29. August 2008 by admin.

Even those who have lived in America’s metropolitan areas all their life are aware of, or know something about poisonous snakes. As of this writing there are thirty-one recognized species and seventy sub-species of rattlesnakes that are currently classified. In the United States, Arizona holds the record for the most diverse number of rattlesnakes in the lower forty-eight states. The literature reports seventeen different rattlesnakes are known to exist in Arizona. Other than the mountain peaks above 11,000 feet in California and 9,000 feet in other parts of the lower forty eight states, the only areas of America where you are unlikely to find a rattlesnake are northern and eastern Maine, northeastern Wisconsin, upper Michigan, northern Minnesota, northeastern North Dakota, the north west coastal area of Oregon and western Washington. I have spent considerable time in the northern and central Adirondacks of New York and the only snake I saw there was a Ribbon Garter. If rattlesnakes exist in the Adirondacks, the population must be quite low.

This article will discuss a few of the more common poisonous snakes you might encounter in various regions of the United States, and provide some information about each of them.

Rattlesnakes, Copperheads and Cottonmouth snakes are venomous pit vipers which have a heat sensitive pit on either side of the head that is larger than their nostrils. Their young are born alive. They have a triangular head and vertical pupils. A few researchers have tried to classify the aggressiveness of various species, and there are measured differences in the toxicity within the numerous species and subspecies. But, there are many possible variables if you are bitten by any of the poisonous snakes. The poison of some species is more toxic than others. The size, and therefore, the quantity of poison delivered would be a factor. Perhaps the snake utilized its poison prior to your being bitten, and the quantity of toxin you receive might be less. Some “bites” can be delivered without the snake opening its mouth, and no poison is injected. The best advice is to treat every bite as potentially dangerous.

Perhaps the most dangerous rattlesnake in North America is the Western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox), because more people are bitten by this snake than all other poisonous snakes combined in the United States. The primary reason for this is the population density of diamondback rattlers is significant, and it inhabits a large area of America’s southwest. It is prevalent in most of Mexico, large areas of Arizona, New Mexico, most of Texas, southern Kansas and southern Colorado, and western Oklahoma. The Western Diamondback can reach a length of eighty-nine inches, and weigh as much as fifteen pounds. It is almost as large as our country’s largest rattlesnake, the Eastern Diamondback (C. adamanteus), and size is important as it relates to the amount of poison that could be delivered in a bite. However, ounce for ounce, the Western Diamondback’s venom is more potent than the Eastern Diamondback’s.

Timber rattlesnakes (C. horridus horridus) are common in the state where I grew up and attended school in Pennsylvania. In certain areas of the state the population is quite high especially from the southwest Alleghany Mountains through the north central and western areas of the state to the counties along the northern border. Likewise, there are areas of Pennsylvania where the population is exceptionally low or completely displaced due to development, agriculture displacement and other limiting conditions. The Timber rattlesnake can be as large as six feet in length, but the average size varies from three to four and half feet for adults. This short tempered snake’s bite causes rapid swelling, a large bruise and hemorrhaging in the area of the bite. Fatal bites are possible from Timber rattlesnakes without proper medical attention. The largest I have measured was fifty-four inches. Though I have never been bitten by a venomous snake, I had two close calls in “Penn’s Woods” with Timber rattlesnakes, and one from a Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen). This pit viper inhabits much of Pennsylvania, and is of the same Genus as the Cottonmouth, which does not inhabit the state, but is found to the south in the coastal plains of Virginia and throughout many of the southern states.

Where I now live in north western Wyoming and during my time in western North Dakota, I have only encountered Crotalus viridis viridis, the Prairie rattlesnake, a sage colored pit viper (viridus is Latin for “green”), which rarely reaches 5 feet in length. The majority range from two to three and half feet in length. The Prairie rattlesnake’s poison is composed mostly of myotoxin, which rapidly destroys muscle cells and causes paralysis. The toxin is designed to incapacitate small prey quickly so it does not escape. The Prairie rattlesnake is not to be trifled with as its venom is unusually potent and rivals that of the Timber rattlesnake in spite of its small size.

