Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

STOP THE SPRAY BC -- The fact remains the moose preferred deciduous browse and they did the best on it

From the viewpoint of what could be called the Publisher of this blog-site, I thought it was worth sharing this post from Stop The Spray BC -- especially given declines of the Moose populations in a number of areas of the province. It is certainly a strong possibility that the spraying of broad-leaf trees, a main source of food for moose, could strongly be impacting their food supply.

 

There is an interesting chart from the Swedish moose-diet study posted last week that showed the healthiest, heaviest moose were the ones that had a "broadleaf diet."

 

The authors noted that it was counterintuitive because the Scots Pine (pinus sylvestrus) and the Norway Spruce (picea abies) (that are edible to Scandinavian moose) both had pretty high protein. Scots Pine in fact had the highest crude protein (CP) of the lot. They also both had a lot of carbohydrates (TNC), with Norway Spruce having the most.

 

So why did they do worse on conifer?

 

The authors speculate that conifers can contain "different and often higher concentrations of digestion inhibitors (mainly terpenoids but also phenolics) than deciduous browse (which mainly have phenolics, in lower concentrations)"

 

Think turpentine. Most conifer is infused with it, oozes it in it's sticky sap. Deciduous has no turpentine-producing resin.

 

The guts of ruminants are highly complex. They depend a lot on a healthy microbiome (which glyphosate can interrupt). They need the proper balance of fibre along with carbohydrates and protein to keep the bacteria ticking. Moose are especially finicky and captive moose fed hay and grass do not do well. They need lignin and cellulose. And the bitter, turpentine-infused needles of the conifer probably don't do the gut bacteria any favours.

 


Perhaps this balance is highlighted in this chart.

 

The highest dNDF values (basically the digestible portion of the fibre, which would include carbohydrates along with other compounds), was in the Aspen (the highest) and the willow (salix) (second highest). The two species that moose coincidentally seek the most. You could also look at the cellulose content. The species with the most cellulose are the aspen, the willow, the birch, along with the common juniper. For hemicellulose, again, the deciduous browse offered the highest values.

 

Whatever is going on, and it probably has to do with the ratios of protein to fibre to carbohydrates, the fact remains the moose preferred deciduous browse and they did the best on it.

 

"The results from this study suggest that the nutritional composition of the twigs of these broadleaved tree species (Figure 4) likely contributes to this high degree of selection, as it resembles the identified protein:TNC balance targeted by captive moose"

 

There ya have it.

 

REFERENCE: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.7909


Stop The Spray BC ... calls on politicians to take action to stop spraying herbicides on public forests to take out fire-resistant deciduous species that support wildlife, have economic value, diversify our forests, and make them more resilient to future changes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FORSETH -- Focus on the nine things I mentioned. That’s what will allow the Conservative Party to win the next election

IMAGE CREDIT:   Darryl Dyck, the Canadian Press. I thought I had already made up my mind who I would be ranking on my ballot, in the Conservative Party of BC leadership race; now I am not so sure.  That means that, at least for me, and perhaps many others, it’s a good thing voting hasn’t already taken place. There were initially only one or two of the candidates that I thought might be a little too right of centre for my liking, now it seems that list is growing. I consider myself more closely aligned with what used to be called a Progressive Conservative, regardless, I feel more than comfortable within the Conservative Party of BC.  Some, however, in messages to me on my political Facebook page, have been rather, shall we say, a bit mean-spirited in comments they’ve made about my ‘purity’ as a conservative. To tell you the truth, I really don’t care! Some leadership candidates, in comments made online, have also been raising the issue of who is a pure enough conservati...
Post a Comment
Read more

WARD STAMER -- Those are REAL forestry numbers, not just made-up numbers

The following is a condensed version of remarks Kamloops – North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer’s made, regarding Forestry, in the BC Legislature, on Tuesday afternoon (02/24/2026)   Let’s talk a little bit, when we talk about Budget 2026, about the forest industry, which is near and dear to my heart. Forestry remains one of British Columbia’s foundational industries. It’s a pillar that built this province. Entire communities depend upon it. Interior towns, northern communities, Vancouver Island regions, the Kootenays, the Lower Mainland, with manufacturing facilities in Surrey and Maple Ridge, just to name a few — everywhere in BC is touched by forestry. One word that was not mentioned in Budget 2026 was forestry. That’s a shame, an incredible shame. It wasn’t an oversight – it was intentional. This government has driven forestry into the ground .... INTO THE GROUND! We can talk a little bit about some of the initiatives that this government has brought forth, to try to resurrect ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Your government has a gambling problem (Troy Media)

Provinces call it “revenue,” but it looks a lot like exploitation of the marginalized The odds of winning Lotto Max are about 1 in 33 million. You’re statistically more likely to be struck by lightning than to win it. But your government is betting that statistics won’t hold you back; they’re counting on it. Across Canada, provincial governments not only regulate gambling, they also maintain a monopoly on lottery and gaming by owning and operating the entire legal market. That means every scratch card is government-issued, gambling odds are government-set, casino ads are government-funded and lottery billboards are government-paid. And these are not incidental government activities. They generate significant revenues that governments have powerful incentives to expand, not constrain. It would be one thing for our governments to encourage us to engage in healthy activities. We can quibble about whether the government should be trying to convince us to be more active or eat more vegetabl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more