Northern WI wolf attack

[Glenn MacGrady]

Summary of canoetripping.net's latest fascination:
Marauding moose
Killer coyotes
Wicked wolves
Paranoid primates of the Homo Sapiens species

By far, bears have been the hottest animal topic—even when not described with adroit alliteration—for the entire 13 years of this forum and its predecessor, Solotripping.com.

But let's not forget our perhaps most prevalent and practical puny peril: TICKS!!! . . . in chronological order:

wood ticks

I hate coming home from canoeing and finding wood ticks buried in my skin 2 days later. What happens if you never found them? Do they stay there? I heard you can catch lyme disease from them. Anyway to keep them off?

www.canoetripping.net

Tick, Tick, Tick

This was to potentially be our only longer term trip this season just due to a planned trip home to visit our respective families in Southern Ontario. It would have been an exploratory trip into a new lake which had kept us at bay over the past few years due to low water conditions. I had...

www.canoetripping.net

Tick removal

I've never removed a tick properly, only in a panic. Hastily brushing them off is no way to deal with them if they've started feeding with mouth parts inserted into your skin. Thankfully I haven't encountered that yet, so I browsed through the tick treatment section of a local outdoor store, in...

www.canoetripping.net

Tips To Deal With The Great Tick Invasion

"I discovered a tick embedded in my crotch." — Kevin Callan https://paddlingmag.com/stories/columns/butt-end/ticks-invasion/ So did I, discovering it during this run of Rock Springs in Florida in April 2006: Three months later I came down with a debilitating fever of tick disease while...

www.canoetripping.net

The 2016 Tick-Tick-Tick thread unfortunately illustrates the increasingly disappearing fate of photos that are linked to transitory third party photo sites instead of being uploaded to this site's servers.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Oh, ticks......what - no blackfly thread?

 

[Gamma1214]

...what - no blackfly thread?

shh... that's shortly after ice-out.

 

[scoutergriz]

"I could tell it was our neighbour from up the block by the conspiracy paranoid stickers all over their bumper. And tailgate" there WAS one of those on the way to my daughter's house, then all of a sudden his pickup was gone, the lights were out and the grass was uncut- apparently putting a picture of your favourite politician's name in a noose or hanging from a gallows, is considered by the local popo and court to be a "credible threat of death", even if it is misspelled....

 

[Black_Fly]

Martin Litton, Jacque Cousteau, Edward Abbey, Richard Atonborough and others, all lamented on the inevitable encroachment humanity and our fascination with monetizing resources. Wolves will be a growing “problem” until they are eventually removed to make way for people. While we talk about preservation now, if population growth is not curbed, no amount of earth-friendly intentions will prevail. Ultimately, there’s really only room for one species.

And Canadians shouldn’t think they’re
immune, which is what I hear a lot of on the topic. We are fortunate to live in a shoulder era, when many species still exist outside of zoos or preserves. Even the great herds of the Serengeti have declined precipitously in my lifetime. Every park in Africa is precariously clinging to its role these days. My granddaughter is working on a sanctuary in South Africa right now. It’s all just industrial tourism for the masses, really, although I’d never tell her that. Let the illusion last a while longer for her.

 

[FloridaJohn]

Ultimately, there’s really only room for one species.

I assume you mean cockroaches.

 

[ppine]

In North America, ecosystems are becoming more complete all the time. Wilderness areas are growing not diminishing.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

In North America, ecosystems are becoming more complete all the time. Wilderness areas are growing not diminishing.

I think that is correct for the US lower 48 over the last four decades, but I'm not sure about Canada or Alaska.

 

[memaquay]

I suppose it depends on your definition of wilderness. Is a vast area in the middle of nowhere that has been clear-cut but sees very little human activity afterwards still counted as wilderness? That describes huge tracts of Northern Ontario. It does grow back, but if close to transportation corridors, it can be cut again in as little as 30 years. In my opinion, wilderness in Northern Ontario is shrinking at a steady rate.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I suppose it depends on your definition of wilderness. Is a vast area in the middle of nowhere that has been clear-cut but sees very little human activity afterwards still counted as wilderness? That describes huge tracts of Northern Ontario. It does grow back, but if close to transportation corridors, it can be cut again in as little as 30 years. In my opinion, wilderness in Northern Ontario is shrinking at a steady rate.

That explains where most our lumber has been coming from the last few decades since most of our mills shut down. Gotta rebuild after all these earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods.

It's not a happy thought.

 

[Black_Fly]

I’m a lifelong wilderness buff. From New Mexico, Arizona, Minnesota, Florida, Wyoming, Wisconsin. There’s a wide variation in what is considered “wilderness.” Furthermore, designated wilderness areas are more crowded, more surrounded by development, more impacted by human activity. With population doubling ever 50 years, protecting more wild land is crucial, but those areas can’t be considered wilderness, including that outside my back door in WI, which is logged, hunted, ATV’d (illegally) and is surrounded by roads and cabins. Furthermore, many areas considered wilderness are so developed for industrial tourism that their inclusion in the wilderness category, while once valid, is now laughable. Ed Abbey complained that preservation takes a back seat to making national parks accessible, for human visitors AND their machines. It’s a business, just like building dams was a century ago.