Re: [gardeners] Re: Monday in the garden
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 13 Mar 2003 12:59:13 -0600
A couple of the problems regarding deer in North America are: 1. Deer
don't live in primeval forest, they are verge browsers, eating brush
tips, etc. Once you Europeans cleared the forest the deer population
grew mightily. Saw a magazine article the other day that claims there
are more deer in Texas nowadays then were in all of North America at the
time of the coming of the Europeans. 2. Then we decided to kill off all
the big predators, cougars, bears, wolves and nothing was left to kill
and eat the deer but us. A third problem is Walt Disney, once "Bambi"
came out people decided that killing and eating deer was wrong, wrong,
wrong. Phoo on Walt Disney and his movies, deer are good eating. Think
of it that way and then think about what happens to the deer population
when it explodes in good years - when next year rolls around and the
food supply is inadequate they all die except for the strongest.
Hunters, through the excise tax paid on sporting goods, have paid for
the return of the wild turkey in most parts of the country and now the
wildlife people are returning elk and moose to the Eastern US and wolves
to the western US. The return of the wolves is controversial because,
like most wild animals, they catch and eat the easiest stuff to catch,
ie cattle and sheep. Sleep soundly in the forest though, there has never
been a human killed in this country since records have been kept, about
the year 1500 IIRC.
Stepping down off the soapbox I remain,
George, the hunter and fisherman
Jann wrote:
>
> Here too. Ed hunts every season, turkey and deer. He is a bow hunter. We
> have quite a few deer killed on the highways year-round. It is so sad. I
> read a Dear Abbey column once from a husband who took his wife turkey
> hunting after going only with his friends for years. He outfitted her with
> clothes and gun. She got up early, was excited to go, etc. They put her in
> a blind and went to their blinds. After sitting there for a couple hours, a
> large flock came into view, with everyone waiting for the right time to
> shoot. All of a sudden, the wife jumped up and started waving her arms,
> yelling: RUN TURKEYS RUN!!!! I laughed so hard when I read that! Sounds
> like something I would do!
>
> Janni
>
> At 04:16 PM 3/11/03 -0600, you wrote:
> >My husband and son are hunters. Although they hunt in season it is still
> >cause for looking and grazing the ditch. We have to watch out for accidents
> >when they see deer, wild turkeys, coyotes oh yes and JD's in the fields.
> >
> >Ranchmama
> >Okie zone 7a
> >*****************************
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Billie" <mzdc@mindspring.com>
> >
> >
> > >
> > > That sounds fabulous! We almost had an accident one time when my
> > > husband spotted a flock of wild turkeys in the mountains of NC - come
> > > to think of it that happened another time too, but at the coast when
> > > we spotted a bunch of snowy egrets nesting in a weeping willow by an
> > > inlet.