The prevailing view is that man is at the top of the ecosystem and should dominate it through whatever means are necessary. This is also the view that got us to where we are, for better or worse. If you're a raptor, that is good and if you're a muskrat it's bad.

We have the ability to reason,.that in itself should afford us dominion over the creatures.

Our forefathers understood the wisdom of eliminating the top predators in direct competition with us for prey species.

Sometime around the late sixties and seventies we were told by government tree-huggers that we were wrong in that thinking.

Over the next four or five decades bounties were removed and predator species were federally protected and even reintroduced. Now we have an over-abundance of raptors eating small game into non-existence, fisher putting a hurting on turkey populations (here in PA) and wolves decimating the elk and deer herds out west. All in the name of a "balanced" Eco-system.

Man, as top predator, can do a much better job of managing game populations than wild predators. and the total protection and reintroduction of predators will never make sense to me.

If anyone does not think there are more hawks and eagles now than 40 years ago they don't get out much. They will continue to reproduce until they run out of prey or get a disease, then they will crash. Hopefully there will be a small mammal or bird left.

[quote=mnsota] The prevailing view is that man is at the top of the ecosystem and should dominate it through whatever means are necessary. This is also the view that got us to where we are, for better or worse. If you're a raptor, that is good and if you're a muskrat it's bad.

We have the ability to reason,.that in itself should afford us dominion over the creatures.
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A wolf also sees its pack as the top of the ecosystem and low and behold, they will kill any other predators that are direct competitors of their food source. That is their way of managing the ecosystem for their benefit. I believe the creatures were put here for man to manage and survive off of them. Imo the lib. view is that man is an invader,and has no business managing

All the species, correct... Even birds of prey need to be managed. Right now we cannot, but those in authority shouldn't give them a pass on Everything.

Populations are much higher than they used to be.

This does not mean a person has the right to take the law or conservation practices they feel are needed in their own hands. The individual in the story broke the law and will face the consequences he should.

Man hunted whitetails to very low levels. Only when seasons and regulations were enacted did the deer populations recover.

the deer don't kill my chickens and turkeys.

ALL flora and fauna needs to be managed, if not populations will become skewed. Boom and bust swings are not good for anyone or anything. Raptors should be managed to keep a balance but good luck with that.

Exactly

they think they are doing them a favor till they get overpopulated and mother nature takes care of her own.swear she is doing it with the coon around here now.

what next will the government shut down major high ways? Because to many raptors are falling victims to cars! Because they have decimated the prey speices every where except the row! A fella here got fined 1700$ just for shooting at one! They will kill the wrong fuzzy lap dog someday and the tides will change. Just look at the coyote one city slicker gets a video of one chomping down on someones precious kitty then they are public enemy no one. I hate to say it but the wolves are following suit but I fear it wont be a kitty but a kid! In the 50s a lot of farm familys lived off of rabbits. Today they better have a small and skinny family. lol .But bulldozers are just as much to blame as raptors

Muskrat lives matter!! And how in the heck does anyone know what the deer population was in 1450?

Dominion over all creation is different than what I was talking about. In your view, dominion means domination. The actual definition is sovereignty or control. How we enact that is the difference between our opinions.

Clark

I was thinking the same thing.

You all please show me the studies concluding that raptors need to be culled from the ecosystem due to overpopulation. And not just because Jimbo sees alot on the telephone poles after they cut down all the trees. But a real study.

honestly here it is just the redtails i have problems with.i see others including eagles and they don't sit on the roof trying to figure out how to get to my chickens.also cant free range them like i would like cause of the redtails.been on this same farm for 50 yrs also.

I wasn't aware Christopher Columbus brought wildlife biologists with him. Did they use turd counts to determine population densities five hundred years ago?

I wonder if we could have the real chart...that goes back to Eric the Red ? Who's that Columbus guy anyway, in the greater light of the Vikings ?

I hate to lean on this....Somewhere in the Bible it will say that God gave man dominion over the creatures.

Just sayin' .