Conservation is a term all understood at one time in our history. It entailed the wise use of resources, protection of wildlife and their habitats and control of those elements threatening the balance of nature.
The concept applied to water, leading to the building of dams to collect runoff from mountains and hillsides in adjacent watersheds. Rising more than 700 feet above the Colorado River, the Hoover Dam not only provides life-sustaining water for millions of people, plants and animals below, but also serves to harness electricity to add further to the wellbeing of its users.
Conservationists addressed the effects of widespread soil erosion, the result of unsustainable agricultural practices and land scratched bare by bulldozers sweeping away all vegetation in preparation for the next housing or commercial development. Largely as the result of efforts to conserve and protect the land, we now feed millions of people and offer comfortable places to live and work using modern technology and land use techniques.
The conservation movement extended its realm to the protection and control of various animal and bird species, including timber wolves, white-tailed deer and raptors such as bald eagles and red-tailed hawks. We assumed, however, that in allowing wolves to re-establish themselves in various parts of the country, wildlife managers would retain the perogative to impose controls if their numbers got out of hand.
Reasonable people also recognized that a balance must be struck between environmental degradation and the need to offer humans a flourishing economy, personal safety, adequate health care and a generally comfortable standard of living.
Then came the environmentalist - typically a quasi-educated city dweller, reality challenged and a fervor fueled by convictions about humankind's immoral behavior toward the natural world. The notion of nature-as-god has taken hold as the province of all who share a genuine concern for our land, water and all things wild.
The environmental movement lists as its main tenets the sentient nature of animals (sometimes extended to plant life) and the notion that humans knowingly degraded the earth. Only by allowing the natural forces of nature to rectify the situation can we climb out of this alleged ecological abyss, they would argue.
To make matters worse, we now have a large contingent of government leaders who willingly acknowledge that America is the primary cause of all these environmental problems. Include among those our president who not only accepts blame for creating global warming, but also offers to help solve the problem by cutting carbon emissions unilaterally.
No other nation has made a similar pledge, including China, which has tendered a gratuitous offer to actively participate in climate change talks on a basis of "common but differentiated responsibility." India has also agreed to listen politely, but during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent visit to that country, ruled out any action that would undermine its current rate of economic development.
Even the staunchly liberal New York Times warns in a recent article that current proposals to curb greenhouse gases could have a price tag reaching into the trillions of dollars. Meanwhile, the American Farm Bureau Federation predicts agriculture would bear a large and unjustified share of the costs involved.
While global warming alarmist Al Gore continues to dominate public discourse with his claims that the debate is over and consensus reigns supreme among climatologists, it seems clear that this delusional notion derives from workshops on climate change where only its supporters are invited to attend.
On the wildlife end of it, we know intuitively and scientifically that no matter how beautiful or sentient the offending predator may be, it has the potential to upset the balance of nature.
Nowhere has the conflicting values between environmentalist and conservationist been more evident than with attempts to remove wolves from the endangered species list. While game managers at both the state and federal level have made every attempt to accommodate the demands of various environmental groups, these elements continue to find liberal judges willing to repeatedly block efforts to de-list this efficient and prolific predator.
All hunting is cruel, the anti-hunting environmentalist argues, as if the natural world offers a humane formula for controlling itself. Animals suffering from starvation suffer a horrible death, as either their physical condition deteriorates or predators rip them to pieces.
Unregulated populations of species such as deer and elk have the potential to destroy woodland plant colonies, leaving native species subject to conquest by opportunistic invasives.
Wolves left to multiply unchecked wreck havoc on livestock, deer and other mammal populations. The consequences are less food for humans and limits on the movements of people and their hunting dogs and family pets.
Common sense dictates that we get back to a conservation mentality that allows for human-directed control of the extremes of nature in a reasonable and achievable manner.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net
The concept applied to water, leading to the building of dams to collect runoff from mountains and hillsides in adjacent watersheds. Rising more than 700 feet above the Colorado River, the Hoover Dam not only provides life-sustaining water for millions of people, plants and animals below, but also serves to harness electricity to add further to the wellbeing of its users.
Conservationists addressed the effects of widespread soil erosion, the result of unsustainable agricultural practices and land scratched bare by bulldozers sweeping away all vegetation in preparation for the next housing or commercial development. Largely as the result of efforts to conserve and protect the land, we now feed millions of people and offer comfortable places to live and work using modern technology and land use techniques.
The conservation movement extended its realm to the protection and control of various animal and bird species, including timber wolves, white-tailed deer and raptors such as bald eagles and red-tailed hawks. We assumed, however, that in allowing wolves to re-establish themselves in various parts of the country, wildlife managers would retain the perogative to impose controls if their numbers got out of hand.
Reasonable people also recognized that a balance must be struck between environmental degradation and the need to offer humans a flourishing economy, personal safety, adequate health care and a generally comfortable standard of living.
Then came the environmentalist - typically a quasi-educated city dweller, reality challenged and a fervor fueled by convictions about humankind's immoral behavior toward the natural world. The notion of nature-as-god has taken hold as the province of all who share a genuine concern for our land, water and all things wild.
The environmental movement lists as its main tenets the sentient nature of animals (sometimes extended to plant life) and the notion that humans knowingly degraded the earth. Only by allowing the natural forces of nature to rectify the situation can we climb out of this alleged ecological abyss, they would argue.
To make matters worse, we now have a large contingent of government leaders who willingly acknowledge that America is the primary cause of all these environmental problems. Include among those our president who not only accepts blame for creating global warming, but also offers to help solve the problem by cutting carbon emissions unilaterally.
No other nation has made a similar pledge, including China, which has tendered a gratuitous offer to actively participate in climate change talks on a basis of "common but differentiated responsibility." India has also agreed to listen politely, but during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent visit to that country, ruled out any action that would undermine its current rate of economic development.
Even the staunchly liberal New York Times warns in a recent article that current proposals to curb greenhouse gases could have a price tag reaching into the trillions of dollars. Meanwhile, the American Farm Bureau Federation predicts agriculture would bear a large and unjustified share of the costs involved.
While global warming alarmist Al Gore continues to dominate public discourse with his claims that the debate is over and consensus reigns supreme among climatologists, it seems clear that this delusional notion derives from workshops on climate change where only its supporters are invited to attend.
On the wildlife end of it, we know intuitively and scientifically that no matter how beautiful or sentient the offending predator may be, it has the potential to upset the balance of nature.
Nowhere has the conflicting values between environmentalist and conservationist been more evident than with attempts to remove wolves from the endangered species list. While game managers at both the state and federal level have made every attempt to accommodate the demands of various environmental groups, these elements continue to find liberal judges willing to repeatedly block efforts to de-list this efficient and prolific predator.
All hunting is cruel, the anti-hunting environmentalist argues, as if the natural world offers a humane formula for controlling itself. Animals suffering from starvation suffer a horrible death, as either their physical condition deteriorates or predators rip them to pieces.
Unregulated populations of species such as deer and elk have the potential to destroy woodland plant colonies, leaving native species subject to conquest by opportunistic invasives.
Wolves left to multiply unchecked wreck havoc on livestock, deer and other mammal populations. The consequences are less food for humans and limits on the movements of people and their hunting dogs and family pets.
Common sense dictates that we get back to a conservation mentality that allows for human-directed control of the extremes of nature in a reasonable and achievable manner.
- Lee Fahrney is the Monroe Times outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net
