tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29502206983684820852024-02-20T16:07:29.851-05:00Seven Dog WinterDiscussing America's wilderness, the environment, wildlife, conservation, sled dogs and a little bit of politicsRJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-48937771008974262422023-10-11T08:53:00.000-04:002023-10-11T08:53:02.187-04:00<p> </p><h1 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007a86; font-family: "Vitesse A", "Vitesse B", Cambria, Rockwell, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 57px; line-height: 1.1; margin: 20px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">Particulate Peril</h1><h4 class="h4-aside" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 23px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1; margin: 26px 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">UNM Researchers Find Wildfire Smoke <br />Poses Neurological Hazards</h4><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">By Michael Haederle </span><span class="byline" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px;">| December 06, 2021</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgiaZlsW-drGAPUk0YT20PhBJglipQOtLBVoynhts9GedyrMBm7gmalsqhoxWn0HmlDj2pp9DG7JPRz2Zl6p7bhqNlxjB0PEVWq9-Rsog5e9mizKS69soYDe7JLAYYZuc2UXv3vq9r-YM_KVzlOTUtSKqhG7zrdQBjkT9wG6Ts8QCdi8VvOy_7o9GjwGoP4" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="750" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgiaZlsW-drGAPUk0YT20PhBJglipQOtLBVoynhts9GedyrMBm7gmalsqhoxWn0HmlDj2pp9DG7JPRz2Zl6p7bhqNlxjB0PEVWq9-Rsog5e9mizKS69soYDe7JLAYYZuc2UXv3vq9r-YM_KVzlOTUtSKqhG7zrdQBjkT9wG6Ts8QCdi8VvOy_7o9GjwGoP4=w301-h300" width="301" /></a></div><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Woodsmoke from massive wildfires</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px;">burning in California shrouded much of the West last summer, making it harder for people suffering from respiratory illnesses to breathe.</span></div><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">Those respiratory consequences can be dangerous – even life-threatening – but Matthew Campen, PhD, a professor in The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, sees another hazard hidden in the smoke. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">In research published online this week in the journal <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Toxicological Sciences</em>, Campen and his colleagues report that inhaled microscopic particles from woodsmoke work their way into the bloodstream and reach the brain, and may put people at risk for neurological problems ranging from premature aging and various forms of dementia to depression and even psychosis.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">“These are fires that are coming through small towns and they’re burning up cars and houses,” Campen says. Microplastics and metallic particles of iron, aluminum and magnesium are lofted into the sky, sometimes traveling thousands of miles.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZmiro1h8dzBP8-oKYMWUHdmEE5Cx1IZhSEkeyKIQE0hR5ZmxJHNdax5Ic7qyKRf1elfuwBI9x15n-lC4cXqWa2rHwHj5Lrii25FwkPe9pa701SWpZDRuiJ0dHC0J3bKFllFTZ85s3x69-bvdJZQ_dICLm8XwlgkSakkFdrxdVGG82-W0HR-T1G9vix-W/s2048/279407296_364612612374692_1380952546975591230_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZmiro1h8dzBP8-oKYMWUHdmEE5Cx1IZhSEkeyKIQE0hR5ZmxJHNdax5Ic7qyKRf1elfuwBI9x15n-lC4cXqWa2rHwHj5Lrii25FwkPe9pa701SWpZDRuiJ0dHC0J3bKFllFTZ85s3x69-bvdJZQ_dICLm8XwlgkSakkFdrxdVGG82-W0HR-T1G9vix-W/s320/279407296_364612612374692_1380952546975591230_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">In the research study conducted last year at Laguna Pueblo, 41 miles west of Albuquerque and roughly 600 miles from the source of wildland fires, Campen and his team found that mice exposed to smoke-laden air for nearly three weeks under closely monitored conditions showed age-related changes in their brain tissue.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 15px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Gotham A", "Gotham B", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">Read more here: https://hsc.unm.edu/news/2021/12/researchers-wildfire-smoke-neurological-hazards.html</p></div><div><br /></div>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-79969573366563433152022-04-28T01:08:00.002-04:002022-08-10T09:42:10.412-04:00<p style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b>Brushy Bill Roberts:</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b>The Man Who Claimed To Be Billy The Kid</b></span></p><div class="full-width-section post-heading post-byline" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 1.4rem; max-width: 100%; text-align: center;"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 45rem; padding-left: 1.4rem; padding-right: 1.4rem;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-left: -1.4rem; margin-right: -1.4rem;"><div class="byline" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; font-size: 15px; width: 653.167px;">By <span class="author" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c;">Katie Serena</span> | Checked By <span class="author" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c;">John Kuroski</span></div><div class="dates" style="-webkit-box-pack: center; box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; width: 653.167px;"><div class="date" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; font-size: 12px;">Published <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bolder;">December 25, 2018</span></div><div class="date" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: dimgrey; font-size: 12px;">Updated <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bolder;">December 2, 2021</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="full-width-section post-content-section" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 1.4rem; max-width: 100%;"><div class="container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 45rem; padding-bottom: 1.4rem; padding-left: 1.4rem; padding-right: 1.4rem;"><main class="row content-row" role="main" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-left: -1.4rem; margin-right: -1.4rem; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 1.4rem; padding-right: 1.4rem;"><article class="post-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 886.197px;"><h2 class="dek" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 36rem; overflow: hidden;">Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid died in 1881 — or did he escape, vanish, and live on under the name Brushy Bill Roberts in Texas all the way until 1950?</h2><p class="dropcaps" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 1rem auto 0px; max-width: 36rem; overflow: hidden;">In the late 1800s, the <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/american-frontier" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%); background-position: 0px 1em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 2px; box-sizing: inherit; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" target="_blank">American Wild West</a> was home to outlaws and bandits, many fearsome enough to be known across several territories. And among the most widely-known of all those bandits was Billy the Kid.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 1.5rem auto 0px; max-width: 36rem; overflow: hidden;">Billy the Kid (a nickname for a man born Henry McCarty and later known as William H. Bonney) was an outlaw who lived a short but tumultuous life. As a mere teenager, Billy the Kid fought a war over control of the New Mexico Territory during which he killed three people, then fled to the Arizona Territory as a fugitive and claimed responsibility for a further five murders. <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/brushy-bill-roberts" target="_blank">Read more</a></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 1.5rem auto 0px; max-width: 36rem; overflow: hidden;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #1c1c1c; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNW62kURBpfx42kqQwm46fjz_fK9B0O8rn6hXIENmtQctcKGbQ9QgByRFS7lJ1pzONAaxuNxZXRii6hJAX_OqPvgl50v441nQxnZ02cECBPa9S4iCZRAeqYKzyYOt9jD6_ywuJXWGCL15xVxUXsVwnT5nCUOQwuYzyukI9QGKgCffy9Idtu8oT5nFKJw/s480/hqdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNW62kURBpfx42kqQwm46fjz_fK9B0O8rn6hXIENmtQctcKGbQ9QgByRFS7lJ1pzONAaxuNxZXRii6hJAX_OqPvgl50v441nQxnZ02cECBPa9S4iCZRAeqYKzyYOt9jD6_ywuJXWGCL15xVxUXsVwnT5nCUOQwuYzyukI9QGKgCffy9Idtu8oT5nFKJw/w526-h395/hqdefault.jpg" width="526" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TYtxHp38oWWoNOHpcg_Ml0S8bdRgPOUaWYOItxDUi4DSRivMB9TZLRBz0zIxIYODikkpQsYsOn3hMpLxwsGAq4qIfalT7-b8SIk5F-mx-qamYFcCmgtzbOd3LgBJ-J-dXOK5ch3Daa4PkttNYNCdhnN0B9I_sL5NQQOaZ2CpVio05rpZsiPIGWNnBA/s1280/1-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1280" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TYtxHp38oWWoNOHpcg_Ml0S8bdRgPOUaWYOItxDUi4DSRivMB9TZLRBz0zIxIYODikkpQsYsOn3hMpLxwsGAq4qIfalT7-b8SIk5F-mx-qamYFcCmgtzbOd3LgBJ-J-dXOK5ch3Daa4PkttNYNCdhnN0B9I_sL5NQQOaZ2CpVio05rpZsiPIGWNnBA/w462-h289/1-1.jpg" width="462" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 1.5rem auto 0px; max-width: 36rem; overflow: hidden; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 1.5rem auto 0px; max-width: 36rem; overflow: hidden;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 1.5rem auto 0px; max-width: 36rem; overflow: hidden;"><br /></p><div class="pbh_inline" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: center; align-items: center; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #1c1c1c; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; font-family: "Work Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; justify-content: center; line-height: 1; margin: 1.68rem -1.4rem 0px; max-width: none; min-height: 360px; overflow: hidden; padding: 1.4rem 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: calc(100% + 2.8rem) !important; z-index: 0;"><div data-google-query-id="CObsxYf4tfcCFQGYpwodDTEChw" id="div-gpt-ad-1452277890523-0" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; box-sizing: inherit; flex-basis: 100%; flex-grow: 1;"></div></div></article></main></div></div>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-2450714188946295572022-03-22T12:39:00.001-04:002022-03-22T12:39:15.629-04:00<p> </p><h1 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.85); color: #333333; font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 40px; font-weight: 100; line-height: 40px; margin: -14px auto 10px; text-align: center;">What Makes a New York City Kid?</h1><p class="deck" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.85); color: #666666; font-family: nyt-franklin, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;">To answer that question, The Times interviewed groups of young New Yorkers. About a dozen of them agreed to document their daily lives by making videos on their ubiquitous smartphones. Others tolerated us while we shadowed them and asked annoying questions. Here’s what they gave us.</p><div class="story-meta-footer" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.85); color: #333333; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 17px; text-align: center;"><p class="byline-dateline" style="color: black; font-family: nyt-franklin, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: -13px 0px 20px; text-shadow: none;"><span class="byline" style="margin-right: 7px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY ANDY NEWMAN</span> <time class="dateline">Oct. 21, 2016</time></p><p class="byline-dateline" style="color: black; font-family: nyt-franklin, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; margin: -13px 0px 20px; text-shadow: none;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODurjRY0hE1aLxjCV1yzNuo57Vg5nfx9yXQ0n7EiggroXOflwdDmTgISolX8ZqHgjQpwN3jrxtqzyWJrOMWx4144RQwL7438ELoEsimVwEWnKkTgyHB_b828il4kmU_aY5HHm4MwGWrhxETK7KYyOvFJd4rx3zFEtD79qOwQnRrSPqnrubhU35sg0sw/s900/new-york-evening-cityscape-a4bzhd9jbbdddb69%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="900" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiODurjRY0hE1aLxjCV1yzNuo57Vg5nfx9yXQ0n7EiggroXOflwdDmTgISolX8ZqHgjQpwN3jrxtqzyWJrOMWx4144RQwL7438ELoEsimVwEWnKkTgyHB_b828il4kmU_aY5HHm4MwGWrhxETK7KYyOvFJd4rx3zFEtD79qOwQnRrSPqnrubhU35sg0sw/w430-h286/new-york-evening-cityscape-a4bzhd9jbbdddb69%20(1).jpg" width="430" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/20/nyregion/nyc-kids.html" target="_blank">READ MORE . . .</a> <p></p></div>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-18443962429634027982021-04-24T09:59:00.001-04:002021-04-24T10:04:54.899-04:00MY REACTION TO THE FIVE STAGES OF PARKINSON’S<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvxOYtOzRmvGCVoxzx42aipycEjEgoAZOvOMmxU6dLxfews3hvNOGxlv1ydg6MXJc6onM-Xa5KHQmYwJzXDt0a0ssgfWWU7ou1qRQLNEvuIPXPzoDrcxJUmV1JdTA3ooo8f9kRAzWEmVA/s1024/203938_web-1024x577.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvxOYtOzRmvGCVoxzx42aipycEjEgoAZOvOMmxU6dLxfews3hvNOGxlv1ydg6MXJc6onM-Xa5KHQmYwJzXDt0a0ssgfWWU7ou1qRQLNEvuIPXPzoDrcxJUmV1JdTA3ooo8f9kRAzWEmVA/s320/203938_web-1024x577.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">I realize that Parkinson’s disease
impacts people in different and unique ways, and not everyone will experience
all the symptoms of Parkinson’s. If they do, they will not necessarily
experience them in quite the same order or at the same intensity. I also recognize
that there are typical patterns of progression in Parkinson’s disease that are
defined within five stages. I am amazed by how long I lived with stage one, how
many years it took to develop into stage two and how quickly it advanced to
stage three . . . I believe that the symptoms indicating a faster progression
of change began in 2015 and lasted through early 2020, when the freezing of
gate first appeared.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">The change from two to three was even
more rapid in that within a few months I had ‘progressed’ a stage. My current neurologist
puts me at mid-stage, which I might agree with to some extent. I would guess,
based on the descriptions of each of the five stages, is that I am at a late
stage two or early stage three. I have had to re-learn how to do things that
previously were natural, subconscious actions. For example, walking now involves
an awareness of my surroundings and requires a thoughtful effort before taking
the first step.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I
cherish my independence so I absolutely refuse to let PD own me and I will
fight this beast with every ounce of my being. I have read that it is possible,
with the right medical guidance, exercise, and changes in lifestyle, to drop
back a stage.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">That
is my ultimate goal.</span></div><p></p><p></p>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-6710938911939357402021-04-18T10:15:00.008-04:002021-04-18T10:58:19.109-04:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">HAND</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">a film by Brett Harvey</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If</span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> you've ever wondered about what it means . . . what it is like to have </span><span class="r-18u37iz" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); flex-direction: row; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qkqhnw r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParkinsonsDisease?src=hashtag_click" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: inherit;">Parkinson's Disease</a></span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, here is </span></span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: arial; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">an absolutely outstanding</span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #d9d9d9; display: inline; font-family: arial; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: arial; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">film that describes the physical and emotional effects of PD.</span></span></div><div><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/mXyL08Vw5m0" width="480"></iframe></div></blockquote></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"I was asked recently if Parkinson's ruined my life . . . it hasn't. It hasn't ruined my life. i guess its just changed it a bit. I still feel like the same person and for now, I'll take that as a win." -</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <i>film maker Brett Harvey</i></span></p>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-72453285449110886502021-04-13T21:31:00.016-04:002022-08-10T09:45:09.889-04:00<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>MY LIFE WITH PARKINSON'S</b></i></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">As April is Parkinson's Awareness Month, I felt it was an appropriate time to "come out" so to speak and write about my life so far as a "Parkie".</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"><u><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Overview</span></u></b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZKghvujAWA-UTjWMED70lPfxNjXEDFU1R9jKvKORViZPardI1F5MLOZP95DLQC5JBU5i5ncmdWN_JJp32mWrjeAaLT1xVcMaGvQ78vLE3lA1DGxT9T-6EXV_Cmg4FHoqthpbYepoZqwxa/s1170/parkinson_hands.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="1170" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZKghvujAWA-UTjWMED70lPfxNjXEDFU1R9jKvKORViZPardI1F5MLOZP95DLQC5JBU5i5ncmdWN_JJp32mWrjeAaLT1xVcMaGvQ78vLE3lA1DGxT9T-6EXV_Cmg4FHoqthpbYepoZqwxa/w272-h181/parkinson_hands.jpg" width="272" /></a></span><span><span style="background: white;">Realizing that Parkinson’s
disease is first and foremost a movement disorder there are, however, so many
complexities involved that it goes way beyond such a simple description, to the
point that its many symptoms is often classified as a “designer disease”. There are
an estimated 1 million people in the U.S. living with Parkinson’s disease and
more than 8 million people worldwide. The average age of those diagnosed with
PD is 60. I was 62 however and evidently have had symptoms since my late 40’s.
