The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mark McCollough who, according to the Associated Press, says about Canada lynx:
“…the goal is to recreate the conditions to prevent a big drop in the number of lynx in Maine.”
The devastation of the spruce bud worm outbreak of the 1970s, resulted in large areas of clear-cuts to clean up the dead timber in hopes of retrieving some value before it all turned to tinder. The regrowth of those clear-cuts created an environment where moose and Canada lynx (and other species) have thrived. Those clear-cut regrowths are maturing and the moose populations are disappearing, partly due to winter ticks and loss of ideal habitat that was created from the clear-cuts. The Canada lynx grew in numbers, mostly because that habitat was ideal for snowshoe hare, the favorite food of the Canada lynx – the lynx follow the growth of snowshoe hares.
McCollough is living happy these days now that he has his lynx protected and he can get all kinds of money and piss off a lot of people by doing it. (Think trappers and landowners) The lie here is that “the goal is to RECREATE the conditions.”(emphasis added) That will NEVER happen. He and environMENTALists would never allow for anything that would closely resemble that same kind of habitat.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dithers on the Canada lynx (they still have failed to produce a recovery plan) How do you recover an endangered species with no idea how many animals exist and a plan to recover? Typical government horse excrement. Therefore, the award goes to him/them.
Additional question that cannot be answered honestly: How to you list a species for federal protection when nobody knows how many of the creatures exist? Corrupt &$^@#!s
