Moron

[Chase N. Nocks]

Mort, I wasn't assuming you had a position, just a question. (I used to look for the pig hunting stories many years ago as a young fella cause the idea of hunting deer seemed pretty boring I guess I just got used to the idea that the Americans loved hunting deer..if I lived there..still trying to talk the wife into it..I'd probably go for deer as well)

As I said, I think it has more to do with the reasons given. Now certainly they do hunt "exotics" but like you say it does not preoccupy the media for hunters in the US as much of what they talk about has to do with harvesting and trophy hunting rather than eradication.

And because of their envious gun culture they are probably less inclined or even aware of using feral/pest control arguments to justify their lifestyle or sport.

The competativeness between species over there is such that while in Australia we have foxes and feral cats filing a certain niche they have a range of predators ..bobcats, wolves, coyotes, wolverines, badgers etc so the small animals that have evolved to survive this predation are pretty tuff so therefore rabbits did not present the problem there as they did here because displacing existing species (ground squirrals, prairie dogs) was not so easy. I would suggest that this is also relevant for different scales of fauna..small, medium and large.

The exotics offer far fewer and in many cases less challenging or utilitarian targets to the US shooter/hunter than native species. Of course they still have a respect for their iconic or rare native animals I think. I'm sure many hunt the old hog when it provides the opportunity but it seems just one of many many many game animals to be had.

[Nephew]

Yep, that's pretty much what i was wondering about, Troy. Seems it's just a totally different situation over there, different landscape, history, culture, etc. Like, I have talked to this bloke , calls himself "Bowana" on Huntingfootage.com and he was telling me that the deer can be such a problem in Atlanta they are a serious traffic hazard at times. In the city! He says he sometimes hunts vacant lots in the suburbs. Now, I don't know if he was having me on, but he seemed very sincere.

[Chase N. Nocks]

Mate, I reckon he would be pretty fair dinkum, maybe a slight exaggeration on the frequency. Did you ever see the David Attinborough doco on the critters that frequent our cities...even to the very heart of them. Facinating.

America was as close to Eden as anywhere on earth could have been until the arrival of man, and more especially white man. Huge grass oceans, massive fresh water lakes and mighty rivers that water almost an entire continent. Herds of buffalo that would take days if not weeks to graze their way past you. Ahhh...it's like I tell my wife, the only things that would miss human beings are rats and cochroaches.

Tim Flannery I think wrote a book The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples, ISBN 0-8021-3888-8 I think this is the one but the title doesn't seem quite right to me. His usual high standard of work anyway.

I'm sure you're familiar with Future Eaters considering your studies, but if you aren't do not hesitate to read this book. Another that I just have not had the opportunity to begin is "Collapse" by the equally eminent Jared Diamond. Did not make himself liked by the "head in the sand"ers last time he was in Australia.

[tracker]

In Collapse there is a chapter on Australia's poor soils... low in carbon and nutrients. Basically Australia's geology is some of the oldest on earth and billions of years of rainfall have leeched out all the nutrients. Half of north america was glaciated and so the crust was all ground up and these soils tend to be fertile. Less than 1% of Australia had glaciers. Vulcanism is good for soils too but there hasn't been too much of that in Australia either. He makes an interesting point and describes agricultural export from here as "mining the soil".

Diamond's other book "Guns, Germs and Steel." is worth a read too.

Mick.

[Chase N. Nocks]

Hey Mick, lent this to a mate and haven't gotten it back yet

Yes, Jared was nearly lynched by Australian farmers when he last came out. I hope they only made themselves look stupid to the general public. I remember reading 20 years ago that Australia's availability of fertile soils is less than France but we have artificially enhanced the soil leading to the vast areas that are now unusable from ground salt and the depletion of the artesian water basin.

Even as a young bloke before I had even thought about enviromental issues, I remember going out west and every day the sky would come over overcast and you'd think here we go it's gunna rain. And everyday it wouldn't rain and I could not work it out. Years later I read a remarkable book about a man that spent a large part of his adult life reforesting a valley where it had hardly rained since it had been denuded of timber decades earlier. The valley is a thriving forest now and it rains often, with streams and wildlife.

Only idiots cannot see that trees/forests give off enough moisture into the atmosphere to pust the humidity past the critical point and rain falls. I could grasp that as a conservative kickin tins school boy. Any individual that can't draw such a simple conclusion should be kicked off the land. You chop the trees down you cut your rainfall.

Check out a new book called Cry Me A River, by Steve Posselt. An ecological lesson as well as an adventure, that unfortunately you, I and our children may never have the opportunity to repeat. 3000 km canoing and walking journey from Brisbane to Adelaide by a water management expert. Basically, sadly the rivers are dying. I am hoping to pick up yhis book this weekend.

That's why places like Cubbie Station need to be forced into other less water stealing endeavours. Cotton and rice pretty much have no place in Australia. Not only is cotton a thirsty crop but it is an incredibly dirty crop for chemical polutents. It's time for them to move ahead or move out.

Cheers