https://www.biographic.com/welcoming-relatives-home/
"From our vantage point in a motorboat on the reservoir known as Franklin D.
Roosevelt Lake in eastern Washington, we scan the rocky canyon walls of the
Confederated Tribes of the Colville’s Hellgate game reserve for bighorn sheep
(
Ovis canadensis). Before it was a reservoir, manufactured by the United
States government’s Grand Coulee Dam, this was once a mighty, salmon-rich
stretch of the Columbia River that formed the basis of an entire ecosystem—and
that supported the 12 tribes of the Colville Confederated Tribes since time
immemorial.
The boat belongs to Rose Piccinini, the Tribes’ Sanpoil district wildlife
biologist. She is part of a team that manages the herd of bighorn sheep that
the Tribes’ wildlife department first reintroduced in 2009. She also leads the
Tribes’ efforts to restore lynx populations back into the ecosystem here.
The animals who shared this landscape were once fully integrated into every
aspect of tribal members’ lives. They harvested bighorn sheep and other game
for food, tools, and clothing. Intricate myths, legends, and teachings about
the animals were passed down by elders to descendants and bound them to who
they were—and who, as a result, their descendants came to be.
But then American settlers brought domesticated sheep and goats, and with them,
diseases that bighorns weren’t able to recover from. The succession of disease
exposures, against which bighorns had little defense, significantly reduced
their numbers and made them more vulnerable to impacts they might have
otherwise withstood. Save for a few small pockets in secluded locations, the
bighorns died off, and the herds disappeared from the landscape and the lives
of the Tribes."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-cancer-canada-elephants-africa-batteries-china/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
