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Here is what we’ve been reading, watching and writing about over the past week…

Articles

A Plant That’s Everywhere is Fueling a Growing Risk of Wildfire Disaster

As reported in this article below, the invasive plant warriors have a new enemy. Their latest villain is grass, which CNN says is an invasive, dangerous plant.

The true problem is too few animals eating the grass. This is called ‘herbivory’. Many scientific studies show that wherever herbivory has collapsed, catastrophic wildfire has evolved. What makes wildfires ‘catastrophic’ versus ‘natural ‘is how much heat excess fuels generate. Megafires are symptoms: the root cause is too few animals eating plant material in forests and prairies, which coevolved with huge numbers of plant eating animals. Taking cows and bison (herbivores) off the land created an imbalance in nature. Excess fuel built up in forests and grasslands. This extra fuel has led to megafire.

Quit blaming climate change and invasive species, and get animals back on the land.

More here →

Videos

How Bison Are Saving America’s Lost Prairie

Quoting the makers of this very interesting video, “The Nature Conservancy reintroduced 300 bison to this prairie in 1993, and the herd has grown to more than 2,000 animals today. They graze on the majority of the preserve, playing an important part in enhancing the prairies. Combined with a method of land management known as patch burning—preserve managers torch about a third of the acreage every spring, summer, and fall, mimicking ancient seasons of fire—the tallgrass prairie is thriving.”

In order to once again have wild bison on open ranges, they will have to be treated for brucellosis, as will the cattle herds with which they will inevitably commingle.

More here →

Wolverine

Quoting the producers, “Wolverines are also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or quickhatch. Wolverines are the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae, carnivorous mammals that include weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks and wolverines, among others.”

The wolverine has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size (15-55 lbs), with the documented ability to kill prey many times larger than itself.

More here →

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And that’s it - as always thank you..

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