Monthly Archives: April 2019

Research and Written by — John Cox, Cascades
Wild Horses have a permanent place on our Public Lands, within our minds, as well as legally.  The truth is our nation’s icons, Wild Horses on our Public Lands, are being wiped out by industrialists, by welfare ranchers with their cattle and sheep, by hunters, and ironically non-profit charitable organizations advocating animals’ protection, but abusing them by darting, or use of breed controls, based upon industry and their lies about wild horse over-population.

Our forecast of this: Pesticide Positioning will become a paramount problem, as it is being handled by those who lie, are incompetent, as well as low IQ’s . . . Stands to reason, these same people would assume Pesticides used as breed-controls, would, or even could, “save” Wild Horses, or anything else, for that matter.  Grifters and thieves take advantage of these types of people, all the way to the bank!

These are people that wave the American Flag, yet hypocritical, as the fact of wiping out an icon such as the Wild Horses, apparently paramount and on their minds, for their special interests, or in particular, their monetary interests . . .  Ethics and Federal Laws tossed-out the window when it comes to money $$$ and influencing their life style.

With a solid-ground, observable by their actions, of pathological mind-sets, and soon we have more and more threats, real threats, to our nation’s Food-Supply, and what is also referred to, as well, Federal Lands. The Bureau of Land Management and the USDA Forestry are not, and never have done so, managed these lands competently; that is, there is no Lands Management paradigm associated with longevity nor competence, when coming to actually Public Lands Oversight.  This also includes Regulatory Oversight, which is accomplished hardly ever, and the Federal Laws that seek proper management over these lands, simply not enforced — what so ever.  Now we are looking at the result of No Oversight, no situation of Law Enforcement, and this develops into a drastic situation – Contamination of our Food-Supply, reaching dangerous levels  . . .

1. In Louisiana, 17 cows died after an hour’s exposure to spilled fracking fluid, which is injected miles underground to crack open and release pockets of natural gas. The most likely cause of death: respiratory failure.
2. In New Mexico, hair testing of sick cattle that grazed near well pads found petroleum residues in 54 of 56 animals.
3. In northern central Pennsylvania, 140 cattle were exposed to fracking wastewater when an impoundment was breached. Approximately 70 cows died, and the remainder produced only 11 calves, of which three survived.
4. In western Pennsylvania, an overflowing wastewater pit sent fracking chemicals into a pond and a pasture where pregnant cows grazed: Half their calves were born dead. Dairy operators in shale-gas areas of Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Texas have also reported the death of goats.

This was just the noteworthy beginnings from years back, and we see many more dead Wild Horses on our rangelands where Law is clear – their home lands, their Foals dead, Stallions left to bleed-out after castration, or horses shot and killed, and ALL on the Rangelands, the Mountains, the flat-Lands and valleys, and mostly where there is Energy sites, Fracking sites, overpopulation’s of cattle, pasture lands, and many areas where industry or agricultural pesticides used, fertilizers used, and growth hormones used, and pesticides for particular breed-control of wildlife species, — The truth is, the wildlife are being wiped out or darted with poisons.  These same animals are actually needed within Ecological Zones to provide health and longevity within our Wilderness and Natural areas . . . Our Nation’s Public Lands are not managed properly, and have not been, and for quite some time now.

Intermixed, this all could be a very dangerous cocktail for all human’s and animals alike – the pollution, extraordinary – and direct-effects to our nation’s food-chain elements, water, and air become very dangerous to all. These government agencies, when confronted with these situations, simply raise the —

“Acceptable Limits of Regulatory Oversight”, then stating everything is okay and it is simply “Fringe-Elements” creating havoc and unrest . . . Our nation’s grasslands, grains, and meat supply remain poisoned or contaminated with human-made pollutants, which over-flows into water supplies both surface and underground supplies, and on it goes . . . The chain-of-events in place, and there is essentially nothing, or no one, stopping it.

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

In 1957, a research scientist named McConnell noted that the “development of oil and gas resources, as well as pesticides used in prime cattle lands, combined with changes in technologies, have brought unexpected hazards for which a precedent has not been established and toxicological information is not available.” 