Symptoms which I just recently recognize as having been red flag indicators
that I had foolishly written off as a function of age.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">There
is no single test or scan for Parkinson’s, but there are three significant
symptoms that help doctors make a diagnosis: <br />
<br />
<b>1. <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Bradykinesia</span></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> - </span>meaning slowness of
movement. It is one of the cardinal symptoms of Parkinson’s. (Bradykinesia plus
either tremor or rigidity must be present for a PD diagnosis to be
considered).<br />
<b>2. <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Tremor</span></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> - </span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Characteristically
occurring at rest, the classic slow, rhythmic tremor of Parkinson’s disease
typically starts in one hand, foot, or leg and eventually affects both sides of
the body.<br />
</span><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">3. Rigidity</span></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> - </span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">refers to a
tightness or stiffness of the limbs or torso.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My tremors were first noticed in my early fifties
when the twitching started with my left-hand thumb and index finger. They have
progressed within the last two years to the right hand and leg. It is
troublesome when using a computer mouse or when drinking a cup of coffee
becomes challenging. Eating with a fork is quite an event as well. Sometimes it
is difficult keeping the food where it needs to be. Too often some of my meal
ends up either in my lap or on the floor . . . it’s a good thing we have a dog.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Late 2019 was the point in time when my
Parkinson’s disease notably revealed itself. Up to that point, there were a few
indications which only now have I come to recognize were red warning flags of
PD. Parkinson’s disease is called a designer disease primarily because no two
‘parkies’ share the same symptoms. Ever the overachiever, I have so many of
them, not all of which are typical, but I do have all three of the cardinal indicators of
PD!</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Resting Tremors</span></u></b><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">:</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> For many years,
my left thumb and index finger would twitch. I was mistakenly told by several
doctors not to worry about it as essential tremors are not unusual. This was
without any actual type of clinical assessment being performed or medication
prescribed. It was not until, during a routine physical, our family primary
care physician questioned the twitching, conducted a couple of clinical tests
and recommended that I see a neurologist. The rest, as they say, is history.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Bradykinesia</span></u></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">: the saying is
that hindsight is 20/20 and I only now have I been able to recognize the subtle
hints of the earliest manifestation of the disease.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">For many years I had been a wildland
firefighter. Each year I was required by the forest service to take a “pack
test” which consisted of walking three miles in forty-five minutes carrying a
forty-five-pound pack. I knew my walking pace was slowing down after just
barely passing my very last one. My 2015 test came in at forty-four
minutes-forty-five seconds. Prior to that my test times were for many years,
usually much closer to 40 minutes. I recall during this test a forest patrolman
gave me some on-the-fly coaching which, in hindsight, was revealing . . .
telling me as I passed through the check-point he was monitoring to “Swing your
arms. You’re not auditioning for the walking dead!”. What I do know now is that
lack of arm swing is a PD indicator and t<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">here was and is a definite reduction in my right
arm swing. I feel as if my arms and legs are weaker and that there is
considerable pain when I try to perform what had always been a routine task . .
. something as simple as putting on a pair of jeans or sneakers. I also<i> </i></span>no
longer have the typical “New Yorker’s stride”. My walking pace has slowed
considerably, especially when I am not moving on a flat, level surface.<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Rigidity</span></u></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">:<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> during my college years I played middle infield and
was known to have what was commonly referred to as a “shotgun arm” (In baseball jargon,
“shotgun” refers to a powerful throwing arm). Several years ago, I
discovered that I was no longer able to throw a baseball with the same velocity
or coming anywhere close to the distance I was used to. Granted, my age would
probably account for some reduction in speed and distance, however the
difference was obvious. Rigidity, especially in the early, undetected stages
of the disease, was incorrectly attributed to a rotator cuff injury when
the issue was actually determined to be what is known as “frozen shoulder” (</span><span style="background: white;">a common musculoskeletal disease of
idiopathic Parkinson’s disease that causes long-term pain and physical
disability).</span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> Physical therapy was prescribed with zero benefit. Currently
I e</span>xperience stiffness including both muscle and joint pain throughout much
of my body. It is particularly noticeable in my legs, right arm, fingers, and
hands – all of which no longer seem to work properly. The pain and stiffness associated
with my Parkinson’s was affecting muscles and joints, which were in the absence
of any real physical injury.</span></span></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 0.25in; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><strong><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: large; padding: 0in;">Movement
Disorders</span></u></strong></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 0.25in; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><strong><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span></u></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">The</span></strong><strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"> </span></strong><strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">issues I have in
controlling what had always been normal, unconscious movements are as
troublesome as they are inconvenient. I regularly encounter the following: </span></strong><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Smaller steps, slower speed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>A narrow base of support, meaning my feet
remain too close together when initiating a step.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Absent arm swing on the right side of
my body.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Extreme difficulty pivoting and/or
turning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>My feet tend to land flat on the floor
with each step instead of on the heel, leading to shuffling and falls.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Festination or shuffling - quick,
small, involuntary steps forward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 2.25pt; margin: 2.25pt 0in 2.25pt 1in; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Retropulsion - quick, small,
involuntary steps backward – usually only when exiting our personal vehicle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><u><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></o:p></u></b></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><u>Freezing of Gait</u></b><b>: </b>This was the issue that<b> </b>prompted an appointment
with a neurologist. The temporary, inability to move, seems to happen at any
time, though it tends more often to occur when initiating a step, turning and
navigating through doorways or narrow passageways. I fully agree with what has often
been described as feeling as though one’s feet are glued to the floor. It can be
particularly embarrassing in a public situation but has the potential to be a
more serious problem, as it has resulted in numerous incidents of falling. <span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">It feels as
if my body is not obeying my brain's commands which I find it to be extremely
frustrating.</span><b><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><u><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></o:p></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dystonia of the foot</span></u></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">: </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dystonia is a symptom of Parkinson's disease
which is also a movement disorder on its own, marking p<strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">ainful, prolonged muscle contractions
causing abnormal movements and postures</span></strong>.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> E</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">xperts estimate that <strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">more than 30</span></strong><b> </b><strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">percent of people living
with Parkinson's disease may experience dystonia</span></strong> as a
symptom or as a complication of treatment (dystonia can occur when medication is
wearing off). In my case, </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">a painful cramped foot is the telltale sign of
dystonia. My right foot feels fine when sitting but develops foot inversion
(turning in of the foot or ankle) when trying to walk or stand. Small
steps and t</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wisting</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> makes initiating
a step awkward and results in “start hesitation”.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Non-Motor Symptoms</span></span></u></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">“Although Parkinson’s disease is primarily considered a motor disorder, several studies have shown non-motor symptoms are common across all stages of the disease, however, these symptoms are often undiagnosed because patients are unaware of the link to the disease and, as a result, they may be under-treated.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sleep disturbance:</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Insomnia - I generally have no problem falling
asleep. The difficulty in my case is remaining asleep. I only average 6.25
hours per night. 20mg of melatonin helps to occasionally achieve an additional
hour or two. I do not suffer from rapid eye movement sleep behavior
disorder or restless leg syndrome . . . two sleep disorders that can
affect those with PD.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list .25in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Breathing Issues</span></b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: </span><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Although James Parkinson, in 1817, described breathing abnormalities in
his “Essay on the Shaking Palsy”, there has been limited research on this
important non-motor symptom. I h</span><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ave had shortness of breath since late 2016. I’ve taken numerous tests
- chest x-rays, echocardiogram, spirometry, and of course every allergy test
known to modern medicine, all of which came back with the same result: negative
pathology. I was initially diagnosed with asthma, but the allergy specialist is
now 99.9% certain my breathing disorder is a result of PD.<br />
<br />
An interesting read for an issue that affects me and many others with PD: </span><a href="http://www.outthinkingparkinsons.com/articles/breathing-disorders"><span style="color: #0070c0; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.outthinkingparkinsons.com/articles/breathing-disorders</span></a><span style="color: #0070c0; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: list .25in;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Vocal chords and swallowing muscles</span></b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: PD dystonia causes my voice to slur, and at times sound softened,
hoarse or breathy during certain parts of the day or in high stress situations.
Originally, I thought that my hoarseness was due to extremely low humidity . .
. until I was diagnosed with PD.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 3.0pt; margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="background: white;">Effects on Vision.</span></b><span style="background: white;"> I have
had a variety of complaints related to my vision such as trouble focusing at
close range, but more frequently dry, irritated eyes which is followed by extreme
tearing. People with Parkinson's can experience this for several
reasons, including decreased blinking due to impaired reflexes. Infrequent
blinking </span><span>can
cause dry eyes</span><span style="background: white;"> which stimulates the lacrimal (tear) gland resulting in
excessive watering. <span style="color: #202124;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 3.0pt; margin: 3pt 0in 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124;">More: </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.michaeljfox.org/news/ask-md-vision-and-parkinsons-disease"><span style="background: white;">https://www.michaeljfox.org/news/ask-md-vision-and-parkinsons-disease</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: #202124;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Micrographia (small handwriting): </span></b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">A non-motor symptom.<b> </b>Within the past two
years,<b> </b>I have noticed that my handwriting has become exceptionally small
and illegible. Actual note taking with a pen or pencil is now practically useless
and my signature has gone from normal to what has become basically just a
squiggly line. I am sure that the nuns who taught me cursive writing would be
apoplectic.</span></span><strong style="text-align: left;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><o:p><span> </span></o:p></span></strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0in;">Stress,
Depression and the Effects of Cognitive Changes</span></strong><strong><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"> </span></strong><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Fortunately, I am still unaffected
by depression or cognitive changes. My neurologist believes that I am not
really a candidate for Parkinson’s dementia . . . although I have no clue as to
what he uses to base that opinion. </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">Stress is known to be a challenging,
but modifiable risk factor for Parkinson’s disease progression. Research
suggests that stress events may be a factor which aggravates and intensifies
the symptoms of PD. Studies indicate that stress damages dopamine cells,
resulting in more severe parkinsonian symptoms. The findings suggest that programs
that provide stress reduction tactics may be an effective intervention in the
disease.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">At this point I have no clinical
signs of depression although I admit to having been very frustrated on occasion
by my inability to do those things I had been able to do for the prior 60 plus
years, albeit briefly. I do remain positive about where I am in life, regardless
of the situation. As Winston Churchill said “attitude is a little thing that
makes a big difference. Fortunately, I am to married to a true angel who has
been my caregiver and has provided such tremendous, loving support.</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;">Thankfully, at this stage of the game I have no cognitive
issues other than occasionally trying to remember a name of a casual
acquaintance or fumbling a bit to find just the right word.</span></strong><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> Every evening I will do word
puzzles which I believe help me to remain relatively sharp and for most of my
life I have been a voracious reader. In addition, I am also involved with a
computer simulation that requires highly complex mathematical calculations.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-size: large; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">The
Five Stages Of Parkinson’s Disease</span></u></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.25pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Parkinson’s disease impacts people
in different and unique ways. Not everyone will experience all the symptoms of
Parkinson’s, and if they do, they will not necessarily experience them in quite
the same order or at the same intensity. There are typical patterns of
progression in Parkinson’s disease that are defined in stages. I am amazed by
how long I lived with stage one and how many years it took to develop into
stage two and how quickly it advanced to stage three . . . I believe that the
symptoms indicating a faster progression of change began in 2015 and lasted
through early 2020, when the freezing of gate was first apparent.<br /><br /></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>The
change from two to three was even more rapid in that within a few months I had seemingly ‘progressed’
a stage. My neurologist puts me at mid-stage, which I might agree with to some
extent. My guess, based on the descriptions of each of the five stages, is that
I am at a late stage two or early stage three. I have read that it is possible,
with the right guidance, exercise and changes in lifestyle, to drop back a
stage. That is my ultimate goal.<br /></span><span><b><br /><span>Stage
One</span></b><span> </span></span><span>During this initial stage, the person has mild symptoms
that generally do not interfere with daily activities. <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Tremor</span> and other <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">movement symptoms</span> occur
on one side of the body only. Changes in <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">posture</span>, <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">walking</span> and <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">facial expressions</span> occur.
