Diminishing Returns of Wolf Recovery

My college roommate was a student of economics. He later became the controller of a large law firm. He has credibility with me, so I’ll relate a story from my college days.

Bob came in from an economics course and explained the law of diminishing returns to me in this way. The first beer is the best tasting, and each beer after that is not only less tasty, but also has other negative effects. Thus the biggest bang for your buck, is the first beer. With each subsequent beer the cost per unit of enjoyment is higher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns

After deliberating the wolf conundrum for a while, I’ve concluded that this rule of economics can apply to wildlife management decisions and nowhere does it apply any more appropriately than with the gray wolf recovery.

Even if species have no negative effects upon mankind, the rule of diminishing returns applies, but when species have negative effects upon society, by either threatening man’s possessions or inhibiting his peace and enjoyment, the returns on recovery are diminished at an accelerated rate.

I’d claim this as a great discovery, but surely somebody has beat me to it.

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The Checkerspot Butterfly

This is a photo of a chalcedon checkerspot butterfy. The photo was taken by Rob Fletcher on May 28, 2008 in the hills south of Livermore.

May is the time when the butterflies are out at the ranch.  A different (from the one in the photo) species of checkerspot, the bay checkerspot, is closely associated with serpentine soils. Some soils on our ranch have charactaristics similar to serpentine soils. These soils are found on rocky outcroppings. Some host plants for the endangered butterfly are found on our property.

These soil types have a low ratio of calcium to magnesium, low nitrogen levels and high levels of toxic minerals. Although there are numerous plants associated with serpentine soil types, the total plant biomass is typically low.

For various reasons, serpentine soils (which were never abundant) are becoming increasingly scarce, hence the listing of many associated flora and fauna, including the bay checkerspot.

Another photo taken by Rob Fletcher on June 28, 2008. These checkerspots are on coyotemint, a nectar plant for the butterfly. According to my resource these butterflies live in the adult stage for about one week.

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Cat Fight

The racket emanating from the quarter-mile away brush patch was drawing attention from flocks of crowing crows joining in the ruckus like a Las Vegas crowd at an Ali -Fraser boxing match, but the seats were free. Screaming and growling two big cats were having it out.

I stood by the ranch gate, a witness to something I’d heard before, but not at this magnitude. Two mountain lions were fighting like giant back-yard tomcats, but with more volume and power. They also have reasons to do more than just growl. Imagine your back yard catfight with the sounds moderated to the roar of a lion. And, as with your pet, these cats can go at it so viciously that it makes you feel like your hair is standing on end – and maybe it is.

This battle I’m speaking of took place at 9:00 AM on a sunny Saturday in May, almost two years ago. We were on our way to picnic, fish and shoot varmints at our ranch. I was driving my truck at the rear of a five or six truck caravan. The other vehicles had passed without noticing the battle.

As had been the case with my previous mountain lion screaming-roaring experiences, I never saw the cats, but there was no doubt about what it was.

I have watched bobcats having this type of encounter. While deer hunting a few years ago not very far from where the big cats fought, I observed a pair of bobcats approach each other cautiously about 50 yards away. They stalked towards each other slowly until they were face to face only a few inches apart. With backs hunched and back hair vertical, they began to growl, wine and moan making sounds similar to the big cats, but at a much higher pitch. The sound of cats fighting is unnerving.

Most people never hear or see a mountain lion, but these big cats live in our East Bay oak woodland, oak grassland and chaparral habitat in healthy numbers. We place trail cameras on our ranch to monitor wildlife activity and mountain lions are photographed regularly.

As long as we have healthy Columbia black-tailed deer populations, we’ll also have healthy mountain lion populations. Unfortunately for the cats, deer habitat is dwindling and the fate of the lions is tied to the deer. It seems ironical to me that our wildlife agencies have shifted much of their wildlife management efforts to protect endangered species without assurance that our large predators are included in the safety net.

More and more endangered species mitigation is taking place in and around urban areas where the habitat is fragmented and impacted by human activities. Too many agendas are being created and pursued in the wildlife arena and they conflict.

Habitat is much more effective for protecting wildlife, endangered or not, if it is maintained in large chunks with diverse qualities. It’s time to see the forest.

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Time to Open Lands to Hunting

My brother spotted a deer in Mocho Creek last week. It was a doe. Having lived along Livermore’s Mocho Creek for much of our lives, we know that spotting a deer in the creek is unusual. So unusual that the last deer we saw in Mocho Creek was over 40 years ago.

Our previous deer sighting occured on a warm day, probably in the fall of the year when Rob and I were hiking in territory outside our normal haunts. In what seemed like a remote area southeast of town, we found a dump where the landowners were leaving yard trimmings, old furniture and miscellaneous stuff.

As we approached the dump, a young buck blacktail jumped from cover along the trail. My best guess is that I was about 11 at the time, so that makes it 47 years ago and even then deer were scarce that close to town. The site of that deer observation was where the Livermore Rodeo grounds have since been built.

  (Caption: Deer numbers are constantly declining due to loss of and fragmentation of habitat.)

Unfortunately deer habitat in our area is in serious decline. Housing projects, vineyards, and small-lot rural development have fragmented habitat. Habitat that may have been good for deer fifty years ago has been rendered less healthy by an inability to manage habitat with prescribed fire.

With an inability to manage the mountain lion population, hungry predator populations are trimming the remaining numbers of deer to the point where lions are forced out of their habitat and into the edge of town where they may find alternative food sources.

(Caption: This lion was photographed on private land adjacent to EBRPD lands.)

For hunters, matters are even worse as more and more land that is deer habitat comes under ownership of public agencies that don’t allow hunting. The East Bay Regional Park District is one, and the City of San Francisco via its watershed lands is another.

(Caption: The turkey and deer in these photographs were bagged on land adjacent to EBRPD lands.)

 

And, the future is not bright for hunting opportunities in the East Bay. As time passes more and more land will secede to land-owning agencies that do not allow hunting. Why? Pressure from the anti-hunting groups is only part of the problem. The bad public image of hunting is also a factor. Safety and liability issues contribute as well.

However, hunting makes tremendous sense as a viable and compatible use with much of the land owned by these agencies. Hunting produces revenue. Hunting leaves a minor footprint on the land. Hunting is strictly limited to open seasons, which occur during brief time frames. Hunters are licensed and trained in firearm safety. Restrictions on method of take can be used to create safe conditions. Game animal populations need to be managed – currently problems exhist with wild pigs and Canada geese.

Thousands of acres of public lands are sitting out there wasting away. Yes there are a few cattle out there and some of our local ranchers are making ends meet while keeping up their rodeo skills, but why not get some tangible additional benefits from the land?

Now, as mitigation for loss of wetlands and impacts to endangered species escalates, more land will be placed into conservation easements or turned over to agencies. If the current trend continues, these new conservations lands will be removed from private ownership and placed under management of people who do not wish to see hunting continue. It’s time for a change to this trend.

(Caption: Protection of endangered species like the California red-legged frog is causing lands to be transfered to agencies.)

Hunters need to look for new avenues to insure that lands will continue to be hunted. Those that own land can help create solutions by looking for future owners who will continue to see that land is hunted.  If park distircts continue to refuse to allow hunting, the State of California can be called upon to purchase lands through the Wildlife Conservation Board or new land owning non-government organizations can be established to replace the East Bay Regional Park District as a recipient of conservation properties outside the urban limits.

It’s time for hunters to create a roadmap.

     (Caption: Herd of tule elk bulls on unhunted East Bay Public lands.)

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