Do we need wildlife?

[Treeshark]

if i had to be bolted down somewhere, colorado still ain't a bad place to be stuck.

Yeah man, I could tough that out with a smile on my face too.

 

[YukonGold]

and i even with my very limited experience being further east than kansas it's not hard for me to agree.

colorado, besides objectively having some of the most beautiful and dramatic mountain scenery in the west and a lifetime of adventure that awaits amongst it, has long been turning into a real crock of shit. it's a stressful place to live, on every front. i'm pretty over it.

but as usual, all the immediate family is here - pretty well bolted down now starting to sprout little ones, whether i like it or not.

all that said, if i had to be bolted down somewhere, colorado is still very far from the worst place to be stuck.

I lived there about 20 years ago. It was wonderful. Now I go there to visit family and can't wait to leave. I-25 between FoCo and Pueblo is my hell.

 

[hank4elk]

Wow, I am speechless.
This is the real world.

 

[JT88]

The mule deer mismanagement discussion got me thinking. Well that, and I just finished watching Life on our Planet on Netflix. Does it really matter if we wipe out all the deer, elk, wolves and anything else that lives where people do?

Think about it for a minute. I will pick on massachusetts, only because it is the only other state I really know well. Much of it is sterile. Heck, hardly even have insects. I remember driving to the reservoir to fish with my dad as a kid. In ten minutes the windshield was full of dead bugs. Not anymore. Lucky if one bug gets sacrificed. Bats are gone. I notice that there are a fraction of the birds. Nobody really cares. And it has no impact on anyone's life. No bugs is a good thing right? All we need really are a bunch of breweries, bars and restaurants. It is the modern day jungle.

We don't need wildlife. We don't use them for food anymore. If anything, they're pests. Deer eat our gardens. Coyotes eat our pets.

During the last 4 billion years we have had plenty of mass extinctions. Maybe we are part of the process of the next one.

I love the outdoors. I love animals. But much of that is due to the fact that I love to hunt. I certainly don't need to hunt. I can get what I need from the grocery store. Maybe these pesky animals everywhere and open lands need to make way for the next stage of the planet's life where there is nothing left but humans.

Maybe I'm actually the problem. I'm holding onto this nostalgic idea that for some reason is still lingering in my dna. The modern man doesn't hunt. He doesn't live in nature. He does not cherish his tools to harvest animals.

Deer have no place in Worcester or Boston. Why should we have them anywhere in between?

This is what you took away from 90 pages of Mule Deer Mismanagement?

 

[LuketheDog]

We don't need wildlife. We don't use them for food anymore. If anything, they're pests. Deer eat our gardens. Coyotes eat our pets.

Speak for yourself, I have enough red meat for my family for a year in my freezers right now...

 

[TOGIE]

I-25 between FoCo and Pueblo is my hell.

that's ridiculous, it's an enchanting place to live...

 

[gouch]

Meanwhile the rest of the animal kingdom is wondering if we really need people and how nice things might be without them.

 

[SAJ-99]

Speak for yourself, I have enough red meat for my family for a year in my freezers right now...

But the cost of that meat is pretty high, looking at the cost of ALL tags/harvest, although I'm sure some will take the view that only their cost should matter, which is kind of ironic. I think eventually everything has a dollar value- elk, deer, snail darters, some plant only found in one spot, whatever. They all have an implicit dollar value assigned now, but eventually it will be explicit. We will have to make hard choices on what can be saved. In addition, maybe we take a look at the part of NAM that eliminated selling wild game. I am skeptical much can save this planet from humans in the long run.

Environmentalists are facing off against a lithium mine in California over the fate of a tiny yellow flower on the brink of extinction

“We’re gearing up for a fight."

fortune.com

 

[YukonGold]

I am skeptical much can save this planet from humans in the long run.

You're probably right, and all good points. Especially since I don't have kids, sometimes I find myself slipping into this attitude...that there's no way we can reverse course now, so why even try?

I think it's imperative we resist that temptation.

 

[elkduds]

and i even with my very limited experience being further east than kansas it's not hard for me to agree.

colorado, besides objectively having some of the most beautiful and dramatic mountain scenery in the west and a lifetime of adventure that awaits amongst it, has long been turning into a real crock of shit. it's a stressful place to live, on every front. i'm pretty over it.

but as usual, all the immediate family is here - pretty well bolted down now starting to sprout little ones, whether i like it or not.

all that said, if i had to be bolted down somewhere, colorado is still very far from the worst place to be stuck.

Do we need wildlife? We are wildlife. The same process that made ants and antelope made us. We forget that connection at our peril, we will be among the extinct if we continue. Meanwhile the earth will carry on as it has.

The degree of Colorado suck is in direct proportion to proximity to the megacity that runs uninterrupted from Fort Collins south to Pueblo. It has suburbs like Summit and Eagle counties. The farther one ventures from those sacrifice zones, the better. No unit #s will be posted. Most wildlife know to live some distance from busy cities and roadways if they have the option. Not us, we're too special.

 

[nrpate05]

and i even with my very limited experience being further east than kansas it's not hard for me to agree.

colorado, besides objectively having some of the most beautiful and dramatic mountain scenery in the west and a lifetime of adventure that awaits amongst it, has long been turning into a real crock of shit. it's a stressful place to live, on every front. i'm pretty over it.

but as usual, all the immediate family is here - pretty well bolted down now starting to sprout little ones, whether i like it or not.

all that said, if i had to be bolted down somewhere, colorado is still very far from the worst place to be stuck.

