University of Kentucky has been participating in a research project involving black bear populations in the eastern part of the state. Twenty were kept under analysis and study for a number of months. Scientists are concerned about their low numbers and want to do their part to ensure protection. One bear escaped -- believed to have been doing little more than surveying his environs before settling into winter slumber -- and a motorist on the highway accidentally ran into it. He broke his car front head light; the bear died, and no charges were pressed.

I'm not a big hunting fan. I guess I can intellectually understand the importance of limiting wild populations. The researcher interviewed on television suggested that bears might typically stay away from human settlements unless food for them was in significant short supply. Then again, my late brother decided to get all redneckish with his buddies and gun down a deer knowing damn well we weren't gonna eat the thing. I saw the carcass tied to his pickup, and since then I haven't touched venison.

I simply think that informed people need to be aware of the implications of hunting, gathering, encroaching on wild settlements (just like we fear wilderness beings on our own), and understand that we're all in the same damn ecosystem and that our actions affect each other.