When I was a kid, ground squirrels were a scourge on our ranch. They ate the grass the cattle should be eating. They dug holes every couple of feet, holes that cattle and horses and people could step into, badly injuring themselves. So, for decades, we poisoned the squirrels. That kept them in check, but barely.

Several years ago, California outlawed the poisoning of squirrels. The state had determined that many other animals were being injured or killed by eating the poisoned squirrels. At first, the squirrels multiplied like crazy. Today, however, you can see a large hawk on nearly every telephone pole. During my Christmas visit there, I sometimes saw 4 or 5 coyotes at a time. When you look around, the squirrel population is clearly under control. Naturally.

About 10 years ago, wild pigs invaded our ranch. They can destroy a garden or root up acres of grass in a single night. Their destruction is awful to see. Since they have few predators, there is little ranchers can do to protect their land. Hunters have not been able to make a dent in the pig population.

But, driving on our ranch one night about a week ago, we saw an amazing sight. There were 3 huge pigs waddling across the road. As we shone our headlights on them, there, ambling behind the pigs, was a large mountain lion, obviously in search of a pork dinner. Twice in my life, I have seen a small lion in the rocky, mountainous part of our ranch. This lion, however, was out in the flatlands, a place mountain lions don't usually go. It must have decided to abandon its habitual habitat to find a better source of food.

The balance of nature was clear. When there is a natural pest, there is a natural way of controlling it. When we humans interfere, we often destroy that balance, frequently worsening the problem we try to control. Those squirrels are kept in check far better by the hawks and coyotes than by the poison we formerly used. A successful lion will do much more to harness the wild pigs than any measures we can take.

That certainly doesn't mean that we haven't made enormous strides in controlling natural depredations-such as many diseases. But, there are many problems we can't control and we shouldn't waste our resources trying. Like hurricanes or mudslides or many forest fires.

We can, however, make wiser decisions about how we manage our lives in the face of natural disasters. I've always wondered why we continue to build houses, even cities, in the midst of lowlands that have flooded for millions of years. Why do we continue to build structures on steep hillsides where the earth has moved for as long as anyone can remember? Or on brushy slopes that have burned every few years for time immemorial?

It's almost as if Nature has to remind us periodically that she is far more powerful than we simple humans. One only needs to look at the recent upheavals of the land in Turkey or the horrifying entombment of thousands of people in the Venezuelan mudslides to know how powerless we are in the face of natural events.

We can, however, make better public policy decisions. We don't have to approve development on steep slopes in Jefferson County or Vail or Southern California. We can stop the poisoning of animals that are part of the natural balance and allow predators to do their jobs. For many years, we have practiced farming methods that minimize erosion and produce better crops using fewer natural resources.

We can continue to do research on genes, vaccines and seeds. We can certainly improve our water quality, our land use planning and our wildlife management. We can emphasize disease prevention instead of trying to cure what we might have prevented.

Above all, we can respect the natural environment. We can care about the extinction of so many species that have a unique role in our ecosystems. And, we can live with nature as she would live with us-in balance and harmony.