Would Ducks

Concurrent with a personal call to eat less meat, I went out this morning to hunt ducks at the Stone Lakes state refuge, and bagged two wood ducks:

What a seemingly hypocritical stance, eh?

Stone Lakes refuge is about a 15 minute drive south, 15 minutes down...Franklin Blvd.! It's not the typical direction I usually take, but it's Franklin Blvd. nonetheless.

The refuge is the last refuge of an entire region that's slowly destroying its wildlife population and its habitat with relentless suburban sprawl. Where I live and what I've done by buying my own home played no small part in its destruction, and I admit to that. At this point, there's nothing I can do to change the past. I can only hope to blog to alert others of what will come if we (collectively) choose to continue BAU.

Today, grapes, winter wheat, and alfalfa are grown all around the preserve while suburban sprawl has crept within 4 miles and appears primed to creep even closer. There isn't sufficient cover for birds anymore, and coupled with fertilizer run-off from both farms and lawns which are choking the waterways with hyacinth and other 'bloom', there isn't any healthy water either.

This is the pattern repeated in every flyway in the nation. Let me be a partisan prick for a moment and make the assumption that all hunters are Republican. The party of guns, wildlife, and conservation. Sportsmen for McCain. On one hand, hunters espouse conservation and firearm rights, and on the other hand, drive their oversized trucks back to suburbia to jobs that promote further suburban sprawl, waterway destruction and fossil fuel depletion. Let me ask a question...what would a wood duck be? Would a wood duck, in an effort to keep his water clean, his habitat preserved, his source of food consistent, be a Republican?

Did State Republicans sponsor and endorse SB 375, the first meaningful attempt at reducing Californian suburban sprawl? Did Republicans, who espouse free market choice, not fight tooth and nail to prevent the ban of lead shot in SB 821 even for upland game? Did Republicans ever give a shit about the externalized cost of water pollution so long as the internalized maximization of free market profit is realized? Have Republicans ever stepped outside and declared "the air is plenty clean enough" even during 8-hour ozone non-attainment periods?

What wood a would duck be?

What would a wood duck be?