I never said we din't create the imbalance but as people encroach wildlife it is needed to provide a balance or rebalance. I do not give a rats behind what others think of predator hunting. I enjoy all types of hunting and will hunt and trap cats as long as it is legal. Some real FACTS for you about predator control, since it was started around areas with good nesting habitat for waterfowl the population began to rebound. More and more trapping and hunting in the pothole states allows for better duck broods. That IS doing nature a favor so get off your high horse.
Look, I'm not chastizing, just looking to be clear as to what, and where, the problems associated with "imbalance" emerge from.
Consider, you live in Minnesota, I in Wisconsin, where combined, the two states have well in excess of two million white tail deer, as recently as 2008-9 Wisconsin's herd alone, was approaching two million animals! Balance? Back in the early 1930's there was an estimated 300,000 white tail deer, in all of the USA!
This is precisely why predator hunting is controversial, it is not possible for us to rebalance the system, and we have a serious problem unfolding as a consequence. CWD is poised to become a terrifyingly common occurrance, its spreading in the Wisconsin herd, and its not going to go away as things currently stand.
In Wisconsin, we estimate that at the time of European settlement, we had about 5,000 black bear, today the population is running between 33,000 - 40,000 animals! There is no historical precedent for these figures, a direct consequence of our interference(humans)in the natural system, especially through our virtually unchecked agricultural conquest of the land.
In Minnesota, you are losing your moose herd, its already gone from the northwestern portion of the state entirely, and its heading exactly that way in the northeast. Its now believed that they are being doomed due to a parasite, introduced through white tail deer into the environment, harmless to the deer, catastrophic to the moose.
Dozens of other examples exist, none of them very encouraging, coyotes are virtually an infestation in parts of the midwest, ranchers/farmers curse them for the scourge that they can be, however lost entirely on these good folks, is that they are largely responsible for this, an unthought of consequence of their merciless persecution of the coyotes primary natural enemy, the gray wolf! Balance?
Predator hunting needs to be closely monitored, we're not balancing anything, nature balances itself, we are clearly unbalancing the system.