Garmin’s newest line of trail handheld GPS systems is the X-Series. The X-Series units are made for high performance and durability. These units give improved satellite reception in heavy tree cover or in deep canyons. One of the neatest features of the X-Series units is the SD memory card capabilities. This allows you to go to a retailer (Cabela’s for example) and purchase a SD card that is preloaded with detailed information on the specific place where you are hunting or hiking (trails, topography, etc). These features make the Garmin X-series a dream for any outdoorsman.

The nice thing about Coast Del Mar glasses is that you don’t have to sacrifice style for performance. Costa Del Mar offers many frame style and sizes to fit and look great on anyone and all glasses come with their top of the line polarized lenses. Not only can you get top quality performance with Costa Del Mar glasses, you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get them. The majority of Costa Del Mar’s glasses can be purchased for between $100-$200.

Nicholas Coleman was born in Provo, Utah, the son of artist Michael Coleman. Brought up in an artistic environment, Coleman has been painting and drawing for as long as he can remember. He has traveled extensively, painting studies and taking photographs for later works. His travels have taken him across North America, through Africa, and Europe. Coleman lived and worked in Brazil for two years. Coleman finds inspiration through his travels, and the hunting and fishing he does along the way, as well as in history, art museums and other artists. These include his father Michael Coleman, Bruno Liljefors, Wilhelm Kuhnert, Carl Rungius,Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and Frank Tenney Johnson. (The list could go on and on.)Coleman uses a traditional academic approach in his painting, using gouache and oil. However, he doesn’t like to label his style as “realism,” as there is a certain amount of spontaneity and a slight impressionistic feel to his paintings. Coleman endeavors to create a connection between his paintings and the observer by invoking a mood that the viewer can walk into.He plans to continue working hard at what he loves; his father told him, “you are only as good as your last painting,” so Coleman continually strives to improve his abilities. Never one to miss an opportunity, he also wants to improve his etching and sculpting skills.

Visit Nicholas Coleman’s Website

Stacey Huston has been working on her site/blog for over a year now, and has asked her husband “Hawk” to join her with his fantastic writing skills. Together they hope to share a little of their world, and their passion for all things wild with each and every one of you.

Visit Stacey’s Website

As an artist, there is a tremendous feeling of satisfaction that comes from capturing that special moment in paint. In a world filled with chaos, I hope my art brings something peaceful and comforting to the viewer. I strive to evoke a sense of mystery, beauty and drama.

Visit Lori McNee’s Website

Bulls & Beavers’  “Best of the Best” award recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

 Jason Nash Communications & Events Manager for ATK Ammunition Systems receives the B&B “Best of the Best” award at the 2010 SHOT Show. Federal Premium ammunition offers some of the most technologically advanced sporting rifle ammunition available.

Bulls & Beavers  “Best of the Best” award recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

Leland Nichols Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing recieves the B&B “Best of the Best” award at the 2010 SHOT Show. 

Smith & Wesson is one of the world’s most recognizable brands, and for good reason. Since their doors first opened the focus has been on design and manufacturing innovative solutions that are unparalleled in the field of personal safety and protection. Almost every major law enforcement and military agency in the world has used Smith & Wesson products, and to this day, most police departments in the United States depend on their firearms and accessories.

“Best of the Best” Browning

Bulls & Beavers’ recognition of companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

Leland Nichols Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing

Bulls & Beavers recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

David Allen President & CEO of RMEF receives the B&B “Best of the Best” award at the 2010 SHOT Show.  RMEF’s 150,000 members whose support has protected and enhanced millions of acres of North American wildlife habitat. Hundreds of thousands of these acres offered extremely limited public access or were completely off-limits to the public. They are now open for all to hunt, fish and otherwise enjoy. We employ more than 150 people and boast more than 10,000 volunteers working through 550 chapters across the United States

Bulls & Beavers’ “Best of the Best” award recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

Justin Doucette Director, Product Marketing receives the B&B  “Best of the Best” award at the 2010 SHOT Show.

Magellan iphone product review

Bulls & Beavers “Best of the Best” award recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

This year we recognized the Outdoor Channel for it’s quality content.  Todd Merkow President of Digital Media for the Outdoor Channel  recieved the B&B “Best of the Best” award.

 The Outdoor Channel Founded by outdoorsmen for outdoorsmen, features quality programming designed to educate and entertain sportsmen of all skill levels. The channel promotes the traditional outdoor activities that are a vital part of our national heritage including fishing, hunting and shooting sports. The programs are designed to appeal to “traditional sportsmen” of all ages with a focus on activities that the entire family can enjoy in the great outdoors.

Bulls & Beavers’ “Best of the Best” recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

 Paul Thompson Media Relations & Trade Show Manager for Browning is presented with the B&B “Best of the Best” award.  Browning Arms Company has drawn a bead on the firearms market for more than 125 years. The company traces its roots to the late 19th Century, when John Moses Browning established his firearms factory in Utah. Mr. Browning, who earned many patents for his gunsmithing inventions, developed designs that were manufactured by Winchester, Colt, and Fabrique Nationale.

Bulls & Beavers’ ”Best of the Best” award recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

Tom Richardson Vice President , Sales is presented with the B&B’s “Best of theBest” award.  

Mag Instrument is dedicated to the highest standards of integrity. Each Mag Instrument flashlight represents a culmination of more than 20 years of research, development and continuous state-of-the-art refinement in every precision feature. Mag Instrument is proud to be a U.S.A. Manufacturer.

Product review on the MAglite’s XL 100

Bulls & Beavers’ recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

B&B presents Kevin Sloan President Sika Gear with our “Best of the Best” award for camo clothing. Sitka gear utilizes only the most advanced fabrics and construction technologies, Sitka designs gear that is engineered to work together as complete systems, excelling in performance, function, and protection. 

Bulls & Beavers’ “Best of the Best” award recognizes companies, organizations, products, and individuals who we believe demonstrate superior quality, service, or achievement supporting the pursuits of the outdoor sportsman.

Bulls & Beavers recognized Swarovski Optiks and presented Albert Wannenmacher CEO and Johannes Davoras Member of the Executive Board Marketing & Sales. 

Swarovski Z7 rifle scope product review

The second the bear charged, I raised my bow to full draw. I saw, in an instant, the long silver tipped guard hairs and broad forehead and knew that this was a grizzly. At fifteen feet, the bruin slid to a stop and pounded the ground with a huge forepaw, sending a spray of forest debris across my legs and torso as it let out a deep rumbling growl. As suddenly as it began, it was over. He retreated back into the forest, while I let down my shaking arrow from the bow. My heart still racing and feeling a little dizzy, I sat upon the cool earth and collected my frazzled nerves. “This is getting old”, I thought to myself, “really getting old!”

Dark timber to most folks seems a place foreboding and full of dangers. For me, these places are the perfect haunt, big elk get big by staying in this rough country and the hunter who braves the wildest country, has the best chance of harvesting one of those old warriors. The only real danger in these places is the possibility of an encounter with the king of the forest, the wild grizzly bear. In recent years, their numbers have increased dramatically. Where I once saw the occasional track, now an encounter with a bear is imminent. Last time I hunted on the North Fork of the Shoshone River, I encountered eleven bears in a six-day period. Two of those encounters were close calls with one bluff charge, bears protecting their food source (white pine nuts). During the September bow season the bears are dangerous, they forage the high slopes in search of red squirrel caches. The squirrels bury thousands of white pine cones in preparation for the long winter, and the bears dig up the huge mounds and feed on the bounty the squirrels have provided. You would have to see the actual digging to believe it, the woods look like a bulldozer went through from all the digging, and the bears spend the day lying around in the forest, sleeping near these caches. For the unsuspecting bow hunter, stalking with the wind in his face and moving very slowly, these bears are a real danger. They are storing fat reserves for winter and are very protective of their food. A two hundred pound man with a knife and bow is no match for a large carnivore weighing as much as 1000 pounds. Most bears run for cover when encountering a human, but at this time of year they more often growl and charge toward the threat. Let me tell you, even knowing most charges are bluff or false charges, the sight will still wilt even the most seasoned of outdoorsmen into a mass of shaking fear. Their growl is so sudden and fierce that your initial reaction is to flee. Never run! If you do this will trigger a predatory response, the bear will give chase and the result will be sudden and decisive.

I am not knocking the grizzly, quite the contrary; I like the fact that the wild ecosystem is intact and relish the chance to meet up with these old warriors. I am not Treadwell. The fact is that there are too many bears with little or no fear of humans sharing the wild backcountry with me. I cannot take my family into the wilderness without fear of the inevitable bear encounter. Furthermore, if I was forced to kill a bear to protect others, or myself the bear has already been given immediate protection from any wrongdoing. In any court of law, I would have to explain to a group of individuals that have never even seen a bear in the wild, why I killed a protected species. If they thought I had wrongfully killed this bear, my status as an honorable and ethical hunter would be slandered, and my right to hunt and fish could be taken away for my lifetime. This kind of ridiculous behavior by the Game and Fish is not at all the bears fault, nor the hunter who values the high lonesome places. The fault lies in the political agendas keeping the bear protected, as well as the sportsmen not speaking out so that those who are enacting these laws can hear our voice. Unless the mighty grizzly’s population is controlled in our wilderness areas, we stand a very real chance of loosing our rights, even the right to use the wilderness ourselves. I have seen the closure of trailheads to honest hard working tax paying citizens, and cringe at the possibility of what the future may hold for the majestic Grizzly and for future generations of outdoor enthusiasts. I would never shoot a grizzly unless it was a last resort and do not believe that bear spray is a deterrent on a bear who has a family member down or is protecting it’s cubs. I have used pepper spray on a female bear with cubs, she could have killed me. Luckily, I was in a tree when she began her assault. The spray did not deter that bear in any way shape of form. She thought I was a threat and she was determined to have at me no matter the cost to her delicate senses. I would not try to deter anyone from enjoying the wilderness. Most of the year, in most places, there is no real danger if you keep a clean, bear proof camp and be vigilant. For any hunter who hopes to hunt the Absaroka wilderness or Bridger Teton wilderness in September here in Wyoming, I would suggest you think twice before venturing out there with your family or loved ones. The danger is real!

Although I think all bears are beautiful and believe they have every right to live free and prosper, if one tries to eat me there will be a battle, and may the best warrior win. The fact is that the largest carnivore in North America left unmanaged will continue to have conflict with humans, and in the end, the bear always looses. If you value the grizzly and your right to use the wilderness areas please remember to vote for a management plan concerning the mighty king of the forest, their future, and ours depends on it.

(B&B)- Mike “Hawk” Huston is contributing editor for Bulls & Beavers LLC
www.journeywithredhawk.blogspot.com/

The call of the grey wolf reverberating off the canyon walls deep in the high country, adds a sense of wildness and majesty to one’s surroundings. For me, the mournful calls are reminiscent of an ancient time when long ago hunters walked the land, armed with primitive weaponry and survival skills which far surpassed our own. I still stalk the wild places armed with a stick bow and handmade arrows, but the call of the wolf holds a much different meaning for me than for the long ago hunter gatherers. In our modern world, the so-called wild Wyoming wolf is handled by humans in it’s lifetime, through study and scientific evaluation, more than my pet dog. My family and I made a pilgrimage into Yellowstone National Park this spring, in the hope of spotting a wolf pack in the early spring snow, and maybe getting some photographs. We were truly lucky to spot the pack feeding on a recent kill, an elk they took down the night before. We watched as these super predators surrounded a second elk and watched in anticipation as they moved in for the kill. For some reason they suddenly quit the attack and moved off in pursuit of some other prey. The reason I brought this up is I felt compelled to let people know what was happening on the sidelines concerning the so-called wild wolves of Yellowstone.

Several vehicles lined the roadway, various spotting scopes and long-range cameras follow every move of the pack across the frozen terrain. Among the watchers, conversation drifts between the raw beauty of wolf number eight and how well wolf number three is doing after last weeks encounter. Wolf number seven seems healthy despite the wound received on the tenth of September last fall, somehow wolf number eleven has hurt her foot and number one the alpha male of the druid pack looks sad… you get my point. These wolves are followed everywhere by animal rights activists who with a seemingly unlimited amount of resources at their disposal keep a constant vigil over the packs and document the lives of these WILD wolves religiously. Let us take this story to the other side of the mountains along the Absaroka front, a rancher and his daughter ride through the sagebrush-covered hills below a timbered slope. For over a hundred years, this honest and hard working family has raised cattle and pastured the cows and calves in these meadows. On the wind the stench of death permeates the summer morning, their horses are restless as they approach the now rotting carcass. “This is getting old.” the rancher replies to his daughter as they dismount and examine the kill, blowflies and summer heat have decomposed the calf’s carcass quickly. Wolf tracks are everywhere and the half-eaten carcass leaves no question to the trained eye as to the demise of the calf. Dozens of cattle have fallen prey to the wolves this summer, last winter near here his son lost a good cattle dog when the pack came down while he was cutting firewood and boldly killed the dog and went on their way. Countless man-hours have been spent riding, driving and walking the summer pastures in search of wolf kills, hoping to find them in time to allow the proper authorities to decide if wolves killed the cattle or if something else contributed to their demise. On the other end of the spectrum, if a wolf comes up missing the choppers are in the air immediately, the wildlife warriors are summoned and an unlimited amount of resources becomes available to determine the reason for the disappearance. The battle lines have been drawn and are perfectly clear, the wolf lovers want the wolf to be protected and unharmed, the ranchers want to be able to raise their herds unmolested, and the outdoorsmen and hunters want to ensure a future for their sport through proper game management. The wolf is such a good predator that their impact upon the elk herds has far surpassed the projected numbers, and their own numbers have increases at such a rate that without some sort of intervention the long term impact in Wyoming’s elk herds will be disastrous.

(B&B)- Mike “Hawk” Huston is contributing editor for Bulls & Beavers LLC
www.journeywithredhawk.blogspot.com/

Rocky Mountains 1854…Elk move through the dense fog at timberline, the hunter sees them briefly as they ghost toward his concealed position. Near the back of the herd, a cow staggers along slowly and painfully. The broken shaft of an arrow sticking out from her shoulder tells the hunter he has finally found her. Nearly four days ago he shot this cow elk near the great river. The shot went high and failed to penetrate the body cavity, resulting in a painful wound. For days, he has trailed the herd and tried in vain to get close enough to make a killing shot. The creator blessed the hunter with thick fog this morning allowing for a careful stalk which has put him in position along the herds travel route. Several elk pass by before the wounded cow finally presents a good quartering shot; the hunter draws his strong bow and releases the feathered shaft in one fluid movement. Like lightning across the summer sky, the arrow strikes swiftly. The already weakened cow falls to the earth almost immediately and lies still as the fog begins to recede. What should have been an easy task of harvesting meat for his people became a four-day test of his skills as a hunter, his dedication to his prey and his unwavering decision to always stay the course no matter where the trail may lead. Arms raised toward the sky he prays to the creator and gives thanks for his good fortune. He also asks the one above to see the elk’s spirit safely to the place where elk go, and lays down some tobacco and sage to honor the life he has taken which will in return sustain life for him and his family… The sun suddenly peaks through the rapidly dying fog, illuminating the crystalline world of white in bright splendor. He smiles with the realization that his prayers have been heard, as an eagle cries from somewhere in the bright morning sky…

Today in our modern world of gadgetry, and better, stronger, more diverse gear and equipment. It becomes hard to imagine that hunter’s still hunt the wild places with this kind of honor, integrity and perseverance as the hunter in my story. However, the truth of the matter is without hunters in our modern world there would in all likelihood be little or no game left for anyone to enjoy. Modern encroachment on what was once wildlife habitat and the constant threat to the remaining habitats, dictates that we as stewards of the wild places must keep the numbers in check. There is simply not enough land left out there for most wildlife to prosper in huge numbers as they once did. Left unmanaged most species soon overpopulate their home range and begin outward expansion. Once this happens, human conflict becomes eminent, and usually the wildlife suffers greatly from disease and starvation. However, through constant and well-regulated management, hunters will, and have, allowed species to remain in strong numbers without being subjected to overpopulation and disease inside of their designated ranges. Conservation is nothing new to the hunter. Since the early days of conservation with men like Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir; hunters have been at the forefront of nearly every wildlife conservation effort. From the national parks to wildlife refuges and wetlands, hunters have put their money where their mouth is. Their blood, sweat and hard work have enhanced thousands of acres, bettering the habitats for future generations of hunters and their prey. Too often hunters are portrayed as vicious killers with no care for wildlife or their future. This kind of ignorance is why we as hunters must take a stand; we must let the world know that we are the first line of defense for the wild places and all the creatures who share these places with us. Groups like Pheasants Forever, Trout Unlimited, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and The Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, just to name a few, make it possible for future generations to enjoy the wild creatures and their habitat is ensured by our sportsmen’s dollars. Without sportsmen and women supporting wildlife conservation most all species would be in peril. I call upon my fellow outdoorsmen to ensure a future for our sport and for the heritage passed down through the ages. We are under attack at every front by those who preach salvation for our wild places and the creatures with which we share this great planet. Somehow, the true saviors and stewards of the forest have become targeted as the evil doers because we harvest animals instead of allowing the natural selection of disease starvation and overpopulation to decimate the herds. Brothers and sisters, we must be vigilant of our position as predators, and stay the course as wilderness warriors in order to achieve our ultimate goal. Protection of our wildlife, their habitats and our heritage. Most importantly, we must not allow the so-called defenders of wildlife and environmental activists the opportunity to destroy all we have worked to build. If they cannot work in tandem with we sportsmen in our efforts, then we must work that much harder to ensure that the circle of life remains, instead of drawing lines in the sand. ~Hawk

(B&B)- Mike “Hawk” Huston is contributing editor for Bulls & Beavers LLC
www.journeywithredhawk.blogspot.com/

http://highcountryarcher.blogspot.com/
(A Collection of Mike’s stories)

Dave is an investor in Bulls & Beavers and also owns KHS&S contractors. KHS&S is one of the nation’s largest specialty contractors and is the nation’s leading theme contractor. Both Dave and his brother Mike are friends of mine from high school and it was great to spend quality time with them sharing old stories and hunting together.

Leaving Ketchum, Idaho on the 9th, I decided to take a shortcut through Stanley past the majestic Sawtooth Mountain range and over to Lowman, then North through McCall and into Grangeville. The drive was beautiful and fall was definitely in the air.

We all met at the Grangeville airport and headed out from there in three large SUVs. The drive to camp was an experience as we traveled up a steep dirt road through some very rugged country. We arrived at camp around 4:30 in the afternoon and met the staff. Tim Craig, the owner of Boulder Creek Outfitters, has been in business for over 25 years and has put together a first class operation with a staff that is both dedicated and experienced. His operation leases 55,000 prime acres that is home to large herds of Elk, Mule deer, White Tail deer, Black Bear and Mountain Lions.

Having two weeks earlier taken a nice bull elk with my bow, I was content to simply ride along and share in the camaraderie of being with the others elk hunting. I had several opportunities for a White Tail deer, but passed on two small crab claws.

The first day of the hunt was cold and the weather got colder as the week went on. Every morning we woke at 3:45am and were out by 5:00am. The food was great. Breakfast was always my favorite with eggs, bacon biscuits and gravy, French toast etc. We packed a lunch each day and often would not return to camp until after dark.

As for accommodations, they were far better than I expected. I would classify them as far superior to your typical back country camp. Hot shower, Satellite TV and heated sleeping areas with comfortable beds made for an incredible hunt post hunt retreat that I would recommend to anyone.

Opening day we had two animals down. By the end of my trip we had eight elk, seven deer, and one bear in camp with three days of hunting still to complete.

Now it’s fair to say that hunting is sometimes a misunderstood activity. It’s also reasonable to comment that many people don’t realize what hunting means to not only this outfitter, but to the State of Idaho and the many small rural towns across the state and country.

When I hear people criticize hunting, while at the same time watch them order a steak at a local restaurant or order fancy labeled meats at the local grocery store, my thoughts are confirmed.

Hunting means so much to so many people that it is hard to define. It is even harder to explain to people who have never hunted or never really understand its importance. Hunting is both a lifestyle and a tradition. It’s more than the morning mist, the thrill of a pursuit, the use of one’s forest knowledge. It’s primal and modern. It is raw cunning passed down from wood-wise veterans steeped in skill and interpretation of smallest details.

Hunting is more than anything, an opportunity to bond, to teach and to share. In an age of disconnected families and divorce, who could argue then with the value of a father teaching his son or daughter the respectful ways to hunt with integrity and purpose, as well as proper use and care of a firearm and cleaning one’s own catch.

Idaho’s 259,000 hunters and anglers are among the most prominent and influential of all demographic groups, spending more than $598 million a year on hunting and fishing, according to a recent report. In Idaho, spending by hunters and anglers directly supports 11,500 jobs, which puts $324 million worth of paychecks into the pockets of working residents around the state. Spending by local sportsman in pursuit of these outdoor activities generates $70 million in state and local taxes. These latest figures show that season after season hunters and anglers are the driving force in the economy from big business to rural towns through both booms and recessions.

When spending by hunters and anglers is compared to that by other sectors, their impact on the state’s economy becomes more tangible. Sportsman support more jobs in Idaho than Micron Technology, one of the state’s largest employers: 11,500 jobs versus 10,000. Idaho sportsman outnumber the populations of Boise and Pocatello: 259,000 versus 246,533.

On a national level 34 million sportsmen age 16 and older spent more than 76 billion in 2006, supporting 1.6 million jobs. If a single corporation grossed as much as hunters and anglers spend. It would be among America’s 20 largest, ahead of Target, Costco and AT&T. The economic stimulus of hunting and fishing equals and astounding 1.6 million a day being pumped into the state’s economy.

Spending by sportsman benefits not only manufactures of hunting and fishing related products, but everything from local mom and pop businesses to wildlife conservation. Because most hunting and fishing takes place in rural areas, much of the spending benefits less affluent parts of the state. When sportsman spending is thought in business terms and compared to other sectors of the economy, it is quite remarkable. From small rural towns scattered across our country’s landscape to the bottom line of fortune 500 companies located in major cities, taking away hunting and fishing removes the equivalent of a multi-billion dollar corporation.

As I sit here and think about my personal life as a hunter and entrepreneur, my thoughts revolve around both the passionate side of hunting, and the business side. Socially, culturally, and economically, hunting is part of who we are and contains all the good ingredients of what we need to be in the future.

This last week spent with both new and old friends only deepens my bonds to the life and lifestyle I love. Dave’s and Mikes friendship and Tim’s expertise and hospitality made this last week so memorable.

Because of our group’s overwhelmingly positive impression of the week, I am proud to provide a Bulls & Beavers, “Best of the Best” award to Boulder Creek Outfitters. If anyone is thinking of booking a trip please be sure to visit our website and check out this outfitter. This was my 4th guided hunt over the last ten years and it far exceeded my expectations.

 This year I was not even sure if I would be hunting let alone climbing mountains and chasing elk.  As a former full schloarship athlete I suffered a career ending knee injury playing defensive tackle at the University of Arizona.  After ten surgeries I had my knee replaced in January of 2008.  Seven months later I developed a staph infection and had to have two more replacements with the last one being in January of this year.  Fast forward a few months and I had the opportunity to meet Cory Glauner of gothunts.com and wedogservices.com.  Not only can Cory build websites like Bulls & Beavers but he can hunt like no other.  We met on September 18th late in the day at our local grocery store and bought supplies for two days knowing we had a limited time in the field.  

