While trying to learn more about the holistic principles of Quality Deer Management, it occurred to me that what’s now being toted as the answer to Upper Michigan deer hunters’ big buck dreams might actually be a nightmare in the making. ("Yooper", incidentally, is a term of endearment for those of us who live in the U-per Part of Michigan above the Mackinaw Bridge.)

On a hunch, I typed QDM and Wildlands Project together in my search engine and up popped Judy Derrickson’s "Dirty Little Secret Behind PA’s Deer Management" on the Women Hunters’ Club site. Being familiar with the bad nasty business she wrote about, it was very obvious Judy had been doing some investigative homework as to why all’s not well in her part of America.

You see, many months ago I’ve began boning up on the Wildlands Project and the Biodiversity Treaty, which was signed by President Clinton in 1992. The treaty is promoted by the United Nations’ organization of organizations and uses, as its base, a plan to build a system of sustainable habitat for various species, including not only white tail deer, but also every Golden Gob Hopper and disputably endangered One-eyed Flying Purple People Eater adversely sensitive to human trespass. The plan is the Wildlands Project and, personally, I think it’s down right sinister. (Use search engine for "tracks of the turtle - wildlands")

The "Project" gives the appearance of following the tenets of "Pantheism", a belief that all of earth and all of nature is god rather than one true God being the creator of all things of nature, as Christians believe. However, the Pantheism issue is fodder for another chapter in the unfolding story of "Eco-Mania Comes To America", so I won’t go into it here.

What follows are the opinions and conclusions this American citizen has arrived at after a great deal of research. However, all who cherish their traditional outdoor sportsmen’s heritage, constitutional rights, and inherent freedoms will most likely be as appalled and outraged as I was when they realize that the machinations to bring the "Wildlands Project" to fruition have been in progress right under our unsuspecting Jane and John Q. Public noses for many years.

Without knowing all the details of the U.N. Biodiversity Treaty, which hadn’t been totally worked out by its proponents at the time President Clinton put pen to paper and signed it, its ratification by Congress almost became a reality.

At the last minute, however, respected scientist and ecologist, Michael Coffman, Ph. D, who at one time taught and conducted forest ecology and forest community dynamics research in my neck of the woods at Michigan Technological University, was able to arrange a meeting with a handful of our nation’s elected public servants in Washington, D.C. Dr. Coffman explained to them what the treaty and the conservation science of biodiversity was all about, and ratification of the treaty was halted at the 11th hour; halted, but being implemented right under our noses anyway. (‘Globalizing America’ www.discerningtoday.org -)

The Biodiversity Treaty served as an incubator for the Wildlands Project, which in part facilitates the transformation of at least 50% of the land area in the lower 48 states into one huge "eco-park" of sorts. The purpose of the Project is to identify areas, such as federal and state wilderness areas, parks, refuges, wetlands, and other designated sites, which will then serve as core wilderness reserves.

The core wilderness areas required by the Project are actually vast sustainable habitat acreage for wildlife and vegetation or any variety of real or imagined Endangered, Threatened, and Sensitive Species, including such things as plants, birds, mice, snakes, spiders, wolves, mountain lion, and grizzly bear. Core wilderness areas are to be surrounded by many acres of the remaining 50% of the land, which are needed for buffer zones to protect the core habitat. Additionally, more land is needed to inter-connect core habitat buffer zones through a network of travel corridors, which are also widely buffered.

The core habit area will be strictly off-limits to mankind. Human trespass into buffer zones and travel corridors will be extremely limited. Population management of all species except man, so far as yours truly has been able to determine, will be left to Mother Nature and Father Time, and natural occurrences such as forest fires and flooding will be allowed to run their course. In some areas, forest fires will be deliberately set and dams will be broken.

