Habitat loss is about money and progress.

The number of people wanting someone else to do something about habitat conservation and improvement is stunning. It sounds good to the masses till it’s time to pony up. Then the list of people doing meaningful habitat improvement and conservation gets damn short. Nothing is free.

Second is people buying small parcels of land and moving out of the city. Then making their place in the country look like a city park.

Third is economics that create much smaller margins for agriculture. Landowners are incentivized to put every possible acre in production to pay the bills at the expense of biodiversity. Then often resort to maximum yield practices to further increase productivity, further degrading biodiversity.

Case in point. Improved pastures and putting fragmented cover into production was the death knell for quail across much of the south. The guy with the improved pastures that require less acerage/animal and are too dense for quail to get around in, 9 times out of ten is going to lay blame on fire ants rather than considering giving up the revenue that modern maximum yield provides. On one hand we scream for cheap beef, food goods and building materials, then economically we cut the legs out from beneath the landowners. Meaningful financial incentives for implementing and maintaining multiple use practices are being defunded. Reducing CRP is one that comes to mind. There is no free lunch.

Today our population is dominated by city dwellers that have completely lost touch with nature. A prime example is modern deer hunters boiling out of the cities to hunt. Their answer is feeding protein and establishment of killing stations. That has become mainstream. The same money spent on habitat enhancement would yield lasting and greater results. The vast majority are not interested in anything more than what shows up at their killing station. The sole interest of most is the animals they can harvest. They don’t give a rip about habitat and have very little understanding about habitat or respect for the landowners or their property.

The cluelessness of the self absorbed me generation astounds me.

Habitat loss is about money and progress.

The number of people wanting someone else to do something about habitat conservation and improvement is stunning. It sounds good to the masses till it’s time to pony up. Then the list of people doing meaningful habitat improvement and conservation gets damn short. Nothing is free.

Second is people buying small parcels of land and moving out of the city. Then making their place in the country look like a city park.

Third is economics that create much smaller margins for agriculture. Landowners are incentivized to put every possible acre in production to pay the bills at the expense of biodiversity. Then often resort to maximum yield practices to further increase productivity, further degrading biodiversity.

Case in point. Improved pastures and putting fragmented cover into production was the death knell for quail across much of the south. The guy with the improved pastures that require less acerage/animal and are too dense for quail to get around in, 9 times out of ten is going to lay blame on fire ants rather than considering giving up the revenue that modern maximum yield provides. On one hand we scream for cheap beef, food goods and building materials, then economically we cut the legs out from beneath the landowners. Meaningful financial incentives for implementing and maintaining multiple use practices are being defunded. Reducing CRP is one that comes to mind. There is no free lunch.

Today our population is dominated by city dwellers that have completely lost touch with nature. A prime example is modern deer hunters boiling out of the cities to hunt. Their answer is feeding protein and establishment of killing stations. That has become mainstream. The same money spent on habitat enhancement would yield lasting and greater results. The vast majority are not interested in anything more than what shows up at their killing station. The sole interest of most is the animals they can harvest. They don’t give a rip about habitat and have very little understanding about habitat or respect for the landowners or their property.

The cluelessness of the self absorbed me generation astounds me.

I've spent a fortune having cedar and mesquite cleared, and will spend more next year doing the same. Not going for the golf course look, just opening it up in some areas and leaving others as is. No cattle, no crops. Previous owners didn't do a thing or spend one thin dime on the place for 20 years. Hoping to drill another well on the south end and put in wildlife water troughs, if I can ever get a well driller to call me back.

I have 6 "killing stations."