Slaughter on the Island: Hijacking the Flag of Conservation

Introduction

Upon receiving my monthly subscription to the American Hunter, an article jumped out at me "Slaughter on the Island: Hijacking the Flag of Conservation by Lacey Biles.  I immediately went to their website and not only found this article, but some great information on hunting in general everywhere.  This is an excellent website to review regularly.  Anyone concened about conservation should be outraged at what is about to happen to a herd of Roosevet elk and Kaibab mule deer.  Please contact your senator and representative to put a stop to this senseless slaughter.

This article is re-printed from the website http://www.nrahuntersrights.org with express permission by the author Lacey Biles, NRA-ILA Hunting Policy Liason

Slaughter on the Island: Hijacking the Flag of Conservation

Nestled in the Pacific Ocean approximately 30 miles from the mainland of Santa Barbara sits a beautiful island where majestic Roosevelt elk and Kaibab mule deer roam free. Ferried across a treacherous channel, these grand species were brought to Santa Rosa Island some 80 years ago, but their days are officially numbered. A complete slaughter of these magnificent animals is scheduled to occur before the midnight tide rises on Dec. 31, 2011. Sharpshooters will be en route to the island soon to comply with a 1996 court settlement and 2007 legislation that reinstated the extermination order.

The 83-square-mile island was privately owned for more than a century before being sold to the National Park Service in 1986 for $30 million. Used as a cattle and sheep ranch for much of its modern history, overgrazing disrupted the balance of the island’s ecosystem. The 1996 lawsuit settlement required the removal of all cattle, sheep and feral hogs from the island, followed by a phased reduction of elk and mule deer to culminate at the end of 2011 with complete extermination.

As this is a government-mandated animal slaughter, you may ask where the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have been in the process. They have been curiously absent, giving us a clear picture of their definition of “conservation.” In fact, HSUS’ congressional allies, U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, blocked NRA’s efforts to prevent the slaughter in 2007 by inserting a provision into the omnibus appropriations bill that reinstated the extermination order. The animal-saving law blocked by the three lawmakers would have allowed disabled veterans to hunt the majestic elk and mule deer based on biologists’ harvest recommendations.

The battle over Santa Rosa Island illustrates diverging definitions of “conservation.” Theodore Roosevelt was largely responsible for sparking America’s conservation movement after witnessing the detritus left behind by the 19th century’s commercial big game slaughter. An avid hunter throughout his life, Roosevelt could not countenance big game populations dwindling below sustainable hunting levels. He helped to create the North American Wildlife Conservation Model, which used regulated hunting as an essential tool to bring back numerous species from the brink of extinction and help them thrive again.

Regulated hunting of Roosevelt elk and Kaibab mule deer on Santa Rosa Island has been employed and celebrated for decades, keeping populations in check that have no natural predators. Although the presence of such majestic beasts enriches the experience of all who visit the island, HSUS and PETA seem to prefer total extermination of the elk and deer populations rather than allowing one more hunter to take to the field. Again, these anti-hunting extremists refuse to acknowledge that hunters are largely responsible for preserving America’s wild lands and the wild things that Roosevelt held sacrosanct.

Animal “rights” extremists have tried to seize the word “conservation” and change its definition to remove hunting as a tool. Unfortunately, they have had some success and Santa Rosa Island may be their next victory.

The impact that domestic cattle and sheep, and feral hogs, can have on a unique landscape such as Santa Rosa Island is well known. A total of 1,175 hogs were killed during the ‘90s, but estimates put the number of hogs as high as 3,200 prior to a major drought in the late ‘80s. With voracious appetites, it is no wonder that the flora and fauna suffered tremendously. Some states see significant habitat impacts with similar hog populations. After the removal of domestic cattle, sheep and feral hogs, Santa Rosa’s ecosystem dramatically rebounded.

So why have the elk and mule deer been sentenced to die when the island’s ecosystem is rebounding? No reasonable answer has been given; the only explanation is that the two ungulate species are “non-native.” Allowing the North American Wildlife Conservation Model to prevail through elk and mule deer management would mean a modicum of impact on the island’s environment. That is apparently too tall an order for HSUS and PETA because it would mean continued hunting of a few animals. The animal “rights” folks instead sit idly by as government-paid sharpshooters are scheduled to perform a 19th century-style slaughter, with the modern twist of using helicopters instead of horses.

