#Western Oregon Wolves

[athleticperfection1]

Western Oregon Soccer

[isthedogawolfdog]

Gray Wolves Now in Colorado

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/gray-wolves-captured-oregon-reside-colorado-western-slope-reintroduction-plan/

[plethoraworldatlas]

As U.S. conservationists continue to fight for federal protections that would cover gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, research released Wednesday highlights just how important the apex predators are to the western United States.

The study was published in the journal BioScience and led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University (OSU) and the Conservation Biology Institute known for his work on trophic cascades and carnivores as well as his demands for climate action.

The paper uses gray wolves to show the trouble with "shifting baselines," which, "in ecology encapsulate the gradual and often unnoticed alterations in ecosystems over time, leading to a redefinition of what is considered normal or baseline conditions."

As the study details:

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) in North America have experienced a substantial contraction of their historical range, at one point almost disappearing from the contiguous 48 United States. However, their conservation is important in part because of the potential cascading effects wolves can have on lower trophic levels. Namely, the proliferation and changes to behavior and density of large herbivores following the extirpation or displacement of wolves can have major effects on various aspects of vegetation structure, succession, productivity, species composition, and diversity, which, in turn, can have implications for overall biodiversity and the quality of habitat for other wildlife.

"By the 1930s, wolves were largely absent from the American West, including its national parks," Ripple said in a statement. "Most published ecological research from this region occurred after the extirpation of wolves."

"This situation underscores the potential impact of shifting baselines on our understanding of plant community succession, animal community dynamics, and ecosystem functions," he continued.

The researchers examined journal articles, master's theses, and Ph.D. dissertations from 1955 to 2021 that involved field work in national parks in the northwestern United States for whether they included information on the removal of gray wolves.

They found that "in total, approximately 41% (39 of 96) of the publications mentioned or discussed the historical presence of wolves or large carnivores, but most (approximately 59%) did not. The results for the theses and journal articles were similar."

While the researchers focused on wolves, Robert Beschta, co-author and emeritus professor at OSU, noted that "in addition to the loss or displacement of large predators, there may be other potential anthropogenic legacies within national parks that should be considered, including fire suppression, invasion by exotic plants and animals, and overgrazing by livestock."

Ripple stressed that "studying altered ecosystems without recognizing how or why the system has changed over time since the absence of a large predator could have serious implications for wildlife management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem restoration."

"We hope our study will be of use to both conservation organizations and government agencies in identifying ecosystem management goals," he added.

Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), welcomed the study, tellingInside Climate News that "I think this is a really important paper, because sometimes science advances at a certain rate without a self-introspection."

"Nature is a really complex tapestry," she said. "It's woven together by threads that hold it together and keep it strong. When you start to pull threads out like you remove apex predators, the whole thing begins to unravel."

The paper comes amid a wolf conservation battle that involves Weiss' group. In February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that Endangered Species Act protections for the wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains were "not warranted."

Two coalitions of conservation organizations, including CBD, swiftly filed notices of their intent to sue over the decision if FWS didn't change course. After the legally required 60-day notice period passed, they filed the lawsuits in April.

Earlier this week, "the cases were voluntarily dismissed and immediately refiled to avoid any potential arguments from the defendants that the plaintiffs failed to give the secretary of the interior proper 60-days' notice under the Endangered Species Act," Collette Adkins, an attorney who leads CBD's Carnivore Conservation program, told Common Dreams in an email Thursday.

"Plaintiffs believe that their case was properly noticed," she said, "but we refiled to avoid any further disruption of the proceedings."

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from KEZI 9 News:

Oregon’s gray wolf population did not increase last year due in part to a large number of wolves killed by people, causing concern among conservationists and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials.

The latest Annual Wolf Report found the population remained steady at 178 wolves, marking the first time in eight years that their numbers didn’t increase. Typically, the population has grown by 6% a year. Among the 36 wolf deaths in 2023, 33 were caused by people. The state sanctioned the killing of 16 wolves following livestock deaths and 12 were killed illegally, the report said. 

“The amount of poaching and other suspicious deaths is alarming, impacts our conservation goals and could affect our ability to manage wolves in Oregon,” Bernadette Graham-Hudson, the agency’s wildlife division administrator, said in a news release.

The count is based on wolf tracks and other evidence, including appearance on wilderness cameras, and might be too low, officials said. It also doesn’t include the 10 wolves that were transported from Oregon to Colorado in December to help reestablish a wolf population there.

