Shooting everything will not solve problems

Why is it that whenever wildlife seems to get in the way, the "Sarah Palin" philosophy — kill them — seems to take over?

This happened with the starlings recently in Franklin. There are also many people suggesting that we do the same with Canada geese. Well, this method did work in the past with the passenger pigeon, the Carolina parakeet and other species hunted to extinction.

Let us remember the original cause of these problems. European starlings were introduced to this country by early immigrants who missed not having the birds from their old homeland. When it comes to Canada geese, it has also been mentioned by some that "these geese are no longer migratory birds."

Consider this. Over the years hunters have gathered in marshes along migration fly-ways and killed many geese during their annual migration. This left the birds on inland ponds and retaining basins untouched. Geese constantly being shot at during migration would soon choose these safe ponds to spend the season. There is also the real possibility that when migrating flocks were shot at, birds that knew the route were eliminated. With these leaders now gone, there are fewer birds that know the route. This has happened with whooping cranes where ultra-light aircraft are now being used to reintroduce the birds to the fly-ways they had used for centuries each spring and fall.

Nature abhors a vacuum. So if you get rid of one species, another will take its place. To eliminate air strikes from birds by killing the geese, would you then kill cranes, herons, gulls and the like? I'm sure biologists and engineers can develop some method to eliminate these air strikes. There has to be a better solution than shooting everything that gets in our way.

We caused the problem in the first place. Let us not exacerbate these problems with the wrong solution. We should have learned by now that two wrongs don't make a right.
E. George Strasser
Monroe