• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Hellbenders in North Carolina

Martin Nowak

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This is a fairly good report on hellbenders in North Carolina. Causes of declining populations are listed as: “degraded dams, heavy equipment, extreme weather, climate change, floods, droughts, predators, low water oxygen, cutting bank trees, sediment, urban runoff, luxury housing, wastewater discharge, and fish stocking.”

The last reason “fish stocking” caught my attention. The relevant paragraph:

“Private fishing clubs with state permits are stocking the river with large fish, Gangloff said, which can prey on the hellbender larvae. “When we relocate the hellbenders, we put them where there are fewer ginormous fish,” he said.”

Note that “private fishing clubs with state permits are stocking the river with large fish”.

Once again, we see oxymoronic wildlife management. Federal and state dollars and tuition dollars and tax dollars flow to the universities and state agencies to “manage” wildlife. At the same time, the state issues permits to fishing clubs to stock fish which eat the eggs, larvae and juvenile hellbenders. The story does not indicate if the stocked fish are native and does not indicate if the stocked fish are of native genetic origin.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04072024/north-carolina-hellbenders-threatened-by-climate-change/

Is this unique? No, of course not. This year in Alabama, House Bill 15 was passed by the state legislature with endorsement by the state game and fish commission (ADCNR) to allow municipalities along the Coosa River to release fish for “fishing tourism”.

Alabama HB15 allows municipalities along the Coosa River to release non-native Florida strain black bass and hybrid black bass into that waterway. Black bass are largemouth bass. Florida strain DNA bass are not native to Alabama. They get larger and are more aggressive. The purpose of the bill and such fish releases is to encourage recreational fishing resulting in increased revenue to the ADCNR via fishing licenses, and revenue along the river from fishers and presumed associated tourism. https://legiscan.com/AL/text/HB15/2024

Is it possible that if large numbers of non-native and non-genetic herptiles were released in sufficient numbers, then tourism for road hunting, collecting, and photography could add to many state’s tourism revenues (?).

Also note that I applaud these and other efforts to protect hellbenders in every state. It is not clear to me how all the efforts are coordinated within and across states, but these are worthy efforts. I hope the work on behalf of this fine salamander is successful. In Alabama, very little is done. Most of the hellbender population decline is attributed to coal mining runoff, power company plants, resultant siltation, resultant heavy metals and other contamination, and agriculture runoff.
 
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