In addition to the steady numbers, the count cited two fewer wolf packs and successful breeding pairs in 2023 than in 2022 due to poaching.

Gray wolves are listed as endangered under the federal Species Act in most of central and western Oregon, and four of the illegal killings took place in places where they are federally protected. Seven of the wolves that were illegally killed were poisoned. The state wildlife department, Oregon State Police and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating the poisonings and offering a $50,000 reward for more information on three of them. Other deaths were caused by vehicles, cancer, natural causes or undetermined causes. One was shot by a livestock owner in an act of self defense, according to the report.

Conservationists criticized Oregon’s fish and wildlife agency for allowing 16 wolves to be killed in 2023 for what the agency considered to be chronic livestock depredation by wolves. That is more state-sanctioned wolf killings than in any year since record keeping began in 2008, according to Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.

[astriiformes]

minnesota gang <3 id love to hear your thoughts on living here as someone from out of state, if u wanna share!

Of course -- I always enjoy when other people get excited about my Minnesota blogging, haha.

For context I grew up in Arizona and then Colorado, and spent a fair bit of time in both Oregon and California visiting family, so I am very much from the west. Minnesota's been an interesting place to end up because of the ways it does/doesn't overlap with it. Like, I deeply, deeply miss the mountains, which are the part of the country that truly has my heart, but I've come to love a lot of the nature here as well, particularly the fact that the Twin Cities have a much healthier relationship with natural spaces than a lot of other urban areas. Just today a friend and I were walking on a bridge across the Mississippi and stopped midway to look out over it for a while. I love that there are city parks with waterfalls here, and that it's not uncommon to see eagles in and around the lakes, and that I've found fossils and geocaches clambering down steep gorges along the river. It's nice.

(And I especially love the nature up north, even though I've only been a few times -- Lake Superior is awe-inspiring, the glacial geology here is fascinating to me as someone who loves the natural sciences, hopping across the stepping stones at the mouth of the Mississippi up at Itasca is kind of mind-boggling, the trees up there feel a lot more like home, and as a certified Wolf Guy, learning that Minnesota is home to more wolves than anywhere in the contiguous "west" has genuinely delighted me.)

But I've also just loved the community I've found here. A large part of the reason I left Colorado was because Denver was just too expensive for me to consider (I was living with my family, in a suburb outside the city that was really stifling and lonely), and I really thought a lot of the places I could find real belonging would have too high a price tag, which I think is a common fear for queer folks who have mostly heard about big eastern and western cities as safe havens. The Twin Cities have given me everything I wanted in that regard. I have so many queer friends here, some of whom are more like family at this point, have regularly had coworkers like me and even had one job where I was encouraged to be fairly loudly out (and got to do some neat outreach as a result), and these days in particular am counstantly counting myself lucky to live in a state fighting for the rights of its transgender population.

And I've found community in other ways, too! There's a really vibrant, creative geek scene here, that's hung onto more of its old-school fandom roots -- probably my favorite convention anywhere is right here in Minneapolis (CONvergence), and there's a wonderful filk community in the area. I love, love, love my very queer, very social justice-oriented synagogue and that there are interesting Jewish community events going on with some frequency (and that I've even found a great deli to buy hamantaschen at every Purim!). And man. 2020 was a hard year here, but I'm going to remember the ways my neighbors and I stepped up for each other for the rest of my life. When the rest of the country was acting like our cities had burned to the ground, I felt like I was seeing the best of humanity from so many of the people around me. There were a couple days my qpp and I drove around just... taking pictures of all the art that had sprung up around the Cities, and on the boarded windows we knew would be taken down, because people had made them blossom with color and rebellion and love while they were up.

All told, there's a lot of neat things here. There's a lot of problems, too, but it's not hard to look around and see people fighting to solve them -- and in the meantime, there's plenty of joy and community to cling to. I've been fortunate enough to live in a few different parts of the country and have fallen in love with each of them in their own way, but Minnesota took me by surprise. I always thought of it as one of the quieter, more boring Midwestern states and I'm glad to have learned otherwise.

(I am also a cold weather guy through and through, despite my desert roots, so the winters treat me just fine, ha. The camaraderie through the blizzards and below-zero temperatures is another very real part of the state's charm.)

