tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post1372447744513788471..comments2024-03-25T02:15:02.505-07:00Comments on Nancy's Blog: Wolvesadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442349453021015062noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-77405251059433909692009-11-17T14:52:44.576-08:002009-11-17T14:52:44.576-08:00It's impossible not to tinker with any eco sys...It's impossible not to tinker with any eco system. We're a hundred years past that.<br /><br />The answer seems pretty simple, to me. Monitor the wolf population, just as we monitor nearly every other wildlife poulation. If it gets too high, start hunting. If it gets too low, stop hunting.<br /><br />Wolves really have no natural enemies. The population grows or shrinks according to food supply. This was fine a few hundred years ago. The food supply dwindles, and teh wolves starve to death. If either population gets too high without a ocntrolling factor, disease quickly drops teh numbers.<br /><br />This will not work today. It won;t work with sheep, deer, elk, or wolves because all the systems are closed.<br /><br />This means we have a choice of letting starvation and disease control populations, which is not going to happen, or we control them, which is NOT interfering with nature. We're as much a part of nature as an elk or a wolf, we're just better at hunting, and know when to start and stop killing.James A. Ritchiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04707677041485722525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-81989260047259446732009-11-02T09:07:17.671-08:002009-11-02T09:07:17.671-08:00The more impoverished an ecosystem becomes, the mo...The more impoverished an ecosystem becomes, the more subject it is to small perturbations. The farmers and ranchers rely on artificial monocultures which are intrinsically unstable. If the wolves find nothing to eat but sheep, they will eat sheep until the wolf population peaks and the sheep population crashes- followed quickly by the wolf population. It's a good example of instability in an artificially simplified ecosystem.<br /><br />The lesson here is indeed that tinkering with ecosystems is perilous, but it's the initial dismantling of the local food chain for agriculture and ranching that are the real ecological problems, not the reintroduction of native species to said ecosystem.Orionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08818431929827830349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-83705546564748675702009-11-02T08:34:34.543-08:002009-11-02T08:34:34.543-08:00Seems to me as the environmental system gets more ...Seems to me as the environmental system gets more and more unstable, interventions like this become more and more likely to enhance that instability. When "Day after Tomorrow" came along, there was a lot of criticism of the science (or lack thereof) its plot reflected. But one wonders if the environment may not have reached that fabled "tipping point" where it does slide into chaotic behavior.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05396010287430687738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-13769035793976098562009-11-02T07:48:23.885-08:002009-11-02T07:48:23.885-08:00Perhaps a rule that each herd of sheep, elk, or de...Perhaps a rule that each herd of sheep, elk, or deer must be accompanied by a band of conservationists. That seems fair, at least to the wolves.Tim of Anglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10910643987517809686noreply@blogger.com