Re: [pct-l] Clearcuts, and elk herds

["Greg Hummel" <ghummel@hydrogenburner.com>]

Goforth wrote,
>Why are there so many Elk?  The Mt. Rainier staff explained that the Green
>River Valley and areas to the east and north (south of Snoqualmie Pass) had
>been largely clear cut creating lots of winter browse.  This allows much
>larger Elk herds than if the more of that area were in woods because they
>can survive the winter, and amount of winter browse is normally the
>limiting factor for herd size.

So, in this case the larger sizes of herds due to clear cutting are actually
becoming a detrimental effect.  Again, so much for "forest management".

The bottom line is that no matter what we humans do (especially now that
there are 6 billion of us) we are going to have some level of detrimental
effect on the environment.  It should be our goal, IMHO, to do so as
carefully and intelligently and with as little effect as possible.

The government needs to completely re-organize the agencies that handle
resource management as they have screwed up EVERY resource that they have
tried to manage, necessitating the formation of citizen based associations
such as the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy
to police, battle and compete with the government to do the job right (in
the long term trust of the people), instead of doing the job in the manner
most profitable short term for those commercial interests involved.

I am glad to hear that you made it Joanne, Congratulations.  I have enjoyed
hearing your accounts of the trials and tribulations that the trail through
at you this year.

Best regards,

Greg "Strider" Hummel

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