On Monday I attended the Idaho Sanity Alliance’s counter to the Tea Party Rally on the Idaho State Capitol steps. Yes, the Tea Party has seemed to have claimed MLK day as their own…oh right, that’s because God told Glen Beck to do that last year.
We gathered across the road from the Tea Partiers at Capitol Park. I got there a little bit late, but one of the first things I heard from a Tea Party speaker was,
“We are a Christian Nation. We are one nation under God.”
I quickly joined in the BOOing of this horribly inaccurate and anti-Constitutional statement from someone claiming to want to restore the Constitution.
Some of their other talking points were:
- Overhauling the state’s educational system. – They didn’t elaborate about how, but if it’s anything like Gov. Otto’s 2010 cut of $128 million from the education budget or the current plan of cutting 770 teaching jobs, then that’s just asinine.
- Scrapping the teacher’s union. – While I’m not a fan of unions, right now this one is our best hope at keeping the government from further gutting the state’s education system.
- Removing Federal protection for wolves in Idaho. – Idaho currently has 800 wolves, they want to kill about half.
- Cut taxes. – I don’t like taxes, but the state needs to balance the budget at at least be able to fund education before making any tax cuts
In other news, the new governor of Alabama just made a really jack ass move:
But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.
Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.
That would be fine for a private citizen to say, but it was Gov. Robert Bentley, who apparently likes to marginalize and proselytize all non-Christians.
I left the Republican Party in 2008 when Pres. Bush decided to bail out (seize control of) several private businesses. Thanks to the Tea Party and the overall anitsecularist tone in the party (not to mention their stances on other topics such as gay rights), I definitely have no plan to return to the GOP any time soon.
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As a biologist, someone who grew up in Idaho, and supported (and still does) the reintroduction of wolves, I think the delisting of the Idaho wolves and placing them in state management is a good idea.
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Could you elaborate as to why?
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1) The wolves are not in real danger of a second extinction in Idaho. The first time they were extirpated there was not several huge wilderness areas in the center of the state to act as refugia and there was a federal supported and funded poisoning campaign. The current situation coupled with wolf population dynamics strongly suggest this population will be pretty resilient to even a pretty intensive hunting season.
2)A hunting season is better for short term population dynamics. When a predator is introduced to a new system, the population will generally overshoot the carrying capacity, cause a crash in prey populations and a concomitant crash in predator populations. This will be followed generally by a recovery by both populations and they will oscillate like this less and less until the populations are relatively stable. If there is wolf population crash they could be particularly vulnerable as a population, especially as poaching is still an issue. A moderate hunting season can blunt a wolf population overshoot and lessen or even prevent the resulting prey and wolf population crashes.
3) Really what wolves need right now is an easing of bad PR for their long term success. While a regulated hunting season will not decimate populations, a large-scale coordinated poaching effort could, or political will being mustered again for complete eradication. A state managed hunting season will clear wolves out of "populated" areas, and give ranchers the feeling they can take recourse against wolves. Both of these should ease human-wolf tensions in the long run. Additionally I am really hopeful one day Grizzly bears will be reintroduced to Idaho as well. That is a near impossibility in the current political climate. Something needs to be done to help ease the populist angst over wolves in the state, and a state managed hunting season would go a long way toward that.
Umm… its kind of a late night ramble..but I think that about sums it up…
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A few follow up questions:
1. At what point would the wolf population be of adequate size to ensure sufficient genetic diversity. I ask this because I really don't know, and I'm hoping you do.
2. How many wolves can the prey population actually support. While I certainly support the regulated hunting of game animals, this is mostly to keep the population in check since we eliminated predator populations. With predators reintroduced into the mix, it would seem to naturally require increased restrictions on hunting game animals.
3. I found this article about last year's hunt http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_01475a9c-3cf8-11df-a9f6-001cc4c002e0.html, it really doesn't sound like the state worked it much like you're suggesting. Perhaps if you were managing the hunt, I would be all for it.
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1) The wolves are not in real danger of a second extinction in Idaho. The first time they were extirpated there was not several huge wilderness areas in the center of the state to act as refugia and there was a federal supported and funded poisoning campaign. The current situation coupled with wolf population dynamics strongly suggest this population will be pretty resilient to even a pretty intensive hunting season.