There are only three native terrestrial mammals on Santa Rosa: the deer mouse, island fox and spotted skunk. With the domestic cattle, sheep and feral hogs gone from the island, a proper ecosystem could be easily maintained with the continued inclusion of scientifically managed elk and deer herds.

Roosevelt elk and Kaibab mule deer are only found in a small segment of North America and they are a celebrated part of Santa Rosa for a multitude of visitors from hikers to hunters. The isolated island population of these magnificent animals represents an important insurance policy if disease ever broke out on the mainland that could lead either species to extinction. Having an isolated species pool, a Noah’s Ark of sorts, can prove invaluable as proper elk and mule deer habitat on the mainland continues to erode because of urbanization, leaving species’ health prone to widespread disease events.

President Roosevelt eloquently wrote of elk in 1902:

“Surely all men who care for nature, no less than all men who care for big game hunting, should combine to try to see that not merely the states but the Federal authorities make every effort, and are given every power, to prevent the extermination of this stately and beautiful animal, the lordliest of the deer kind in the entire world.”

I believe that the president who sparked the American conservation movement would write the very same words about the Santa Rosa slaughter today. The elk and mule deer herds could be so managed through hunting and other means as to have minimal impact on the island’s various flora and fauna with a continued existence as balanced members of the island’s ecosystem. This would continue the North American Wildlife Conservation Model that has become the envy of the world, albeit to the angst of the animal “rights” crowd simply because hunting would continue. It makes one wonder if these anti-hunting extremists would prefer to see more animals exterminated so that, in their twisted minds, no “suffering” would exist. It is hard to see any other way they would be satisfied given their inaction on Santa Rosa.

Rest assured that NRA will continue the fight to save the Santa Rosa elk and mule deer to the final hour. Join the fight; contact your United States senators and representative and ask them to call off the sharpshooters. If all concerned NRA members join forces, perhaps we can prevent the senseless slaughter of these remarkable animal populations and keep the animal “rights” extremists from taking hunting out of conservation.


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Thank you NRA-ILA and Lacey Biles for allowing this website to publish this article.

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Green Ideology Trumps Flood Control

Introduction

The Missouri River Flood of 2011 is slowly coming to an end.  Now comes the clean up and examination of the mess and devastation caused by this event.  Farm ground to the south of my home still has standing seep water on it over two feet deep.  This was previously prime Iowa farm ground.  Farmers have told me the ground may not be tillable for at least five years.  They are also looking at deposits of sand, silt, and other debris. The ground has been compacted by the weight of the water and the oxygen gone from the soil.  The clean up and loss of farm production will be horrendous.

The flooding was really hard on the wildlife.  Pushed out of the bottoms, they moved into areas they did not belong. We took deer off  farm ground on a depradation permit. They had been pushed out of the bottoms by the rising waters.  I learned that as the waters rose, the does moved just ahead of the water, and the fawns never made it.  I never saw one fawn with any of the does we harvested.  The animals were processed and given to the shelters.

The article below is reprinted from http://www.americanthinker.com/ with express permission of the author Joe Herring. Mr. Herring lives in Bellvue, Nebraska. He is a professional writer, and writes nationally on a wide range of subjects. This is the second article Mr. Herring has written on the Missouri River Flood.  I hope you find it informative and as educational as I have.  You can reach Mr. Herring through his website http://www.readmorejoe.com/.

Green Ideology Trumps Flood Control

by Joe Herring

As late as April of 2011, the Water Management Chief for the Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, expressed an opinion in an e-mail to a concerned citizen that the mountain snowmelt this year would "be nothing to write home about." This internal e-mail, among many others recently released through a Freedom of Information Act request by Gannett's Washington Bureau, exposes that assertion as a gross misstatement of known facts.

The e-mails reveal that a cadre of hydrologists, engineers, and National Weather Service (NWS) officials had repeatedly warned the chief, Ms. Jody Farhat, beginning in January about the danger posed by up to 500% higher-than-normal snowpack looming in the mountains above. Multiple sources also informed the Corps that the snow had an abnormally high water content, which, combined with NWS reports of soil saturation levels of 99% in much of the Dakotas and nearly all of Montana, greatly added to the likelihood of epic flooding. Even the Corps headquarters in Washington warned Ms. Farhat about the growing danger. She dismissed their concerns.

