Category: Wildlife

Goldfinch

SHOT Show 2015 Attendance Second Highest Ever

LAS VEGAS — The Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) rang up its second highest attendance ever at the Sands Expo Center Jan. 20-23, giving the industry a very good indicator that a strong sales year lies ahead.

Long a bellwether for the industry’s prospects, the SHOT Show brings together buyers and sellers from the United States and more than 100 countries. Total attendance for the 2015 SHOT Show was nearly 64,000, second only to last year’s record-setting event, where nearly 67,000 came through the turnstiles. Lower attendance reflected strengthened pre-screening of attendees to enhance the overall experience of both exhibitors and buyers. Read more

Ammunition, Archery, Firearms, Hunting, Optics, Self Defense, Wildlife

Michigan’s trapping tradition grows in popularity



Doug Reeves remembers his first time as though it were yesterday.

“The first thing I ever caught was an ermine, a white weasel,” said Reeves, assistant chief of the Department Natural Resources’ Wildlife Division and a lifelong trapper. “I sold it for 50 cents to a traveling fur buyer. To me that was big time.”

He was 9 years old. And he was hooked. The next year he got three traps and starting chasing muskrats. He progressed from there.

“Back then you had to be 12 years old to trap beaver,” he said. “The first one I got I brought home in the basket of my sister’s fat-tire bike.”

Now, 50 years later, Reeves is still trapping – muskrats, raccoons, coyotes, fox – just about everything.

“You have to learn a lot,” Reeves said. “The learning curve is very steep. The element of exploration and discovery is a lot of fun. It’s a blast. I just love it.”

Reeves isn’t alone. In Michigan, trapping is growing in popularity.

older and younger trappers holding muskratAccording to DNR records, just more than 10,000 people bought a fur harvester license in 1994. Two decades later, that number has tripled.

“It’s been increasing,” said Adam Bump, the DNR’s furbearer specialist. “Some of it may be because of pelt prices. When you have generally increasing pelt prices, you have an increase in trapping and the last three or four years the pelt prices for muskrats have been near or at record highs. But price for every species varies on its own, so just because ’rat prices are up, that doesn’t mean they all are.”

Indeed, it’s not all about fur prices, said Dale Hendershot, president of the 1,200-member Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association, one of three fur-taker associations in the state. A 64-year-old retired diesel mechanic from Gladwin who’s been trapping since he was 14, Hendershot said “the vast majority of trappers are not professionals.” Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

First bats to die from white-nose syndrome this winter reported in

dead bats, WNS - KeewenawThe Michigan Department of Natural Resources has announced that it has received the first reports this winter of bats dying from white-nose syndrome. Members of the public found dead bats outside the opening of an abandoned copper mine near Mohawk in Keweenaw County and reported it to DNR field staff.

White-nose syndrome was first discovered in Michigan in late winter 2014 in Alpena, Dickinson, Keweenaw, Mackinac and Ontonagon counties. Widespread die-offs of hibernating bats are expected in all of these counties, and potentially others, this winter. Experience with white-nose syndrome in northeastern states suggests that most dead bats will be found within 100 yards of the openings to the mines, caves or other places in which they hibernate (called ‘hibernacula’), but some bats may travel a mile or more before dying.

dead bats, WNS - PennsylvaniaBecause most of the major bat hibernacula in these counties are in relatively remote areas, most people will probably not see the bat die-offs. However, in towns like Iron Mountain, Hancock and Norway, where large numbers of bats hibernate in mines within the city limits, area residents may see dead and dying bats. These bats may be on the ground, or roost on trees, buildings or other structures close to humans and domestic animals. Read more

Wildlife

Late Winter Plot Management

By this time of the year, most everyone’s hunting season is over or starting to wind down and not many guys are thinking about growing plots or feeding their deer. With some cold and nasty weather still possible for the next few weeks, it’s a great time to sit down and start planning for the upcoming growing season. There may be some things you thought of while sitting in your deer stand this fall that you would like to accomplish on the property you manage. Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

