Audubon: Letters

(letters)

Bearbaiting

Harvesting Hope

Thank you for “Green Acres” [November-December 2005] and the subsequent portraits [“Healing Time,” “Bumper Crop,” “Gaining Ground,” and “Prairie King”] of four farmers utilizing government programs to enhance wildlife habitat. Farmers have invested many millions of their own dollars to match money received by such programs, and they deserve attention for their efforts. The choices farmers make in managing their land inevitably require trade-offs. It would be interesting for a future issue of Audubon to examine the positive and negative consequences of such trade-offs for wildlife populations.

Mike Winslow
Vergennes, VT

You mention in “Healing Time” that the Yolo Land & Cattle Company sells honey, but you should have also mentioned that it is yellow star thistle honey, sold under the name Commando Bee. I think that this is one of the more imaginative ways I've seen of living with star thistle (and that's somewhere between tough and impossible).

LaVerne Ireland
West Sacramento, CA

I just wanted to let you know how much we government grunts appreciate “Green Acres.” It is a great tribute to the landowners and biologists who worked with them in getting that fabulous fish and wildlife habitat on the ground. It also helps everyone recognize the promise of the farm bill and the vast opportunities that exist for farmers and ranchers to do great fish and wildlife work. Hopefully the article will create increased interest, in addition to recognizing the wonderful work that has been done.

Billy M. Teels
Wildlife Team Leader
Natural Resources Conservation Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Fort Worth, TX

Editor's Note: Both the Senate and the House versions of the pending budget bill propose significant cuts to the farm bill's conservation programs. While it is impossible to accurately predict the extent of the cuts (or even if the budget will pass), the programs are at considerable risk. The Conservation Security Program, the only farm bill program that rewards farmers for the good stewardship practices they have already established, will likely take the biggest hit.

Paper Chase

I responded to the article on the loss of Canada's boreal forest [“The Final Frontier,” September-October 2005] by calling the companies from which I have received catalogs thus far in November. I am up to 33—and these are only the ones in which I have no interest. A helpful piece of information I received from one of the customer-service folks was to contact the Direct Marketing Association (212-768-727; www.dmaconsumers.org) to have my name removed from their mailing lists.

Martha Varisco
via e-mail

Editor's Note: Members of the Direct Marketing Association are required to run their prospective customers against its “Do Not Mail” list. Registration can greatly reduce unsolicited mail. You will still receive mail from companies you do business with as well as from non-DMA members, local merchants, alumni associations, and political candidates.

Bearing Down

As I read “Bad News Bear Hunters” [September-October 2005], my initial response was to agree with Ted Williams, but I was left thinking the article sounded so much like antihunting rhetoric. I am surprised to see this type of article in Audubon. There is an important point that is completely missed: The people who want to stop the baiting and using of dogs to hunt bears want to use the tax money collected through the Pittman-Robertson Act to finance their objectives. What is worse, you are endorsing their goal. Hunters have paid almost a billion dollars in taxes over more than 70 years to support state and federal fish and wildlife organizations. American hunters have personally financed the future of wildlife in North America. The environmentalists, tree huggers, and greens have great philosophical ideals but no financial backing at all. Their goal is to use our money to fund their ideals. Each of the 50 state legislatures has passed laws based on input from wildlife biologists, employed by the state, to manage their natural inhabitants. Audubon should not endorse federal interference in state legislative concerns.

Michael L. Sellers
Mystic, CT

Ted Williams responds: Bearbaiting—“assassination,” as former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura correctly calls it—has been seized upon by antihunters as a reason to ban all hunting. This is why any criticism of bearbaiting sounds to Mr. Sellers like “antihunting rhetoric.” It is untrue that greens have “no financial backing.” Witness the millions of acres they've protected with their own money. And they have no designs on Pittman-Robertson (federal aid for wildlife restoration) funds other than to insist they be used properly.

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