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Living With Dangerous Animals

Originally posted at my blog at https://rebeccalexa.com/living-with-dangerous-animals/

I recently read Richard Louv’s excellent book, Our Wild Calling: How Connecting With Animals Can Transform Our Lives–And Save Theirs. I was a bit worried it would dive too deeply into the sort of anthropomorphization that makes us lose what makes each species unique as we try to interpret them through our own biases, but I found Louv managed to walk that line between skepticism and wonder quite nicely. Near the end, he talked a bit about Harry Greene’s take on rewilding, particularly how to do it thoroughly you need to factor in the reintroduction of dangerous animals, which is often treated as a NIMBY sort of situation:

“Conservation shouldn’t be something other people do and pay for; it should be pursued everywhere in ways that share the costs and the dangers and the delights. ‘I’ve spent most of my career trying to get people to care about snakes, even rattlesnakes,” [Greene] said. “To a degree, I think I’ve succeeded.’ The key to this success is ‘telling the truth about snakes. It’s the same way with other dangerous animals: you have to tell the truth about them’ and then practice old and new methods of nurturing participation–and deeper connection and empathy with them. Answering this call will require empathetic understanding not only of other animals but of people as well.” (Louv, p. 250)

This all stems from discussion about the reintroduction of “large animals who could kill us.” It’s one thing to think about the reintroduction of gray wolves (Canis lupus) to Yellowstone National Park, where they have plenty of room to avoid tourists and are often only seen for a few scant moments through spotting scopes. It’s another to consider the possibility of gray wolves that currently live in the north Cascades in Washington wandering their way west, across I-5, and into the Olympic Peninsula–perhaps even down into the Willapa Hills. Considering we had a verified sighting of a wolverine (Gulo gulo) on the Long Beach Peninsula a couple of years ago, it’s not entirely out of the question, though dispersing wolves have generally stayed in less populated areas.

Right now, the three biggest predatory animals here are black bears (Ursus americanus), cougars (Felis concolor), and coyotes (Canis latrans). Generally these animals are shy enough to run when confronted, and actual conflicts with humans are quite rare. But historic range maps also show gray wolves and brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the area. Wolf attacks on humans in recent times are exceptionally rare, and though brown bears are a much more serious threat than their smaller black bear cousins, most conflicts arise from an animal being startled or a mother defending cubs.

But the risk is not zero, and that makes a lot of people hesitant to embrace these animals in the same way they might welcome a reintroduced Oregon silverspot butterly (Speyeria zerene hippolyta) or California condor (Gymnogyps californianus). Folks in areas where these large predators are still common, like many areas in Alaska, tend to have a good understanding of how to coexist with them, and many people who move there do so because they want more wilderness in their lives. (Not that there aren’t those naïve enough to try to Disneyfy nature, or obstinate enough to want to wipe out the last holdouts of wild predators. But that’s another post for another time.)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to facilitate better relations between western, civilized, often urbanized Homo sapiens, and the rest of nature. And I came to the conclusion that it starts with us setting aside our ego. Through culture, mythos, religion, economics, and more, we have written the story of the world in which we are at the top of the heap, and all other beings exist solely to serve us. It’s a very convenient tale, and of course we the writers place ourselves in the most favorable light, whether that’s innocent victim of evil wilderness creatures, or the brave savior vanquishing these dangerous animals and their harsh environs.

But we know deep down that we aren’t always the victors. From the time our Australopithecine ancestors became bipedal, to modern day shock headlines blowing any injurious or fatal human-wildlife conflict into a Major Story (TM), we have plenty of examples of how we are sometimes the losers in that particular fight. While I feel safe going out for solo hikes in remote areas in the Pacific Northwest, I know that it is in part due to the fact that I am much less likely to run into large, dangerous animals than I would have been two centuries ago. Watching my step for rattlesnakes isn’t quite the same as keeping an eye out for a startled grizzly bear or a starving, desperate cougar trying their luck with me.

And that, to me, is humbling. I don’t write myself as the brave conqueror of desolate wilderness as a way of justifying the massive ecological and cultural damage we’ve done to this and other lands. Instead, it’s a reminder that we basically had to wipe out any animal we saw as inconvenient in order to see the land as suitable for us to live on, and we weren’t brave or strong or smart enough to effectively live with them. Extermination is, to my mind, a coward’s way out, especially now when we have much more technology at our disposal to keep us safe from other beings without lethal actions.