There are four subspecies of Copperheads in the United States. The Northern copperhead (A, contortrix mokasen), which has been identified in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Central Illinois, south to the higher elevations in Mississippi, and northern Georgia, and west to the Mississippi River. The Osage copperhead (A. contortrix contortrix) occurs west of the Mississippi River, in extreme southeastern Iowa, northern and central Missouri into extreme southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and extreme northeastern Oklahoma. The Southern copperhead inhabits the lower Mississippi Valley to southern Illinois and in the southern Coastal Plain from extreme southeastern Virginia to Texas though it is not in Florida. The Broad-banded copperhead inhabits the Great Plains to central Texas.

Most rattlesnakes are readily identified by the rattle on their tail. Pit vipers are born alive, and rattlesnakes are born with a rounded pre-button on their tail. Young poisonous snakes are equipped to deliver a poisonous bite at birth. Research has shown that the small amount of toxin a baby Prairie rattlesnake can deliver is three times more potent than that of the adult. The number of rattles are not related to the age of the snake, but are related to the number of times the snake sheds its skin each year. The frequency of shedding of the skin depends on how much the snake eats and is growing, and in most instances they shed from two to four times a year.

I have no personal experience with the Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus “fish eater”), and that is just a matter of dumb luck, because I could have had a bad experience with this nocturnal snake when I went swimming alone at night in a swamp pond in South Carolina after enduring the heat and humidity of hiking an especially hot July day in a wooded South Carolina swamp. It was one of the many fun things you do in Boot Camp. Some of the advantageous of youth are being young, dumb and the belief you are immune or invincible. Luckily for me most of those traits didn’t carry over to my advanced years. The Cottonmouth length can go to four feet, but the record length is slightly over six feet. It is our largest pit viper without a rattle. This snake often displays its white “cotton colored” mouth to warn off intruders. Interestingly, young Cottonmouth’s coloration closely resembles that of the Copperhead. Speaking of coloration during a herpetology exam I came across three specimens of snakes that were distinctly different colors. All had the classic hour glass-shaped markings of a Copperhead, however the predominant color of one specimen was brown, another was almost orange or pink, and the third was extremely dark, almost black. But, all the specimens had a keeled scale. That is, a center ridge on each scale near the anal plate rather than a smooth scale without the ridge. That signifies the specimen is a poisonous snake, and without a rattle, it had to be the only non-rattle poisonous snake found in Pennsylvania; the Copperhead. The point the professor was driving home was “do not depend on color alone.” All three different colored specimens were A. contortrix mokasen, the Northern Copperhead.

All the pit vipers are poisonous. As for the few discussed here the Western diamondback is likely the most toxic of America’s rattlesnakes, the Eastern diamondback next principally because of its size and the potential amount of venom it could deliver, the Prairie rattlesnake and the Timber rattlesnake would rank third. However, studies indicate that toxicity is highly variable even among snakes of the same species.

On average there are approximately 7,000 people that suffer a poisonous snake bite each year. Forty-four percent of those bites occurred accidently, but fifty-five percent of the bites resulted from the victim’s handling the snakes. Approximately 0.2 % of all snakebite victims die each year, and most of those received no medical attention.

You could encounter many different types of rattlesnakes than the few listed here. Your chances are high for that to occur if you live or hike extensively in Arizona.

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19. July 2008 by admin.

Most of America’s energy problems that we are facing today, which will be far worse during the next decade even if Congress somehow started serving the people instead of their own personal interests and/or naïve and misinformed understanding; are historically and directly traceable to both parties in Congress, and the lack of United State’s presidential leadership since 1973.

As I write this, consider the fact that the latest Rasmussen Poll reports that 9% of Americans believe Congress is doing a good or excellent job. That means 91% of Americans believe our Congressional Representatives are doing a poor or lousy job! Somehow though most Americans believe their Congressional Representative is doing a good job, and it is the rest of the members that are doing a lousy job. I know that because upwards of 90% of the incumbents are re-elected regularly, yet the Rasmussen Poll infers that most of the incumbents should be voted out of office. Without term limits, which we will never see, because Congress has to approve that option; a nationwide eviction of incumbents would send a strong message to those that replaced the current losers that do not have the best interest of the country at heart.

Chuck Norris recently wrote a piece offering another suggestion, which he believes will force Congress to be more attentive to representing the will of people, upholding the Constitution and Bill of Rights, promoting less government, fighting for fewer taxes, balancing the budget, securing our borders, and reducing our national deficit, debts and dependence on other nations. In his “Honey, I Shrunk the Congress” article he suggests that we have too many representatives. Mr. Norris proposes that fewer representatives would prevent incompetence because the individual members couldn’t put the blame for their behavior on other members of Congress, which we have been witnessing for decades. Norris contends that it is much wiser to have only one representative from each state and two senators from each state. That leaves the members no place to hide. Each state’s constituents would know exactly where their elected officials stand on any discussion. The Constitution states that “The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand people.” So, fewer members are possible, and it would save a lot of money in the process.

