The condition of the wilderness in North America has been pushed to the very edge of existence.  Even in the most remote wilderness, people are causing harm to its very nature.  I know this for a fact as I have lived in such a wilderness, and experienced wild animals having a very difficult time surviving after we have "civilized" their neighborhood.  We come into their world with huge bulldozers and chainsaws, then level everything with loud fanfare.

     Maybe you've seen film of what happens when the lives of people and mountain lions are unfortunately intertwined in suburban neighborhoods; it's not very pretty.  Deer wander through manicured gardens and eat expensive flowers and the shrubbery of angry owners.  Too near the Grand Teton National Park, workers are paid to trap and remove the wild animals living there, because owners of multi-million dollar "cabins" don't like the wildlife that have lived in that wilderness for thousands of years.

     Here in the Wind River Canyon, wild turkeys arrived for the very first time and nested last springtime.  We had baby wild turkeys running around our yard and drinking from the creek not far from our kitchen!  And wild turkey poop is nearly impossible to avoid, if you know what I mean.  They have no other place to go and are chased out of yards in the closest towns; and they were there first.  So we have come to embrace their existence here and I study the behavior of one of the most beloved of American birds; even Ben Franklin spoke highly of wild turkeys.

     Even in the most remote of wildernesses in our 50th state, homes are built in forests that can only be reached by landing an airplane on a remote wilderness lake; not even electricity, or a flush-toilet.  What effect does this have on the local moose population that have lived there for many thousands of years?  As I have come to experience personally here in the canyon, wild animals and trucks do not coexist at all.  Nothing can explain the sadness of seeing a orphaned fawn trying to survive because his mother was squished up the road.

     Both my wife and I have taken dead wild turkeys off the middle-of-the-road here in the canyon, and stag deer so big you've only seen the likes of them in paintings.  In parts of Europe they have taken a different road, so to speak.  They have given legal rights to mountains and rivers, because it's the only way to keep the people from changing and ruining the wilderness.  

     In Brazil, vast stretches of jungles (the lungs of our planet) are being leveled so valuable soybean crops can be grown.  All over our Earth, wild animals are being forced into extinction.  Is this the legacy of human beings on this beautiful blue marble?  I'm only asking a simple question.....are we destroying our planet and the future of our own species, or is it already too late? Buck Deer in Velvet VideoWind River Canyon buck Deer in velvet video from the state of Wyoming.       Thank you for your valuable time in reading my Wind River Canyon Blog; enjoy the video.  All rights are reserved.  I am Michael John Balog and we live in the canyon and experience the wilderness close-up.  Safely visit my website about the Wind River Canyon's wildlife @ HogbatsPhotography.com