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Agree 100%. Ames has brought in an outside company (Tall Timbers) to renovate their quail program for field trials. They are using a multi pronged approach but one major prong is trapping. They've been putting out scent stations and shortly they will put out 100's of traps with electronic notifiers when they get sprung. They are working on habitat now. I think they have a good track record for building a sustainable environment for quail.
Tall Timbers are the best quail managers I know.
 
The only time I'm "for" killing a predator is when that predator is non-native, such as coyotes.
100% agree.
Although I DO NOT want bears or mountain lions in my area . . . once they arrive (and they will), I will not be pushing for their elimination. They are natural predators in our environment.
My perspective on certain species, such as bears & mountain lions, is all of West TN & most of Middle TN is no longer THEIR environment. We humans have displaced it for them. Would you like to also bring back free-roaming bison? Would make almost as much sense to me.

While black bear are in fact native to TN, and actually thriving in the areas most approved for their existence (national forests/parks in East TN), the Western cougar was never native to TN. Our Eastern cougars went extinct before we were born.

It is a challenge to decide just which native species we humans can today co-exist in our environments (much of it urban), and just what population density of those sometimes dangerous-to-human animals may we co-exist.
 
Just my take on these comments ...if an animal treks to your area and makes it their home it is their natural environment now but if trapped and placed not so much . There are reasons certain animals are far away from their natural environment but mostly likely it's due to human development that has driven them from their natural environment.
 
I would have never thought I would see the day when hunters pushed for reducing hunting, I have lived long enough to see it from the hard core Trophy hunters, mother nature will end up changing that mindset at some time in the future, I probably won't be around to see it but it's coming. look at Oregon, I am sure they would have never thought about that ever coming to a head. Sad days in some ways.
 
What I'm getting at is I'm not "for" killing predators simply because they lower the quail population. Those predators are a natural part of the environment. The only time I'm "for" killing a predator is when that predator is non-native, such as coyotes. Although I DO NOT want bears or mountain lions in my area (they are both serious deer predators), once they arrive (and they will), I will not be pushing for their elimination. They are natural predators in our environment.
The nonnative only argument, particularly around coyotes, strikes me as hollow. Coyotes have captured a niche in the east that was vacated by wolves when we removed them from the landscape. Are we ok with coyote killing because they're nonnative or because they're the most efficient deer predator on the landscape? If red wolves were having the same impacts, would we be ok with treating them the same as coyotes? How can we be certain that wolves and coyotes haven't fought over Tennessee across the years prior to European settlement?

What do we do with raccoons? There are certainly far more trash pandas in existence now because of human activity than what the land would've supported. I realize you aren't a bird guy, but could some of your coyote bias be due to deer?
 
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Is CWD real? Of course it is. I'm just not a believer in the idea deer densities are going to collapse because of it. Impact deer densities? Oh yes. Wipe them out, no.
Nature always wins. It's usually us that screws it up
 
100% agree.

My perspective on certain species, such as bears & mountain lions, is all of West TN & most of Middle TN is no longer THEIR environment. We humans have displaced it for them. Would you like to also bring back free-roaming bison? Would make almost as much sense to me.

While black bear are in fact native to TN, and actually thriving in the areas most approved for their existence (national forests/parks in East TN), the Western cougar was never native to TN. Our Eastern cougars went extinct before we were born.

It is a challenge to decide just which native species we humans can today co-exist in our environments (much of it urban), and just what population density of those sometimes dangerous-to-human animals may we co-exist.
All excellent points TheLBLman. There are native species we can tolerate within our current human world and some we cannot. Although they are native, I would NOT recommend or support reintroducing wolves to TN. Too many negative human-wolf interactions would be the result.
 
I don't know why everyone is so upset over the baiting law. You have always been able to bait, just not hunt over it, but you hunt 250 yards away from it, so the only thing it changes is that you can now hunt close by it. We have always used corn and protein pellets, but removed feeders before the season opened. The baiting law just makes it legal to kill a deer near your feeding place. If you are going to keep deer from congregating at a feeder, they will have to change the rules to no feeding anytime, and no mineral or salt blocks. We have been feeding deer for 20 years, and our population keeps increasing
 
I don't know why everyone is so upset over the baiting law. You have always been able to bait, just not hunt over it, but you hunt 250 yards away from it, so the only thing it changes is that you can now hunt close by it. We have always used corn and protein pellets, but removed feeders before the season opened. The baiting law just makes it legal to kill a deer near your feeding place. If you are going to keep deer from congregating at a feeder, they will have to change the rules to no feeding anytime, and no mineral or salt blocks. We have been feeding deer for 20 years, and our population keeps increasing
Boy you're ready with your baiting and straight wall.
 

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