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Thread: Blackfooted Ferrets Discovered in SD

  1. #21
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    Last edited by bowfin; 11-12-2012 at 03:37 PM.

  2. #22
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    That could depend on the part of the country, in the short grass country even the crp land that has not had a cow, or buffalo on it, the grass does not get over a foot high. Any prarie dog town I've been around has a circle around every mound that has no vegetation, when those circles reaches to the neighbors circle they are forced to move out to eat. Maybe the NM praire dogs just eat more than them up north.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by starmac View Post
    If the black footed ferret is going to go extinct, like many species and subspecies before it, there is nothing mankind can do about it. it is what it is, just part of evolution.
    Just look at the BILLIONS spent to save a vulture that should have gone extinct many years ago. Not to mention the restrictions put on hunters to keep about 100 of the birds from possibly finding and eating the bullet that killed another animal.
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  4. #24
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    OP asks for opinions, then argues about them. I'm betting the Sioux make some nice tobacco bags.

    By the way, they aren't going to make big tourist bucks off of this. Rosebud and Pine Ridge aren't exactly tourist type destinations.
    Last edited by waksupi; 11-02-2012 at 03:15 PM.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
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  5. #25
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    The major foreigner's attraction in Fort Smith is not the hangman's court, but the ***** house down the tracks a thousand yards or less. About half of the registered visitors are from the Orient. ... felix
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  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowfin View Post
    Okay, I need you guys to THINK instead of giving a knee jerk reaction...really...

    The Indians own the land. Land that contains blackfooted ferrets now is worth MILLIONS of dollars when the Indians sell the conservation easement to the Feds or to some big conservation or wildlife organization.
    As a member of the probable buying org. [US Citizen] I would be against overpaying for land from another nation. If the ferrets got there naturally they should not be considered as endangered, therefore there should be no premium price paid for ground sold. This just tells me too many fools think things are endangered when they are probably not.
    [The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze

  7. #27
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    Unlike many on this thread I have absolutely no problem paying for the privelege to hunt! On my trip to Rosebud I bought a tribal hunting license and hired a guide. In return I got room and board, and a guide that put us on GOOD dog towns already cleared to be hunted by the landowner. I call that paying for services rendered, nothing more or less. I'm SURE I could have found places to shoot on my own, but being the landowners didn't know me how successful would I have been getting permission to hunt on his property? If you are going to an area to hunt and spending some fairly big $$$ on the trip while having a limited time to hunt doesn't it make sense to pay a guide or a landowner to make your trip as successful as you can?

    As far as using hunting or poisoining to control the dogs, it should be up to the land owner AND NO ONE ELSE!!!! I've had a similar situation happen to me where the enviro whacos hire a GOOD hunter, or in my case a botanast, to "find" an endangered animal or plant on a person's property and then use the endangered species act and the courts to force whatever they want to happen on the land owner. In my case, spraying my pasture field with 2-4-D "cured" my problem. As far as "overgrazing"goes, I'll ask only one question. If YOU were in the cattle business why would you try to graze more cattle on a piece of property than it would support? The fact is if you try to sell sick, malnourished livestock you WILL loose money BIG TIME!!!! Buyers simply won't buy them.

    FWIW: I own a farm and wouldn't even think of charging someone to hunt on it! I only ask folks to let me know they are hunting on me, don't shoot at my livestock, don't tear down the fences and take your trash home with you. So far it's working out fairly well.

  8. #28
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    I fail to see how the ferrets are worth billions. Who is paying to go see them?

    What I DO see happening is that a land owner will be told that he can't run cattle there, can't poison the dogs, can shoot the dogs, can't do anything. He will be told he can't do a dang things with his land because the ferrets are there.

    Yep, sure sounds like a great deal for a land owner.

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by felix View Post
    The major foreigner's attraction in Fort Smith is not the hangman's court, but the ***** house down the tracks a thousand yards or less. About half of the registered visitors are from the Orient. ... felix
    Is this ***** house a new addition to Fr. Smith? I spend quite a bit of time at Ft. Chaffe during the late 70s and early 80s, but never heard of a ***** house. Ft. Smith is a really nice town with, with super folks and located in a beautiful part of the county. I thought about retiring there by my wife wanted Texas, so that is were we landed.

  10. #30
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    felix

  11. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowfin View Post
    Money talks. Live ferrets are worth more than live cattle to the landowners. They won't need the middlemen any more, but my guess is that they really didn't need them before, it's easier to take a little bit of money than have to manage your own land for more money. Probably end up having the guy who found them hired to collect money from the Feds and conservation groups to run ferrets on the land rather than cattle.

    We won't go into the whole other can of worms about being good stewards with what the Lord provided...
    A live ferret may be worth more than the cattle but how does the land owner make a profit from it? He can’t sell the ferrets so where is the money coming from?

  12. #32
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    Last edited by bowfin; 11-12-2012 at 03:37 PM.

