Category: Wildlife

Goldfinch

Great Backyard Bird Count Begins Friday

New York, N.Y. and Ithaca, N.Y.-The 17th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) kicks off this Friday, February 14, and runs through Monday, February 17. Anyone anywhere in the world can count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count and enter their sightings at www.BirdCount.org. The information gathered by tens of thousands of volunteers helps track the health of bird populations at a scale that would not otherwise be possible.  Read more

Wildlife

Reacquainting Myself with Old Snowshoes

By Glen Wunderlich

The traditional style, wood-framed Canadian snowshoes hung on a hook in the garage, since a 1997 predator hunt in the Cedarville area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  However, a hankering to reacquaint myself with some favorite hunting grounds and the wildlife within had gotten the best of me.

Bear Paw Snowshoes

Bear Paw Snowshoes

I’ve always considered the contraptions to be items of necessity and never donned them unless all other modes of mobility had become useless.  The time had come.

The first thing I noticed on the same hook were the new rubber bindings that my brother in-law had given me a few years ago.  I recalled how he claimed that the improved bindings were superior to the leather models, which were problematic to buckle up and to keep adjusted properly – especially after they got wet. Read more

General, Wildlife

Boone and Crockett: Conservation Groups Achieve Breakthrough on Litigation Payouts

GW:  Although a good step forward, those interested in transparency will meet a dead end unless Senate leader Reid allows the bill to move forward.  Hats off to these lawmakers in any event.

MISSOULA, Mont.–The bipartisan Open Book on Equal Access to Justice Act passed the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 5 by a voice vote. This is a show of strong support for the bill, H.R. 2919, by Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Steve Cohen (D-TN).

“Lawsuits are still controversial and the disagreements still run deep on lawsuits in conservation, but we now have clear, bipartisan agreement that transparency is the first step toward solutions,” said Lowell Baier, president emeritus of the Boone and Crockett Club.         “This bill ensures public disclosure of the facts: who files these lawsuits, why, and how much public money is spent on them.” Read more

Animal Rights, Wildlife

New laws increase fines for poaching antlered deer, recreational trespass

  GW:  I like the new changes and higher fines and only wish they’d be even more…

New state laws designed to deter poaching of antlered bucks, especially those with trophy-sized racks, and to reduce recreational trespass are now in effect in Michigan, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced today.
The new laws make several changes to the fines and restitution payments for poaching deer, including a progressive penalty system:

  • For any deer with or without antlers, the base restitution will be $1,000;
  • For any antlered deer, there will be an additional restitution of $1,000 plus;
  • For antlered deer with 8 to 10 points, an additional $500 will be assessed for each point; and
  • For antlered deer with 11 or more points, an additional $750 will be assessed for each point.  Read more
Poachers, Wildlife

Keep an eye out for stranded waterfowl this winter

This winter, the Department of Natural Resources asks those living along the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan, to keep an eye out for confused, stranded waterfowl in local towns and neighborhoods.

 

grebe swimmingThe exceptionally cold winter weather of the past few weeks has caused the bays and waters of the Great Lakes to freeze much further into the center than in recent years. Rather than move far into the deep waters of the lakes, some waterfowl – including horned and red-necked grebes; common, hooded and red-breasted mergansers; and long-tailed ducks – are moving from the larger, freezing waters of the Great Lakes and are looking for open water bodies inland. In foggy, snowy, low-visibility conditions, these birds are mistaking icy roadways and driveways for inland water bodies and are becoming stranded on land. Read more

Wildlife

USFWS Reopens Comment Period on Wolf Proposal

Independent scientific peer review report available for public review
Following receipt of an independent scientific peer review, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reopening the comment period on its proposal to list the Mexican wolf as an endangered subspecies and remove the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List. The Service is making that report available for public review, and, beginning Monday, February 10, interested stakeholders will have an additional 45 days to provide information that may be helpful to the Service in making a final determination on the proposal. Read more

Animal Rights, Wildlife

DNR announces 2014 Black Lake season harvest results

Man holding lake sturgeon at Black LakeDepartment of Natural Resources (DNR) officials announced the 2014 Black Lake sturgeon harvest season ended after less than 90 minutes on Saturday, Feb. 1, with six fish being harvested. The fishing season, which included spearing or hook-and-line fishing, was scheduled to run Feb. 1-5, or until the harvest quota had been reached.

“The 2014 allocation of Black Lake sturgeon for the State of Michigan was six fish, although DNR officials imposed a voluntary quota of five fish for recreational anglers,” said Todd Grischke, Lake Huron Basin coordinator. “Establishing this one-fish buffer before the fishing season allowed us to stay within our allocation of six fish. This year is a great example of how our harvest allocation model and on-ice communication effectively reduce the chance of overharvest of lake sturgeon in Black Lake.” Read more

Wildlife
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