After arriving at Bulls & Beavers headquarters and planning the next morning’s hunt we called it a night.  With the alarm set I laid in bed for hours anticipating the morning and dreaming about how this could be the day I get my first elk after twelve years in the field.  We left the cabin on our quads at 6:30 am and within a half an hour we were on elk.  This first group had a very protective bull and with Cory on the bugle he wasn’t budging.  Honestly, we probably could have got the bull but it was to far for me with my leg to attempt the pursuit. I believe Cory would have had that bull but wanted to see me have the opportunity seeing that he has taken ten elk with his bow over the years.  Off we go looking for others and after glassing we decided to try a new area where Cory let out a bugle and within a minute we were answered with a bull that was close enough to go after.  We left the quads and started after him. 

The country we are hunting in is rugged and some of the best in the state of Idaho for elk with open sage and lots of timber patches.  After a half hour of moving in we set up for the call.  Cory put me out a hundred yards in front and started calling.  Cory is modest but you can see why he won the Idaho state bugle contest in 2006.  The bull answered but was either lazy or not interested in coming in.  We began slowly moving up the mountain through the deep timber calling.  Soon we knew we had his attention and the bull was on the move.  I knew Cory was close because I could hear his calls but what I didn’t know was that he had a shot opportunity if the bull wasn’t behind a tree.  After range finding where I thought the bull would come out there he was. The bull moved down the mountian and was at 50 yards. I was at full draw but he was looking head on at me.  My arm started shaking and I had to ease off the draw which was set at 70 lbs with the bull looking right at me.  He obviuosly didn’t see me or was more interested in the calls coming from Cory. The bull stepped five yards closer and turned broadside.  I let the arrow fly and could see it was on course but wasn’t sure if I had hit him.  After seeing the bull turn and run I cow called and moved in.  Cory was there and confirmed he was hit good.  Talk about overwhelming emotions after all these years and adversity to finally know you have your first bull with a bow.  We sat and waited for a half an hour and would have gone after him sooner with all my excitement but Cory was there to calm me down and make us wait.  We followed the blood trail and found my elk 200 yards up the mountain.

Here is where it gets amazing.  After finding my bull I spotted a cow elk 20 yards away and started cow calling and yelled to Cory. He moved up towards me and with in minutes I heard him release his arrow and he too had his elk down all before 9:00am.  As we both sat there in amazement of what we just accomplished we looked at each other knowing that the work has just begun.  Two elk down on a mountian.  Cory showed me how to eskimo dress the elk which we did and by 4:00 in the afternoon we had our elk back to camp.  My thanks goes out to Cory for calling in my first bull and helping me achieve a dream and goal of mine since I was a young kid.

 Late evening wind slips through the pines. Shadows begin their descent along the ground, to merge with the already growing darkness deep in the forest. On strong legs the old bull climbs to a high vantage point surveying his home range. Granite peaks rise to the west. Cloud shadows slide across the deep green of forests, covering the entire valley floor and beyond. The silver shine of the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, snakes through steep canyons far below. The old bull is familiar with all he sees. Ten years of hard living have made him very vigilant of all that goes on in these high lands. He sports many scars and injuries. His right rear leg is crooked from a battle with a wolf pack in the deep winter snow. His front shoulder has finally healed from an arrow that sliced through his muscle last fall during the rut. One of his eyes is white, blinded by an antler tine during a fight with a rival bull in his youth. Freezing winters, deadly predators, and stealthy hunters have left their mark, but have failed to send him to the grave. The wind stirs along the ridge, every fiber of the elk’s being says flee. Human scent during these early autumn days usually means that he is being hunted. Yet caution and patience, have saved his hide on more occasions than he cares to recount. Slowly, he turns and melts into the shadowed timber, confident that his old body and honed senses will carry him to safety .

A knee replacement last fall kept the hunter out of the wild places, followed by the news that his best friend was diagnosed with cancer, and the final straw, his recent layoff from his job of twenty two years. Yet here he sits, high on a ridge looking through the scope at a huge seven point bull, a heavy horned old warrior with sweeping tines. The hunter never even considers taking the shot. He has taken several bulls in his long life and the one before him stands, as though transfixed by the raw beauty below him. Even when the old bull catches his scent and retreats slowly into the afternoon shadows, the hunter doesn’t contemplate killing the battle scarred beast. Once the bull is gone he rises on stiff but rebuilt knees and reaches for his warbag. From inside the bag he pulls out a leather sack containing the ashes of his friend, the cancer won the battle in December of last year. He walks to the place where the old bull stood and pours his friends remains over the cliff side. While tears fall to the high earth, he says, “Farewell brother, I will see you on the good red road. Thanks for joining me on this hunt”. As he descends from the mountain, a growling bugle reverberates from somewhere close by, “and farewell to you as well, brother.” he replies, as the cold clear winds dry the remainder of his tears.

The old herd bulls antler tips, clack against the tree trunks as he climbs up the mountain. The scent of the hunter still fresh in his senses. That was close he thinks, too close.

These two old bulls, the man as well as the beast share common burdens in life, hardships, danger, aging and survival. The herd bull will probably never know the burdens or joys of love, friendship and commitment. While the man, allthough wise to these three things, could not know the burdens that come with absolute survival, and constant vigilance that plague the elk in his every day. However, I can’t help but wonder and contemplate the parallels between our lives and those of the animal world.  In retrospect, I believe that we as animals ourselves, often let our minds do our thinking, when we may be better served by following our instincts when it comes to love, friendships and commitments.

The Obama administration said Tuesday it was overturning a rule change made in the final weeks of the Bush presidency.

Officials at the Interior and Commerce departments said they have reimposed the consultation requirement that assured the government’s top biologists involved in species protection will have a say in federal action that could harm plants, animals and fish that are at risk of extinction.

Such consultation had been required for more than two decades until the Bush administration made it optional in rules issued last December, just weeks before the change in administrations.

Environmentalists argued that the change severely reduced the protection afforded under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“By rolling back this eleventh-hour regulation, we are ensuring that threatened and endangered species continue to receive the full protection of the law” and that top science will be the foundation of the decision-making, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

“Our decision affirms the administration’s commitment to using sound science to promote conservation and protect the environment,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke added.

Agencies in the two departments share responsibility for managing and enforcing the Endangered Species Act and combat climate change. The Interior Department earlier had declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice, a change attributed to global warming.

Salazar and Lock said the two departments will jointly decide if any changes are needed to improve the interagency consultation procedures.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the Interior Department, has jurisdiction over plants and animals, while NOAA, part of the Commerce Department, deals with fish species that are at risk of extinction.

cbcnews

Recently there were a couple of things I felt were holding me back from enjoying my life to the fullest – three total knee replacements (thanks to a staph infection), and a personal relationship that was lost due to viewing my life as half empty rather than half full. I’ve also seen first-hand that our country as a whole has been in a rut. The job crisis continues to affect people in my home town and across the nation. Even the strongest of bulls would have been tested over the past year given the circumstances.

In nature, a wounded bull is a dead bull but in human world a wounded individual needs to be a BULLeaver in one’s own self. Personal regrets and hindsight aside, I realize now that a lot can be learned from the bull elk that bugles for attention and fights (potentially to its death) during the rut for the simple but great reward of being the herd bull.

I realized that to get out of my rut I had to accept that times can be tough and that life is not always fair. In order to survive we must all be aware that the rut can happen to anyone and that we will get through the most difficult times if we just believe in ourselves and move forward.

I’m a BULLeaver

With her new album, New Moon Born, poised to burst onto the mainstream music scene, it’s no wonder Jana Mashonee is all smiles these days. The album represents a significant departure from her previous endeavors, taking on a decidedly more upbeat rhythm and blues flavor. “The album is about rebirth and new beginnings; it reflects a phase in my life that has taken on a different shape and direction from anything I’ve done before,” she says. “This music conveys my personal truths and beliefs.” In addition to providing all the vocals and piano, Jana wrote and co-produced the album. [Visit Jana's Website]

Bulls & Beavers is proud to introduce Shannon as our most recent Best of the Best Award winner and the 2009 Bulls and Beavers model of the year. Shannon has a true passion for the outdoors. Living in the West, her favorite outdoor recreation includes fishing, boating, shooting, horse back riding and adventure travel. Shannon is proud to have been chosen as the 2009 Bulls and Beavers model of the year and will be featured each week in a new photo on www.bullsandbeavers.com.

Jima Rice

Wood River Journal Columnist

Chris Burget is full speed ahead, boiling with energy and ideas. He pours himself into his passion, a company called Bulls and Beavers.
“We’re a content Web site,” he says, “an online community that offers quality hunting and fishing information for outdoor enthusiasts.”
Bulls and Beavers, also called B&B, went online in April. Burget says the site had 360 unique visits that first month and now, four months later, is on track for 10,000.
“Our goal is 150,000 unique visits and an exit in three to five years through buyout by a media giant,” he says.
Burget is a local resident carving a path to his dream.
“I want to live where I love and love what I do,” he says.
The ex-defensive tackle has a log cabin 10 feet from the Big Lost River. He has owned it for 12 years, but only began his business there in March 2007 when he could finally get phone, cable and satellite.
Before that, he was in sales for seven years with California-based J.F. Shea Co., his family’s home building business.
“I’d come to the Valley to hunt and fish years ago,” he says. “I knew I had to leave for a while to build experience and savings Š but I planned to come back.”
Bulls and Beavers, began as a brand of designer camouflage clothing for outdoor sportsmen. Early on, Burget sought advice.
“I went to the who’s who of businessmen and found advisors from technology, media and Wall Street,” he says. “They took one look at my plans and refocused me on B&B as a branded media company offering high-quality content to people who love the outdoors. It’s a $120 billion market and I could reach a lot more of it with niche-based web content than retail clothing.”
Burget took a year to create the B&B Web site www.bullsandbeavers.com. Its target market is primarily anglers and hunters to whom it offers multi-faceted elements.
There are well-written and informative blogs, news items and forums. Other features include classifieds for hunting and fishing items, a list of sportsman’s properties for sale and tips on exotic travel adventures.
It currently proclaims a sexy Model of the Year above an ad to download an elk bugle ringtone.
Income will come from e-commerce, advertising and affiliate partnerships with Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops, among others.
Meanwhile, eight investors have provided capital for site development and a small salary for Burget.
“This whole thing requires some risk,” he says. “But the growth trend is up as we work on our brand and driving traffic. I’m confident about the future.”
Burget has always been an entrepreneur, “but I’m glad I spent time in the family business,” he says. “I learned to do the right thing, follow core values and rely on others as my best resource.”
Why Bulls and Beavers?
“The bull elk is the most majestic animal in the wild,” Burget says. “Beavers are a keystone species that creates habitat for other species by dam-building. That’s wilderness and wildlife; the key issues that concern the outdoor sportsman.”

Jima Rice is president of Rice Consulting and Jigsaw, a local nonprofit that serves small businesses and helps build a sustainable economy for the Wood River Valley..

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today opened a 30-day public comment period on a proposal to add one national wildlife refuge to the list of areas open for hunting during the 2008-09 season and increase hunting opportunities at six other refuges.

The Service today also published a final rule that opens Cape May National Wildlife Refuge (New Jersey) to fishing, makes minor administrative changes, and modifies existing regulations.

Initially proposed in July 2006, the hunt program changes were withdrawn because of a lawsuit and subsequent court decision requiring some refuges to revise Environmental Assessments to incorporate cumulative impact analyses. Refuges named in the lawsuit have completed the revised assessments, as have the seven refuges included in today’s proposed rule.

The proposed rule, published in the June 11, 2008 Federal Register, would open Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota to migratory bird and big-game hunting. In addition, the rule increases hunting opportunities to include migratory birds and upland game at Agassiz and Blackwater national wildlife refuges, in Minnesota and Maryland, respectively. At the Whittlesey Creek (Wisconsin) National Wildlife Refuge, big-game hunting would be permitted.

Hunting opportunities at three refuges in Louisiana (Bayou Cocodrie, Tensas River and Upper Ouachita) would be increased because land has been added to the refuges. No regulatory changes, however, are proposed for Bayou Cocodrie. The rule also adds a turkey hunt at Upper Ouachita.

The Service also proposes removing Stillwater Wildlife Management Area (Nevada) from the list of areas open for hunting. The land has reverted to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation management after expiration of a 50-year agreement under which the Service managed the land in partnership with two state agencies.

Some of the nation?s finest hunting can be found on national wildlife refuges, as well as excellent opportunities for fishing, wildlife photography, wildlife observation, environmental education and interpretive programs. More than 300 national wildlife refuges currently have hunting programs and more than 270 refuges have fishing programs.

To view the final rule, visit: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-12188.pdf

To view the proposed rule, visit: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-12193.pdf

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

BY TODD ADAMS

Proposed changes announced last week to Rep. Mike Simpson’s Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) preserve economic development for Custer County and motorized access, contrary to claims by an anti-CIEDRA group, Simpson staff say.Lindsay Slater, Simpson’s chief of staff, was responding to claims recently made in ads by the Idaho Recreation Council.

Custer County commissioners Lin Hintze and Wayne Butts say they still support CIEDRA for its economic development provisions. The Challis Messenger was unable to contact Commissioner Cliff Hansen by press time.

The commissioners are on record opposing the designation of more than 300,000 acres of new wilderness, but supporting the bill’s release of 131,670 acres of wilderness study areas back into multiple use.

Simpson proposed the changes to make the bill more acceptable to the Democrats who now control Congress, Slater said. So far, he said, there has been no reaction from Democrats on the House Committee on Natural Resources chaired by Rep. Nick J. Rahall II. Simpson’s bill is still waiting for a committee hearing.

“The number one priority I have relayed to the committee is that Custer County must be compensated with guaranteed economic development money if they plan to take any lands off the table,” Simpson said in a statement last week. “I believe the guaranteed funding mechanism I have proposed will meet the needs of the citizens of Custer County and uphold the promises I have made to the Commissioners.”

Key changes

Simpson removed two controversial Sawtooth National Recreation Area land transfers to the City of Stanley and Custer County totaling 94 acres.

Parcel A, the so-called Benner Street parcel, would have transferred eight acres to Stanley that could have been sold for four homesites. Parcel B would have transferred 86 acres for 10 homesites to Custer County in the Nip and Tuck Creek area above Lower Stanley.

Stanley Parcel C, 73 acres along Valley Creek, remains in the bill and would be used for public purposes, Slater said, such as affordable housing. The transfer of 4,990 acres of BLM lands to Custer County and its municipalities also stays in the bill, he said.

The idea was to stimulate the county’s economy by increasing its tax base. In exchange for removing the two SNRA parcels, Simpson has put in a provision to transfer $3 million to Custer County.

That money would be guaranteed upon passage of CIEDRA and the money would come from diverting 25 percent of federal mineral leasing payments in Idaho to the county until the $3 million total is reached, Slater said.

A separate $5 million appropriation to Custer County remains in the bill, but is not guaranteed upon CIEDRA’s passage. Congress would have to pass a separate appropriations bill for Custer County to see that money.

The county commissioners have said they want to set up an economic development trust fund and use the interest to fund economic development projects.

Voluntary buyouts of federal grazing allotments held by East Fork ranchers are back in the bill. A national conservation group that wishes to remain anonymous has offered to put up $2 million to retire livestock grazing, Slater said.

CIEDRA originally proposed a federal appropriation of $7 million for the buyouts, but Simpson eliminated that provision after the Idaho Cattle Association opposed it.

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An IRC ad in last week’s issue of The Challis Messenger stated, “CIEDRA?No land and money guaranteed! Simpson backs out on CIEDRA deal with Custer County. Simpson’s promises of land transfers are removed from the bill.”

“They’re lying,” Commissioner Hintze told The Messenger. He said Simpson backed off on the SNRA parcels because groups opposed CIEDRA for selling off public lands for the development of trophy homes.

“They’re happy because there are no houses,” Hintze said. “We’re happy because we get the money, the $3 million.”

An Idaho Recreation Council commercial running on KSRA radio urges listeners to contact the commissioners and tell Simpson to “kill this bill before it kills our way of life.”

Sandra Mitchell, director of public lands for the Idaho State Snowmobile Association, a member group of IRC, admitted the ad was misleading. It didn’t specify that only two of the three Stanley parcels were removed, she said, or mention the 4,990 acres of BLM land transfers still in the bill.

The group’s latest statement specifies that just the two parcels totaling 94 acres have been dropped, Mitchell said. “Gone also is the ?Boulder White Clouds Management Area’ which would have protected some degree of motorized recreation access,” she wrote in a May 28 guest opinion to the Idaho Falls Post Register.

Slater said that’s not true ? removal of the management area does not change motorized access. Motorized trails stay the same and are detailed in Map 9, “CIEDRA Travel Plan” on Simpson’s website.

“The term and reference to the Boulder White Clouds Management Area is eliminated,” Slater wrote in a summary of changes, because it was controversial and confusing. CIEDRA opponents were concerned it would weaken land management in the SNRA.

The former management area perimeter included the 318,765 acres of wilderness that CIEDRA proposes to designate, plus surrounding non-wilderness lands that would maintain current management by the Salmon-Challis and Sawtooth national forests, the SNRA and the Challis district of the Bureau of Land Management.

Hintze challenged Mitchell; the IRC and others opposed to CIEDRA to come up with a development alternative for Custer County. “If IRC can come up with an alternative, I don’t want more wilderness, either,” Hintze said.

Mitchell told The Messenger the alternative is long-term growth in the form of a recreation economy that preserves current levels of motorized and mechanized (mountain bikes) access to the Boulder and White Cloud mountains.

The money, whether it’s $3 million or more, is tempting to take, but is only temporary and won’t last, as will recreation, Mitchell said.

“The money provisions of CIEDRA are payoffs to the locals to support CIEDRA; once the bill is passed that support is no longer needed,” Mitchell wrote in her opinion piece.

Studies have shown that snowmobiling, mountain biking and such recreation keep rural economies going.

Snowmobilers spend up to $319 each per day, Mitchell said, adding there’s a lot of snowmobiling in the Boulder and White Cloud mountains from which Stanley benefits.

As a compromise, IRC has said it’s willing to support about 40,000 acres of wilderness, versus the 300,000-plus acres now proposed.

  KATE HAMMER

From Monday’s Globe and Mail

June 2, 2008 at 3:53 AM EDT

The husband of a 70-year-old grandmother who was killed by a bear in northern Quebec fearlessly chased the wild animal off his wife’s battered body, according to family members.

Conservation experts set traps after Friday evening’s attack, but according to police, as of last night, the bear was still at large in the wilds of northern Quebec.

Cecile Lavoie and Alexandre Lavoie, 73, were in remote country nearly 600 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, where the retirees often spent the weekend fishing or hunting deer.

According to her daughter, Ms. Lavoie felt at home in the woods and on the banks of the Theo River, where the bear attacked.

As she scouted a fishing hole for walleye, Ms. Lavoie became separated from her husband. Barely 10 minutes later, Mr. Lavoie felt something was amiss and went searching for his wife of 51 years. Metres away he came upon the nightmarish scene of her body being dragged into the forest by a bear.

Mr. Lavoie chased the predator for nearly 200 metres and managed very briefly to scare it away from his wife. He tried but was unable to carry her limp and bleeding body back through the dense spring foliage.

He left her and went for help. When he arrived with police, the bear had returned and was combative.

“The bear was still around and the bear was aggressive,” said Sergeant Gregory Gomez del Prado, a spokesman for the Quebec provincial police. “It was dark so it was hard to find the woman’s body.”

The bear was so aggressive, police were forced to delay attempts to retrieve Ms. Lavoie’s remains until early Saturday morning, after it retreated into the deep woods north of the small community of La Sarre.

Yesterday Ms. Lavoie’s family gathered at her Beaucanton home. Mr. Lavoie, the retired owner of a logging machinery business his wife helped him build, is still in shock according to his daughter, Christine Lavoie.

“She was an angel,” Christine said yesterday in a telephone interview. “Fishing and hunting were her favourite activities, she was in her paradise.”

According to the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and Fauna website, black bears are the species most commonly found in Quebec. This species rarely attacks humans and only four people have been killed by black bears in that province over the past 25 years.

In 1991, a black bear killed a Toronto couple in Algonquin Park, baffling wildlife experts as it left the campers’ food stores untouched.

In 2001, a high-school student was attacked and partly eaten by a black bear 25 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

In 2007, a Calgary woman, who was cycling on a trail near a British Columbia resort, was stalked and killed by a black bear.

Attacks sometimes occur in the spring when bears awake from hibernation and are hungry. According to wildlife experts, a long winter and large amounts of snow meant this year’s hibernation season stretched a few weeks longer than usual.

In the event that one is approached by a black bear, the ministry website recommends moving slowly and avoiding eye contact in order to evade being identified as prey by the bear. Climbing a tree can be an effective way to escape attack.

According to her family, the attack on Ms. Lavoie happened so quickly she didn’t even have time to scream, let alone reach for the bear spray she carried with her. As accomplished hunters and campers who were born and raised in northern Canada, the Lavoies were well-versed in the recommended tools for avoiding and dealing with bear attacks.

It remains unclear why the bear attacked Ms. Lavoie.

In addition to her husband, she leaves behind five children and 11 grandchildren.

By Gazette News Services

BOZEMAN – State wildlife officials say wolves have killed 15 domestic buck sheep and injured 14 others on private land in the East Fork of the Blacktail, south of Dillon.

Officials say the Freezeout Pack probably killed two ewes as well.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks says wolves killed six sheep on the same property in early May. Because of the history of depredations, the agency last week authorized USDA Wildlife Services to kill three of the pack’s five adult wolves.

In an unrelated incident, a pair of wolves has killed a calf on private land in the Greenhorn Mountains, south of Alder.

Officials believe the pair, called the Jack Creek Pack, injured two other calves on the same property in early May.

FWP said it will monitor the pack but take no additional action at this time.

By The Associated Press

ROSEBURG, Ore. — A bear presumed to have been wounded by a hunter later mauled a friend of the shooter’s, the authorities said.

Aaron Wyckoff, 33, of Glide, Ore., had bite and scratch marks “on his ankle and on his forehead and everywhere in between,” said Oregon State Trooper Aaron Baimbridge on Saturday.

Wyckoff was listed in good condition at Mercy Medical Center on Sunday.

Chris Moen, 15, hunting the western side of the Cascades with his father, Pete, said he shot the bear behind the shoulder early Saturday.

The Moens trailed the wounded bear for a while. About 2 p.m., they asked three friends, one of whom was Wyckoff, to help find it.

Wyckoff was roughly 50 feet ahead of the others when the bear found him. Pete Moen remembers hearing “three shots and then, ‘Help.’ ” When the others approached, the bear was on Wyckoff. One of Wyckoff’s friends fired another shot and the bear rolled off and died.

LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. – May 8, 2008

Melissa Rowley left her children playing in the front yard for only a moment to step into her house.

There have been three coyote attacks on small children Southern California in the past five days. On Tuesday a coyote grabbed the 2-year-old by the head and tried to drag her towards the street.

(Getty Images/ABC)
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When she came back a coyote was dragging her daughter away.

It was the third time in five days a coyote had posed a threat to a small child in Southern California, San Bernardino Sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said.

The coyote grabbed the 2-year-old by the head and tried to drag her towards the street in the mountain community of Lake Arrowhead on Tuesday.

When Rowley came out of the house and ran toward her daughter, the animal released the girl and ran away.

