QDMA Offers Student Scholarships to Attend Deer Steward Courses
The Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) will award deserving students with scholarships to attend a Deer Steward course in 2014. Read more
Category: Wildlife
Goldfinch
MI DNR Fisheries Division’s annual report now available
A report highlighting the various activities of the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Fisheries Division during Fiscal Year 2013 has been produced and is now available online at www.michigan.gov/fishing. Read more
HSUS Gets Testy in Palm Beach
This from www.HumaneWatch.org…
The Humane Society of the United States held a fundraising benefit last Thursday at the fancy Club Colette in posh Palm Beach. We had been educating residents, via a mailing and a TV ad, that HSUS gives only 1% of its budget to pet shelters, that it gets a “C-minus” grade from the independent watchdog CharityWatch, and that it is in federal court facing a racketeering lawsuit.
We decided it would be best to show up in person to the event, too. Read more
Arizona-New Mexico Mexican Wolf Population Grows in 2013
GW: If only an animal-rights activist would ever agree on the definition of recovery…
PHOENIX — During its annual year-end population survey, the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team (IFT) counted a minimum of 83 Mexican wolves in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico at the end of 2013. This number demonstrates a 10 percent increase in the known population of Mexican wolves in the wild compared to the 2012 minimum population count of 75 wolves. Read more
Polar Bear Population Increasing?
Northern Canada’s Hudson Bay region has been noted as the area of the most threatened Polar bear population, but new evidence shows estimates as much as 67 percent higher than suggested. Details here…
An Alaska scientist, Charles Monnett, whose observations of drowned polar bears helped galvanize the global warming movement has been forced out of his position as part of a settlement with a federal agency. Turns out he made things up and left other fact out of his argument to support an animal-rights agenda. More here…
Hat tip to John Lott.
Spring turkey hunting applications on sale until Feb 1
The Department of Natural Resources reminds hunters that spring turkey hunting applications are on sale until Saturday, Feb 1. The application fee is $4. Applications and licenses may be purchased at any authorized license agent or online at www.michigan.gov/huntdrawings. Read more
Wisconsin Eliminates Deer Check Stations
New Wisconsin rules eliminate all check stations and replace the old system with a mix of phone and online registration by 2015. DNR officials indicate the modernization could save the agency as much as $182,000 a year. Here is how the system is being sold.
Why Michigan’s Wolf Hunt Was Successful
Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management P.O. Box 11082 Lansing, MI 48901
LANSING–The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released new statistics from last season’s public wolf hunt – Michigan’s first – which showed that the majority of wolves taken by hunters were likely from problem packs – and, no helicopters were used in the hunt!
17 of the 23 wolves taken by hunters were taken in pack territories in the Upper Peninsula with high incidents of wolf depredation on livestock or pets. Most were taken within five miles of a depredation incident, according to DNR biologist Adam Bump. DNR biologists know the approximate territories of wolf packs, which aggressively defend their territories from other wolves. Read more
Nebraska Senator Threatens to Shut Down Legislature Over Mountain Lion Hunt
GW: Another liberal who doesn’t get it…
Just two weeks into Nebraska’s inaugural Mountain Lion hunting season, a bill has been introduced to stop the hunt.
The bill, LB 671 sponsored by Senator Ernie Chambers (D-Omaha), would ban mountain lion hunting, threatening not only livestock but public safety also. Senator Chambers has also announced his intentions to oppose every proposal of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission until the mountain lion season is abolished.
In 1995, Nebraska added mountain lions to the state’s game list in order to protect the steadily growing population. Over the past 20 years, the population levels have risen enough to sustain a limited harvest using a controlled quota system. In 2013, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission established its first ever mountain lion season which commenced this month. Read more
Youth rabbit hunt a new tradition for DNR, conservation groups
What started out as an experiment has turned into a tradition. The youth rabbit hunt at the Belding Sportsmen’s Club, near the Flat River State Game Area – now in its third year – attracted 45 youngsters last Saturday for a morning of stomping brush piles, following beagles and tromping through the snow.
“We’re getting great participation from everyone,” said club president John Burns, “club members, parents and youngsters.”
The idea for the youth hunt sprung from John Niewoonder, the Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist at Flat River, who had been on a campaign to improve the small game habitat by building brush piles for “rabbitat” at the area. Read more