FYI here is text of a letter I sent to a meeting that is being held today:
Dear District 6 Advisory Board members and attendees,
First, thanks to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department for the fine work you do for our natural resources.
I suggest we spend a bit more money on managing wetlands with prescribed fire. Its been known for a long time that weather, especially fire from lightning and grazing by everything from insects to bison developed grasslands worldwide, but we seem to mostly ignore it around here. Peek out the car window and you will quickly see many sloughs that have turned into thick bands of old cattail, and in many places thick with willow and even cottonwood trees. The best grasses for livestock and hay that once grew in these places are gone, shaded out and smothered, mostly by hybrid cattail that swept across the state about fifty years ago. And as the native meadow and marsh plants disappeared the birds and mammals went with them.
There is a lot of public land, including State Game Management Areas in southeast North Dakota where these overgrown conditions exist. My thought is that if parts of them, perhaps with some adjacent upland grasslands, were burned, then eventually put on a rest, burn, graze rotation, they would make wonderful demonstration areas where landowners could see the results of wetland restoration with prescribed fire and possibly apply the techniques to their own wetlands to produce both economic and wildlife benefits.
That's a well written letter halk, I hope the powers that be see it your way.
Chris,
There are fossil records that prove California suffered droughts that lasted 2000-2500 YEARS, prior to human habitation. Do you wonder about why it didnt rain then?
You shouldnt. Nor, should you worry about it now. It happens.
If, I live on land surrounded by Federal land that sees no management for fire suppression, it likely falls on me to decide whether I stay or go.
Ted,
I think you are a you are referring to a single drought that lasted 2000-2500 years, 25,000 years ago. You may recall that the earth was experiencing the height of the last ice age during that time. That's not happening now and the earth looked quite a bit different then.
In addition, fossil records also show that California has gone through mega droughts that have lasted from 20 to 200 years uin the past, the last being around 1300 AD. It would be interesting to know what the circumstances looked like across the globe at that time as well, but is known that during that time frame European records show that there was a "mini ice age" in effect. Again, no mini ice age occurring now either. One circumstance that was missing during those last prolonged droughts was the effect of 250 years of industrialization and the effect of chemicals that were put into the atmosphere as as result.
FWIW, I find, at least for me, that solving problems is often aided by asking questions as opposed to ignoring them.