Thanks again to the oval office ink pen, invasive species will be severely controlled or eradicated because, you see, America is to be turned back, as much as possible, to the state it was prior to Columbus sailing the ocean blue. This, of course, gives rise to the question of whether or not our pets, our livestock, and some of the things we plant in our yards and gardens will be considered non-native invasive species by the eco-maniacs. In fact, Dr. Coffman puts forth the theory that, according to the Wildlands Project design, mankind could be considered an invasive species. One would presume, however, that true Native Americans shouldn’t have to worry about this issue.

This writer, though very much less knowledgeable than Dr. Coffman, would concur because information on the Wildlands Project Website indicates that human populations will need to be "humanely" controlled. Hmmm, is this where mental health testing in our nation’s schools comes into play so decisions can be made about who will procreate and who will not? But, this is yet another chapter in yet another book and it has to do with yet another U.N. Treaty known as "Agenda 21". (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/index.htm)

A simulated Upper Great Lakes Region map of the plan to protect biodiversity, one of several I purchased through Dr. Coffman’s Website, shows no habitat area in Upper Michigan for humans except for a couple of small Native American Reservations. All of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are a part of the designated Upper Great Lakes Region. There are thirteen regions in the lower 48 states, several of them overlapping. (Search ‘maps of the wildlands project’ to see where you fit in!)

The science behind the Wildlands Project was created largely by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, also known as the World Conservation Union. The IUCN is another organization of organizations and it boasts on its Website of a membership consisting of many government agencies including the EPA, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Non-government conservation organization IUCN members include the National Wildlife Federation, which allows only one conservation organization per state to be an affiliated member, with the Michigan United Conservation Clubs being it’s largest; the National Audubon Society; the Sierra Club; the Nature Conservancy; the Wildlife Society; Defenders of Wildlife; and a vast many others. (www.iucn.org - members)

Bio-diversity is kind of hard to define, but it revolves around the variety of living organisms, the genetic differences among them, and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur or have residency. An ecosystem is a system whose members benefit from each other’s participation, much like maggots and turkey buzzards do with dead or dying life forms. It can be as small as a tiny puddle or as big as the entire Earth.

The purchase of land and subsequent development of protected habitats for the repopulation of each and every surviving organism formerly found in pre-Columbus America will take up a whole heck of a lot of our public and private land. And that, my friends, is part of the reason why we’re witnessing the frenzied land grabbing, road closures, wilderness and off-limits habitat designation, wetlands designation, and species repopulation proceeding full steam ahead all over our Nation.

Unfortunately, we tend to only look at our little corner of the world and so don’t realize that saving the disputably endangered One-eyed, One-eared Flying Purple People Eater and its threatened pristine and jeweled habitat is endemic from sea to shining sea. (Search your state name plus endangered species list; also www.redlist.org and/or http://endangered.fws.gov/wildlife.html)

Though by no means the only organization facilitating the government land grabbing, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has certainly been doing their part not only in the States, but globally. TNC is a multi-billion dollar, multi-national bio-diversity conservation group with one or more district offices in every state in the Union and also in many foreign countries. (www.nature.org)

Without an invitation from taxpayers, TNC has worked for years in partnership with some of our government agencies to help find funding for public land purchases. If funding isn’t forthcoming, TNC will often buy the land and hold it for the party wanting it, keep it for their own use, or sell it to someone else at a nice profit. They also do this by inserting themselves into little and big communities that, for some reason, suddenly find themselves faced with lots of pristine and jeweled countryside that needs protection from development. Thus starts the "visioning" process, questions of human trespass-land use, and stakeholder meetings to decide the future of the area, regardless of what it does to the tax base of struggling villages. (Search Washington Post – nature conservancy; also see www.landrights.org)

They also offer "Conservation Easements" that provide significant tax breaks to private landowners, but which also limit how private land can be used, even if it’s later sold to another individual. The easements help prevent land fragmentation, as it would apply to sustainable wildlife habitat areas. (Search for nature conservancy – land grab; also www.propertyrights.org and www.upwaterfront.com, view listings – Mt. Lookout)

