Articles

Well-intentioned quail releases like the one described in the article below have never worked, and they have been tried for decades. In addition, private landowners release millions of pen-raised quail every year, without reversing the downward trend of wild quail populations.

Quail species have not vanished across much of the continent due to overhunting, climate change, weather, predators or so-called “fragmentation.” They have disappeared because of what we have done to quail habitat and quail health across their range. Some combination of the ever-growing use of agricultural chemicals, and reduced ‘animal impact’ due to widespread removal of livestock, and falling wildlife populations, have created a continent-wide downward quail spiral. Similar declines are also found in insect and songbird populations.

The combination of chemicals and no domestic or wild grazing has hurt the communities of animals, plants, and micro-organisms with which quail are symbiotic. While these practices may not kill quail directly they make them susceptible to quail epidemics and parasites that do.

About 60 years ago, Dr. William Albrecht, who has since been dubbed “the father of soil fertility,” wrote, “It is not the overpowering invader we must fear but the weakened condition of the victim.” While he was referring to humans and our food, his observation is equally true of the wild animals with whom we share this world.

The university ag departments were long-ago “captured” by the agro-giants that manufacture and promote this stuff. The ag departments host the wildlife departments. Several generations of wildlife and agricultural graduates – and their teachers – have been taught that fertilizers, antibiotics, herbicides, pesticides, and poisons are harmless to humans, animals including quail, and the environment. Until we study quail and habitat decline outside of that intellectual box, we will continue to examine and treat symptoms while ignoring causes.

As Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Livestock are very useful in maintenance grazing. Any animal is better for the environment than weed and grass poisons.

As described below, sheep are useful in places that are too tight and delicate for machinery or cattle. Sheep are also very good in vineyards. Their only shortcoming is that they prefer grass to weeds.

Goats prefer weeds to grass but they can’t be used in solar farms, vineyards, or home gardens because they will “eat” solar panels, grape vines, shrubs, and ornamentals.

Videos

There are at least 13-species of bats found in Greater Yellowstone, which includes Pitchstone Waters Ranch.

Bats are among the most under-appreciated, misunderstood, and necessary of all the mammal predators. All this and much more is discussed in the excellent video posted below.

The scent-detecting area of a grizzly bear's nose is a hundred times larger than a human's. A grizzly can zero in on the smell of food a mile away, from rotting carcasses to vulnerable young elk.

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https://pitchstonewaters.com/blog/