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Facts don’t add up in support of trapping

Keith Kubista (guest column, Oct. 24) possesses two attributes which make him challenging in the forum of public debate. He writes fairly well and he has a total disregard for the facts.

His approach to the trapping issue goes something like this: Kubista wants to trap. That’s his starting point. He then begins a long journey of fact-twisting, omission and outright lies to convince the reader that trapping is good for Montana…

Subtract the state budget estimate for maintaining FWP’s trapping division. Then subtract financial estimates for the negative impact on tourism revenue and the staggering loss of Montana groundwater due to beaver trapping.

That’s right. This is an op-ed from Montana saying that trapping beavers robs the state of its groundwater. I’m just trying to wrap my head around this, although it’s an idea whose time has come. This is from the smart non-profit ‘Foot Loose‘ which is opposed to trapping on public lands. They’ve been featured on this website before. I wrote them an excited welcome to the beaver club letter back then, but never heard anything back. Not sure whether they were too busy or too afraid that a bunch of ‘beaver huggers’ would ruin their image. Still, it’s nice to be reminded they’re out there, fighting the good fight.

And speaking of the good fight, Predator Defense launched this documentary sunday based on the work of Tom Knudson at the Sacramento Bee.

If you were on the fence about Wildlife Services before, you soon will understand that there is no fence at all. I was happy to see the faces that we’ve been reading about for years. One of them is Gary Strader who you learned about on this website in 2009 when the USDA harvested wood peckers from Rossmoor. Remember that?

It’s a pretty effective but grisly documentary. Consider yourself warned and never ever ever let your city contract with Wildlife Services. Tell your friends who don’t believe the horror stories to watch it all the way through to the end, and for those of us who know better, just be happy it’s out there.

Exposé of federal predator control overkill wins Knight-Risser journalism prize

Thomas Knudson is the author of the hard-hitting series of articles in the Sacramento Bee last year “The killing agency: Wildlife Services’ brutal methods leave a trail of animal death.” It started with a mountain of FOIA requests and long conversations with folks who knew all about it. Including an hour conversation with me and a visit to Elk Grove where he learned that they had spent a bucket of money on the re-education campaign to teach children that “beavers are bad.”

He also traveled to Tahoe to visit mutual beaver friend Sherri Guzzy when our Sierra beaver nativity article launched and they removed some beaver dams so the (introduced) salmon could get around and enjoy their festival.

The 2012 Wildlife Services project, in articles, slideshows, video and interactive graphics, focuses on a little-known U.S. Department of Agriculture agency whose strategy for controlling animals deemed of risk to livestock and the public has killed millions of predators and other species across the West, often in ways that are inhumane, excessive and at odds with science.

It shows how the wide-scale killing of coyotes has proven ineffective and can backfire biologically by contributing to population explosions of prey species, such as rabbits and rodents. And it describes the indiscriminate nature of the agency’s traps, snares and poison, which have caused the often tortuous deaths of many thousands of non-target animals over the decades, including family pets and such rare, protected species as bald and golden eagles.

When the original report launched, readers were so shocked and outraged that the country folk living on my parents lane in the foothills gathered together to pour over the new issue when they met at the paper box to get their paper. It made a big impression from coast to coast. The well-deserved prize brings with it 5000 dollars, lots of recognition for his hard work, a reminder to newspapers to do real journalism and a nudge for all the other reporters to move in the same direction. I couldn’t be happier for Tom, who is a concerned, respectful nice guy that has made a huge difference in how we think about “the killing agency”.

Tom writes for the Sacramento Bee, the flagship of the McClatchy newspapers which (for my money) does some of the only real reporting across the country. Congratulations Tom! Now for the next award-winning series about beavers and salmon? Beavers and drought? Beavers and biodiversity? California is spending money every day to get rid of a solution that would save them millions.

That sounds like an expose just waiting to happen.