Rowley took her daughter to a hospital where the toddler was treated for several puncture wounds to the head and neck area, and a laceration on her mouth.

She was then flown to Loma Linda University Hospital for further treatment, although her injuries were not life-threatening. She was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon and is expected to fully recover.

The film challenges many of the myths and historical stereotypes about creatures which pre-date the dinosaurs.

“The fact is sharks do not eat people – more people are killed by pop (soft drink) machines than sharks,” Stewart told AAP.

“Every year there’s seven to 10 billion swimmers swimming in areas where sharks hunt. “There are 60 to 90 shark bites every year, five fatalities.

“That makes sharks the least harmful predator on the planet.”

Stewart first fell in love with sharks as an animal-mad child.

“Sharks were an animal we knew so little about, they were enigmatic, they were from this world we had no idea about, so I always wanted to figure them out,” he says.

“But I was also afraid – I’d seen Jaws.”

His first encounter with a shark was a life-changing one.

“I met my first shark when I was nine in the Cayman Islands and it was afraid of me,” he says.

“Every shark I met after that was afraid of me.

“So it was a really shifting experience for a young impressionable kid. I got excited about them instead.”

Ever since, Stewart has wanted to change the way the rest of the world views sharks.

After failing to get his message across through his photography and magazine articles, he decided to make a movie about them.

Despite having no filmmaking experience, Stewart set out to make a beautiful underwater shark documentary.

Sharkwater features stunning images captured by Stewart of the majestic creatures in their natural habitat.

In one of the opening scenes Stewart is seen stroking a shark that swims contentedly in his arms.

At other times he free dives and glides peacefully among a school of sharks.

However, in the process of making the movie Stewart became aware of how badly shark numbers are being threatened by the shark fin industry.

Alongside the scenes of his extraordinary encounters with sharks are horrific images of the animals having their fins hacked off and being thrown back into the ocean to slowly drown.

The film quickly turned from a nature documentary into a human drama as Stewart and a crew from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were targeted by gun-wielding South American coast guards, illegal fishing boats and the shark fin mafia.

Stewart also had a personal battle to save his leg from a flesh eating disease.

“(All of that was) way scarier than any shark,” Stewart says.

“I’d never been chased by mafia, or coast guards with machine guns, or hospitalised and almost losing a leg – all of that was a totally new and terrifying experience.”

The illegal trade in shark fins is a multi-billion dollar industry, rivalling the illegal arms and drug trade in profits.

About 100 million sharks are killed for their fins each year to supply the lucrative Asian market. Their populations have been reduced by 90 per cent over the last 50 years.

Stewart says every country with a coastline is involved in the shark fin trade, but that it’s just done with more finesse in the developed world than it is in third world nations.

“Australia is now one of the top 20 shark fishing nations in the world,” he says.

“There’s 16 countries plus the European Union who have banned shark finning, but none have banned the importation of shark fins.

“Which means you can fin as many sharks as you want, as long as you put the fins on a shipping boat before you bring them into port. That’s a loophole the size of a country.”

Sharkwater has won 26 international awards and made more at the box office in Canada than Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine.

Stewart hopes the film not only changes people’s opinion of sharks, but encourages them to fight for shark protection.

“We want an international shark commission, we need a global ban on shark finning, a global ban on the trade in shark fins, and we also need to curb the demand,” he says.

“But also the most important thing is to revolutionise the way we work with the natural world.”

Stewart explains that sharks have a vital role at the top of the marine food chain and their extinction would have dire consequences for human life.

“The one animal we fear the most is the one we can’t live without,” he says.

“By 2048 every single fishery will have entirely collapsed, at which time we’ll have 10 billion people on the planet and 2.5 billion people will be displaced by rising sea levels.

“We waste 64 billion pounds (29.03 billion kg) of fish every year as by-catch, which is just thrown back into the ocean dead, while eight million people die of starvation.

“So what I’m hoping the movie does is make people realise life depends on life, we can’t just destroy ecosystems without regard to the fact that we’re part of one.”

Sharkwater opens on May 15 in NSW and Queensland, with other states to follow.

Seattle Times staff reporter

The ballyhooed strong return of upriver Columbia River spring chinook — that produced off-the-chart sport fishing in the lower river last month — isn’t quite living up to expectations at this point.

“It is possible the run could be late, but as of right now it is confusing with big daily [fish] counts [at Bonneville Dam] followed by small counts,” said Joe Hymer, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist. “It is like a moving target, and still too hard to pinpoint it down.”

The Oregon, Washington and tribal fishery managers met this past Monday, and reported the run is late timed and has not reached 50-percent passage yet.

The group felt that the updated run size of 200,000 upriver fish was somewhere near the middle of projections, and fish counts at Bonneville need to stabilize in order to get a more definitive estimate.

The preseason forecast was 269,300 upriver fish, and would be the third largest return since 1977.

Through Wednesday, the total count at Bonneville was 74,228 adult spring chinook.

The Lower Columbia closed to sport fishing on April 20, and anglers kept 20,040 hatchery spring chinook and 392 steelhead, and released 3,132 and 62 from 102,972 angler trips.

The nontribal commercial fisheries caught 5,938 spring chinook and released 1,626.

The tribal take depends on how large the return is, so if it stays at 200,000 fish they can catch about 18,000.

Hymer pointed out that Oregon Fish and Wildlife are making plans that could affect fishing in the Willamette River.

“[Today] may be the last day to fish in the Lower Willamette for salmon, but the upper [Willamette] and the Clackamas River will remain open,’ Hymer said. “This kind of unpredictability in the run really throws a wrench in things, and doesn’t just affect Upper Columbia fish, but it is happening all across the board at the moment.”

Fishery managers met Friday and will meet again tomorrow.

On the day he turned 80 years old, Hugh Vogel found himself crouched in the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Shotgun in hand, he waited.

With the vegetation too thick to even walk through, his Mayan guide had hacked a makeshift blind for them with a machete. As the sun was setting, the guide began making the high pitched calls of an ocellated wild turkey, a species that only exists in this remote part of the world.

Vogel peered through the leafy foliage at a nearby opening in the dense jungle. Before too long a peacock-feathered turkey appeared, strutting before him.

He fired true, and the Casper resident’s 80th birthday party that night featured an exotic main course of fried ocellated turkey. Vogel is one bird away from fulfilling his dream of the World Slam of Turkey Hunting — bagging all five subspecies of North American wild turkeys plus the one species of the Yucatan, the brightly feathered ocellated turkey.

Soon Vogel will travel to northern Mexico in an effort to complete his World Slam when he’ll go after the rare Gould’s turkey.

Vogel has been fascinated by wild turkeys since his first hunt for them in Wyoming in 1992. That same year he co-founded the first Wyoming chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.

“I’ve been doing it every year since then. I love it. I quit big game hunting. It’s too damn strenuous,” he said.

The chapter he co-founded has grown into the third largest fundraising chapter in the country out of some 2,300 chapters. Vogel and the group have been helping the Wyoming Game and Fish Department over two decades to increase turkey populations around the state and improve the birds’ habitat.

“When we first started there were very few birds,” he said. Now Merriam’s subspecies of wild turkey numbers in the thousands in Wyoming, plus several Rio Grande turkeys.

The Federation’s Big Horn Chapter of Casper awarded Vogel the guided ocellated turkey hunt in Mexico as a gift for his 16 years of conservation work.

He began his quest for the World Slam a few years ago and he’s having each bird mounted.

“I just think they’re a very beautiful bird — every species,” he said as the cell phone on his hip rang with a loud turkey gobble.

Vogel is father to three daughters and grandfather to seven. At age 80, he still works selling drilling equipment for a Casper company. He also grows hundreds of roses in his garden and hunts every turkey season. He’s not the type to sit back and watch life go by. There’s too much to do and too many good people to meet, he said.

“What would I do if I retired, go home and look out the window? I just love to meet people. I love working with people.”

And he loves wild turkeys. The thrill of watching a tom turkey strut in the springtime is what keeps him hooked on the sport — and hooked on cable TV outdoors channels.

“I even watch turkeys on TV — all the time.”

Wild turkeys are wary birds with keen eyesight and hearing, which makes them a challenge to hunt, he said.

“People say the turkey is a dumb animal but they are not. They are smart birds.”

Vogel grew up in Iowa and moved to Wyoming at the age of 18 seeking relief from his chronic asthma. He’s lived here ever since.

“I couldn’t live out there. It’s too humid. Wyoming’s been really good to me. If you’re a sportsman this sure is a great place to be, and if you love wildlife.”

His quest for the World Slam began in Wyoming with the Merriam’s turkey — the most common wild turkey of the state — which he bagged on a ranch near Newcastle. Then he traveled to Oklahoma for his Rio Grande turkey, to Florida for his Osceola, and then Missouri for his eastern turkey.

After shooting two ocellated turkeys in Mexico last month, the turkey man of Casper has only one more bird to go for the World Slam. He’ll soon travel to Mexico near the Arizona border for his Gould’s turkey. He’s hoping to have all six turkey mounts on display at the Wyoming Hunting and Fishing Heritage Expo in Casper in September.

So of the six types of wild turkeys in the world, which one is his favorite?

“Our Merriam’s,” he said quickly of Wyoming’s wild turkey. But then he thought of that strutting peacock-like turkey of Mexico he bagged last month on his 80th birthday and changed his mind. “But now it’s the ocellated. It’s the color, its brilliant iridescent colors. They’re small birds but they are so pretty. “

“They were good eating too.”

Any worries that he’ll come back from Mexico empty-handed without a Gould’s turkey?

“I’ll get him,” he said, smiling wryly.

With his track record for bagging the elusive wild turkey, you can’t help but agree.

Yeah, he’ll get him. No problem.

Baggin’ a World Slam

There are only two species of wild turkey in the world: the North American wild turkey, and its five distinct subspecies, and the ocellated turkey of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

The biggest feat in turkey hunting is completing the World Slam, bagging each of the world’s six types of wild turkeys.

The National Wild Turkey Federation keeps a database of hunters who have achieved the World Slam and other turkey hunting records. Other recognized “slams” of turkey hunting are the Grand Slam — bagging an eastern, Rio Grande, Merriam’s and Osceola — and the Royal Slam — getting the same four subspecies plus the Gould’s turkey.

Here are the six types of birds that comprise the World Slam of Turkey Hunting:

Ocellated turkey

The ocellated turkey is called pavo or pavo ocelado in Mexico, and its Mayan Indian name is ucutz il chican. Very little is known about its population and habitat requirements. It exists only in a 50,000 square mile area on the Yucatan Peninsula, including the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatan, and parts of southern Tabasco and northeastern Chiapas.

It’s easily distinguished from its North American cousin by its size and color. It’s much smaller, more brightly colored and its tail feather spots are similar to a peacock’s. A male ocellated turkey doesn’t gobble nor have a beard like North American male turkeys.

Merriam’s turkey

The Merriam’s subspecies is the most common in Wyoming. It lives mostly in ponderosa pine forests and mountainous regions of the western United States. It has a black appearance with blue, purple and bronze reflections, and whitish tail feathers.

An estimated 344,460 Merriam’s occupy the bird’s historic range in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, as wells as Wyoming and other states where it is an introduced species.

Rio Grande turkey

The Rio Grande is native to the Great Plains with its historic range stretching from West Texas into northeastern Mexico. It’s been transplanted to the Big Horn Basin and other parts of Wyoming. There are more than 1.2 million of them in the United States and Mexico.

It’s a long-legged, copper-colored bird that’s found at up to 6,000 feet in elevation usually near streams and scrub oak forests.

Eastern turkey

The eastern is the most abundant and hunted subspecies of the five North American turkey subspecies. An estimated 5.1 to 5.3 million of them inhabit roughly the eastern half of the country, plus a few western states.

The bronze-colored bird is among the biggest subspecies of wild turkey. Adults can be as tall as 4 feet and weigh more than 20 pounds.

Osceola turkey

Found only on the peninsula of Florida, the Osceola was named in 1890 for the famous Seminole chief.

It’s smaller than the eastern turkey with darker feathers that show iridescent green and red hues. About 80,000 to 100,000 of them inhabit the state of Florida.

Gould’s turkey

The least known wild turkey of North American is the rare Gould’s. Only 650 to 800 are found in portions of Arizona and New Mexico, but it is abundant in the mountains of northern Mexico.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Forest Service, the Centro Ecologico de Sonora, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other agencies are working to reintroduce a stronger Gould’s population into Arizona and eventually other states where suitable habitat exists.

The Gould’s resembles the Merriam’s turkey except for the white tips on its tail feathers and the copper and greenish reflections of its lower back and rump feathers.

BOISE, Idaho — The potential risk of lead poisoning from high-velocity bullets, whether to carrion-eating condors in the Grand Canyon or to food bank patrons in the Midwest, is the subject of a scientific conference next week.

The issue has been heightened since North Dakota and Minnesota officials instructed food bank operators to clear their shelves of venison donated by hunters this year.

The move raised complaints from Safari Club International of Somerset, N.J., whose members gave about 316,000 pounds of venison to the needy last year under the group’s Sportsmen Against Hunger program, and Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry of Williamsport, Md., which donates more than 282,000 pounds of venison in 27 states annually.

The four-day gathering that begins Monday at Boise State University includes more than 50 presentations on issues ranging from lead poisoning among subsistence hunting Inuits in Alaska and Russia, lead levels in ravens in southern Yellowstone National Park, lead found in swans in Western Washington state and the politics of nontoxic ammunition.

“You’re collecting a huge weight of evidence to infer or perhaps even prove there’s a serious health risk, certainly to wildlife, but perhaps even to humans,” said Rick Watson, vice president of The Peregrine Fund in Boise, a raptor recovery center that is sponsoring the conference.

“That should promote if not actual remediation of the problem, then further research on where there are gaps in that knowledge,” Watson said Friday.

Lead poisoning has been linked to learning disabilities, behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and death.

Watson said his group realized there might be a connection between lead poisoning, bullets, venison and humans after 1996, the year it began reintroducing rare California condors in northern Arizona. As many as 60 now soar over the Grand Canyon and southern Utah, but researchers and the Arizona Game and Fish Department found the scavengers were ailing from lead poisoning after eating hunter-killed deer and leftover gut piles.

In 2006, five condors died of lead poisoning and 90 percent of the rest had signs of exposure.

To learn more, Peregrine Fund researchers killed two deer with high-velocity lead ammunition and found that the bullets fragmented on impact, leaving the animals’ flesh riddled with hundreds of microscopic lead particles.

“In the process of doing that study, we didn’t want to waste the deer meat we had shot, so we had it processed,” Watson said. “We thought, ‘For interest’s sake, let’s take a look at some of these package to see if there was any lead’ – and there was.”

Skeptical, Dr. William Cornatzer of Bismarck, N.D., a physician, hunter and Peregrine Fund board member, used a CT scan to examine about 100 packets of venison from local food giveaway programs and found 60 percent had multiple lead fragments.

“There isn’t much to argue,” Cornatzer said. “It shows there is this toxic metal in our ground venison that we hunters have been eating for the last 50 years.”

While no cases of lead poisoning from venison had been reported, his research helped lead to the warning to food banks in North Dakota in March. Days later, Minnesota followed suit after separate tests in that state.

Safari Club officials have contend there is no scientific basis for abandoning thousands of pounds of meat that otherwise would go to poor families at a time of rapidly escalating food costs.

Gene Rurka, chairman of the group’s humanitarian efforts, said dumping venison on the basis of a few anecdotal studies was premature.

“I just can’t imagine there’s that kind of lead intrusion in the meat,” Rurka said. “If it’s a health issue, certainly, it’s a concern, but to go out and say there’s one guy who took a sampling of meat, and to use that across the entire program, it is totally unfair.”

Watson said such skepticism is a key reason for the conference.

Among other reports, his group plans to release preliminary findings of a continuing study of packaged venison from 30 deer killed by researchers with high-velocity ammo and processed by 30 butchers in Wyoming. Watson, one of the authors, said the findings so far mirror the conclusions in North Dakota and Minnesota.

“We’ve effectively demonstrated that lead does get into venison, both hamburger and steaks,” he said. “It’s at levels sufficently high enough to be a concern to people who get those packets. We don’t know what risk, but we know they are at some risk.”

Will wolves affect game populations like deer, elk and moose?

Yes. How much, where, and how varies through space and time. Wolves—like mountain lions, coyotes, and bears—eat deer, elk, moose and other game animals. Research in Montana and elsewhere has shown that predation may influence deer, elk and moose populations through changes in the survival of young and adult animals or a combination of both.

In Montana, elk numbers in some areas have declined, due in part to wolf predation. Yet in other areas where wolves and elk interact, elk numbers are stable or increasing. Habitat, weather patterns, human hunting, the presence of other large predators in the same area, and the presence of livestock seasonally or year round are important factors, too. Wolf predation by itself does not initiate declines in prey populations, but it can exacerbate them or lengthen periods of prey population rebounds.

Research in Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere has shown that elk use habitats differently since wolves have returned. One study showed that when wolves are in the local area, elk spend less time in open areas and more time in forested areas. Hunters may need to adjust their strategies.

Will wolves affect hunting in Montana?

They probably will in some places, but there are no clear answers that apply across the board. Different combinations and densities of predator and prey species, terrain, vegetation, climate, land ownership patterns and land uses result in different ecological relationships and different opportunities for hunters.

In mountainous areas with harsh winter weather conditions, multiple predator species including grizzly bears, and less productive vegetation, wolf predation seems to be more influential than in areas where livestock are present seasonally or year round. Lethal wolf control to resolve wolf-livestock conflicts may buffer potential effects of wolf predation by affecting local wolf densities (wolf distribution) and overall predator densities.

Biologists now consider wolf activity among the many factors potentially affecting big game populations and hunter success. After weighing all the factors, biologists must adjust hunter opportunity accordingly, as they have always done.

One example is FWP’s decision to decrease hunter opportunity for antlerless elk in some mountainous hunting districts of the Gallatin Range north of Yellowstone National Park because of several years of poor calf recruitment. Yet in a few other districts just northwest of West Yellowstone, hunter opportunity for elk was expanded because populations were over management objectives.

What is FWP doing about it?

FWP earmarked money from the federally-funded wolf program to increase big game monitoring efforts to keep closer tabs on those prey populations. Additional surveys will supplement existing effort. In addition, FWP is actively involved in various projects that are researching predator-prey relations, population dynamics of black bears and mountain lions, large carnivore monitoring techniques, and wildlife diseases to name a few.

FWP is also asking hunters to help monitor wolf numbers and distribution in Montana by forwarding their field reports of wolves and/or wolf sign. Over the years, many new packs have been discovered based on hunter information. That information helps FWP better manage wolves and contributes to the effort to delist wolves from the Endangered Species Act. Hunters can go online, mail a pre-printed postcard available from FWP offices, contact the wolf program staff, or call any FWP office.

Ultimately, habitat is the key for all wildlife in Montana. FWP continues to work with interested landowners to protect traditional farm and ranch land, and to preserve wildlife habitat. A variety of funding sources enable FWP to protect seriously threatened habitats and provide recreational opportunities through purchased or donated conservation easements and purchases of land. About $4 million from several sources goes to fund projects selected annually by the FWP Commission.

Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

A coalition of environmental groups and developer Tejon Ranch Co. have agreed on a landmark plan to conserve 90% of the largest chunk of privately owned wilderness remaining in Southern California. Here, deer graze in spring grasses on a portion of the 270,000-acre ranch.

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Activists and builders OK a conservation plan for the sprawling property in Kern and L.A. counties that would permit some development.

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 8, 2008

A coalition of environmental groups and a developer have agreed on a landmark plan to conserve 90% of the largest chunk of privately owned wilderness remaining in Southern California.

The agreement ends years of debate over the fate of an untrammeled tableau of mountains, wildflower fields, twisted oaks and Joshua trees in the historic Tejon Ranch in the Tehachapi Mountains, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

• Photos: Tejon Ranch Conservation
• Homes on the range

The developer, the Tejon Ranch Co., has agreed to set aside 178,000 acres and provide an option for public purchase of 62,000 additional acres — 49,000 to create a state park, 10,000 to realign a 37-mile segment of the Pacific Crest Trail through the heart of the wild lands and the rest to provide docent-led tours of sensitive habitat. It also will pull back development plans along some ridgelines considered crucial to the California condor.

In exchange, a coalition led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Audubon California, the Planning and Conservation League and the Endangered Habitats League will not oppose the company’s plans to build three urban centers, including more than 26,000 homes as well as hotels, condominiums and golf courses at the western and southwestern edge of the ranch.

Those groups and others had threatened a campaign against development of the property, saying it would extend Southern California’s suburban sprawl to the Central Valley, add to regional traffic and air pollution woes, and harm endangered species such as the condor.

The pact was the second major truce among environmental groups and developers in as many months in Southern California, where such projects can be tied up in court for decades. Last month, conservationists struck a deal with a Houston oil company that would allow for offshore drilling this year in exchange for early retirement of several large-scale oil facilities along an otherwise pristine coastline in Santa Barbara County.

In a prepared statement, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the success in reaching the Tejon agreement underlines how “we can protect California’s environment at the same time we pump up our economy.”

Some environmentalists expressed reservations about the accord, to be announced today. Ilene Anderson, a biologist and spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said her group remains worried about habitat for the condor.

“So while we support significant open space,” she said, “it’s precedent-setting that critical habitat for a species just brought back from the brink of extinction would be written off for development.”

Eight times the size of San Francisco, the unfragmented 270,000-acre property embraces the juncture of four ecosystems: Mojave Desert grasslands, San Joaquin Valley oak woodlands, Tehachapi pine forests and coastal mountain ranges.

Like Louisiana Purchase

The 165-year-old ranch, first cobbled together by Edward Fitzgerald Beale, was owned for decades by an investment group led by former Los Angeles Times owner Harry Chandler and land developer Moses Sherman.

“For Southern California, this is the ecological equivalent of the Louisiana Purchase,” said Bill Corcoran, senior regional representative for the Sierra Club. “It is the only place in the region where within a few minutes a visitor can ascend from Joshua tree woodlands to oak-filled canyons on up to vast plains with views across the coastal range.”

Permitting for residential and commercial development of the remaining 30,000 acres is expected to be easier with the agreement, although plans still must be approved by state and federal regulatory authorities, as well as Los Angeles and Kern counties, according to Robert A. Stine, president and chief executive of Tejon Ranch Co.

“Our vision has always been to preserve California’s legacy and provide for California’s future, and this agreement does exactly that,” Stine said in an interview. “It’s good for conservation, good for California and good for the company and its shareholders.”

Finding common ground between the nation’s most powerful environmental groups and the Tejon Ranch Co. wasn’t easy.

“We’ve come a long way from where we started,” said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and director of the Southern California Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “This was an extremely complicated deal, but also a once-in-a-lifetime conservation opportunity.”

The agreement guarantees Tejon Ranch Co. the right to proceed with massive development projects near Interstate 5: Centennial, a planned community of 23,000 homes east of Quail Lake in northern Los Angeles County; and Tejon Mountain Village in southern Kern County, which will include a resort featuring spas and boutique hotels, commercial space, golf courses and 3,400 estate homes. The Tejon Industrial Complex in the Kern County portion of the ranch is already home to IKEA’s 2-million-square-foot main distribution warehouse, among others.

In each project, Stine said, “a whole set of design parameters will be reviewed by all parties to ensure that all development activity that takes place will consider all green opportunities into the future; that means transportation, building and landscape materials, water usage. Everything.”

