Trapping is Ecologically Sound
Promoting Science Based Wildlife Management Decisions for a Better Massachusetts
Folks in the business of wildlife management care about the welfare of wildlife. The long-term sustainability of wildlife populations is extremely important to us and is our highest priority. Wildlife biologists spend a lot of time and effort monitoring wildlife populations, mapping critical habitats, and acquiring and managing land for habitat conservation. For most of us, what we do for a living is not a job, but our passion.
In what might seem to be a contradictory sentiment, but we also believe that regulated utilization of the resource is not only ok, but ecologically sound and, in some cases, has great environmental benefits. It would be inappropriate to suggest that those people morally opposed to killing should change or abandon their personal convictions. he regulated utilization of a locally healthy, abundant wildlife population often results in significant ecological benefits.
BENEFITS INCLUDE
* Regulated harvest helps to maintain wild populations (decreases the potential for negative interactions between humans and wildlife, i.e. bears at bird feeders or on porches, coyote attacks.)
* Regulated harvest provides a local, healthy, organic source of food (or clothing) with minimal impacts to other resources. Many of our other sources of food and clothing require the conversion of wildlife habitat (cotton - bear habitat, citrus groves - wetlands; beef cattle - prairie and desert ecosystems), transportation costs (use of gas/oil, pollution, energy for refrigeration, etc.), and often the use of a broad array of chemicals and pesticides to produce.
bullet Regulated harvest helps to maintain some populations in ecological balance with their habitat (deer, muskrat, beaver, raccoon) many which are increasing due to human changes to the landscape (loss of predators, conversion of forestland to suburban/agricultural habitats.)
* Regulated harvest helps to control populations of introduced exotics such as nutria in the south eastern United States.
* Regulated harvest helps to protect declining, rare, threatened, or endangered species by targeting specific predators that are negatively affecting recovery efforts (i.e. red fox, raccoon, and skunk predation on piping plover nests). Regulated harvest provides an opportunity for millions of people to interact with nature and the out-of-doors thereby fostering stewardship and conservation efforts.
There are many threats to the earth's environment and the wildlife populations that depend on those environments. Challenges lie ahead for those of us concerned about the future of our wildlife. Increasing human populations could result in the continuing loss and fragmentation of habitat from the permanent conversion of open space to roads and subdivisions. The introduction of exotic species such as purple loosestrife, mute swans, and zebra mussels all negatively affect native flora and fauna. Possible changes in our natural processes (global warming, etc.) might influence the stability of our ecosystems in ways we do not yet understand. We need to work together to sustain our natural resources. In the United States and Canada today, the harvest of our wildlife is carefully monitored and controlled and is not a threat to the long-term sustainability of the species.