Thank you! Thank you, Hank, for relieving my guilt!
A few years ago, I noticed a very large patch of ramps in our local park. Knowing what I know of the people living in this area, I doubted that many(or even any) would recognize them for what they are. So I carefully dug up 10 plants in their entirety and transplanted them to an area on my property where I thought they might thrive( they did!).
They spread and did well, so now I have my own little patch of ramps. I rarely use the bulbs, but I freely cut the leaves whenever I need them in season.
I admit, I felt quite guilty all these years, but now I am redeemed!
BTW, the original patch didn’t seem to suffer from my thievery and has expanded quite a bit.
As usual, wonderful smart writing about important topics, thanks! Just to add two-cents re hunting over bait, I became a "late-onset deer hunter" (official terminology) in my mid-60s, in TX and NY. Norms in one were illegal and/or unethical, opposite in the other. One thing really impressed me: in TX if one puts in the time one will get at least one deer, and odds of a PROPER human kill shot are excellent. In NY as I recall hunters average less than one deer/year, opening morning sounds like a war-zone, with strings of shot implying running deer..you get the picture.
The corollary to this is, I think, that though nuance is unpopular online, it actually works GREAT in conversation a lot of the time, and in my experience actually makes a lot of real change in small but significant ways when it's brought to bear in individual interactions. And the people who stick to it insistently (I'm looking right at you, here) earn a kind of respect from their followers that is abiding in a way that no tiktok following ever will be, where we can say, clearly, *this person's approach continues to change my life for the better*. That's rare enough and precious enough that other people tend to perk up their ears when they hear it.
My mother has a recent Substack on a similar topic (jasminedonahaye.substack.com/p/lowering-the-temperature), and seeing gifted writers like the two of you talking more about this frankly gives me hope for the future of our discourse even as it seems to degrade around us.
'Texas is one of several states that allows deer raised in captivity to be released into the wild. Conservationists say that allowing deer from breeding facilities to co-mingle with wild deer is what contributes the most to the spread of the disease. '
'Whatever the intended purpose, bait and feed sites congregate deer in unnaturally high densities and keep them returning to small areas. This human-altered scenario is very different from a deer herd’s natural behavior. Depending on time of year, they typically exist in small family and bachelor groups distributed widely across the landscape. This evolved social behavior allows them to capitalize on food and cover sources while minimizing crowding, stress, habitat degradation, and disease transmission.
Abundant research by the University of Georgia, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and others highlights how easily deer are attracted to bait/feed sites for research and hunting purposes, and how these sites increase deer-to-deer contact rates. If one or more animals are harboring a pathogen or parasite, its spread to additional animals is enhanced by increased animal-to-animal contact at bait/feed sites. While deer may not leave their home range to visit these sites, they quickly shift their core area or establish a new core area closer to bait/feed sites. This behavior may provide an additional food source, but it comes with numerous negative, and sometimes deadly, aspects.'
I just had that sort of argument with a gardener friend regarding the use of Round-UP (aka glyphosate).
It's indiscriminate overuse in agriculture, especially as a desiccant is horrifying. It's single time use to get control of something like Canada Thistle, poison Ivy or quack grass in a garden (especially on heavy clay soil) is a completely different matter. Your article applies to so many things where people completely refuse to acknowledge nuance and context.
Care-full thinking, considering, listening, even deciding and perhaps judging. Watching. It's a good way to grow, learn, change my mind or even say "actually, I'm right about this one". Thank you, Hank.
Agreeing with Cheri and others: Nuance and context is ignored - and The Algorithms will make it worse. My thousand-shades-of-gray brain has a hard time dealing with those in only black-and-white (which might be ironic?). Thank you.
I expect you remember the days, Hank, but I used to bash my brains against the brick wall of absolutist positions in the hunting community. The problem with them is that if you follow the constructs to their logical terminus, you end up with a null solution.
Consider "Fair Chase" (a topic that still gets bashed about without mercy).
"Fairness" is a human emotional construct. It doesn't exist in nature. It's a measurement we apply to grade our behavior... to score ourselves and achieve some sort of social ranking. It's a rubric for bragging rights. In somewhat current terms, I suppose it's kind of "aura farming". There's nothing wrong with that in a homogeneous social group with shared values and ethics, but it needs to be recognized for what it is.
Point being though, that if you finally distill hunting practices down through a lens of "fairness," you end up at teeth and nails. Even then, I expect some folks will find qualms with the advantage of our human cleverness against the "innocent" prey.
Etihcs are situational. That's why it's perfectly fine in some states to sit a stand and hunt over bait, while other states ban that activity outright. That's also why scale matters, as you called out. It's perfectly fine for a small handful of foragers to selectively harvest some bulbs or mushrooms, but not so much for a squadron of folks to clear a single hillside. The former is relatively harmless (even beneficial), but the resource can't support the latter.
But at the end of the day, Hank, I think it's true. Nuance may not be dead in our culture, but it can smell the dirt in its nose.
Deborah
Thank you! Thank you, Hank, for relieving my guilt!
A few years ago, I noticed a very large patch of ramps in our local park. Knowing what I know of the people living in this area, I doubted that many(or even any) would recognize them for what they are. So I carefully dug up 10 plants in their entirety and transplanted them to an area on my property where I thought they might thrive( they did!).
