THESE BULLS WERE ON THE JACKSON HOLE WINTER FEEDING GROUNDS. IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN THERE IT IS AN AWSOME SIGHT!
MOTHER NATURE VS MOTHER GOOSE: by Troy Andrew Smith
This is a subject that is very dear to me. I can only scratch the surface of it here in this little short article. Maybe, just maybe, it will start at least a few people realizing the difference between the two.
In today’s society, you may have heard me mention this before and I’m sure you’ll hear it again, if you keep reading my stories, we have gotten completely away from the Nature of things. In fact we gotten so far, as to say, we are really out of touch with reality. That’s harsh, I know, but stick with me here and maybe you will learn something… or not. For some of you I have my doubts but for others, there is always hope.
Somehow, back there in the Sixties a crack started to form between the rural and the cosmopolitan elements of our country. I guess there had always been a difference between the city mouse and the country mouse, but back in the olden days, I love that phrase, the difference was less severe. Then the two sides sort of co-existed in kind of a, ‘I don’t like you but I know you’re over there,’ kind of way. But, since the invention of television, video games, palm pilots and Mickey Mouse, the crack has grown into a full fledged canyon that I wish could be called Grand, but is instead very shameful. With all of the knowledge we have in the world and the multitude of forms of media that bombards us daily, you would think that we would all pretty well know the same things by now; but we don’t.
Being a child, raised in the rural part of the country, we were told horror stories, when we were kids, about the ‘City Dwellers’. I still remember the one about the kids in New York being asked by their teacher, “Where does milk come from?” And, according to our teacher, their answer was, “From a bottle.” There were other variations of this tale, “From a truck. From a carton.” I’m sure you get my drift. Now, we could not believe there were kids in the world that didn’t know that milk came from cows.
THIS MULEDEER FAWN WAS ONLY MINUTES OLD WHEN I TOOK THIS PICTURE
I remember back in my adolescence my best friend’s cousin, we’ll call him Ding Butt Denny, mostly because that’s what we called him back then, was from New Jersey. We could not believe how backwards and uncouth any individual could be when it came to the outdoors. For many years I believed all people from New Jersey were about a half bubble off plum. In Denny’s defense, I think it was just the environment Ding Butt came from and several others I’ve met have upheld my theory. As luck would have it, my significant other, the love of my life, the flower of my weed garden, comes from New Jersey. After many years together I no longer believe that people from New Jersey are half a bubble off plum; I think at least three quarters is probably more accurate.
Here are some of the reasons we believed Ding Butt was, shall we say, weird. Number one reason was he spent an entire bus ride, from New Jersey to Oklahoma, in mortal fear, believing the Indians were going to attack the bus. This was still in the day when parents could put a thirteen or fourteen year old boy on a Greyhound Bus and believe he would not only reach his destination but get there safely. His first trip out was somewhere around 1967, I believe, so in spite of rumors to the contrary, most of the Indians in Oklahoma at that time were considered civilized, at least until a Saturday night dance at the local V.F.W. We also, did have electricity and indoor plumbing at the time in rural Oklahoma. These were said to be two of his concerns as well.
Looking back I realize we may have been a little hard on Denny. But, before any of you brand us kids as being rough and tumble little red neck hooligans, even though there may be some evidence to that branding, I want to say here and now, we gave Ding Butt every benefit of a doubt possible before we realized he was weird. I mean he wore shoes in the summer even when he wasn’t hauling hay. After gazing upon the sight of Jack’s, the neighbor’s,new John Deere hay baler, of which Jack was very proud, Ding Butt pronounced to the world, he believed the machine was highly uncivilized. Uncivilized!! What ta Hell was he talking about? Uncivilized, this was a brand new piece of machinery. It didn’t break down. The bales were thight and square; easy to load and stack. It was twice as fast as it’s predecessor and it was a beautiful John Deere green color. Now, if he wanted uncivilized, he should’ve seen the one Jack bailed with before.
The other problem with Denny was he didn’t know how to do anything. He didn’t know how to bend his knees when he jumped out of the hay loft in the barn and roll like the guys did on that TV show Ripcord. It seemed Ding Butt wasn’t thrilled about the possibility of rolling into a fresh cow pie that might be plopped on the ground in the barn lot. Some of you out there may think that was a sign of good sense but here is the catch 22. Because of Ding Butt’s aversion to cow pies, when he did jump out of the barn loft he landed stiff legged with his knees locked so he wouldn’t fall down. Judging by the swift loss of color in his face and the high pitched careening sound he made through gritted teeth upon landing; that combined with the fact he did a slow tilt and then fell face forward into the very barn lot dirt he was trying to avoid contact with, makes me think his wasn’t such a great technique. Why did we need to jump out of the hayloft in the first place? If you have to ask, then maybe you’re from New Jersey too or some other equally uncivilized part of the country like L.A.
MORE BIG BULLS AT JACKSON HOLE’S FEEDING GROUNDS
But, I have digressed. We are talking about the way people have gotten Mother Nature and Mother Goose mixed up and confused over the years. What’s the difference? They are two different people entirely. Mother Goose is this portly elderly lady that tells bedtime stories to little children and in her world, blind mice go around chasing the Farmer’s wife. Mother Nature, on the other hand, is a beautiful woman that can dazzle a person’s mind with majesty and splendor. In her world there is a great exhilaration to living, because in her world blind mice get eaten and eliminated from the genetic pool so that only the strongest and best equipped to survive do survive.