2)A hunting season is better for short term population dynamics. When a predator is introduced to a new system, the population will generally overshoot the carrying capacity, cause a crash in prey populations and a concomitant crash in predator populations. This will be followed generally by a recovery by both populations and they will oscillate like this less and less until the populations are relatively stable. If there is wolf population crash they could be particularly vulnerable as a population, especially as poaching is still an issue. A moderate hunting season can blunt a wolf population overshoot and lessen or even prevent the resulting prey and wolf population crashes.
3) Really what wolves need right now is an easing of bad PR for their long term success. While a regulated hunting season will not decimate populations, a large-scale coordinated poaching effort could, or political will being mustered again for complete eradication. A state managed hunting season will clear wolves out of "populated" areas, and give ranchers the feeling they can take recourse against wolves. Both of these should ease human-wolf tensions in the long run. Additionally I am really hopeful one day Grizzly bears will be reintroduced to Idaho as well. That is a near impossibility in the current political climate. Something needs to be done to help ease the populist angst over wolves in the state, and a state managed hunting season would go a long way toward that.
Umm… its kind of a late night ramble..but I think that about sums it up…
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1) The wolves are not in real danger of a second extinction in Idaho. The first time they were extirpated there was not several huge wilderness areas in the center of the state to act as refugia and there was a federal supported and funded poisoning campaign. The current situation coupled with wolf population dynamics strongly suggest this population will be pretty resilient to even a pretty intensive hunting season.
2)A hunting season is better for short term population dynamics. When a predator is introduced to a new system, the population will generally overshoot the carrying capacity, cause a crash in prey populations and a concomitant crash in predator populations. This will be followed generally by a recovery by both populations and they will oscillate like this less and less until the populations are relatively stable. If there is wolf population crash they could be particularly vulnerable as a population, especially as poaching is still an issue. A moderate hunting season can blunt a wolf population overshoot and lessen or even prevent the resulting prey and wolf population crashes.
3) Really what wolves need right now is an easing of bad PR for their long term success. While a regulated hunting season will not decimate populations, a large-scale coordinated poaching effort could, or political will being mustered again for complete eradication. A state managed hunting season will clear wolves out of "populated" areas, and give ranchers the feeling they can take recourse against wolves. Both of these should ease human-wolf tensions in the long run. Additionally I am really hopeful one day Grizzly bears will be reintroduced to Idaho as well. That is a near impossibility in the current political climate. Something needs to be done to help ease the populist angst over wolves in the state, and a state managed hunting season would go a long way toward that.
Umm… its kind of a late night ramble..but I think that about sums it up…
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1) The wolves are not in real danger of a second extinction in Idaho. The first time they were extirpated there was not several huge wilderness areas in the center of the state to act as refugia and there was a federal supported and funded poisoning campaign. The current situation coupled with wolf population dynamics strongly suggest this population will be pretty resilient to even a pretty intensive hunting season.
2)A hunting season is better for short term population dynamics. When a predator is introduced to a new system, the population will generally overshoot the carrying capacity, cause a crash in prey populations and a concomitant crash in predator populations. This will be followed generally by a recovery by both populations and they will oscillate like this less and less until the populations are relatively stable. If there is wolf population crash they could be particularly vulnerable as a population, especially as poaching is still an issue. A moderate hunting season can blunt a wolf population overshoot and lessen or even prevent the resulting prey and wolf population crashes.
3) Really what wolves need right now is an easing of bad PR for their long term success. While a regulated hunting season will not decimate populations, a large-scale coordinated poaching effort could, or political will being mustered again for complete eradication. A state managed hunting season will clear wolves out of "populated" areas, and give ranchers the feeling they can take recourse against wolves. Both of these should ease human-wolf tensions in the long run. Additionally I am really hopeful one day Grizzly bears will be reintroduced to Idaho as well. That is a near impossibility in the current political climate. Something needs to be done to help ease the populist angst over wolves in the state, and a state managed hunting season would go a long way toward that.
Umm… its kind of a late night ramble..but I think that about sums it up…