While I like this suggestion, it has a major flaw. The one elected representative would obviously be in that position due to a majority vote by the voting citizens, and minority opinions on any topic would get less attention from the successfully elected member. While the one elected official would represent the majority opinion vote, he/she might not consider a minority opinion within his/her state because it does not represent the opinion of the voters who elected him/her to the office.

The truth of the matter concerning our energy crisis is our elected officials squandered the past three decades ignoring our future energy needs, as well as the social security crisis, and uncontrolled borders permeated by illegal alien entries, as they haggled over party beliefs and responded to lobbyist influences that would enhance their re-election opportunities. Years of mismanagement requires drastic, expensive measures to save social security, though there is little movement in Congress to solve the problem. There are millions of illegal aliens in the country that are the primary source of economic disaster to the taxpayers primarily within the Border States, and the federal budget as well. And, we have no alternative holistic energy plan that would reduce our dependence on foreign oil. As T. Boone Pickens said, our expenditures for foreign oil “…is the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world.” And, that wealth is primarily going to the enemies of America; autocrats that want us dead.

We cannot drill our way back to low priced gasoline and diesel fuel, but we better get started at drilling more domestic sources if we are going to have a chance to remain economically viable five or more years from now.

Even if America’s oil companies had the blessing of Congress to drill the coastal waters, ANWR, and the profitable inland resources; that oil would sell on the world market for whatever price is dictated by the supply and what the buying countries are willing to pay. More available oil would likely bring down the world speculative price, but what you consider “inexpensive” fuel is gone forever, because oil/gas are finite resources. Eventually, it will be gone in the Mid East, and wherever else it exists around the world.

It is estimated that there are two trillion barrels of oil, 1,000 feet underground, and locked up in the oil shale of the Green River Basin of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, but the technology for profitable extraction is still under development. However, the suitability, cost, technology for extraction, environmental, socioeconomic and land use policy issues have to be addressed by Congress. Given Congressional performance to date, that could take decades, if it occurs at all.

Estimates are there might be 402 billion barrels of oil accessible to American drillers if all the moratoriums were lifted. That is a finite quantity. At present, there is no liquid fuel that can replace oil. It behooves Congress and the American people to utilize what is available far more wisely than we have in the past, while the government pursues all avenues of funding and scientific research to reduce our dependence on oil. That includes nuclear, solar, wind, tidal, coal, gas, batteries, hydrogen, and as yet unknown energy sources, with the same tenacity and commitment that was exhibited during the “Manhattan Project.” It is imperative for the future transportation of products, supplies and citizens that development of rail transportation throughout America be considered. It is possible to move a significant quantity of freight by rail less expensively than by any other means. The price of delivering food and business and industrial supplies by trucks in the future will be a major cause for dramatically escalating prices and/or availability as gasoline and diesel prices continue to go higher and higher. Nearly 70% of the oil we use every day is consumed by our automobiles. We are a nation of individual drivers and road travelers. The economy, environmental concerns and safety of this country demanded all these considerations 34 years ago, and we are running out of time.

Congress has ignored the needs of the nation to survive. Further proof of an inept Congress not concerned with the needs of the nation was the massive subsidies recently granted to farmers to produce ethanol on land that once produced food. That guarantees higher food prices, while Congress insists on high tariffs to prevent the importation of cheaper ethanol. Congress continues to bicker and position themselves with their lobbyists for their next election totally oblivious to America’s future. Individual Congressmen and women are doing what they believe their constituents desire, and responding to the lobbyists that will support them financially for their next election, but by ignoring the national impacts of those selfish decisions; they are driving up costs to consumers and placing the country on track for our future to be the equivalent of a Third World Nation.

THE FUTURE

Throughout America there are tens of thousands, if not millions of citizens, living on little more than Social Security, or as single parents. They are, and/or will be, severely impacted by the rising cost of food, services and energy needs to heat their homes and operate their automobile. Within the northern tier of the United States most homes require and average of 500 gallons of oil or some fuel equivalent to maintain a comfortable winter temperature in the home. This coming winter of 2008/2009 the cost to heat their home will be approximately double what it was last winter. All food prices have risen due to transportation costs, and will rise further due to less harvest because of ethanol production displacing field crops. Corn that once fed cattle will now be feeding Fords and Chevrolets. Meat prices have risen already and will be higher in the future.

