Free: Contests & Raffles.
By Swami B "Swami B" (Harlem, NY USA) - See all my reviews "Playing God in Yellowstone" by Alston Chase is a scathing indictment of the National Park Service, detailing its many misguided attempts to preserve wildlife while making Yellowstone National Park a tourist hotspot. The federal agency's conflicted mission resulted in the park service's becoming the largest killer of animal life in the park, routinely exterminating wolves, bears, mountain lions, big horn sheep, and elk. The book also shows how politics trumped science routinely in deciding park policy. Decisions were made to preserve some animal species while eliminating others, without the benefit of any detailed biological studies of the park's ecosystem, which historically was not necessarily a natural habitat for many species found there at the beginning of the 20th century (farmers and cattlemen had cordoned off many grazing areas that antelope and other species had used for millenia). The park service favored elk, because they were popular with tourists, but the elk herds were enormously destructive in eating their way through all available food sources that other species needed to survive. What did the park service do when the elk herd grew too large? Shipped the animals to other parks, and arranged for mass slaughters to keep the herds in check. The park service also ignored the fact that Native Americans were not the nature-loving shepherds of the forest so often depicted in media portrayals. They employed forest fires as a means of driving game into areas where they could be hunted, and nearly exterminated many species before the white man arrived. (Although Chase does cite scientific studies that show the benefit of forest fires in helping to renew the environment for a wide variety of plant and animal species.) Meanwhile, such "watchdog" groups as the National Audobon Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Boone and Crockett Club, the Wilderness Society, and World Wildlife Fund were guided by former park service and Department of Interior officials, and tacitly endorsed policies that destroyed much of the natural environment. They, and the Sierra Club, encouraged people to visit the national parks, while conveniently ignoring the hugely destructive effects that hikers and campers wrought on forest areas. The endless God-like tinkering demonstrates a litany of unintended consequences. This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the pitfalls of misguided environmental policies.
It is a permit hunt area only and there is two many elk in the area for the available vegetation.
The point of these videos is to raise awareness on Mt Saint Helens , And the surrounding areas.#1 Over pursuit of the wildlife. *Hunting seasons are to long in this area*.#2 Animals are over stressed and under nourished, due to lack of habitat.#3 Due to herbicide & pesticide spays on the clear cut there is NO FOOD.#4 The worst winter on record since 1937.#5 People need to take a active roll in helping the wildlife survive so we will have animals to hunt.#6 Ask yourself what you can do to be Postive part of fixing this problem.#7 This take a HUGE amount of time & money to do all of this. Any Donations would be greatly appreciated. With labor or dollars.#8 Alfalfa is $300/ton or $20/bale
"If you are not part of the solution your part of the problem"What are you doing to insure that there will be elk available to hunt in the future?Also, if you have got the hook up on Alfalfa for $150 a ton why don't you give the guy a call!
I've been reading this thread, and I've got the throw my two cents worth in. GMU 522 has more dead elk in it every year than anywhere else that I'm aware of. There is NO hunting in 522, hasn't been since the mountain blew in 1980. There are way too many elk in that unit all year long, not just in the winter. Mark Smith lives on the edge of that unit and and the Margret and across the river is the Toutle unit. As far "over hunting" goes....well, the Margret and Toutle are draw only hunts for elk. Yes, there is pressure but the woods are mostly closed by Weyerhaeuser for early archery season due to "fire danger". My Dad has been drawn twice and got his points back once because there was NO access. That means you are not allowed to walk in or ride a bike or anything. The Lewis River unit which takes in the entire South side has no late season. Check your game pamphlet. If you want to see hunting pressure go up into the Coweeman or the Ryderwood units during modern firearm elk season! Wow! Those units have early, mid, and late season. I don't even like to go out there that time of year. I've been to most of the public meetings that are held locally concerning the status of the Volcanic National Monument, (most with little or no notice), and I have been impressed with what Mark is says and what he is trying to do. When he says "preserve", I get the impression he wants to preserve the recreation activities that we currently have. Which meens NO national park, etc. He makes most of his fall/winter income from the hunting public that stays at his Eco-Park. He was a driving factor to get the indians to stop shooting (poaching) the elk around the area in the last 15 years. He has done some good things, and I think his heart is in the right place. He spoke (in opposition) at the last meeting that was held concerning the huge mine that they are trying to push through at the head of the Green River. Right in the middle of the wintering area for that part of the mountain. THAT would be a disaster for those elk. Like I said, I think he is on the right track. As far as the "St.Helens" herd that I see people refer to....where is it located? Is it ONLY in the blast zone? Or over in the Green River drainage? (We found 33 dead elk there last spring, and those were just the ones we saw). Is it the South Toutle drainage? Is it the Muddy River? (Found 16 dead ones there last spring and we only went up there one afternoon). Or is it the elk that die over in the Smith Creek/Ape Canyon flat? There is a LOT of country surrounding this mountain....and last year was especially hard on them. I saw the hoof-rot subject brought up too. We spend quite a bit of time up in the hills and I have not seen one case of hoof rot up there. We had seven (that we found) die last spring out behind our house, (Ryderwood unit). They all had hoof rot, and all of them spent a lot of time in the pastures. That seems to be the elk that get hoof-rot the most, at least what I've seen personally. The bull my son took this year had it, and it was feeding in or around the field most of the summer. There aren't any pastures in the Margret or Toutle units. The flats in the Loowit could qualify as a pasture in places I suppose. So maybe they have a hoof-rot issue there. I've lived in the area all of my life and I love it here. I guess I threw in more than my two cents, more like a dime, but this is a subject that is near and dear to my all family and myself.
All I know is from reading this thread is that the few people that are really pushing for this guy all seem to be new to the sight and are all pretty ill tempered?!?! What is with that???
