In rural Ontario we used to have bounties on foxes, wolves, raccoons and other predators. This was done in the name of protecting livestock but it
led to vermin eating up the
feed. Farmers were known to shoot birds of prey in the name of saving
chickens and they would shoot turkey buzzards in order to prevent disease. Now many of them create predator habitat as a means of combating pests.
My dad was fairly early to this line of thought and created a barn
owl refuge adjacent to the granary and corn cribs in the 1940s. Funny that he was enlightened in that way but continued to rid his
land of
trees until the early 80s. Now the place is half trees, no pesticides, no herbicides. In the 1960s he operated one of the first factory farms in our area and was indoctrinated by what he read on the side of bags of chemicals. He now knows that it was all bull shit. Dad started farming with horses. By his early 30s he was driving soil crushing monstrosities which needed so much room to turn around that it became necessary to eliminate all hedgerows, shade trees and other obstacles on large monoculture fields which were regularly poisoned with whatever latest miracle cure Monsanto could provide. Now at 78 he runs a small organic berry farm, the pool has been turned into a bog garden and he thinks before he cuts. So I guess we are capable of change. Dad went from the Stone Age to the jet age and back again.
At one time we were very short of beavers due to excessive trapping. Now in many areas with a shortage of predators the beavers are running rampant and dropping forest at a record pace. Predator numbers rebuild slowly while rats and beavers can be great-grandparents by their second year of life.
