"Terry Yager" wrote:
> The only thing that I can relate is the situation in America before the
> white men killed off all the bison.
I heard a sad rumor about our country having some of the most extradorinary creatures which roamed this land, some were quite large. Sadily they are gone, though it might of been through natural resources to which these creatures perished (in other words they starved). I don't think man had any impact on these creatures, if they did, it might of been the aboriginal's - but I don't believe that.
But yeah, man has made many species go into extinction.
> It was said that there were herds so vast that it would take 3 hours for
> them to pass by a given point, and that they streched as far as the eye
> could see. I can only imagine that many buffalo, by remembering some
> of the caribu migrations I've seen in Alaska, but none of the herds were
> ever that large, although there have been times when we were held up
> for an hour or more, waiting for them to cross the road. (Migrations
> have the right-of-way).
> If there were that many buff, as a natural part of the eco-system, and
> they did it no harm, how could a few cattle be any worse for Mother
> Nature?
Yes, well it's a difficult issue like I mentioned. From an environmentalist's point-of-view, cattle didn't exist here 200 years ago, these high countries were seem as a great opportunity to have cattle & horses I guess & all of a sudden this land is suddenly under presure from these forces.
Though since it's been there for so long, what'll happen when the grazing suddenly stops - some people think weeds will surface, replacing the native with the weed & fires maybe on the rise. It all really depends on what's there, which sad to say have no knowledge about - perhaps there's a floral guide to the plant life & map showing the cattle grazed areas coloured coded guide of indigenous plant quality (I wished!).
Strickly speaking it's the Environmentalist's Vs the European way of Life, but it's pretty clouded & the Enviro's need more Data to understand what's happening - before they start digging.
> I don't know about Oz, where bison herds were never included in the
> eco-system, but it can't be that different, can it?
Well it goes back onto what I said earlier about Australia's history for creatures, but that really spans into Millions of years. In more recent times animals found here are much different from what you'd expect to see in a farm. Kangaroos are perhaps one of the heaviest (if not largest) of our land creatures - but after that it's hard to say what comes next in terms of Height & Weight. Perhaps the Kola & Wombat are - one of them loves our Eucalypt's.
> Mebbe I'm just prejudiced tho, looking at it from a farmer's
> perspective. I remember reading an article on sub-soil compaction, in
> which it was pointed out that a plow horse or mule did more damage to
> the land than a modern tractor, because of the way the weight is
> distributed. If horses & mules' hooves impact the environment that
> much, I guess cattle could be harmful too.
Yes, that really fits into an environmentalists point of view too, that these animals have some impact, again this would have to be shown on record for anyone to understand what impact cattle do to the land & if it increases other factors.
One interesting study which was done in my area, found that one of the local dams was unsuitable for drinking water, after it was discovered that nearby land (used for farming) had degraded, erosion had occured, salinity went up (I believe) & most of all, the cattle deposits went into the ground, which changed the structure of the soil which went into the nearby dam (to actually pollute it).
CP/M User.
