UK sinks into moral decay

[Mortblanc]

Wild/wilderness is a relitive term. My area is rural, but not wilderness. Probably looks much like rural England. Meadows, farm fields, fence rows and broken patches of thicket. Not wilderness but there are deer and turkey that roam the back yard, coyotes kill my hens and the local judge that lives 300 yards away does not go spastic if I shoot a predator in the middle of the night.

We do have spaces of protected forest, owned and maintained by the state/federal govt that are usable for camping, hiking and sometimes hunting. Those are pockets of accessable area spotted about the countryside. Usually there is a preserved area withing a couple of hours driving distance of anyone. I have two wildlife management areas within a mile of my house totaling 2500 acres of state maintained public land available for small game hunting.

Over 1/2 of the U.S. land mass is owned by federal, state or local government. Most of that land is unusable and uninhabitable for one reason or another and will not support economic or agricultural activity. Still, including that land, we number a population that runs 100-400 people per square mile, which is well past the number that the land could support as roving nomads carrying bug out bags. The myth of the nomadic survivalist living out of his BOB is just that, a myth.

And your population is more dense than ours.

The Southern Pine Beetle will not go much past the 38 lattitude. Half our nation and all of Canada is above that so it is not a real concern. We also have the Longhorn beetle that infests hardwoods and the Emerald Ash Boer that takes a toll on the ash.