Wildlife & Development

[RC]

Now THIS, is a hi-jack, very obtusely related to the main topic:

Rumbles of renewed resource extraction along the Front are echoing across the country -- with prime hunting and fishing habitat coming under threat in the federal forests, plains and wetlands of Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico and elsewhere. The gathering din has begun to worry -- and, in some cases, infuriate -- America's fishermen and hunters, many of whom are Republicans who voted for Bush. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates about 47 million Americans fish or hunt.

Notice how it contains absolutely no mention of Florida, Wildlife attacks, or my suthun accent.

[The Great Carouser]

Originally posted by RC:

The fact that Clinton pulled shenanigans is a mute (sic) point, (I think thats his middle name). The fact that the wilderness is being encroached upon is NOT a mute (sic) point.

Every outgoing administration that turns over the White House to another party pulls these 'shenanigans' as you call them . It's business as usual. Bush Sr. left some interestiing mementos when he left office as well. Most presidents over the last fifty some-odd years haven't enjoyed their party controlling the House and Senate during their administrations (Johnson being a notable exception that comes to mind). This can make it dificult to get a lot of one's agenda passed. These executive orders can circumvent that hurdle on relatively minor issues (remember the national 55mph speed limit?).

[RC]

GC-
agreed.
I should try to refrain from finger pointing at Clinton.

He did some things that rubbed me the wrong way politically, and I tend to be cynical and unfair when he comes into conversation.

[barfle]

Point all you want, RC. There's enough guilt for all of them.

[dai bread]

Just a nice little touch of wildlife in a very developed place.

Fishing, anyone?

[rwcrooks]

Originally posted by dai bread:
Do Americans farm deer? They're quite lucrative for our venison (cervena) farmers, and there's antler velvet as well.

Here in Wisconsin there is no need to farm them. They're all over the place. Actually, we have a short hunting season (about a week long around Thanksgiving) in which approximately 600,000 hunters take to the woods and blast away at deer. You read right, about 600,000. Which is why a lot of people don't drive on back roads during this time. Seems that some of the hunters mistake SUVs for deer.

[dai bread]

600 000 hunters!!!!! I know Wisconsin's a sizeable place but I didn't think it was that big! Remind me not to leave the cities around Thanksgiving if I ever get there.

NZ deer lived in the hilly, or even the mountainous, back country. Some still do, and hunting is common, and for most if not all of the year. It's a while since I did it, so I'm not sure of current rules. There is no way anyone could ever make much of a living off wild deer in this country, except as a hunting guide for tourists. That's why they're now farmed.

[Shapley]

Rich,

Wasn't Wisconsin one of the states infected with Cronic Wasting Disease, requiring the extermination of one counties entire deer population?

V/R
Shapley

[rwcrooks]

Shap,

Yes, we got hit with CWD. But there was a big, BIG scare about it and hen it sort of died down. Now, when you get your deer registered, you can get a test done to see if it is infected with CWD, but I don't believe that most hunters do this.

While Wisconsin has a population of 5.4 million people, it also has a population of 1.7 million deer. That's quite a ratio!

Of course, the down side is the number of deer-car accidents. In 2003, 805 people were either killed or injured in deer-car accidents. There were almost 22,000 deer-car accidents in 2003.

By the way, the hunters usually bag about 450,000 deer per year in Wisconsin (300,000 of them in the 9-day season).

<small>[ 08-03-2004, 09:49 AM: Message edited by: RichC ]</small>