Still, this brings us back to the fact that reintroducing large, dangerous animals to an area does raise the risk of people being injured or killed at least a tiny amount. And I’m not just talking about the predatory ones, but herbivores like moose (Alces alces) and American bison (Bison bison). The Facebook group Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of The Idiots™! is an ongoing record of incidents involving tourists getting much too close to the megafauna simply because they don’t seem to grok the dangers involved in approaching these seemingly “docile” animals. The most infamous may have been the 2020 incident where a woman got much too close to a herd of bison and received what may be the world’s most-viewed pantsing (spoiler–she was fine, luckily for her) but each tourist season brings a whole new slew of similar conflicts.

This, of course, does not bode well for the possibility of rewilding even more remote lands with potentially dangerous animals. Of course there are going to be people getting injured or killed even in communities that are very well-versed at coexisting with local wildlife. But here in the U.S. nature illiteracy is so incredibly rampant that there’s going to have to be a lot of re-learning of things that should be common sense. Our perceived separation from the rest of nature has made us complacent and, quite honestly, ignorant.

I don’t think we should plan to just sacrifice a certain number of ill-prepared individuals in the process of rewilding. Instead, it’s going to take an incredible amount of education, both before and after the reintroduction of a potentially dangerous animal species. We’re already seeing some pretty good efforts around trying to educate people about how to live with critters that frequently live in close proximity to many people, especially those that a lot of people fear such as spiders or snakes. I’ve done my best to try to share information on topics like living with coyotes, or how to keep domestic dogs from starting or exacerbating conflicts with wildlife. And people who do live in the same areas as wolves and brown bears share information on the best ways to coexist with their wild neighbors.

Finally, I do want to point out that the route to coexistence is going to vary from place to place, depending on its suite of dangerous animals. Australia may not have grizzlies, but they have some of the most venomous snakes, spiders, and even octopi. And while those of us in urban areas in the U.S. may be pretty insulated from the most risky of wildlife, billions of people worldwide live side by side with animals that can–and occasionally do–kill them. So the discussion of whether to rewild or not has a great deal of privilege associated with it, and that conversation needs to be deeply entwined with the people who will be most affected in a given place, as well as people who have spent many years working on ways to help people adjust to coexisting with wildlife.

Though the pathway to rewilding isn’t going to be an easy one, it’s something we need to be discussing now more than ever. As wildlife populations are recovering (both with and without human assistance) and species begin to return to places where they were once extirpated, we cannot just let the kneejerk “kill them all” reaction be the only prevailing voice. We’ve already seen the ecological devastation that resulted from that brute-force tactic, and we need something more nuanced that protects us, but not at the expense of wholesale slaughter of entire species. We can–and must–do better than that.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[actualrealnews]

But the extent to which it [Project 2025] favors industry over wildlife and the environment is largely unprecedented. It would give extractive industries nearly unfettered access to public lands; severely restrict the power of the Endangered Species Act; open up millions of acres of Alaska wilderness to drilling, mining, and logging; roll back protections for spectacular landscapes like Oregon’s Cascade Siskiyou National Monument; and remove protections for iconic Western species like gray wolves and grizzly bears.

A vote for trump is a vote to shoot this snow puppy in the face

[scientificinquirer-blog]

New research illuminates the ecological importance of gray wolves in the American West

A study published today in the journal BioScience sheds light on the importance of gray wolves in western United States. Led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University and the Conservation Biology Institute, the research delves into the implications of large predator absence on plant and animal communities, and ecosystem functions. It calls attention to “shifting baselines” wherein…

[eandamj]

HIGH DESERT MUSEUM, OREGON 12 June 2024

We travelled from Sisters about 45 minutes to visit the High Desert Museum. The museum is focussed on the people who live in the High Desert as well as the animals and plants that live there. The High Desert covers an area that include the eastern halves of Washington and Oregon States as well as the whole of Idaho and the majority of Utah and Nevada. It also includes the western side of Wyoming. The museum includes indoor exhibits as well as a huge outdoor forested area with various exhibits.

