Was sitting in the garage doing my normal evening ritual - bourbon & cigar - and pondering the thought of whether humans should manage the natural world. Personally i think in this day and age the only way to preserve what we have is to manage it. For instance wildlife. I think hunting is an integral part of wildlife management ( though I personally don't hunt), and that as long as there is a healthy and sustainable population of a particular species people should be able to hunt it, be it deer, elk, lizards or even whales.
Also, when it comes to things like trees and the vegetation world that they should be harvested in a responsible way. The recent fires in Arizona and Colorado I truly believe were caused by the enviromentalist concept of letting things develop as a wilderness untouched by humanity. Here in NH there is a longtime lumbering tradition in the north woods that has kept things in balance for many years. However the green thinking now is to let large tracts of forest revert to "wilderness". This is the thinking of the new generation of groups like the Sierra Club and others, even though the local environmental groups are happy with the balance of logging and conservation that has been the norm for many years in these parts.
What is your opinion of managing the natural world? Should we have a hand in it to preserve it or should we let it be and allow "mother nature" to whistle the tune?

 Stepped-init

It should be managed.

Yep. Manage the hell out of it.

Screw the pinkos.

Yes

"Mother Nature" is a cold, heartless bitch.  The "plan" nature goes by isn't necessarily the best thing for humans or for the species that live right now.  It was nature's "plan" that has killed off 90% of all life on earth at least three or four times now.

Push up bra...now there's nature management.[:D]

"You can't just let nature run wild."

-Alaska Governor Walter J. Hickel