The Lark Descending

[Gob]

A lament for the loss of the countryside and wildlife of the UK, under the bulldozers of increasing housing and population demands.

Obviously, with apologies to Ralph Vaughan Williams.

My latest bit of sad music, I'd say enjoy, but that's very optimistic of me.

[liberty]

Gob, the bulldozer is winning the war on nature the world over. When I was a child about half of the Louisiana delta country was woods and swamps now a good stretch of woods is hard to find. I see many farmers pushing down and clearing the trees in the creek bottoms so that they can plant corn and wheat to the edge of the water. To my way of thinking it is a bad idea; there is nothing to slow the run off when it rains. Won’t the soil be depleted in a few years?

It doesn’t seem to have much effect on the would life. I am seeing more deer than ever. They graze on the side of the roads like cattle, sometimes in broad daylight.
In the last couple of years, I have seen on the side of the road as well as deer a bear cub, several coyotes and what looked like a panther or some large cat.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I am seeing more deer than ever.

I have lived on Long Island my whole life and there are more deer now than ever before.
They are expanding their territory.
They like us suburbanites veggie and flower gardens.

And turkeys. Loads of turkeys.


Now if they would let the hunters loose a little, it would control the populations a bit. But shooting bambi is a crime in a lot of peoples eyes here.

[Big RR]

I think NJ has a pretty good deer season; but we still have plenty of deer, mainly IMHO because they have no predators other than hunters or cars. Like most pests, they will increase in population to meet the available food supply unless otherwise culled. If someone could develop a contraceptive spray for our gardens, we could control the population a lot more efficiently.

[Bicycle Bill]

If someone could develop a contraceptive spray for our gardens, we could control the population a lot more efficiently.

True enough, but if you don't produce an extra half-million deer to 'harvest' every season how is the Department of Natural Targets Resources going to keep getting the hunters to buy licenses every year?

-"BB"-