The agreement also creates an “independent Tejon Ranch Conservancy” composed of 12 members appointed by the company and its environmental partners to manage the preserved land in perpetuity. The company will provide about $800,000 a year for seven years to get the conservancy off the ground. Later, it will be funded through transfer fees from the sale of residential properties.

“It’s not enough to simply set aside land,” Reynolds said. “We also need an entity whose focus is restoration and conservation.”

Tejon Ranch remains a vast wildlife stronghold where deer, elk, bobcat and wild turkey flourish. Canyon bottoms are full of oaks. Along old lumber roads edging the brows of hills, flocks of wild pigeons rise. On the uplands, pine and cedar hold their own, and golden eagles ride warm air currents from coastal mountains to the Sierra.

Graham Chisolm, director of conservation for Audubon California said, “There is probably no more important property for the future of the California condor.” Only a week ago, he said, roughly half of the 38 California condors in Southern California were foraging on the property.

4 ridgelines spared

A key to unlocking the stalemate was the developer’s agreement to pull back from four of five northern-facing ridgelines, including one hemming scenic Bear Trap Canyon, that are prime foraging grounds inside critical California condor habitat.

“By removing the potential obstacles that have plagued similar development efforts in California, we’ll be able to move ahead with the entitlement processes on our current development projects in a much more timely fashion,” said Michael H. Winer, portfolio manager for Third Avenue Management, Tejon’s largest shareholder, and a member of its board of directors.

The company had been seeking an “incidental condor take permit” from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which would have relieved it of liability in the event that its projects were linked to the death of any of the endangered raptors. However, the company recently determined that such a “lethal take permit” was no longer needed given the reconfiguration of development plans under the agreement.

Reynolds, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he was satisfied that the condor would be protected under the new plan.

“The condor is a very high-profile species, and there’s been significant public investment in its recovery,” he said, “and throughout these negotiations an enormous amount of attention was paid to ensuring that this agreement would be consistent with its recovery, and we believe it does so.”

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

Sunday May 04, 2008, 10:45 PM

Sea lions apparently shot while in traps

Columbia River – Six animals are discovered dead near Bonneville Dam, halting a program to capture the protected animals

Monday, May 05, 2008BRAD SCHMIDT

The Oregonian Staff

A controversial sea-lion trapping program along the Columbia River was suspended Sunday after authorities discovered six federally protected animals in floating traps dead, apparently from gunshot wounds.

Four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were discovered about noon Sunday in two open government traps downriver from Bonneville Dam. Investigators did not immediately examine the carcasses as they searched for evidence in the apparent shooting, an incident that officials say is the deadliest in recent memory.

“The assumption is they were shot,” said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the federal National Marine Fisheries Service. “Usually it has not been quite as blatant as this. This is pretty bold.”

Oregon and Washington began trapping predatory California sea lions last month in an effort to protect salmon near Bonneville Dam. Officials had been authorized to capture or kill as many as 85 sea lions a year for five years. Already six sea lions have been transferred to SeaWorld locations. A federal appeals court on April 23 blocked government killings.

Sunday’s discovery sent ripples through the marine-protection community.

“We are horrified,” said Sharon Young, marine issues field director for the Humane Society of the United States, which challenged the government program. “This is, after all, a nation of laws. And civilized people obey laws whether or not they like them.”

Both California and Steller sea lions are federally protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Steller sea lions also are deemed threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

About 40,000 eastern Steller sea lions prowl the Pacific Northwest coast, like the two found Sunday in a restricted area on the Washington side of the river. Gorman said the coastwide California sea lion population is about 235,000.

Sea lions have been an ongoing problem in the Columbia River, said Charlie Corrarino, conservation and recovery program manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. An oversized run of about 300,000 to 350,000 Chinook about six years ago “served as a magnet to start this,” he said. “It’s been increasing ever since then.”

Officials identified 60 animals that can be trapped and transported or killed, he said. Steller sea lions are not on that list, but California sea lions are. Corrarino said about 100 California sea lions ate about 4 percent of the approximately 100,000 salmon in the Columbia River last year.

The trapping and transfer program will be halted through the criminal investigation. Officials are not sure whether it will resume before California sea lions migrate south in a few weeks.

Investigators hope that necropsies will determine when the sea lions died and provide additional evidence in the investigation. Killing an endangered species is punishable by a fine of up to $20,000 and a year in jail.

“The primary focus right now is on the investigation,” said Rick Hargrave of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We have six dead animals, and we want to find out what happened.”

Brad Schmidt, 503-294-5940; bradschmidt@ news.oregonian.com

By DeeDee Correll, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 4, 2008

FAIRPLAY, COLO. — This is not a place where buffalo are welcome to roam.

When 32 bison lumbered across a fence that separated their owners’ vast, wind-swept expanse of land from a neighboring ranch in March, they ended up dead.

Some fell where they were shot. Others scattered, galloping for miles before they succumbed in the snow.

They were victims, contend the bison’s owners, of a murder plot hatched by the neighbor, a Texan frustrated by what he called the repeated trespassing of the herd onto his land.

Law enforcement officials are closemouthed, saying only that they are investigating.

At issue, said Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore, is whether the culprit violated Colorado’s century-old open-range law, which says livestock may go pretty much where they please.

Throughout the West, many states still adhere to the open-range principle, a throwback to the 1800s that says it is not a rancher’s responsibility to keep livestock fenced in — it’s everyone else’s job to keep them out.

If you don’t want someone else’s cow on your land, the law goes, build a fence. If the cow crosses your fence, you can lock it up until its owner retrieves it, and you can sue the owner for damages. But you can’t kill it, said Rick Wahlert, Colorado brand commissioner.

In Colorado’s high country, transplanted city dwellers often don’t understand, Wahlert said.

“They ask why should they have to fence their property?” he said. “I say, ‘OK, fine. You lived in town. Say you had a swimming pool. Did you let the neighbor kids run through? How did you keep them out? You put up a fence. It’s the same concept.’ ”

In the mountain valley at 10,000 feet known as South Park — for which the Comedy Central animated series is named — ranchers are doing a slow boil over what they consider a terrible breach of the local code of ethics demanding that neighbors help each other out.

“You work together,” said Timm Armstrong, who runs a herd of longhorn cattle, as well as a truck stop at the edge of town.

By most accounts, Monte Downare and his father, Vaughn, didn’t have that kind of relationship with Jeff Hawn. The Downares have lived and ranched here a long time, according to locals; Hawn, who lives in Austin, Texas, bought his 362-acre Colorado ranch in 1995.

When he arrived, Hawn built a fence to keep out intruding livestock, according to a lawsuit he has filed against the Downares.

Colorado law spells out what constitutes such a fence: three strands of barbed wire, with posts set 20 feet apart, “sufficient to turn away ordinary horses and cattle.”

Hawn’s fence met those requirements. But it didn’t stop the bison, according to his suit, filed days before the slaughter.

“On numerous separate occasions, herds of buffalo have broken through the fence and stampeded onto the [Hawn] property to graze on the grass,” the suit charges. They ate his grass, killed hundreds of trees, knocked out a satellite dish and turned his land into “a feedlot,” according to his complaint, which included a photo of three bison strolling past Hawn’s deck.

Bison are very difficult to control, said Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Assn., based in Colorado. Notorious for their power and strong wills, bison can run fast and jump high — clearing a 6-foot-high fence from a standing position.

It’s particularly hard to contain them during winters like the one South Park just experienced, during which enormous snowdrifts can bury or knock down fences — leaving the bison free to step right over them, Carter said.

Neither the Downares nor Hawn returned calls seeking comment. Gore said snowdrifts didn’t appear to be a factor in this case.

According to Hawn’s suit, the Downares refused to pay for the damage or prevent their buffalo from trespassing.

This spring, the Downares contend in their counterclaim, Hawn and his Denver lawyer, Stephen Csajaghy, “conspired to hire” hunters to shoot the animals.

On March 19, the carcasses were found on the Hawn ranch, other private property and nearby federal lands. The sheriff quickly rounded up 14 hunters who were camping on Hawn’s property. They said they had been given permission to shoot the bison, but who gave them that permission is part of the investigation, Gore said.

Throughout Park County, where a stray cow or wandering bison is hardly an oddity, people fumed. At the Silverheels Truck Stop, a local hangout decorated with a stuffed mountain lion and other wildlife, Gerald Steinsiek, 53, recalled the time his neighbor’s buffalo knocked down his fence.

“They just hit it and kept going. It didn’t slow them down at all,” he said.

“I’ve had them on my property,” said Bob Agosti, 60, a plumber and regular at the Silverheels. “It’s not a big deal. I don’t care if they’re on my property.”

He supposed that Hawn had the right to take a different view. “But why did he have to take matters into his own hands?” Agosti said. “It’s just not something you’d do.”

Another sticking point is the fact that the shooters didn’t harvest the meat.

“A hunter won’t shoot it and leave it,” said Armstrong, the owner of the Silverheels. He noted that the deaths of the bison — valued at up to $2,500 each — represent the loss of several generations in the herd.

“They’re assassins, not hunters,” Agosti said. “You go out to a field and walk up and shoot it: That’s hunting? Come on. I hunt elk and deer. If I don’t consume it, I won’t shoot it. To let it rot . . . there’s no honor.”

For weeks, locals have waited as authorities investigated the case. Gore, the undersheriff, defended the amount of time it had taken, saying it was too important a case to move quickly.

“There’s a lot of people holding their breath now as to how we address this,” Gore said.

But they’re also growing impatient. “What is taking so long?” South Park resident Wendy Grumet asked in a letter to the editor of the Flume, a local newspaper. “The failure to prosecute this crime will set a shoddy precedent for others to execute animals that happen to cross over the other side of the fence.”

Grumet continued: “If [Hawn] did not want to have a home where the buffalo roam, he should have stayed in Texas.”

deedee.correll@latimes.com

Wild, pristine wilderness areas are a precious–and unfortunately endangered–part of Oregon’s natural heritage. Wilderness may be an intact forest ecosystem. It may be a vast landscape of desert sagebrush and lava rock, or a marshy wetland vital to the lifecycle and survival of numerous animal species.

UPDATE (Feb.. 24, 2008) – Oregon Governor expresses support for broad Wilderness package. Urges congressional delegation to act now! 

Wild, pristine wilderness areas are a precious–and unfortunately endangered–part of Oregon’s natural heritage. Wilderness may be an intact forest ecosystem. It may be a vast landscape of desert sagebrush and lava rock, or a marshy wetland vital to the lifecycle and survival of numerous plants and animal.

Wilderness is simply an area where nature is left to find its own path, without interference from logging, roads and dams.

Oregon’s pristine forest wilderness areas provide the purest habitat for salmon and are home to many rare and endangered animal and plant species. These areas serve as a critical anchor for biological diversity and are the source of the cleanest drinking water for many Oregonians. When protected, they also offer an enduring legacy of wilderness recreational activities and adventure.

In 1964 Congress passed the Wilderness Act to protect the unspoiled character of these wild areas in Oregon and across the United States. Wilderness designation preserves the public’s ability to enjoy activities such as hiking, camping, whitewater boating, horseback riding, hunting and fishing in these natural areas while protecting land and the plants and animals that live there from destructive logging, mining, road building and other forms of development.

Only 13 percent of Oregon’s 16 million acres of National Forest are currently protected as Wilderness. Approximately 5 million additional acres of wild and roadless areas remain suitable for wilderness designation but are currently unprotected from logging, road-building, and other human development. Oregon Wild believes Congress should designate these remaining areas as Wilderness.

As leaders of the statewide Wilderness coalition, we seek permanent protection for Oregon’s forested roadless areas larger than 1,000 acres. We also work to provide ecosystem restoration of public lands adjacent to core wilderness areas in order to heal damaged watersheds.

Follow these links to find out more about what Oregon Wild is working to protect:

Statewide Oregon Wilderness Campaign
Oregon Wild Map Gallery
Map of Oregon’s Forest Wilderness Areas
Mount Hood Wilderness Campaign

Wild Rogue Wilderness Campaign
Copper Salmon Wilderness Campaign
Soda Mountain Wilderness Campaign
Spring Basin and Bend Badlands Wilderness Campaigns
Oregon’s Roadless Wildlands

Lawsuit claims killings show wolves lose under state control

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

Environmental and animal rights groups sued the federal government Monday, seeking to restore endangered species status for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted federal protections for the estimated 1,500 wolves in March, capping a remarkable turnaround for an animal that had been virtually exterminated from the region in the early 20th century.

With the decision, wolves were placed under state control for the first time in more than three decades. As Montana, Idaho and Wyoming move forward with plans for public hunts in the fall, the environmentalists worry that wolves again may be wiped out across the region.

More wolves already have died under the relaxed state management plans. At least 37 were killed in the past month.

As part of the lawsuit, the environmental groups said they will seek an immediate court order to restore federal control over the species until the case is resolved.”We’re very concerned that absent an injunction, hundreds of wolves could be killed under existing state management plans,” said attorney Jason Rylander with Defenders of Wildlife, one of twelve groups that filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

The case was assigned to Judge Donald Molloy. A hearing has yet to be scheduled.

Sharon Rose, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said her agency had not yet received the lawsuit and could not comment on the allegations.

Rose did say the agency’s decision was based on science that will hold up in court.

“We believe we made the right decision – that the wolf had recovered and the regulatory mechanisms are there” to ensure its continued survival, she said.

The animal’s population has grown by about 25 percent annually in the region since the mid-90s, when 66 wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho.

When they came off the endangered list, federal biologists argued the wolves’ rapid reproductive rate would allow them to withstand increased hunting. The Fish and Wildlife Service has said it will put them back on the endangered list only if the population dips below 300 animals.

The lawsuit filed Monday argued that a “spate of wolf killings” in the past month showed that state management could quickly reverse the wolf’s fortunes. The injunction said state officials would allow wolves to be eliminated across most of Wyoming and large parts of Montana and Idaho – hobbling the species’ genetic diversity and preventing a lasting recovery.

The groups said the increased killings also threaten to block the spread of wolves to other states in their historical range, including Colorado, Utah and Oregon.

Idaho state Sen. Jeff Siddoway, a Republican from Terreton, acknowledged recent wolf killings in his state “probably added gasoline to the fire” and helped spur the environmentalists’ lawsuit.

But Siddoway, a rancher who had wolves attack his livestock three times in the past three years, said the predator’s population needs to be brought under control. Earlier this year, he sponsored an Idaho law that allows ranchers to shoot wolves for harassing, attacking or simply “annoying” livestock or dogs.

“The laws have been changed, and some of those wolves are dying out there,” he said. “But biologically that just doesn’t have any real effect. We have wolves, and they’ll be here forever now.”

Besides Defenders of Wildlife, the plaintiffs include Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, The Humane Society of the United States and eight other local and national groups.

By Rich DeSimone, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Mountain Lion Researcher

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Brian Shinn, an FWP research assistant, and I were capturing and radio-equipping lion kittens for a long-term mountain lion study in the Garnet Mountains in June 2001, east of Missoula, when we used bear spray to deter a female mountain lion that came within five feet of us.

The two-year old, adult female lion, F43, was one of the some 121 lions captured and radio-equipped since 1997 to study how sport hunting affects lion population dynamics and how to monitor lions to determine whether populations are increasing or decreasing.

Two days before this incident, Shinn and I located “F43” using radio-telemetry in an area where she had been for several weeks. That is common behavior when females have kittens. We found at least two month-old kittens with her.

We radio collared one of the kittens and identified her as “F53”. Several days later, we returned to the area using telemetry to find that kitten in order to collar additional kittens in the litter.

As I used our telemetry receiver and antenna to move in on the radio signal, Shinn held an experienced lion hound on a short leash in one hand and his bear spray in the other hand. The adult female lion appeared from under a pine tree and came directly toward us.

She attempted to slap or swipe at the lion hound on the leash. At a distance of only a few feet, Brian shot a burst of the bear spray toward the lion’s face. She immediately turned away, made three leaps and at about 10 to 15 feet blinked repeatedly and then started to walk toward us again.

Shinn sprayed a second curtain of bear spray and the lion turned away and this time laid down about 20 yards away. We noticed that she had evidence of foam and saliva near her mouth.

The two of us left the area to prevent any further disturbance to her and her kittens.

Monitoring radioed lions in the Garnets ended early 2007, and at that time lions F43 and F53 were alive and doing fine. Since 2001, both females have produced several litters of kittens.

FWP no longer directly approaches radioed females with tiny kittens. Today’s protocol is to locate the female’s den site and wait for her to leave. When she does, we locate and collar the kittens.

Several thousand mountain lions have been captured and marked by biologists studying lions. Aggressive behavior by lions toward humans is extremely rare, although other biologists have also worked with female lions that become anxious when their young are handled. Nonetheless, mountain lion attacks are very rare, and there are no documented cases of lion attacks resulting from defense of their young or food sources.

However, this experience with F43 underscores that it is wise to be very careful around female lions with kittens. In addition, common sense dictates that people should steer clear of lion kills.

While we regret the anxiety that the female lion experienced, it may have benefited other mountain lions by allowing us to confirm that regulation, EPA-approved bear spray can be an effective deterrent to an approaching mountain lion.

Friday April 25, 2008, 9:00 AM

Benjamin Brink/The OregonianWhile some sea lions were being trapped and taken away for eating salmon below Bonneville Dam, others were getting their fill.

Benjamin Brink/The OregonianState fish and wildlife agents raise a captured sea lion from the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam on Thursday.

State agents began trapping Bonneville Dam sea lions Thursday after a federal appeals court this week barred killing of the sea lions but allowed their capture and removal to zoos.

The sea lions gather near the dam to feast on salmon heading for the dam’s fish ladder.

About 25 to 30 of the marine mammals, sometimes more, have stationed themselves at the dam. A National Marine Fisheries Service official says the sea lions eat 50 to 100 adult chinook salmon a day. Frustrated fishermen and biologists fear the animals’ appetite is cutting into billion-dollar efforts to restore Northwest salmon.

Trapped sea lions will be shipped first to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in
Tacoma. If they pass health checks, they’ll be transferred to other facilities, such as Sea World. It’s uncertain what will happen to the animals if they fail the health checks.

And much of that effort will be directed at Drano Lake in the Columbia Gorge, where a return of 36,000 spring chinook is forecast.

Counts are Bonneville Dam are building, and passage through Tuesday totaled almost 18,000. Boaters last week at Drano averaged a chinook per 8.2 rods and that should improve as more of the run moves upstream.

Some spring chinook are getting caught at Wind River, too, although the state did not sample any successful anglers last week.

Fishing in the Wind upstream of Shipherd Falls opens May 1.

Three spring chinook already have been handled at the Shipherd Falls trap on the Wind.

Five spring chinook are back to Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery as of mid-April.

The East Fork of the Lewis from the mouth upstream to the top boat ramp at Lewisville Park and the Washougal River from the mouth to the Mount Norway Bridge at Vernon Road are open again for hatchery steelhead.

Selective gear rules apply in the two streams through May 31.

Fishing the Columbia River downstream of Interstate 5 opens May 16 for hatchery steelhead and fin-clipped chinook jacks. Fishing for shad is open beginning May 16 downstream of Bonneville Dam.

Angler checks from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW):

Lower Columbia — Kalama, seven boaters with two sublegal sturgeon released; one bank rod with no sturgeon. (WDFW)

Vancouver, five boaters with 13 sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Portland, 210 boats with 159 adult and nine jack chinook kept plus 35 adults released; 18 boats with seven legal sturgeon kept plus one oversize and 163 sublegals released. (ODFW)

Hayden Island power lines to Portland airport tower, 1,181 boaters with 368 adult spring chinook and 13 jacks kept, plus 53 adult and two jacks released; six bank rods with no salmon. (WDFW)

Portland airport tower to upper end of Reed Island, 914 boaters with 236 adult and one jack spring chinook kept plus 34 adult released. (WDFW)

Troutdale, 190 boats with 106 adult spring chinook kept plus 26 adults and one jack released; one boat with one legal sturgeon. (ODFW)

North Bonneville, 523 boaters with 284 adult spring chinook, three jacks and one steelhead kept plus 51 adult spring chinook released; 517 bank rods with 65 adult and three jack spring chinook kept plus six adult spring chinook released; two bank rods with one sublegal sturgeon released. (WDFW)

Columbia Gorge (downstream of Bonneville Dam), 91 boats with 169 spring chinook kept and 31 released; two bank rods with four legal sturgeon kept, four legals released and 15 sublegals released. (ODFW)

Mid-Columbia — Bonneville pool, 34 bank rods with one legal sturgeon kept plus one legal sturgeon released and 12 sublegals released; two boaters with two sublegals released; 17 bank rods with no salmon; two boaters with no salmon; three boaters with three bass released. (WDFW)

The Dalles pool, 62 bank rods with 15 spring chinook kept and one released; 31 boaters with three spring chinook kept and two released; 11 boaters with four walleye kept. (WDFW)

Cowlitz — Nine boaters with two spring chinook; 46 bank rods with two steelhead. (WDFW)

Kalama — Sixteen boaters with one steelhead released; 15 bank rods with one spring chinook kept. (WDFW)

Lewis — Seven boaters with one chinook released; seven bank rods with no catch. (WDFW)

Wind — Six boaters and six bank rods with no spring chinook. (WDFW)

Drano Lake — Thirteen bank rods with two spring chinook; 106 boaters with 13 spring chinook. (WDFW)

Klickitat — Six bank rods with one spring chinook. (WDFW)

Klineline Pond — Seventy-seven bank rods with 91 rainbow trout, 16 brown trout and 10 triploid rainbow trout kept plus 125 rainbow, four browns and one triploid released. (WDFW)

By Shauna Stephenson
sstephenson@wyomingnews.com

If you haven’t gotten out on the water yet, now is the time to go.

As the weather warms, so does the fishing. While drought has had an impact on some fisheries, most are still quite productive.

After a long winter, Game and Fish officials are beginning to do sampling – checking on fish numbers and conditions. This past week, they began stocking fish on the Laramie Plains lakes.

While some rivers are still a little slow, others have started to see consistent fishing.

What’s hot

Activity is beginning to pick up on the North Platte near Grey Reef.

Jason Hamrick, owner of Cowboy Drifters in Casper, said they have been seeing a lot more people on the river.

Currently, the fish are moving up the river to spawn in the shallow gravel.

He said people need to remember not to fish the spawners and stay out of the redds – or nests.

Hamrick said they have been having the most luck with nymphs. He expects it to remain that way for the next month or so.

Streamer fishing has been slow.

“The fish get up there and get spawning and they just don’t tend to streamer fish real well,” he said. “I don’t exactly know why, but it’s just the way it is.”

He said the Miracle Mile has been down the past couple of years due to poor management.

“It’s nothing like it used to be, and it probably never will,” he said.

However, he thinks it’s on its way up again.

Drought effects

Even with above average precipitation this year, eight years of drought is taking a toll on fish habitat and recreation in the region.

Mike Snigg, regional fishery supervisor for Wyoming Game and Fish, said it’s mainly affecting the large irrigation storage reservoirs such as the Laramie Plains lakes.

“We got quite a bit of snow pack this year, but not enough to (make up for) that much drought,” Snigg said.

He said the statistics he sees call for at least three years of snow pack at 150 percent or more to reverse the drought.

The lower water levels mean a fall in recreation at places such as Lake Hattie.

About 400 yards separate the end of the boat ramp and the edge of the water.

