Written for High Plains Journal at HPJ.com
Remember back in the day when we were encouraged to plant a tree?
Well apparently, now the cool thing to do is to kill a tree. I recently received a phone call from a friend near Valentine, NE. She told me I needed to come see them cutting all the shelter belts out of the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge. So, I went and, sure enough, I witnessed the cutting and piling of 60 years of work and dedication to creating natural protection for the land and wildlife. The real reason, I have learned, is because the elite of the world have decided it is time to “Rewild Earth.”
I attempted to follow up on the stupidity of such endeavor and low and behold I found the flawed logic that is being repeated throughout the entire country as evidence by the link another friend sent me to a South Dakota State University extension newsletter that just came out:
Removing Mature Shelterbelts from Grassland
Shelterbelts and tree claims were initially established in this region during the homestead act as a source of shelter, fuel, and economic benefit to those settling the area. Since that time, additional shelterbelts of a variety of shapes and sizes have been added to the landscape. Primarily, these shelterbelts were installed to protect exposed agricultural soils from wind erosion.
There are three primary drivers that warrant substantial consideration when evaluating the need to remove or forego planting a shelterbelt for wildlife or conservation purposes related to grassland communities. Research has shown that shelterbelts can serve as perch sites for aerial predators, such as raptors. These perch sites have a sphere of impact around them that can extend for several hundred yards and can be detrimental to grassland birds. Shelterbelts, scattered large volunteer trees, and even lone trees in a grassland system (known as ‘wolf’ trees) can serve to impact the grassland wildlife community through predation by raptors and others.
Are you freaking kidding me?
In 1900, the Great Plains of America was barren. In fact, the earliest pioneers called it The Great American Desert. Through time and resource management, we have created a tremendously healthy ecosystem that enables food production, wildlife habitat and planet health. Who in their right mind can suggest that we don’t have a shelter belt because trees may grow in places you don’t want them. Don’t you have a chainsaw? And aren’t these the same raptors we have placed on the endangered species list
This is not just a situation in the Great Plains because if we look to the forested areas of the west, they are cutting and burying trees in the name of trying to achieve “carbon neutral” status. When will we finally draw a line in the sand and make them admit that none of this is about climate change but instead it is about the elimination of man from the planet they strive to accomplish? As a gentle reminder the human body is 18% carbon and net carbon zero by 2050 means no humans either.
At least some are not hiding it anymore. I recently discovered the movement called Rewilding Earth and you can read about their mission directly from their website:
The ultimate goal of rewilding efforts is to mitigate the species extinction crisis and restore healthy and sustainable ecosystem function in areas that require little or no human intervention or management.
That vision is of dynamic but stable self-regulating and self-sustaining ecosystems with near pre-human levels of species diversity. John Davis observed that ”Rewilding, in essence, is giving the land back to wildlife, and wildlife back to the land.”
At the end of the day, the very technology and resource management that built the irrigation system, wildlife habitat and an efficient food system is clearly under attack. Typically, when I identify a mission to attack the food system, I trace it back to some extremely well-funded NGO trying to control the land and resources. In this case, that well-funded group is being paid for out of your pocket! It is the very government that you and I and all future generations fund that is trying to put you out of existence.
They call it Valentine National Wildlife refuge, great article, great job as always! And yes once again they have changed the name to deceive us, from wilderness areas to rewilding areas, these same things are stated in the Valentine USFW 1999 comprehensive plan. In 1974 some major rearranging occurred in the USFW, by 1979 they weren't able to pay 100 percent of the set revenue sharing amount, set by legislators, in which case you or I would lose our land, but no, Congress gave them Appropriations, our tax dollars, $1,950,000 appropriation started in 1980. In 2022 they received over 13,000,000 in appropriations, and still only paid 21.7 percent of the legislative amount. In the meantime they are destroying all of the wildlife they are supposed to protect!
Thank you for shedding light on this subject.
Trent I remember the sing plant a tree by John Denver. Now morecand more are cut down to build homes that for the past two years stand half empty. Two are occupied . At what cost? Can't we At least use that land to grow food?