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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2008 Donald E. Lindman
545 words

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THERE ARE MOOSE ON THE LOOSE?

By: Don Lindman

A colleague of mine who lived in Anchorage, Alaska, told me rather matter-of-factly how every spring when the snow melted he had to take a shovel and clean up after the moose in his backyard.

Yeh, right, I thought.  He must live on the outskirts of the city.  After all, Anchorage is a city of almost 300,000 people.  How many moose could you possibly find there?

Well over 1000, according to an article in the December 2004 issue of Smithsonian.  That’s the winter population.  In summer it dwindles to a mere 300.

Anchorage is built on what once was a wintering ground for moose.  As human society encroaches on traditional wildlife habitat, the animals face a serious dilemma. 

Most are forced away, to areas not nearly as hospitable to them, and they face extinction.  In Anchorage the moose have decided to stay, and a surprising number of people are very protective of the need for the two species to live together in harmony rather than in conflict.

Conflict does exist.  Two hundred moose were killed by automobiles during a recent year.  But residents of Anchorage value the environment, and they try very hard to live and let live.

Which means, as one picture in the magazine shows, you may open the front door of your typical suburban tract ranch home and come face to face with an enormous moose who has his front hooves on your small porch and his back hooves on the ground below it.

According to other pictures, you may look out at your back yard some warm summer day and see a young moose cooling off in your child’s inflatable swimming pool.  Or tangled up in your hammock. 

One moose decided to lie down and rest for a bit.  It unwittingly became part of a large nativity scene: cattle, sheep, shepherds, the holy family, and, of course, the moose.  How could a nativity scene be complete without a moose?

Not everyone in Anchorage wants to have moose as neighbors, but many residents see them as an asset to the community.  Mayor Mark Begich told author Jim Doherty that the city is moving in the direction of zoning laws that would allow the human and animal residents to coexist peacefully.  “Most residents say they enjoy watching moose and like having them around,” says Doherty.

The Anchorage story is one that many of us face, only without moose.  I used to enjoy watching a groundhog sun himself on my backyard deck…until I found he also was digging holes around the foundation of my house.  Coexistence ended at that point.

When God first created everything, he told human beings to “fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over…every living creature….” (Gen. 1:28)  Some people have considered this to be a license to get rid of anything that stands in the way of their own selfish interests.

But others have seen it as a mandate to manage the earth and its creatures in a responsible way.  Creation belongs to God and not to us.  We have been called to manage it on God’s behalf.

Nobody said that would be easy, but the residents of Anchorage at least seem to be willing to give it a try.  I wish them a very successful effort.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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