Under her direction, the Corps plodded along, conducting business as usual right up until the last moment, when conditions forced a radical shift from an all-is-well status to an ark-building emergency almost overnight.

Confronted by the worst flooding in the history of the Missouri River Basin, Farhat attempts to deflect criticism by claiming that the snowpack was "just a bit above normal" until mid-April, when it "skyrocketed." According to data found at the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center website (operated by the NWS), it wasn't the snowpack that skyrocketed; it was the Corps estimate of it that rose dramatically. The snow was already there. How did the Corps miss it? One possible explanation is that they had their focus directed elsewhere.

A front-line operational manager expressed his concern to Ms. Farhat that the information being passed on to the Corps decision-makers was routinely ignored, worrying that if such a dismissive attitude continued, the managers "will not even bother to call in, or provide input, if they feel like they're not being heard."

He continued, "We're all concerned about being in our exclusive flood control zones ... but what concerns me more is the feedback that I'm hearing: 'It doesn't matter what we say so we may as well keep our mouths shut.'" Farhat's response was that the operations managers don't have a "system-wide perspective."

Even now, amidst the most prolonged flooding ever seen on the "Big Muddy," the Corps continues to peddle the story that this was an unremarkable year until the advent of extraordinarily strong spring rains in the Montana reach of the Missouri River basin. "And what happened was we had this incredible rainfall event, that was a rainfall event in May, and that was the game-changer in terms of system operations," Farhat said.

In an interview with the Omaha World Herald, Farhat said that these rains created an additional 4 to 5 million acre-feet (MAF) of runoff, pushing the dam system past its tipping point and leaving the Corps with no alternative but to pass water through the system at the historic rate of 160,000 cubic feet per second. However, at that rate of release, the supposedly culpable spring rains would have been evacuated from the system in less than two weeks.

The Corps began releasing water at this rate at the beginning of June and will continue to do so until the latter part of August. By the time this is over, the Corps will have evacuated more than ten times the amount of water contained in those offending spring rains. Thankfully, the dams hold water better than the Corps story.

The evidence seems to point to the Corps becoming tragically distracted from its essential mission. Flood control has been pushed farther down the list of priorities to make room for eco-system restoration. While busily pretending to be Mother Nature, chasing the green dream of a river restored to some amorphously defined pre-dam state, the Corps ignored the reality of a leviathan catastrophe. It appears that we no longer have a Corps of Engineers operating a flood-control system, but rather a fish and wildlife agency that dabbles in flood-control.

Farhat asserts that the agency made no mistakes and has managed releases in accordance with its manual. "We are getting questions like, 'You saw the snow, so why didn't you release more?' In the manual it doesn't make a difference. We reached right where we needed to be," Farhat said, referring to reservoir levels measured on March 1. "The way the manual is written, that's always the target. It's not like we have a target here or there depending on wet or dry years." If water levels do not need to fluctuate based on wet or dry conditions, then perhaps we can just install a simple automatic ball-float somewhere in the reservoir and call it a day.

Instead, we have a behemoth arm of the federal government so enraptured by ecological fantasy that they spend nearly $73 million a year on restoring fish and bird habitat, and only $6 million annually on flood prevention and control.

A priority shift is overdue, and the environmental left is already working toward gaining control of that shift when the water recedes. Declaiming responsibility for their hand in this flood, the greens are attempting to shift the blame to the original Flood Control Act of 1944.

In a recent editorial, a pair of environmentalist lawyers-turned-college professors (what a surprise) tells us that the rules guiding the Corps are outdated, having not been revised since their origin in 1944. Conveniently, they fail to mention that their fellow travelers in the environmentalist left completely overhauled the entire system in 2006 by rewriting the Master Water Control Manual to reflect and further their cultural and biodiversity goals of "eco-system restoration."

The Corps is dancing to the chanting of American Rivers, the Sierra Club, and numerous other left-of-center environmental lobbying groups, working toward "reconnecting the river to its floodplain." According to this green-trendy concept, a slow, meandering river poses no threat -- only the channelized "ditch" created by man's interference is dangerous.