Everything produced and/or transported in this country will require higher prices due to energy costs to produce and transport those products. Every cost will escalate to provide community lighting, remove garbage, and maintain water supplies and infrastructures. All forms of transportation and the production of all goods and services will increase due to higher energy costs, and worker’s unions vying for increased wages to maintain some level of their former lifestyle. Within our major northern cities some people will freeze to death because they bought food and/or medicine instead of paying for energy to heat their apartment or home.

As the lowest income residents suffer the most there will be increased pressure on states and Congress to tax accordingly and re-distribute income in some fashion to help those citizens.

Before the energy crisis our major airlines were in bankruptcy from which they emerged, but as fuel prices continue to escalate the cost of flying will increase. Likely, the number of travelers by both airline and personal automobile travel will decrease. If so, it is quite possible that some airlines will again become bankrupt. Tourism and business revenues will also decline. Small businesses that produce products will be under pressure to survive. General Motors and Ford are currently on the brink of failure. The increased cost of all goods, services and fuel will further impact the ability of home owners to pay their mortgages. However, the Congressional leaders in light of America’s failing automotive and airline industry, have proposed to increase taxes on gasoline to make life a little tougher for everyone.

All the above impacts will increase the pressure on Congress to relax environmental constraints to permit further energy finds and enhance small business entrepreneurs’ ability to survive.

Now, consider this. Where do you think the country will be in ten, twenty or thirty years if Congress and the nation’s leadership continues to perform as they have for the past 34 years?

Posted in America's Energy | No Comments »

17. August 2007 by admin.

As I write this the local news reported there were 262 fires started in Montana by a lightning storm this past Friday. That is an impressive number of fires for one day, but years of gathering statistics suggest that for every wildfire caused by lightning there were twelve caused by human error. Fires that may have been caused by tossed cigarettes, unattended or mismanaged campfires, garbage and debris burning, equipment operation, arcing power lines, railroad trains or arson.

At one time or another wild land fire was present all over the Earth since the beginning of the planet. It is logical to assume that before humans there were numerous lightning fires and fires caused by fiery volcanic eruptions that were a major influence on the type and diversity of the plants and animals that evolved over eons of time. In the absence of any suppression those fires burned until they ran out of fuel or were naturally controlled by the weather. Because those fires were able to continue as long as the weather and fuel allowed, many forested areas were cleared of heavy underbrush by fire.

 In North America the earliest settlers from Europe observed that Native Americans frequently used fire to clear the land, provide better hunting or farming conditions, or during warfare. The Native American practice of burning the land opened up grazing areas and is thought by many scientists today as a factor which allowed the bison to populate the eastern shore of the United States. Fire was a useful tool for most Native Americans. However, the early settlers who lived in immobile log homes viewed fire as something to be suppressed. Fire meant the loss of their home or their crops, whereas nomadic Native Americans moved to another desirable location.

 Wildfire was a threat to the existence of the earliest settlers and is even a greater threat to those that live in the West today. There are hundreds of thousands of contemporary homes built in or adjacent to lands that are covered with brush, grasslands, or forest lands that are subject to a conflagration. Likewise there are millions of acres of government lands managed by the National Park Service, National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management that are vital resources for wildlife, recreation, grazing and timber that are subject to loss or change due to fire. It is not a matter of if a fire will occur; it is only a matter of when.

 Without adjustments to the forest to reduce the accumulation of fuels, the risk to property owners, their buildings and private or government managed lands which are important for diverse wildlife habitat, timber, and recreation will continue. However, the general public sentiment that all wildfires are bad is not true. There are good fires and bad fires.

 Bad fires destroy property and lives. Because people build their homes in and around forested areas they subject themselves and their property to losses due to fire. There are preventive measures they can employ such as having a reliable water source, clearing the property around them of heavy underbrush, having a non-combustible roof and porches or decks with a similar roof cover, but there is still an elevated risk. It would be a safer situation if the forest surrounding their property is a healthy ecosystem maintained by prescribed fire which reduces the opportunity for a catastrophic wildfire due to an excessive buildup of ground level fuels.