Snigg said the last time the water reached the end of the ramp was in the early ’90s.

“(Lake Hattie) used to get boaters and windsurfers,” he said.

He said part of the problem stemmed from a previous drought. There was a drought in the mid ’90s, followed by about three years of average precipitation. Then the longer drought set in.

“We never really recovered from the first drought period,” he said.

New cement at the end of the Twin Buttes boat ramp emphasizes that fact.

Snigg said the Game and Fish department purchases water for the reservoir yearly – whether they actually get it or not.

He said it has been five to seven years since they had received water for Twin Buttes.

Steve Gale, fisheries biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish said the lake has been losing about 2 to 3 vertical feet of water per year.

He said as the water has diminished, the salinity level has risen. This year, they will begin keeping data on the levels to try to see the impact on fish populations.

He said the salt doesn’t seem to impact most fish species, except the larger rainbow trout.

Lakes in the Wheatland area are seeing the impact as well.

“Wheatland No. 3 is so low, it has not been stocked for four years,” Snigg said.

On a happier note, he said the increased snow pack will have a positive effect on lakes at higher elevations.

“The Pole Mountain area should be in good shape,” he said.

Gauging fish condition

Over the past couple weeks, the Game and Fish department began their annual fish sampling surveys.

Pulled out in nets from 45-degree water at Twin Buttes Lake near Laramie, large rainbow and brown trout flopped and wriggled, trying to free themselves.

Biologists set nets every year to get an idea of fish condition and population levels.

Working quickly, they untangled the fish from the nets and placed them in a bucket of water. They weighed and measured each fish, recording its species and location.

This year, they caught fish ranging from 13-inch rainbows to a monster 25-inch, seven-pound brown trout.

Gale said it appears that only Gelatt Lake partially winter killed this year.

New aerators prevented lakes that typically winter kill from losing fish this year such as Meeboer Lake.

“Overall, the plains lakes are really productive,” Gale said.

Lee McDonald, fisheries biologist, said they typically stock about 45,000 Rainbow trout in Twin Buttes each year.

Fish stocking rates vary from lake to lake.

McDonald said while rainbow are the predominant stocking fish in Wyoming, they try to include other species to give fishermen some diversity.

He said Lake Hattie typically gets Rainbow trout, Cutthroat trout and Kokanee. Gelatt Lake is stocked with Brook trout, Cutthroat, and Rainbow trout. Meeboer Lake is stocked with Rainbow trout.

Where do all those fish come from?

Located just outside of Casper, the Speas Rearing Station is a hub for growing trout.

Currently, the station produces about 100,000 pounds of fish for Wyoming waters every year.

Gordon Townsend, superintendent at Speas, said they produce more fish than any other rearing station or hatchery in the state.

60-degree water flows from a spring into the hatchery where it is treated. Nitrogen is removed and oxygen added before it reaches the fish.

“60 degrees is a very good temperature for rapid fish growth,” Townsend said.

He said fish typically grow about one inch per month in the warm water and are stocked in two sizes: 5-inch fish and 8-9 inch fish.

Right now, only rainbow trout inhabit the rearing station, but with the renovation, they are hoping to be able to raise most other species of trout.

Once renovation is complete, they expect to be able to produce up to 300,000 pounds of fish each year.

Townsend said they will need more fish in the future. Even with a national decline in outdoor recreation, fishing has seemed to maintain numbers. He said the population increase in the state will naturally mean more anglers.

“Wyoming is still above the nation in percent of people who hunt and fish,” said Robin Kepple, regional information and education specialist. “Fishing and hunting are just a way of life here.”

Additionally, when the reservoirs recover from drought, they will need more fish.

The construction at Speas is expected to continue over the next couple years. New circular tanks will replace the linear raceways that are currently at the station. They are also hoping to install a hatchery so their fish are hatched and raised in one place.

Drought effects on fish

As water has become more scarce, the

number of fish stocked has fluctuated.

Here is a sample of fish stocking numbers for

Twin Buttes Reservoir over the past 10 years.

1998 70,609

1999 92,100

2000 30,042

2001 51,390

2002 77,120

2003 46,711

2004 65,894

2005 60,270

2006 66,555

2007 62,474

Native fish to Wyoming

Arctic grayling

Bigmouth shiner

Black bullhead

Bluehead sucker

Brassy minnow

Burbot

Central stoneroller

Channel catfish

Common shiner

Creek chub

Cutthroat trout

Fathead minnow

Finescale dace

Flannelmouth sucker

Flathead chub

Goldeye

Hornyhead chub

Iowa darter

Johnny darter

Lake chub

Leatherside chub

Longnose dace

Longnose sucker

Mottled sculpin

Mountain sucker

Mountain whitefish

Orange throat darter

Paiute sculpin

Pearl dace

Plains killifish

Plains minnow

Plains topminnow

Quillback

Red shiner

Redside shiner

River carpsucker

Roundtail chub

Sand shiner

Sauger

Shorthead redhorse

Shovelnose sturgeon

Speckled dace

Stonecat

Sturgeon chub

Suckermouth minnow

Utah chub

Utah sucker

Western silvery minnow

White sucker

Non-native fish

Black crappie

Bluegill

Brook trout

Brown trout

Common carp

Emerald shiner

Freshwater drum

Gizzard shad

Solden shiner

Golden trout

Goldfish

Grass carp

Green sunfish

Green swordtail

Guppy

Kokanee

Lake trout

Largemouth bass

Northern pike

Ohrid trout

Pumpkinseed

Rainbow trout

Rock bass

Smallmouth bass

Spottail shiner

Walleye

Western mosquitofish

White crappie

Yellow perch

Source: Wyoming Game and Fish

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-What do you do when you come face to face with the most powerful creature you will ever encounter in the Rocky Mountain wild? Could your actions determine whether your story is printed on the front page or the obituaries?

Roughly 600 grizzly bears roam the area known as the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, most of them within the park’s 2.3 million acres. Some have made their way to Montana and to points south into the northern reaches of Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) and the surrounding Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF). Yet even with another 675 black bears in the area, your chances of tangling with one in the wild are remote.

“Bear encounters are fairly rare and usually end up with the bear running the other way,” said Eric Shorma, former Nuisance Bear Coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Like most of the men and women who work with bears in bear country, Shorma himself has been charged twice by a grizzly bear. He avoided harm using his pepper spray and in both instances, the charges were bluffs.
Still, statistics show that one person, on average, is killed by a grizzly bear every year in North America.

What are the odds?
Ursus arctos horribilis, as it is known in Latin, is the grizzly bear. Horrible with a capital ‘H’ if you come between her and her cubs or between him and his elk kill. The grizzly is intelligent and perhaps even compassionate – it is an animal capable of destroying a human being with a single swat, yet it allows mauling victims to live in more than 90 percent of the cases of human contact.

Grizzly’s cousins are the Brown and Kodiak bear of the Canadian West and Alaska. Their coats are usually silver-tipped or grizzled in appearance. The face profile is dished, and the ears are short and rounded. The hump at the shoulders is distinct and massive when compared to the rump of the animal.

Black bear are generally smaller than the grizzly. They are not always black in color and can be cinnamon, blonde, or brown. The snout is ‘Roman’ and the ears pointed. There is no predominant hump at the shoulders.

Territorial behavior distinguishes the grizzly from the black bear. Griz confrontations usually involve the bruin teaching the intruder the rules of the forest and are meant to minimize harm to the bear, its cubs or its territory, rather than to find a meal.
Black bear confrontations also rarely elicit aggressive behavior on the part of the bruin but may involve more unpredictable behavior, including curiosity and possible predacious inklings. How you – as a hiker, biker, or camper – react in a confrontation with either species could save your life.

Nearly every victim of a grizzly bear attack will tell you two things: The speed of the animal was unimaginable and, despite damage inflicted by the bear, even when savage and permanent, the victim wishes the bear no harm and harbors no grudge toward the animal.

“I wouldn’t hurt the bear because I’m in her territory,” Wally Cash, an attack victim, told the Casper Star-Tribune in September 2004. “She was afraid for her babies.” The 66-year-old Gillette man was nearly torn to pieces by a grizzly while elk hunting the Pilgrim Creek area near Moran like he had done without incident for 44 years.

But on that date in 2004, he ignored the signs. He admitted sighting numerous black and grizzly bears in the area. He saw tracks of grizzly cubs in the snow just before he topped a ridge quietly on his hands and knees. He never saw the sow. And then, she was on him. He felt no pain, but the damage was extensive. Hunting buddies radioed for help, and Cash was on his way to Idaho Falls in less than an hour, humbled but alive.

Could the bear have finished Cash? Easily. Could Cash have ordered the bear hunted down? With a phone call.

Why then, when the top of the food chain and the king of the forest meet, wrestle, and spill blood, does the ordeal usually resolve with no fatalities? Bear experts will tell you the grizzly is only moved to aggression when surprised or when defending food or offspring. Conflicts for these bears are a last resort.

Maybe she’s bluffing
“All [grizzly bear] attacks fall into two classic scenarios: Mothers protecting their cubs, or young males staking out their turf,” explained bear biologist Mark Boyce.
Sow grizzlies are known to have zero tolerance for human presence when they are with cubs. After three years, the sow cuts the cubs loose.

These sub-adults are often harassed into the poorest feeding areas by larger males and often will seek food from campsites, garbage dumps and bird feeders, Boyce said. They are continually picked on by their brethren while lacking territory of their own. Spring is the worst time to meet up with these teenage terrors.

“Sub-adult males leave their mother and their home range and disperse in the spring, looking to colonize new areas,” Chuck Schwartz said. Schwartz is the Grizzly Bear Study Team Leader, an interagency bear relocation unit.

Adult male grizzlies will also guard a cached kill with extreme force. Spotting an elk or deer carcass that has been partially covered with dirt or leaves is usually your first sign that a bear encounter is headed your way.

Chris Nethery was deer hunting in the North Fork of Spread Creek a decade ago when he stepped over deadfall and into a cached elk kill. Nethery said he remembers the moment he realized he had met the griz that would change his life. He and a partner hadn’t seen a thing all day. The two hunters were making their way back to camp at dusk, joking about the hunt. Then, there she was.

“I knew what I had stepped into,” Nethery admitted. “She had her [tail] backed into a bunch of willows, maybe 40 feet away. She was doing the head bob and snapping her teeth and grunting at us.”

The ‘head bob’ is a weave of the head and a shifting of the weight on the front feet often observed by victims just before things get physical. The ‘teeth snap,’ referred to by Nethery, is actually a popping of the jaw. These signs, along with huffing, moaning, grunting or growling, are signs you are too close and the bear is extremely agitated or anxious and is deciding what to do next.

What Nethery’s bear did next was charge. Bluff charges are typical, but Nethery wasn’t that lucky.

“Usually, you can tell when they give you a bluff charge,” Nethery said. “Their ears are up and they come at you with their palms up, swinging their feet out as they hit the ground. They kind of blow themselves up and their fur gets big. That’s a warning. When they’re coming at you with a bluff, they don’t dig in.”
Shorma seconded these bluff charge characteristics.

“If the bear does charge, a general rule is if the bear has his head up and ears up and is kind of bounding – generally that’s a bluff charge and it will stop short or run past. If the bear has its head down and it’s running as fast as it can and the hair is up on its neck, and the ears are pinned back, that’s when it’s most likely a real charge,” Shorma said.

That’s exactly what Nethery was seeing from the advancing sow.
“She came head down, palms down,” he said. “She got surprised, and she was pissed.”
Bears don’t like surprises. Nethery was carrying a .270 caliber deer-hunting rifle, a .44 double-action revolver and pepper spray. He had an eye-blink to pick one. “I always reach for the spray first, but there was no time for a bear spray shot,” Nethery said. “I didn’t have time for nothing. I grabbed my pistol.”

Park and forest rangers do not condone the use of firearms in grizzly bear encounters.
Nonetheless, the .44 magnum remains the choice of most firearm owners who venture into bear country. Vic Talmo, owner of Teton Arms stocks extra .44s during the summer season just for bear wary hunters and hikers.

“I hope you never have to use it,” Talmo tells every customer after the sale. He likes to carry pepper spray himself but supplements it with a handgun. “You need a big bullet and a lot of luck,” he said.

…And a lot of nerve. Nethery is ex-military, expert with a firearm and deadly accurate at the range. He threw a 320-grain bullet, 1,800 feet per second, at his charging grizzly and missed.

“Skilled with a gun is one thing. Skilled with a gun under pressure is an entirely different thing,” Nethery said. “I saw the round explode right in front of her feet, but she kept on coming. So I dropped to one knee, raised the sight a little bit and fired twice more.” The sow dropped dead instantly. Only then did Nethery allow himself to fall apart.

“I didn’t start shaking uncontrollably until after it happened,” Nethery remembered. “The ‘pucker factor’ was high. I sat down for a good 10 minutes and smoked three or four cigarettes.”

Nethery said he hated like hell to have to kill that bear. He had been charged before and used pepper spray. There was just no time.

“It was me or her. I didn’t really have a choice,” he said with regret. “I don’t like to kill bears. I think it’s the last resort to kill a bear. But when it comes to animal versus human, I’m not going to give my life for an animal.”
A few outdoorsmen still subscribe to the old code of the West known as the ‘three S’s:’ shoot, shovel and shut up. Despite recent evidence supporting pepper spray and its effectiveness, these folks feel more confident when fully strapped.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee recommends bear deterrent. In a case study conducted by the Montana Border Grizzly Project, pepper sprays stopped and turned away every bear tested, which included six grizzlies and nearly 60 black bears.

Human factors
“While hiking near Bradley Lake, I suddenly came upon a black bear sow and two cubs,” Garry Lineback recalled. “The cubs immediately ran away. The sow, which I would estimate at weighing about 300 pounds, growled and ran toward me. She stopped about 10 feet away, lowered her head, and began to swing it from side to side.” She was nervous and she was thinking. Lineback fired a blast of his UDAP in the sow’s face and made his getaway.

Recently, ideal weather has made for better white pine bark forage and grizzly-human conflicts may be on the decline. Emerging griz have already been spotted in area national parks, including the highly photogenic grizzly No. 399. Despite becoming habituated to humans, the famous sow and her three cubs have kept out of trouble. Last fall, the bear family made a habit of following hunters to dine on gut piles left behind. Some viewed the actions as a recipe for disaster, but Mary Gibson Scott, the superintendent at Grand Teton National Park, refused to bow under the pressure to close hunt areas. Scott insisted No. 399 was simply exhibiting normal bear behavior.

Habituated black bears in backyards, however, have been numerous in recent years. Wyoming Game and Fish Department killed nine black bears and relocated more than 25 last year after responding to approximately 175 incidents. Officials cite poor bear-proof practices by subdivision homeowners as the reason for a spike in human and black bear encounters.

Every bear specialist in the valley echoes the same plea: Please keep a clean camp (and a clean yard). With more and more natural habitat taken from the bear as well as increased backcountry use, conflicts will be unavoidable. And it’s true: a fed bear is a dead bear or a dead human. Bears live in a world we humans only play in, and that world has rules we all need to learn.

Courtesy photo
Are you savvy enough for grizzly country?

Unfortunately, more often than not we can’t. I can sense the frustration when I try to explain this to fledgling hunters. I also suspect some of them are more than a little skeptical and think I’m either holding back information or not really that smart. The true reason however, is something physicists call nonlinear dynamics.

It can best be explained by picturing one of those arcade games where you drop a steel ball down a chute, then it falls onto an array of pegs that looks something like a bed of nails stood up on end. As the ball drops down through the array, it hits pegs and bounces. Which pegs it hits, how far and in which direction it bounces depend on a number of variables such as velocity and angle of intersection.

The object is to predict in which slot the ball will end up at the bottom. Some of the greatest mathematical minds in history have tried to determine the result with some level of predictability, and failed. That, in a nutshell, is turkey hunting.

PECULIAR BEHAVIOR

You’re trying to outwit a bird with a brain that would fit very neatly into that nutshell. In order to do so, you must predict how they will react as they fall through the arcade game of life. Magazine articles, even entire books, are written about it. So-called experts expound upon it at sportsman’s shows and on the outdoor TV channels. “Turkey behavior,” they might say, “is ruled by barometric pressure…, or wind direction…, or Coriolis effect.” Sometimes I think we overanalyze, and the truth is simpler.

Imagine a group of turkeys traveling along, going about their normal daily routine — assuming they even have one. You’ve done your scouting, and know (think you know) where they will travel. You set up there and begin calling. The turkeys start your way. You think it’s because you’ve solved the riddle of nonlinear dynamics and predictability, or because of your calling. In truth, they were going that way anyway.

A crow calls, catching the attention of the lead hen. She reacts by turning her head to the left. Almost as soon as she does it she forgets why. But as long as her head is facing that way, she turns her body too, and steps in that direction. Lo and behold, the other turkeys follow, and your sure thing walks off in the wrong direction.

NO WAY TO PREDICT

It can be very frustrating. We humans, especially hunters, strive for order and predictability. And when we don’t get them, we’re confused.

The sun begins to rise and the ball drops — a gobbler flies from the roost. You’ve set up 100 yards away because that’s where he ended up the day before — predictability. To hedge your bets you start calling. Sure enough the bird starts rolling your way, until it hits the first peg. A jealous hen intercepts the gobbler, pulling him away. Or maybe a coyote darts out of the bushes, sending him scurrying off. Or, the farmer decides to spread manure that day and pulls his tractor into the pasture just as the turkey is closing the distance on your decoys.

Fortunately, the turkeys have far fewer pegs in their board than are at the arcade. They do tend to follow certain patterns, sometimes. We gamble, based on our experience and the laws of probability. And every so often we win.

It’s a lot like trying to forecast the weather. Meteorologists use the best available information to predict the most likely outcome given a certain…

set of circumstances. As environmental conditions change, which they so frequently do, the probability shifts toward a different outcome. Think about that the next time you’re cursing the weatherman. They’re far more accurate at predicting the weather than we are at predicting turkeys.

Bob Humphrey is a freelance writer and Registered Maine Guide who lives in Pownal. He can be contacted at: ventures@juno.com.

fishing rod

This is something I don’t think you have — a fishing rod with carrot fibers reinforcing the resins and replacing some of the graphite in the rod blank. The result is the performance of graphite with the dur­ability of fiberglass. It was developed by E21, a Toronto company. It calls the rods Carrot Stix.

The rod features include a stress-free design the company says evenly distributes the load; Thermalon velvet-touch split grips, split reel seats, double-swaged Pac Bay guides with stainless-steel frames and hard-chrome inserts, hook keeper and rubberized cork butt. It’s light for its size, and extremely sensitive. There are two models — the Carrot Stix and Boyd Duckett Classic Gold Carrot Stix. Both come in a variety of casting and spinning models from 61⁄2-71⁄2 feet in medium- fast and medium

actions, and have a suggested retail

price of $149.95 to $249.95 (www.-e21fishing.com).

spinning reel

As long as you have a Carrot, why not add a WaveSpin spinning reel by Doug Hannon? It has a spool edge that looks like 16 waves instead of the traditional smooth lip generally found on spinning reels. The company says this design greatly reduces line friction and adds the ability to cast up to 30 percent farther than other spinning reels. And it does it with zero line tangles,

according to the company.

Features include 8-plus-1 stainless-steel ball bearings, on/off

infinite anti-reverse; graphite body, aluminum handle and comfort-fit knob, multidisc front drag system, lube port and oversized bail roller; and it converts to left- or right-hand retrieve. Offered in three models, DH3000, 4000 and 5000, with gear ratios from 4.9:1 to 5.2:1, suggested retail prices range from $79 to $109 (www.wavespinreel.com).

NITRO reel

In the event you prefer a bait-casting rod, the new Bass Pro Shops Nitro Big Bass reel is a good choice, especially if you like to fish Lake Champlain water chestnuts and/or purge the deep matted weeds throughout Saratoga Lake. That’s what this reel is built for, with its fortified, one-piece aluminum frame and deep spool machined from ultra-

high strength aluminum that will hold as much line, monofilament or braided line as you need. The Power Handle is solid forged aluminum, and the gear set and shaft are 100 percent high-strength brass.

Inside are seven double-shielded stainless-steel ball bearings, plus a stainless-steel roller bearing for the PowerLock instant anti-reverse. Other features include an Exclusive

Radial Tuned Braking with externally adjustable magnetic/centrifugal cast control the company says makes casting any bait easy, and a powerful six-disc carbon-teflon drag system that can generate up to 16.5 pounds of run-stopping power. The Nitro has a gear ratio of 6.2:1 that takes up 26 inches of line each time the handle is rotated, weighs 9.95 ounces and will hold 150 yards of 50-pound-test braided line and 175 yards of

12-pound-test monofilament.

It’s called a Big Bass reel, but with these credentials, I wouldn’t hes­itate to use it to take on big northern pike in the Great Sacandaga Lake or wrestle with some of those 30-pound, ocean-run stripers when they arrive in the Hudson River next month. Suggested

retail price of this reel is $129 (www.bassproshops.com).

line

Now, let’s fill these reels with some new line from Sufix. New additions are in the Performance Braid, Siege and Elite lines.

Sufix Braid now has a 40-pound test version with a monofilament equivalent size of 10-pound and comes in lo-vis green, hi-vis yellow and fluorescent neon fire. And the Elite and Siege both now come in camo, and are available in 4-30- pound test. Suggested retail prices of the 330-yard spools of Elite and Siege is $8.99, and Performance Braid, $29-37 (www.sufic.com).

ammunition

If you hunt woodchucks in the summer or predators in the fall and winter, or just like to plink, Hornady’s new .22 WMR rimfire ammunition with its improved

accuracy and terminal performance should be of interest.

It features a 30-grain, V-Max bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,200 feet per second and outstanding terminal performance out to 125 yards. Suggested retail price for a box of 50 rounds is $15 (www.hornady.com).

compound bow

Archery shooters and bowhunters should know about the new compound bow recently released by Limbsaver. The DeadZone

DZ-32 has some pretty impressive numbers and features. Axle to axle, it’s 32 inches, has a 7.25-inch brace height, weighs approximately four pounds, has a hybrid cam system, high-efficiency active transfer cam, LimbSaver Ultra Quads, string leeches, arrow rest pad, arrow shaft impact strip and cable dampener and a high-definition G-1 next-generation camouflage pattern.

This bow is quick, with an International Bowhunting Organization speed of 320 to 330 feet-per-second, measured with a 30-inch bow set at 70 pounds and using a 350-grain

arrow. It is also quiet, and has less than 33 percent felt recoil. The DeadZone is offered in right- and left-handed models, draw lengths from 26 to 30 inches and 50/60/70-pound draw weights. Suggested retail price is $780 (www.limbsaver.com).

sight

To stay on target with that new bow, take a peek through the Sword Acu-Site Twilight Hunter. It has five Zero gap pins, a 2.25-inch round aperture laser etched windage and elevation scale, constructed of 100 percent aluminum, a third axis adjustment, a three-stage LED light, anodized matte black finish and comes in right- or left handed models. The sights are built to stand up to extreme hunting con­ditions and the vibration of repet­itive shooting from today’s high speed bows. Suggested retail price is $98 (www.-swordacusite.com).

flashlight

When you are trying to make your way quietly through the dark woods into where you are going to set up for that big gobbler next month, the trip in will be a lot easier with the Coast Dual Color Tactical Torch. This flashlight has six high- intensity LEDs — five white and a red. The company says the red can be used when hunting because it won’t spook game. The brightness of the aluminum-casing, lightweight light comes from three AAA batteries that generate 2.28 watts. All this in a

3.7-inch light. Suggested retail price is $54 (www.coastportland.com).

tent

It won’t be too long before campsites are open. If camping is a family affair for you, Columbia has a new two-room dome family tent that sleeps eight. It’s called the Conrad Ridge, model CB-1510, has an overall size of 15×10 feet, a center height of 80 inches and weighs 29 pounds.

