Yes this is true, but even with stable population it will continue as long as endless drive for endless economic growth continues. Population is only part of the problem.
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Happy 1st Savings Bank in U.S. (PSFS, 1816)! 💵🏦🔒
Northern WI wolf attack
- Thread starter Blukanu
- Start date
"Annual net loss in rural lands." Maybe this depends somewhat on the location.
The percentage of urban land in the US is around 3%. That includes a lot of rural areas.
Why have managed the other 97%. I left the East Coast over 50 years ago because it was too settled and too private.
We have hundreds of millions of acres of National Forest. We have a similar amount of range lands managed by the BLM.
Nevada is 87% Federally owned land, mostly USFS, BLM and Wildlife Refuges with some military lands.
The acreage of designated wilderness areas continues to increase. Most of the USFS wilderness areas have been established, but there are hundreds of WSAs, Wilderness Study Areas under consideration for wilderness status in the BLM system.
Fifty miles south of Reno I have a small 2.5 acre homestead, but it is next to one million acres of BLM literally. We have had wild horses and bears in the yard.
I wish every person that lives in the East and the Midwest could do a road trip and drive around the West. I don't mean the National Parks which are now mostly loved to death. I mean the National Forests and BLM lands where you can camp with no one around. Where the gas stations are 100 miles apart.
The percentage of urban land in the US is around 3%. That includes a lot of rural areas.
Why have managed the other 97%. I left the East Coast over 50 years ago because it was too settled and too private.
We have hundreds of millions of acres of National Forest. We have a similar amount of range lands managed by the BLM.
Nevada is 87% Federally owned land, mostly USFS, BLM and Wildlife Refuges with some military lands.
The acreage of designated wilderness areas continues to increase. Most of the USFS wilderness areas have been established, but there are hundreds of WSAs, Wilderness Study Areas under consideration for wilderness status in the BLM system.
Fifty miles south of Reno I have a small 2.5 acre homestead, but it is next to one million acres of BLM literally. We have had wild horses and bears in the yard.
I wish every person that lives in the East and the Midwest could do a road trip and drive around the West. I don't mean the National Parks which are now mostly loved to death. I mean the National Forests and BLM lands where you can camp with no one around. Where the gas stations are 100 miles apart.
Yah, i've lived and camped and worked in remote areas all over the west. Everywhere the human foot print is spreading, nowhere is it getting smaller. Many places I go where it used to be desolate, now there's people. exurban development. Its actually worse in the West than it is in my part of the Midwest, but its now starting here too.
Drawing a line around a spot and calling it wilderness or park doesn't mean wilderness has increased. Those places were always there, and everywhere around it it is shrinking and getting fragmented and degraded and populated. Houses, dogs, murderous outdoor cats, lights, noise, people.
I used to hike and backcountry ski in a 2nd growth area a few miles from home. I never ever saw another human there, or a human footprint, or signs of a dog that wasn't a wolf. Well it got discovered. Foot trails were built. I went there and walked 100 yards before I stepped in dog crap. I haven't gone back. Since then, more trails have been built for mountain bikes. They widened the trails for skiing. Now they have groomed ski trails. A kiosk and bathrooms were added. People love it. People love it so much they move here and build new houses and driveways, fragmenting the forest even more. More people need more trails, of course. My friends go there, and tell me what great time they had. I want to punch them in the face.
Naturally the motorized crowd felt slighted, so a trail had to be built for them too.
Now a local group has formed to build MORE trails. Hiking trails, mountain bike trails, fat tire snow trails, ski trails. More, more more of everything. I don't know anywhere in the lower US the same things aren't happening or won't start happening. If there is such a place, don't tell us.
People don’t respect wilderness rules, especially at the state levels. Mountain bikes, ATVs, trail clearing, many prohibited activities are left to the discretion of the local DNR ranger. If rangers grew up doing those activities, possibly in the same area, they won’t enforce the rules. Even illegal dumping gets shrugged off.
The East vs West debate is obvious when it comes to this subject. There are lots of rural counties in the West that have lower populations now than they did 100 years ago. Nevada is one of the most urban states. That means few people live outside of Reno and Las Vegas.
