Now, I'm not against farming. And, please tell me how all those critters are going to live in an orange grove, or lettuce field? How much "wildlife" will a wheat field support? Any beavers running around an almond grove, or even a strawberry field, for instance.

Does it make sense that when land is cleared, plowed, planted, and sprayed the critters who used to live there don't, anymore?

Did a duck who managed to lay and hatch some eggs in your neighborhood make the news? It does in mine, and geese don't land here anymore, either. There are a lot of what used to be common critters you don't see much of any more.

You can trot out a few raccoons, some birds, and planted pheasants, thank God. And, those are things which qualify for "wildlife" to the more urbanized among us.

In my neck of the woods when a bear is forced out of his habitat by development, folks go nuts. It hits the news, everyone is told to stay inside. Or a deer, or elk. That's because they aren't around much any more.

We've chased them off, and with things like ANWR, want to take away what they do have.

When's the last time you saw a bobcat in one of those radish patches, or barley fields? Here, when one shows up they call out SWAT teams.

We've got some falcons who have survived pesticides nesting a ways off. Their eggs are coddled by the Fish and Game people. Why? Not because we've got a lot of 'em! And I live in a rather wild area, 60 feet from a couple of square miles of wilderness with deer, coyotes and raccoons. The 'coons visit almost nightly, trying to steal dog food, which they do, coming in through the dog's door from his run.

Heck, I spend a lot of time in undeveloped areas. You know what's rare? Grasshoppers are rare, used to be a lot of 'em. Garter snakes - I see maybe 1 or 2 a year instead of 8 or 10 a day when I was a kid. Butterflies? (Flying flowers!) Rare, and never any of the little orange ones which used to be real, real common. Robins - maybe 2 or 3 percent of what there used to be.

Nope, it's changed, a lot. At least here, maybe not in California or where Mary Anne is.

Arf