Stage 1 constitutes the mildest form of Parkinson’s disease. During the stage
1, the patients may experience symptoms, but the mild ones and do not interrupt
daily tasks or one’s lifestyle. In fact, symptoms during the first stage are so
mild that both doctors and patients often missed. However, the family members
and the friends may observe changes in the way you walk, your body posture or
your facial expressions. Tremors at a specific side of one’s body are the
distinct symptom associated with stage 1 of Parkinson’s disease. In this case,
the doctors give prescribed medicines, which work in an effective way to reduce
the symptoms and allow individuals to lead a normal life.</span></span></p>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 26.25pt; margin: 26.25pt 0in 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Stage
Two <span style="font-weight: normal;">Symptoms start getting worse. Tremor, <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">rigidity</span> and other movement symptoms affect both sides
of the body. Walking problems and poor posture may be apparent. The person is
still able to live alone, but daily tasks are more difficult and lengthier.
Stage 2 implies the Parkinson’s disease in its moderate form, and it has
relatively higher noticeable symptoms than the ones take place in the previous
stage. This means, tremors, stiffness and trembling problems become noticeable
and changes in various facial expressions take place. While stiffness of
muscles prolongs the completion of any task, stage 2 never causes balance
impairment. Instead, the patients may deal with increased walking difficulties
and witness changes in their postures. During stage 2 people feel symptoms of
speech difficulties to some extent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 26.25pt; margin: 26.25pt 0in 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Stage
Three<span style="font-weight: normal;"> Considered mid-stage, loss of balance and <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">slowness of movements</span> are hallmarks. Falls are more
common. The person is still fully independent, but symptoms significantly
impair activities such as <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">dressing</span> and <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">eating</span>. <span style="background: white; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Stage 3 indicates middle stage of the Parkinson’s disease, as
it indicates a big turning point associated with progress of the disease.
Despite, the symptoms in both stage 2 and stage 3 are more or less same; but in
your third stage, you may likely experience reduced reflexes and loss of your
physical balance. Overall, your body movements become slow. Because of this,
the problem in its third stage affects people significantly, but still allows
them to complete their daily tasks.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 26.25pt; margin: 26.25pt 0in 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Stage
Four <span style="font-weight: normal;">At this point, symptoms are severe and limiting. It’s
possible to stand without assistance, but movement may require a walker. The
person needs <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">help with activities of daily living</span> and
is unable to live alone. Independence of people separates when they enter to
the stage 4 from the previous stage 3 of Parkinson’s disease. Although, a
person in stage 4 of Parkinson’s disease may stand easily without any help; he
requires assistive devices, especially a walker to go with physical movements
without facing any difficulty. Most of the people will not be able to live
their lives alone during stage 4 of the Parkinson’s disease, as they deal with
significant decrease in the physical movements and reaction times. According to
doctors, keeping alone the patients of stage 4 Parkinson’s disease may not
perform their day-to-day tasks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 26.25pt; margin: 26.25pt 0in 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Stage
Five <span style="font-weight: normal;">This is the most advanced and debilitating stage. <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Stiffness</span> in the legs may make it impossible to stand
or walk. The person requires a wheelchair or is bedridden. </span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">Around the clock nursing care is generally required. The person may experience <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">hallucinations and delusions</span>. </span></h2>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><br /><p></p>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-57093793621836152932020-11-25T02:01:00.005-05:002021-03-02T21:00:35.778-05:002018 - 2020 Changes in my world<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Wow . . . two years since my
last blog post. Time sure does fly. No excuses actually, I was just pretty well wrapped up in my career and other personal adventures. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Needless to say, a tremendous amount of ‘stuff’ has obviously
happened since 2018 – from a lying, narcissistic, incompetent idiot in the White
House (who fortunately was told to GTFO during the November election) to the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, a disease that has
brought the world to its collective knees. Like the events of September 11th, I’m sure and I fear that life as we
knew it will be dramatically changed. Hopefully, in time we will be able to recover
and return to some semblance of normalcy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And then there are the personal
changes that have had a major impact on my life. I spent most of the summer on
2018 fighting massive western wildfires and then assisting in the recovery
effort. 2019 was, for the most part, routine and basically uneventful. 2020 however
was personally, another story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We are currently witnessing the
terrible effects of the COVID 19 pandemic and the horrible impact it has had on
so many people. As of this writing over 500 thousand Americans have died. I
have been fortunate in that in my position, I was considered ‘essential’ so thankfully,
I remained fully employed. I’ve also practiced the necessary safeguards of mask
wearing, social distancing and staying sequestered from the rest of the world which
has, so far, kept me virus free.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But my health still took a major
hit this year. In February of 2020, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease . . . and
not just PD, an ADVANCED stage of Parkinson’s! How could this have happened? In
my entire adult life, other than the occasional cold here and there, I had
always been the picture of health. I was incredulous . . . until I looked back
at those subtle, missed signs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The muscle stiffness, the
microscopic penmanship, and the lack of arm swing were overlooked warning signs
which are also early tell-tale symptoms of PD.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">The twitching finger on my
left hand was probably the big one which should have raised a red flag. I ignored
it but so did the many doctors who, when asked during routine physicals, wrote
the issue off to ‘essential tremors’</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">. .
. which are not uncommon.</span> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">So there it is . . . my disability: a progressive, incurable neurodegenerative disease that affects millions worldwide. I can deal with the tremors and the other stuff but it is the 'freezing of gait' that is my biggest challenge. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;">What exactly is <i>Freezing of Gait </i>(aka FOG)? Well, plain and simple it is when my brain tells my feet to go forward but my feet say "nope . . . not gonna do it" and I'm left with the sensation of my feet being glued to the floor. The problem, actually the danger, is that while my feet may not move, the rest of my body didn't get the memo and actually tries to move forward, expecting to take a step which doesn't come. This can result in a fall . . . which I have done more times than I'd like to say.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;">The most common forms of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;">freezing</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;"> are seen with initiating </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;">gait</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;"> (start hesitation) and during turning. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;">Freezing</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;"> may also be </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;">caused</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;"> by the presence of a visible obstacle in the path, a change in the pattern of design on the floor, walking in narrow spaces or crowds, or being rushed or startled</span></span></p><p>TO BE CONTINUED . . . . </p>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-12183527835673669462018-10-27T13:41:00.004-04:002018-10-27T14:31:40.888-04:00<div class="q_cjj63m55q h_cjj63i6ot clearfix" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: -1px; zoom: 1;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">THEY CALLED HER TRIPOD – THE WOLF WITH A FIERCE GREEN FIRE</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">By Leo Leckie<br />October 23, 2018</span></div>
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On January 24, 2008, a little gray wolf was radio-collared as 632Fg. She was born almost four years earlier in April 2004 into the Cougar Creek Pack in the beaver-rich heartland of Yellowstone’s Madison Valley. She was the daughter of the Cougar Creek alpha pair 151Fg and 257Mg.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Her remarkable mother founded the Cougar Creek Pack in 2000 and came from the illustrious and celebrated bloodline of 7Fg and 2Mb, the founding alpha female and male of the first-ever naturally forming pack in Yellowstone National Park, the Leopolds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">The Leopold Pack is one of only three Yellowstone wolf packs named after humans – all other packs being named after a significant geographical feature within the pack’s territory. They were named after Aldo Leopold, who in the 1949 book, “A Sand County Almanac” retells of his gunshot from a rim rock in Arizona that started a shift in his thinking. “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes — something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” Aldo Leopold became an early proponent from then on of wolf restoration in the Lower 48.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">That fierce green fire that changed Aldo Leopold’s life lived on in that little four-year-old gray wolf radio-collared in 2008.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">You see, she was affectionately nicknamed “Tripod” because she was missing her left hind leg below the hock. This injury had occurred years earlier and she may have possibly lost it in a snare along the park boundary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Despite falling behind at times, she was able to keep up with her Cougar Creek packmates all those years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">And then, quite remarkably, during the mating season in February 2009, Tripod joined with dispersing males from the Gibbon Meadows Pack (647Mg and his brother 687Mb) to become the founding members of the Grayling Creek Pack, occupying a new territory just north of her natal territory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">And even more remarkably, this three-legged wolf with the fierce green fire in her heart and spirit became the alpha female of the new Grayling Creek Pack and gave birth to two surviving pups in April 2009!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">On November 5, 2009, she was killed by wolves from a rival pack while defending her homeland. Her alpha mate 647Mg and an uncollared adult female continued to care for her two pups.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Defying the odds and touching our hearts, her fierce green fire is a poignant reminder of the enduring spirit in wolves … a fierce green fire that will not be forgotten!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">This story came together through researching the Yellowstone Wolf Family Tree. You can find out more about Tripod and the other amazing wolves of Yellowstone National Park by becoming a guest of the Yellowstone Wolf Family Tree. Visit <a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="asynclazy" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wolfgenes.info%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3ZBBcGqf-cD7TrUi6ws7u_aXHYROaoDKFob4kT6GowC-iWFIL2CJ_6hI0&h=AT1Fjen-PZwT4GvvbWGwr0OJuRgAjhMK8zhMX-pZMQ3YbwjozzsGM1ih9ybofGRghnElT9CdJDPPGOLnHx1URzsZbfOK8zIMkMlQZ6V2KAd13QgPSTQNaoy-XDxLCXdAmBjyN9hK_byF4VBc_Ks" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank">www.wolfgenes.info</a>, select the Ancestry tab and follow the Invitation section instructions to become a guest of the tree.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Photo from the Yellowstone Wolf Family Tree / NPS and taken during radio-collaring in 2008 -- note the human hand showing the missing leg.)</span></div>
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RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-22530582613935406962016-05-15T21:38:00.000-04:002016-05-15T21:48:34.145-04:00<h4 class="title" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #18629d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The Gray Wolf: Myth vs. Fact</span></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaK5CqgxA_3B8SJt7JTj7Z8vNKwTWqgyDO0r7lrH1Nb4UBGYjWTU86_nzNj_Jw1OuZLKU75gIUOcFWY-meW0NQ3110JrMDGayB7tcFZ-7iGSbfIwR4RblNmBMp_xbBhVVHxZkEboo6hQk9/s1600/9e754589-7014-4d9d-948e-15a40950cdf2-large16x9_Wolf_Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaK5CqgxA_3B8SJt7JTj7Z8vNKwTWqgyDO0r7lrH1Nb4UBGYjWTU86_nzNj_Jw1OuZLKU75gIUOcFWY-meW0NQ3110JrMDGayB7tcFZ-7iGSbfIwR4RblNmBMp_xbBhVVHxZkEboo6hQk9/s640/9e754589-7014-4d9d-948e-15a40950cdf2-large16x9_Wolf_Logo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p10" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Myth:</span></strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> Wolves are extremely dangerous to human beings.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p11" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fact:</strong> According to Yellowstone wolf biologist Doug Smith, the danger to humans from wolves is vastly overestimated. Smith said that, whereas a bear or a mountain lion will attack a human on first contact, wolves are naturally fearful of humans and pose very little danger unless they are conditioned to overcome this natural fear.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p12" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Myth:</strong> Wolves kill livestock “for the fun of it.”</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p13" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fact:</strong> According to Smith, the large majority of wolf hunts are unsuccessful, and because they take large prey, such as elk, deer and moose, they are risking their lives with each attempt. Smith said many wolves are seriously injured or killed in their attempts to bring down large prey.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p14" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Myth:</strong> Wolves kill large numbers of cattle and sheep.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p15" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fact:</strong> According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 6 million head of cattle live in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the three states where the majority of wolves in the West live. For those states in 2014, wolves killed 136 head of cattle, or 1 cow out of every 44,853. In the same three states, where 820,000 sheep live, reports show wolves killed 114 sheep, or 1 in every 7,193, in 2014. However, because these losses are unevenly distributed, they can take a toll on a single producer.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p16" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Myth:</strong> The wolves that were reintroduced to Yellowstone and central Idaho in the mid 1990s were non-native Canadian wolves.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p17" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fact:</strong> While some of the wolves released into Yellowstone and central Idaho did originate in Canada, the wolves that historically ranged much of North America are of the same species, Canis lupus, as “Canadian” wolves.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p18" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Myth:</strong> Reintroduced wolves are killing all the elk and deer.</span></div>
<div class="permalinkable" id="h836960-p19" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fact:</strong> In Montana, one of the largest wolf recovery areas in the nation, the elk population, while variable, has, on the average, held steady through the 20 years since reintroduction. And while some elk herds in Wyoming have experienced decline, the reintroduction of wolves is likely only part of the reason. A three-year study conducted by the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Wyoming, which concluded in 2013, found evidence that the Wyoming elk decline was based on a complex set of variables, including habitat, weather, hunting, bears and wolves.</span></div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-90251708691705354432015-05-25T13:06:00.000-04:002015-05-25T13:22:12.649-04:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 36px;"><b>An Experiment in Privatizing<br />Public Land Fails After 14 Years</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/an-experiment-in-privatizing-public-land-fails-after-14-years" target="_blank">High Country News</a> by Tom Ribe <span style="color: #999999;">Published Feb 15, 2105</span></span></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhDrsydHi6XyenXCMw9k8zIGgRDRaX_HrwSM3YyX2XUD-FOMgUK-xdOIrIXsKgXIh-cD4pmWz3uudMJ5H6ORpSMSAJiAT818aMI2dUELfSP9z7r6BUr7MgFhsQoI8MA_1yIVoo4Gf-X05d/s1600/image+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhDrsydHi6XyenXCMw9k8zIGgRDRaX_HrwSM3YyX2XUD-FOMgUK-xdOIrIXsKgXIh-cD4pmWz3uudMJ5H6ORpSMSAJiAT818aMI2dUELfSP9z7r6BUr7MgFhsQoI8MA_1yIVoo4Gf-X05d/s320/image+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is no secret that some state legislators in the West want to boot federal land management agencies from their states. They argue that agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service cost too much and are too detached from local values, and that states could make money by running our vast open spaces like a privately owned business.</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank, is of that opinion and has developed models to replace federal agencies with private interests. What many people don’t know is that Congress implemented one of the Cato Institute’s ideas in 2000, on the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico. For some critics of the federal government, this was the experiment in land management that would signal the end of the BLM and Forest Service in the West.</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Cato experiment in New Mexico, however, failed, chewed up by the friction between monetizing the “services” that landscapes provide — recreation, timber, grass, wildlife — and fulfilling citizens’ expectations for public access and protecting natural resources. For example, New Mexicans had very little tolerance for paying high fees to visit public property that had already been paid for using federal Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars.</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Valles Caldera experiment began after a Texas oil family expressed interest in selling its large property atop a dormant volcano near Santa Fe. A reluctant Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., agreed to federal ownership, but only if the property was not managed by traditional federal agencies. The Valles Caldera Preservation Act, which was passed in 2000, was designed to create an alternative model of management.</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under this act, the Valles Caldera National Preserve was managed by a “Trust” and mandated to become “financially self-sufficient” by 2015. The Trust was authorized to replace federal appropriations with income from recreation fees, resource extraction, and any other means that could be found. A mostly private-sector “board of trustees” made decisions and supervised the staff. