2 Responses

  1. DWA
    DWA September 10, 2013 at 10:44 am |

    I’m rarely upset at Jeff Meldrum. I am here.

    Jeff, what good is it to “be skeptical of reports from Nebraska because the state doesn’t have the expansive wilderness necessary for a large primate”?

    How much such territory does this animal truly need? The Great Plains were once crawling with grizzly bears – just ask Lewis and Clark – and they’d be there still if we just denied their existence and didn’t bother them.

    When the numbers are smaller, which seems likely with this animal, and no one’s bothering it, well, just how doubtful is it, given that there is lots of food?

    When the local authority treats the kid’s report seriously, it seems wise not to shoot a potential breakthrough in the foot right off the bat. I really wish scientists, even Meldrum, would stop issuing all these “informed” opinions about things we just don’t know for sure yet.

  2. jswatek
    jswatek September 17, 2013 at 1:20 pm |

    Nebraska is not the Great American Desert. The bluffs along the Missouri River are covered in trees. Buffer areas of trees follow all the state’s rivers and surround the lakes. The Worlds Largest Man-Made Forest is in North Central Nebraska. Nebraska is also known as The Tree Planter’s State where J. Sterling Morton founded Arbor Day in 1872. Yes, there’s plenty of farmland, but farmers also plant “shelter belts,” wide borders of trees, to cut wind and prevent soil erosion.

    All this tree cover offers beltways for animals to move through and around the state. That is shown by the multiple sightings and the movements of mountain lions seen throughout the state in the past 10 to 15 years.

    Thanks, Loren, for your counterpoint comments.

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