Nearly a year ago, I published an article in Black Bear Blog called, “Beware of ‘Natural’ Wildlife Management“, written by Dr. Valerius Geist.

Dr. Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science at the University of Calgary in Alberta, is a renowned expert in wildlife management and conservation practices. In addition to teaching, writing about, and lecturing on the subjects, Dr. Geist has performed years of in-the-field research on big game species. He has authored 16 books, seven documentary films and contributed 40 entries to various encyclopedias.

In discussing wildlife management, there are those who rely on the theory that “natural” management is the proper way. Whether they fully understand the wild fluctuations, including death, disease and destruction, in “natural regulation” is mostly unclear. Some want to rely solely on science, often hand picked to suit their beliefs and some want to disregard science in favor of letting God do it.

When I hear the argument of “letting God do it”, I am always reminded of a story a friend of mine, Maine humorist Joe Perham, told. It goes something like this:

The community church pastor had been concerned for some time because one of his parishioners, Farmer Brown, hadn’t attended church for several weeks. One Sunday following church services, the pastor headed out to Farmer Browns to pay him a visit.

When he arrived at the farm, he found Brown out in the back field working hard, the sweat having dampened his back and beads of sweat streaming down his face.

The pastor walked out to greet Farmer Brown and after a brief hello, the pastor said, “Mr. Brown! It is amazing what you and the Lord have done with this piece of land!”

Farmer Brown stood still a moment and then gazed about him admiring his hard work and then emphatically replied, “Yeah? Well you should have seen it when the Lord own it all be himself!”

All too often those who espouse to “natural regulation” of wild lands and wildlife, remove man from the equation. It makes no sense at all to do that when you consider we share this earth with the animals and always have and are very much an integral part of our ecosystems. If God intended the lands and the animals to be taken care of “naturally”, I don’t think He would have created man nor granted him “dominion” of them.

I received my latest copy of The Outdoorsman. The featured story written by George Dovel, “The Truth about Our Wildlife Managers’ Plan to Restore “Native” Ecosystems”, is an excellent read.

At the W.I.S.E (Western Institute for Study of the Environment) website, George Dovel’s historic account has been made available for readers. Please visit the site and you’ll find a link to read Dovel’s entire account.

As a bonus, W.I.S.E. also includes an earlier article, a review, of Dr. Fred Wagner’s book, “Yellowstone’s Destabilized Effects, Science, and Policy Conflict”. The review was written by Cliff White of Parks Canada, Banff, Alberta.

Wagner’s book debunks Yellowstone National Park’s “natural regulation” of management, a management process used in many of our national parks nationwide and what most environmental groups promote.

Dovel writes in his article pertaining to Wagner’s book:

In 1999, 32 years after the natural regulation policy was adopted, YNP (Yellowstone National Park) biologists claimed they needed more years of research in order to test the natural regulation hypothesis. But Dr. Wagner told the National Research Council they had a 126-year data-set of interaction between YNP ungulates and their ecosystem and half a century of research which should be adequate to determine if the elk herd had reached equilibrium.

In August 2008, TWS (The Wildlife Society) announced that Dr. Wagner would receive its “2008 Wildlife Publication Award – Outstanding Book” for his 2006 book Yellowstone’s Destabilized Ecosystem: Elk Effects, Science and Policy Conflict. His book documents extreme fluctuations in the Northern Elk Herd and is highly critical of Park Service management.

“In 1967 the NPS (National Park Service) introduced a ‘Nature Knows Best’ approach and stopped controlling the size of the (elk) herd,” he wrote. “A new contingent of NPS research biologists disputed earlier scientific evidence and claims about best management practices of elk and other wildlife in the park. In the process, they totally negated everything that had been observed, recorded and published for nearly a century.”

Dr. Kay (Utah State University) pointed out that TWS gave Douglas Houston the same prestigious award for promoting his flawed natural regulation theory in the early 1980s as it gave Dr. Wagner in 2008 for disproving Houston’s hypothesis. He asks, “Are we supposed to believe that Yellowstone is an ecological slum – or that it’s the epitome of land management as claimed by Park officials and the “greens” who want to depopulate half of the U.S. so that nature can take its course?”

It’s time to move forward in how we view being the best stewards of our lands and ecosystems. Please read the supplied information. I’d also like to invite readers to subscribe to George Dovel’s “The Outdoorsman”. This publication is vital to educating the people.

Below is the information that can be found on the back of each issue of the magazine. Simply send the requested information and a check to the address provided. You’ll be glad you did.

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Tom Remington

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