Free: Contests & Raffles.
I was recently forwarded an individual's correspondence with Stuart Love, Charleston District Wildlife Biologist with ODFW. He wrote: "The picture you took of the bull elk at Dean Creek with an issue involving his hoof was forwarded to me by BLM. It looks to me like the bull is being affected by hoof rot. This is a common malady in Roosevelt elk in the coast range."This is one of several reports of hoof rot in the Dean Creek area which is of course closer to California than Washington. But what really interests me is that he states that "this is a common malady in Roosevelt elk in the coast range." Not according to our WDFW officials. So is this just ignorance on their part?Now while you're pondering that, consider that one of Oregon's wildlife vets and epidemiologists, Dr. Julia Burco, a lady who has been quoted in several newspapers on the issue of hoof rot, actually sits on WDFW's expert scientific panel / technical advisory group. So why is this information not being shared? Do these officials really deserve our trust and respect when they can get such a vital component of this case so blatantly wrong? Here's the quote again, straight from WDFW's website: "Timber companies use similar herbicide treatments along the West Coast, yet elk populations in other areas have not exhibited the symptoms associated with hoof disease seen in southwest Washington."This is not a trivial point. This line of reasoning has been WDFW's main excuse for not investigating the role forest chemicals may be playing in this disease. Now that it's been proven false, will they look into herbicides? Will they even admit that they've been wrong?
They've had 20 years. I wasn't distracting them for the first 19. What did the accomplish then?