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At first, Congress instructed the Trust to pay for all wildland fire operations at the preserve out of its own budget. A later congressional amendment made firefighting once again the responsibility of the Forest Service. Soon after, two large fires burned 53,000 acres in the preserve and cost the federal government $56 million dollars in suppression costs alone.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite the efforts of many trustees and the staff for 14 years, the preserve never managed to earn enough money from hunting, grazing and tourism to pay even a third of its bills. Heavy logging and overgrazing had depleted forests and grasslands well before the preserve became public land. High fees and restrictions on public access kept the income from recreation low, and to a large extent, the public continued to perceive the preserve as private land. Elk hunting paid well, but the preserve broke even on cattle grazing only by charging ranchers more than seven times what other federal agencies are charging.</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Privatization supporters may say that if Congress had waived all federal natural and cultural resource protection laws for the Trust — as Sen. Domenici had urged back in 2000 — the staff could have been a fraction of its size, and the Trust could have made money developing lodges and putting thousands of cattle on the high-altitude meadows without public review or bureaucratic process.</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., however, refused to excuse the Trust from environmental laws. The National Environmental Policy Act, for example, requires federal agencies to study the impacts of proposed development and to consult with the public before decisions are made. Complying with these laws may be expensive, but without them, publicly owned land is public in name only.</span></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For more than a decade, the Trust labored at becoming solvent before it admitted to Congress that it would never achieve “financial self-sufficiency.” For many critics of the experiment, the statement was a long time coming.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;">“We just wanted to access our preserve without all the restrictions and fees and without being called customers,” said Monique Schoustra, who works with a group called Caldera Action.</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ultimately, many factors led New Mexico’s congressional delegation to dump the “experiment” last December and transfer the Valles Caldera National Preserve to the National Park Service. What have we learned from this failure of privatization? For those who want states to take-over federal lands, there are certainly questions that must be answered first: Will states shoulder the costs of fighting large fires? Will states obey the wishes of ranchers and continue to subsidize ranching? Will states charge the public to visit once-public lands, and will states protect and restore archaeological sites, watersheds and wildlife habitat?</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.875rem;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then there’s the real question: How will states manage the public frustration of Westerners who live in a region where our public lands are at the heart of our cultures and economy?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Tom Ribe is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a column service of </em><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;">High Country News</span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">. He is a writer, fire manager and outdoor guide based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.</em></span></div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-45975962652560517832015-05-25T12:52:00.000-04:002015-05-25T12:57:58.978-04:00<div class="views-field views-field-title" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #004a80; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Return of the Public-Land Privatizers</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/the-conservationist/the-return-of-the-public-land-privatizers" target="_blank">Field and Stream</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic;">by</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic;"> </span><a href="http://www.fieldandstream.com/taxonomy/term/79573" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #004a80; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hal Herring</a> </span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Published May 20th, 2015</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not more than a million years ago, in the spring of 2001, I wrote my first story for <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Field & Stream</em> about the movement to privatize America’s public lands, chiseling the words onto an old granite slab by the light of a buffalo fat candle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The land grabbers seemed to have the world by the tail then. Gale Norton, a veteran of the anti-environmental law firm Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), had been appointed the Secretary of the Interior. (James Watt, Reagan’s controversial and short-lived Interior Secretary, best remembered for his dislike of the Beach Boys, had been Norton’s boss at MSLF.) Norton’s colleague, Terry Anderson, had published his 1999 study “How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands.” Anderson had also been an advisor to George W. Bush on public lands issues, which was a bit like hiring a fox to consult on chicken coop management challenges. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For those who had their hopes pinned on public land profiteering, 2001 was a heady, optimistic time, and much was accomplished--if not actual privatization, then at least the near-wholesale conversion of some of the West’s public lands into single-use energy fields, with exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, and from regulations <a href="http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/kentucky/2006/09/new-death-valley-how-energy-development-killing-wyoming-pronghorn-an" style="background: transparent; color: #004a80; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">meant to protect wildlife.</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The privatizers had been fairly quiet during the Clinton years, after raising a ruckus during the 1980s. The Sagebrush Rebellion burned hot and then fizzled out during the Reagan years when the leading rebels, faced with possible success in their goal of privatizing public lands in Nevada, suddenly realized that they were not the ones who would be buying or being given the lands; in fact, many of them were about to exchange self-employment based on one of the world’s cheapest grazing rates for a quick ticket to a scary job market, and a much smaller landscape on which to air their grievances against the “feds.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The anti-public lands movement has never been about giving average American citizens more land or more access or more timber or gold or grass. From day one--as soon as the first lands were set aside—the movement has been about getting as much of the commonwealth as possible into the hands of the best connected and the most well heeled. But the land grabbers have learned a lot since the Sagebrush Rebellion and Anderson’s how-to paper on privatizing public land. It’s a high-stakes chess game now, where nobody says what they really mean, a game ruled by sleight-of-hand tactics backed with more money (some of it probably yours) <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/the-taxpayer-money-behind-local-control-demands" style="background: transparent; color: #004a80; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">https://www.hcn.org/articles/the-taxpayer-money-behind-local-control-dem...</a> than ever before. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The latest tactic is a smooth bit of word-jujitsu: “We would never sell your lands to the Chinese or to these software billionaires that fund our campaigns,” they assure anyone who will listen. “We just know for a fact that the states can manage these lands better than that big awful federal gubmint that we all hate so much. Now, isn’t that right?” It’s a good move, one that resonates with a lot of people who don’t have a lot of time to really think about it. So let’s take a few minutes and see how that would play out. We’ll leave out the fact that such a transfer would require a majority vote by Congress to divest the American people of their holdings once and for all (which those rascals did, <a href="http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/the-conservationist/senate-this-land-isn%E2%80%99t-your-land" style="background: transparent; color: #004a80; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">just a month or so ago</a>) and would open up a Pandora’s Box that would fundamentally change our nation. Let’s pretend that the grabbers are sincere, and really do want the land to remain in the hands of the states. What would change? Luckily for us, the National Wildlife Federation took on the task of analyzing that very question, basing the answers on current state land management. Here is a <a href="http://www.ourpubliclands.org/sites/default/files/files/Access_Sheets_final.pdf" style="background: transparent; color: #004a80; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">link to the report</a>, which is illuminating. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Among the findings: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• In many Western states, state lands are not considered public lands at all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• In Colorado, 82% of existing state lands are completely off limits to hunting, fishing and camping. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• In Idaho, recreation is allowed, with a permit, as long as it does not interfere with revenue generating activities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• In New Mexico, camping on state lands is allowed only with written permission from whoever is leasing them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Firewood cutting is prohibited in state lands in New Mexico and Montana. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Access to state lands in Montana, Arizona and New Mexico requires the purchase of a permit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Montana requires a special-use permit for trapping, or to camp for more than two nights. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Western states have been selling their lands since they were awarded them at statehood. New Mexico has sold off 4 million of its original 13 million acres. Nevada, awarded 2.7 million acres at statehood, has 3000 acres left. Montana has sold 800,000 acres of state lands so far. Idaho has sold 1.2 million acres. Colorado has sold 1.7 million acres. Arizona has sold off 1.7 million acres. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The report also compares the current management of federal public lands with the management that can be expected if the lands were under state control. And when you read it, you will see that the difference is very similar to the difference between being a citizen and being a subject (with a nod to Machiavelli, who allegedly uttered the truism that the armed man is a citizen and an unarmed man is a subject). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right now, we Americans own one of the most valuable assets on the planet. We are free to argue about their management, while we luxuriate in freedoms that most people on the planet can only dream of. In my <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kHECWc8RMXAC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=no+place+whatsoever+hal+herring&source=bl&ots=Drqst0y_Os&sig=7uIzjjzzvYZwkDxJppgY6FxcAZ4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cMtTVdKZGti0oQTl94FI&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=no%20place%20whatsoever%20hal%20herring&f=false" style="background: transparent; color: #004a80; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2001 <em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Field & Stream</em> story</a>, I wrote this, about the conflict over public lands management: “As when toys are taken away from children who won’t stop fighting over them, there are plans afoot to solve the conflict over the public lands by simply getting rid of them.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The debate today sounds just like it did back then, only much louder, and more the sound of a flood building upstream in a canyon. But the more things change--we’ve added 34 million people to the U.S. population since I wrote that story--the more they stay the same. Right? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wrong. When citizens forget what it is they fight for, things do change. They change big time, and for the worse. Transfer of America’s public lands to state control will be awful for hunting and fishing and access, not to mention the end of federal water and grazing rights for Western farmers and ranchers. It will be the short prelude to privatization. And that, my fellow American outdoorsmen and women, is the ultimate goal of some very unpleasant characters in our world today. That much has not changed since the very first day President Benjamin Harrison set aside the first forest reserve in 1892.</span></div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-45195589867006830092015-05-24T21:38:00.000-04:002015-05-25T13:37:17.159-04:00<div class="" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
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Nat'l Park Service to take over management<br />of Valles Caldera Preserve</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.abqjournal.com/514815/news/national-park-service-to-take-over-management-of-valles-caldera-preserve.html" style="font-size: 11px;" target="_blank">Albuquerque Journal</a><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;">By</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> T. S. Last / Journal Staff Writer</span><br />
<span style="color: #999999; font-size: 11px;">PUBLISHED: Friday, December 19, 2014 - </span></div>
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With a stroke of the President’s pen, management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve is expected to soon shift from a trust that has been overseeing the preserve since it was created by an act of Congress in 2000 to the National Park Service.</div>
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But will the change make any real difference to the visitor?</div>
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Supporters say yes, contending it will bring more attention and better programs while safeguarding preservation of the 89,000 acres of high country in the Jemez Mountains.</div>
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Critics are more skeptical, especially those who want to be assured of hunting access to the property, which is rich in elk and other wildlife. Mountain streams also attract anglers there.</div>
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The management change is part of a Congressional compromise, embedded in the defense spending bill that has passed both chambers and awaits the President’s signature.</div>
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The bill also designates the Columbine-Hondo area within the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico as wilderness, and establishes the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Los Alamos and other sites.</div>
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The package has been pushed by New Mexico’s Democratic delegation.</div>
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Sen. Martin Heinrich said in a news release that it “will help grow our economy in the energy, tourism, sporting and recreational sector.”</div>
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Heinrich and Sen. Tom Udall sponsored the bill to shift authority of the preserve to the Park Service, picking up on an effort initiated by former Sen. Jeff Bingaman before he left office.</div>
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Not only does the act transfer the management of Valles Caldera from the trust to the Park Service, but it also assures hunting and fishing will be maintained (a huge concern for sportsmen), along with grazing rights for ranchers.</div>
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While Jemez Pueblo still lays claim to the land, the property was given to the Baca family in return for a terminated land grant in 1876 and, for more than a century, was known as the Baca Ranch. It changed hands several times before the federal government bought it in 2000.</div>
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In recent years, the Valles Caldera has offered recreational opportunities, such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking and mountain biking, and has hosted tours, workshops and special events, drawing about 100,000 visitors a year.</div>
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<a class="" href="http://www.abqjournal.com/514815/north/.html/attachment/em121614h#main" rel="attachment wp-att-514825" style="color: black;"><img alt="People stop along N.M. 4 to take in some of the views of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)" class="wp-image-514825" src="http://main.abqjournal.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/jn01_jd_19dec_caldera_h-400x221.jpg" height="221" style="border: 0px; height: 221px; margin-top: 6px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 400px; z-index: 999;" width="400" /></a><br />
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People stop along N.M. 4 to take in some of the views of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</div>
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<b class="">Smooth transition promise</b></div>
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The Valles Caldera Trust said in a statement last week that it was committed to a smooth transition to the Park Service, an event that will take place within six months of the President signing the bill.</div>
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Jorge Silva-Banuelos, executive director of the trust, said he was proud of what the trust accomplished in the face of budget cuts and recovery from two major wildfires. The trust’s management was set up under 2000 legislation to be financially self-sustainable within 15 years, or come up with a solid plan to do so, which Silva-Banuelos said was probably an untenable goal from the start.</div>
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“That being said, I think the trust’s legacy will set the stage for the Park Service to come in and build on our successes,” he said, pointing to science and education programs, and forest and watershed restoration projects. “I think we’re handing it off in much better shape than we received it.”</div>
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Though the original act included a sunset provision that opened the door for the U.S. Forest Service to take over management of the preserve in 2020, a spokesperson with the Santa Fe National Forest said there were no hard feelings.</div>
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Julie Anne Overton said, “The Santa Fe National Forest’s working relationship since the ranch was purchased has been really positive. We plan to continue that positive relationship, both assisting with the transition to the National Park Service and after the transition, as well.”</div>
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Silva-Banuelos expressed hope that most of the trust’s 50 or so staff members would keep their jobs.</div>
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“Generally speaking, the trust employees work at Valles Caldera for a reason: They are passionate about it and want what’s best for the preserve,” he said.</div>
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<b class="">Unanswered questions</b></div>
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James Doyle, chief of communications and legislative affairs for the intermountain region of the National Park Service, said staffing levels have yet to be determined. That is among a number of unanswered questions that will be decided in the coming months.</div>
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“This legislation was just enacted Friday and there are a lot of moving parts,” he said. “All the affected parties are still trying to understand what all this means to them.”</div>
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Doyle noted that the appropriation bill keeps operation of the preserve in the hands of the trust through fiscal year 2015.</div>
