Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
The Missoulan - Grazing by far is the most common use of the West's public lands and Marvel said that makes ranching the biggest threat to sage grouse. Deibert, however, said no one really knows that scientifically because no one knows how sage grouse existed before cattle and sheep became common in their habitat.
Hinterland Who's Who - Two hundred years ago, anywhere from 30 to 70 million bison roamed free in North America.
2002 Flashback: Plan to Kill Predators of Sage Grouse Throughout Southern Idaho Put on Hold (h/t ∞²)
Ah yes. Lots of bison in the old days of course (probably closer to 8 million intsead of 30 -70 million)but bison - just like the Continents's native inhabitatants - are ecologically-aware creatures you see...NEVER exploiting resources and constantly in complete harmony with nature.
You can take it as a given that bison never over-browsed, contributed no methane to the atmosphere, and certainly took extra-special care not to disturb sage-grouse nests. Why, I'm sure I could even dig up a legend or two about Brer Bison and Little Sister Sage Grouse.
Now, can I get a job writing for the Missoulian?
Here is to hoping that the sage grouse is placed under the Endangered Species Act. Gas and oil development be damned. Further, undoubtedly there was undue political pressure under the Bush administration, where Cheney was in the pockets of big oil and gas.
T: Obama is in the pockets of big unions and trial lawyers.
At least I can prove my statement.
For someone who spends so much time on the fossil-fueled internet, you certainly are cavalier about the destruction of other people's livelihoods, T.
Tell me - what do you do for a source of income? I'd love to help get it completely eradicated.
You could probably also prove that big oil and gas donated more to the Obamunist than Bush too.
Yummy - grouse under glass.
I recall some time ago that our pet scare monger Suck-zuki was telling Canada that Cow burps & farts were destroying the ozone layer.
This apprently was the result of cattle ranching and we should all go on a vegi-nazi diet.
He followed this with the horrors of genetically designed plants which would destroy our health, such as wheat. etc.
Notwithstanding the fact that all our foodstocks have been changed/altered since the first man dug a hole and placed a seed in it, apparently he wants us to eat sticks & mud.
How many are left, and is there a season for sage grouse?
I'm thinking an orange-glaze, with wild rice.
"Gas and oil development be damned."
Thats bold.
We need a new law. Before someone can protest against oil and gas industry, or any other industry, they must demonstrate that they are in compliance with their own demands.
That would include no automobile. No hitch hiking in vehicles that use fossil fueled energy. No natural gas, coal or oil burnt in their home furnace. No wood burning that was hauled in by truck or cut by chain saw. No food that was grown using fossil fueled equipment. No food or clothing that was hauled to market using fossil fueled transport. No clothing that was produced in a factory that burnt fossil fuels to produce that product. No working in a building that uses fossil fuels for heat or electricity. No protest signs or ink that was produced using fossil fuels.
People like T, Gore, Suzuki, all want others to stop their livelihood and lifestyle while exploiting such for their own personal gain.
We either need a new law or just shoot these bastards like the mangy varmints they are.
No one who has ever driven through Montana and Wyoming could take such a question seriously. It's one of the most unpopulated, untampered regions left in America, and the notion that sage grouse would be threatened by its few scattered fence lines or oil and gas development is absurd.
We all hunted sage Grouse as well as prairie chicken and sharp tails until about 16 years ago when most of the upland game bird clubs noticed a drastic decline in the population. We voluntarily stopped hunting these 2 species as we were used to seeing other upland game bird species populations ebb and flow with the wet and dry cycles the pothole country goes through naturally.
Alberta Fish and game followed our lead a few years later and we all thought the sage hens would come back (duck and geese were down as well at the time). The Sharp tail came back in spades, the Prairie chicken numbers went up somewhat but the Sage hens never recovered in the EID lands around Brooks-Tilley-Bow Island. Even around Med Hat the birds were still in decline. Now they populate the small SW correr of AB from Foremost to the 2 borders.
The wildlife biologists we know said the birds got a triple whammy - first drought then cold winters and finally perdition from increased coyote populations. The Sage grouse also had special problems - they return to the same breeding areas for generations and eastward expansion of the gas fields disturbed their breeding "Lekks" and they also eat a special variety of dage which was being up rooted by both gas and irrigation activities. Many colonies in the south central prairie died out. West Nile took many more as they were really susceptible to it.
Right now they seem to be holding their own as long as their habitat is left undisturbed but there should be captive breeding programs to get the birds re-established in their traditional range. Every westerner should experience a Sage hen stew once - it's a right of passage.
Conclusion: Any rumour that cattle ops or global warming killed off the Sage grouse is complete BS. It was a number of natural disasters combined with gas field and irrigation expansion. Most birds adapted, the sage grouse didn't.
