GW: A proactive measure to pay dividends. Very smart!

Starting immediately as weather allows over the winter months, officials across the state plan to burn slash piles.

Nebraska Game and Parks will burn slash piles containing trees and shrubs removed from grasslands and forests, along with other debris piles, on both wildlife management areas and state park areas. The goal is to reduce fuel loads while conditions are safer for burning.

In the Pine Ridge, Nebraska Game and Parks is partnering with the Pine Ridge Ranger District of the Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands to reduce fuel loads in forested areas.

When burns are occurring, smoke likely will be visible from nearby communities and other nearby roads and properties.

The burn piles will be checked at least daily until they are completely extinguished.

Thinning and reducing hazardous fuel accumulation and build-up on the ground is an important tool in reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. Many of these slash piles are from mechanical thinning completed in grassland and forested areas throughout the state and some residue from previous fires.

For more information contact the Nebraska Game and Parks Wildlife Office at 402-471-5431, and for information on the Pine Ridge fires, contact the Pine Ridge Ranger District at 308-432-0300 or the Game and Parks Commission Pine Ridge Field Office at 308-665-2924.

Roswell, Georgia (December 13, 2022) – Crafted for the adventurer, LiteFighter announces the FIDO 1AI tents are available. The FIDO1 AI (All-In) is a one person, rugged and durable 3/4 season tent. This battle-tested and proven shelter system is the perfect set-up for anyone who enjoys everything the outdoors has to offer. The FIDO 1 AI includes everything needed to endure the elements in any season.

This shelter system comes complete with:

• Cold weather kit (windbreaker + 4 snow/sand parachute stakes)
• Inner tent
• MultiCam® rainfly cover
• Waterproof groundsheet
• All-in-one aluminum pressfit pole set
• Waterproof tuff sack
• 6 ground stakes
• Accessory kit

The FIDO 1 Basic and FIDO 2 Basic are also available which do not include the cold weather kit and tuff sack. Read more

While the weather outside may, as the song goes, be frightful, winter is one of the most exciting times to go birding across Michigan and the Great Lakes region.

Many new visitors from the north arrive in the colder months, including snow buntings, horned larks and dark-eyed juncos. Snowy owls, great gray owls, northern hawk owls and boreal owls also make their way into the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula. Winter is the perfect season for waterfowl birding, too, as hundreds of thousands of ducks, geese and swans descend on the Great Lakes.

Participating in bird counts is a fun and fruitful way to spend winter days.

“Tracking the birds you see helps scientists better understand how birds move throughout the winter and how healthy their populations are,” said Erin Ford, conservation manager for MI Birds, a public outreach and engagement partnership between Audubon Great Lakes and the DNR. “This information can help guide meaningful, on-the-ground conservation action to protect birds and the places they need.” Read more

At its Nov 30-Dec. 1 meeting, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) gave final approval to add the striped newt to the state’s threatened species list. New Species Conservation Measures and Permitting Guidelines, the Species Action Plan and updates to the Imperiled Species Management Plan were all approved as part of the listing process.

Significant population declines have been documented throughout the range of this native salamander since 2000. Striped newts face a variety of threats, including:

• Habitat loss and alteration,
• Disease,
• Off-road vehicle impacts,
• Land use changes and
• Changes in climate.

The FWC received the most recent request to evaluate the striped newt in 2019 and staff completed the Biological Status Review Report in 2021 with the recommendation to list the species as threatened, per Rule 68A-27.0012 F.A.C. Commissioners approved the initial staff recommendation at their May 2021 Commission meeting, pending development of a management plan. Read more

Winter is the peak season to enjoy viewing and photographing Bald Eagles in Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes, and now through early February you can sign up to join a 3-hour van tour to explore the Bald Eagles’ favorite bays, shorelines, and roosting sites. Both resident and wintering Bald Eagles search for fish around the lakes where you will search for these majestic symbols of America as they soar overhead, perch in the trees, and maybe you will even see one in action as it tries to catch a fish. US Forest Service naturalists will help you spot eagles and other wildlife, and provide magnified views with spotting scopes for better looks. Van tours begin at the Woodlands Nature Station near Cadiz, Kentucky; to register, call (270) 924-2020.

Van Tour Dates and Times
December 10 & 11, 2022: 1 to 4 pm CST
January 7 & 8, 2023: 1 to 4 pm CST
January 14 & 15: 9 to 12 pm CST
January 21 & 22: 1 to 4 pm CST
January 28 & 29: 1 to 4 pm CST
February 4 & 5: 1 to 4 pm CST

For more information, refer to the US Forest Service site at Woodlands Nature Station – Land Between the Lakes

The trail camera’s display was tiny, but there was no mistaking the creature it showed – a Black-naped Pheasant-Pigeon – a species that hasn’t been documented by biologists since it was first described and last seen in 1882! Dedicated researchers traversed narrow mountain ridges, crossed and re-crossed rivers that roared through canyons cloaked in dense tropical forest, and endured blood-thirsty mosquitoes and leeches for a month, all in search of a bird that might not exist. They had just hours of searching left before leaving Fergusson Island, located off the east coast of Papua New Guinea.

At that point, expedition co-leader Jordan Boersma imagined their chance of success was less than 1 percent. Out of breath after climbing to retrieve trail cameras, he sat down on a lush hillside to catch his breath and begin looking through the photos from the cameras, not expecting to find anything. “Suddenly I was confronted with this image of what at that time felt like a mythical creature,” explained Boersma, a researcher with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “It was, without exaggeration, the most surreal moment of my life.” Read more