In a previous article, I examined the upended priorities of the Corps as written in the revised Master Manual. The dam system is now being utilized to mimic the natural flows of the pre-dam river in the name of returning the river to some pre-human state of nature.

What is meant by this "reconnecting" catchphrase? The definition is readily apparent in a Missouri river that has spread out to more than 11 miles wide in places. Entire towns are inundated. Neighborhoods in towns that predated the dams themselves now lie beneath the surface of the water, victims of a river "reconnected to its floodplain."

The eco-restorationists are shamelessly touting the spectacular flood control benefits derived from their reconnection strategy. What they do not say is that their strategy does not control flooding in any commonly understood sense. It simply doesn't allow humans to be where flooding has ever occurred. Should they be allowed to continue, entire reaches of the river, stretching from bluff to bluff, hundreds of thousands of square miles worth, would become no-go areas for humans, unless of course you are an environmentalist engaging in some study or experiment. For this, we lose our homes and property.

The idea that educated men and women can become so enamored of a theory as to become inured to the suffering of fellow humanity is barely conceivable to principled minds. We laypeople always assume we must be missing something -- some important tidbit of evidence unavailable to us, but known to the experts. Indeed, at times, this is the case. While we want to believe that our experts tell us the truth, all too often, those with agendas use that desire to deceive us. Frighteningly, this appears to be one such time when an agenda is transcendent. Let the investigations begin without delay.

The author writes from Omaha, NE and welcomes comments at his website, http://www.readmorejoe.com/.

I want to thank Mr. Herring for allowing me to reprint this excellent article.

Good hunting, good fishing, and good luck.  Hank



The Deer are in the Corn (Part 2)

There is one section of the farm north of Fort Calhoun I have never hunted.  As described in previous postings, this farm sits on top of a series of hills that rise steeply from the valley to the west.  The valley area is where the deer are hanging out.  These deer came up out of the river bottoms as the Missouri River flood water rose.  Here they are finding some very good dining.  Good for them, but not for the landowner.  He rotates his crops and this spring planted corn instead of beans.  Corn is around seven dollars a bushel and the deer have  big appetites. They like the corn.

Having never hunted this section of the farm, a scouting trip was planned.  High on the hills I looked down into the corn fields below me.  The edges were surrounded with tall weeds.  Several terraces held water from previous rains.  The deer do just fine in a small area with water, cover, and food.  Deer trails also ran from the woods to the north and down the steep hills to the corn.  Climbing down the hills, it was very easy to see the damage the deer were doing.  It was way more severe than anything I had seen before on this farm.  It was obvious the crop was systematically being gobbled up by the invasion of the river bottom deer.

The plan was made to get to a couple of spots on the side of the hill and harvest one or two as they came out of the fields and back into the woods.  If they decided to hide in the weeds, I would be able to spot them if they moved into view.  The watering areas on the terrace were hard to see as the side of the hills were primarily timber.

Three thirty AM came really early the next morning.  On the road by 4 AM and arriving at the farm 45 minutes later, there was plenty of light to help me find the first spot.  The temperature was only seventy-five degrees, but the heavy humidity really made it uncomfortable.  After 20 minutes of hiking to the first spot, I was drenched.  The bugs were also out in full force, and thanks to the Thermacell Mosquito Repellent, it kept them off of me.  Check the front page of the website for more information on this product. You can also click on the following link and go direct to Bass Pro for more information.
ThermaCell Mosquito Repellent - Olive Green

It did not take long.  A really young doe came from off to my left.  She trotted about 20 yard in front of me at a 45 degree angle, paused, looked and sniffed.  She could not figure it all out and she was really small.  I let her go.  Next came a very large buck.  The velvet covered his already sprouting horns.  He sensed I was there and made a very wide sweep.  He moved quickly up the steep hill.  He would pause among the trees and stare, but he stayed clear.  A shot at him was possible, but the goal was a doe.  If he remains in the area, someone will have a nice rack provided he gets harvested.