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Until then, “we’re working in collaboration with the trust and the Forest Service,” he said. “We’re all kind of working frantically to figure out how this transfer will occur. I can tell you it’s not something that will happen overnight.”</div>
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<a class="" href="http://www.abqjournal.com/514815/north/.html/attachment/em121614e#main" rel="attachment wp-att-514828" style="color: black;"><img alt="The Valles Caldera National Preserve is expected to become part of the National Parks. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)" class="wp-image-514828" src="http://main.abqjournal.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/jn01_jd_19dec_caldera_e-400x268.jpg" height="268" style="border: 0px; height: 268px; margin-top: 6px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 400px; z-index: 999;" width="400" /></a><br />
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The Valles Caldera National Preserve is expected to become part of the National Parks. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</div>
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<b class="">Not everyone happy</b></div>
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Not everyone is thrilled with the Park Service takeover.</div>
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Kerrie Romero heads the New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides, a nonprofit groups she says works on behalf of the 250 outfitters and 1,500 guides working in the state, as well as the interests of 25,000 hunters and anglers.</div>
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While there are those among them who support the transfer to the Park Service, Romero said the majority don’t.</div>
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“From our standpoint, we want to see the hunting and fishing remain intact,” she said. “While the Park Service does many other beneficial things across the country, they have not always been super-supportive of hunting.”</div>
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Romero said she is grateful that hunting will remain intact for the foreseeable future, but “the concerns I have are things that have taken place in the Grand Teton (National Park) – ammunition restrictions, the whittling down of hunting opportunities and generally more stringent restrictions.”</div>
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She said as many as 25 sportsmen organizations went on record with a letter to Congress expressing opposition to Park Service management.</div>
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The state Game Commission also opposed the Park Service taking over management of the preserve, making its own bid to do so.</div>
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The Game Commission, whose members are appointed by the governor, presented a plan it said would turn an annual $2 million to $3 million deficit into positive revenue of up to $1 million per year.</div>
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The commission, which sets policy for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, expressed concern that language in the Heinrich-Udall bill could negatively affect wildlife management, as well as hunting, fishing and trapping opportunities on the preserve.</div>
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In response to the concerns of sportsmen groups regarding hunting, Silva-Banuelos said, “The legislation mandates that hunting, fishing and grazing continue, and the National Park Service has a pretty good record for hunting at these preserves.”</div>
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<a class="" href="http://www.abqjournal.com/514815/north/.html/attachment/em121614g#main" rel="attachment wp-att-514831" style="color: black;"><img alt="Ducks take off from a small pond on the Valles Caldera National Preserve on December 16, 2014. The Preserve is expected to become part of the National Parks System. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)" class="wp-image-514831" src="http://main.abqjournal.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/jn01_jd_19dec_caldera_g-400x116.jpg" height="116" style="border: 0px; height: 116px; margin-top: 6px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 400px; z-index: 999;" width="400" /></a><br />
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Ducks take off from a small pond on the Valles Caldera National Preserve on December 16, 2014. The Preserve is expected to become part of the National Parks System. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</div>
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<b class="">Everyone wants what’s best</b></div>
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One group that is happy about the switch to the Park Service is Caldera Action, a citizens group advocating for the long-term protection of the preserve.</div>
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“This is exactly what we wanted,” Tom Ribe, the group’s executive director, said. “It’s good for the place and it’s good for the New Mexico economy.”</div>
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Ribe, himself a guide, said the preserve can probably expect an increase in visitors under Park Service management.</div>
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“When you see something that’s managed by the Park Service, you know it’s special and worth a visit,” he said.</div>
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Its proximity to Bandelier National Monument, one of the top tourist attractions in the state, should stimulate tourism at both sites, he added.</div>
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Ribe pointed out that Valles Caldera would become the 19th preserve managed by the Park Service.</div>
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“The Park Service is experienced with managing places like this,” he said. “I would say the biggest thing from my perspective is the Forest Service is a multi-use agency, dealing with grazing, logging and mining. It’s utilitarian about using resources, whereas the Park Service has a tradition of valuing cultural properties and the landscape.”</div>
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Ribe pointed to a 2011 study by Harbinger Consulting Group that concluded: “The National Park Service is more likely than the U.S. Forest Service to maintain a high and consistent level of funding, staffing, visitor service, and resource protection.”</div>
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Ribe said he doesn’t expect hunting opportunities to decline. One of the current issues, he said, is the elk are staying in the high country and feeding off aspen shoots, stunting regeneration.</div>
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“The Park Service wants to see that area recovering and the best way to do that is reduce the elk herd,” he said.</div>
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Time will tell what impact the Park Service taking over management of Valles Caldera National Preserve will have. What’s sure is everyone is hoping for the best for one of New Mexico’s treasures.</div>
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“… I think that sportsmen and environmentalists agree it’s a special place and neither one of us wants to see anything negative come of it,” Romero said.</div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-25647745167677161322014-04-15T19:08:00.002-04:002014-04-15T19:37:57.537-04:00Nevada Rancher Has No Claim to Federal Land and Grazing<strong><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By Ralph Maughan and Ken Cole<br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Originally published on <a href="http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2014/04/14/cliven-bundy-has-no-claim-to-federal-land-and-grazing/" target="_blank">Wildlife News</a> 4/15/2014</span></span></em></strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EpQ86LncIhJ4b-84DWzl_o_PeSm8xUeu3hn7VHAx6iBUixkFX9QApeQ2N3xNXoY-ACrLbtgFA-VCr2E8M6ZMM3FrqEA_j_i8jIxp3nE7aSuBezWbX-arY6EJqI_YtT3a9j4NnQFCDYNA/s1600/article-2601140-1CEB87B400000578-287_634x424.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EpQ86LncIhJ4b-84DWzl_o_PeSm8xUeu3hn7VHAx6iBUixkFX9QApeQ2N3xNXoY-ACrLbtgFA-VCr2E8M6ZMM3FrqEA_j_i8jIxp3nE7aSuBezWbX-arY6EJqI_YtT3a9j4NnQFCDYNA/s1600/article-2601140-1CEB87B400000578-287_634x424.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the acrimonious case of Cliven Bundy, it is important that folks understand a bit about the history of the U.S. public lands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cliven Bundy, the rancher whose cattle were <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/14/us-usa-ranchers-nevada-idUSBREA3B03Q20140414" target="_blank">rounded up and then released by the BLM</a> over the weekend, claims that his family has used the land in question since 1880 but the Nevada Constitution pre-dates this by 16 years. When Nevada became a state in 1864, its citizens gave up all claims to unappropriated federal land and codified this in the state’s <a href="http://www.leg.state.nv.us/const/nvconst.html">Constitution</a>. The Nevada Constitution states:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Third. That the people inhabiting said territory do agree and declare, that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; …..”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If Bundy “owns the land then where is the deed? Where are the records he paid property taxes?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s not his land.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bundy also claims that it his “right” to graze these BLM public lands. This is not the case. The <a href="http://www.thewildlifenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Taylor-Grazing-Act-1934.pdf">Taylor Grazing Act of 1934</a> specifically states that the issuance of a grazing permit does not confer any right to graze or right to own the land. The Taylor Grazing Act is the granddaddy of the U.S. laws governing grazing on federal land. “Taylor” was a rancher and a congressman from Colorado, hardly someone to want government tyranny over ranching.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So far as consistent with the purposes and provisions of this subchapter, grazing privileges recognized and acknowledged shall be adequately safeguarded, but the creation of a grazing district or the issuance of a permit pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter <strong>shall not create any right, title, interest, or estate in or to the lands</strong>.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In <a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17217648517619106766&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr">Public Lands Council v. Babbitt</a> the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the new grazing regulations promulgated by the Department of Interior under former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt to conform to <a href="http://www.blm.gov/flpma/FLPMA.pdf" target="_blank">Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976</a> (FLPMA) and found:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The words “so far as consistent with the purposes . . . of this subchapter” and the warning that “issuance of a permit” creates no “right, title, interest or estate” make clear that the ranchers’ interest in permit stability cannot be absolute; and that the Secretary is free reasonably to determine just how, and the extent to which, “grazing privileges” shall be safeguarded, in light of the Act’s basic purposes. Of course, those purposes include “stabiliz[ing] the livestock industry,” but they also include “stop[ping] injury to the public grazing lands by preventing overgrazing and soil deterioration,” and “provid[ing] for th[e] orderly use, improvement, and development” of the public range.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He has no “right” to graze it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The federal courts have struck down every challenge Bundy has made about his claims, and has issued not <a href="http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/nv/field_offices/las_vegas_field_office/cattle_trespass.Par.0116.File.dat/Dkt%2035%20Order%20Granting%20MSJ%207-9-13.pdf" target="_blank">one</a>, but <a href="http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/nv/field_offices/las_vegas_field_office/cattle_trespass.Par.40211.File.dat/Dkt%2056%20Order%20Granting%20Motion%20to%20Enforce%2010-9-13.pdf" target="_blank">two</a>, court orders to remove his trespass cattle. It’s not his land and he has no right to graze it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The simple truth of the matter is that Bundy is a freeloading, welfare rancher who has an inflated sense of entitlement. It also appears that he and his supporters’ use of threats and intimidation <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/04/14/3426222/militia-rancher-behind-bars/" target="_blank">likely violated several federal laws</a>. Inasmuch as they used (such as pointed) weapons to cause the government back down, it can be considered an armed insurrection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What about Bundy’s claim that his forebears bought the land he is now accused of trespass grazing upon? This land was once Mexican land, and was won by the United States after the Mexican-American War. It is part of what is known as the “<strong>Mexican Cession.</strong>” All of Nevada, California, Arizona and most of New Mexico were part of the Cession. Much of this land was privatized under various grants and laws such as the Homestead Act and the Desert Lands Act, plus mining claims. Several million acres were granted to Nevada for state lands, but<strong> those lands that were not privatized have always been Mexican lands or United States lands owned by the U.S. government.</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before the Taylor Grazing Act, these government lands were called “the public domain.” They could be privatized, as mentioned, under the Homestead Act and such, but the acreage allowed per homesteader was limited to 160 acres. There were no 158,000 acre homestead privatizations and certainly no 750,000 acre privatizations. Livestock owners ran their livestock freely <strong>without</strong> a permit on the public domain. They didn’t even need a home base of property (a ranch). The result was disaster because the operator to find green grass and eat it first won out, promoting very bad grazing practices. That was the reason for Taylor Grazing Act — ranchers and others could see the public domain system led to disaster on the ground. Therefore, the more powerful ranchers with “base” private property received <strong>grazing permits</strong>. This got rid of the landless livestock operators.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Taylor Grazing was administered on the ground by the<strong> U.S. Grazing Service.</strong> Now, ranchers with grazing permits had to pay a <strong>grazing fee</strong> to use their permits. Bundy’s ancestors probably got one of these grazing permits, but they most certainly did not buy the land. That was not possible. The public domain was not for sale and ranchers generally did not want it. After all, if they owned it, they would owe local property tax.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 1948 the Bureau of Land Management was created by executive order of President Truman to replace the Grazing Service. The Service had been defunded in a dispute between the House and the U.S. Senate. The BLM has since been affirmed by law rather than a mere executive order. It is supposed to manage the public lands for multiple uses and for sustained production (“yield”) of renewable resources such as grass. As before, you need a grazing permit for cattle, sheep, goats, or horses to legally graze. It is a privilege, not a right, and this has been firmly stated by the U.S. courts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hopefully, this explains why Bundy’s assertions are wrong. It is too bad that few citizens are taught public land law or history in high school or college. We think it is vital for everyone to know these things because these are in a real sense your lands, held in trust by the government. Yes we know the government often does a poor job. They did in Bundy’s case by letting this go for 20 years. He should have been gone before the year 2000.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">End of story.</span>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-59263707879416764802014-03-30T13:37:00.000-04:002014-03-30T13:37:19.482-04:00Speak for Wolves: Yellowstone 2014<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: tahoma, verdana, times; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">On June 28-29 2014, Americans of all-walks-of-life will meet in Arch Park in Gardiner, Montana to tell our elected leaders that we need to reform wildlife management, at both, the state and federal level. Approximately 3000 grey wolves have been killed in the northern Rockies and Great Lakes region since they were delisted from the Endangered Species Act. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: tahoma, verdana, times; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">Speak for Wolves: Yellowstone 2014 is about taking an important step towards stopping the wolf slaughter that is currently taking place across the United States. We must take bold measures, however, and address the root-cause(s) of the wolf slaughter, the killing of other predators, as well as bison, wild horses and other members of the animal kingdom. The status quo for wildlife management in America is broken and it must be fixed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: tahoma, verdana, times; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"><a href="http://goo.gl/qYSJjM" target="_blank">Read more here . . . </a></span></div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-10584234546018789002014-03-27T06:17:00.000-04:002014-03-27T13:31:41.226-04:00The Rewilding Institute Comments on Gray Wolf Delisting and Peer Review<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; line-height: 22.652000427246094px; margin-bottom: 1.618em; orphans: 3; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 3;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.652000427246094px;">TRI Comments on Gray Wolf Delisting and Peer Review</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Originally published March 25, 2014 - </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://rewilding.org/rewildit/" target="_blank">The Rewildlige Institute</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Attn: FWS–HQ–ES–2013–0073</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Division of Policy and Directives Management<br />U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service<br />4401 N. Fairfax Drive MS 2042-PDM<br />Arlington, VA 22203</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Rewilding Institute (TRI) appreciates the opportunity to comment on: Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Removing the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) From the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Maintaining Protections for the Mexican Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) by Listing It as Endangered and the peer review of that document.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ACTION: Proposed rule; notice of availability and reopening of comment period.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These comments have been prepared by TRI’s Carnivore Conservation Biologist, David R. Parsons. Mr. Parsons served as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) first Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator from 1990-1999 and was the primary author of the original rule that established a <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nonessential Experimental Population of the Mexican Gray Wolf in Arizona and New Mexico</i>. Mr. Parsons has continued to follow the progress of the Mexican wolf recovery program from his retirement from FWS in 1999 to the present day. Mr. Parsons holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Wildlife Biology, served as a career wildlife biologist for FWS for 24 years, and has lectured nationally and internationally on wolf biology, ecology, and conservation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We remain concerned about ongoing and potential further delays by the FWS in advancing the conservation and recovery of the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf (<i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus baileyi</i>). The FWS has acknowledged that at even the currently authorized population objective of 100 wolves in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (BRWRA), Mexican wolves will remain in danger of extinction. At a most recent population estimate of only 83 wolves with deleterious levels of inbreeding, Mexican wolves need aggressive recovery actions immediately.