A Project of Sage Steppe Wild
As is the usual case, dogs ended up dead in an attempt to probably poison wolves.
Idaho Fish and Games news release. Investigation begun on poisoning of domestic dogs
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
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Did you know that the toxin Carbaryl is sprayed at many USFS campgrounds every year? Some even in Idaho:
http://www.parkcamper.com/MCS-resource-campgrounds.htm
And we’re not talking about light spraying, we are talking about saturating the trunks of trees with powerful sprays.
and did you know that also toxic 2,4-D is also sprayed every year at USFS campgrounds to control nasty dandelions and other favorites of bee and butterfly pollinators?
Now here is the rest of the story…. while carbaryl is toxic and 2,4-D is a lot more poisonous than we were led on to believe by the pesticide industry, together near water they become really toxic, way beyond additive but much more like synergistic or multiplicative toxic effects.
I tried unsuccessfully numerous times when I was a consulting biologist on pesticide use for NMFS to warn USFS not to use the two near each other like at campgrounds, but their focus on single pollutant risk assessments has certainly blinded them. Perhaps it is too much chemical exposure!
“Carbaryl, a cholinesterase inhibitor, potentiates the toxicity of 2,4-D butyl ester to brown trout (Salmo trutta) (Statham & Lech, 1975). The 4.5-h LC50 for 2,4-D butyl ester in static tests was shifted from 30 mg/litre to 11 mg/litre by the addition of carbaryl, at a concentration of 1 mg/litre, to the test water. Carbaryl has no toxicity to the fish at this concentration; the 24-h LC50 for carbaryl alone is 6.8 mg/litre. The potentiating effect of carbaryl was itself
blocked by atropine, a muscarinic blocker, at a water concentration of 10 mg/litre; the atropine itself was not toxic to the fish at this concentration. In a similar way, carbaryl potentiated the toxicity of several other compounds. The authors suggested a non-specific action, possibly by increasing the uptake of 2,4-D ester from the water. The
same potentiation was demonstrated for trout in flow-through tests (Statham & Lech, 1975). Combinations of 2,4-D esters (butyl or propylene glycol butyl) with the herbicide picloram increased the toxicity to fish above the combined toxicity of the individual compounds (Woodward, 1982).” from: NTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON CHEMICAL SAFETY, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CRITERIA 84, 2,4-DICHLOROPHENOXYACETIC ACID (2,4-D) – ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS — http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc84.htm
I believe if the wolves are relisted, you will most likely see more situations like this happening.
Relist them anyway. We can’t start putting ourselves in the position of negotiating with criminals.
Doesn’t the person who obtained the poison have to sign when purchasing?
They do in Ca. Unless he/she made the stuff themselves. Why wait for a “tip” to be called in?
Carbaryl, is sold under the trade name Sevin, and the process to create the toxic and carcinogenic insecticide is the same process that creates mustard or phosphene gas and brought us all the Bhopal disaster!
I believe in most states in the U.S., you can just purchase Sevin in a nursery, hardware store, feed and grain farm supply outlet, or even you local grocery store. Strange but true!
However, the EPA regulates it under FIFRA as a restricted use pesticide, meaning if you misuse it to kill wolves and dogs instead of mosquitoes (and honey bees), you have violated the EPA label and therefore the Federal law and can be prosecuted by the EPA in Federal court as well as in this case the Idaho State Department of Agriculture in state district court.
When the pesticide is misused to kill wildlife such as a hawk, songbird, or even a wolf, then it is also a Federal crime that is enforceable by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
For more information, this is pretty easy stuff to understand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbaryl
Other more technical information is available from the EPA as well as Bayer, the manufacturer that bought out Union Carbide’s pesticide branch.