Outdoors we came across various buildings created to show how life was for early human settlers. Here is the sawmill built to represent the logging industry:

We were able to get tickets for a 30 minute programme to watch raptors - birds of prey - give a flying display. It was held in the forest outdoor area. All the five birds we saw had been injured in the wild and rescued and cannot be returned to live in the wild. The birds flew over our heads between branches of trees where handlers placed food. The first bird was a Rough Legged Hawk. The second bird we saw was the Swainsons Hawk. It looked magnificent:

The Turkey Vulture (a buzzard) was much larger and it was impressive as it opened its wing to fly:

The fourth bird was a Aplomado Falcon which was very fast and difficult to photograph. The fifth bird was a Harris Hawk which gave a superb high flying display before coming near the audience:

After the display, the handlers brought out two more birds of prey on the glove. The first was a beautiful Great Horned Owl:

The second was the magnificent Red Tailed Hawk:

We were next able to walk to the Otter exhibit and hear a short talk about the animals. There were three otters running around the ground surrounding a pool and then swimming in the pool. The otters sometimes stood up in the water which seemed extraordinary:

We heard a short talk about wolves and the controversial reintroduction of this species to places like Yellowstone. We also visited some of the indoor exhibits. We learnt about the resilience of Native American people in the High Desert over the last century. We also learnt about “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch” which is a mythical being often associated with helping and protecting Native American tribes. This mask was on display as an example of what Sasquatch may look like:

There was also a model of how Bigfoot May appear:

We returned to Sisters for the evening. We enjoyed watching the alpacas which were kept next to the hotel swimming pool:

[linneatanner]

David Fitz-Gerald A Grave Every Mile #Pioneers #HistoricalWestern #WesternAdventure #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @AuthorDAVIDFG @cathiedunn

