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

While walking my dog this morning on the ordinarily deserted logging roads around here, I came across (in addition to several fresh piles of bear scat) boot tracks in the grass heading into a draw thick with blackberry and salmonberry bushes, where one of our local bears was murdered by a hunter (“harvested”) last August. Now, I’m hearing the report of a rifle and am wondering if the same narcissistic nimrod is out there trying to kill another of our bear friends (like some serial killer who struggled through an enforced nine-month cooling off period and, consequently, is gripped by the uncontrollable urge to satisfy his pent-up his bloodlust).

Although it’s barely berry season for the bears out there trying to stock up for the coming winter, it’s bear hunting season—as of August 1st—for Elmers and Elmerettes in the Evergreen State. Nowadays, every Elmer (or Elmerette) who wants to can kill not one, but TWO, bears apiece through November 15th!

As of last Thursday, any Washington State black bear who values his or her life will have no peace ‘til the snow flies and they’re safely tucked away in their hibernation den. Until then, they must assume there’s a camo-clad coward with a high powered rifle or compound bow aimed at them, perched in every tree they pass under.

Each year 30,000 black bears are killed by hunters in the U.S. alone. And each and every one of them was a more remarkable, more worthy being than the sadists and psychos who kill them for sport.

Today is Opening Day of “Bear Season” in Washington!

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

The first day of August: summer is at its peak, young birds have fledged and the wild berries are just now ripening up…

But on this very same day, demonic dimwits and narcissistic nimrods that enjoy making sport of murdering animals are out trying to end the life of a humble being whose only focus lately is filling up on fresh fruit.

That’s right; believe it or not, August 1st is the beginning of bear season across much of Washington! From today until November 15th, any loathsome scumbag with a bear tag and an unwholesome urge to kill can “bag” himself a bruin—just for the sport of it—in this presumably progressive state.

Sure, one or two people may be killed by bears in a given year, but over that same time period 50 will die from bee stings, 70 will be fatally struck by lightning and 300 will meet their maker due to hunting accidents. A person has about as good a chance of spontaneously combusting as being killed by a bear.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of bears are killed by people each year, and no one is keeping track of how many are wounded, only to crawl off and die slowly without hospital care to pamper them back to health. 30,000 black bears are slain during legal hunting seasons in the US alone. Possibly another 30,000 fall prey each year to ethically impotent poachers seeking gall bladders to sell on the Chinese black market. Victims lost to that vile trade are eviscerated and left to rot, since bear meat is not considered a desirable taste treat. To make it palatable, backwoods chefs traditionally douse the flesh and offal with salt and grind the whole mess into sausage.

Why then, is it legal to kill bears when we have long since concocted a myriad of ways to turn high protein plant foods (such as soy, seitan or tempeh) into a perfectly scrumptious, spicy sausage, sans intestines? Unquestionably, the hunting of bears is nothing but a warped distraction motivated by a lecherous desire to make trophies of their heads and hides. But, dangerous and terrifying as they must seem to trophy hunters out to prove their manhood from behind the security blanket of a loaded weapon, they aren’t the “most dangerous game,” as the serial killer, Zodiac (an avid hunter who grew bored with “lesser” prey and progressed to hunting humans) divulged.

An irrational fear of bears dates back to the earliest days of American history and is customarily accompanied by obtuse thinking and quirky spelling. The most famous inscription (carved into a tree, naturally) attributable to Daniel Boone (that guy who went around with a dead raccoon on his head) bragged how he “…cilled a bar…in the year 1760.” The bears Boone killed (and there were many) in North Carolina and Tennessee were black bears, a uniquely American species that, like coyotes, evolved on the Western Hemisphere.

Every year a fresh crop of Elmers decides to play Daniel Boone and blast a poor little black bear with a musket ball (which, although extremely painful and traumatic, often isn’t enough to kill them outright). Others prefer the test of archery, savagely impaling innocent bears who are just out trying to find enough berries to get them through the winter.

Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book, Silent Spring, advanced the environmental movement, saw the brutality of hunting as a detriment to civilized society:

“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is—whether its victim is human or animal—we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity.”

The question is, how long will society continue to tolerate the moronic act of sport hunting?

————

This post contained excerpts from my book, Exposing the Big Game: Living Targets of a Dying Sport
http://www.earth-books.net/books/exposing-the-big-game

Exposing the Big Game

Forget Hunters' Feeble Rationalizations and Trust Your Gut Feelings: Making Sport of Killing Is Not Healthy Human Behavior

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