Pretty cool discovery in Yellowstone, How Wolves Change Rivers.

Well, stopping nuclear power while trying to reduce CO2 and pollution is not very smart. You are very lucky to have all that hydro-electric power. Solar and wind are far less efficient or reliable.

 

Wolves are needed at Yellowstone to control the elk population there, which is out of control.

However once the wolves develop a taste for humanoid children the fascination with wolves will probably end. Same story as the mountain lion in California, where the lions are killing all the deer and an occasional jogger and mountain biker or two.

 

Since 1981 there have only been four souls lost to wolf attack and only one under the of twenty, "3 year old" to be exact. Now bears, that's a whole different story, in the same time frame I believe it's around 90ish so far.

Then again City tourist think they can feed them peanuts like a park petting zoo

 

Four -- yup that's a start.

Now as soon as the wolves pass the word that humans are easy prey there will be more.

 

Nah, the words out, the bears told um, "You kill a Hummy, and the G&F will, hunt you, and KILL you" so they just bug the ranchers and eat their "Slow Elks" LMAO

 

Bears eat people too when they (the bears) get hungry enough.

 

We disagree on the definition of the term industrialized. To me farm land is industrialized. It's not nature and has in fact replaced nature with an entirely different ecosystem.

 

Nah they most shred them up, maybe piss on them when their done

 

To understand it, it's important to make the distinction between industrial farmland, and non-industrial farmland. But it's rare in most western countries, so most people abroad tend to think of farmland as industrial. Even though there's lots of different types and degrees of farmland.

 

You should read the story about the female forest ranger who got her forearms both eaten by a blackie. She wears 2 hooks now like Captain Hook in Peter Pan -- although he only had one.

 

Yes there is, the Rhodesian Ridgeback.

 

Again, has to be accompanied by a paid shepherder, and is for the same reasons as the last dog breed not viable as a solution.

 

In the end all farmland is changed from forest to farm and where I live we are 100% small family owned farms, ranches, dairies and even a few orchards in the valley so I do indeed understand the difference between heavily industrialized farming vs mom and pop family farms. Difference is where I live the populated and farmed valley is a relatively tiny fraction of the overall area and is surrounded by a hundred times more land on each side that is unpopulated wild lands. I think that kind of elbow room is something people in Europe and even in the Eastern US can't fathom.

 

Thing is, forests can still be farmland. I don't know what the ecology is around you, but here, there's no such thing as wild nature.

We've still got nature, forests, areas that LOOK wild. But no wild nature.

So people from the cities hiking in what they consider wild nature, get a flawed perception of what wild nature really is. "Oh, this area looks farmed, while this area here looks wild, so this area here must be wild, while the other area is agricultural land". While in fact, every area really is agricultural land here. Still got plenty of wild animals and lots of different species, but while the animals in the cultural landscape are wild, the cultural landscape itself is not wild.

 

We fortunately still have real nature here. Lots of land is logged every few decades but in-between is completely wild plus we have lots of designated wilderness which is untouched by man.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/scnf/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5360033

 

Again, I think we have different definition of "wild". If it's logged every few decades, it's not wild. It's still nature, it still "feels" like wild nature, but it's not truly wild nature. It's cultural landscape.

And yes, the US do have some areas that are truly wild. Canada has a lot of truly wild nature. And Russia has a lot of truly wild nature.

 

Fair to disagree on logged forest in the opinion of man but nature can't tell the difference between a logged forest and a forest thinned by natural fire event. Wildlife is not sophisticated enough for these debates and to them logged forest is no different from any other.

 

There will be a different fauna and flora in a cultural landscape, than in truly wild nature, like the sort Canada and Russia has a lot of.

And since modern European agriculture really supports monocultures, a lot of "lesser" species are threatened. Not wolves, wolverines, or other "cool" species. But the boring ones, moss, plants, insects and the like.

By introducing wolves here, those species are being threatened far more than the eurasian wolf currently is. Because those boring species are dependent on grazing animals, and less of that "wild" nature.

It's pretty sad really, the biggest threat to biodiversity in Norway, is the environmentalists. Good intentions, but they lack knowledge, and that's a destructive combination.

 

I will agee that Norway is too far gone for wolves. We still have room for now and I just saw wolf tracks a few hundred yards from my house yesterday. It's a good feeling on the rare occasion I see this around here.

 

Wouldn't use the words "too far gone". It's just that a different ecology has developed over the past 200 years. It's still nature, and not "better" or "worse" than the wild in Canada or Russia. And it's certainly possible to have other predators here, like wolverines, lynx, eagles, bears, foxes and so on. But reintroduction of wolves? No thanks. No reason to do so from a biodiversity point, since it would reduce biodiversity in the long run, and we'd end up with the same ecology as arctic Russia, which already is plentiful globally.

 

Too far gone is my opinion based on my love of nature the way it was before man changed the ecology as you admit has happened in Norway. It will happen here too in time but I'm old enough to be thankful I'll be dead by then. The coming generations of Americans will be like you though and not miss what they never knew so life goes on I guess.