River watcher: Wildlife scarcities should always be a cause for alarm

When Stu Shaner of Oroville broached the question of "What has happened to the beaver along the river?", I agreed that I hadn't seen any for some time during the summer, nor their normally prolific gnawing signs.

With the coming of autumn I noticed several small trees and shrubs had been gnawed down, and by February, their transgression on full-sized cottonwoods had become alarming.

When something is missing or diminished in any environment, those concerned about the preservation of nature start wondering and worrying. It's the same with Audubon bird counts; if there is a decline or absence of a species, there is alarm and usually an effort to find out why and if some new menace has crept onto the web of life.

Like miners using canaries to detect lethal gases in the mines, what would affect the birds would/could be a peril for mankind. The lack of a gas detector in a well that John Muir was digging for his dad nearly ended the future naturalist's life before he even had a good start.

As I thought of the beaver, it occurred to me that I hadn't seen muskrat for a long time either, even though most of those nocturnal furbearers aren't seen in the daytime. Muskrats and fox are more likely to be noticed in the light of day as they make some forays for food. Most of the furry don't want their pelts taken by furriers. Have those vicious-looking salmon scared away the river denizens?

Those who care about life on earth groan with the extinction of any species, somewhat like I grimace at each dead squirrel I see hit on the road in Oroville. You can't save them all, and even hunters are allowed a share in the harvest of the surplus, but still, like Albert Schweitzer said, you can swat a mosquito and still have reverence for its life. Often it is the gesture and example that counts the most.

I am always uplifted in the autumn when the gulls arrive to clean up the dead salmon. They seem to bring a memory of the ocean with them, and their joyous flight and feather-whiteness, like the white snow geese and white buffleheads, are a precious sight as autumn gives way to drab winter.

Back in my home state of Missouri, people are asking, "Where are all the quail?" The local conservation agent, Jeff Berti, gave some reasons bobwhite quail are at a decline, and even though predators and hunters take some, he contends harsh weather of recent times and especially loss of protective habitat are the main reasons. Modern agricultural trends have been particularly harsh on quail and other wildlife too, as the culprit greed has slipped in, causing removal of fence rows, planting crops to the edge of the road, and the relentless quest to raise more corn for ethanol on unsuitable land. Five million acres of conservation land has been lost in the corn quest.

It seems a "bat-wing mower" is now used that cuts low, destroying bird nests, when formerly mowers clipped high and farmers left corners and other protective weed-patches unmowed. It is a vicious cycle when agricultural methods clash with wildland preservation. Even though society depends on agriculture, land users have literally plowed up much of America and misused the soil, thus taking away those woodlands and weedy fields that are vital to wildlife.

On my boyhood farm, part of a lespedeza field with ditches was left untouched to become my wildlife haven study area that I called "The Corner." It was amazing what a fine refuge for wildlife that quarter acre became. Quail certainly thrived there, as well as a profusion of songbirds and wild critters.

Some species devastation is due to natural tragedies, especially infestations of microscopic diseases, and of recent note, a "wasting disease" has affected starfish along the West Coast, causing gooey disintegration of the echinoderms. Even sea water pumped into aquariums has brought the disease with it, killing many of their starfish. Even overpopulated deer herds are subjective to a type of wasting disease.

When you consider the vast extinctions of the past — dinosaurs for example — extinctions that occurred in five great episodes, it is evident that life is begot with perils. Keeping sufficient habitats healthy is of vital importance to keep our present Earth occupied with wildlife.

"What would the world be, once bereft,

Of wet and of wilderness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet."

— Gerald Hopkins (1844)