3 minute read
Editor's Letter
Dear Readers,
When Hurricane Andrew decimated Florida in August of 1992, it leveled the landscape. In the aftermath, there were reports of gangs of monkeys roaming the highways, later gorging themselves on fields of tomatoes. There were antelopes in administration buildings, and juvenile baboons in private weight rooms. Witnesses described it as Disney’s Animal Kingdom come to life.
Or was it "Jumanji?" I remember hearing about a newly opened reptile warehouse flattened in the hurricane, the reptiles swept up or out, never to be heard from again. But then, there was Florida’s growing population of pythons, made larger, speculatively, by the snakes released in the storm.
The pythons, which were seen as early as the '90s, aren’t native to Florida, but were likely pets released when their owners found themselves unprepared for a 15-foot snake that needed to be fed. Wildlife officials knew they had a problem when hikers spotted a python wrestling an alligator, a fight which lasted over 24 hours.
The snakes were becoming a problem for a number of reasons, including their decimation of other species, the danger they posed to humans in the area, and their potential encroachment on more urban areas, especially because more research revealed the python’s eerily powerful homing instinct, which tracked six snakes to the locations where they’d originally been released, nearly 50 miles away.
All of this to say that sometimes you don’t have to find your wild—your wild finds you instead.
No matter your approach, this issue of IdaHome is for the wild ones. Whether you’re looking for a whitewater experience in Stanley, a global kayak adventure, or a glimpse into the world of pigeon keepers, we’ve got a story to satisfy your inner wild thing.
Writer Elizabeth Gilbert tells us how she cultivates wildness in her life, and we meet some of the folks at the Idaho Environmental Forum, who are creating spaces to discuss and protect our wild spaces. Idaho Fish & Game is celebrating 125 years of managing Idaho wildlife, and the EhCapa Bareback Riders are forging human and animal connections that endure.
We have a great story on adaptive recreation and the outstanding athletes doing it all, a wild west tale of drama in the courts, and a conversation with photographers who are dedicated to capturing the shot, no matter the terrain.
We’ve also got Part Two of the Downwinders story we brought you last issue, which offers a little bit of hope for folks who want, with wild abandon, simple justice.
