That’s basic democracy and common sense.įinally, there is the need for humane treatment. But where a resource belongs to all Vermonters, all Vermonters should have an equal and unquestioned right to participate in some way. The expertise of wildlife professionals is critical to good management. It is certainly not a recommendation that all decisions be put to a public vote.
This is not to challenge the right of hunters and trappers to participate in decisions. The question arises - why is the public that neither hunts nor traps systematically excluded from having a real voice in shaping policy? You only need to look at the operation of the Fish & Wildlife Board to see how this principle gets ignored in practice. Wildlife is a public asset held in trust by the state of Vermont for all Vermonters it is not a resource belonging to any special interest group. In wildlife management, that influence must take the form of all stakeholders having a voice in decisions. What is democratic process? If ecology describes all parts as parts of a whole, democratic process suggests that all parts influence the whole. Ecological thinking would have us consider these threatened species not in isolation, but as part of a larger, living system. This number has likely grown because the causes - habitat loss, pollution, human encroachment, the climate crisis, etc., have only increased in impact.
#MAHARANA PRATAP EPISODE 154 SKIN#
Accessing a trophy fox skin does not compare to the value for human and ecosystem health represented by a reduced tick population.Īccording to a 2015 Fish & Wildlife report, Vermont has close to 1,000 species listed as “in greatest conservation need.” We must address that challenge from an ecological viewpoint we can’t have 1,000 approaches. For this reason, ecological thinking suggests that foxes should not be on the recreational/sport-killing target list. Applied to decisions about wildlife, it means that choices should be grounded in an understanding of how each species functions within a natural system, rather than determined by the utilitarian and tradition-bound mindset that often predominates now.Ĭonsider that red and gray foxes provide extraordinary benefits by feeding on small rodents that may serve as hosts to ticks that harbor diseases, including Lyme. What is ecological thinking? The idea behind ecology is that all living things interact with one another to form a systemic whole. The second step is to hold Fish & Wildlife decision-making to three simple values: ecological thinking, democratic process and the humane treatment of wildlife. Under discussion for over a half-century, isn’t it time that change happened? S.129, a bill introduced in the last legislative session, proposes to make the Fish & Wildlife Board advisory only, and transfer authority to professionals at Fish & Wildlife where it belongs. While the board consists of volunteers whose applicable experience is largely time spent hunting and trapping, the Fish & Wildlife staff consists of highly trained professionals - wildlife biologists, for example - who are better prepared to understand all sides of the challenges impacting wildlife. Yet Fish & Wildlife staff has the best qualifications for this role. The reason is that the Fish & Wildlife Board (representing hunter and trapper special interests), not the Fish & Wildlife staff, has exclusive say over all game species, despite the fact that game are a public asset. That oddity is the source of much debate.
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