Outdoor commentary and legislative issues.
Goldfinch
AUSTIN – A two-year-old white-tailed deer in a Medina County deer breeding facility has been confirmed positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This is the first case of CWD detected in captive white-tailed deer in Texas. CWD was first detected in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in the Hueco Mountains in far West Texas. Read more
USFWS Rejects HSUS Petition to List Wolves as ‘Threatened.’
LANSING—Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) praised the decision by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to reject a petition seeking to list gray wolves in the United States as “threatened,” under the Endangered Species Act. The USFWS announced its findings yesterday.
“This decision by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists confirms that wolves are biologically recovered in the western Great Lakes and that state management plans, like Michigan’s, are sufficient to sustain the wolf population and are the appropriate way to manage wolves in the region,” said Amy Trotter, deputy director for Michigan United Conservation Clubs and a member of the Michigan Wolf Forum.
The petition was filed by the Humane Society of the United States and other anti-hunting organizations including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Fund for Animals, the Detroit Zoological Society, National Wolfwatcher Coalition and the Detroit Audubon Society. It requested that gray wolves in the conterminous United States, except for the Mexican Gray Wolf, be listed as “threatened,” which would preclude any state from holding a hunting season for them for any reason. The USFWS ruled that the petition lacked “substantial scientific or commercial information” necessary to consider it any further.
Among its findings, the USFWS stated that wolves in the conterminous U.S., which are made up of multiple distinct population segments of gray wolf, are not likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future due to any of the five listing factors, and that HSUS’s claim that they have to be present in all unoccupied suitable habitat to be considered recovered is “based on a misinterpretation of the Act.”
The USFWS further stated that state management plans are sufficient to sustain wolf populations in recovered areas, including where hunting and trapping is allowed. Read more
In the newest video online at www.GrowingDeer.tv check out a big, new buck picked up by the Reconyx trail cameras! Then, watch to see how they protect their food plots against heavy rains that would usually cause erosion. Click the above link to see all this and more today! Read more
Flora, Miss. — TrailCamPro.com, an independent online trail camera testing authority, recently posted the results of their annual trail camera tests, and the new Primos® Proof Camera 03 received high marks in several categories. More than 50 trail cameras from 13 different manufacturers were tested for trigger speed, detection range, picture/video quality, battery life and ease of use, and the Proof Cam surpassed many more expensive models.
The new Primos Proof Cameras are built for one purpose: To give hunters the most reliable, most simple-to-use camera money can buy with the functions that really matter and none of the extras that don’t. The Proof Camera 03 is designed to easily take photos, HD video or HD Time Lapse. Choosing the mode is easy with new illuminated slide switches and an improved On/Off switch. It features circular LED alignment to better light the field of view. The camera is extremely easy to use, while offering hunters the scouting technology required to know what animals are on their property. Read more
Caterpillars stop feeding; tree owners urged to wait to assess damage
Michigan Department of Natural Resources forest health staff is in the process of mapping the extent of this year’s spruce budworm 
damage to balsam fir and white spruce in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula.
The last widespread outbreak of the insects in Michigan ended during the 1980s. Experts think we may be seeing the beginning of a new epidemic that will persist over the next several years.
“The spruce budworm has finished feeding for the year in most areas,” said Bob Heyd, a DNR forest health specialist in Marquette. “There are a few larvae still chewing on needles, but most have turned into pupae.”
Over the past few years, countless trees have been damaged by the budworm, which is one of the most destructive native insects in the northern spruce and fir forests of the eastern United States and Canada. Read more
MONTPELIER, Vt. – Monarch butterflies are in decline nationwide, and may be approaching dangerously low levels.
Monarchs have declined nearly 80% in the 21 years researchers have been monitoring their wintering populations, from a high of up to one billion butterflies in the 1990s to roughly 56 million today, according to a recent report from the Xerces Society.
But according to Mark Ferguson, a biologist for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, Vermont may play an important role in the continued efforts at monarch conservation.
“Vermont’s meadows and old fields provide habitat for milkweed, which is a critical food source for monarchs,” said Ferguson. “In contrast, increasing levels of herbicide use in large-scale agriculture in the Midwest appear to have greatly reduced the abundance of milkweed in that part of the country, which historically produced half of the monarchs in eastern North America.”
Monarchs lay eggs on milkweed and feed on milkweed as caterpillars. Most eastern monarchs overwinter at a single site in the mountains of central Mexico. According to Ferguson, monarchs need to reproduce several times during their north-bound migration, and require milkweed at each of these sites. Read more
Wireless Image Transmission to Mobile Devices
Grand Prairie, TX- Stealth Cam, introduced in the year 2000, quickly became the leader in scouting camera innovation. Continuing to advance technology to the next level, Stealth Cam introduces the next generation of feature-packed scouting camera for 2015 advanced scouting cams, the GXW. This 12.0 Megapixel- 3 resolutions; 12.0mp, 8.0mp, 4.0mp, integrates 45 ‘BLACK’ IR emitters with a 100-foot range making it great tool for land management, property security, or for hunters tracking potential trophies through their mobile devices. Read more
New audiences like small game and varmint hunters and ranchers targeted
PHOENIX — California condor conservation achieved a milestone last hunt season with a record number of big game hunters in the species’ core range voluntarily using non-lead ammunition or removing lead-infected gut piles from the field to prevent condors from feeding on them.
In Arizona, a total of 91 percent of the big game hunters voluntarily used non-lead ammunition or removed gut piles from the field. In Utah, 84 percent of big game hunters in the core range did the same.
Now, condor reintroduction partners are expanding voluntary lead reduction efforts towards new groups that can also help keep condors from ingesting lead as the birds scavenge carcasses other than big game that might contain lead. New groups being targeted in expanded education and outreach efforts include small game, bird and varmint hunters, and those that dispatch sick or injured animals in the field, such as ranchers or law enforcement agencies. Read more
This spring, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources put out the call for people to report the herptiles – reptiles and amphibians – that they observe across the state. The request is part of an atlas project, designed to monitor the presence and distribution of “herps” across the state.
“It’s for all species, common or rare,” said Lori Sargent, a DNR wildlife biologist who keeps track of Michigan’s herptiles. “The other day I got a call about a spotted turtle (a threatened species) in an area where they’d never been spotted before.
“There are not a lot of people working on herps, even at universities,” she continued. “They’re not a game species. They’re not high-profile.”
While herps don’t usually evoke the same warm and fuzzy emotions folks often express about other wildlife, there’s one group of herptiles – snakes – that brings out the opposite reaction. Snakes have gotten a bad rap ever since Adam and Eve and that apple, and it doesn’t seem to have changed since.
“We’re hearing of more of kids who are afraid of snakes,” Sargent said. “Maybe this will help educate people that snakes are valuable at both ends of the food chain. They keep rodent populations in check. They’re important. And they’re cool.
“I get pictures of a dead snake with a note – what kind is it? People are so quick to kill them and then identify them. What did snakes ever do to you? They’re mostly harmless.” Read more
The Michigan Duck Hunters Association, in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, introduces the 2015 collector-edition Michigan duck stamp and prints.
The Michigan Waterfowl Stamp Program, established in 1976, has become an icon for waterfowl hunters and wetland conservation enthusiasts. During the past 39 years, the program has gained popularity with collectors and conservation groups throughout the United States.
The Michigan Duck Hunters Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to waterfowl and wetland conservation, coordinates the stamp program in partnership with the DNR. Proceeds from stamp sales will be used to fund Michigan Duck Hunters Association projects, with 10 percent used to match DNR funding for purchasing, restoring and enhancing wetlands. Read more