Features include a hanging div­ider that separates it into two rooms, and both the tent and the fly are made of 190 denier waterproof polyester taffeta, and is fire-resistent. It has a GoBe Dry Ultimate rain protection skirting system and camp port power cord passage system to keep the floor dry, and multiple large windows for excellent ventilation. Tent supports are fiberglass poles, and the pegs are steel. The company says it goes up and down easily. The tent and all the poles, etc., go into an expandable carry bag. Suggested retail price for the Conrad Ridge is $199 (www.columbia.com).

boat shoe

Boaters looking for comfort and safety while on board and off will like the new hybrid Leader boat shoe by OTB Footwear. The shoe is engineered using features orig­inally designed for the U.S. mil­itary. Tactical rubber technology gives silent traction on both wet and dry surfaces, and all the soles are lugged to help water dispersion. For added comfort, there are recessed arches on the outsoles and mesh ports throughout for water drainage and breathability for quick drying.

The Leader is a lace-less slip-on with oiled trim with a full air mesh vamp. This model is available in mahogany, sand and white/navy and come in sizes 7-12, 13 and 14. Suggested retail price is $89.95

(www.otbboots.com).

Shark kills man off San Diego County coast

Denis Poroy / Associated Press

An unidentified relative of a 66-year-old man who died in a shark attack this morning is comforted by San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Mendoza, right, at Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach.

The victim, 66, was with a group of swimmers off Solana Beach when he was attacked. Authorities close a 17-mile stretch of beaches.

By Laura Nott, Tony Perry and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
12:11 PM PDT, April 25, 2008

» Discuss Article (25 Comments)

SOLANA BEACH — A 66-year-old triathlete died this morning after being bitten by a shark while swimming off this beach 20 miles north of San Diego, authorities said.

Authorities identified the man as Dave Martin, a retired veterinarian who has lived in Solana Beach since 1970.

• Map of Shark Attack at Solana Beach

• List of recent shark attacks in California: Few are fatal
• Experts say there are more sharks off California’s coast
• Shark-Attack Survivor Inspires Other Surfers With Her Courage

Richard Rosenblatt, a shark expert from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Oceanside, told reporters that “this almost certainly was a great white shark.” He said the attack fit the pattern of attacking from beneath, then moving away, and that the wounds also looked like they came from a great white shark.

The attack occurred about 7 a.m. near Fletcher Cove in an area known as Table Tops, said Lt. Phil Brust, a spokesman for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

The man was part of a group that swims every Friday morning in the Fletcher Cove area.

“They were swimming and the victim apparently yelled ‘Shark,’ or words to that effect, and the witnesses that were in the water apparently saw him actually being lifted out of the water and drug under,” Brust said. “They went to his aid and dragged him onto the beach, where he succumbed to his injuries.”

The attack reportedly took place about a quarter mile offshore. Paramedics rushed to the scene, but the man was declared dead at approximately 7:50 a.m.

The shark bit him on both legs, said Deputy Solana Beach Fire Marshal Dismas Ableman. The victim had apparently separated from the rest of his group when he was attacked, Ableman said.

Investigators from the San Diego medical examiner’s office were at the beach this morning. They have not released the identity of the man.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department ordered beaches closed along a 17-mile strip while helicopters searched for other sharks in the waters.

Beaches were closed indefinitely this morning from South Carlsbad to Torrey Pines beaches, said Julie Taber, a spokeswoman for the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District. She said no other shark sightings had been reported this morning.

Investigators are still trying to determine what type of shark attacked the man, Brust said. A sheriff’s helicopter was circling the waters where the man was attacked, searching for the shark. If investigators find the shark, it would then be up to U.S. Fish and Game or another agency to trap it, Brust said.

Harbor seals were reported seen in the water before the attack, officials said. Sharks are known to prey on seals. Seals congregate at the La Jolla Cove south of Solana Beach.

Brust, who has been with the Sheriff’s Department for 17 years, said he can’t remember the last reported shark attack. There have been no recent shark sightings reported in the area where the man was killed, he said.

“We know it’s the ocean and there are sharks out there, but no one can remember this ever happening and it’s just a shock to the community,” he said.

“Everybody’s thinking about the movie ‘Jaws.’ ”

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Co., left, leads Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others through Bommer Canyon, part of a nearly 40,000-acre swath of Orange County open space that has been designated as the first California Natural Landmark.

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By Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 23, 2008

Nearly 40,000 acres of Orange County parkland stretching from the coast to the foothills — once part of the historic Irvine Ranch — has been deemed so ecologically valuable by state officials that on Tuesday they designated it the first California Natural Landmark.

The program is designed to recognize significant open space areas by placing them in a statewide registry.

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• California’s first natural landmark

Although the designation is only a title — it does not require the land to be permanently protected or opened to the public — officials hope the attention it brings will encourage long-term preservation.

“It definitely doesn’t have any regulatory teeth,” said Glenn Olson, executive director of Audubon California, which co-sponsored the bill to create the program last year. “But it’s an incremental step that hopefully softens up landowners and moves them toward permanent protection.”

The announcement, timed to coincide with Earth Day, took place in a wooded area of historic buildings and picnic tables in Bommer Canyon — city-owned open space west of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park near the 73 toll road — which is included in the landmark.

Elementary school students and Scouts attended, along with a smattering of local and state officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“Only in California can you see a 40,000-acre natural landmark right in the middle of one of the nation’s most vibrant and economically important urban areas,” Schwarzenegger said before unveiling a map of the land, which mostly surrounds Irvine.

The rolling landscape features canyons filled with coastal sage-scrub, grasslands and oak woodlands. One expanse is near the coast, including Crystal Cove State Park and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park; the other is in the lower reaches of the Santa Ana Mountains, including the Limestone Canyon and Weir Canyon wilderness areas.

To make the state list, land must be mostly in its natural state and have the biological and geological significance of a state or national park. Each proposal, which may include any combination of public and private land, is put through a peer-reviewed scientific analysis. Landowners must pay for state parks workers to review their application.

“Orange County has what’s equivalent to a national park right here, but very few people are aware of it,” said Dave Raetz, director of public programs for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, which operates 50,000 acres of protected parks and wilderness on what once was the Irvine Ranch. “You have millions of people who live within 10 or 20 minutes of here. We’d like them to appreciate the land and get involved.”

Starting in the 1960s, the Irvine Co. began building master-planned communities on its land, but also set aside portions to be kept clear of development. About half of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch has been preserved and is owned by eight public and private entities, including cities, state agencies and the Irvine Co.

“I’m hoping that this program will inspire other landowners to do the same,” said California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman.

The state program is based on a similar program the National Park Service administers. Most of the Irvine Ranch open space in 2006 joined the national list, which also includes locales such as Mt. Shasta and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Next up for inclusion on the statewide list probably is land near Carmel, said Rick Rayburn, California State Parks natural resources director. Officials are eyeing other acreage, such as the Hearst Ranch on the Central Coast.

Topher Lambert, 15, who often goes camping and biking with his Boy Scout troop in the shrub-covered hills above his Irvine neighborhood, said the area was lucky to receive the statewide attention. But it is hardly too soon; one canyon he used to bike up and down now has housing developments.

“So it’s pretty cool that they’re paying attention to the environment,” he said. “This is all that’s left.”

tony.barboza@latimes.com

Rocky the grizzly bear is seen at the Forever Wild animal sanctuary in Phelan, Calif. in Nov. 2007. The grizzly bear which appeared in a recent Will Ferrell movie killed a 39-year-old trainer with a bite to his neck Tuesday April 22, 2008 and had to be subdued with pepper spray.

The animal bit the man on the neck. He died at the site near Big Bear Lake.

By Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 23, 2008

» Discuss Article (45 Comments)
A 700-pound grizzly bear attacked and killed a Canyon Country man Tuesday at a compound near Big Bear Lake that trains wild animals for movies and television work, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.For unknown reasons, the bear lunged at 39-year-old Stephan Miller, a trainer at Randy Miller’s Predators in Action, about 3 p.m. and bit him in the neck, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers.Two other trainers subdued the 5-year-old, 7 1/2 -foot-tall grizzly with pepper spray and were unhurt, Beavers said. The Predators in Action website says the bear appears in the recent WiIl Ferrell movie “Semi-Pro.”

Miller, cousin of Randy Miller, was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

Attempts to reach Randy Miller, who is also a stuntman, were not successful. The Predators in Action website says it has the “best trained grizzly bears in the business today.”

Beavers said all three trainers were experienced.

They were working with the grizzly in a secured outdoor area when the attack occurred, she said.

She added that officials from Cal OSHA and the state Department of Fish and Game were investigating, and it was not immediately known what would happen to the bear.

Fish and Game spokesman Harry Morse said its patrol chief knew of no safety violations at Predators in Action. He said the department’s main task with such companies is to make certain the animals are well treated.

“This is a commercial venture,” he said of Predators in Action. “It’s part of the entertainment industry.”

Morse said a preliminary examination of the sprawling compound later Tuesday found nothing unusual.

He said he did not believe the department would take custody of the grizzly. He also said he could recall no other fatal bear attacks in the state.

Grizzlies have been extinct in the California wild since the 1920s, Morse said.

Kevin Frey, a grizzly specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the bears can become agitated during training regimens that include repetitive actions. He said they can attack with surprising speed.

“They are so fast, they’re phenomenal,” Frey said.

The Predators in Action website says Rocky and a grizzly named Dakota “have worked on some of the wildest jobs ever done.

“They are world famous for wrestling scenes they have done in films and live shows. These bears are hard working and known for long runs, great action and staged attacks. They are good around people but can look extremely dangerous.”

The website says Rocky is featured in a “Semi-Pro” bear-wrestling scene, “acting like a real fighter in the ring with thousands of people cheering.” Randy Miller is a stunt double for Ferrell in the scene, it says.

Predators in Action also trains lions, tigers, leopards and cougars, and has a “perfect” safety record, according to the website.

“Our animals can be nice and gentle or have the appearance of being out of control,” it says. “We have learned how to do this safe and know this is the best way to get real action.”

paul.pringle@latimes.com

By Lucia Stewart, 4-17-08

For the first time in a decade, wild bison will be allowed to legally roam outside of Yellowstone National Park.

The purchase of the cattle grazing rights from the Church Universal and Triumphant’s Royal Teton Ranch for 30 years will provide an approximate 5,000-acre “zone” where bison can roam outside of the park boundary while having little-to-no risk of possible interaction and transmission of brucellosis to Montana’s cattle.

Although too small in landmass to provide the title “Free-ranging Yellowstone bison,” the range is released through a pact agreement and collaboration between three federal agencies, two Montana agencies, one private landowner and a coalition of four non-profit organizations. Officials announced the agreement Thursday.

The National Park Service secured $1.5 million in federal funding and will write a check once there is assurance that the state’s $1 million fundraising effort is underway under the guidance of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and its non-profit partners: the National Wildlife Federation, National Parks Conservation Association, Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Montana Wildlife Federation.

This agreement to purchase the grazing rights and provide a winter-feeding ground has been on the priority list since the founding of the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) in 2000.

The IBMP is a round-table of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Montana Department of Livestock and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Park, who are collectively working together to guide brucellosis risk management in Montana, and are guided by an Adaptive Management Plan.

The collaboration is their first forward motion toward providing additional habitat to Yellowstone National Park’s genetically-pure bison while retaining Montana’s brucellosis-free status.

Meanwhile, Yellowstone National Park actually doesn’t know the carrying capacity for bison within the park because it is dependent upon winter conditions.

“Yellowstone National Park is the home of the bison, and this new zone is the release valve,” said Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis.

Now that cattle are removed from this northern corridor, 25 bison will be tolerated to roam this area in the ’08-’09 winter season, doubling in subsequent years, and capped at 100 in the third year, according to the Adaptive Management Plan.

“Learning how they will use the landscape is part of the plan as well,” said Lewis. “With an adaptive plan, if they behave and are comfortable, changes can happen, but it does remain a relatively limited habitat.”

The agreement drew criticism from both bison advocates and the livestock industry.

“This deal will not stop the slaughter,” Buffalo Field Campaign habitat coordinator Darrell Geist said in a statement. Geist also condemned the $2.5 million going to the Church Universal and Triumphant, saying in the release, “Why should we give them millions more to do what they should have done years ago?”

Livestock officials weren’t happy with plan because they say it doesn’t address brucellosis. The Montana Stockgrowers Assocation’s Errol Rice says in an Associated Press story that the National Park Service needs to deal with the issue through vaccination.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer did confirm that the State of Montana and the USDA would not allow the bison to expand past Yankee Jim Canyon in the Paradise Valley and Hebgen Lake near West Yellowstone.

“This plan is adaptive,” Schweitzer said. “On the Westside [of Yellowstone National Park] there are only a few cattle. There’s a possibility that we will adapt further to take that into account.”

Montana used its “Get out of Jail Free card” when it discovered a brucellosis-infected cattle herd outside of Bridger in May 2007.

If another case is found, Montana will loose it’s brucellosis-free status and “there will be significant economic losses” in Montana, Schweitzer said, referring to the situations in Idaho and Wyoming at a press conference in Bozeman. He also noted that both these states understand that both bison and elk were responsible, with the hopes that the Montana’s Department of Livestock and USDA will soon recognize elk as a contributing factor in Montana.

There are currently 238 bison in the Stevens Creek capture facility — with no plans of any additional slaughters this season. There have been nearly 1,300 bison sent to slaughter this winter, 163 taken during the hunt and more deaths due to wolves and a hard, deep winter. Numbers will not be exact to how many remain until after the snow begins to melt, but with 101 inches of snow at the south entrance in March alone, that date is undetermined.

“Many groups disagree, but on a day like today, the National Park, environmental groups, livestock owners all agree,” Lewis said. “Hopefully this will give [the bison] a little more room to breathe, and a little more to move around.”

Washington, DC, September 26, 2007 – A new report released by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation demonstrates that by any measure, America’s 34 million hunters and anglers are among the most prominent and influential of all demographic groups. Spending more than $76 billion dollars a year on hunting and fishing, America’s hunters and anglers would rank in the top 20 list on the Fortune 500. In fact their spending is greater than the revenues of high-tech giants Microsoft, Google, eBay and Yahoo – combined.

These latest figures demonstrate that season after season, hunters and anglers drive the economy from big business to rural towns, through booms and recessions. They directly support 1.6 million jobs, which is twice as many jobs as the combined civilian payrolls of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps.

“While hunting and fishing are generally thought of as just outdoor traditions, they actually comprise an outdoor nation – both in terms of economic impact, and in turning out the vote on Election Day,” stated Jeff Crane, president of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “If the $76 billion dollars sportsmen spend on hunting and fishing was the Gross Domestic Product of a country, sportsmen as a nation would rank 57th out of 181 countries.”

Broken down to a daily spending figure, the economic stimulus of hunting and fishing comes out to an astounding $208 million dollars a day. This spending keeps people working: not just in typical hunting and fishing jobs, but also in gas stations, retail, restaurants and hotels throughout every state and congressional district of the USA. Of course, government coffers also benefit — spending by sportsmen generates $25 billion dollars in federal, state and local taxes.

“Hunters have an unequaled passion for their outdoor traditions, spending 220 million days in the woods, fields and wetlands each year and nearly $2,000 per person on firearms, ammunition and other equipment and services,” said Doug Painter, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “That’s $23 billion pumped into the economy, benefiting not only the manufacturers of hunting-related products, but everything from local mom and pop businesses to wildlife conservation in every state in America.”

Even despite the recent rise in fuel costs, hunters and anglers remained immune to jumps in gas prices; spending a total of $1.8 billion in motorboat fuel on hunting and fishing activities.

“Boating plays a larger role in hunting and fishing than people realize, especially in terms of money spent and participation,” noted Thom Dammarich, president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association. “Figures from the U.S.F.W.S. survey estimate that sportsmen spend more than $11 billion dollars on boat fuel, boats and related equipment to get them around in the marshes and out on the water.”

The report, Hunting and Fishing: Bright Stars of the American Economy ~ A force as big as all outdoors, uses the results from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation and compares hunters’ and anglers’ impact on the economy with other industries and constituencies.

“This report clearly demonstrates the tremendous impact that sportsmen and women have on their communities, the economy, the environment, and even on politics,” said U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, avid sportsman and co-chair of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. “Their presence is too great to be ignored by policymakers in Washington, DC, and I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to look at this report and make sportsmen’s issues a priority.”

While recent media attention has focused on the small decreases in licensed sportsmen, the CSF report focuses on the economic powerhouse of hunters and anglers and how they compare to other sectors of the economy. The report also discusses the “undocumented sportsmen” – hunters and anglers whose numbers cannot be derived from this data.

It is a fairly simple equation – hunters and anglers mean jobs and tax revenue in every state and congressional district of the country,” stated Crane. The economic impact and shear size of sportsmen as a constituency are facts that every lawmaker should pay attention too.”

“Auto manufacturers are well aware of this demographics tremendous economic impact,” said Dave McCurdy, president & CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. “Hunters and anglers are among our largest consumer groups for pick-up trucks and SUVs and because those vehicles best meet their needs. In fact, in 2006, for the fifth year in a row, sales of these larger vehicles exceeded passenger car sales.”

Hunting and Fishing: Bright Stars of the American Economy ~ A force as big as all outdoors is available on the web at www.sportsmenslink.org and www.nssf.org

A video of the press conference will be available September 27th on the web at www.versus.com

###

About CSF
CSF is the most respected and trusted hunting and fishing organization in the political arena. With support from every major hunting and fishing organization, CSF is the leader in promoting sportsmen’s issues with elected officials. CSF works directly with the bi-partisan, bi-cameral Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus in the U.S. Congress, as well as affiliated state sportsmen’s caucuses in state legislatures around the country.

The report was produced in partnership with the:
National Shooting Sports Foundation – www.nssf.org
National Marine Manufacturers Association – www.NMMA.org
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers – www.autoalliance.org

CSF also acknowledges the contributions of the American Sportsfishing Association, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Around the Outdoors- April 3, 2008

by Jim Shepherd on April 3rd, 2008 in Wolf, Conservation and Restoration, Wildlife

Shortly after wolves were taken from the federal endangered species list, at least three were taken this weekend by Wyoming residents. According to Wyoming officials, all three of the confirmed kills came in the newly designated predator zone for wolves. Inside that zone, the animals can be shot on sight without limits, as long as the time, location and sex of the kill is reported to the Game and Fish Department within ten days.

On Friday, after the wolves were removed from the endangered species list, they fell under the control of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Under their guidelines, wolves in the state’s extreme northwest corner fall in the state’s trophy game zone and are afforded some protection. Outside that area, however, wolves are considered predators similar to coyotes.

A number of wildlife groups, including Defenders of Wildlife, have notified the federal government of their intent to sue over the wolf delisting, once a requisite sixty-day waiting period is up at the end of April. The groups have not ruled out seeking an emergency injunction under the Endangered Species Act to have the declaration voided.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi House of Representatives has passed a bill allowing hunting of deer over grain or other baits. Critics say it takes the sport out of hunting; others say it simply provides an additional way to help control the state’s growing deer population. While critics say it’s unethical, Mississippi House Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Chairman Bo Taylor offered this solution: “It’s all about ethics. If you feel it’s unethical, then don’t do it.”

Under the bill, food must be placed in feeders or spin feeders.

The Idaho Game and Fish Department is offering a simple explanation for the deaths of 200,000 Chinook salmon smolts scheduled for release into the Lochsa River last Friday. The explanation? Cold weather and human error. Water flows to an acclimation pond were interrupted when a valve on an intake pipe froze. Hatchery attendants didn’t notice the valve.

In New Jersey, Governor Jon Corzine’s proposed budget cuts are going to be closing nine state parks and cut services at three others. Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose, representing Sussex, Morris and Hunterdon, noted – correctly – that the majority of the parks set for closure are in Republican areas of the state. Corzine, as you know if you’ve read much about the continued battles between Corzine, the Department of Environmental Protection and conservationists, is a Democrat.

“It couldn’t be more clearer,” McHose says,“First he said he plans on eliminating the state’s Agriculture Department, which is one of the most efficiently run departments we have, and now he intends on closing down our state parks. How interesting that most of them are located in primarily Republican territory.

“New Jersey parks are not the cause of our state budget problems,” McHose, a member of the Assembly Budget Committee, continued, “a self-serving governor who is clearly out of touch with our residents is.”

She also called the governor a hypocrite for going after an entity that actually benefits the state’s economy. “These parks attract millions of recreational visitors and tourists each year that are a much needed boost to the state’s economy and the economies of the regions surrounding these parks,” she explained. “Mr. Corzine should spend his time battling the real problem – excessive government spending, waste and abuse – and not targeting our resources that actually benefit the state. He should take a long, hard look at the waste in so many of our school districts and the abuse in the state’s New Jersey Family Care program.”

Maybe so, but if history is any guide, Corzine will pretty much do what he wants as the director of the Environmental Protection agency has proven to be more interested in protecting her job than the environment.

So what’s new, right?

It may not be good news, but…we’ll keep you posted.

The West Coast has seen a severe shortage of King Salmon in the past year, so lawmakers cancelled this year’s salmon fishing season. Fishermen suffered under last year’s shortage, and worry about how this summer’s ban will affect their livelihood.

Veteran salmon fisherman Don Stanley of Half Moon Bay in California talks with Andrea Seabrook about his plans for riding out the season

March 29, 2008

On this past Thursday’s Open Air radio show, I shared with you an article written by Hugh Hewitt about the foreseeable troubles and real agendas behind the push by environmental groups to get the polar bear listed as “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act. You can get some information and listen to the radio broadcast here.

In Hewitt’s article he has this to say about what could happen if the polar bear gets protection.

Once listed, the Federal Endangered Species Act is very clear: Any federal action that might impact the polar bear must be reviewed by the U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service under Section 7 of the Act.

What sort of federal actions? The most obvious would be any activity on or near Arctic ice, but that’s not the gold ring the environmentalists are reaching for.

They will argue that every federal permit that allows directly or indirectly for increased emissions of hydrocarbons is a federal act that might impact the polar bear –every port expansion, every refinery opening or repair, every Army Corps of Engineers permit that allows for more homes or office buildings to rise.

It is quite shameful I think, that we have resorted to thinking of extreme “what ifs”. Most people, at least those who have even heard that there is a push by environmentalists to list the polar bear, think it a simple act to ensure that the bear doesn’t get wiped out because of climate change. That’s not the case but more on that later.

When species are presented to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for protection, essentially what must be proven is that a species must be “likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all, or a significant portion of its range.” What would set this ruling apart from others is that it would be based on something that hasn’t happened, on computer models that are being questioned by science as reliable and on a theory that man-made carbon dioxide is melting the ice globally. This has never been done before.

If Hewitt is correct in his analysis, which by the way he supports by sharing information stating such from the Center for Biological Diversity’s website, that having the polar bear protected would have sweeping affects on our economy, we have to ask ourselves how far could this “regulation” go?