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Currently, the proposal to list <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus baileyi</i> as an endangered subspecies is an integral part of the proposal to remove all other presently listed gray wolves (<i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus</i>) within the United States from the list of endangered species, and thusly end their protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A FWS-initiated peer review has concluded that the science that the FWS relied upon to support their proposal to delist gray wolves is not the best available science. This makes the proposed delisting of gray wolves in violation of the ESA mandate that decisions made pursuant to the ESA be based on the best available science.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Given that FWS has reissued for a second public review the exact same proposal found by the peer reviewers to be scientifically deficient, it is not clear if FWS plans to make any substantive changes to the proposed delisting rule before issuing the final rule. We are assuming here that FWS will either (1) issue the final delisting rule without substantively addressing the scientific deficiencies found by the peer reviewers, or (2) further delay the release of a final rule to allow FWS biologists time to address the scientific deficiencies found by the peer reviewers. Either scenario will have adverse consequences for the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf as we explain below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We note, however, that the peer reviewers and the FWS are in agreement that <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus baileyi</i> is a unique and taxonomically distinct subspecies of <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus</i> deserving of separate protection and recovery actions under the ESA. And in fact, FWS has proposed the separate listing of the Mexican wolf within this proposed rule. The only disagreement between the peer reviewers and the FWS is over the probable historic range of the Mexican wolf. This disagreement is essentially rendered moot by language in the proposed list rule declaring Mexican wolves to be endangered “where found.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Disagreement over the extent of the Mexican wolf’s historic range is best addressed by the Mexican Wolf Recovery Team using the best available science and settled in a final Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, not in this proposed rule. The work of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Team, suspended since November 2011, needs to be resumed immediately. While not procedurally necessary, it appears that FWS is waiting for the promulgation of the final rule placing Mexican wolves on the endangered species list before resuming work of the recovery team.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">History has shown that proposals by the FWS to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list have always been litigated, often delaying or even reversing actions proposed by the FWS. And history has shown that the FWS tends to suspend legitimate recovery actions for Mexican wolves in the face of litigation over proposals related to other gray wolves.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Furthermore, there is no scientific disagreement over the FWS’s proposal to list <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus baileyi</i> as an endangered subspecies of the gray wolf. And Mexican wolves are in critical need of recovery actions that are hampered by current regulations and the lack of a current recovery plan based on the best available science (see comments submitted by TRI on the draft proposed rule for Mexican wolves dated 10/24/2013 and incorporated in their entirety here as Appendix A of these comments).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore, to enhance the likelihood of survival and recovery of Mexican wolves, it follows that <b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">FWS must decouple the proposal to list <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus baileyi</i> from the proposal to delist gray wolves elsewhere.</b> No legitimate purpose is served by continuing link these two distinct actions into one combined process that is destined to be litigated solely over the gray wolf delisting part of the proposal.</span></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for the proposal to delist <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus</i>, TRI recommends that the FWS honor the independent peer review process and base its final decision on the best available science.</span></b></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As for the proposal to list <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Canis lupus baileyi</i> TRI recommends that FWS issue an expedited final rule completing this action separate from the gray wolf delisting proposal. And we further recommend that the existing Mexican Wolf Recovery Team be reactivated immediately with a goal of completing a science-based recovery plan as soon as possible.</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always, The Rewilding Institute appreciates this opportunity to comment on these proposals.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sincerely,</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David R. Parsons<br />Carnivore Conservation Biologist</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PLEASE <a href="http://rewilding.org/rewildit/images/TRI-Comments-on-Peer-Review-3.24.14-copy.pdf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> TO READ THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT, INCLUDING APPENDIX A</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.652000427246094px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- <a href="http://rewilding.org/rewildit/tri-comments-on-gray-wolf-delisting-and-peer-review/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rewilding+(Rewilding+Institute+Wilderness+and+Wildlife+Conservation)#sthash.kXfQRaQw.dpuf" target="_blank">Read more . . . </a> </span></span>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-77755498134956862082014-03-26T12:45:00.000-04:002014-03-26T12:45:54.778-04:00Yellowstone Supervolcano is Active, but Not Likely to Erupt in Near Future<div style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists have revealed that supervolcano in the Yellowstone National Park in the United States is active even though it is not going to erupt anytime soon. The volcano is known as the Yellowstone Caldera and it has not erupted in the last 70,000 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists believe that the volcano erupts about every 700,000 years, thus it does not pose any threat of eruption in near future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The volcano is so big that if it ever explodes, the ash coming out of it will cover most of the United States. The volcano has not erupted yet, but it is active. Yellowstone's famous geysers, boiling rivers, and mud pits are created by it. There is immense heat below that ground and due to its rise, constant changes are caused throughout the entire park.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Geologist Henry Heasler said hydro-thermal system could be explained by the warmth from the volcano. The heat rises to the surface where the magma chamber is located at a reasonably shallow depth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many people have become worried unnecessarily because of the changes caused by the superficial depth. Yellowstone has witnessed its ground rising and falling in places. A large area of the park has gone up almost 1.5 inches and shifted half an inch of the ground to the south in the past few decades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Yellowstone volcano - operated by the United States Geological Survey - has said that there is no need to worry as it is totally normal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Yellowstone is the most recent system along the hot spot. There are older volcanic systems that march their way up the plains, and as they got older and older, all of those systems eventually cooled", said Lowenstern, the lead scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. He added that Yellowstone will be a good place to grow potatoes one day.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Submitted by </span><a href="http://newstonight.co.za/users/martha-pule" style="color: #222222; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View user profile.">Martha Pule</a><span style="background-color: white;"> on Wed, 03/26/2014 - 11:59</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Originally published on <a href="http://newstonight.co.za/category/person/henry-heasler" target="_blank">News Tonight Africa</a></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span>RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-64304858946252631712014-03-14T07:55:00.000-04:002014-03-14T07:55:14.359-04:00Wolves and the Ecology of Fear<div style="text-align: center;">
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<em style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.899999618530273px;">Video Story by <a href="http://science.kqed.org/quest/author/michaeljameswerner/" rel="author" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Michael James Werner">Michael James Werner</a> for <a href="http://science.kqed.org/quest/stations/northwest/" rel="tag" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">QUEST Northwest</a> on Mar 06, 2014</em></div>
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Does “the big bad wolf” play an important role in the modern-day food web? In this video we journey to Washington State’s Cascade Mountains, where the return of wolves could have a profound impact on a vast wilderness area. We meet up with biologist Aaron Wirsing to explore why wolves and other top predators are needed for diverse ecosystems to flourish. Using a simple video camera (a “deer-cam”) Wirsing is gaining a unique perspective on predator/prey relationships and changing the way we think about wolves.</div>
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<strong style="line-height: inherit;">Wolves in the Crosshairs: Q&A with conservationist, Fred Koontz</strong></h2>
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<a href="http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/wolves-in-the-crosshairs-q-a-with-conservationist-fred-koontz/fred-koontz/" rel="attachment wp-att-67879" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Fred Koontz" class=" wp-image-67879 " src="http://science.kqed.org/quest/files/2014/01/Fred-Koontz-e1393522320642.jpg" height="309" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="233" /></a><br />
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Dr. Fred Koontz</div>
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Gray wolves are in the crosshairs of a heated conservation debate, with the federal government trying to strip all protections for them in the continental U.S. Dr. Fred Koontz, vice president of field conservation at Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, has worked in conservation for three decades and has studied the wolf issue. We talked with Dr. Koontz about the future of wolves in the U.S. and the role they play in maintaining healthy ecosystems.</div>
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<strong style="line-height: inherit;">Wolves may be the most polarizing animal in North America, more so than other large carnivores like cougars or grizzly bears. Why?</strong>The gray wolf is one of the world's most adaptable and widely distributed mammals, ranging over much of Asia, Europe, and North America. Wolves, the size of a German shepherd, are pack-hunting predators that sometimes kill livestock. Combined with wolves’ nocturnal behavior and haunting howling, this has resulted in a long history of conflict with people, especially as human numbers have increased exponentially in recent centuries and agricultural lands expanded into wolf habitat. There are, however, very few documented cases of wolves attacking people, but the rare times it’s happened it’s been sensationalized and blown out of proportion.</div>
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<strong style="line-height: inherit;">How have your perceptions or understanding of wolves changed over the years?</strong>At an early age, my mother read with much theatrical expression “Little Red Riding Hood,” which, like many children, left me fearing the “big bad wolf.” This negative image was reinforced with similar wolf-themed horror movies that I ashamedly spent far too much time watching in my youth. Only when I studied ecology and animal behavior in college and as a wildlife professional did I see a different image of the wolf. Wolves are important regulators of prey numbers and behavior, and as such, influence a web of ecological interactions that enrich biological diversity. I learned also that among many adaptive traits enabling their evolutionary success, wolves have a rich social life and extraordinary set of communication behaviors. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became in understanding how wolves and people might live together for their mutual benefit.</div>
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<b><span style="line-height: inherit;">Gray wolves have been taken off the federal endangered species list in some states, such as Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. And a </span><a href="http://www.fws.gov/home/wolfrecovery/" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: inherit;">recent federal proposal </span></a><span style="line-height: inherit;">would strip all gray wolves in the continental U.S. of their federal protection. How did this come to be? What kind of politics are at play?</span></b></div>
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Gray wolves can come in an assortment of colors, such as these all-white wolves. Photo courtesy of Ryan Hawk, Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle.</div>
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Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1974 first listed gray wolves as endangered in the lower 48 states. Now they propose to remove them from the ESA list. This idea follows from three decades of actions undertaken by federal, state, and local partners that resulted in population recovery and delisting in 2011 of wolves living in the western Great Lakes states and northern Rockies. With about 6,000 wolves residing in these two recovery areas, USFWS believes that the gray wolf population in general is well established and stable enough to warrant delisting. Many state wildlife officials welcome the move as they are eager to take back the management authority for animals within their political borders.</div>
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However, many conservation scientists and wolf advocates believe that more time on the endangered species list — and [under] federal protection — would allow wolves a greater opportunity to reclaim more of their former territory and grow the number of their populations. This is important because, despite wolf recovery success in the Great Lakes states and Rocky Mountains, there is still a lot of their former range not yet occupied. Expanded range and more populations, in turn, will provide greater species resiliency to unexpected environmental disruptions like climate change and emerging diseases and also improve long-term wolf survival in the U.S.</div>
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<b><span style="line-height: inherit;">An independent review panel recently found that the federal government </span><a href="http://earthfix.kcts9.org/flora-and-fauna/article/panel-finds-feds-didnt-use-best-science-in-wolf-pl/" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: inherit;">used uncertain science</span></a></b><span style="line-height: inherit;"><b> when it proposed removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list across the lower 48 states. What could that mean for the future of wolves?</b></span><br />
This is important because under Endangered Species Act law the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is obligated to use the best available science. The Service claimed that new genetic research indicated that wolves living in the eastern U.S. were actually a different species, and thus should not be considered as part of the original listing or part of the historic range. The expert panel said the genetic research was uncertain and based largely on one paper. The panel’s report has reopened the debate about delisting gray wolves, and I suspect it will extend the time wolves remain listed. The final decision on delisting is yet to be determined — public comment is <a href="http://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ID=0D493E53-AC54-99DD-52400A7BAA5A6085" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">encouraged</a>. [Note: deadline is March 27, 2014]</div>
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In the long run, the debate about delisting wolves invites larger questions like, what constitutes full recovery of any endangered species, and does the legal framework of the ESA reflect current conservation science and principles of sustainable living? Most importantly, there needs to be agreement at the onset about the ultimate purpose of recovery — is it simply species survival or restoring ecological function? There are no easy answers.</div>
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<a class="fancybox" href="http://science.kqed.org/quest/files/2014/01/Mule-Deer-Lauren-Sobkoviak.jpg" rel="gallery" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Mule Deer Lauren Sobkoviak" class="wp-image-67891 " src="http://science.kqed.org/quest/files/2014/01/Mule-Deer-Lauren-Sobkoviak.jpg" height="284" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="378" /></a><br />
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Mule Deer photo courtesy of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashrunner/8522517826/" style="color: #eb5926; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lauren Sobkoviak.</a></div>
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<strong style="line-height: inherit;">Is it possible for wolves and humans to coexist? What needs to change for that to happen?</strong><br />
I think that wolves and humans ultimately will coexist by sharing land in two key places — protected areas and rural areas managed for the benefit of people and wildlife, for example, park buffer lands, multiple-use public lands, and designated wildlife corridors. For the reconciliation between wolves and humans to prove fully successful, we will first need a broader understanding of the role that apex predators play in creating healthy ecosystems and why healthy ecosystems are needed by people. In other words, there must be a broader understanding of <strong style="line-height: inherit;">why </strong>saving wolves is essential to sustainable living. Greater public will to save wolves will result in increased public spending needed to conduct science and carry out sound management actions. For example, we need more research on improving ranching practices to minimize wolf predation of livestock, and insurance programs that compensate ranchers for unavoidable losses. There is already good evidence from pilot efforts that such research and management programs are possible — and that they work!</div>
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<strong style="line-height: inherit;">Why should people care about the fate of wolves?</strong><br />
The fate of wolves is tied directly to the greatest challenge facing humankind this century — sustainable living! With more than seven billion people consuming resources at an accelerating pace, this generation of world citizens must transform our societies to sustainable ones. We must, among other things, protect a wide variety of animal and plant species — scientists call this “biodiversity.” Many conservation scientists believe that apex predators (animals at the top of the food chain), like wolves, are necessary to maintain habitats rich in life. In turn, high levels of biodiversity bring many direct benefits to people — everything from providing food and fiber to protecting water supplies and enriching recreation.</div>
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Biologist Aaron Wirsing for the University of Washington (right) and graduate student Justin Dellinger (left) radio collar deer with video cameras in order to better understand predator-prey dynamics. Photo courtesy of Greg Davis.</div>
