Confirmed Wild Wolf killed in MA

[Stan]

Of Wolves and Roofs

There is always a certain sadness when any animal is destroyed, tame or wild. I think the wolves will eventually restore themselves in places where they don't pose a conflict with farmers or suburbia, where I hope they'll be discouraged before they are destroyed for attacking a child, a rarity perhaps but a reality.

Those collapsing roofs amaze me though. Flat roofs over large expanses on commerical buildings just shows no respect for weather in the northern latitudes. The barn, however, I assume was well pitched and am curious as to whether it was the condition of the framing or just a load well beyond the safety factor built into the structural design.

 

[Lou Hale]

Those collapsing roofs amaze me though. Flat roofs over large expanses on commerical buildings just shows no respect for weather in the northern latitudes. The barn, however, I assume was well pitched and am curious as to whether it was the condition of the framing or just a load well beyond the safety factor built into the structural design.

I am a contractor and have worked with all forms of roof construction and hear this alot. I just don't get it. I know that triangles are a strong geometric shape but not all pitched roofs are really framed as triangles many of them are missing the bottom cord. pounds per square foot of loading is just that. It does not matter one bit if the roof is flat or pitched. All that matters is if the roof was designed to take the load or not. Most roof collapses are the result of exceding the design load. the rest are due to the structure it self being comprimised after design and installation

Lou

 

[nartreb]

It does not matter one bit if the roof is flat or pitched. All that matters is if the roof was designed to take the load or not.

Except that the pitch of the roof influences how much snow piles up on it over the winter, which determines the load.

"It doesn't matter one bit if the hike is 5 miles or 50 miles, all that matters is whether the hiker is in good enough condition for the hike."

It's all a question of which parameter one is willing to vary.

 

[forestgnome]

I love your pictures but not the logic. No one else can judge the value of any loss better than the person experiencing it. The folks that lost the sheep are the ONLY ones with the right to make that decision.
I'm sure the people you refer to that pray for more snow would choose to forego that if they were asked to place a relative value on their fun vs. someones roof.
Sorry. I usually don't get into these discussions and I'll probably regret it.

Thanks for compliments on pictures, and I think I've been misunderstood. The point of my analogy was to defend those who are characterized as putting an animal above the interests of people. Just because they are sad for the dead wolf does not mean they don't care about the farmer's loss, just as those who pray for snow are not neccessarily without sympathy to the destruction of this snow.

The point was not to compare the losses caused by one wolf and the snow. However, there is no comparrison. There is no pack of wolves in Mass. there was one loner who killed a few sheep. What could that amount to?

Now consider the loss to this one farmer...

This is a working farm with lots of cows and horses, some of which may have been inside when this barn collaped. What is the cost to rebuild this barn?

This is just one of hundreds of examples. So, we can easily judge the damage of the snow to be exponentially more than that caused by a single wolf.

Again, the point was not to compare damage for the sake of condeming the shooting of the wolf. The point was to defend those of us who are sad for the death of the wolf.

BTW, this barn looks to be at least a century old, so it has seen many tough winters.

happy trails

 

[rocket21]

Those collapsing roofs amaze me though. Flat roofs over large expanses on commerical buildings just shows no respect for weather in the northern latitudes. The barn, however, I assume was well pitched and am curious as to whether it was the condition of the framing or just a load well beyond the safety factor built into the structural design.

I know that in Conway, when they built the new high school recently, they went with a flat roof because the savings apparently was hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Flat roofs, while seemingly stupid, aren't necessarily an issue if they are proactively maintained. Up in this area, many weren't, thus resulting in the closing of schools, JC Penney, even CVS, recently. All of those, fortunately, have since cleared some or all of their flat roofs and have reopened.

 

[Dugan]

Another article, this one from the Greenfield Recorder.