Thursday, May 13, 2004
Wisconsin WMD?
Ever since the Wisconsin DNR launched the CWD offensive, the parallels to the Vietnam War have been striking. DNR managers in the field calling themselves "Commanders." Talk about the tremendous "firepower" available to the DNR via organizing the hunting community behind the game plan. The rural communities where the infected deer (Viet Cong) resided were essentially "invaded" by DNR sharpshooters and non-resident shooter-hunters on search and destroy missions. While great efforts were made - with partial success - in organizing the local populous in the War effort to root out the Viet Cong (whitetail deer), many people in the villages resisted and provided refuges for the enemy (deer). I could continue writing the parallels, but you get the idea. Perhaps one more. Launching an "unwinnable" war, refusing to recognize the mounting signs that it is "unwinnable" and continuing to commit financial and human resources into fighting a lost cause while other important needs are starving for these same resources (LBJ lost his Presidency and his "Great Society" programs went down the drain because of the Guns vs Butter tradeoff the war required).
Recently it has struck me that there is also strong parallel to the present War. And curiously it involves Wisconsin own John Kerry but with different spelling: John Cary. Mr. Cary was the UW programmer who, at the request of the DNR, prepared the computer model and multi-media show the agency used to scare the legislature, the hunting community, and northwoods small business people into believing a billion dollar crisis was upon us that required swift, bold, and decisive action to thwart it before it was too late. And thus the 15 million dollar War Against the Deer was launched in rural Mt. Horeb, Barneveld, Black Earth and Arena Wisconsin.
Now 2 years later, we hear little of the Cary model. It never was validated by the Academic community and in fact was challenged in a professional journal by scientists whose credentials in deer population dynamics far exceed those of Mr. Cary. The dire doom and gloom model forecast of the certain extinction of Wisconsin deer herd simply doesn't get any credibility these days. Even the DNR has quietly walked away from this Weapons of Mass Destruction myth. Witness how when an infected deer is found in new territory, the DNR is now willing to plod along at a snails pace determining if the area should be invaded (or Not) by armies of shooters and named an official War Zone. The Cary model would stress the utmost importance of extinguishing the infection at the earliest possible stage. So by their actions (or inaction) you know the DNR no longer believes its own WMD myth.
While no WMDs have been verified, the Deer Wars continue because the bureaucracy that created the myth and launched the War is unable to let go of its creation and adapt to the reality that the sky isn't falling afterall.
--ross
Recently it has struck me that there is also strong parallel to the present War. And curiously it involves Wisconsin own John Kerry but with different spelling: John Cary. Mr. Cary was the UW programmer who, at the request of the DNR, prepared the computer model and multi-media show the agency used to scare the legislature, the hunting community, and northwoods small business people into believing a billion dollar crisis was upon us that required swift, bold, and decisive action to thwart it before it was too late. And thus the 15 million dollar War Against the Deer was launched in rural Mt. Horeb, Barneveld, Black Earth and Arena Wisconsin.
Now 2 years later, we hear little of the Cary model. It never was validated by the Academic community and in fact was challenged in a professional journal by scientists whose credentials in deer population dynamics far exceed those of Mr. Cary. The dire doom and gloom model forecast of the certain extinction of Wisconsin deer herd simply doesn't get any credibility these days. Even the DNR has quietly walked away from this Weapons of Mass Destruction myth. Witness how when an infected deer is found in new territory, the DNR is now willing to plod along at a snails pace determining if the area should be invaded (or Not) by armies of shooters and named an official War Zone. The Cary model would stress the utmost importance of extinguishing the infection at the earliest possible stage. So by their actions (or inaction) you know the DNR no longer believes its own WMD myth.
While no WMDs have been verified, the Deer Wars continue because the bureaucracy that created the myth and launched the War is unable to let go of its creation and adapt to the reality that the sky isn't falling afterall.
--ross