Unfortunately, this gap in knowledge remains quite large even today, where truth is nothing more than a joke to industrialists, bankers, commercialized non-profits, and government agencies alike.  But we do see interesting developments, in attempts at covering-up some of these tragic events, and from the Bureau of Land Management, as well as our nation’s USDA Forestry.  Many of us in the field, find more and more dead wildlife and livestock; ironically, it is inclusive of cattle, sheep, wild horses, Elk, deer, and such small critters as raccoons, skunks, and other rodents, and many more species.

What these animals have in common, is the fact Keystone Predators as well as insect predators, have no interest in these dead animals, at all.  Maggots, normally on sun-rotted meat, simply are not there, and over days an untouched bloated carcass, as well as some having exploded, and nothing – no predation, neither specialty insects nor maggots.

To say this is not-normal, is a truth beyond all other truth, or deceptions to cover it all up.  Then suspicions become of paramount significance, and we start to search for consistencies. . . out of necessity, to keep our food-chain wholesome, and to save our Wild Horses at the same time (i.e. among other wildlife), who in today’s convoluted government management ideologies, get the blame for it all.

When the Wild Horses destroyed, and sent to extinction, our civilization soon to follow, a metaphor conclusive in “fact” and sadly to us all, of noticeable proportion . . . The outright greed and corruption we find in government agencies, as well as commercialized non-profits, and industry on Our Public Lands — well — the signs evident, and the situations ongoing at present, need stopped sooner, rather than — before it is too late.

Ironically, and what we find in remote areas on our rangelands and forests, Wild Horses, to include a Mare’s Foals (many observations of such), are not only left untouched, on rangelands or in the mountains, but not even so much as a track around the bodies from a cougar, from a bear, from wolves or bobcats.  The poisoned, and radio-active bodies (and other poisons and pesticides et al.) wildlife can scent in the air — the “red-alert” to all others — Stay Away; except humans . . . profits the rule of order with human’s . . .

Exposed livestock “. . . are making their way into the food system, and it’s very worrisome to us,” another Research Biologist, Bamberger, says. “They live in areas that have tested positive for air, water, and soil contamination. Some of these chemicals appear in milk and meat products made from these animals.”

WILDERNESS AREAS CONTAMINATION

Pesticide poisoning to wildlife may result from acute or chronic exposure, via secondary exposure or through indirect effects to the animal.  This is why regulatory measures set in place to “regulate the handling” and the areas where it can be used (although, we find today, ignored by those who Dart Wild Horses with the Pesticides PZP and GONACON — then pretend Pesticide Positioning does not exist, labeling it Equine Flu most often — yes, a cover up, and currently getting into our water and food supplies) – when neglected, in truth harmful activity develops . . . which is a reality the ignorant, or bias folks that make their profits from the use of Pesticides — folks like to set-aside and pretend all of this simply does not exist.  Mostly used in Breed Control, or falsified “Over-Population” decrease — we conclude, from observation as well as logistical lands mass and wildlife availability, that pesticides damage ecosystems, damage or harm to non-target plants and animals, decrease bio diversity, decline populations or even cause extinction of species i.e. Wild Horses and any other predator or hooved animal on their way out as I write this today.

Besides this pesticide “Mess Up” — food chains and webs infected, but also simply disrupt the natural balance in ecosystems; therefore, it is necessary that a strict vigil should be maintained during pest control operations, to minimize the after effects of pesticides and to save the environment and natural balance in ecosystem, which we discover is “ignored” most often . . . ignorance at its very worst, poisoning Our Nation’s Food-Chain . . . and no one admits it — but they all know, how could they not know?  Oh yes, the responsibility of knowledge placed into the hands of low IQ government employees, and those commercialized non-profits who, in reality, really know nothing about Wild Horses or Wildlife in general.  All Profit Based, no common sense or responsibility given or taken, by these same people.

Over the past few years, we have seen the Pesticide PZP and Pesticide GONACON, used in wilderness areas as well as ecological zones, and used irresponsibly.  We find, in the United States and in Canada, the “darts and containers” of this Pesticide (e.g. a bag of 43 darting containers and darts tossed into a creek, in Oregon, and also the same amount found in Canada Creek-side, and in Nevada as well, near water outlets and in rangelands where horses’ Darted), in areas where testing of this pesticide were simply not done – sales the motivation and not safety, but rather waived, as EPA Forms show us quite distinctly.

