Don’t Forsake the Gray Wolf
by Jim Dutcher
KETCHUM, Idaho - IT has been celebrated as one of the great victories of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. After several decades of federal protection, gray wolves — once nearly wiped out in the continental United States — have reached a population of roughly 6,100 across three Great Lakes states and seven Western states.
But this success has been only partial. The centuries-old war against wolves continues to rage, particularly in states where the species has lost federal protection in recent years, as management of wolf populations was turned over to the states.
On Friday, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service put forward a proposal that would make matters even worse. It proposed stripping the remaining federal protections for the gray wolf in the rest of the United States (with the exception of the extremely rare Mexican gray wolf in Arizona and New Mexico). Removing gray wolves from the national endangered species list in the areas where they are still protected would be a mistake. The protections should remain, so that the species can continue its recovery and expand its range, just as the bald eagle and the alligator were allowed to do.
The new proposal, which will be open for a 90-day public comment period, is the latest step in the federal government’s effort to turn wolf management entirely over to the states and wash its hands of the animal, which has long been in the cross hairs of powerful hunting and livestock interests.
Wolves are already under state rather than federal control in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, which are home to about 97 percent of the gray wolves in the lower 48 states. Wolf management in those states is often driven by politics, and wolves are being killed at alarming rates in the name of sport in all but Michigan.
For instance, most of the nearly 1,700 wolves surviving in the West lived in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming at the end of 2012. Those states now have recreational hunting and trapping seasons, and in the past two years, nearly 1,200 wolves have been killed. Nearly 400 more were killed for attacking livestock.
Photo by Bob Haarmans
(Source: stolenshamelessly)
NQ 09.05.13
crackhead by ErikAndHisCamera on Flickr.
sick shirt
So sorry, came across this and couldn’t resist….
I am not proud of my, nor the following generation and the notions and generalizations that we hold and proclaim. I grew up seeing this man and, like most other kids of my clade, thought him to be a bum and a junkie.
It will shock you to know that this man actually owns the two triple deckers that are at the two corners of the intersection at which he conducts this daily ritual of walking up and down through traffic. He was a rich man who thought he had everything. A wife, kids, the works. But just like with any man, the potential for corruption and greed grew as he gained more riches. He succumbed to that corruption and lost everything of real value and worth. Subsequently, he went crazy and now haunts the neighborhood that caused his demise. I know you’ve noticed he NEVER asks for money.
That said, be ashamed of yourself and look to him as an example and learn, thoroughly as this could be any one of us in the future.
As for the crack, I doubt it, he would be in an alley smokin it if he were on it, not in the middle of traffic 24/7
(Source: black-and-white-gifs)
(Source: cineraria)
Mostly all my followers should reblog.
No matter what.
if you can’t reblog this, i’m judging you.
Anon hate is cowardice
If you don’t want people to know its you saying it, then you know it’s something you shouldn’t be sayingUsually I won’t reblog if it says “I’m judging you” or “reblog no matter what”
But I feel like this is an important one. SO
reblog if you want to :)
I never have and never ever will
The moment you realized you left your phone at home…
Self Portrait
December 2012
Yashica-Mat