FEATURED AUTHOR: DAVID FITZ-GERALD I’m delighted to welcome David Fitz-Gerald again as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour held February 12th – 16th, 2024. He is the author of the Western / Historical Fiction, A Grave Every Mile (Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail), which was independently released on December 24th, 2023 (204 pages). Below are highlights of A Grave Every Mile, David Fitz-Gerald's author bio, and an excerpt from his book. Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2024/01/blog-tour-a-grave-every-mile-by-david-fitzgerald.html HIGHLIGHTS: A GRAVE EVERY MILE   A Grave Every Mile: A Pioneer Western Adventure (Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail) By David Fitz-Gerald Blurb: Embark on a harrowing trek across the rugged American frontier in 1850. Your wagon awaits, and the untamed wilderness calls. This epic western adventure will test the mettle of even the bravest souls. Dorcas Moon and her family set forth in search of opportunity and a brighter future. Yet, what awaits them is a relentless gauntlet of life-threatening challenges: miserable weather, ravenous insects, scorching sunburns, and unforgiving terrain. It's not merely a battle for survival but a test of their unity and sanity. Amidst the chaos, Dorcas faces ceaseless trials: her husband's unending bickering, her daughter's descent into madness, and the ever-present danger of lethal rattlesnakes, intensifying the peril with each step. The specter of death looms large, with diseases spreading and the eerie howls of rabid wolves piercing the night. Will the haunting image of wolves desecrating a grave push Dorcas over the edge? With each mile, the migration poses a haunting question: Who will endure the relentless quest to cross the continent, and who will leave their bones to rest beside the trail? The pathway is bordered by graves, a chilling reminder of the steep cost of dreams. A Grave Every Mile marks the commencement of an unforgettable saga. Start reading Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail now to immerse yourself in an expedition where every decision carries the weight of life, death, and the pursuit of a brighter future along the Oregon Trail. Buy Links: This title is available on #KindleUnlimited. Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/agem SERIES TRAILER: GHOSTS ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL   FEATURED AUTHOR: DAVID FITZ-GERALD   David Fitz-Gerald writes westerns and historical fiction. He is the author of twelve books, including the brand-new series, Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail set in 1850. Dave is a multiple Laramie Award, first place, best in category winner; a Blue Ribbon Chanticleerian; a member of Western Writers of America; and a member of the Historical Novel Society. Alpine landscapes and flashy horses always catch Dave’s eye and turn his head. He is also an Adirondack 46-er, which means that he has hiked to the summit of the range’s highest peaks. As a mountaineer, he’s happiest at an elevation of over four thousand feet above sea level. Dave is a lifelong fan of western fiction, landscapes, movies, and music. It should be no surprise that Dave delights in placing memorable characters on treacherous trails, mountain tops, and on the backs of wild horses. Author Links: Linktree https://linktr.ee/authordavidfitzgerald Website: https://www.itsoag.com/lastthing Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorDAVIDFG Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDaveFITZGERALD/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authordavefitzgerald/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/AuthorDaveFITZGERALD Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/david-fitz-gerald Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/dfitzgerald Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17341792.David_Fitz_Gerald EXCERPT: A GRAVE EVERY MILE   First day on the trail, April 15, 1850 Our three teams of oxen, led by Hardtack and Scrapple, stand ready to do their job. It takes a while before it’s our turn to begin pulling, with fifteen wagons ahead of us. When the wheels of the wagon before us begin to turn, Larkin cracks the bullwhip and shouts, “Hi-yah!” He snaps the whip again, and the poor beasts lumber forward. The broody hen squawks in her box. Straps hold the cage in place on a shelf on the wagon’s exterior. Ridge, the devil-eyed goat, blats in protest as the rope that ties her to the back left corner of the wagon drags her along. I can’t see Blizzard, tied to the other corner of the wagon. The children and I begin on foot, following closely behind Larkin. I hate it when people are cruel to animals. I should hold my tongue, but I cannot. “Must you snap that whip so sharply? It’s barbaric. We should thank the oxen, not whip them.” “Don’t be ridiculous, Dorcas. I’m not whipping them. I’m whipping the air above them. You know that. We can’t get to Oregon if the oxen don’t move. Don’t carry on like a child.” Of course, he's right. Somehow, dressing a deer doesn't phase me. I can snap a chicken's neck and pluck its feathers, but the idea of hurting beasts of burden saddens me. “Couldn’t you just tap them lightly on the rump rather than scare the poor creatures?” “Look, see, we’re already falling behind. We need to drive the oxen faster if we want to get to Oregon before winter.” “But…” “That’s enough, Dorcas. Don’t pester me anymore.” My molars tighten against each other. I know a woman shouldn’t bicker, argue, or nag. Usually, Larkin doesn’t complain about having a garrulous wife. Still, it rankles when he tells me not to pester him. After walking alongside for half an hour, Dahlia Jane says she is tired. One mile down, one thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-nine miles to go. I lift the child into the wagon. Fortunately, she is content to play quietly by herself. I walk for a while beside Blizzard. He always seems to listen and understand me when I share my troubles, worries, and complaints. His coat is sleek beneath the palm of my hand. I can never resist stroking his neck. "We’ll take a ride together soon. I promise." Dahlia Jane hasn’t moved from her nest in the back of the wagon, so I return to walk with the other children. I’m surprised to find Christopher where Larkin was. Larkin is missing. I glance about and don’t see him anywhere. Andrew smiles and says, “Nature calls.” Rose slaps her forehead and looks at her hand to see if she squashed a bug. Christopher seems to have mastered snapping the bullwhip above the oxen, and it makes me cringe even more than when Larkin does it. After half an hour, Larkin tells Rose it’s her turn. She had been complaining about boredom and appears to have come alive as Larkin calls out her name. “Alright, Rose. Here is the whip. Hold it high and flick it hard with your wrist so that it snaps in the air above the kine.” Rose asks, “What if I accidentally hit them with it?” Larkin answers, “Don’t worry. It will not hurt them. They have thick skin and dull nerves.” I can’t help but say, “Larkin, how do you know how they feel? Please don’t beat our animals.” Larkin replies, “We’ll try, but the children must learn how to drive them. If you can’t bear to watch, may I suggest you visit our neighbors?” “Very well, then.” It doesn’t make it any better knowing they whip the beasts while I’m gone, but I pluck Dahlia Jane from her burrow and wander back to the next wagon.   Instagram Handle: @thecoffeepotbookclub         Read the full article

[athleticperfection1]

Western Oregon Soccer

[yawomensrugbyresources]

Women's Premier League teams

Beantown Rugby - Boston, Massachusetts

Colorado Gray Wolves - Denver, Colorado

New York Women's Rugby Club* - New York, New York

*High School Program

All Blues Rugby* - Berkeley, California

*High School Program

Chicago North Shore Rugby - Chicago, Illinois

Life West Rugby - Hayward, California

Twin Cities Amazons - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota

High School Girls' Teams

Northwest

Alaska Youth Rugby Club - Anchorage, Alaska

Broncos Rugby Club - Concord, California

Chinook Rugby - Clark County, Washington

Snapping Turtles - Salem/Keizer, Oregon

Renegades Girls Rugby Club - Portland, Oregon

Valley Panthers Rugby Club - Yamhill County, Oregon

Southwest

East Valley Eagles - Mesa, Arizona

Eclipse Rugby - North Phoenix, Arizona

Scottsdale Wolves Rugby - Scottsdale, Arizona

Tucson Roosters (Youth, co-ed) - Tucson, Arizona

Kona Rugby Club - Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

Maui Rugby Org - Maui, Hawaii

SoCal Youth Rugby (multiple teams)

