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#1 | |
WG Staff
Join Date: Nov 2008
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West Virginia's wildlife faces winter of food shortages
By John McCoy Staff writer September 15, 2009 West Virginia's wildlife faces winter of food ... - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports excerpt from above: Quote:
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The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards. -Mencius |
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#2 |
Official Plant Nerd
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Habitat destruction and our repeated irresponsible plant choices are doing in wildlife from sea to shining sea. I'm glad to see someone spelling it out.
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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss |
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#3 |
A Bee's Best Friend
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chicago Illinois USA
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I wonder if this is wide spead in the east or a more local problem in West Virginia? The isolation of smaller and smaller natural areas certainly would make a year of bad fruit and nut production cause severe food shortages for many animals.
I hate reading stuff like this because it leaves me feeling so helpless. |
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#4 |
Fox
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia
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Variability in food availability is one of the factors that keeps animal populations in check. It used to work on humans, too, but "civilized" societies have so far managed to circumvent that rule. We certainly do our share to unintentionally (or not) limit wildlife populations, but a 40-year low in mast production is probably within the longer term range. I would only be concerned for endangered or threatened species. A shortage of mast was reported in Pennsylvania last year, but from what I'm seeing it seems to be better this year.
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#5 |
Pope
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Virginia
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Last year we had a very good mast year locally, but somewhat less this year it looks like (although the hickories have been most generous with their nuts this year). I expect fewer pecans, at any rate. Acorns are looking scarcer too,
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#6 | |||
Unicellular Fungi
Join Date: Nov 2008
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Another very timely article to post.
We often forget how much power we have to advocate for wildlife when making ecologically responsible plant purchases. We're all in our infancy learning how to choose the best plants to help compensate for years in which fruits of some species are naturally reduced. Audubon At Home Quote:
Quote:
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"In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; we will understand only what we have been taught." -Baba Dioum, Senegalese ecologist |
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