What is missing here?
In Wabash County there used to be $0.50 bounty on groundhogs. You turned in a pair of ears. In White County you could get $0.50 for the tails.
I wonder what to do about feral cats. We always have one or two around the yard. We used to have a litter of kittens under the front porch every couple of years. I took a litter to the humane society and they took them, but said there are far more kittens than they can place. Furthermore, feral cats fill the available habitat based on resources available. That is, the number of feral cats remains fairly constant depending on the amount of food and space available, so taking a litter of kittens to the humane society just means there are that many more born.
I like having the cats around. I used to feed them until I learned better. I like seeing their little muddy foot prints across my car. The problem is they also eat birds. Song birds, robins, cardinals, quail; they don’t care.
What to do about this? “The ASPCA endorses Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) as the only proven humane and effective method to manage feral cat colonies.” I believe the increased coyote population has also reduced the feral cat population.
I think it is impossible to go back to an environmentally neutral position on the issues of invasive species. No one around here wants to get rid of pheasants. Go back 10,000 or more years and many North American species (including humans) are invasive species. Currently the local 2 ½ acre prairie near here would not survive without human intervention. The land was drained long ago so the recreated prairie, although very reminiscent of the prairie in the 1700’s, is a dry prairie rather than a wetlands prairie that was originally here.
Not a particularly hot issue with all else that is going on in the world, but finding the dove wings in the yard got me thinking enough to write a blog entry. I have a lot more thinking to do on the issue. Maybe after the election.
I have an acre and a half of land here and over the years I have mowed less and less of it. About a third is heavily treed and the shade keeps the ground cover pretty bare. Another third is buildings, driveway, and mowed yard. The last third I have left to its own. Most people would call it deep weeds, but I call it an interesting experiment.
In Wabash County there used to be $0.50 bounty on groundhogs. You turned in a pair of ears. In White County you could get $0.50 for the tails.
I wonder what to do about feral cats. We always have one or two around the yard. We used to have a litter of kittens under the front porch every couple of years. I took a litter to the humane society and they took them, but said there are far more kittens than they can place. Furthermore, feral cats fill the available habitat based on resources available. That is, the number of feral cats remains fairly constant depending on the amount of food and space available, so taking a litter of kittens to the humane society just means there are that many more born.
I like having the cats around. I used to feed them until I learned better. I like seeing their little muddy foot prints across my car. The problem is they also eat birds. Song birds, robins, cardinals, quail; they don’t care.
What to do about this? “The ASPCA endorses Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) as the only proven humane and effective method to manage feral cat colonies.” I believe the increased coyote population has also reduced the feral cat population.
I think it is impossible to go back to an environmentally neutral position on the issues of invasive species. No one around here wants to get rid of pheasants. Go back 10,000 or more years and many North American species (including humans) are invasive species. Currently the local 2 ½ acre prairie near here would not survive without human intervention. The land was drained long ago so the recreated prairie, although very reminiscent of the prairie in the 1700’s, is a dry prairie rather than a wetlands prairie that was originally here.
Not a particularly hot issue with all else that is going on in the world, but finding the dove wings in the yard got me thinking enough to write a blog entry. I have a lot more thinking to do on the issue. Maybe after the election.
I have an acre and a half of land here and over the years I have mowed less and less of it. About a third is heavily treed and the shade keeps the ground cover pretty bare. Another third is buildings, driveway, and mowed yard. The last third I have left to its own. Most people would call it deep weeds, but I call it an interesting experiment.