Trump administration wants to roll back the Endangered Species Act

originally posted by: neo96
Since when did rinos live in 'Murica other than the political kind?

Related to Trump lifting ban on bringing big game Trophy Heads back to 'Murica.

a reply to: Annee

How bout Snipping at African Countries then eh?

Ya know those Sovereign countries.

originally posted by: BotheLumberJack
a reply to: CB328

Does the endangered species act include Liberals?

Do endangered species vote?

a reply to: TheRedneck

I am all for protecting species

no you are not

heck, overstock it and charge hunters for taking an animal

I get the point you are making though it has many holes in it just as all the instances of failed preservation you give.

a reply to: Annee

Why not. I could decide to be my Cat tomorrow and according to the Laws that be, that would be ok because.. insanity rules!

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: howtonhawky

Theodore Roosevelt was also pleased in 1903, when as President, he went to Yellowstone for a dedication ceremony. Here he is. This was his third visit. Roosevelt saw a thousand antelope, plentiful cougar, mountain sheep, deer, coyote and many thousands of elk. He wrote at that time, “Our people should see to it that this rich heritage is preserved for their children and their children’s children forever, with its majestic beauty all unmarred.”

But in fact, Yellowstone was not preserved. On the contrary, it was altered beyond repair in a matter of years. By 1934, the Park Service acknowledged that whitetail deer, cougar, lynx, wolf, and possibly wolverine and fisher are gone from the Yellowstone.

What they didn’t say was that the Park Service was solely responsible for the disappearances. Park rangers had been shooting the animals for decades, even though that was illegal since the Lacey Act of 1894. But they thought they knew best. They thought their environmental concerns trumped any mere law.

What actually happened at Yellowstone is a cascade of ego and error, but to understand it, we have to go back to the 1890s. Back then, it was believed that elk were becoming extinct, so these animals were fed and encouraged. Over the next few years, the number of elk in the park exploded. Here you can see them feeding them hand to hand.

Roosevelt had seen a few thousand animals on his visit, and he’d noticed that the elk were more numerous than in his previous visit. Nine years later, in 1912, there were 30,000 elk in Yellowstone. By 1914, there were 35,000.

Things were going very well. Rainbow trout had also been introduced, and although they crowded out the native cutthroats, nobody really worried. Fishing was great. Bears were increasing in numbers, and moose and bison as well.

By 1915, Roosevelt realized the elk had become a problem, and he urged scientific management, which meant culling. His advice was ignored. Instead, the Park Service did everything they could to increase the number of elk. The results were predictable. Antelope and deer began to decline. Overgrazing changed the flora. Aspen and willows were being eaten at a furious rate and did not regenerate. Large animals and small began to disappear from the park.

In an effort to stem the loss, the park rangers began to kill predators, which they did without public knowledge. They eliminated the wolf and the cougar, and they were well on their way to getting rid of the coyote. Then a national scandal broke out. New studies showed that it wasn’t predators that were killing the other animals. It was overgrazing from too many elk. The management policy of killing predators therefore had only made things worse.

Actually, the elk had so decimated the aspen that now, where formerly they were plentiful, now they’re quite rare. Without the aspen, the beaver, which use these trees to make dams, began to disappear from the park. Beaver were essential to the water management of Yellowstone, and without dams, the meadows dried hard in summer and still more animals vanished.

The situation worsened further. It became increasingly inconvenient that all the predators had been killed off by 1930, so in the 1960s, there was a sigh of relief when new sightings by rangers suggested that wolves were returning. Of course, there were rumors all during that time, persistent rumors that the rangers were trucking them in. But in any case, the wolves vanished soon afterward. They needed to eat beaver and other small rodents, and the beaver had gone.

Pretty soon, the Park Service initiated a PR campaign to prove that excessive elk were not responsible for the problems in the park, even though they were. The campaign went on for about a decade, during which time the bighorn sheep virtually disappeared.

Now, we’re in the 1970s, and bears were recognized as a growing problem. They used to be considered fun-loving creatures, and their close association with human beings was encouraged in the park. Here’re people coming to watch bear feedings. There’s a show at a certain hour of the day. And here’s one of my favorites. Setting the table for bears at Lake Camp in Yellowstone Park. You see they’re very well behaved.