This, I believe is partially true. The problem is when people talk about Colorado as a whole, they are really talking about the I-25/I-70 corridor. There are a ton of cool places that are outside of this area that don't get the crowds and are nice places to live (if you can find work, etc.). I've got a buddy who lives in Norwood. That place is sweet.

 

[TOGIE]

This, I believe is partially true. The problem is when people talk about Colorado as a whole, they are really talking about the I-25/I-70 corridor. There are a ton of cool places that are outside of this area that don't get the crowds and are nice places to live (if you can find work, etc.). I've got a buddy who lives in Norwood. That place is sweet.

could literally conjure up a list 20-30 places i'd live in colorado that i would borderline consider paradise. but ain't happening.

moving to those places would put us enough hours away from family it'd be functionally no different than moving to montana or wisconsin. then you have to find a way to make money as well. then you live there for 10 years and realize the loss of family in your wife and kids lives has been more of a black hole than you expected and you end up moving back anyway.

it's weird how many co workers I have that are 15-20 years older than me that made it work somewhere on the western slope for a good while, somewhere they considered paradise, only to have the draw of family force them back over here. it's fickle. blessing and a curse.

 

[OleRedbeard]

that's ridiculous, it's an enchanting place to live...

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Going into Denver only about once every couple of years it still blows my mind how fast its expanding. I have never seen a place blow up like it has.

 

[TOGIE]

Going into Denver only about once every couple of years it still blows my mind how fast its expanding. I have never seen a place blow up like it has.

it is mind blowing. my dad would always comment on how unrecognizable the denver-boulder turnpike corridor is from when he was a kid, so like 40+ years. what's wild is how unrecognizable some areas have become for me since just high school and i'm only 32.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Back to @peterk1234 original topic it’s pretty crazy how much biodiversity we’ve lost. The prairie ecosystem in Denver and here in Michigan has been replaced by manicured invasive lawns… feral lawns if you will

I was told by a neighbor that in this town you actually have to get a permit to let your yard go wild with native grass species

There is a house 2 blocks down that has a 1 acre lot with a native permit and it is wild to see how many more species of birds and critters they have in their yard.

 

[Dougfirtree]

It's a great thread topic but man do people over look the urban areas/urban interface for wildlife. I don't have pics but I watched bald eagles fishing in the seaport and saw a peregrine outside MGH.

and yeah all of these were taken in here over the course of 2 years.
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I think there aren't many western cities you could get ducks, turkey, deer, and pheasant on public land within 45 min of downtown.
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I've never met Gus, but he's still one of my favorite dogs..

 

[ismith]

Go to a Walmart at midnight and take a look around. Nature is in the process of fixing itself right now.

 

[Irrelevant]

The mule deer mismanagement discussion got me thinking. Well that, and I just finished watching Life on our Planet on Netflix. Does it really matter if we wipe out all the deer, elk, wolves and anything else that lives where people do?

Think about it for a minute. I will pick on massachusetts, only because it is the only other state I really know well. Much of it is sterile. Heck, hardly even have insects. I remember driving to the reservoir to fish with my dad as a kid. In ten minutes the windshield was full of dead bugs. Not anymore. Lucky if one bug gets sacrificed. Bats are gone. I notice that there are a fraction of the birds. Nobody really cares. And it has no impact on anyone's life. No bugs is a good thing right? All we need really are a bunch of breweries, bars and restaurants. It is the modern day jungle.

We don't need wildlife. We don't use them for food anymore. If anything, they're pests. Deer eat our gardens. Coyotes eat our pets.

During the last 4 billion years we have had plenty of mass extinctions. Maybe we are part of the process of the next one.

I love the outdoors. I love animals. But much of that is due to the fact that I love to hunt. I certainly don't need to hunt. I can get what I need from the grocery store. Maybe these pesky animals everywhere and open lands need to make way for the next stage of the planet's life where there is nothing left but humans.

Maybe I'm actually the problem. I'm holding onto this nostalgic idea that for some reason is still lingering in my dna. The modern man doesn't hunt. He doesn't live in nature. He does not cherish his tools to harvest animals.

Deer have no place in Worcester or Boston. Why should we have them anywhere in between?

Jeez nacy, have a snickers.

 

[seeth07]

Well that, and I just finished watching Life on our Planet on Netflix. Does it really matter if we wipe out all the deer, elk, wolves and anything else that lives where people do?

I too just wrapped up watching Life on our Planet last night. To your basic broad question, I would side on it not mattering to planet earth. Earth as far as we know has experienced 5 mass extinctions. The link posted about a possible 6th one currently happening and it is probably correct.

One of the key take aways and points of that series was explaining how life always fails but never dies and how those lifeforms that evolve and adapt become the apex lifeforms on earth. Primates all together from which we evolved have only been around since the last mass extinction some 65 million years ago (what wiped out the dinosaurs) and us as a Primate Mammal have simply out evolved and adapted to the conditions on planet earth better than any other lifeform. Its a balancing act however because at some point, we will have evolved so much that the resources on this planet run out and they are unable to support the Primate mammals unless a different form of mass extinction happens first.

Jim Jefferies makes this point in his comedy skit here:

 

[Newenglander]

It's a great thread topic but man do people over look the urban areas/urban interface for wildlife. I don't have pics but I watched bald eagles fishing in the seaport and saw a peregrine outside MGH.

and yeah all of these were taken in here over the course of 2 years.
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I think there aren't many western cities you could get ducks, turkey, deer, and pheasant on public land within 45 min of downtown.
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I'm from CT. The hunting is awesome, and MA is full of turkey and big bucks ! What is that guy smoking?