A consequence of trapping is that you can seldom be sure what you will catch. The Scottish Wildcat is now 'critically endangered, and the latest surveys suggest less than 100
individuals survive in the wild. Numbers originally decreased due to
deforestation and human persecution, but today the primary threat is
cross-mating with feral domestic cats'.
A genuine specimen of the native wild cat was found trapped by Mr Low, trapper on Fasque moors last week. As far as known, writes correspondent, it is over eighty years since the last wild cat found in Kincardineshire was shot in Glen Dye.
Monday, March 05, 2012
It
seems like foxes are getting bigger in Britain. One scientist
speculates that "one possible explanation is that they are getting
better fed in urban areas."
Assuming that bigger coyotes is not
something we want to encourage, then certainly restricting their access
to human related food sources is a good thing. But we have been arguing
that for a long time, albeit it for a different reason.
What
has just occurred to me is that 'managing' their population may have the
same effect, by artificially reducing competition for their natural
food sources. Under normal circumstances their population, and perhaps
their size, is to some extent at least controlled by the availability of
food - the carrying capacity of their environment. But when we start
controlling their numbers by hunting and trapping, the prey:predator
ratio increases, so can we expect their health and size to increase too?
'Health of the herd' is often cited by hunters as a good reason to
hunt, so perhaps the answer is yes?
So, unless we want bigger
coyotes, this seems like just another reason to stop trying to manage
wildlife and let nature take its course. It probably knows best.
I have received two worrying posts via Facebook in the last 24 hours.
The first was a link from an acquaintance of mine who traps and does everything he can to promote that activity. He was interested by an article Biodiversity benefits from new snaring scheme - National Park agrees about how black grouse conservation in Scotland is being aided by trapping predators such as foxes and weasels. Which is no doubt true, but if one looks a bit deeper into the story, the RSPB are the other lead body working on black grouse conservation. Their emphasis is very much on habitat management, and "reducing fox and crow predation where essential". Notice the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust never mentioned crows. By cherry-picking at bits of the whole story, they have come up with an article that shows how wonderful snaring is.
Perhaps more worrying, because it is about something I agree with, is this video made by Hellmans in support of food security.
The problem here are the numbers they quoted for blueberry production in NS: "NS production in 2007 was half what it was in 2003". Now, this is actually true, 13500 tons, down from 29300. And if this were a trend, yes, we should be worried, but it is not born out by the statistics. One could equally have compared 2008 with 2007 and said that harvest is up 54%.
Take a look and you will see that 2003 saw an abnormally high production, with an unprecedented yield of 0.77 tons/acre, while 2007 was low at 0.34 tons/acre. The ten year average was 0.49 tons/acre (my maths). No doubt yields vary considerably according to the weather and other factors.
What should be noted from these figures is that the acreage under production has risen fairly steadily in the past 10 years. Totally counter to the argument that the video is making, and however much one wants to support a cause like food security, one has to wonder just how reliable all their other numbers are.
Broomfield, Colorado, has just launched their draft Coexistence with Wildlife Policy, which uses two levels of hazing of coyotes to discourage them from coming into contact with humans, in an effort to avoid the use of lethal control.
Full story. A shame the Nova Scotia government is not so enlightened.
I remember the winter of 1963. School was closed for time when the outside toilets froze up. We thawed our 1/3 pint bottles of milk around the stove in our classroom.
On 1 February, 1963, Geoffrey Jones began filming "Snow" which was to win 14 major awards and an Oscar nomination in 1965. Jones was already working on a film for the British Railways Board when he had the idea of making a film contrasting the comfort of the passengers with the efforts of the workmen to keep the trains running during this abnormal winter.
The footage we see is mostly from the Western Region. There is also a tantalising glimpse of a Somerset and Dorset freight train as well as some archive pre-WW II shots of Jubilee class locomotive 'Barbados'.
National Post columnist Don Martin wrote at length about the mistakes made by the Green Party in the last election. None of this is news, and pales into insignificance alongside his remark that he, and possibly other reporters in Ottawa, could not name another Green candidate.
I could excuse this ignorance if it came from Joe Public, but not from a journalist. Surely they should keep themselves better informed than this? It doesn't take long on the internet to find out who the candidates are, who the deputy leader is, or to answer most other questions that an inquiring mind might ask. Has Mr Martin already forgotten the name Blair Wilson? And does he live in one of the few ridings that didn't run a Green candidate?
If this really is indicative of the intelligence of the people in the media whose job it is to keep the public informed, then Canada is in real trouble.
Picnic in the Forest happens tomorrow, October 18, 11am-2pm. It is hosted by Friends of Redtail Society to launch their campaign to save forest lands from industrial clear cutting.
Redtail Nature Awareness is a nature retreat and experiential education centre located in a semi-wilderness region of northern Nova Scotia, Canada. It offers year round camps for youth and nature retreats for adults that help participants explore the richness, mystery and sacredness that is inherent in nature.
Friends of Redtail Society have concluded negotiations to purchase land comprising approximately 313 acres near Scotsburn, Pictou County that had been slated for clear cut. To complete this purchase the Society has until December 2009 to raise upwards of $250,000. For more information please call (902) 485-4688
The only major party to persuade more people to vote for them than in the previous election was the Green Party, yet they won no seats. The Conservatives got 168,737 fewer votes and gained 19 seats. The NDP got 72,522 fewer seats and gained 8 seats.
On Wednesday, CAW announced today that the union is throwing its support behind Green Party leader Elizabeth May in the Central Nova riding, as a part of the CAW's strategic voting approach.
Hamilton Greens have created their own election video called Green Door. It is aimed at voters who are tired of the way politics is done in Canada, and maybe want to know more about green policies and the six fundamental principles underlying everything the Green Party stands for.
