O.R.C. » Nature Destroyed

Sea Lions Blamed For Humanity’s Mistake

Ant — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:11:16 +0000

40 miles east of Portland, Oregon, Bonneville Dam blocks the Columbia River. Bonneville Dam is maintained by The US Army Corp of Engineers and serves the Bonneville Power Adminstration (located in Portland). The dam has had a devastating effect on Columbia River’s salmon population, only a minority of which is able to make it up the fish-ladders to spawn. California sea lions have discovered the gathering of endangered fish at the base of the dam and have begun to eat them, naturally enough. But rather than remove the dam and restore the Columbia River to its natural balance, the government has decided to kill the protected (but not “endangered”) california sea lions, at the same time that fishing quotas are expected to go up 33%, proving that the government respects human, but not non-human, fishing.

Government “conservation” experts, the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have given permission to kill large numbers of the sea lions in an attempt to stop them from eating. The NOAA contact for this project is Brian Gormon, whose contact can be found here.

Fortunately for the sea lions, the Humane Society and The Wild Fish Conservatory have filed suit against the slaughter, and have won a stay of execution until the case can be heard further, currently scheduled for May 8th in Pasadena, CA.

Oregon Deputizes Hunters To Kill Cougars

Ant — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:20:47 +0000

The food-chain is critical to bio-diversity. Big predators keep the populations of smaller predators in line, helping keep small animals alive. Big predators keep populations of large herbivores in line, helping keep grasslands and forests intact. But here in Cascadia, the powers-that-ought-not-be are reinstituting a massive cougar hunting campaign, citing an increased number of human-cougar interactions (despite the remarkably few number of fatal attacks). According to numerous sources, there has never been a fatal cougar attack in Oregon.

But excessive cougar hunting appears to actually increase the number of cougar attacks on humans; predator behavior is learned, and dead mature males cannot teach restraint to younger males.

But all of that science nonsense aside, there is property to protect. In Oregon, a bill was passed allowing Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to deputize hunters (yes, that’s right, make them cops) so that they can hunt cougars with dogs. The Oregon cougar hunting open-season is now year-round, expecting to result in the death of thousands of cats, or about 1/3 of the current cougar population. They lowered the cost of a cougar-hunting license to a paltry $11.50 in 2006, sending the number of cougar deaths skyrocketing.

Parties responsible for this bill include Governor Kulongoski, who signed House Bill 2971 last year, Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee Chairman, Brad Avakian (D-NE Washington and NW Multnomah Counties), who pushed the bill through his committee, and the majority of the House for passing the bill. Don’t forget Ron Anglin, Wildlife Division Administrator for the ODFW, whose contact can be found over here.

The hound hunters (one pictured here from Utah) use the hounds to chase the cougar into a tree, where it is easily picked off. These days, the hounds are followed by GPS and radio-frequency collars. Note that these systems are not necessarily secure from hacking or interference [more].

To date, there have been no reported counts of hunt sabotaging of cougar hunts in Oregon, although it would not surprise anyone if this changed.

Biofuels a Grave Environmental Threat

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:30:10 +0000

While the progressives of the world are jumping on the corn-oil fueled bandwagon, many of the horrendous pitfalls of biofuel manufacture are coming to light. A recent study published by the University of Minnesota reports that “..converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a ‘biofuel carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels.”

What’s more, the UN reports that it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol, enough to feed a child for a year. In today’s unfortunately globalized economy, many natural-resource rich countries (identified as “3rd world”) are set up to import the majority of their food, and as the food-producing countries shift their agriculture to produce oil instead of food, riots are erupting across the globe. 60 million people face eviction to make room for biofuel farming across the globe.

Once more, we are discovering that there are hidden costs in alternative fuel sources, that the industrial infrastructure that has been set up cannot be maintained in a sustainable manner.

Dept. of Homeland Security Gets To Ignore Environmental Law

admin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:14:32 +0000

In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed, doing much to destroy the economy of Mexico. When US companies were given the green light to extract resources from Mexico, people began to follow, and illegal immigration into the USA began to spike.

Now, the US Government is building a fence to keep people out. But fearing the impediment of due process of law, Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to waive the standard paperwork procedures that allow the public to participate in environmental decisions made by the government. On April 2nd, 2008, the DHS announced another two uses of their waiver, for almost 500 miles of fence.

These fences gravely threaten the ecosystems they run through, cutting off wildlife migration. By bypassing the environmental impact system, they have effectively removed the ability of legal, above-ground environmental groups to work to halt or mitigate the negative effects of this fence.

The fence will lead, at the very least, to the closing of two nature preserves.

The secretary of the DHS, Michael Chertoff (pictured), defends the waiving of over 30 environmental laws by pointing out that crime doesn’t wait for time it takes to go through checks and balances. It is likely that he said this without grasping the irony of the statement.
Far too often, people are too quick to demonize only the president and his administration for all of this destruction, but it is important to remember that it was congress that granted the waiver to the DHS in the first place.