As hunters and fishermen, shouldn’t we at the least be nervous that if the theory of global warming, caused by man, is used to protect the polar bear, what else can it be used to protect? The polar bear isn’t anywhere near in danger to “likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all, or a significant portion of its range.” and if this ruling were to happen, then feasibly other game species could become protected, essentially putting the hunting and fishing industry out of business.

The National Center for Public Policy Research has made public a paper, written by Peyton Knight and Amy Ridenour, that explains in great detail what is likely to happen should our federal government cave in to the pressures from the environmentalists and list the polar bear. They give six reasons why listing the polar bear is a bad idea.

* Listing the polar bear could have adverse affects on bear conservation efforts.

* Global polar bear population levels presently are healthy.

* The anthropogenic global warming theory remains only a theory, and climate science is in its infancy. Even those who agree with the global warming theory disagree about the extent of its projected effects.

* Listing the polar bear as threatened because of estimated future global warming would most likely be extremely expensive to the U.S. economy.

* Listing the polar bear based on projected anthropogenic global warming can be expected to greatly expand federal regulatory powers under the ESA.

* Because of its great expense and controversial nature, federal policies regarding global warming should be made only by Congress with input from the Executive Branch, not by a presidential appointee charged with enforcing a 1973 law written for other purposes.

Knight and Ridenour point out that Dr. Mitchell Taylor, polar bear biologist for the Canadian province of Nunavut’s Department of the Environment, says there’s no need to panic about polar bears.

Climate change is having an effect on the West Hudson population of polar bears, but really, there is no need to panic. Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present.

It is noteworthy that the neighboring population of southern Hudson Bay does not appear to have declined, and another southern population (Davis Strait) may actually be over-abundant.

I understand that people who do not live in the north generally have difficulty grasping the concept of too many polar bears in an area. People who live here have a pretty good grasp of what that is like to have too many polar bears around.

This complexity is why so many people find the truth less entertaining than a good story.

If the environmentalists can convince the feds that global warming is threatening the polar bear and they choose to list it, then we can only conclude that our government believes the same and this precedent could set off a domino effect on countless other game animals with no end in sight. Knight and Ridenour don’t really believe the environmentalists are that concerned about the bear and are more interested in their carbon emissions agenda.

What environmental groups have been unsuccessful in accomplishing through the front door, they appear to be hoping to usher in through the back – namely, restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions similar to those mandated in the U.N.’s Kyoto global warming treaty, which the U.S. Senate has not ratified.

Once any animal is protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Act itself opens the door to lawsuits in which the courts have little choice but to administer the Act as it is written and interpreted. Knight and Ridenour point out the fact that the Endangered Species Act’s definition of “take” can be expanded beyond belief.

This definition gives regulators wide latitude in deciding which actions can be deemed “harmful” to a listed species or its habitat. It also provides ample fodder for environmentalist lawsuits to prevent certain public or private activities. Thus, in the opinion of federal regulators, should anthropogenic global warming be deemed harmful to the polar bear or its habitat under the ESA, the mere act of emitting greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, could be heavily regulated, or in some instances, outlawed entirely.

As I stated before, the entire premise of the environmentalists to get the polar bear protected is based on the theory of global warming. The idea that anthropogenic carbon dioxide is warming our planet is shaky at best, although those who have signed on to the theory refuse to take a look at the real science that disputes climate change as man made.

In the same radio broadcast on Thursday I spoke of earlier, an article I shared with listeners told of new data from new state of the art equipment showing that computer models that are predicting global warming are wrong and need to be reworked. With new information being learned daily about our complex weather patterns, isn’t it irresponsible to threaten our own economy based on a theory?

Few people also realize that if the U.S. lists the polar bear as threatened, it will only stop U.S. hunters from traveling to Canada and hunting the bear. Those numbers will be replaced by hunters from other countries and more than likely the amount of money being spent to hunt the bear will be significantly reduced. Much of that money is used for polar bear conservation. Safari Club International tells it this way.

Listing would undermine conservation by curtailing the involvement of U.S. hunters in Canadian sport hunting of the polar bear, disrupting an important source of funds to support polar bear management and conservation. Since the ESA listing would not stop polar bear hunting, but merely the ability of U.S. citizens to import polar bears, the listing would accomplish nothing in terms of reducing the number of polar bears taken. Instead, native subsistence hunters and/or sport-hunters from countries other than the U.S., who will likely pay much less for the polar bear hunt than U.S. citizens, will fill the market. The result of listing likely will be continued take at current levels, with less revenue for polar bear management and conservation. The $1,000 per import permit for research and conservation also would be lost.

How far do you think the environmentalists will go? How far do you think the government will go? What kind of affects would listing the polar bear based on the theory of global warming have in administering its management under the Endangered Species Act?

I encourage you to read the entire article written by Peyton Knight and Amy Ridenour. It has tons more information and resources for you than I could possibly get into this column. Nobody wants to see the polar bear disappear. The population has doubled in recent years since hunting of the bear became regulated. There is presently ample treaties and agreements in place that have proven they will protect the polar bear. We don’t need to list the bear based on a theory. Not only is it unnecessary but it would be extremely costly.

There is one more thing you need to do. You need to go to this link to the National Center for Public Policy Research website and view the parody video ad they have put together about the polar bear. It’s light, entertaining and worth seeing polar bears dressed in formal attire.

Tom Remington

Several articles have recently discussed the negative impact of shooting wolves, and then there are a few who believe that they all should be shot. After doing some research on how many wolves have been shot since 1999-2007 and the confirmed wolf-depredation numbers on cattle, sheep and dogs, one can see an upward trend.

Opening a season on wolves is not a wholesale slaughter of the population, but a trust in our professional wildlife biologists to manage a population, just as they manage every other big-game population in the state. Reviewing the above information, we can see a trend of wolf population increase, which has expanded out the of the national forest boundaries. Our national forest lands and BLM lands have a carrying capacity on elk, deer and wolves. Once the wolf population exceeds this carrying capacity we need to have management plans in place to keep everything in balance. It is best for all if there are fewer wolf/human conflicts. If a wolf or a pack of wolves becomes accustomed to people or a populated area, we run the risk of an attack on a person.

What will a hunting season do for the species as a whole?

- With a hunting season in place, taxpayers will not be paying the $1,000-plus for a Fish and Game officer to hunt down problem animals.

- The wolves will respect and fear people, preventing animals from associating people or populated areas as a food source.

- Local biologists will be able to manage each population to the maximum carrying capacity, minimizing conflicts.

- While not all may approve of hunting as a management tool, it does solve many of the problems associated with too many animals of any species in a given area. It allows the state to generate money in the various fees. Resident hunting fees generate $14 million every year. Non-resident hunting fees add another $14 million. It is estimated that hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing generate in excess of $1 billion to the state of Idaho.

In conclusion, we spend millions of dollars on the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and then we pretend to know more than they do. There is a tremendous amount of information on the www.fws.gov site. Please visit and read the annual reports that we have all paid for. Then perhaps we all can have a little more faith and trust in our Fish and Game biologists to manage these important resources of our great state.

Randy Minnick

Hailey

‘The best is still ahead,’ says a Stanley outfitter. The season ends April 30th.  Terry Heneghan of Bellevue caught and released this steelhead while fishing on the Upper Salmon River.

BY ROGER PHILLIPS – rphillips@idahostatesman.com

Cold spring weather is causing an extended steelhead fishing season in Upper Salmon River.Fish are working their way upstream, but low, clear river conditions appear to have slowed their migration and spread the fish throughout the river between Salmon and Stanley.

“Steelhead fishing has picked up the past week,” said Bill Bernt, owner of Aggipah River Trips in Salmon. “Usually it is petering out by now.”

The Pahsimeroi Hatchery near Ellis reported 1,238 steelhead had returned by Thursday out of an expected run of 5,310 fish.

The Stanley Hatchery reported 479 fish out of an expected run of 2,922 fish.

Jane McCoy, owner of McCoy’s Tackle in Stanley, said steelhead fishing could be good until the end of the season on April 30.

“I am seeing fish coming later,” McCoy said. “The best fishing is still ahead.”

The Sawtooths have a big snowpack and warmer weather could make or break fishing.

Warmer water tends to pull more fish upstream, but too much snowmelt swells and muddies the river and makes fishing difficult.

“How long the river will hold up is anybody’s guess,” she said.

Fish are currently holding in deeper holes rather than in the shallows where they stage before moving onto the spawning beds, she said.

She said both gear anglers and fly anglers have been catching fish, but have been concentrating on those deeper holes.

Many fly anglers have been using heavily weighted stonefly patterns and still getting fish.

Gretchen Roman of Bent Rod Outfitters in Challis said there’s good fishing around Challis, and fishing with spoons has been very popular.

The river alternates between long sections of riffles and other areas with deep pools, which lend themselves to all types of tackle.

Fish tend to get more aggressive as water warms and they get active before spawning, but like all steelhead fishing, they can go on and off the bite for no apparent reason.

The popular fishing holes, like the Sunbeam Dam and the confluence of the Salmon and the Pahsimeroi have been getting very crowded on weekends, Roman said.

But with fish throughout the river, there’s lots of bank access and anglers don’t have to congregate in a few places.

Steelhead destined for Stanley have to travel the entire length of the river during their upstream migration.

Anglers can harvest hatchery steelhead, which are marked by a clipped adipose fin on the back immediately in front of the tail.

Any wild steelhead or fish with an intact adipose fin must be released unharmed.

For more information on steelhead rules and seasons, log onto fishandgame.idaho.gov.

Roger Phillips: 373-6615

Hard winter took its toll on Southwest Idaho’s flocks, but some were transplanted from North Idaho

1/6

Pete Zimowsky / pzimowsky@idahostatesman.com

Watching a tom turkey strut is both cool and comical. Watching one strut and ignore your best calling is downright annoying.

Roger Phillips / rphillips@idahostatesman.com

If you don’t have access to a field full of turkeys, climb up on ridges and look and listen. You might find some.

Roger Phillips / rphillips@idahostatesman.com

Calling in a tom is how you close the deal in turkey hunting. Many hunters compare it to bugling a bull elk during the rut.

Roger Phillips / rphillips@idahostatesman.com

Escaping the sharp eyes of a turkey is critical to a successful hunt, and a ground blind gives you good cover.

Roger Phillips / rphillips@idahostatesman.com

Spring turkey season opened Tuesday and lasts until May 25. The daily bag limit is one bearded turkey per day in the spring, and only one can be taken in April. No more than two bearded turkeys may be taken per spring. Not all hunting units are open to turkey hunting. For a full list of rules and open units, get a rules booklet any place that sells Idaho Department of Fish and Game licenses and tags, or log on to fishandgame.idaho.gov. Click on hunting and upland birds and turkeys.

Photo provided by Robert Mancuso

Tina Mancuso, 11, Boise, got this 20 lb. tom with a 8 1/2-inch beard in North Idaho on her first turkey hunt.

BY ROGER PHILLIPS – rphillips@idahostatesman.com

Edition Date: 04/17/08

The rowdy gobble of a tom turkey sounds like the woods waking up in the spring. Turkey season opened Tuesday, and hunters are searching for the spring equivalent of Thanksgiving with a chance to put a big bird on the table.But turkey hunting is more than a trip to nature’s food basket. It is a chance to grab a gun and go after a bird that hunts more like a big-game animal.

It is a way to get up close and personal with Idaho’s largest game bird and in the process get your spring started with a hike with a shotgun, or stake out a flock of birds and try to convince a wary tom you’re a waiting hen.

It is a chance to break out the camo, lace up the hunting boots, pitch the wall tent, or break in the RV before the summer camping season.

It is also a great excuse to sit around a campfire with hunting buddies you haven’t seen since last fall, or take new hunters into the woods and let them experience the adrenaline rush of a fired-up tom answering your calls.

But as much as anything, turkey hunting is just a great time to watch the woods come alive in the spring.

Hike a ridge and listen for a distant gobble, spot a herd of elk grazing across a hillside, or sit under a tree and wait for a strutting tom to fan out and give one of nature’s gaudiest displays of vanity and attitude.

A hard winter and a cold spring could affect both turkeys and turkey hunters.

“It’s going to be different than what we’ve seen in a long time,” said Don Kemner, upland bird biologist for Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “Hunters should be prepared to look for birds in different areas.”

Winter brought deep snow to lower elevations, which pushed birds down, and they may still be congregating on private land when the season opens.

The hard winter probably also took its toll on Southwest Idaho’s flocks.

“I think this was probably a challenging year for turkeys,” Kemner said. “I’m sure we lost some birds.”

But it is not all bad. North Idaho continues to have more turkeys than it can handle, so F&G has been transplanting birds that damage private property, and southern Idaho got some of them.

“The exciting news is we put 150 turkeys at the Andrus Wildlife Management Area this winter to rebuild the flocks and provide turkey hunting opportunities,” Kemner said.

Turkey hunting in Southwest Idaho may be a little slow getting started, and hunters are almost guaranteed to find snow at mid elevations, which could make it difficult to access prime turkey hunting on public lands.

The popular turkey hunting areas around Idaho City and west of U.S. 95 between Council and Cambridge will probably still have lots of lingering snow. Warmer spring weather could start melting that snow, but that will also cause muddy roads.

If birds continue to congregate at low elevations, they will likely be on private land, and hunters must get permission before hunting them.

Another option is to travel to the Clearwater Region or the Panhandle, both of which have abundant turkey populations on public and private lands.

Again, hunters should spend some time seeking permission if they want to hunt private lands in those areas.

While turkey hunters may see some difficult conditions this spring, at least in the early season, turkeys are continuing to do well in the state.

Idaho’s turkey population has probably reached a plateau.

Harvests have fluctuated by about a thousand birds in the last few years after explosive growth in the previous decade.

Idaho’s turkey harvest grew from 1,500 birds to 6,500 between 1995 and 2005.

FIVE-YEAR STATEWIDE HARVEST

(includes spring and fall hunts)

2007: *6,000

2006: 5,630

2005: 6,463

2004: 5,384

2003: 6,377

(*estimated)

TOP FIVE 2007 HUNTING UNITS

Unit* Harvest

1. 10A 535

2. 1 313

3. 3 292

4. 22 284

5. 8A 253

*General spring season

TURKEY HUNTING SAFETY

- Use complete camouflage, including camo boots, face mask or paint, and gloves, in addition to shirt, jacket and pants. Also, cover your gun with camo (paint or tape).

- Avoid wearing clothing with red, blue, black and white. These colors are found in the natural coloring of a wild turkey. Wearing these colors can make you an unsuspecting target.

- Always sit with your back against a tree trunk, big log or even a boulder that is wider than your body. This protects you from being accidentally struck by pellets fired from behind you.

- If you use a decoy, place it on the far side of a tree trunk so that you can see birds approaching from all directions but cannot actually see the decoy. This prevents you from being directly in the line of fire should another hunter mistakenly shoot at your decoy.

- Whenever you are moving to and from your stand to retrieve a decoy or downed bird, always first don a hunter orange vest that is visible from all sides. Likewise, wrap your turkey in hunter orange, or carry it in a hunter orange game bag for added safety.

- Before firing at an approaching bird, be sure to look beyond it to see whether other hunters are in the line of fire.

- Always clearly identify your target as a legal turkey before firing. Do not shoot at a movement, even if you hear a gobble. It may be another well-concealed hunter. One study of turkey hunting accidents showed that while the shooters saw what they thought was part of a bird, in none of the cases did they see the entire turkey.

- In most cases, stick with hen calls when calling turkey. A gobbler call might attract other hunters and may place you in a dangerous situation. A gobbler call is intended for special situations only.

- Never stalk a wild turkey.

Source: Idaho Department of Fish and Game

Roger Phillips: 373-6615

Get ‘em outside to enjoy new Tualatin refuge Wildlife Center

Categories: Outdoors, Washington County

JOHN GIVOT/THE OREGONIANCanada Geese fly over the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. It is formally dedicating its new wildlife center on March 29.

The final touches are almost complete for the March 29 dedication of the Wildlife Center at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.Beneath sweeping beams with a spectacular view of wetlands, the shop run by Friends of the Tualatin Refuge already does a brisk business in books, binoculars and bird-watching gear.

The display hall tells the history of the refuge in murals, from untouched wilderness to tamed onion fields to the ongoing effort of restoring its 1,358 acres to their natural state. Drawers on smooth rollers whisper open to offer hands-on exhibits.

In a nearby classroom, a synthetic eagle skull with its large eye sockets and fierce beak awaits the prodding of young fingers. Treated skins — skunk, raccoon, coyote — will be stroked and measured, bringing humans a little closer to the wild creatures that roam this pocket of nature crowded by cities.

The center, the crowning structure of the $4.6 million refuge headquarters, is a shrine to curiosity, wonder and awe.

The wildlife center and refuge offices sit side by side on a rise above a seasonal lake, the buildings russet-colored and with similar arched skylights. Natural light floods in. Wander into the gift store, and a spotting scope likely is trained on one of the resident bald eagles. The flat roof is spread with gravel to attract nesting killdeers. But for all of its structural beauty — it was built with local timber and green design — the center is meant only as a base, a brief perch for visitors before they swoop out to explore wetland and forest.

That goal is especially true for young visitors.

“Get ‘em outside,” says Janice Jenkins, an environmental education specialist for the Friends of Tualatin Refuge.

“There’s such emphasis on kids being in the classroom, testing and getting their scores,” she adds. “But not so much going out and getting to see what they’re learning, to see that raptor up close, to see the nutria and how it swims.”

Refuge staff and volunteers adhere to the mantra of bringing children face to face with nature, as advocated in “Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder.” Author/activist Richard Louv’s book raised alarm about the growing disconnect between children and the natural world.

Louv will speak at the dedication and that evening at Tualatin High School.

Refuge set to celebrate
its new wildlife center
“Nurture Your Sense of Wonder” is the theme for the dedication of the new wildlife center at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. The center is at 19255 S.W. Pacific Highway, Sherwood.

Festivities begin at 11:30 a.m. March 29, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and remarks by several speakers, including Sherwood Mayor Keith Mays; Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.; and Lyle Laverty, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Following the ceremony, visitors are invited to explore the new center’s exhibits, watch wildlife and participate in activities. Guided walks will be offered every 30 minutes until 3:30 p.m. Visitors also may explore the new trails, overlooks and interpretative areas on their own.

All activities are free. Free parking will be available at the Home Depot on Oregon 99W in Sherwood and at Hopkins Elementary School, 21920 S.W. Sherwood Blvd. Free shuttle buses will take visitors to the refuge from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Details: www.fws.gov/tualatinriver or www.friendsoftualatinrefuge.org.

That evening, author and education expert Richard Louv will speak about connecting children with nature and educational opportunities on the refuge. Doors open at 6 p.m. for a book signing. Louv’s talk begins at 7 p.m. at Tualatin High School, 22300 S.W. Boones Ferry Road. Advance tickets are required and are $10 for adults or $5 for students. Tickets may be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com.

“Who is going to be our next conservation heroes?” asks Kim Strassburg, the refuge’s visitor services manager. “Our kids. And if our kids are losing touch with nature?

“Here we’re connecting people to nature, particularly our children. We just feel it’s so pivotal for the purposes of the refuge.”

The refuge was established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1992 and opened to the public in June 2006.

Once drained and tilled for farmland, the natural floodplain of the Tualatin River has been restored. The refuge is a winter home for thousands of waterfowl. Now, the budding shrubs and trees are filled with courting songbirds — yellow-rumped warblers, nuthatches, golden-crowned kinglets. A pair of great horned owls prepare a nest in a stand of Douglas fir, ignoring the raucous taunting of crows.

The urban background fades on the trails that lace the refuge. Grandparents watch as a toddler crouches close to study water bugs, while his older sister raises binoculars to look at a song sparrow. Others use the trails for a peaceful, energizing lunchtime walk.

“We’ve seen more and more development right around the refuge,” says Norman Penner, president of the Friends of Tualatin Refuge. “It’s moving from Bull Mountain and Tigard down the hill. It’s moving from the other side, from Sherwood. If the growth continues, this is going to be a green park in the middle of an urban area. It’s where people can come to get away from the daily pressures of living.”

The refuge and its friends organization offer teacher-training workshops and lesson plans that turn the refuge into classroom. Students can test water, study pollywogs and learn about how native plants provide food and shelter.

“Out here, our volunteers go out with the teachers and we tell them, ‘If there’s a teachable moment — when the bald eagle flies over — drop everything and use that,’ ” Jenkins says.

The new wildlife center provides a starting point for lifelong appreciation.

“I’ve visited many similar facilities and refuges, and they often have really elaborate indoor activities,” Penner says. “This one was designed especially to avoid that. Give them some basic information and get them out into the refuge — become really acquainted with nature.”
– Abby Haight; abbyhaight@news.oregonian.com

SOURCE: Bulls & Beavers LLC

Apr 15, 2008 11:10 ET

New Online Destination for the Outdoor Sportsman Now Live at www.bullsandbeavers.com

BullsandBeavers.com Aims to Be the Most Complete Resource for Outdoor Enthusiasts Featuring a Wide Range of Hunting, Fishing, Real Estate and Conservation Information, Forums and Auctions

Highlighted Links

www.bullsandbeavers.com

SUN VALLEY, ID–(Marketwire – April 15, 2008) – Bulls & Beavers, LLC, www.bullsandbeavers.com, a leading provider of outdoor-related news and services, today announced the launch of BullsandBeavers.com, a new Web site for the outdoor sportsman. BullsandBeavers.com will be the most comprehensive, full-featured hunting and fishing web site aimed at outdoor enthusiasts.

“With BullsandBeavers.com, hunters and anglers will find everything they need to research, plan, and prepare for their next outdoor adventure,” said Chris Burget, Founder of BullsandBeavers.com. “From bow hunting, rifle hunting, fishing, travel, to buying recreational property, our site will provide instant access to a wide depth of tools, information, and resources including other outdoor magazines and websites. We aim to maintain a neutral business model so that we are able to provide the most comprehensive site by creating alliances and partnerships with content providers in all sectors of the outdoor sportsman market.”

Site Features:

BullsandBeavers.com is the first web site that will bring together all the features, content and resources relevant to hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts. Current features include news, guides and outfitters, community forums, as well as Bulls & Beavers’ prestigious “Best of the Best” awards. BullsandBeavers.com will also have an auction site that will focus on selling Firearms and Flyrods.

Best of the Best Awards – The Bulls and Beavers award is given out to various companies, products or services that qualify based on quality and integrity. The “Best of the Best” award will also be given out to premier sportsman properties that meet certain standards of quality, location as well as wildlife viewing opportunities.

Hunting/Fishing Articles – BullsandBeavers.com will offer articles pertaining to relevant current issues and events.

Hunting Guides and Outfitters – Users can search for hunting guides and outfitters by species and/or location. All listings include full contact information, species hunted, terrain, additional services, and more. BullsandBeavers.com also provides one of the most unique services in the hunting industry, a user guide rating system rating through actual users of services.

Hunting Community – Users can share photos, post messages, participate in online polls, and enter our product giveaways.

Breaking News – The latest hunting news and select fish and wildlife service releases are always at your fingertips on the home page. Under our Blog, features will focus on Hunting, Fishing and conservation.

In addition, BullsandBeavers.com will also provide field guides, wild game recipes, product reviews, hunting tips, hunting checklists, online shopping, and other online resources for the hunting and outdoor enthusiast.