Sportsmen Mobilize to Stop Transfer and Sale of Public Lands

LAS VEGAS – Sportsmen’s groups and industry members have launched an aggressive new campaign to rally against efforts by special interests to transfer or sell America’s federal public lands, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership announced.
Via the website www.sportsmensaccess.org, the rapidly growing coalition of groups and businesses includes the National Wild Turkey Federation, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, Trout Unlimited, Dallas Safari Club, Mystery Ranch Backpacks, Sitka Gear, First Lite, Simms Fishing Products and Sage. The coalition supports a grassroots effort by sportsmen to urge lawmakers to reject any actions that would deprive citizens of their public lands. Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

Conservation officers seeking information on ducks killed during Houghton Lake Tip-Up Town

Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officers are seeking information from the public about an incident that killed seven mallards on Houghton Lake during the annual Tip-Up Town celebration.

On Sunday, Jan. 18, conservation officer Chuck McPherson and Sgt. Jeremy Payne received information about seven dead mallards discovered near the Iroquois Street bridge in the East Bay area of Houghton Lake. When they arrived to investigate, the officers also discovered an injured mallard that they collected and took to a wildlife rehabilitator in the area for care.

According to Sgt. Payne, the incident happened near open water where a canal enters the lake. The area is known as a place that ducks congregate because of the open water at the canal entrance. There was a single set of snowmobile tracks near the open water, and officers surmise a snowmobiler struck a large group of ducks sometime on Jan. 17. The dead ducks collected at the scene had injuries consistent with blunt force trauma.

Payne said there is another injured duck that appears to have a broken wing that the officers will continue to look out for in hopes of taking it to a wildlife rehabilitator for care.

Anyone with information about this incident can call the DNR’s Report All Poaching (RAP) Line at 1-800-292-7800. Information may be left anonymously. Information also can be sent to the DNR via the online reporting form available on the DNR website www.michigan.gov/conservationofficers. Read more

Wildlife

Deer Breeders, Privatizing Wildlife Draw Criticism from Boone and Crockett Club

MISSOULA, Mont. – Once a wild game animal, now a product of commercialism and chemistry.

Today‘s upward trend in deer (and elk) breeding and shooting operations is reaching critical mass, compromising traditional hunting and conservation, and fueling a strong new response from America’s first conservation and hunter advocacy organization, the Boone and Crockett Club.

The Club today published a new position statement outlining its concerns. Read more

Wildlife

Nebraska Senator Back with Effort to Ban Mountain Lion Hunting

Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers is back with his anti-hunting crusade against scientific management of mountain lions. The senator led an identical charge in 2014 when the legislature passed a bill to ban mountain-lion hunting, which was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Dave Heineman.

Chambers reintroduced his legislation (LB 127) on Friday, Jan. 9, along with a new effort to ban the management of prairie dogs, including on private property (LB 128).

“The Sportsmen’s community in Nebraska did a great job last year in rallying opposition to this ideological attack on wildlife management, and we’ll need a similar response this year,” said Adam Wright, USSA’s associate director of state services. “Sportsmen across Nebraska, and really across the country, must speak up and let their state senators know how misguided this effort is.” Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

USSA Weighs Legal Options in Great Lakes Wolf Battle

On Dec. 20, a federal district court judge in Washington D.C. struck down the delisting of wolves in the western Great Lakes region, and returned them to federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. This move was not based upon the population of wolves—which have clearly recovered in the area—but instead, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that until wolves are re-established in their historical range (which would apparently include New York City, Washington D.C., Seattle, etc.) they cannot be considered recovered in Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin, no matter how large the wolf populations in those three states.

For nearly a decade, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and our partners have led the attempt to delist recovered populations of wolves from the Endangered Species List and to return them to management of individual states.

Judge Howell’s ruling leaves two realistic options for sportsmen, conservationists and those interested in the sound management of fish and wildlife:  legal and congressional action. Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife
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