David, Bill Mershon and my grandfather were friends. My dad knew him but he was already pretty old by the '40's.
I always put up the passenger pigeon picture to remind sportsman to err in the direction of caution.
We are dumber than we think.
It never occurred to anyone that passenger pigeons required gigantic hardwood rookeries. And that to sustain their population there needed to be millions of them.
With regards the predator element, I guess it depends on which end of the equation you are on. Spraying insecticide probably has erased some bugs permanently. We'll never know. They didn't make the list of bugs we want. We don't consider that super predation. They didn't have an advocate. (all tongue in cheek of course) But whatever the reason we killed them, we did it, and they are gone.
I'm eating a venison thuringer sandwich today. Wild Salmon tonight.
I used to have apple trees that grew a variety that didn't require spraying. Apples hard as wood. Thick skins. Kept until the following summer. Sheep's Snout I think it was.
