Critter Mgt. Letter to Editor
A COUNTY OF OSTRICHES by Jim Beers

They “want an additional $138, 099” “to hire a second assistant wildlife biologist” “tasked with helping residents co-exist safely with wildlife” and “community outreach” and “representing the Animal Services Division at ‘community’ meetings”. We are told the current bureaucrat “can hardly find time to oversee all wildlife programs, including deer and waterfowl management, as well as return the more than 20 calls he gets from citizens every day.” Shades of “the kids are all flunking so let’s pay the teachers more”. Is it still OK to invoke divine help?

This problem has been festering and growing for years right under the noses of County bureaucrats and taxpayers. Most wildlife is benign and enjoyable from a rabbit in your yard to a cardinal singing from the top of your highest tree. Many of the others as noted above are problematic and cause far more issues than any purported “ecological” good claimed by folks that would neither kill an animal nor allow someone else to do so. The problem species mentioned above MUST be reduced severely in numbers and areas of occurrence on a continuing basis. There is no other solution.

The “answer” is population reductions and sustained programs to keep the numbers and distribution tolerable in such a densely populated area. Ironically, the excitement and enjoyment of seeing wild animals is greatly increased when they are relatively rare and not seen as either life-threatening or as an environmental contaminant. This means killing them (transplanting, like “birth control” and “learning to live with them” are foolish, ineffective, and merely wishful thinking) and not tolerating (as County policies to date demonstrate) propaganda, pandering to radical agendas and the waste of funds and personnel (miniscule as it may be) masquerading as some sort of “management” program.

The question is really, how much longer can a rich County delude a County of taxpayers with their heads all buried in the sand that the answer to this deadly and costly dilemma is “co-existing”? As a retired US Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist take it from me; the reason there were no ostriches in North America was because when they buried their heads in the sand, coyotes and wolves thought it was a scent post but after duly marking it they realized what it was and ate the ostrich. These critters are still doing the same thing to the taxpayers of Fairfax County.

Jim Beers
7 April 2007
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- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Centreville, Virginia with his wife of many decades.