Thunder Rugby Club - San Diego, California

Central/Midwest United States

Summit Rugby - Breckenridge, Colorado

Denver Lions (middle school) - Denver, Colorado

Brighton Youth Rugby - Brighton, Colorado

Boulder Rugby - Boulder, Colorado

Chillicothe Rugby Club - Chillicothe, Illinois

Quad City Rugby - Quad City region, Illinois/Iowa

South

Birmingham Rugby Club (co-ed) - Birmingham, Alabama

New Orleans Barbarians - New Orleans, Louisiana

Bixby Rugby Club - Bixby, Oklahoma

Wellington Rugby Club Lady Wizards - Wellington, Florida

Orlando Griffins - Orlando, Florida

Plano Rugby Club - Plano, Texas

Southeast

Washington D.C. Youth Rugby - Washington, D.C.

Maryland Exiles - Montgomery County, Maryland

Maryland Valkyrie Rugby - Southern Maryland

Rebels Rugby - Atlanta, Georgia

Cape Fear Rugby (co-ed) - Wilmington, North Carolina

SYC West End Rugby - Fairfax County, Virginia

Western Suburbs Youth Rugby Club - Northern Virginia

VYI Rugby - Vienna, Virginia

Memphis Inner City Rugby - Memphis, Tennessee

Raleigh Cobras - Raleigh, North Carolina

Highlanders Rugby Club - Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Charlotte Cardinals - Charlotte, North Carolina

Wando Rugby Football Club - Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Greer Rugby - Greer, South Carolina

Northeast

Morris Rugby Club - Morristown, New Jersey

Montgomery Bucks Rugby - Eastern Pennsylvania

Westshore United Rugby Club - Central Pennsylvania

Blackthorn Rugby - Horsham, Pennsylvania

Delaware Diamonds - Central Delaware

Aspectuck Rugby Club - Newton, Connecticut

Barbarians Youth Rugby - Wrentham, MA

Worcester Rugby - Worcester, MA

Mystic River Rugby Club - Boston, MA

Rugby Rhode Island - South County, Rhode Island

Island Rugby - Newport County, Rhode Island

Kenmore Rugby Club - Buffalo, NY

New Hampshire Youth Rugby - Dover, NH

South Jersey Devils - Cherry Hill, New Jersey

New Jersey Rugby - Somerset, New Jersey

[plethoraworldatlas]

The Center for Biological Diversity today petitioned for federal protection of Sierra Nevada red foxes in the Oregon and California Cascades, from Lassen Peak to Mt. Hood. The petition asks that the fox be listed as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

“These precious mountain foxes need our help if they’re going to have any chance at survival in our rapidly warming world,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “The problems facing the Sierra Nevada red fox are complex and mounting, as they are for so many species in the mountains of western North America.”

In response to a previous Center petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protected a fox population near Sonora Pass in the Sierra Nevada as endangered. But in 2015 the Service denied the fox protection in the Cascades, citing lack of information.Since then, considerable research has shown that fox populations in Lassen, Crater Lake National Park, the Central Cascades and Mt. Hood are isolated, exceedingly small and facing multiple threats.

The fox once ranged throughout high-elevation areas of the Cascades in forests and alpine meadows. But the species has been lost from large portions of its range, including Mt. Shasta. Poisoning as part of historic predator eradication efforts and trapping were primary drivers of the fox’s historic decline.

Today the fox is threatened by habitat loss caused by fires, logging, livestock grazing and development, increased recreation and climate change, which is pushing the fox’s habitat off the top of mountains.

An additional threat is competition and predation from coyotes, which have proliferated in the Cascades in the absence of wolves. Coyotes are likely to move uphill as snowpacks recede with warming.

“The harms we’re doing to the natural world are accumulating and interacting in complex ways to the detriment of animals like the Sierra Nevada red fox,” said Greenwald. “Historic killing of predators, including wolves and the fox, have left the fox vulnerable to coyotes and risks inherent to small populations. And now, increased interest in outdoor recreation and global warming represent new and growing threats to the fox.”

The fox’s surviving populations are critically small. The population found in the Lassen area, for example, was recently estimated to contain fewer than 10 breeding adults. The other populations are not much bigger.

