Of Coyotes and Coyotés

Of Coyotes and Coyotés

Binary Choice

Environmental Enganchadores

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            A vote that supports local customs, culture, and the agriculture economy by the Dona Ana County Board of Commissioners was not expected.

            For the record, it would be hard to point to a single action over the last decade that could be identified as pro ag by that domination of verdant liberals. Certainly, they claim to like chile and pecans, but it would be highly unlikely a single one of them has ever suffered a blister from the application of a hoe chopping weeds on a turn row.

            Chances are a turn row has never crossed their lips.

            And, this county, one of the truly unique agricultural universes of the southern United States, has suffered at their hands. Their legacy now supports a next generation recruitment rate of 17%. Less than one in five operations has a young steward being groomed in the wings. They have no idea their default attention has overseen the migration of one of the most unique crops on earth, chile, out of their Valley and south across the border.

            They have absolutely no understanding of the efficiencies of this state’s milking herd, and they have embraced Eco tourism over beef production across their arid plains. Behind the scenes, they are prodded by a cadre of environmental emissaries who espouse the concept of “10,000 years ago”.

            The question must be asked at some point, though. “What was this place like 10,000 years ago and will cell phones actually function when the locals start, once again, wearing conejo G-strings?”

That is something that the modern day green enganchadores have never explained much less understand.

            Of Coyotes and Coyotés

            The incident started when the embedded wildlife operator got the orders from headquarters to press the opportunity to more overtly advocate for coyotes. In the case of Dona Ana County, the mechanism, the use of Farm and Ranch Improvement Funds for predator and more specifically coyote control, was singled out for elimination. Those funds, which travel to Washington in the form of grazing fees paid by ranchers for the rights to graze on federal lands, come back to the county for six narrowly defined uses. Chief among the uses historically has been predator control and the agent has been the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services (WS) through contracted agreements with the county.

            These agents are not willy nilly shooters as attempted to be portrayed by the coyote advocates, but trained professionals whose leadership and expertise actually resolve conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist. Their integrated wildlife damage management approaches provide technical assistance and direct management operations in response to requests for assistance.

            In the case of Dona Ana County and all other rural and rural/urban interfacing New Mexico settings, the responses are immediate and targeted. Calls on coyotes are invariably the result of actual economic loss and or domestic pet conflict. The WS officials don’t roll in with loud music blaring, outfitted in full camouflage, and ARs greased as the environmental forces wanted to infer. They come in, assess the situation, and attempt to knock the problem down in as quiet and effective haste as can be applied. They are constantly aware of the potential urban conflict that modern society presents.

            What was abundanly evident in the incident was the leftist tactic that all Americans must understand and start defending against.

            Binary Choice

            If Liz Wheeler is not the candle holder for explaining the evil purpose of binary choice tactic in attacks from the environmental left, she certainly is the modern emissary of exposing its nefarious application and use.

The concept starts with the fact that the enganchadores are committed to a series of clearly defined and sacrosanct background issues. Global warming is a key and central theme of the immovable green cornerstones. It is akin to the ant den among common carpenter ants. It must be defended at all costs even if it means death to the colony of ants.

            Over time, the environmental defense of such core issues is defined by surface level talking points and clubhouse visuals. There is never any allowance of debate or new information allowed. Recycled words are constantly applied and that certainly is demonstrated in the prevailing press. Journalistic deceit is solidly a minute by minute norm.

            Any objection of the core issue is met by ostracizing the detractor. The tactic is placed in front of us as either we agree with the issue or we are evil, racist people. We either agree with the ideology or we are bad and worthy of disdain and permanent elimination from the debate.

            In the Dona Ana case, WS became the targeted enemy.

            Further, a single WS official, the official assigned to the district, was made to feel the intensity of the assault. As the debate raged over a month-long period, he grew to assume it was a personal attack on him and the impact could clearly be seen in both he and his wife.

            This was never about the concern of the most successful and adaptive predator of North America, the single species that is going to survive in the face of urban growth. This was an overt attempt to seize another control measure for the more important defense of the cause.

            The breakdown and the ultimate vote, though, was most interesting.

            WS started referring complaints by the general public to their respective county commissioners. If there was a skunk problem, the suggestion was to call a commissioner. If there was a rattlesnake problem, the suggestion was to call a commissioner. If there had been a rabies problem, a commissioner reaction was going to be a potential life and death matter.

            The vote was finally called, and three of the five commissioners voted to protect the public by renewing the WS contract. The other two commissioners, Shannon Reynolds and Manuel Sanchez … voted for their ant den and the binary choice.

            Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.