Long thought extinct, the worm was rediscovered in the past year, occupying tiny swatches of the heavily farmed Palouse region along the Washington-Idaho border.
Okay, so that sounds pretty good so far. Maybe they really thought it extinct for good reason, then again maybe they just looked in all the wrong places. I will for the sake of argument say they actually rediscovered it and it is rare.
If it deserves more study, there will be a year long review to decide if
endangered species protection is needed, Buckley said.
Not so bad, pretty good consider that the Buckley quoted is a spokesman of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But as it usually would be once the bureaucrats step in, things are about to get, in my opinion, quite silly.
"When you consider how the Palouse prairie has been utilized, with all the agriculture down there, how anything like that survived the effects of agriculture is beyond me," Buckley said.
Did I just read that right? Someone, from the USFWS is wondering how it could be that an earthworm of some sort was able to survive in an agricultural area? Maybe I am a dingbat, or maybe I am just ignorant of certain very special conditions which this particular species of worm needs (or at least WAS THOUGHT TO HAVE NEEDED) to survive; or maybe I have just hit on one of the silliest statements I have ever heard about earthworms in my life.
Is this guy really serious when he says that survival of this worm, an earthworm, is 'beyond' him because it had been found in an agricultural area? Correct me if I am wrong, but earthworms thrive in many heavily used agricultural areas, and at least some of the reasons that they survive in such areas is because the conditions in agricultural areas are pretty much perfect for them. The soil is cared for on a regular basis, it is often turned, mulched, fertilized (with either natural or chemical fertilizers), and watered. When I do this in my garden, the worms have thrived - even when I have used chemical fertilizers, and when the insecticide from my neighbors lawns has drifted over my garden. I have seen worms thriving in gardens wherein insecticides and chemical fertilizers were widely used.
The article goes onto say:
He can also see other reasons the worm might need protection. "If you are a fisherman, it might be a bonanza if you found something like that," Buckley said.
Again, I have to ask, at least if the reporter reported this in context and it was not a joke, is this guy for real. What kind of educational requirements are needed to work for USFWS? Do you need any common sense at all? Does this government spokesman really believe that fishermen will be out there in the fields trying to dig up 3 foot long stinky earthworms when they can easily buy them on the cheap at places like Wal-Mart? Heck, if I go out into my back yard, and turn over a handful of the stuff in my very small compost pile, I will probably see at least 6 earthworms in it. Why would I bother driving out to the plains of the Palouse region in Idaho and Washington to look for a rare worm, only to use it as fish bait. They have got to be kidding, please tell me they were only funning us.
Besides all of that, get a load of this question posed by a so called 'worm supporter':
"What kid wouldn't want to play with a 3 foot-long, lily-smelling, soft pink worm that spits?"
I can tell you that not too many of today's kids would want to play with worms, and I have some anecdotal proof, or at least conjecture. What would that be you may ask? Well I'll tell you: THE WORMS WERE NOT REDISCOVERED BY KIDS WHO HAD DUG THEM UP TO PLAY WITH THEM. Kids today play with computers, Bipods, Play stations, X-Boxes, electric race cars, all sorts of other electronic gadgets, heck they even play with baseballs and Barbie Dolls, but not too many play with giant, smelly, spitting earthworms!
Had kids loved to dig em up and play with em, had fishermen thought them such great bait, then why haven't they been digging them up all along. Maybe just because they spit at you once you dig em up, and no one wants all that slimy worm spit all over em in the first place. Of course, maybe they are very rare, and kids and fishermen didn't know about em. Maybe now that they do, there will be a stampede of bored nature starved kids, and crazed fishermen, and wily worm hunters making for the Palouse Prairies. Maybe once they see the prairies, the fishermen, hunters, and the kids will realize that what little of them are left would be worth saving.
Of course all these worries about fishermen using them for bait, and kids digging them up to play with them only to be spewed upon by worm spit, are just so much spin put into all of this by the environmental folks, whackos n y opinion, who want to protect the worms and the prairies. Don't get me wrong. I see nothing wrong with protecting the worm in a sensible manner; nor do I see anything wrong with protecting part of a vanishing prairie if such is also done within reason. The things I find fault with are all the nonsense spouted out by so called experts, so called scientists, by government spokesmen, by worm supporters, and quite possibly by extremists (of one sort or another) who would pose themselves as protectors of our planets flora and fauna when all they really want is to push their will upon others. I am not saying this is the case here; yet I am saying my nonsense alarms have been clanging loudly since I read those quotes from that article.
Make up your own minds if this is nonsense or not. As for me, I am going fishing, I just found some bait that guarantees I'll catch a big one. I'll tell you about it someday, even if it gets away...
All the best,
Glenn B
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