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Understanding the links between apex predators and biodiversity is a growing area of research for scientists like Aaron Wirsing of the University of Washington. Since 2008, wolves have been returning to Washington and have reestablished populations in the U.S. northern Rockies. This has provided a unique research opportunity for Wirsing and other scientists. For example, deer populations in Washington have likely over-browsed plants for decades in the absence of gray wolves. One consequence of deer eating trees along streambeds is less habitat for birds, and streams that are more likely to harbor fewer cold-water fish like trout because they are filled with sediments from soil erosion and overheated because of lack of shade. With wolves back in the state, Wirsing is leading a study to document how wolves are changing mule and white-tail deer populations, which in turn affects forest landscapes.</div>
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<strong style="line-height: inherit;">Why do you care about wolves?</strong><br />
I care about wolves because as apex predators they contribute significantly to enriching biodiversity needed by people for sustainable living. I also care about wolves because I admire them! Wolves are amazing for many reasons, but I am especially fascinated by their complex social behavior and adaptable lifestyles, two traits that they share with humans. Also, one of the most important reasons I care is that wild wolves in the U.S. are a symbolic way of keeping our American heritage of wilderness alive.</div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-31483327516277303562014-03-13T20:43:00.000-04:002014-03-14T07:36:11.089-04:00The NRDC's Non-Lethal Methods to Prevent Conflicts Between Predators and Livestock<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj28ZK0VRBe3A5Ctkd8a2Cb9L-gO0sX5Ohd8yC80TFVzV5WlaS3U4BBUPDdkKy0NF5R3PFraLoHcIlq43ZGZ4VIkshpZrJALirZ7sHBGlCjK9_3WjKw8B5yGRpMzP66zmBHYj8Puwku-Umu/s1600/Coyote_Head_in_Conibear_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj28ZK0VRBe3A5Ctkd8a2Cb9L-gO0sX5Ohd8yC80TFVzV5WlaS3U4BBUPDdkKy0NF5R3PFraLoHcIlq43ZGZ4VIkshpZrJALirZ7sHBGlCjK9_3WjKw8B5yGRpMzP66zmBHYj8Puwku-Umu/s1600/Coyote_Head_in_Conibear_2.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services program kills thousands of predators as a taxpayer-funded subsidy to the livestock industry, using controversial and inhumane methods such as poisons and aerial gunning. Wildlife Services largely ignores the many non-lethal ways to prevent conflicts between </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">predators and livestock. In fact, a small, but growing number of ranchers are turning away from Wildlife </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Services’ “sledgehammer” approach and emphasizing non-lethal conflict-prevention techniques because they </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">recognize that predators are an integral part of the landscapes where they ranch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wildlife Services needs to end the use of inhumane, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hazardous, and environmentally harmful poisons—</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">specifically, Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide—to kill </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">predators. Instead, the agency should employ non-lethal </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">conflict prevention methods. Specifically, Wildlife Services, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the private parties it assists, should be required to use, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or attempt to use, nonlethal deterrence methods before </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">resorting to lethal control. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/files/non-lethal-predator-control-FS.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to d</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">ownload more information </span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/files/non-lethal-predator-control-FS.pdf" target="_blank">about non-lethal methods from the NRDC.</a></span></div>
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RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-90642180209540733542014-03-12T14:12:00.002-04:002014-03-12T20:49:09.624-04:00The killing agency: The USDA's Wildlife Services' brutal methods leave a trail of animal death<div id="story_header" style="background-color: white;">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By </span><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=Tom%20Knudson&link_location=top" style="color: #024a82; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Read more articles by Tom Knudson">Tom Knudson</a></span></h1>
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<a href="mailto:tknudson@sacbee.com" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; outline: 0px;">Sacramento Bee sacbee.com</a></h1>
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<div class="published" style="padding: 0px;" title="2012-04-29T00:00:00-0700">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Published: Sunday, Apr. 29, 2012 - 12:00 am</span></div>
<div title="2012-05-20T13:11:58-0700">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Last Modified: Sunday, May. 20, 2012 - 1:11 pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em;">The day began with a drive across the desert, checking the snares he had </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em;">placed in the sagebrush to catch coyotes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gary Strader, an employee of the <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/U.S.+Department+of+Agriculture/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Department of Agriculture,</a> stepped out of his truck near a ravine in Nevada and found something he hadn't intended to kill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There, strangled in a neck snare, was one of the most majestic birds in America, a federally protected golden eagle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I called my supervisor and said, 'I just caught a golden eagle and it's dead,' " said Strader. "He said, 'Did anybody see it?' I said, 'Geez, I don't think so.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He said, 'If you think nobody saw it, go get a shovel and bury it and don't say nothing to anybody.' "</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"That bothered me," said Strader, whose job was terminated in 2009. "It wasn't right."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Strader's employer, a branch of the federal <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Department+of+Agriculture/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Department of Agriculture</a> called Wildlife Services, has long specialized in killing animals that are deemed a threat to agriculture, the public and – more recently – the environment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since 2000, its employees have killed nearly a million coyotes, mostly in the West. They have destroyed millions of birds, from nonnative starlings to migratory shorebirds, along with a colorful menagerie of more than 300 other species, including black bears, beavers, porcupines, river otters, <a class=" lingo_link" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/mountain+lions/" rel="nofollow" style="border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #024a82; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">mountain lions</a> and wolves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And in most cases, they have officially revealed little or no detail about where the creatures were killed, or why. But a Bee investigation has found the agency's practices to be indiscriminate, at odds with science, inhumane and sometimes illegal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Bee's findings include:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• With steel traps, wire snares and poison, agency employees have accidentally killed more than 50,000 animals since 2000 that were not problems, including federally protected golden and bald eagles; more than 1,100 dogs, including <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/family+pets/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">family pets;</a> and several species considered rare or imperiled by <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/wildlife+biologists/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">wildlife biologists.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Since 1987, at least 18 employees and several members of the public have been exposed to cyanide when they triggered spring-loaded cartridges laced with poison meant to kill coyotes. They survived – but 10 people have died and many others have been injured in crashes during agency aerial gunning operations since 1979.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• A growing body of science has found the agency's war against predators, waged to protect livestock and big game, is altering ecosystems in ways that diminish biodiversity, degrade habitat and invite disease.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes wild animals must be destroyed – from bears that ransack mountain cabins to geese swirling over an airport runway. But because lethal control stirs strong emotions, Wildlife Services prefers to operate in the shadows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"We pride ourselves on our ability to go in and get the job done quietly without many people knowing about it," said Dennis Orthmeyer, acting state director of Wildlife Services in California.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Basic facts are tightly guarded. "This information is Not intended for indiscriminate distribution!!!" wrote one Wildlife Services manager in an email to a municipal worker in Elk Grove about the number of beavers killed there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And while even the military allows the media into the field, Wildlife Services does not. "If we accommodated your request, we would have to accommodate all requests," wrote <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Mark+Jensen/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Mark Jensen,</a>director of Wildlife Services in Nevada, turning down a request by The Bee to observe its hunters and trappers in action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The public has every right to scrutinize what's going on," said Carter Niemeyer, a former Wildlife Services district manager who worked for the agency for 26 years and now believes much of the bloodletting is excessive, scientifically unsound and a waste of <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/tax+dollars/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">tax dollars.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"If you read the brochures, go on their website, they play down the lethal control, which they are heavily involved in, and show you this benign side," Niemeyer said. "It's smoke and mirrors. It's a killing business. And it ain't pretty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"If the public knows this and they don't care, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it," Niemeyer said. "But they are entitled to know."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Agency officials say the criticism is misleading. "If we can use nonlethal control first, we usually do it," said William Clay, deputy administrator of Wildlife Services. "The problem is, generally when we get a call, it's because farmers and ranchers are having livestock killed immediately. They are being killed daily. Our first response is to try to stop the killing and then implement nonlethal methods."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In March, two congressmen – Reps. John Campbell, R-Irvine, and <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Peter+DeFazio/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Peter DeFazio,</a> D-Ore. – introduced a bill that would ban one of Wildlife Services' most controversial killing tools: spring-loaded sodium cyanide cartridges that have killed tens of thousands of animals in recent years, along with Compound 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate), a less-commonly used poison.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is an ineffective, wasteful program that is largely unaccountable, lacks transparency and continues to rely on cruel and indiscriminate methods," said Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote, a <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Bay+Area/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Bay Area</a> nonprofit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"If people knew how many animals are being killed at <a class=" lingo_link lingo_link_hidden" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/taxpayer+expense/" rel="nofollow" style="border: none; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">taxpayer expense</a> – often on public lands – they would be shocked and horrified," Fox said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/28/4450678/the-killing-agency-wildlife-services.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Read more . . . </span></a></span></h3>
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RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-84626995231971993532014-03-07T08:04:00.000-05:002014-03-09T12:50:16.429-04:00The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation<div class="Normal" style="line-height: 13.199999809265137px; margin-bottom: 0.3em; margin-top: 0.3em; padding: 0.3em 0px;">
<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By <a href="http://www.boone-crockett.org/conservation/conservation_NAM.asp?area=conservation" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Boone and Crockett Club</a></span><br />
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Natural resources, including wildlife represent the health and wealth of a country and its people. We are fortunate in North America to have a proven system that not only recognizes these values, but also provides for and directs the proper use and management of these resources.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is anchored by a Supreme Court decision that decreed that wildlife belongs to the people, and not government, corporations or individuals. It further directs how this natural resource is to be used and managed under sustainable guidelines for the betterment of wildlife and people. It is the reason why we still have abundant, wildlife populations in the U.S. and Canada and the opportunity to freely hunt, fish or enjoy this wildlife each in our own way.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Model is guided by seven principles. It developed over time out of necessity to reverse the negative effects from the unregulated over harvesting of many species of wildlife and early attitudes that these resources where there for the taking and inexhaustible. Sportsmen and women, led by the efforts of the Boone and Crockett Club and its members helped to either establish, popularize, mobilize support for, and/or defend each of these guiding principles over the past 125 years. The results are unprecedented in the history of mankind.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">In the Public Trust</span><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;"> – Wildlife belongs to the people and managed in trust for the people by government agencies.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who owns wildlife was determined by a Supreme Court decision at the time the New World was flexing its new independence from European rule. The Public Trust Doctrine is the pillar of North American conservation, but it took time for citizens to fully understand the responsibilities that came with this ownership.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of the Boone and Crockett Club’s early efforts were focused on awakening the people to the plight of their wildlife resources, and that these resources did indeed belong to them, and were in their care. These efforts were in concert with the conservation laws the Club and its members were proposing to aid in the recovery and protection of wildlife. Once the public realized it was their wildlife being irresponsibly eliminated their outcry was so great that conservation legislation passed with ease.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Prohibition on Commerce of Dead Wildlife</span><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;"> – It will be illegal to sell the meat of any wild animal in North America.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The harvesting wildlife for commercial markets contributed greatly to the extinction of some species of wildlife, and the near extinction of others. With the Boone and Crockett Club rallying the public and political support needed, Club member Senator John F. Lacey of Iowa was able to present and pass the Lacey Acts of 1900 & 1907, which prohibited a commercial value to wild game meat, spelling the end of market hunting, allowing our wildlife to recover and flourish.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Allocation of Wildlife is by Law </span><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;">– Laws developed by the people and enforced by government agencies will regulate the proper use of wildlife resources.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mere presence of man on the landscape can negatively affect wildlife and the habitats that support them. The rule of law instead of the rule of chance will be used to govern the appropriate use of these wildlife resources.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Boone and Crockett Club proposed laws and rallied public support for these new rules of order. The Club helped establish government agencies like the U.S. Fish & Wildlife and National Forest Services that were needed to oversee the proper execution and enforcement of these laws. The Club’s Fair Chase statement also became the cornerstone for game laws established by the states.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Opportunity for All </span><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;">– Every citizen has the freedom to hunt and fish.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Public access to wildlife, regardless of social or economic status, including hunting, fishing, and trapping is a right of citizenship. This access fosters individual stewardship and provides the funding necessary to properly manage wildlife resources in a sustainable manner.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Boone and Crockett Club founder, Theodore Roosevelt believed strongly in wise-use conservation and fought aggressively against preservationist, or non-use proposals. The Club also believed that those who use the resource should pay for its care and maintenance. The Club lobbied for the laws and institutions that provided this funding, including a federal excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition and the federal Duck Stamp program. Sportsmen ands women subsequently stepped forward and gladly accepted their role in funding conservation</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Non</span><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;">-<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">frivolous Use</span> – In North America we can legally kill certain wildlife for legitimate purposes under strict guidelines for food and fur, in self-defense, or property protection. Laws are in place to restrict casual killing, killing for commercial purposes, wasting of game, and mistreating wildlife.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rules of proper use, both in written law and personal ethics, did not exist in commercial market and sustenance hunting cultures. As these activities faded, what remained was recreational, sport hunting. What separated a true sportsman from market gunners was an ethical code of personal conduct that was defined and promoted by the Boone and Crockett Club. These same tenets of Fair Chase were used as the cornerstone of modern-day game laws. Club member, Aldo Leopold is credited with framing the concept of a land ethic and managing entire biotic communities. Combined, the foundations for the proper use of The intricate nature of ecosystems and biotic communities, of which all wildlife and man belong, will be managed under the knowledge of science rather than opinion, or conjecture.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wildlife and the habitats that support them was put in place to support conservation, defined by Club member, George Bird Grinnell as,” wise use without waste.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">International Resources </span><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;">– Because wildlife and fish freely migrate across boundaries between states, provinces, and countries they are considered an international resource.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The proper management of certain species of migrating wildlife is to be managed by international treaties and laws.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sportsmen where among the first to recognize the need for international treaties and laws to save what was left of decimated waterfowl populations. Wildfowl that nested in Alaska, Canada and the Lower 48 States, and then migrated as far south as Mexico, could only be saved if restrictions to the loss of their wetland nesting habitats and hunting reached across international boundaries. The Boone and Crockett Club responded with the establishment of the National Wildlife Refuge system (1903) and the passage of the Migratory Bird Act of 1913 & 1917, the Reclamation Act of 1902, and the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929 all contributed to the recovery and future prosperity of migratory species.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Managed by Science </span><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt;">– The best science available will be used as a base for informed decision making in wildlife management.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack" style="color: #663300; text-decoration: underline;"></a><span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;">The intricate nature of ecosystems and biotic communities, of which all wildlife and man belong, will be managed under the knowledge of science rather than opinion, or conjecture.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Normal__Char" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Boone and Crockett Club founder, Theodore Roosevelt was a strong advocate of science, and that only the best science available was to be used to make critical decisions on natural resource management. The Club began by providing seed money for some of the first wildlife research projects. Under the leadership of member, Aldo Leopold the Club began formulating flexible scientific management policies for wildlife and natural resources to achieve an ecological balance. The Club also called for the first President’s Conference on Outdoor Recreation, which lead to the establishment of the National Recreation Policy, which coordinated resource management at federal, state, and local levels.</span></span></div>