Again, yet another situation, similar to oil and energy situations stated above, and currently adding the use of breed controls, registered as Pesticides, found more and more in wilderness areas – i.e. wild horses, believe it or not, were reintroduced congressionally, as pests and as livestock, and we find the Humane Society of the United Sates as well as supposed commercialized non-profit charitable organizations, not only supported these endeavors, then lied also about the Wild Horses population on our Public lands, then using Pesticides for Birth Rate Controls – so much for the “charitable” designation and what it used to mean within the non-profit world!  Today it means “profits” over all else, and that includes over integrity, as well as ethics, sadly. . .

In birds, exposure can impact the bird’s ability to sing and therefore decrease its chances of successfully attracting a mate or establishing a territory, impacts the birds care for its young, causing the nestling to starve.  Some pesticides are endocrine disrupters, causes failure of development in organism, reproduction behavior, immune system and neurological problems, as well as the development of cancer.  Researchers have found that the toxic effects of low-level combinations of certain chemical pesticides can be greater than the sum of the effect of the individual components.  Studies show a range of altered behaviors including mating and parenting, nest building, activity level, predator avoidance and foraging.

Pesticides may impact wildlife through secondary poisoning when an animal consumes prey species that contain pesticide residues e.g.  Birds of prey becoming sick after feeding on an animal, that is dead or dying from acute exposure to a pesticide, and the accumulation and movement of persistent chemicals in wildlife food chain.

Pesticides may also impact wildlife indirectly when a part of its habitat or food supply is modified, e.g. pesticides may reduce food, cover, and nesting sites needed by insect, bird and mammal population; insecticides may diminish insect populations fed on by bird or fish species; insect pollinators may be reduced, thereby affecting plant pollination.  Honey bees are important pollinators of many food crops. Pollination is vital to food production; approximately one third of all human food production is dependent on pollinators. Researchers found that due to insecticidal impact, estimated pollution by honey bees’ losses to food production, which is directly related with economy of nation.

1. Acute Poisoning Short exposure causes kill wildlife e.g. Fish kills caused by pesticide residues carried to ponds, streams or rivers by surface runoff or spray drift, bird die caused by foraging on pesticide treated vegetation granules, baits, seeds or insects. These poisoning can be substantiated by analyzing tissues or by biochemical investigation processes.
2. Chronic Poisoning Exposure of wildlife over an extended period of time to pesticide levels not immediately lethal may result in chronic poisoning e.g. Bird mortality resulted from chronic exposure of organo-chlorine insecticides on reproduction in certain birds of prey.
3. Secondary Poisoning Pesticides may impact wildlife through secondary poisoning when an animal consumes prey species that contain pesticide residues e.g. Birds of prey becoming sick after feeding on animal, that is dead or dying from acute exposure to a pesticide, and (2) the accumulation and movement of persistent chemicals in wildlife food chain.

CONCLUSION (Part 1 of 4 Parts)

Today, and in the United States, our concern is the destruction of our natural resources and our wildlife, indirectly or directly – due to complete ignorance about the pesticide being used, by government agencies, non-profit organizations, and under false-pretense. . .

Often, with today’s government agencies, developed is the occurrence of more and more “outright lies”, in this case the lies, to essentially cover-up fraudulent activity directly involving the categorical misinformation, or lies, about the Wild Horse on Our Public Lands, being over-populated.  The “facts” show us they are not over-populated on our Public Lands.  Once again, a metaphor or negative conclusion when government agencies involved, that outreach to the very basis of Our Nation’s Polluted Food-Supply.

We need to establish more truth within government, regulatory measures to oversee “government contracts” or reasons for “budgets” and oversite within procurement before taxpayer money spent on nothing more than lies, for special interests or conflict of interests; which, is very abundant today within the Public Lands Management realm.