In some cases the ethics TNC has employed to get its biscuit hooks on land has been questioned and there was a particularly sad example of this in Indiana when they wanted Professor Frederic A. Gibbs’ 135-acre farm, which was adjacent to Indiana’s Moraine Nature Preserve. (www.undueinfluence.com -green groups –nature conservancy)

The Wildlands Project maps, particularly one showing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where most of my family and friends live, very closely resemble the "public" land already controlled by the federal, state, and local governments; the federal and state "public" land boundaries now being expanded; land in the process of being acquired for "public" use; land parcels known to be listed as future government acquisitions for "public" use; and land now controlled or coveted by various ecological bio-diversity driven non-governmental organizations.

Then there’s land designated as U.S.-U.N. Biospheres like the one in my area at Isle Royale National Park, just forty miles or so off the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, but headquartered on the mainland in Houghton. Biospheres have no boundaries and just tend to eat into the surrounding areas as Americans concede more and more area through restrictions on traditional land use. (Search US Man – Biosphere Program)

This causes me more than a little concern because the land grabbing thinly veiled as "for the public good" could very possibly be a ruse that will slowly lead to completely shutting down our already struggling Upper Peninsula economy. Ultimately, it could force out the people who live here so "public" land can then be freely used to repopulate Upper Michigan with pre-Columbian species specimens and stabilize their buffered habitat according to the mandates of those running the show ala the Wildlands Project. (http://www.biodiversityproject.org - links)

If you’re wondering where the people who live in my neck of America will eventually go, the Wildlands Project calls for humans to be "managed" in clustered sustainable communities of approximately 10,000 near existing urban areas, probably in Eco-villages not unlike one found at www.sunward.org, which also provides links to newer sustainable Lower Michigan Communities. (See www.sustainable.org; also http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/sustainable.htm)

I don’t know about you readers, but this tax paying American citizen thinks it’s far past time for those who cherish their constitutional rights and their outdoor sportsmen’s heritage to get their collective heads out of their nether regions and open their eyes to what’s really going on.

Being environmentally conscious when it comes to the conservation and management of all our resources isn’t a bad thing, and for the most part we outdoor sportsmen have always been the true conservationists. But, when the eco-whacko mind-set becomes so maniacal that it infringes on the constitutional rights and inherent freedoms of all human beings, it’s time to call a halt to it.

A loud, clear, and collective outspoken voice needs to be directed toward all of the politicians and bureaucrats working in our state and federal capitols who make decisions that should be in the best interests of all Americans; not just in the best interest of those who trumpet the pre-Columbian value of every One-eyed, One-eared Flying Purple People Eater variety of every real or imagined endangered or threatened species known to man, and those that truly aren’t threatened or endangered at all.

If this can’t be done, then I suppose we might as well plan on gathering our families, locking our front doors, and begin winding our way along the Whiteman’s Trail of Tears to those little eco-villages where we can be humanely controlled and bring our sustainable provender home from the community’s sustenance store by hand cart and then freeze to death in the dark.

I began this article for Women Hunters Club by stating I was researching Quality Deer Management. What I didn’t share with readers is that there is a proposal to cram QDM right down the throats of all the good people of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan whether we want it or not. QDM, toted by the Georgia based Quality Deer Management Association, is being trumpeted in the Upper Peninsula by an orange camouflage good old boy Yooper outfit calling itself the Superior Deer Management Association.

They’re toting it as managing our whitetail herd for older bucks with bigger racks. Balderdash! It’s about managing wilderness habitat according to the sustainability tenets of the Widllands Project. It’s about convincing hunters they should shoot the bejudas out of doe and fawn to reduce herd density so the whitetail deer aren’t munching down on the endangered Golden Gob Hopper’s pristine and jeweled gob hopping habitat.

Well, this old "Yooper" lady isn’t about to go silently into the night quite yet. But, as I’ve said before, this is fodder for yet another chapter in the unfolding story of "Eco-mania Comes To America".