Yesterday's Statesman Journal included an opinion piece by Mickey Bellman. You can read it here. Bellman, a professional "forester," which is to say that he's part of the logging industry, trots out some easy platitudes about the need for balance in approaching the issue (and he's right about that), but doesn't actually make any concrete recommendations. The reason I mention him here at all is that he brings up the issue of wolf predation on game animals which is an issue I have yet to delve into much.
According to Bellman, "Oregon hunters are searching for fewer big game animals and so are the wolves. Fewer clearcuts in federal forests have significantly reduced the amount of available forage for big game, resulting in declining game populations, resulting in more disgruntled big game hunters." Leaving aside the questionable assertions he makes regarding clearcuts and big-game populations, Bellman does raise the excellent point that hunters are yet another politically powerful group with a specific set of interests in the wolf debate that will have to be factored in to any kind of long-term wolf-plan.
As of right now I do not have a great deal to say on the subject, but I can assure readers that it is a topic that I will revisit in some detail as time and events permit.
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