We must then Mitigate the ongoing destruction, on our Public Lands and about our nations wild horses (which should be preserved and built upon, not abused, darted, then sent to slaughter) with truthful non-special-interest driven-data, developing a quality hypothesis-driven science; this, in order to support decisions, rather than random and monetary decision-making from no data to little data, or misinterpreted data through bigoted-reasoning, bias, or from total ignorance —  profoundly, and also in today’s government agencies that manage our Public Lands; whereas, ignorance and bigotry, with strong bias, often governs the decision making process and especially within our Lands Management agencies, costing taxpayer’s insurmountable dollars and cents, that are needed in other realms of America. . .

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From tiny viruses and bacteria, unrecognized for millennia, to blue whales weighing 200 tons, and fungi that spread for hundreds of hectares underground, the diversity and extent of life on Earth is dazzling.  In its life and reproduction, every organism is shaped by, and in turn shapes, its environment.  It is this inter-action of a healthy Ecological Habitat, not human-species management of either, that will, indeed, save the Wild Horses and our overall environmental complex.

We find that animals fill “niches” or a role within a habitat or ecosystem.  This is how a diversity of members of species participate in the distribution of resources, that includes such features as time of day they are active, the plants they exploit, how they vie for competitors, et al. What is found most often, is these niches are filled with one species, a specialist, so to speak.

A good example here would be if two species compete at the same time for the same fruit, one species has, most often, a slight advantage over the other – sometimes a bit earlier out of the nest in the morning or a bit quicker to detect danger.  Eventually this advantage will result in the more competitive species displacing its rival completely.  But adaptation takes place, most often, and the subordinate species develops behaviors to fill a different niche, or it may die. . .

When we speak about Wild Horses, we find they fill specific “niches” within a diverse habitat, that when all is assumed, they also show us, among other species, credibility within an Ecosystem, or just how healthy the habitat has become, or not.  Because the Wild Horse is a browser, an ecological diversity of wildlife, inclusive of predators, keeps them as well as other browsers on the move, as their survival instinct kicks into play.

This is a brief summary, but what transpires remains a positive circumstance, as good science shows us overwhelmingly.  A diversity within a healthy habitat – inclusive of marine, terrestrial, and wildlife, and many niches available with many of the wildlife filling those niches – competitive and non-competitive.  niches are defined by the species that fill them.  This means that their way of life, habits, and food preferences will not overlap, completely.  And as science shows us, once again, by remaining in an ecological niche to which they are well adapted, species make room for one another.

This is significant to remember, when someone speaks, opinion-only and no science to back it up, that predators control the ecology – this is an untruth – as diversity always needed for a healthy ecology.  To fulfill a niche in nature is to develop a primary strategy for survival.  Human’s are the only species that kills for sport, or whatever excuse they develop.  When wildlife lives within a healthy process, or a natural system, or an Ecological Habitat, they adapt and make room for one another, such as pieces of a jig-saw puzzle fit together, all for survival . . .

Keystone Species

“A “keystone” is the top stone in an arch, and both sides of the arch lean on it.  Remove the “keystone” and the arch collapses.  Remove a “keystone” species, and an ecosystem may well collapse.”  — E.O. Wilson, PhD Research Biologist

We see examples of this situation throughout the United States (e.g. Otters and sea urchins, wolves, cougars, shark et al), but the more prominent example were the studies by Aldo Leopold, and removal of the wolf.  Eventually, lesson learned, Leopold understood wiping out the wolves to be a “negative” extreme, as the niche they filled left vacant, and browsers took over the parklands, and the ecosystem decimated, barren landscape developed, wildlife starved, trees and shrubs destroyed, and both marine and all other terrestrial lands destroyed.  Yellowstone Park is a good example, as well, and until the wolves re-established, Yellowstone almost destroyed in total.

Ecological release of a species shifts an ecosystem to a new equilibrium, essentially radically transforms it.  Often it is a short-term event, such as over-hunting by human-species and improper wildlife management (such as the broken wildlife management systems of today in the United States), or establishing a single-species priority of cattle, a non-indigenous species, and forcing a natural habitat, or ecological system to adjust to the species – backed by no affirmative science, destruction follows.  Competition is required in nature, which establishes healthy ecology — when removed, we have what is termed Ecological Displacement, which can lead to “Extinction” – and debatable whether positive or negative, it can also lead to behavioral and even evolutionary adaptations’.

