Mon, 27 Feb 2006

Predators keep the world green, ecologists find

Yep - it's time for another Study in Stupidity. The leader of the "research team" is a professor of environmental science at Duke - and to reach this "startling" conclusion they studied a Venezuelan valley flooded 20 years ago for a hydroelectric project.

I could've saved them a lot of time and travel expenses if they'd have just asked. Hel, they could've asked any farmer, rancher, hunter or woodsman and gotten this answer. They could've visited beautiful Brown County State Park in southern Indiana and seen the effect a hunting ban had on the forest. Here's a hint, fellas: too many deer can deforest a parcel of land quicker than a horde of lumberjacks with a portable sawmill. Ditto for cows. Ditto for anything that eats plants. I've never seen a tree run away from a foraging goat, have you?

The only irony here is that university professors (and other "intellectuals") seem to have such a problem with the obvious.

Predators are, ironically, the key to keeping the world green, because they keep the numbers of plant-eating herbivores under control, reports a research team.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

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