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Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

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Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#2
Yeah this is a bit premature. I dunno why we don't just pay the ranchers for livestock killed (it's pretty rare) and everyone goes home happy?

Apex predator reintroduction is a good litmus test for how much conservation we can stomach, so I think it's important that we get this right.

Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#4

Yeah this is a bit premature. I dunno why we don't just pay the ranchers for livestock killed (it's pretty rare) and everyone goes home happy? Apex predator reintroduction is a good litmus test for how much conservation we can stomach, so I think it's important that we get this right.

That would be wealth redistribution, which a critical mass of Americans are pathologically opposed to.

Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#5

Yeah this is a bit premature. I dunno why we don't just pay the ranchers for livestock killed (it's pretty rare) and everyone goes home happy? Apex predator reintroduction is a good litmus test for how much conservation we can stomach, so I think it's important that we get this right.

That would be wealth redistribution, which a critical mass of Americans are pathologically opposed to.

In that case, I guess these people have nothing against the government taking away all of their farm subsidies, too. Better safe than "socialist".

Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#6

Yeah this is a bit premature. I dunno why we don't just pay the ranchers for livestock killed (it's pretty rare) and everyone goes home happy? Apex predator reintroduction is a good litmus test for how much conservation we can stomach, so I think it's important that we get this right.

That would be wealth redistribution, which a critical mass of Americans are pathologically opposed to.

The federal government gives farmers a lot of different subsidies already. If we can pay someone to not grow corn, we can pay them for a cow that got killed by a wolf.

Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#7
For a really cool explainer about the human-wolf relationship in North America I highly recommend this video from The Brain Scoop, the YouTube channel of The Field Museum in Chicago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA-QINoEEwQ

As detailed in the video, the endangered species act is built upon the idea that there is a clear line between species, but in the case of grey wolves there are a lot of coyote-wolf hybrids out there, which aren't well studied because the funding is mainly available for 'The grey wolf'. Nature is fuzzy while the law is less so.

Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#8
post #3

Hope they continue to do well, and are added to a limited hunting season in my state, creating a balanced population and a new game animal.

Why your first reaction to the recovery of this species (that your own hunter breed almost completely erased), is to think about them as moving targets?

Can't you find something more productive to do than to shoot innocent animals?

Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be wealth redistribution, which a critical mass of Americans are pathologically opposed to.

The federal government gives farmers a lot of different subsidies already. If we can pay someone to not grow corn, we can pay them for a cow that got killed by a wolf.

Things like that have bad incentive structures and will be gamed

Re: Gray Wolves to Be Removed from Endangered Species List

#10

Yeah this is a bit premature. I dunno why we don't just pay the ranchers for livestock killed (it's pretty rare) and everyone goes home happy? Apex predator reintroduction is a good litmus test for how much conservation we can stomach, so I think it's important that we get this right.

They would probably start killing their stock themselves.
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