They spread and did well, so now I have my own little patch of ramps. I rarely use the bulbs, but I freely cut the leaves whenever I need them in season.
I admit, I felt quite guilty all these years, but now I am redeemed!
BTW, the original patch didn’t seem to suffer from my thievery and has expanded quite a bit.
As usual, wonderful smart writing about important topics, thanks! Just to add two-cents re hunting over bait, I became a "late-onset deer hunter" (official terminology) in my mid-60s, in TX and NY. Norms in one were illegal and/or unethical, opposite in the other. One thing really impressed me: in TX if one puts in the time one will get at least one deer, and odds of a PROPER human kill shot are excellent. In NY as I recall hunters average less than one deer/year, opening morning sounds like a war-zone, with strings of shot implying running deer..you get the picture.
Keeping in the nuanced middle ground takes so much energy ... but it is where kindness and humanity live.
Thanks for this.
Can't love this piece enough.
The corollary to this is, I think, that though nuance is unpopular online, it actually works GREAT in conversation a lot of the time, and in my experience actually makes a lot of real change in small but significant ways when it's brought to bear in individual interactions. And the people who stick to it insistently (I'm looking right at you, here) earn a kind of respect from their followers that is abiding in a way that no tiktok following ever will be, where we can say, clearly, *this person's approach continues to change my life for the better*. That's rare enough and precious enough that other people tend to perk up their ears when they hear it.
My mother has a recent Substack on a similar topic (jasminedonahaye.substack.com/p/lowering-the-temperature), and seeing gifted writers like the two of you talking more about this frankly gives me hope for the future of our discourse even as it seems to degrade around us.
I thought one of the main arguments against baiting was the spread of CWD. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/13/texas-deer-chronic-wasting-disease-quarantine/
'Texas is one of several states that allows deer raised in captivity to be released into the wild. Conservationists say that allowing deer from breeding facilities to co-mingle with wild deer is what contributes the most to the spread of the disease. '
https://deerassociation.com/can-baiting-and-feeding-really-spread-deer-diseases-faster/
'Whatever the intended purpose, bait and feed sites congregate deer in unnaturally high densities and keep them returning to small areas. This human-altered scenario is very different from a deer herd’s natural behavior. Depending on time of year, they typically exist in small family and bachelor groups distributed widely across the landscape. This evolved social behavior allows them to capitalize on food and cover sources while minimizing crowding, stress, habitat degradation, and disease transmission.
Abundant research by the University of Georgia, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and others highlights how easily deer are attracted to bait/feed sites for research and hunting purposes, and how these sites increase deer-to-deer contact rates. If one or more animals are harboring a pathogen or parasite, its spread to additional animals is enhanced by increased animal-to-animal contact at bait/feed sites. While deer may not leave their home range to visit these sites, they quickly shift their core area or establish a new core area closer to bait/feed sites. This behavior may provide an additional food source, but it comes with numerous negative, and sometimes deadly, aspects.'
I just had that sort of argument with a gardener friend regarding the use of Round-UP (aka glyphosate).
It's indiscriminate overuse in agriculture, especially as a desiccant is horrifying. It's single time use to get control of something like Canada Thistle, poison Ivy or quack grass in a garden (especially on heavy clay soil) is a completely different matter. Your article applies to so many things where people completely refuse to acknowledge nuance and context.
Great article.
Care-full thinking, considering, listening, even deciding and perhaps judging. Watching. It's a good way to grow, learn, change my mind or even say "actually, I'm right about this one". Thank you, Hank.
Agreeing with Cheri and others: Nuance and context is ignored - and The Algorithms will make it worse. My thousand-shades-of-gray brain has a hard time dealing with those in only black-and-white (which might be ironic?). Thank you.
Thank you, Hank! This is an excellent examination of these controversies. Yes, nuance is definitely ignored.
I expect you remember the days, Hank, but I used to bash my brains against the brick wall of absolutist positions in the hunting community. The problem with them is that if you follow the constructs to their logical terminus, you end up with a null solution.
Consider "Fair Chase" (a topic that still gets bashed about without mercy).
"Fairness" is a human emotional construct. It doesn't exist in nature. It's a measurement we apply to grade our behavior... to score ourselves and achieve some sort of social ranking. It's a rubric for bragging rights. In somewhat current terms, I suppose it's kind of "aura farming". There's nothing wrong with that in a homogeneous social group with shared values and ethics, but it needs to be recognized for what it is.
Point being though, that if you finally distill hunting practices down through a lens of "fairness," you end up at teeth and nails. Even then, I expect some folks will find qualms with the advantage of our human cleverness against the "innocent" prey.
Etihcs are situational. That's why it's perfectly fine in some states to sit a stand and hunt over bait, while other states ban that activity outright. That's also why scale matters, as you called out. It's perfectly fine for a small handful of foragers to selectively harvest some bulbs or mushrooms, but not so much for a squadron of folks to clear a single hillside. The former is relatively harmless (even beneficial), but the resource can't support the latter.
But at the end of the day, Hank, I think it's true. Nuance may not be dead in our culture, but it can smell the dirt in its nose.
it's easy look down your nose at something when you think you have your head up in the clouds when it really is up somewhere else