Re: NANFA-- Columbia trip gear (hellbenders plus!)

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Thu, 08 Jan 2004 12:02:15 -0500

The harm is imperfect knowledge that they may be common, the other side of
the coin. We all know things change quickly in many areas, and this is a
species with very specific habitat needs. Today's G4-G5 in many areas may be
tomorrow's G2-G3, as range shrinks and populations exist as isolated
islands. This may sound paranoid and overdramatic but look at the history of
the last 200 years in North America. You can also go out and collect
ginseng, green salamanders, Carolina parakeets, chestnuts and eastern
cougars. Ain't nobody looking but God...

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A

>From: archimedes_at_bayspringstel.net
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: "nanfa_at_aquaria.net" <nanfa at aquaria.net>
>Subject: Re: NANFA-- Columbia trip gear (hellbenders plus!)
>Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 23:16:12 -0500
>
>Quoting Bruce Stallsmith <fundulus_at_hotmail.com>:
>
>
> > animals or as preserved specimens. Overcollecting has been considered a
> > serious threat in Arkansas (Osborne, pers. comm. 1992); a decline was
>noted
> > in the early 1990s, apparently due to collecting (1992, End. Sp. Tech.
>Bull.
>
>I would have to go to the primary sources, but I treat "pers. comm." and
>"apparently" with suspicion. I'm not saying you're wrong - I would just
>have to
>get the information firsthand. It sounds like recreational collecting
>should be
>off-limits for certain AK pops, but where the animal is S4 or S5, what's
>the harm?
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