I am glad of one thing, this issue has produced an interesting discussion on this web site. It seems to me there used to be such discussions, but that ended a couple years ago. Now it seems the most frequent info from the site is the latest sewage spill. It seems the discussion has tended to nit-pick the details, but ignore my main point. Is it really worth the cost in bad public relations to promote mountain lions in Iowa? But, nit picking the details is also fun. -A comment from Bill--dogs will also kill deer, especially in deep snow. Is it better from deer to die by a gun shot or being eaten alive by a pack of dogs? -I wouldn't shoot the mountain lion because other people were afraid of them, or from my own fear. I would claim a healthy respect for the lions. Whether you would or would not shoot the lion is simply a matter that good people have different FEELINGS about. -On that salt lick with birth control drug--I watch my science journals for any result where dear birth control has worked in a wild or captive population. I may have missed something and the technology keeps improving--but what I read of birth control efforts have produced miserable failures. That is contrary to the claim of wishful thinking animal rights groups. One method of birth control involved twice shooting the deer with a dart gun with a pharmaceutical. That also required an external mark on the deer since you had to know if that was dose one or two. After the first shot deer would not come anywhere near the baiting station where they has been shot the first time. I believe that was on Long Island in NY. Baiting stations with drugged bait seemed promising, but it required repeat visits to the bait. The deer came for awhile, but then decided they wanted acorns in their diet and move away and got insufficient doses of the drug. Birth control in a large fenced population at a government facility brought dramatic reductions the first year, but even with continued efforts they found 2 yrs later that the herd had returned to its high numbers. I loved the proposal that we could use a virus to sterilize deer. What if it mutated and got into my daughter? -In theory ecosystem management is a good thing with predators that control herbivores and low enough levels of herbivores to avoid impacts to uncommon or rare species such as plants. However, with our heavily impact agro-ecosystem that is really impractical. -I think a good question is what is causing the increase in deer populations in Iowa and, as mentioned, in Wisconsin. The classic ecology text would say thecause is the abundance of edge habitat. I would guess edges in Iowa are unchanged of have even decreased (with large farms and farm fields) over the last several decades. I would hypothesize that the milder winters due to global warming are the (somewhat difficult to prove) cause. Lanny Schwartz - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp