September 2011
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AquaBounty’s super salmon frighten salmon fishers, greens and some of the country’s brownest congressionals- They were created from a sterile Atlantic salmon female with a Chinook salmon growth hormone gene added. They grow twice a fast as natural salmon, and are designed to be farmed in inland ponds. They are sterile, but many fear what…
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Study shows people automatically respond to seeing an animal (or picture of one)- It makes intuitive sense that when people are shown a photo of an animal, any animal, perceived as friendly, dangerous, rare, useful, whatever, they automatically respond with emotion in way they don’t if shown a photo of a rock, chair, tree, automobile,…
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Wildlife management experts suggest improvements to the model used by many wildlife professionals- Many of the better debates over wildlife management in this forum have referred to the “North American Model of Wildlife Conservation,” which purports to describe how North Americans came to embrace wildlife conservation. The model also prescribes how wildlife should be ethically…
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Hyperphagia and hunting season relates to more grizzly/human encounters- Hyperphagia is period of intensive feeding by grizzly bears before hibernation. They will consume as much food as possible to make it through their period of hibernation. We are now entering the start of that period, one that results in more encounters with humans, now that…
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Advances in technology make commercial “cultured” meat a real possibility- The production of food in general has many positive and negative side effects, but many argue that meat production’s side effects weigh far on the negative side. Political battles over CAFOs, grazing, use of antibiotics, subsidies, and culture have been intractable. Raising an animal for…
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For places to see a mountain lion, the area near 9th and Myrtle in Boise would be the last place I would expect. More than likely this is a young male cat looking for a territory and it probably won’t live too long unless it leaves soon. The bobcat, however, seems likely to be the…
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The Elwha River, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, flows out of Olympic National Park. It was dammed in the early part of the last century in violation of an 1890 law which required fish passage facilities on dams “wherever food fish are wont to ascend”. The logging companies were so powerful that the fisheries commissioner allowed…
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John Peavey, a former Idaho politician, and Diane Josephy Peavey, a former commentator on Boise State Public Radio, who’s Flat Top Ranch near Carey, Idaho has reportedly received payments totaling $970,139 from 1995 through 2010 according to the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database, has received another subsidy in the form of 3 dead wolves.…