I'd thought I'd share a comment I just made a day or so ago at the New York Times on a column calling for the re-introduction of the cougar (AKA mountain lion and a bunch of other names) to the East:
William Neil
MarylandJan. 12
I would welcome it , finding where I live in Western Maryland on the map here. Deer have been a huge problem which the "Fish and Game Divisions" of state agencies have nurtured. They have become ecologically destructive, clearing the forest understory, everything without stickers.
I doubt most Republican leaders would support this because it may symbolize for them actually acting on more equality for nature and our crashing bio-diversity and bio mass, from insects to birds to plants. When I suggested that gray wolves be returned to similar regions as mapped here at a suitable forum at Frostburg State University, the wildlife professionals were quick to point out that the gray wolfe was losing its genetic identity, breeding with wild dogs and coyotes. Well, I would settle for a close approximation but I suspect the real reason was the opposition of agricultural entrepreneurs, especially ones with herds of one type or another.
Still, I vote for returning both mountain lions and gray wolves to the areas shown. It's time to require each state to conduct a thorough "Census" - like the all volunteer one being done by the Maryland Biodiversity Project. It should include insects and microbes, crucial parts of the bottom of the great food chain with cougars and wolves on the top; we are as dependent on the bottom rungs of the great pyramid, more even, than the "glamour creatures" at the top. But we have to know after more than two centuries the full "nature count."
I'd thought I'd share a comment I just made a day or so ago at the New York Times on a column calling for the re-introduction of the cougar (AKA mountain lion and a bunch of other names) to the East:
William Neil
MarylandJan. 12
I would welcome it , finding where I live in Western Maryland on the map here. Deer have been a huge problem which the "Fish and Game Divisions" of state agencies have nurtured. They have become ecologically destructive, clearing the forest understory, everything without stickers.
I doubt most Republican leaders would support this because it may symbolize for them actually acting on more equality for nature and our crashing bio-diversity and bio mass, from insects to birds to plants. When I suggested that gray wolves be returned to similar regions as mapped here at a suitable forum at Frostburg State University, the wildlife professionals were quick to point out that the gray wolfe was losing its genetic identity, breeding with wild dogs and coyotes. Well, I would settle for a close approximation but I suspect the real reason was the opposition of agricultural entrepreneurs, especially ones with herds of one type or another.
Still, I vote for returning both mountain lions and gray wolves to the areas shown. It's time to require each state to conduct a thorough "Census" - like the all volunteer one being done by the Maryland Biodiversity Project. It should include insects and microbes, crucial parts of the bottom of the great food chain with cougars and wolves on the top; we are as dependent on the bottom rungs of the great pyramid, more even, than the "glamour creatures" at the top. But we have to know after more than two centuries the full "nature count."
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Here's the link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/opinion/cougars-migrating-east.html