Our wilderness areas tend to be large in the West. Past about 5-10 miles there are few people out there. The PCT would be an example of an exception. The National Parks are loved to death so I mostly avoid them. Finding solitude is easy.
Our wilderness areas tend to be large in the West. Past about 5-10 miles there are few people out there. The PCT would be an example of an exception. The National Parks are loved to death so I mostly avoid them. Finding solitude is easy.
Lotta half empty glasses in this thread.
It is my understanding that wolves were extirpated from the lower 48 years ago because of farming( as in much of Canada), and that wolves today are imported from Canada....
I don't believe a word of this story...well, maybe "wolf" and "hunter", but the rest is rather suspect. A lack of familiarity, mythology and irrational fear are the most likely culprits in this scenario....a group of well armed, nervous teenagers in the dark might also be a factor.
The deafening sound of several wolf packs howling throughout the night in northern Quebec was a life changing experience for me in my youth (if you haven't experienced this, you must.. the sound is indescribable), as was meeting one face to face 40 years later (dream come true!).
Bushwhacking my way to a favourite trout hole in the Mastigouche Wildlife Reserve in Quebec a few years ago, it finally happened: a wolf. Hacking my way through the ridiculous Laurentian underbrush I heard a branch snap about 35 feet ahead of me, and, at first, I thought it was a bear because of the black fur, but then there it was: A huge (insanely huge) black wolf leaping over a fallen tree and disappearing into the bush. Ears the size of my hands and a 3 foot long tail....
The entire incident lasted all of 3 seconds but I was walking on air all day. I can't describe the feeling of exhilaration, so I won't try, but fear was never a part of it. Closer to joy, actually. I am not so naive as to think that it posed no danger, but it never occurred to me to be fearful.
To my knowledge, there has been only one confirmed wolf kill of a human in Canada in the last century.
It was in northern Saskatchewan at a mining camp (there are still questions about the incident)...there was a case in Nova Scotia some years ago, but it was likely hybrid coyotes ( an invasive species), as there are very few, if any, wolves in that province.
I may be biased, having grown up reading Farley Mowat (like a good Canadian boy) but wolves are the last thing I worry about.
Many of you paddle extensively in Quebec and Ontario ( to say nothing of Alaska, Yukon, NWT, BC, etc....).. and as you well know, you are among the wolves. They know you are there and they leave you alone. Why they do this is a mystery, but they do.
They are the apex predator of their environment and if they wanted to,
they would pick us off one by one on a daily basis.
There are tens of thousands of them.
There are a few reports of bites,nips and "aggressive" behavior over the decades, but these are easily explained anomalies.
To me, the Grey Wolf (and the Raven) symbolizes the freedom of the North...true unencumbered, uncontained liberty.
The fact that they are still hunted in Canada is an embarassment.
Idunno. Maybe you will disagree, but that horrible movie The Grey had that one scene where the guys were sitting around a fire in the dark and the wolves began singing all around them, growing to an almost deafening crescendo, and then stopping suddenly. I experienced that several times in one night (it was exhilarating, BTW), and when I watched that scene in the movie, my immediate reaction was - "that's it... exactly". If those teens in the report were primed with that experience just before the incident, I can see how they might feel threatened. But yeah, the story still seems suspect.
I have heard the odd lone wolf howl in the distance several times, but the first time was incredible.
It was somewhere near Lac Mistissini (a buddy and I were a little bit lost) and we were sitting by the fire. At 11:30 pm we heard a shrieking sound coming from what seemed like miles away. I was 18 and had no idea what it was...until more shrieks joined in. A truly bizarre and haunting sound, it became obvious that it was wolves, although these were not the cartoon howls I was accustomed to from TV.
Within minutes, another group started...coming from another direction, and then another and another. 4 groups of wolves communicating with each other.
It got loud. So loud that we were laughing at the strangeness of it.
After a few minutes it stopped.
It started up again at about 1am...louder and a bit different.
Again at about 3am and one last time right before sunrise.
I can't say for sure how many individuals there were, but, at the time I thought 20-40. I also don't know how far away they were from us or each other, but far enough.
Who knows, the woods do strange things to sound.
