Posted on 01/27/2003 2:18:02 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Now hold on to your sneakers because here they come -- the largest group of eco-extremists ever assembled in one place will be meeting at State College on February 1.
It is their second meeting in Pennsylvania. It's called the "Prospects for Recovery and Rewilding" (of PA) sponsored by the PA Wildlands Recovery Project (PWRP).
Frankly, I have been hankering to write a story about steelheads and steelhead fishing. I am chomping at the bit to wade an ice-cold stream in below freezing temps and catch a 10-lb. steelhead on a fly rod. If this weather will break February might be the month. In the interim my phone is ringing off the hook with wolf and mountain lion sightings throughout PA. I am getting pounded with emails and it just seems to get better each day. Unfortunately, the big story for this spring may be the attempted reintroduction of large predators in PA. This stuff is just too good to pass up. This is the top news story in the outdoor world.
In any event this fledging group (PWRP) has a grandiose mission, which if successful, will effect every citizen living in PA. I know many non-sporting people read this column and I can only suggest you read this very carefully. This group is advocating the largest shift in land management and wildlife management to ever hit the lower 48. They see PA as fertile ground.
Of course, their central theme is we have destroyed the environment and all of its ecosystems and it time to restore them. Interconnecting wilderness areas is their primary way of accomplishing this recovery. They write "to move beyond responding to the latest threats -- to begin advocating boldly and persuasively for wilderness."
What is their definition of wilderness you ask? In their words, "Wilderness is self-willed land where native processes, not human agency, direct the ebb and flow of life." Interesting.
How do they expect to accomplish this? By having "long range plans to connect our Wildlands with each other." This part of their plan involves building underpasses and overpasses so wildlife can travel from biosphere (my word) to biosphere without getting killed on our roads. You see, in their world roads are the causes of all evil cast upon the environment. Roads must be removed and human access denied so nature can exist in harmony with itself without man's presence.
And how about that "rewilding" part of bringing PA back from devastation and the forces of evil. It's simple. These people are advocating the full-scale reintroduction of mountain lions in PA to pre-colonial prominence. They don't need hunters or trappers in their "Brave New World." Mountain lions will regulate this new "Utopia."
Mountain lions? For the record mountain lions are known, irrefutable man killers, or should I say child killers? Lions attack children and family pets more often than adults. Documented attacks are easy to find. The stories by those who lived are often gruesome.
Their twist to the mountain lion story is quite interesting. They refute the USFWS judgement that the Eastern Puma is extinct. They contend all pumas are/were the same species, east to west. Obviously, this drives their argument to restore them.
On the positive side this group acknowledges acid rain as a leading cause of our forest ills and the lack of vibrant songbird reproduction. This is the only sensible rhetoric I can find in their otherwise absurd philosophy.
Surveys reveal that in this day and age all of us are environmentalists to some degree. The intelligent mind realizes we must be stewards of the environment, putting back more than we take out. We have long accepted conservation as our guiding principle. The actions necessary to accomplish their goals of wilderness preservation and the reintroduction of large predators will cut across the rights of private landowners, your civil rights, farming rights, timbering rights and a plethora of Constitutional issues that can boggle the mind.
I debated writing this column because one has difficulty taking these people seriously. However, we should not dismiss them lightly. Projects similar to their plans exist in Europe and Canada. These people are quite serious and the so-called "Green Dragons" have substantial financial backing.
As a full time outdoor writer and radio broadcaster, I don?t need to create issues to bring to your attention. The issues just appear and I merely follow the discussions that are hot. I urge you to think long and hard if your vision for PA includes mountain lions, timber wolves and our lands locked-up as wilderness and off limits to our citizens. The threat of this happening is real.
I further encourage you to take your decision to your elected officials. The future of our civil rights, land management policies and wildlife traditions are truly in your hands.
Their belief is once the number gets to what they consider sparse, their little organization will come in and either, by force of government, or by shear power of pocketbook aquire all remaining ground. By doing this they hope to be able to deny any remaining people the ability to make a living, bankrupting the few left if necessary.
Once the agricultural economy is removed, cities that rely upon farm income and property taxes will be in a drastic situation. With the proper incentives, these cities and towns can also be vacated leaving vast connected wildlife areas.
It's hard to imagine the wacko mentality that comes up with such weird proposals.
Someone should force them to practice what they preach, destroy their houses and cars and force them to live with herds of buffalo.
Oh please! Great herds of buffalo were only common after the arrival of the Spanish with their horses.
If they do that I am going to go have a buffalo hunt.
(So we are mid-west not great plains. I bet this bunch couldn't tell the difference.)
BZZZZZZT!!!
Wrongo! Much of the Agenda21 was written in Santa Cruz, California.
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