Once again, The USDA's recalcitrant Forest Service revises history to suit it's interests.

Bill Bryson said something to the effect of: "When you here Forest Service, you think of a noble agency, working to safeguard forests. What they actually do is build roads. Lots and lots of roads."

Maize...you call it corn...

Why do you think this is bogus, McGraw?

It sounds perfectly logical to me that the population explosion brought on by the domestication of maize would have had profound effects on the environment. You've probably seen Charles Mann's article "1491," it has been posted on MeFi several times I think. Mann shows how a revolution in archeology is pushing anthropologists and historians to recognize that Native American populations on the eve of conquest may have been whole orders of magnitude greater than we have ever been willing to entertain.

Part of the recognition of large native numbers is the idea that they must have had a far greater effect on the environment than perviously realized. Native burning may have actually created much of the Great Plains, for instance. And archeology suggests that the number of Indian hunters and gatherers was large enough to keep down the number of buffalo, elk, passenger pigeons (and now, mussels). When European disease hit in the 1500s and wiped out perhaps 90% of the Indians, the numbers of such species exploded in response, producing the superabundance of buffalo, for example, noted in the journals of Lewis and Clark.

LarryC, you are absolutely right.

I designed this post in mock-indignation for humourous effect. I didn't put it together with an overt wink to the reader, though. And for pointing out how ridiculous my fpp tone is, you win LC.

This has been a test of the MeCha mock-outrage detection system. LarryC, you have passed this test.

[Incidentally, the period/link was my clue that I wasn't serious, complete with rollover text.]

Links for LarryC, who has won the thread.

i'm outraged.

OH YEAH?!

a) disease or sealife huh?

b) not bird

c)

d)

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