We were having Sunday lunch at the Griffin Restaurant in El Dorado when I told my grandson, Coulter, he shouldn’t use a plastic straw. He commented, “What difference does it make?” Then I asked him if he had read any of the sayings of Chief Seattle.
He said “Who?” I told him about Chief Seattle saying everything is connected, and the plastic straw you are using is like breaking a web of life thread, and then I quoted: “Whatever man does to the web of life he does to himself.”
Then we discussed how damaging the environment ultimate damages your quality of life as you break threads of the “web of life.” Actually, I think Coulter is much more attuned to the environment than I was at his age, even though I spent thousands of hours in the woods and streams that he hasn’t.
My thoughts drifted to those years when my environmental views were distorted to the point where I thought we should eliminate every hawk, owl, bobcat, snake, and any other bird or animal that was considered non-essential or a threat to our life on the farm.
Then my thoughts settled on the 8- to 12-year-old Richard who, with his trusty bean shooter made from red raw rubber, killed hundreds of birds, lizards, and other small creatures. I could easily hit a sparrow from 20 feet away. What did I do with all those dead birds? I fed a few to the cats at the barn, but mostly I just left them lying on the ground. When my dad bought me a 20 gauge shotgun, the only thing that kept me from shooting every hawk or owl was the cost of shells.
I lived close enough to the south Arkansas oil fields to be a witness to what the unrestricted dumping of salt water from wells that routinely produced five barrels of oil and 100 barrels of salt water can do to the environment. The salt water killed everything, and in the summer when the water was low, there was a lifeless salt flat that glistened in the sun.
Today those dead, lifeless streams have been reclaimed by Mother Nature. The salt water is still coming from those wells but is being pumped back underground.
Not all of our environmental mistakes were committed by preteen boys and irresponsible oil companies. From the time Arkansas was settled, the environment was considered something to be tamed, and the idea of limiting the killing of any animal or bird was never considered. That mindset sent numerous species into extinction and reduced others to the point where they were so few that they weren’t part of the ecosystem in our state.
In the 1920s the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission put a bounty on cougars, wolves, and bobcats. A bounty and unrestricted hunting essentially eliminated the apex predators in the state, and since the bears had already been killed off for their fat to make oil, by the 1950s the state had a severely damaged ecosystem and was an environmental vacuum.
Today, we are paying a price for damaging the web of life, and everyone is responsible. Our out-of-balance ecosystem favors certain species to the detriment of others. Some have been reduced or almost eliminated while other have become plentiful.
As a result of needed hunting regulations and the lack of predators, the deer population has mushroomed. However, that has come with a price called Chronic Wasting Disease, and there is no cure. Our entire deer herd is at risk. The reason is simple: There are so few apex predators that the sickly deer continue to spread the disease. CWD is not in Alaska, where wolves, cougars, and bears are plentiful.
The other problem is the vacuum caused by the loss of apex predators. Into that void feral hogs have come by the hundreds of thousands, essentially eliminating ground nesting birds by nest scavenging, which has put the bobwhite quail to near extinction and has severely reduced the turkey population.
We must recognize the problem before we can solve it, and in the email below from Arkansas businessman John Ed Anthony, he addresses the quail problem from a hunter and landowners’ point of view.
He nails the loss of our quail.
“Richard, this is to comment on your quail drought column and say that you are squarely on point. The matter has little to do with habitat and a lot to do with other factors.
“In the 1980s we put together a block of 3,000 acres of cutover timberland and open pastures in the Bismark Hills near Hot Springs. When acquired, quail were abundant. Now there are none even though the habitat has changed none on many acres and modestly on others.
“We seldom see hogs but we know they’re there. Haven’t seen or heard a bird in years.
“But the most telling fact involves south Texas. I’ve hunted leased ranches there since 1951 during a period of severe drought. Few quail. When the rain resumed the quail population exploded. In years when moisture was good they were so abundant that you could shoot quail until you tired of it or your shoulder cried for relief. This continued through the ’60s-’80s although we began to notice smaller numbers, blaming lack of rainfall.
“I bought a ranch near Cotulla in the mid-1990s, 10,000 acres of prime brush country, some chops and fields. Quail are now so sparse some years that we don’t hunt them, and in others there are few or none despite perfect moisture and conditions.
“But what we do now have are feral hogs, in abundance. They appeared in the ’80s in increased numbers. Today the ferals have taken over. No amount of hunting, trapping or killing can control the population. Your idea about hogs being the problem is squarely on point, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission should recognize this and give up blaming loss of habitat.
“In south Arkansas when the major corporations started clear-cutting vast acreage in the ’70s, the bird population exploded. Hunting with dogs was good sport. Now there are no quail. But there are hogs, lots of them.
“One other factor. The demise of birds in Texas tracked the time when corn feeders became prevalent (in Arkansas too). Birds love corn and are attracted to the feeders (which we maintain year-round with corn or supplement). They covey and nest there. With hogs present it’s easy pickings for them to work the areas with feeders where the nests are found.
“Hog panels keep them out from under the feeders, but some corn escapes and they know exactly when the timer goes off and are there for it.
“That’s my experience and firm belief.”
Email Richard Mason at richard@gibraltarenergy.com .