The Portland [Maine] Press Herald has a pity-party sort of article bemoaning the loss of wildlife habitat due to the increase in those looking to cash in on George Bush’s communal plan of growing food for ethanol to add to our gasoline supplies.
There have been many repercussions due to the increase growing of corn and soy for ethanol, as Bush’s idea is about as dumb as it gets (by design I would suspect) to grow food for fuel. But before hunters and others bemoan the loss of wildlife habitat because farmers are tilling up grasslands, consider why there are these vacant, unused grasslands providing the habitat to begin with.
The U.S. Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners not to farm their property, has been a boon to wildlife. Since its creation in 1985, it has boosted populations of ducks, ring-necked pheasants, prairie chickens, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and other wildlife by providing areas where they can feed and reproduce.(emphasis added)
And as can always be expected, some readers will take my comments in the wrong way thinking I do not like habitat for these specific wildlife. Of course that’s not true. For those seeking to look and see beyond the obvious, spoon-fed information, isn’t there wonder in what would be in these grasslands had the U.S. Government NOT established the communistic practices of paying farmers and ranchers to not grow crops or other things?
Government giveth and government taketh away! It’s only a guess as to what might have happened without government intervention…..both times.
It is sad to see, not only the loss of wildlife due to Bush’s ethanol insanity, but the economic losses for local economies due to the loss of hunting opportunities, the result of destroyed habitat. Of course the new corn and soy crops will create a different habitat for different species. Things are always changing. Hopefully, without more government control and interference, the creative local people will figure out a way to take advantage of a newly dealt hand.
But don’t count out government stepping in to ruin everything. It’s what they do best.