Avaaz.org are organising a grass roots effort to prevent a Harper majority government...
Dear friends,
For the last two years, the Harper government has done everything it could to wreck the world's efforts to fix climate change. Given the "fossil award" by environmental experts, Canada (our Canada!) has been repeatedly voted the WORST country in the world on climate change. Now, it's election time, and we have to make sure that Harper pays a real price at the polls for his reckless and un-Canadian climate policy.
Our first step is to target 3 of Harper's top MPs, including Environment Minister John Baird, and try to stop their re-election by telling their constituents just how irresponsible they've been, and what they've been doing in the name of all Canadians. Our ad campaign is ready to launch in these ridings, but we urgently need Canadian Avaaz members to donate $50,000 this week to get started. Click below to see the ads and donate just $10 or $25:
In an initial 3 target ridings, we'll be appealing to all voters to help save the planet by voting for the candidate most likely to beat the Conservative candidate. In one riding, we'll be supporting an NDP candidate, in another a Liberal, in another a Green. We're making sure to be "tripartisan" - we don't support any particular party, we just want to make sure the Conservatives pay for their almost criminal record on the environment. A large majority of voters in these ridings oppose Harper, but have split their votes among the 3 progressive parties, so even just a small shift in strategic or "smart voting" to favour the most popular progressive candidate will likely defeat the conservatives. That's the pitch our ads will make.
There's so much at stake, and no time to lose, let's pull out all the stops for Canada, and for the world.
With hope,
Ricken, Lisa-Marie, Laryn and the Avaaz Canada Team
PS - Canadian Avaaz members have a long record of campaigning against Stephen Harper's environmental policies, from calling him out on his failure to implement the Kyoto Protocol, to challenging his wrecking tactics at the Bali summit. In our online poll, 90% of Avaaz members strongly opposed a Harper majority. We've won some of these fights before, and if we all pull together in the next 2 weeks to give our voices, our time, our talent and our money, we can do it again!
PSS - Here are some links to more information:
Green party leader Elizabeth May calls for 'strategic voting' across party lines to stop Harper:
Straight.com writer analyzes the stakes of the Canadian election for the world:
This site shows that at a national level, strategic or smart voting will benefit all the opposition parties and prevent a Harper Majority:
The initial three ridings that Avaaz are targeting are:
There is an excellent article in the Globe and Mail today by Margaret Atwood. She is commenting on Stephen Harper's attack on the arts and culture community, in particular his comments suggesting that "ordinary people" don't care about "the arts."
One sentence in particular stands out:
Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they're a mouthy lot and they don't line up and salute very easily.
The more I read about this man, the more worried I get. Take a look at The Harper Record and make your own mind up. Vote ABC, or ABC.
Atwood's article is an excerpt of her speech to be delivered at the Hurtig Lecture on the Future of Canada, Wednesday October 1, 2008 at the University of Alberta.
Here is Paul Stamets presenting "6 ways mushrooms can save the world". The presentation seems terribly rushed. I had trouble understanding some of it, but found these links useful: Prototaxites, medicinal uses of fungi, mycoremediation, mycofiltration. He even suggests using mycellium to convert cellulose into fungal sugars which can be turned into ethanol.
More and more people are taking to their bikes as a means of transport. Here is a film by the (US) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on safely driving, fitting and maintaining a bicycle.
They report that New Brunswick is already experiencing the effects of climate change. The snow pack in the southern part of the province is only half the long-term average; extreme weather events have risen five fold; sea level is up 30 cm; the average annual temperature up 0.7C.
Greenhouse gas emissions in NB are up 37% from 1990-2005 and the province is the third highest per-capita emitter in Canada. The government has committed to get back to 1990 levels by 2012, and 10% below that figure by 2020. The problem is, New Brunswick Power is responsible for over half of the province's emissions, and while they do use hydro and wind power, every year they send $500 million out of the province to purchase nuclear and fossil fuels.
These are used in large and inefficient power plants. Coleson Cove, Belledune and Point Lepreau run at about 30% efficiency. They tend to be located a long way from where the power is needed, resulting in further transmission line losses. They dump large amounts of heat into the ocean.
What the Conservation Council of New Brunswick are proposing is a move to smaller combined heat and power stations which typically run in excess of 70% efficiency and can be as high as 80% or more. They would be powered by locally produced biomass, creating employment and keeping money in the province.
Since the 1980's it has been widely acknowledged that larger power plants are inefficient, expensive and time consuming to build, and down-time for repairs is hard to manage. Smaller systems however can be mass produced, more easily financed and rapidly deployed. They are faster and easier to maintain, and down-time of one generator has much less impact on the whole system. This is what is termed the Diseconomies of Scale.
Are you sure you want to buy a reactor from AECL that so far is only at the design stage? That's what the MAPLE reactors were. Reactors on paper. Why would anyone have confidence in AECL? Why go with a nuclear reactor when New Brunswick has so many other options?
I heard on the CBC recently that transit companies in both Halifax and St.John are seeing increased ridership. With the cost of gas, this is hardly surprising.
Other areas are reporting similar increases. In Colorado, bus driver Chris Gray says he has seen plenty of evidence that people are using transit as an alternative to driving themselves. In Michigan ridership is up 7% this year, and "Gas prices are doing what all the practical and common-sense arguments for mass transit have been unable to do -- driving people to change". In Bournemouth, England, figures show the number of bus passenger journeys has increased by 18 per cent in the last year. In Adelaide ridership is up 18% since 2000 and some services are reaching capacity.
Climate change is already creating serious problems in Canada. Here is a video of Elizabeth May addressing the Global Greens Conference in Sao Paulo earlier this month.