 Fire is actually the key to healthy forests and grasslands. It is, in fact, absolutely vital to maintaining a healthy ecosystem, and is mandatory for the continuation of plant and animal diversity. A good fire is one that burns through the under story of light fuels without excessive heat. Without fire, plants and animals requiring nutrients and a diverse mix of vegetation would eventually disappear. Fire converts some of the atmospheric nitrogen that is not available for plant growth to nitrates, which is then readily available to the succeeding plants. Fire converts phosphorus to orthophosphate releasing it into the soil as a beneficial nutrient for plant growth. Photosynthesis requires carbon dioxide and fire releases the carbon in organic matter in the form of carbon dioxide. Plants then return the carbon back to the soil as the plants grow, die off and decay on the forest floor. The black ash after a fire absorbs a higher level of the solar energy which enhances seed germination.

 Fire is required for the continuation of Jack pine and Lodgepole pine. The heat of the fire opens the cones for seed dispersal. The Giant Sequoia tree of the Sierra Nevada range in California is a fire resistant tree due to its heavy bark. The Sequoia requires fire to thin out the firs and pines that would effectively compete with the Sequoia and eventually occupy the forest, and Sequoia seeds are released in their greatest number to the mineralized soil after a fire. Ponderosa pine, principally found in the Intermountain West, is adapted to low intensity fires. Fires which spread through the ground bed of Ponderosa pine needles at low intensity, reduces the opportunity for a crown fire, which can kill the Ponderosa. The nutrients released by this type of fire provide an excellent seed bed for the Ponderosa pine seeds.

 The fires in North America were so great and widespread in 1880, that Professor Stephen Pyne in his book America’s Fires: Management on Wildlands and Forests (1997) described the period as “The Great Barbecue.”  Most of North America was on fire. Prior to that in 1871, 1,300 people died as one million acres were burned in Wisconsin. There were numerous other destructive fires such as the well known Chicago fire in 1871 that killed many residents, and major forest fires in Washington during 1902 and in Virginia and Oregon during the 1930’s and 1940’s. These and other fires were largely responsible for the public perception and government agency policies of the U.S. Forest Service (1905) and the National Park Service (1916) that all fires were to be suppressed and extinguished as soon as possible. Though the concept of prescription fires as an effort to manage forests and prevent major fire conflagrations was floated in the literature in the 1930’s, it was rarely or effectively practiced. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that the science of Fire Ecology was beginning to be accepted and their principles applied in land manager’s fire management plans. The general public understanding of the importance of fire to the ecology of the Nation’s forests experienced serious setbacks and caused numerous debates due to the massive media coverage of the fires in Yellowstone in 1988, and the heavy fire seasons of 1994 and 1995.

 Many of the residents of North America believe that all wildfires can be controlled. If the fire is big enough and the conditions are favorable, they cannot. But, the belief is widespread because Mr. and Mrs. America view many building fires on their television being extinguished every time, and all wildfires eventually go out because they run out of fuel, weather conditions slowed them up where they could be controlled or it snows on them.

 Today the federal land management agency’s policies recognize that fire is an essential ecological requirement for a healthy forest. The previous decades of aggressive suppression has led to the buildup of underbrush and other fuels which became the source for massive fire conflagrations. Their policies now reflect that natural lightning fires, or fires purposely ignited to control the under story of brush buildup (prescription fire) will not be aggressively fought IF the conditions of air temperature, fuel moisture, humidity, wind speed, drought conditions and wind direction are conducive to allow the reduction of fuel accumulation. Fires that threaten people or structures will be aggressively fought. This is not an easy job because of the many years of suppression and the massive buildup of fuels throughout the Nation’s forests, but that is the policy intent. Eventually, more and more of the Nation’s forests and national parks will be in compliance.

 As you can imagine, the science of Fire Ecology and the knowledge and techniques for fire management are complex and require considerable training. Many of the universities that offer courses and/or degrees in fire ecology are in the western United States in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, California and Wyoming.
The important pine forests and national parks of America’s southeast likely have similar courses and degrees available at the universities in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and North or South Carolina.

 The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, coordinates with eleven Regional Coordinating Centers scattered throughout the lower forty-eight states and Alaska. Should a wildfire escalate beyond the capabilities of personnel and equipment in any one of the regions they can call upon NIFC for locating air tankers, radios, fire crews or Incident Management Teams.

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