28 February 2013

Get rid of off highway vehicles disturbing our wild lands.

Most hunters that spend their autumn in the woods don’t need a scientist to tell them that the biggest bucks and bulls favor habitat with the least motorized disturbance. And most of us understand that when a wet meadow is turned into a mud-bog, habitat value is lost. 

Our understanding comes from observation, yet too often observation is not enough to convince decision makers that in some areas, off-highway vehicle (OHV) misuse and abuse is indeed a problem that needs to be dealt with. For this we turn to the science, which over the years has clearly illustrated that:
As road densities increase North American Elk experience higher levels of stress, higher mortality rates, decreased reproductive success, and lower bull to cow ratios
As motorized use increases sedimentation of streams increases, reducing the productivity of fisheries
Even one-time off-trail use can lead to significant declines in plant productivity, destruction of top soil and degradation of habitat.
Articles and literature reviews which provide detailed information on each of the key points above can be found in the “Responsible Off-Road Vehicle Use” section of the website, or by clicking here.

We hope that you can use these scientific resources when commenting on Travel Management Plans, or speaking-up for roadless habitat protection, or to encourage a fellow sportsman to ride responsibly.

Thanks for all that you do.



(We are traditional-values Minnesota hunters and anglers who cherish the peace, solitude and challenge of the quiet-use backcountry experience.
Minnesota Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (MN BHA) is an all-volunteer, statewide grassroots group working aggressively at all levels to conserve and protect our public lands fish and wildlife habitat, so that future generations will have the same traditional, quiet-use, muscle-powered hunting and fishing opportunities from time immemorial.)

Letter from Elkhorn Ranch/The Bakken oil field

If you are a subscriber to Harper's you can access this article on line...if not, consider subscribing...

This, my friends, is the cost of unsustainable growth and development...and destruction/extraction of natural resources. Enough natural gas is burned off from the Bakken to heat a half million homes each day...prostitution, drugs, murders, violence, rampant, unconscious boom development, environmental devastation...people who have lived here all their lives are moving out, disgusted and broken. Elkhorn Ranch, Teddy Roosevelt's place which is considered the very beginnings of the American Conservation movement, has oil wells and frakking...

A society surely gone insane...there are jobs which we can create to help each other, sustainable jobs...to improve, not destroy...I'm deeply saddened.

http://harpers.org/archive/2013/03/bakken-business/
Photo: Australia also has socialized healthcare, which enforces low cost, individual responsibility. This protects their population as a whole.

Therefore their realistic minimum wage is used for pay a healthcare tax and also to pay for their cost of living without government assistance. 

This helps stimulate their economy for the betterment of all. Exactly the opposite of what the USA does. ~pam

Deficit and Debt

Let's not forget what caused this debt/deficit. When Bill Clinton left office there was a surplus which was projected to pay off the DEBT, not the deficit, by 2015...which would have meant no interest payments (which eat up much of the USA's budget each year...151 billions of dollars this year alone)...what happened? Alan Greedspan said we should not have a surplus (you can't have a 'surplus' when you have debt, Alan) and encouraged GW to enact extravagant tax cuts...and then...how GW reacted to 9/11, unfunded, unnecessary wars, Part D Medicare (unfunded), crony capitalism with no bid contracts to the likes of Halliburton (who then moved their headquarters to that bastion of freedom, Dubai)...

People need to screw their heads on straight and look at the USA as it has been, not how they dream it is...let's straighten this mess up, run surpluses again and pay off our debt.

I like Ike...the marginal top tax rate during his Presidency (which saw a burgeoning middle class) was 92%...yep, and no capital flight to speak of. Growth...


I didn't even mention the crisis which was caused at the end of GW's tenure...which has driven the entire world into a tailspin. Both Great Britain and France have had their financial ratings dropped below AAA status...that leaves only Germany and Canada as the two remaining AAA rated economies.

Scale Implosion

"What we're on the brink of is scale implosion. Everything gigantic in American life is about to get smaller or die. Everything that we do to support economic activities at gigantic scale is going to hamper our journey into the new reality. The campaign to sustain the unsustainable, which is the official policy of US leadership, will only produce deeper whirls of entropy.

I hope young people recognize this and can marshal their enthusiasm to get to work. It's already happening in the local farming scene; now it needs to happen in a commercial economy that will support local agriculture.

The additional tragedy of the big box saga is that it scuttled social roles and social relations in every American community. On top of the insult of destroying the geographic places we call home, the chain stores also destroyed people's place in the order of daily life, including the duties, responsibilities, obligations, and ceremonies that prompt citizens to care for each other.

We can get that all back, but it won't be a bargain."

James Howard Kunstler


http://www.alternet.org/economy/after-ruining-america-era-giant-chain-stores-over

Gay Marriage coming soon to Minnesota, too!!!

Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.

The document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/us/politics/prominent-republicans-sign-brief-in-support-of-gay-marriage.html

Folks...Quit smoking cigarettes.

The Department of Health and Human Services approved 599 chemical additives to cigarettes in 1994. Among them are ammonia compounds to create a nicotine freebase effect. Then there are the additives to the paper to make it burn evenly.

In 2010, legislation was passed in 49 states to start putting fire safe cigarettes (FSC) on the market as all the current ones are sold. The FSCs papers contain a toxic chemical used for rug glue to ensure that cigarettes go out when not being puffed.

Even before all this chemical craziness, tobacco itself has been grown commercially with phosphate fertilizers, causing tobacco plants to accrue radioactive isotopes of polonium 210. Puff by puff, those isotopes accumulate in smokers' lungs.

The slang term "cancer sticks" for cigarettes is truly appropriate. To get off the smoking habit and/or repair lung damage, start your search from here (https://www.herbdoc.com/).

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035119_tobacco_lung_health_addiction.html#ixzz2M76dqzHY

As I sit staring out of the window in the woods, birds flutter by...Veterans' Day 2023

 With wars and conflicts raging in multiple locations, I'm living in relative peace now.   I went to the Wikipedia page to see how many ...