[petnews2day]

Hector’s Three Propels ‘Cats Past Wolves in Regular Season Finale - Central Washington University Athletics

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/hI2Wb

Hector’s Three Propels ‘Cats Past Wolves in Regular Season Finale - Central Washington University Athletics

Next Game: vs. Western Oregon University 3/2/2023 | 2:15 p.m. Mar. 02 (Thu) / 2:15 p.m. vs. Western Oregon University History MONMOUTH, Oregon. – Central Washington men’s basketball wrapped up their regular season with fireworks. Cameron McNeil scored 29 points and Samad Hector nailed a three at the buzzer […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/hI2Wb #CatsNews

[fatehbaz]

many ongoing reintroductions happening. plans to reintroduce extinct creatures not simple, not all the same. headlines from january 2021 all describe these plans. right now (and over the past 6 months) we’ve got:

-- active reintroduction of Tasmanian devil to Australian mainland, where they went extinct about 3,000 years ago (in autumn 2020, they were released in New South Wales)

-- active reintroduction of bison to Sicangu Lakota Oyate land (”Rosebud reservation” in “South Dakota”; in October 2020, 100 bison were released as part of a 5-year plan to establish a herd of 1,500); active reintroduction of bison to Fort Peck Assiniboine/Sioux land (Fort Peck began hosting 60 bison in 2012; in autumn 2019, another 55 were reintroduced; in summer 2020, another 11 bison were relocated from Yellowstone)

-- active reintroduction of European beavers to Britain, where they went extinct in the 1500s (in 2020, a five-year trial of beaver releases ended); active reintroduction of European beavers to Italy, where they went extinct in the 1500s

-- active reintroduction of sea eagles to southern Britain, where the giant bird went extinct in the 1700s (sea eagles from Norway were reintroduced to Scotland in the 1970s; in 2019, the UK began introducing the birds to Isle of Wight)

-- preliminary planning of reintroduction of red wolves to North Carolina, the only site where “wild” red wolves survive after the US government had halted the reintroduction program in 2015; the wolf subspecies was declared extinct (in the wild) in 1980. in january 2021, a federal judge ordered US government to re-start the reintroduction program

-- preliminary planning of reintroduction of cheetah to India, where they went extinct in the 1940s (the Asiatic subspecies of the cheetah, which used to live from the eastern Mediterranean through the Indian subcontinent, only survives in one small population of about 50 in Persia/Iran)

-- preliminary planning of reintroduction of grey wolf to Colorado, where they went extinct by the 1950s (in November 2020, Colorado residents voted to reintroduce wolves)

-- preliminary planning to reintroduce burrowing bettong, greater bilby, western quoll, and crest-tailed mulgara to northwestern Western Australia

-- study of potentially reintroducing lynx to Scottish Highlands, where they went apparently went extinct over 1,000 years ago (in late 2020/early 2021, an advocacy group announced they’re conducting interviews as part of a “social feasability” project to ask if Scottish residents support reintroduction)

-- study of potentially reintroducing sea otters to the Oregon coast, where they went extinct by about 1910 (the 2021 US federal budget included a hidden directive instructing US FWS to study/publish the feasability/cost of sea otter reintroduction along Oregon coast)

some of the concerns and questions to ask:

has too much time passed (several millennia) for reintroduction of Tasmanian devil to mainland Australia to be “good” if so much of the landscape has so dramatically changed, especially since settlement and invasion of feral cats, rabbits, etc. and loss/degradation of most native chaparral and other grassland biomes? does it count as legitimate reintroduction if a creature is released only at an enclosed, heavily monitored, and very small conservation site which are fenced-off from surrounding ecosystem? does reintroduction of beavers to England make sense if so much of the land is heavily altered and heavily populated, with stream courses mostly diverted and/or artificial? the only Asiatic cheetahs that survive are in Persia, and there are less than 50 still alive, so the Indian government plans to relocate African cheetahs, but these cheetahs are a different subspecies which were never native to the Indian subcontinent. dozens of villages and thousands of people would have to be dispossessed/relocated to make way for a proposed cheetah reintroduction site. are there enough prey animals to sustain cheetah, especially since native leopards in the proposed reintroduction region can’t seem to get enough food/space? if Colorado brings in grey wolves from farther north, will they simply be corralled in specific areas and/or will private landowners and ranchers simply kill/shoot them with tacit and sometimes legal permission from land management agencies like elsewhere in the Northern Rockies? some Scottish landowners are apparently resistant to the idea of reintroducing lynx to the Highlands.