Killing butterflies and habitat destruction

[Michael Gochfeld]

The idea of paying for a butterfly collecting permit isn't crazy?  Scientific 
collecting permits require a fee and they allowing collecting of specified items?  
Hunting and fishing licenses require a fee for pursuit of these hobbies, and 
out-of-state licenses are often quite expensive.  Ostensibly they pay part of the cost 
of managing these resources.  If one had a fee/permit system, with stipulations 
regarding closed areas or restricted species, one would have a recognized venture. 

A partial illustration (I'm not sure how relevant) is an experience I had at a Monk 
Parakeet control meeting nearly 30 years ago.  States were talking about spending 
large sums of money to 'retrieve' the parakeets (euphemism for killing every last 
one). I suggested that they declare it a game bird and allow hunters to keep the 
population in check (remember that shooting effectively eliminated the Carolina 
Parakeet). People would pay for the privilege of shooting the parakeets.  Gardiner 
Bump---famous gamebird-ologist chided me saying: "if we did that there would be 
tremendous pressure to breed more and release them."  Well maybe it's not as relevant 
as I thought. 
--------------------------------------------------------
Name: Michael Gochfeld
E-mail: Michael Gochfeld <gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu>
UMDNJ/RWJMS and EOHSI, Piscataway, NJ
Date: 09/24/98
Time: 11:26:09