  13. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowfin View Post
    Prairie Dogs "ruining land" is one of those urban legends, mostly told by ranchers who want to ruin their own land by overgrazing. Go up to Teddy Roosevelt National Park and see for yourself, don't take ANYBODY else's word for it. They have prairie dogs there...and buffalo...and grass higher than any of the pastures where prairied dogs are "controlled"...but not cattle grazing. Prairie dogs are blamed when they eat the last 1% of the grass left by overgrazing. I can show you a lot of bad pastures that look like moonscapes here in Nebraska that haven't had prairie dogs within a hundred miles for a hundred years.

    My opinions are formed from ancestors who ranched in the Sandhills of Nebraska. They pastured their land like they wanted it to grow grass next year. They had prairie dogs on some of it.
    I was born and raised 60 miles from Teddy Roosevelt National Park and I still go through two or three times a year. I am not seeing what you are seeing. Prairie dogs, Buffalo and Cattle will all overgraze land if allowed to. Profitability of grazing land is based on carrying capacity of the land. I have rancher friends that have land with and without prairie dogs. On the land without prairie dogs they can run significantly more cattle or buffalo without overgrazing. My childhood best friend has 600 buffalo and yes they will overgraze if allowed to.

    One of my rancher friends that is also an avid prairie dog shooter planted some on his land about fifteen years ago. He thought he could control them with shooting. It was the best town I had ever shot but even with heavy shooting it grew fifty acres a year to about 900 acres before he poisoned them all. He never told me what he thought the prairie dogs cost him but he did state planting prairie dogs was the worst decision that he had ever made and it almost bankrupt him. What I did see with my own eyes it that when the town was 900 acres the land didn’t have much grass for grazing and he didn’t have very many cattle on it. Since the prairie dogs are gone I see lots of grass and lots of cattle.

    One study points to the fact that the grass in a prairie dog town has higher nutritional value. I believe this to be true since what grass is they is moist and green. The problem is that there is very little of it and when late summer and fall come around there is none left yet the land without prairie dogs still has a lot of graze available.

  14. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowfin View Post
    "It's funny that there used to be enough grass to feed millions of buffalo, elk, antelope, and prairie dogs indefinitely with no problems.

    Quote Originally Posted by bowfin View Post
    Seriously though, it prairie dogs keep spreading if they aren't poisoned, why didn't they denude the entire Great Plains and starve out every other grazing animals and themselves hundreds of years before there were cattle and ranchers?

    The problem is the type of usage the land is subjected to. Before fences the buffalo and antelope migrated. Today’s buffalo and cattle don’t migrate. The land that they are on needs to sustain them year around and in much higher number than hundreds of years ago. Today there are 98 million cattle in the US. Up until recently it was thought the buffalo herds were 60 million but based on carrying capacity that has been lowered to 30 million.
    Last edited by M-Tecs; 11-02-2012 at 06:12 PM.

  15. #35
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    Like Houndog, I went out to Rosebud tribal land for dog shooting this year too. You can also hunt big game and Buffalo. Ecomonically, it looked like a different world to me.

    Our guide took us out to good dog shooting everyday. I don't see how a couple ferrets can change all of the land they have there. They have thousands and thousands of acres. Do the bunny huggers have that much $$ on tap? They couldn't stop the Minnesota wolf hunt this year.

    Would a tribe sell their control of a land to the highest bidder through easements. I doubt they would sell it all.
    Oh great, another thread that makes me spend money.

  16. #36
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    ummm you ain't buying a conservation anything on a reservation.
    the tribe owns the land.
    you deal with the tribal council, you ,me the cows and the ferrets will all be dead long before you get a decision from them.
    i don't think you could buy tribal land if you wanted to, had the money, and they wanted to sell it.
    maybe lease it for a period of time for the price of the national debt,but buy it?
    i don't think so.
    and an easement? no,,,, not gonna happen.

  17. #37
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    When white man first came to the great plaines there were MANY predators that would feed on P Dogs. All kinds of birds of prey.foxes,coyotes,ferrets and snakes to keep the P Dogs in check.

    Also what would happen to a P Dog town when a stampeding herd of bison trampled over it?
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  18. #38
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    As soon as you have anyone connected to the government start "studying" something, the people on the land are screwed. Happened with wolves, spotted owls, wolverine is next on the list. I've also see the conservation easement thing. After a few years, someone connected to them, just happens to end up building a really nice house on the property. If the Sioux are smart, they will go out and poison all the ferrets, before the greenies get into it too deep.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
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  19. #39
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    They should catch them ferrets and turn em loose IN Washington, DC or maybe Chicago!!! LOL
    You Know You Might Be Facing your DOOM , if all you get is a click, Instead of a BOOM !

    If God had wanted us to have Plastic gun stocks he would have planted plastic Trees !

  20. #40
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    Right now they should put them in the sewers of New York as they seem to have a very large rat problem after the storm.

    OOPS sorry they are NON UNION ferrets so they will be sent back home.
    WE WON. WE BEAT THE MACHINE. WE HAVE CCW NOW.

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