RE: What's all the howling about? By Shelley Stallings January 07, 2014
I will preface my further remarks by stating I am on the anti-trapping side. Although I grew up in a hunting family and spent the first couple decades of my life as an enthusiastic hunter of deer and elk, my thoughts about the relationship between the top predator on earth, man, and other species changed after studying wildlife biology at CSU. Learning more about the complexities of nature and the interconnectedness of all life on this planet made me more aware of how often we get it wrong when we try to ‘manage’ wildlife. Governmental agencies bring human bias against certain species, mostly predators, and in favor of other species, usually ones that provide immediate financial gain to people; i.e., big game animals and livestock. Politicians, with little or no knowledge or training in wildlife biology, get involved by passing laws to manage or control (kill) the 'bad' animals (top of the food chain predators). This inevitably leads to more and greater problems and seldom (read never) provides a real solution to the perceived issue. My understanding of science (admittedly possibly flawed) tells me that killing wolves will not lead to a healthy population of deer. The best means of doing this is to insure we humans do not harm or destroy the deer's habitat. Quality of habitat (access to food and adequate winter cover) is the strongest determinate of deer populations. The greatest danger to deer populations on Prince of Wales Island in the last 60 years has come from the U.S. Forest Service and Native corporate logging. Shelley Stallings Received January 05, 2014 - Published January 07, 2014 Related Column:
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