Daylight was showing, and I moved back deeper into some woods along the side of the hill.  I wanted to be in as much shadow as possible.  The wind had picked up out of the southwest and was right in my face.  This was perfect.  Two really small doe wandered up the hill to my right and never paused.  That was a good sign as I had not been discovered.  Next came a really nice doe.  She stayed close to the fields moving away from me.  The angle was not good.  Then she made a fatal mistake and started up the hill.  This was perfect, and as she stepped from behind some trees into a small open area, the shot was made.  I could feel my heart beating in my chest.  This was exciting, but now for the work. 

I called the landowner, but the cell phone was not able to get a good signal.  I dragged her up the hill, and right below the top field  dressed her out.  I tried again, and got through but broken reception.  All I could hear was the landowner was, "I heard shooting.  Is that you?"  I needed him to come with the loader and help me load this fine creature up.  Laying the Thermacell on the doe's neck, I fought the mosquitoes and got to higher ground.  He was already on the tractor and it was merely to identify my location. 

Thirty minutes later, the deer was in the back of the truck.  We packed it in ice, and I took off for Omaha and the processor.  I was off the farm ground by 8 AM.

Good hunting, good fishing, and good luck.  Hank

If you have a great hunting or fishing story, e-mail to us with pictures and if published, we will e-mail you a $25.00 gift certificate to Bass Pro.

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The Deer are in the Corn

With one successful hunt under my belt, it was time to move onto another.  The two days I picked had cool morning temperatures, but getting hotter later in the day.  The plan was to be on site by 6 AM.  The mosquitoes were really heavy early morning and evening, but I was prepared. ThermaCell Mosquito Repellent - Olive Green is the product I use and it really works. If you are outdoors in the summer during the buggy period this is the product to own.

I planned to hunt just below the landowner's home about 100 yards down his lane up on a bank.  Deer tracks were thick in that area as they came from the fields below and moved to higher ground in the timber.  Setting up under a standing oak, I had good visibiltiy to the front and to the right.  Up the hill visibility was blocked by some low bushes.  The sun was not up but it was light, and the morning remained cool.  The day was not to warm up much past 85 degrees, but the humidity was still heavy.  I sat for almost two hours and nothing happened.  I also may have napped a little as it was a beautiful morning. 

After the sun was up, it was obvious there was no action here.  However, not wanting to leave, it was decided to push farther up the bank.  There was a nice gradual slope and the timber funneled into a V at the top of the bank.  It was here the set up was made.  It was also darker in the top of the V as the timber was closer to me. 

After about 30 minutes there was that familiar snort and a foot pounded the ground.  It sounded like it was right behind me.  How many times have you been in this situation?  You cannot move.  It was obvious the animal knew something was not quite right.  Doe and bucks will do the same thing, so it was impossible to tell what it was.  The depravation tag does not specify if it has to be a doe, but the focus is on doe only shooting.  This is the best way to thin the herd.

Slowly I moved the gun to a better position on my lap and tightened the muscles in my arms to start to bring it up to the shoulder.  To my right was standing timber.  To my left were very tight small sapplings.  Behind me was the tree I was sitting against.  Tall grass in front of me opened up to the lane.  My head moved very slowly to the right to check that area.  There was nothing there.  "Bump, bump," it beat the ground again.  Then I lifted the stock very slowly to my shoulder. I swallowed, and I could feel my heart beat.  Very very slowly I moved my head to the left until all that was needed was to move the eyes.  Nothing was there.   That meant the thing was behind me.  I am right handed so I quickly swung to the left around the tree.  It was gone and I never got a peek. 

I decided it was time for a change of plans.  I moved to the uphill side of the bank with my back intermingled with the very tight small sapplings.  Thirty minutes went by.  Again, the usual huff, followed by a pound of the hoof on the ground.  This time it was to my right and somewhat behind me.  I said to myself, "Do nothing and don't move."  It knew something was not quite right with the direction it wanted to go.  If I remained perfectly still, perhaps it would  calm  down and  step into a position where I could get a shot.  It was not meant to be.  I waited for 30 minutes and heard nothing else.  Turning around and stepping deeper into the woods, I could see no signs or tracks. 

By now it was close to 10 AM and it was starting to get hot.  I ran into the landowner and he suggested I hunt south closer to his large cornfield on the next trip.  He gave me some areas to work as he had seen about fifteen along a fence line in the morning. 

Good hunting, good fishing and good luck.  Hank

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