Mother Nature, in my mind, is the best of the two by far. Give me a beautiful woman who’s a little dangerous any day… at least until it comes to time to sleep and then maybe I’d rather have a little more of a kinder, gentler, soul. Still, when you have the chance to ride into the back country in the Rocky Mountains or float a stream like the Snake River you can’t help but love Mother Nature.
The problem, we have as a society, is so many people live in Urban areas who get ideas in their heads they believe are true. So, they want to ‘educate’ the Rural people and make them live the way they say they should, even though there is no reality to their ideas in the first place. Don’t believe me? Let’s look around. First in the city. There is lots of wildlife in the city. What does the city do with most of it? They kill it. Smack! Why don’t they love their animals the way they tell us in the country we are suppose to love ours? Instead, there are all kinds of companies in the city, that make all kinds of money, killing the City’s wildlife… Orkin, Raid, Blackflag, the list goes on and on. Oh! Those are pests you say! Rats, Cockroaches, Spiders… They are nothing like a Bison or Wild horse!
Guess what folks, one man’s wildlife is another man’s pest. Now, don’t go to jumping down my throat before I get a chance to explain myself. I don’t like rats much either and I do love to watch wild horses and bison roam. The problem is, there is only so much room for them to roam. For example, a few years back a group based out of New York City protested Montana’s Bufflo hunting season. They protested with no idea of fact one about bison except they believed they were near extinction. That was a hundred years ago. We’ve got a good supply of the animals nowadays and I’m glad. But, there are still problems.
If any of you have traveled, like I have, Yellowstone National Park, back in the fifties or sixties and then go through there today, you will see a big difference in the number of bison. In fact the park’s herd has grown so much they have rooted other animals further into the back country, such as the Elk and Moose, or outside of the Park’s boundaries. Even the bison themselves start to run out of food in the winter and have to look for nourishment elsewhere… at least some of them do.
So, what’s the problem? Besides them eating feed meant for the cattle; Bangs disease. The Buffalo are carriers. If Bangs gets started in a cow herd, guess what, the government kills the entire herd. Wipes them out to the last animal. Guess what, Ranchers and Farmers don’t like to kill off their herd. So, here is the problem. Bison carry Bangs and they run out of winter food in the Park, so they cross the invisible Park boundary line and get over onto private land that belongs to the Ranchers and Farmers who have cow herds.
BISON IN THE PARK
Montana had a very smart solution to control the number of Bison that came out of the Park; they killed them. They did so by selling a Bison tag to sport hunters at a cost of $500, non-refundable. You put your name on a list and if a Buffalo came out of the park and your name was next, you had 24 hours to get to where you were told the animal was, meet up with your Fish and Game Officer and you could shoot you a buffalo. The money went to cover the cost of maintaining the wildlife in Montana. The shooter kept the head and I think the hide, but I’m not sure on that. The meat was auctioned off, which generated more revenue, which was shared by the State and the Indian Tribes.
FIND THE MOOSE: The bulls aren’t as impressive in the spring.
Oh! How awful the bleeding hearts cried before they ever studied a fact one. They protested the hunt, one idiot even attacked a hunter, who was holding a high powered hunting rifle, with a ski pole. They got the hunt closed and all the people in New York City rejoiced because they got the senseless slaughter of the endangered Buffalo stopped! How many Buffalo did they save? Glad you asked.
Buffalo still carry bangs disease. Rancher’s still can’t afford to lose a herd of cattle. The answer to today’s trivia question is: Not a one! The difference is; instead of the State of Montana getting the revenue from hunters and meat sales they now have to pay a Game Warden ( I don’t think they are called that anymore but you know what I’m talking about) to shoot the hapless Bison that wander out of the Park. Then they pay to have it, butchered (I believe the politically correct term now is ‘processed,’ but who gives a politicians ass?) and hauled to the Crow Reservation. It is then given to the tribe, all at taxpayers expense. Not a single Buffalo’s life was saved but it does cost the people who pay taxes every time one is killed… These, by the way, at least some are, the same people who protested the hunt. That might be a little poetic justice, if it wasn’t for the fact it’s costing the rest of us too. If they had wanted to save Bison lives, there is a lot of grass in Central Park. They could’ve loaded up the Buffalo and started their own herd there and managed them how ever they liked. Instead they pushed off their ideas onto people who have to live with them.
Wild horses are the hot topic around L.A. right now and I’m not even going to go there because I still have to live here. Before you condemn me, I love Nature. I’ve lived a very outdoor existence, way more than most, and have seen Grizzlies and Bison in the wild and I love to be able to so. I sat and watched a wild horse herd lope across Badger Basin at dawn one morning, it was awe inspiring. I even like the movie Billy Jack! But, there does have to be some common sense applied somewhere because we can have ‘too much of a good thing’ and then we lose it all.
It’s happened before, where good intentions wiped out all the animals in an area, not just the ones we don’t like. All I’m asking is for you to remember that Mother Goose is a fictious bedtime story. Mother Nature is real, at least the Nature part is, and she demands that things be balanced.
Maybe it would be a good thing if we all had to spend a summer working on a farm or ranch someplace while we are growing up? Maybe then we would all be able to learn where our food comes from, how much work it takes to grow it, and how much work, sweat, and money is involved with it by the time we consume it. Yes, Mother Nature is beautiful, dangerous and real but in the PR battles that decide her fate, it seems like Mother Goose is the one who’s winning… Like my Granddaughter Miranda is fond of saying, “It’s just not fair.”
ELK IN YELLOWSTONE PARK IN LATE SUMMER. IT JUST DON’T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS; IF YOU’RE AN ELK.