But that didn’t actually continue—the good behavior, I mean. There were more bears, and certainly there were many more lawyers, and thus the much-increased threat of litigation, so the rangers moved the grizzlies out. The grizzlies promptly became endangered. Their formerly growing numbers shrank. The Park Service refused to let scientists study them, but once they were declared endangered, the scientists could go back in again.

And by now, we’re about ready to reap the rewards of our 40-year policy of fire suppression, Smokey the Bear and all that. The Indians used to burn forests regularly, and lightning causes natural fires every year. But when these are suppressed, branches fall from the trees to the ground and accumulate over the years to make a dense groundcover such that when there’s a fire, it is a very low, very hot fire that sterilizes the soil. In 1988, Yellowstone burned, and all 1.2 million acres were scorched, and 800,000 acres, one third of the park, burned.

Then having killed the wolves, having tried to sneak them back in, they officially brought the wolves back. And now the local ranchers screamed. The newer reports suggested the wolves seemed to be eating enough of the elk that slowly, the ecology of the park was being restored. Or so it is claimed. It’s been claimed before. And on and on.

As the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly impossible to overlook the cold truth that when it comes to managing 2.2 million acres of wilderness, nobody since the Indians has the faintest idea how to do it. And nobody asked the Indians, because the Indians managed the land very aggressively, very intrusively. The Indians started fires regularly. They burned trees and grasses. They hunted the large animals, elk and moose, to the edge of extinction. White men refused to do that, and made things worse. www.independent.org...

I guess it does not help that elezibeth warren is only 1/32 indian.lol

great addition

a reply to: neo96

Damn I should have renewed my gun licence

a reply to: BotheLumberJack

Ands it's Trumps fault for African countries not protecting their own animals.

a reply to: neo96

Oh yeah I almost forgot, Its all Trumps fault. lol

a reply to: BotheLumberJack

How could you forget that? Its instinctual, that is, half the people out there were born knowing that.

www.npr.org...

The Trump administration wants to roll back some rules for endangered species.

So I'm not going to go into all of the details. I'll just touch on a couple of the items that seem to be getting the stiffest pushback. The first would end the practice of treating threatened species the same as endangered. This proposal says that threatened species could still get some of those protections as endangered, but it would be determined on a case-by-case basis. It won't be de facto anymore.The second would allow the economic consequences of a species' protection to be taken into consideration during a listing. The decision would still ultimately be determined by the best available science, but the cost of that would also be considered.

The part bolded has Donald John Trump written all over it in the spiritual metadata.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

half the people out there were born knowing that.

I forget # sometimes. Most people are born? Seriously? # What does that make me then? What about the other half?

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: BotheLumberJack

Ands it's Trumps fault for African countries not protecting their own animals.

and you're getting that African countries aren't protecting endangered species out of thin air?
are you going to sling that tripe in defense of mentalist who get a thrill out of killing animals with high calibre weapons whilst hiding?

so, before you keep that broken record going, why not find out if African countries aren't protecting endangered species first...
i know that sounds crazy and would shatter the ignorance in the 2 post you used trying to persuade readers that African countries aren't protecting endangered species.

try not silencing the little voice of reason in there for once just to protect trump... its there somewhere ; and when try to convey its African countries whom aren't protecting endangered species, i know its screaming in the back of your head.

a reply to: odzeandennz

Thin air ?

Murica don't have rinos.

This is damn right amazing.

The native habitat for the American bison.

www.buffalofieldcampaign.org...

a reply to: odzeandennz

I recently heard that down there it is auto 20yrs for poaching animals.

I was surprised.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: odzeandennz

Thin air ?

Murica don't have rinos.

show me where African countries aren't protecting endangered species?

you mean rich murcans go into under developed countries and flash cash and in coercion finds A-holes who let them kill innocent animals to feed their blood lust

originally posted by: howtonhawky
a reply to: odzeandennz

I recently heard that down there it is auto 20yrs for poaching animals.

I was surprised.

in some places, poachers are 'poached' if you get my drift

a reply to: odzeandennz

Show me where a law that says X can't bring something in to the US has ever worked.

originally posted by: howtonhawky
a reply to: odzeandennz

I recently heard that down there it is auto 20yrs for poaching animals.

I was surprised.

Just interesting.

Drones are catching Africa's poachers

www.directionsmag.com...

news.developer.nvidia.com...

www.neurala.com...