The Missoulan's article reminds me of the myth that some on the left claim; that the arrival of the white man in North America created all the problems our native populations have had and prior to the arrival, they all just got along, sat around smoking peace pipes and singing kumbaya.
Kate @ 9:23, good question and suggestion.
Bison & Buffalo eat right to the ground. They did not distinguish between plant, tree or shrub, they ate everything. Whatever they didn't eat got burned up by the prairie fire storms (which we were not around to artificially suppress with our firefighting capabilities) started by lightning strikes and would burn with the chinook winds consuming vast quantities of vegetation.
All the current trees east of the rockies which are not fir or spruce are transplants from Europe and are not natural to the region. Some are not of the nicest kind brought over the oceans and include things like Dutch Elm Disease and squirrels. Natural now but not native to N/A.
When I hear stories like this, I shake my head as I hear the zeal with which these shallow thinkers try and "do something...anything" to try and improve the world.
Gaia worshipers, go someplace else, no building your temples in my back yard!
I flew into Toronto once...was august to see that they have cemented and paved over everything. They have hung ugly wires all over the place!! They keep the whole bloody place lit up...all night.
Its disgusting. I dare say there has been more devastation to the ecosystem in one urban center than all of Fort Mac.
There should be a law...against cities!!
I flew into Toronto once...was august to see that they have cemented and paved over everything. They have hung ugly wires all over the place!! They keep the whole bloody place lit up...all night.
Its disgusting. I dare say there has been more devastation to the ecosystem in one urban center than all of Fort Mac.
There should be a law...against cities!!
The bison presented a different threat than cattle do. Bison were migratory, so the sage hen could adapt to those migration patterns, and dates.
There wasn't much care taken, in the old days, in the areas mentioned by wingshot. It wasn't until the 80s, that any real environmental standards got through to those old-timers. Anyone who ever worked around those old Hat pipeliners knows what I'm talking about.
Irrigation, and agriculture have never come under the same scrutiny as oil and gas production. I can understand why provincial governments might hesitate to come down, too hard, on their biggest industry. Any attempt to "save" the sage hen will have to be balanced with the obvious need to produce food, for the masses.
On again with my Suck-zuki rant, I also recall that he was bemoaning the amount of 'water' that us evil Canadians used anually and couldn't we stop this waste.
When his 'facts' we investigated it was found that he also included what was being used in hydro-electrical generation.
Now I live quite close to Niagara Falls and have had a chance to tour Sir Adam Beck power generation. I was unable to see how the water was different on the 'in side to the out' however I'm not a fruit-fly doctor so I may be wrong.
Robins -- Suzuki considers it wasted because it's not regulated. :)
No matter which way you cut his policy suggestions, they invariably result in mo' gov'mint.
That makes me anti-Suzuki.
No one who has ever driven through Montana and Wyoming could take such a question seriously.
Kate.
---------------
Exactly, had a S.I.L. who managed the Wal-Mart store in Rock Springs, Wyoming back in the 90's. God, that place was wide open and beautifull. It seemed everywhere we went was a 3 - 4 hour trip, on a highway that was completely open, and running 85 - 90 mph. I mean, you could fall asleep at the wheel run off the road and it would still be 2 miles before you hit something.
But, we need to stop purchasing oil from terrorist. I understand this, most N. Americans understand this, it's our bought and paid for Politicians that don't understand this, or wait, let me re-state that they understand perfectly, money talks and BS walks.
"I was unable to see how the water was different on the 'in side to the out'"
Yes you're wrong! Couldn't you see that the water on the "out" side was robbed of it's gravitational potential energy? Remember, any water touched or manipulated by human hands is forever tainted.
"Plan to Kill Predators of Sage Grouse Throughout Southern Idaho Put on Hold"
" ... U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed to postpone a plan to kill foxes, badgers, coyotes, ravens and other species ..."
http://tinyurl.com/yz6mwcq
@Smitherenzes: You forgot plastics and chemicals. All plastics come from hydrocarbons (including those in T's computer, behind which he hides while he heckles the Internet), and the list of chemicals derived from hydrocarbons is long, including some fertilizers used to grow food.
Is it wrong to feel dirty for helping feed the troll?
Kate:
'T' himself does not take his own comments seriously, so why should you? So intent was he to antagonize you that he didn't even bother to cover his statements with a veneer of reason. Even a relatively naive person like myself could see that. I'm surprised you didn't.
Juxtapose !!!! Because it works. Big Time !!
sda on a big screen at all Starbucks locations would make the world a better place.
"Any attempt to "save" the sage hen will have to be balanced with the obvious need to produce food, for the masses."
Yes and if it ever came down to "saving" the sage hen and "producing food for the masses", I suspect we will be seeing sage hens revolving slowly over the charcoal.
Why "T" would probably be chowing down on sage hen as well.