Interactions in Ecosystems

“Food chains and food webs” shape the flow of energy and material through ecosystems; predation and competition define niches.”

We find “symbiosis” the central definable circumstance of this interaction and species contribution within ecosystems.  Interesting that in Greek symbiosis means “living together”, and essentially a close and consistent interaction between two species, whereas, both obtain benefit.

The symbiotic reaction of Wild Horse Bands, for example, “commensalism”, where a small horse band shares their grazing-ground with birds.  The bands, the horse hooves, stir up insects within the grasses, which the birds at times will circle, or dive, or sit upon the horses’ back waiting, then dive down and snap-up the insects.  Of course, attracting some of the birds who may carry seeds very beneficial to the habitat overall, the grasslands remain healthy, and the re-seeding establishes growth . . .

We can now start to see how the government agencies, the Bureau of Land Management, the USDA Wildlife Services, and the USDA Forestry, are site specific and their approach toward our living Ecological Systems are simply destructive in total; nor, backed by any research or data gathering.  Their perspective remains bias, bigoted, and even ignorant, within the aspect of a Single-Species priority of cattle, where no natural reaction can occur for the betterment of nature, as they insist upon wiping-out, or sacrificing, all other wildlife, for cattle-only — which in turn destroys the overall Environmental complex.  These government agencies then act as though their styled-ignorance remains superior, but in reality, is of no science, and something not acceptable –never has been and never will be within nature.

Conclusively, I will leave you with the short-summary below, of how “one-tree” can serve, within a healthy Ecology, many different types of niche specialists, wildlife at its best, and how they operate in a natural environment.  A good example of Nature’s Diversity and how a niche within a habitat works positively, for the betterment of the overall Environment – something to keep in mind:

“MacArthur’s Warblers”

Five species of insectivorous wood warblers — Cape May, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, and Bay-breasted — were the subject of a classic study of community ecology (the science of interpreting species interactions). These species often share the same breeding grounds in mature coniferous forests.

They had been thought by some ornithologists to occupy the same niche — in other words, they appeared to assume identical roles in the same bird community. These five warblers would thus be an exception to the ecological rule of competitive exclusion. The rule states that two species with essentially the same niche cannot coexist because one will always out-compete and displace the other.

For his doctoral dissertation, the late Robert MacArthur, who became one of the nation’s leading ecologists, set out to determine whether the five species of warblers actually did occupy the same niche. By measuring distances down from the top and outward from the trunk of individual spruce, fir, and pine trees, MacArthur divided the trees into zones and recorded feeding positions of the different warblers within each.

A record in zone “T3” indicated a bird feeding among the abundant new needles and buds of the tip of a branch, between 20 and 30 feet from the top of the tree. A record of “M3” signified feeding mostly among dead needles at the same height but in the middle zone of a branch. A record of “B2” represented a warbler feeding on the bare, lichen-covered base of a branch. In all, 16 different positions were distinguished,

“MacArthur found that each warbler species divided its time differently among various parts of the tree. The Cape May, for instance, stayed mostly toward the outside on the top, the Bay-breasted fed mostly around the middle interior, while the Yellow-rumped moved from part to part more than either of the other two. This is shown in the accompanying diagrams, in which the zones that contained 50 percent of the birds’ feeding activity are blackened.MacArthur also recorded details of the warblers’ foraging habits and discovered that they differed too. For example, the Cape May warbler hawks flying insects much more often than does the Blackburnian and tends to move vertically rather than horizontally (matching its tendency to remain on the outside of the tree). The Black-throated Green hovers much more than the Bay-breasted, and the more variable Yellow-rumped has the most varied feeding habits. In addition, MacArthur found evidence that food shortage limited the size of the warbler populations.

Overall, MacArthur concluded that “the birds behave in such a way as to be exposed to different kinds of food.” They also have somewhat different nesting times, and thus the times of their peak food requirements are not the same. They are partitioning a limiting resource — their supply of insects, and, in the process, occupying different niches.”

Research and Written by — John Cox, Cascades

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