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RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-721784112724382402014-03-06T20:25:00.000-05:002014-03-06T20:25:01.912-05:00EXPOSED - USDA's Secret War on Wildlife<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;">By Darryl Fears, <span class="timestamp updated processed" contenttype="article" datetitle="published" epochtime="1387150513000" pagetype="leaf">Published: December 15<br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/petition-targets-rogue-killings-by-wildlife-services/2013/12/15/c749b3b2-5e8b-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html" target="_blank">Washington Post</a></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They say U.S. critter assassins work in secret, quietly laying traps, lacing food with poison, sniping at targets from helicopters. Few people know exactly how the hits go down; the methods are largely hidden.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What’s certain is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s little-known Wildlife Services program kills up to 3 million animals a year, mostly those deemed a nuisance but also some that agents kill by mistake, including endangered species.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, in a turnabout, the hunter is the target. A petition seeks to reduce the power of Wildlife Services <a data-xslt="_http" href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/wildlife-services-11-03-2013.html"></a>and shine a light on its practices, claiming its agents have “gone rogue,” overstepping the mission to protect the public by killing indiscriminately.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s no dispute that Wildlife Services plays a valuable role by eliminating invasive animals such as nutria and starlings that are a menace. But critics have questions: How many is too many? Does the agency euthanize wildlife too often on behalf of farmers and ranchers without regard to ecosystems?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The petition filed in December of 2013 by the Center for Biological Diversity isn’t the first time that animal rights activists have squared off against Wildlife Services, but this time their coalition includes politicians who agree that the agency is too secret and too deadly. Even some federal workers frown on it; staff members at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service quietly dismiss Wildlife Services agents as “gopher chokers.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Wildlife Services is one of the most opaque and obstinate departments I’ve dealt with,” said Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.). “We’re really not sure what they’re doing. I’ve asked the agency to give me breakdowns on what lethal methods they’re using. They can’t or won’t do that. We’ve asked them to tell us what goes into their poisons. They won’t say.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">DeFazio and several colleagues requested a congressional hearing on the agency’s practices without success, so they pushed the USDA inspector general to conduct an audit, which was announced this month.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The WS program is inefficient, inhumane and in need of a review,” the lawmakers wrote in a September letter to Inspector General Phyllis Fong. They said that the frequent killings of top predators, such as wolves, bears and coyotes, benefit “a small proportion of the nation’s private agriculture” and other interests.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wildlife Services said in response that it has nothing to hide. Answering questions by e-mail, a spokeswoman said that the bulk of its work is to protect humans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“For example, we work with the aviation community to protect the public by reducing wildlife hazards at more than 800 airports around the country,” spokeswoman Lyndsay Cole said. “Wildlife Services’ efforts to protect threatened and endangered species are conducted in more than 34 states. Wildlife Services also operates the National Rabies Management Program, which distributes oral vaccines in 16 states.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/petition-targets-rogue-killings-by-wildlife-services/2013/12/15/c749b3b2-5e8b-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html" target="_blank">Read more . . . </a></span><br />
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<br />RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-50264892856596307972014-03-05T21:52:00.003-05:002014-03-06T06:49:46.676-05:00Hunters are conservationists? Maybe many years ago . . . not today.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 1.0em;">By Georger Wuerthner - </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 1em;">The Wildlife News - March 5, 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.6em;">Many hunter organizations like to promote the idea that hunters were the first and most important conservation advocates. They rest on their laurels of early hunter/wildlife activist like Teddy Roosevelt, and George Bird Grinnell who, among other things, were founding members of the Boone and Crocket Club. But in addition to being hunter advocates, these men were also staunch proponents of national parks and other areas off limits to hunting. Teddy Roosevelt help to establish the first wildlife refuges to protect birds from feather hunters, and he was instrumental in the creation of numerous national parks including the Grand Canyon. Grinnell was equally active in promoting the creation of national parks like Glacier as well as a staunch advocate for protection of wildlife in places like Yellowstone. Other later hunter/wildlands advocates like Aldo Leopold and Olaus Murie helped to promote wilderness designation and a land ethic as well as a more enlightened attitude about predators.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, though there are definitely still hunters and anglers who put conservation and wildlands protection ahead of their own recreational pursuits, far more of the hunter/angler community is increasingly hostile to wildlife protection and wildlands advocacy. Perhaps the majority of hunters were always this way, but at least the philosophical leaders in the past were well known advocates of wildlands and wildlife.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2014/03/05/whither-the-hunterconservationist/" target="_blank">Read more . . . </a></span></div>
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RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-22475395314747285422014-03-05T21:39:00.000-05:002014-03-05T21:39:55.990-05:00Should the Wolf continue to be protected?<div class="meta" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/47007" target="_blank">From: <span class="name">VIRGINIA MORELL, SCIENCE</span></a><br />Published <span class="date">February 9, 2014 08:03 AM</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ongoing battle over a proposal to lift U.S. government protections for the gray wolf (Canis lupus) across the lower 48 states isn’t likely to end quickly. An independent, peer-review panel yesterday gave a thumbs-down to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS's) plan to de-list the wolf. Although not required to reach a consensus, the four researchers on the panel were unanimous in their opinion that the proposal "does not currently represent the 'best available science'"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"It's stunning to see a pronouncement like this--that the proposal is not scientifically sound," says Michael Nelson, an ecologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, who was not one of the reviewers. Many commentators regard it as a major set-back for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which stumbled last year in a previous attempt to get the science behind its proposal reviewed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The USFWS first released its plan for removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list in June 2013. The plan also called for adding the Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies that inhabits the southwest, to the protected list. At the time, there were approximately 6,000 wolves in some Western and upper Midwestern States; federal protections were removed from the gray wolf in six of those states in 2011. More than one million people have commented on the plan. But regulations also require that the agency invite researchers outside of the agency to assess the proposal's scientific merit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At its core, the USFWS proposal relies on a monograph written by its own scientists. They asserted that a different (and controversial) species, the eastern wolf (Canis lupus lycaon) and not the gray wolf, had inhabited the Midwest and Northeast. If correct, then the agency would not need to restore the gray wolf population in 22 eastern states, where gray wolves are no longer found.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the four reviewers, which included specialists on wolf genetics, disagreed with the USFWS's idea of a separate eastern wolf, stating that the notion "was not universally accepted and that the issue was 'not settled'"—an opinion shared by other researchers. "The designation of an 'eastern wolf' is not well-supported," says Carlos Carroll, a conservation biologist at the Klamath Center for Conservation Research in Orleans, California, who was not a member of the review panel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's stunning to see a pronouncement like this--that the proposal is not scientifically sound," says Michael Nelson, an ecologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, who was not one of the reviewers. Many commentators regard it as a major set-back for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which stumbled last year in a previous attempt to get the science behind its proposal reviewed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The USFWS first released its plan for removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list in June 2013. The plan also called for adding the Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies that inhabits the southwest, to the protected list. At the time, there were approximately 6,000 wolves in some Western and upper Midwestern States; federal protections were removed from the gray wolf in six of those states in 2011. More than one million people have commented on the plan. But regulations also require that the agency invite researchers outside of the agency to assess the proposal's scientific merit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At its core, the USFWS proposal relies on a monograph written by its own scientists. They asserted that a different (and controversial) species, the eastern wolf (Canis lupus lycaon) and not the gray wolf, had inhabited the Midwest and Northeast. If correct, then the agency would not need to restore the gray wolf population in 22 eastern states, where gray wolves are no longer found.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the four reviewers, which included specialists on wolf genetics, disagreed with the USFWS's idea of a separate eastern wolf, stating that the notion "was not universally accepted and that the issue was 'not settled'"—an opinion shared by other researchers. "The designation of an 'eastern wolf' is not well-supported," says Carlos Carroll, a conservation biologist at the Klamath Center for Conservation Research in Orleans, California, who was not a member of the review panel.</span></div>
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RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-9860528786430675632014-03-05T00:21:00.000-05:002014-03-05T00:30:25.450-05:00A Letter From Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Gray Wolves <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The Honorable Dan Ashe<br />
Director<br />
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<br />
1849 C Street, NW<br />
Washington, DC 20240</div>
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Dear Director Ashe:</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lr_hhQn_yks/Uxa0mFQYUwI/AAAAAAAAC8Y/2CQJvVo382c/s1600/171px-Peter_DeFazio,_official_Congressional_photo_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lr_hhQn_yks/Uxa0mFQYUwI/AAAAAAAAC8Y/2CQJvVo382c/s1600/171px-Peter_DeFazio,_official_Congressional_photo_portrait.jpg" height="200" width="142" /></a>We understand that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting a status review of the gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act that may remove protections for gray wolves across large areas of the lower 48 states. The reintroduction of wolves into the northern Rocky Mountains and their resurgence in the western Great Lakes region have been important gains for a species once teetering on the brink of extinction , and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be commended for its prominent role in these achievements . In other parts of their former range, however, wolves have only barely begun to recover. In particular, wolves have only just begun to return to portions of the Pacific Northwest, California, southern Rocky Mountains and Northeast and continue to need protection in these areas if they are to truly recover. It is our hope that you will retain Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in these areas. A blanket national delisting of the gray wolf would be premature and would not be grounded in peer-reviewed science. </div>
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The rebound of gray wolves in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountains has been a boon for local economies, wildlife enthusiasts, and the ecosystems of these areas that have benefitted from the return of this keystone predator. Studies in Yellowstone National Park found that the presence of wolves benefitted a myriad of species from pronghorn antelope, to songbirds, to beavers and fish. </div>
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While there is much to be proud of, there remains considerable progress to be made towards wolf recovery in the lower 48 states. In particular, we are concerned that the same prejudice towards wolves that led to their extirpation across nearly the entire coterminous United States is still present today and, not only is threatening to undo the gains achieved in the northern Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes, but will prevent their recovery in additional areas. We believe that federal protection continues to be necessary to ensure that wolf recovery is allowed to proceed in additional parts of the country. </div>
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Wolves are beginning to make a comeback in Oregon and Washington and a little more than a year ago, a wolf dubbed OR-7 made his way to California to become the first wolf in the state for more than 80 years. Lone wolves have also crossed into Utah, Colorado, and several states in the Northeast. These are all areas that would benefit from continued Endangered Species Act protections. </div>
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Wolf recovery in the lower 48 states is a wildlife success story in the making, and we encourage the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue to work towards greater recovery of this important and popular species. Specifically, we ask that the Service continue to protect wolves in the lower 48 states under the ESA. </div>
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Thank you for the work you and your staff have done over the years to make important gains in the gray wolf recovery program.</div>
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Sincerely,</div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2950220698368482085.post-41439207619430655412014-02-23T00:17:00.000-05:002014-02-23T00:17:04.190-05:00The Wolves of Yellowstone<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">The Gray Wolf was one of the first species to be listed as endangered (1967) under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966.</span><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> However, until the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, there was no legal basis or process for re-introducing the Gray Wolf to Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.333333015441895px;"> </span></span><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">The Endangered Species Act obligated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop restoration plans for each species designated as </span><i style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">Endangered</i><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">. The first recovery plan was completed in 1980 but gained little traction. In 1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a revised </span><i style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan.</i><span style="line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"> that led the way to wolf reintroduction. The plan was a cooperative effort between the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, academia, state wildlife agencies and environmental groups.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In January 1995, U.S. and Canadian wildlife officials captured 14 wolves from multiple packs east of Jasper National Park, near Hinton, Alberta, Canada. These wolves arrived in Yellowstone in two shipments—January 12, 1995 (8 wolves) and January 20, 1995 (6 wolves). They were released into three acclimation pens—Crystal Creek, Rose Creek and Soda Butte Creek in the Lamar Valley in Northeast East Yellowstone National Park. In March 1995, the pens were opened and between March 21 and March 31, 1995 all 14 wolves were loose in Yellowstone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Seventeen additional wolves captured in Canada arrived in Yellowstone in January 1996 and were released into the park in April 1996 from the Chief Joseph, Lone Star, Druid Peak and Nez Perce pens. These were the last wolves released into the park as officials believed that the natural reproduction and survival were sufficient to preclude additional releases.</span></div>
RJ Haydenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529380266856292517noreply@blogger.com