This is the second installment in a two-part piece about the decision to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species list in Montana and Idaho.

After the War, there was a lot of 1080 (known to the chemical industry as sodium fluoroacetate) stored in military installations around the US; it was too costly to destroy, so someone came up with the bright idea to give it to the rat-chokers to kill wildlife - and boy, did it ever! From mice to coyotes to eagles, 1080 did the job.

What no one knew at the time was that coyotes are not wolves, even though in some places in the U.S., like Texas, they're called, "wolves." Coyotes do not act, think, or behave like wolves.

If a male coyote (known as the "dog") pairs up with a female coyote, (known as a "bitch") produces 3 to 5 pups, and protects a territory, that's just fine and dandy, that's normal behavior. But if some menace, greater than family or territorial conflict, threatens the coyote, good old Darwin's ideas kick in. The dogs then run with up to three or four bitches, and instead of producing three or so pups, each bitch gives birth to up to eight young. Instead of one pair protecting a given territory, it's "every dog for itself and let's get what we can."

Editors note: This is the first in a two-part essay about the proposal to remove wolves from the federal Endangered Species List.

Well, it sounds like those ranchers in Wyoming who shot and killed the ("misbehaving") wolves that (allegedly) killed their livestock (and immediately posted photos to prove what mighty hunters they are), and others of their ilk are going to get their way. There is a move afoot with the feds to remove wolves from the Endangered Species List before they even get the opportunity to enjoy roaming free in Oregon.

Even with President Obama's call for "good science," it may just be that he picked the wrong guy to run the Dept. of Interior. Secretary Ken Salazar, a rancher turned politician from Colorado, wants to follow the flawed Bush Bunch and keep the "Big Bad Wolf" syndrome alive.

Monday, March 23rd was a big day for the Land Trust's Camp Polk Preserve; tour leaders and docents met at the preserve to learn the details of the restoration of Whychus Creek, a project that will be kicking into high gear this spring and summer. Crews are slated to begin breaking ground to restore the historical meandering creek channel, after which the meadow will be hopping with activity throughout the summer and fall.

Back in 1964, over Christmas time, Whychus, then known as Squaw Creek, went on a rampage when lots of warm rain fell on a wet snow-pack resulting in the creek going over its banks, flooding Sisters, killing 7 people and costing around $157 million to repair the damages.

Needless to say, that got a lot of people upset and as the saying goes; the "stuff" hit the fan. The "government had to do something!" In those dark ages, fish habitat, stream health and riparian zones were terms very few people understood, or cared about. Like old growth forests that would be around "fo-ever," "fish would be forever as well, so the Powers-That-Be said, 'Lets fix that creek so it won't flood no more!'"

The Oregon Zoo can fly a feather in their cap on their condor recovery program as the second group of young condors raised in the zoo's Jonsson Center for Wildlife are on the wing.

Three California condors from the Oregon Zoo will be released into the Vermillion Cliffs Monument in northern Arizona March 7, soaring into the open skies that will finally be their home.

Meriwether (No. 379), Nootka (No. 447) and Atya (No. 455) were hatched and raised at the zoo before being transferred to the Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise to prepare for their release. Meriwether was transferred in January 2007, Nootka and Atya in October 2008.

"With every successful condor release we're another step closer to seeing condors fly over the skies of Oregon," said Tony Vecchio, zoo director. "One day, Oregonians may again see what Lewis and Clark saw as they traveled along the Columbia River over 200 years ago.

There's en email going around that shows the image of a house cat emblazoned on the nose of private jet. I've received that cat e-mail three times a week over the last few months, and every time I look at it, I'm reminded that outdoor cats kill birds, and the killing is so severe at my place that I have stopped feeding birds.

I have neighbors on three (or more) sides of me that allow their cats to run loose constantly. If they're not at my place killing quail and juncos, they're somewhere else killing birds, cottontails, lizards, mice and more birds. To make it even worse, there's a black cat and buff one that join the other two and get into a catfight about every other night, under my birdfeeder. That's four cats skulking around my place killing birds; think of what that means on a statewide basis.