The California precedent pretty much guarantees that the right to make a living through successfully producing goods is secondary to the rights of evolutionary unsuccessful species who are of no particular value (beyond dinner). After reading the article, the lack of adaptation skills of the sage grouse indicates that it is slated for extinction regardless of the presence of O&G or agriculture.
"West Nile virus also has taken a heavy toll on sage grouse. The birds have little immunity to the disease and in northeast Wyoming, coal-bed methane development has pumped millions of gallons of groundwater to the surface, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes that transmit West Nile, Deibert said.
And the list of problems for sage grouse continues. Unnatural noise frightens them. Barbed-wire fences can be a deadly collision threat. Also, sage grouse don't like to linger near structures such as power lines wind turbines, fearing that predatory birds can perch on those high places."
The brutal truth is that extinction is the inevitable result for species that become too specialized or finicky to adjust to change. When any slight change in the environment becomes an immediate extinction threat, your species is toast.
Sage grouse sound tasty, and fun to shoot!!
These self-proclaimed 'environmentalists', really don't know their rectum from a hole in the ground. I'm sure if somebody wished to reintroduce millions of bison to the plains, they'd complain about that, too.
"Bison & Buffalo eat right to the ground. They did not distinguish between plant, tree or shrub, they ate everything. "
They never ate sage, only antelope will eat it or at least the variety of sage that the Sage Grouse is 100% reliant upon for both food and cover. Prairie fires wiped out sage patches but they came in twice as thick after the fire.
I prefer Sharptail grouse that are grain fed from stubble fields beside pasture. They taste better than those that have been eating mostly sage, but the best meal is from grouse that have been eating fermented chokecherries and grain (late season).The 2009 season is a fond memory, the last grouse from the freezer is thawing for tonight's supper. By the way, Dale F. Lott's, "American Bison: A Natural History" is a great read for those interested in Bison. The bison herd pre-white man varied in population greatly depending on grazing conditions.
glacierman:
"...all the current trees east of the rockies which are not fir or spruce are transplants from Europe and are not natural to the region. Some are not of the nicest kind brought over the oceans and include things like Dutch Elm Disease and squirrels. Natural now but not native to N/A."
you mean that willow poplar and Aspen are post-columbian? I would like to see proof of that if you could provide it.
Y
You know what they really need is a new branch of bureaucrats to study and advise the F&WS and EPA. The new committee could asses each species-at-risk's chances for survival versus economic loss. Give it a smiley face acronym like N.I.C.E or D.A.R.W.I.N and then allow some species to go extinct with dignity through a government mandated "Do not resuscitate" order. There is no sense wasting resources on a dead-end species.
A similar series of boards could be set up for failed industries (MSM,GM) and culture (French language, modern art). Throw the government workers, hungry for expansion, a tasty new bone. Even the soon to be unemployed AGW computer programmers could find new opportunities. Think of the jobs saved and created.
One thing needs correction.
Sage grouse historically (for the most part) populated the Great Basin.
The Bison never populated the Great Basin.
Otherwise, please refrain from piling on, I agree with the rest.
The back to origins folk have many myths.
These are the inconvenient truths which the eco-freaks avoid mentioning....if they are aware....
Pre-columbian Aboriginals were NOT TREE-HUGGING PACIFISTS....
North America's pre-columbian great plains were called THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT prior to the mid 1800's.....probably because the LIA made the great plains arid.
Bison and especially prairie fires (actually fire-storms) were the cause for the great plains to be tree-less.
Any visitors to the various "Buffalo jumps" would realize that the FN's were not big on conservation.
Great headline Kate. The politicians are going after shale gas drillers too. From The Globe and Mail...
"Shale gas drillers face scrutiny in U.S. Congressional committee includes two Canadian firms in its investigation of controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing...
There are some 65 rigs operating in Pennsylvania, most of them doing horizontal drilling required for shale gas plays – and none at work across the state line in New York."
NY State...Not Broke Enough!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/shale-gas-drillers-face-scrutiny-in-us/article1476361/
Kate:
"t" doubtless lives on some form of government stipend. I suspect a disability payment for some debilitating disease, such as Seasonal Affectedness Disorder or 3rd degree acne. He spends his days alternating between internet pr0n - he clearly hasn't been involved with another person since at least the Reagan years - and conservative blogs.
On the latter, hiding behind such artful pseudonyms as "r" and "s", he spews nonsense and sits back waiting for the outraged responses. Note that these responses are the only reactions he gets from other human beings - see the pr0n comment above - so the twisted little misanthrope rubs his hands and cackles with glee at each one, a la Melvin Cowznofski seeking to trample people with his hob-nailed boots.
Having said that, I choose to no longer acknowledge or respond to the trolls of the very small "t".
Great plan, Dept. of Ag., well thought through! Kill the predators 'cause all they eat are Sage Grouse...
http://www.animalcontrol.com.au/mice1.htm
Birds are often notoriously foolish, but these are clearly sage grouse.