Crazy_Farmer
12-20-2010, 05:42 PM
I have a list of demands.
1 - An unplugged mag extension semi
2 - Access to closed areas (city limits, DU land, sanctuarys)
3 - No day light restriction
4 - Baiting allowed
5 - Gov pays for my shells, food and lodging...and a little cash on the side
6 - Gov let me put some sort of silencer on my shotgun and I'll do all this without any tree hugging granola eating david suzuki loving hippies finding out.
7 - Gov gives all the birds to shelters around the province
And I will fix your problem... :wink:
Two research papers about to be published detail the enormous destruction being done by resident Canada geese.
One paper, by Parksville biologist Neil Dawe and Victoria biologist Andy Stewart, focuses on the geese. The other, by Dawe, Stewart and Qualicum Beach biologist Ron Buechert, considers the damage done by the geese to the Little Qualicum River estuary over the past 20 years.
The geese have dramatically altered the habitat, the studies find, eradicating plants, altering the landscape and channel flows, and affecting populations of crustaceans, insects, worms, and ultimately the birds and salmon dependent on them.
Though not entirely the fault of the geese (humans have had their impacts, too), significant portions of the estuary have been changed from a brackish marsh, the most productive kind in terms of the life it supports, to a salt water marsh, the least productive kind.
Similar destruction is likely occurring in estuaries and marshes from Victoria to Campbell River.
The biologists recommend that the geese be eliminated but, if that's not politically palatable, that they be culled at least to the point where they're not destroying the habitat.
The studies in part compare research done by Dawe in 1978 to their findings in 2005 through 2009, revisiting sites that are now almost unrecognizable from what they were 30 years ago, save for features such as a log stuck in the muck that hasn't moved in all that time and stakes driven in by Dawe that are still there.
Dawe says the best approach is to eliminate all of the more than 15,000 resident Canada geese on Vancouver Island or at least to reduce their numbers significantly.
"We now know that they have harmed the native habitat, that they've eliminated a large proportion of the most productive plants on the estuary," he says. "This is significant because these plants are the foundation of the estuarine food web. The plants support tiny organisms, which feed the salmon and ultimately hundreds of other animals, including eagles and humans. We've got to get rid of the resident geese."
1 - An unplugged mag extension semi
2 - Access to closed areas (city limits, DU land, sanctuarys)
3 - No day light restriction
4 - Baiting allowed
5 - Gov pays for my shells, food and lodging...and a little cash on the side
6 - Gov let me put some sort of silencer on my shotgun and I'll do all this without any tree hugging granola eating david suzuki loving hippies finding out.
7 - Gov gives all the birds to shelters around the province
And I will fix your problem... :wink:
Two research papers about to be published detail the enormous destruction being done by resident Canada geese.
One paper, by Parksville biologist Neil Dawe and Victoria biologist Andy Stewart, focuses on the geese. The other, by Dawe, Stewart and Qualicum Beach biologist Ron Buechert, considers the damage done by the geese to the Little Qualicum River estuary over the past 20 years.
The geese have dramatically altered the habitat, the studies find, eradicating plants, altering the landscape and channel flows, and affecting populations of crustaceans, insects, worms, and ultimately the birds and salmon dependent on them.
Though not entirely the fault of the geese (humans have had their impacts, too), significant portions of the estuary have been changed from a brackish marsh, the most productive kind in terms of the life it supports, to a salt water marsh, the least productive kind.
Similar destruction is likely occurring in estuaries and marshes from Victoria to Campbell River.
The biologists recommend that the geese be eliminated but, if that's not politically palatable, that they be culled at least to the point where they're not destroying the habitat.
The studies in part compare research done by Dawe in 1978 to their findings in 2005 through 2009, revisiting sites that are now almost unrecognizable from what they were 30 years ago, save for features such as a log stuck in the muck that hasn't moved in all that time and stakes driven in by Dawe that are still there.
Dawe says the best approach is to eliminate all of the more than 15,000 resident Canada geese on Vancouver Island or at least to reduce their numbers significantly.
"We now know that they have harmed the native habitat, that they've eliminated a large proportion of the most productive plants on the estuary," he says. "This is significant because these plants are the foundation of the estuarine food web. The plants support tiny organisms, which feed the salmon and ultimately hundreds of other animals, including eagles and humans. We've got to get rid of the resident geese."