Cougars in chaos

WESTERN ROUNDUP – April 14, 2008 by Liza Gross

RICH BEAUSOLEIL, WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE

How a state hunting policy pushed Washington’s big cats to the brink

Hot on the heels of a cougar, Catherine Lambert could barely contain her excitement. She had nearly nailed the location of a radio-collared female first captured the previous winter, when her telemetry antenna signaled that the cat had abruptly changed its speed. She must be running after a meal, Lambert thought. Then the Washington State University graduate student heard a strange howling, and soon after, lost the signal.

“The next day, we received a call to retrieve her radio collar,” Lambert says, her soft French-Canadian accent tinged with sadness. Hunters had chased down and killed the cougar, which – just a few weeks before – had been traveling with kittens.

The same thing happened again and again as Lambert and her fellow researchers followed cougars through the forests of northeastern Washington in 2002. As the body count mounted, “the bell went off,” Lambert says. “I thought, ’There’s something really wrong here.’ ” In the end, the dispirited research team collected 22 collars – nearly half of their study subjects. The scientists worried that overhunting could be placing the state’s cougars in serious jeopardy.

At the same time, a growing chorus of newspaper columnists, politicians and ranchers claimed that Washington’s cougar population was exploding and called for even more hunting. A 1996 statewide initiative (I-655) that banned the use of hounds to hunt cougars, they said, had allowed the cats to flourish and increasingly threaten livestock, pets and people.

In reality, as the researchers would show, the measure led to the highest rates of cougar slaughter since the height of the predator bounty-hunting era in the 1930s and ’40s. Ironically, biologists like Lambert now suspect that all this killing – originally authorized to reduce cougar-human conflicts – may actually be triggering yet more dangerous encounters.

The spike in cougar deaths resulted in part from a radical change in the state’s game-management plan. After the hound-hunting ban passed, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials quickly liberalized hunting regulations in order to control the cougar population and maintain the revenue from cougar licenses. They extended the hunting season by six months, doubled the legal bag limit, and rolled half-price cougar tags – traditionally sold to just 1,000 hunters a year – into big-game hunting packages.

Under the new policy, nearly 60,000 deer and elk hunters hit the woods each season with cougar tags in their pockets. Still, complaints about cougars skyrocketed. Before the hound-hunting ban, such complaints averaged about 250 a year. They more than doubled the year after the ban before peaking at 936 in 2000.

Notoriously shy by nature, cougars would just as soon avoid humans. But Washington’s rapid population growth – nearly 60 percent above the national average between 1990 and 2000 – and the attendant loss of 70,000 acres of undeveloped land each year reduced the wide-ranging cats’ habitat, forcing them into closer contact with humans.

Though only 2,500 to 4,000 cougars lived in the state, they seemed to be causing consternation everywhere, eating endangered caribou and deer, killing livestock and pets, even attacking the occasional human. Cougar attacks on people are rare – lightning strikes are more common – but eight of Washington’s nine recorded attacks occurred in the 1990s, including the mauling of two children in the northeastern corner of the state.

Complaints were especially high in Okanogan County, where Washington’s only recorded fatal cougar attack on a human occurred in 1924. Okanogan County commissioners threatened to declare open season on cougars, arguing that the increased number of complaints meant that there were too many cats. Rancher Joel Kretz, now a state senator, blames the hound-hunting ban for the heavy losses he sustained on his Okanogan County property. “For a while, there were cougars everywhere,” he says. “And for a while I was losing half my foal crop.” Kretz stoked local fears about cougars by circulating a grisly photo in 2003 that showed a colt missing a wide patch of skin from its flank.

The growing hysteria fueled a legislative blitz to once again expand cougar hunting. By 2004, nine statewide bills had been introduced to reverse or circumvent the hound-hunting ban. Two of them passed: One authorized the use of hounds for public safety hunts and the other launched a pilot program that gave commissioners in five northeastern counties control over emergency safety hunts. On March 13, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, D, extended the pilot program through 2011 – and opened it to all counties in the state.

All these legislative efforts were based in part on the untested assumption that the hound-hunting ban had caused a rapid rise in cougar numbers and a consequent increase in run-ins with people. But even as state wildlife officials and politicians unleashed more hunters, Lambert and other researchers began to uncover evidence that this popular notion was dead wrong.

Washington State University graduate student Hilary Cooley with a hound used to track cougars for research. ROBERT HUBNER, WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Cougar kittens in the Colville National Forest, southwest of the Selkirks, were also faring poorly, as were adult females. But the population appeared stable because immigrants, mostly younger males, were moving in to fill the gaps. “But males won’t stick around if there aren’t any females,” Wielgus says. And without females, a population is doomed.”Everybody thinks that wolves, cougars, and other big predators are very resilient to hunting,” Lambert says. But when the killing is heavy and widespread, even immigration from outside areas stops.

Intensive hunting was creating chaos at both research sites. Mature male cougars maintain order by keeping the younger males in line, Wielgus says. Without them, the cougars’ home ranges and population densities were “shifting all over the place.” Infanticide had increased, and the cats were getting into far more trouble with humans. Mounting evidence suggests that inexperienced yearlings – the “hooligan” teenagers, as Wielgus calls them – are responsible for most attacks on people.

The hound-hunting ban was passed “presumably to protect cougars,” Wielgus says. But it appears to be doing exactly the opposite, and people – and cougars – are paying the price. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Now, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public comment on a new game-management plan, which will drive wildlife policy for the next five years. Agency biologist Rich Beausoleil, a predator specialist, believes the new plan will do a better job of managing cougars based on science, not public opinion. Agency officials will have to rethink their assumption that killing cougars can reduce cougar-human conflicts and grapple with the consequences of giving cougar tags to so many hunters.

Heavy hunting is unlikely to reduce cougar-human interactions, Wielgus says, because predator behavior is learned. Removing one problem cat may prove far more effective than expanding general cougar hunting. Still, as long as the state allows hunters to kill cougars for sport, both Beausoleil and Wielgus think bringing back hound hunting might be part of the answer. Wielgus argues that cougars fared far better with hound hunters than with deer and elk hunters, whose sheer numbers and indiscriminate hunting style nearly wiped out the population. Where hound hunters pursue mostly older males – the trophy toms – deer and elk hunters kill far more females, a study by Beausoleil shows, leaving more kittens vulnerable to starvation and predation. With more hunters buying cougar tags each year – over 66,000 were sold in 2007 – Beausoleil says statewide quotas will also be a critical part of the plan.

Convincing the public to accept cougars as an integral part of a healthy landscape is one of the agency’s long-term goals, Beausoleil says. Without top predators, the links between different species of an ecological community begin to unravel. Researchers think the loss of cougars and wolves in the East, for example, may have caused the decline of songbirds there. Once hunters killed all the top predators, populations of mid-sized predators like raccoons, foxes, and skunks exploded and, in time, ate all the songbird eggs.

But the benefits of large carnivores are a tough sell among those who view them as threats to life and property. “One of the things we’ll never get a handle on is the folks who move to the end of a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, and maybe they come from the city, and they see a cougar and say, ’Hey, I saw a cougar, you’ve got to remove him,’ ” Beausoleil says. “Well, no, that’s not what we do. You’re living in cougar country now.” He hopes that one day developers, whose brochures tout the wildflowers, deer and elk in Washington’s wild places, will tell people about all the bears and cougars, too.

“People need to make a decision,” says Lambert. “Do we want to live with cougars? If so, then we need to make changes in our behavior and accept that they’re part of the landscape.”

The author is senior science writer and editor for PLoS Biology (www.plosbiology.org), where a version of this story was originally published. She writes from Kensington, California.

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Regulators are trying to protect slumping chinook population off California and Oregon.

By Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 11, 2008

EUREKA, CALIF. — – Instead of preparing to hit the Pacific’s wind-tossed waters next month, veteran fisherman Dave Bitts sat at the counter of a dockside restaurant on Humboldt Bay recently, mulling fate and a cloudy future.

For the first time since the birth of the West Coast fishing industry 150 years ago, Bitts and other fishermen face a season without salmon.

Federal regulators, worried about sagging runs up and down the coast, agreed Thursday to cancel this year’s commercial and recreational catch of chinook — the prized king salmon of the fish market — off California and Oregon.

The ban adopted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council after a weeklong meeting in Seattle marks the new low point for a trade enshrined in the West since the Gold Rush.

An aborted season will wallop coastal communities in which salmon has long been a financial and cultural mainstay. Repercussions are expected to ripple out, with the ban hurting not just fuel docks and tackle stores but also supermarkets and truck dealerships.

In California, commercial salmon fishing is a $150-million business.

Hardest hit will be full-time fishermen like Bitts, a gray-bearded Stanford graduate who three decades ago chucked plans to follow his family into teaching. He preferred the sea.

Like most North Coast fishermen, a hearty but shrinking brotherhood scattered in harbor towns like Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay and Santa Cruz, Bitts depends on the salmon catch for more than half his income.

After the last two dismal salmon seasons, he and other commercial fishermen knew 2008 would be bad.

The Sacramento River has in recent years been the West Coast’s spawning powerhouse. While other rivers suffered, it became the backbone of the industry, with a productive run that reliably dispatched enough fish into the Pacific to keep the commercial fleet afloat and sport fishermen happy.

But lately the number of chinook returning to the river has been dropping. Scientists now predict that fewer than half the fish needed to ensure a sustainable population will return this fall.

Given these bleak realities, Bitts and many other fishermen are greeting the ban as a grim necessity for a livelihood that depends on the fickle nexus of Mother Nature and mankind.

“Going fishing this year would be like a farmer eating his seed corn,” Bitts said. “For a sliver of a season and a tiny catch, it’s not worth it.”

Federal regulators approved a truncated salmon season for Washington and allowed a 9,000-fish catch of hatchery-raised coho salmon off central Oregon.

A normal season in the West is long and prosperous, running from May to October, with more than 800,000 fish caught off California and Oregon.

This year the season ended before it started.

“Fishermen are born with an extra helping of hope,” Bitts said. “But I never had much hope for this season.”

Now he and other fishermen are pushing hard for financial help and for the government to find a way to fix what ails the salmon.

Last week, Bitts and half a dozen peers flew to Washington to lobby for disaster relief. They warned that the economic hit they will take this year will eclipse that of 2006, when a sharply curtailed season required more than $60 million in federal aid to keep the commercial fleet from sinking in red ink.

The fishermen also are aggressively promoting potential solutions — such as better practices at hatcheries that raise juvenile salmon and environmental fixes for the ecologically challenged Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

By Kate Siber

Outside’s October 2003 Dispatch, “Back in the Crosshairs,” explores the raging controversy between environmentalists and ranchers over the proposed removal of the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list. Here, we discuss the delisting issue with wolf expert and former Yellowstone naturalist Gary Ferguson.

Outside Online: In your 1996 book, The Yellowstone Wolves, you chronicled the 1995 reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park. At that time, did you foresee that the recovery of wolf populations would be as widespread as it is today?
Ferguson: No, I did not, and certainly the biologists did not foresee such a remarkable recovery either. Their target population in order to consider delisting across all three recovery zones—Yellowstone, northwest Montana, and central Idaho—was 300 wolves. And now there are 600-plus wolves, so I think everybody was taken aback by how well they did.

How did the recovery of the wolf come about and why was it so important to so many people?

Well, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 allowed the wolves to be identified as an important species—a target species, and one of the reasons it’s so important is that a major predator like the wolf has a profound impact on the entire ecosystem. In fact, Doug Smith, who is the wolf recovery project leader in Yellowstone, is fond of saying that in 25 years wolves will be to Yellowstone what water is to the Everglades. Basically, everything in the ecosystem will be impacted by their presence. I think people are excited about the wolf coming back not just because it’s a sexy predator but because it also has a remarkably important role in a healthy ecosystem.

In your book, you also said that wolves will be seen as either devils or gods. How has that become true in the time since their reintroduction?
Well, there have now been roughly 120,000 wolf sightings in Yellowstone, mostly from the roads, most of them from packs of visitors who have come from all over the world. Economists now estimate there’s about $25 million a year being left just by wolf watchers in communities surrounding the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. That enthusiasm sometimes borders on worship. For some reason, the wolf captures the imagination in a way that other animals just don’t do. On the other side of the fence, the devil aspect: that’s what’s concerning me more because, while in some areas ranchers have accepted the fact that the world is not necessarily coming to an end, there is a firm entrenchment in the anti-wolf forces right now. I’ve heard over and over again that within ten years all the ungulates—all the elk, all the deer, all the moose—will be completely wiped out. And wolves have even become the symbol of choice to point to all that’s wrong with America, which is usually manifested for these guys through the actions of the federal government. So this argument over wolves is not as much about the wolf as a creature as it is about the wolf as a symbol?
I think so, at least that’s been my experience. If you ask somebody who’s predicting these doom-filled scenarios, how it’s possible that the ungulates survived in the presence of wolves for thousands of year without us being here, well, the most common response is that these are not the wolves that were here—that we brought down some bizarre subspecies from Canada that likes to kill for fun. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that wolves are down in the range just killing elk to chew their lips off. It’s really fascinating if you know the history of wolves and how often they have been used as a symbol—for example in the Middle Ages, by the Catholic church as a symbol of Satan—to see them employed now as a symbol by both sides. It really speaks to the level of enchantment this animal has.

In Outside’s October 2003 Dispatch, Bruce Barcott quotes wildlife biologist Renée Askins, who is concerned that there may be a wolf-killing free-for-all after the species is delisted. Some environmentalists are worried that the decline in wolves would be too drastic to do anything about it before it’s too late. What’s your take on these fears?
I think Renée does make a good point, and the other environmentalists do too, especially if you have a situation as they proposed in Wyoming, where everywhere but in the national parks and adjacent wilderness areas the wolf is a predator. Then I do agree that that group of people who absolutely hate wolves with a passion will not hesitate to go out of their way to gun them down. And so those wolves that stray out of protected areas would suffer. Whether that compromises the viability of wolves in greater Yellowstone is another question, but it does bring up some concerns that I think are worth chewing on, there’s no doubt about it.

A lot of environmental advocacy organizations are lobbying against the delisting of the wolf already. Why exactly is this?
Well, this is an interesting thing and I think it’s going to be quite controversial because in truth, compared to, say, the grizzly bear, I think the wolf is a remarkably resilient animal. There’s no question that it is able to adapt to unfortunate circumstances in a way that other animals can’t. I think my concern about delisting the wolf right now is focused on Wyoming. The state legislature, just as Idaho’s state legislature and Montana’s legislature, has to come up with a management plan that seems reasonable and of course ensures the sustainability of the wolf population in perpetuity. Wyoming has drug its feet for a long time coming up with anything that comes close to being usable. What they just voted on in August actually divides wolves into two classes: trophy animals and predators. If a wolf reaches an area where it is defined as a predator, it can be basically shot by anyone, anytime, for any reason. It’s not a very well though out plan, and until the state of Wyoming comes up with something that is going to assure the long-term survival of these wolf packs, I think they’re not going to be delisted.

If the gray wolf were delisted, would we see a drastic increase in livestock fatalities?
I think with a good, sound, management plan in place in each of the states, we would see a manageable level of predation. Really there are a lot of reasons why a sheep or a cow dies, especially on public grazing allotments in wild country, with a full range of predators and a full range of other risks that any animal in that wilderness would face. The livestock depredation that we see, while it is increasing as the numbers increase, is just a tiny portion of how livestock die by other means.

Do you think there is some sort of compromise in our future, between the environmentalists and the ranchers?
I think if the reasonable elements of both groups would get together—and they do make up a majority—I think there’s absolutely a possiblity of that happening. Unfortunately, what seems to happen sometimes is that extremists on both sides end up controlling the debate. And that leads them to basically stand on opposite sides of the fence and throw rocks at each other. Until the heart of the ranching and hunting communities and the heart of the conservation and environmental movement get together and take control of the stage, and therefore take control of policy development, we’re going to continue to swing back and forth between these extreme positions. That’s unfortunate because then both wildlife and livelihoods like ranching suffer.

Do you think it’s reasonable to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list now?
I would say that when Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana have wolf management plans in place that clearly do consider the biological and ecological necessities of this animal, I think it’s then okay to delist them. And I do have faith that if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service applies themselves as they often have in the past, and if science prevails rather than politics, I have no problem delisting them. I think the actual act of delisting sends a powerful, positive message to the American public that says, “Look, we can apply this much beleaguered act, the Endangered Species Act, and restore an important part of an ecosystem.” And if we continue to use the endangered species list forever, simply because of the somewhat greater protection it offers—with no animal ever coming off of that list—then I think the Endangered Species Act will lose public support in the decades to come.

So it’s possible to take the wolf off the list and manage it sustainably?
I think so. And of all the animals, I think when acceptable management plans are in place, few would be more qualified to be taken off than wolves, simply because of their very complex, very advanced ability to react to changing environmental conditions. Not every animal has that ability to react in the myriad ways the wolf does.

When could we expect the wolf to be delisted?
Well, I would imagine that Wyoming will come up with something that meets the approval of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within the next 18 months. I think there will be an onslaught of lawsuits against delisting by a variety of environmental groups, some with good concerns, some with perhaps not such good concerns. By the time those lawsuits are worked through, I think it could be five or six years down the road before de-listing actually happens. I would encourage environmental groups to be very careful in how they apply their energies, to make sure that they’re fighting the battles that need to be fought, and not taking on the delisting of wolves past the time when it makes sense to do so and when there are so many other issues that truly need their attention. The environmental movement really has a responsibility to build some credibility and good will and a sense of working with communities as well as with wild ecosystems in these great battles, and I hope they will do so. I have seen a lot of movement in that direction.

What can we expect the lawsuits will do? Will they actually reverse decisions or just buy more time?
I think if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listens to their scientists, lets them determine whether these state management plans are sound or not, and gives them their stamp of approval, then it will simply be a matter of buying more time for the wolf to remain on the endangered species list. I think ultimately they will be removed. It’s just a matter of how quickly the lawsuits are considered by the courts.

How do you see gray wolves faring over the course of the next century?
With a reasonable management plan in place and with some kind of a comprehensive effort to protect the habitat that supports the prey base that wolves need, I think wolves will do extremely well in the next hundred years. They have shown themselves to be as adaptable and clever and intelligent as any animal the world has. I would say that with a good management plan and habitat protection for the prey base, wolves will thrive in the next century.

Click here to read more about Gary Ferguson and the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction project from our online partner, GORP.com.

With permission to republish, here are comments made by Gary Marbut of the Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd.

May 8, 2007
NRMGrayWolf@fws.gov
Subject: “RIN number 1018-AU53

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Western Gray Wolf Recovery Coordinator
585 Shepard Way
Helena, Montana 59601

In re: Comment—Canadian Wolf Delisting and Designating the Northern Rocky Mountain Population of Canadian Wolves as a Distinct Population Segment

Sent via email

Dear Sirs,

I opposed the initial “introduction” of Canadian Wolves into Montana, support the earliest removal of these wolves from protection by the federal government, and oppose any Distinct Population Segment designation for the following reasons:

Wolf delisting

1. Wolves are not endangered and federal protection of wolves should not have been asserted in the first place. Wolves have never been threatened with extinction. There are tens of thousands of wolves living and doing well throughout the Northern Hemisphere, in Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, Russia, Mongolia, China, Korea, and many other places.

The only possible rationale for asserting that wolves were threatened in Montana is that wolves used to be here but are not here now. Extension of this logic requires that Grizzly Bears must be “reintroduced” into the Los Angeles basin, the most historically famous Grizzly habitat in the U.S. This same logic requires that if a Tyrannosaurus Rex can be recreated from genetic fragments, ala Jurassic Park, then T-Rex must be “reintroduced” through the U.S., regardless of cost or impact. Of course, these extensions of the same rationale used for wolves are nonsensical, which demonstrates the nonsensical nature of the rational used to foist wolves upon the people of Montana.

2. Congress does not have constitutional authority to impose wolves on Montana via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Congress has only those specific powers enumerated in the United States Constitution. Among those enumerated powers is the power to “To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states.” (Article I, Section 8.) The authority Congress asserts for passage and enforcement of the ESA is the enumerated power to “regulate commerce, among the several states,” known as the “Commerce Clause.”
There is inadequate commercial nexus of commerce in wild wolves to justify imposition of wolves on Montana based on authority found in the Commerce Clause. See U.S. v. Stewart (9th Circuit, Kozinski opinion) and U.S. v. Lopez (USSC).

3. Wolves are having a gigantic and unacceptable negative financial impact upon the people of Montana, which amounts to a tax on Montana for a federal purpose. The United States Supreme Court (USSC) held in New York v. U.S. and in Printz v. U.S. that the Congress may not compel the resources of a state. However, that is exactly what is happening in Montana. Not only are wolves having a huge negative financial impact on Montana’s culture and industry of hunting and stockgrowing, but Montana is left to pick up the pieces with a necessity to “manage” wolves according to a federally-acceptable plan with no concomitant plan in place for federal funding for this federal program. This is akin to the city forcing you to stock your own property with rodents and termites and then requiring you to fund the predictable repairs associated with such pests.

4. Conflict with Montana laws. Federal laws prevail over state laws and constitutions only when the federal laws in question are well founded in authority clearly offered in the U.S. Constitution. As asserted in item # 2 (above), Congress lacks authority to impose wolves upon the State and people of Montana. Therefore, precedence must be given to Montana laws in several issues stated below.

5. Montana to manage large predators. In 2003, the Montana Legislature passed and the governor signed a bill which became 87-1-217, M.C.A., and which requires the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) to manage large predators (specifically including wolves) to protect hunting opportunities, livestock, pets, and people using the Montana outdoors.
FWP claims that they cannot implement 87-1-217, M.C.A. as long as wolves are under federal protection. We believe that the FWS would claim that Montana may not implement 87-1-217, M.C.A. vis-à-vis wolves as long as wolves are federally protected. We believe both interpretations are wrong, and that Montana laws must take precedence, for reasons previously stated.

6. Terms of delisting established. In 2003, the Montana Legislature passed House Joint Resolution 32 (See:http://data.opi.state.mt.us/bills/2003/billhtml/HJ0032.htm), wherein the Montana Legislature established the public policy position of the State of Montana for State assumption of wolf management. HJ 32 passed the Montana House of Representatives by a vote of 76-21 and passed the Montana Senate by a vote of 48-1. HJ 32 established Montana policy concerning several significant issues, including the definition of a “breeding pair” of wolves, federal abdication of wolf authority upon assumption of Montana management, and federal funding for wolf management. None of these conditions have been met, which makes ongoing federal protection of wolves in Montana a violation of established Montana public policy.

7. Cooperative management agreement invalid. On July 5, 2005, the FWS and FWP entered into a “Cooperative Agreement” about the joint management of wolves in Montana. This management agreement was entered into without authority by FWP, and perhaps even without authority by FWS.

This Agreement is in conflict with 87-1-217, M.C.A., and with HJ 32 (both mentioned above). This Agreement is also in conflict with the intent of the USSC in Printz v. US (cited above) because it does not fully or adequately address the negative financial impacts of wolves in Montana, impacts on Montana’s hunting opportunities and industry, impacts on Montana’s agricultural community, and impacts on the management ability and budget of FWP.

8. Violation of the right to hunt in Montana. The people of Montana feel so strongly about the right to hunt that over 80% of them voted to amend the Montana Constitution to secure for themselves, and to prevent government interference with, the right to harvest wild fish and game animals (Article IX, Section 7, M.C.) It is axiomatic and a principle of jurisprudence that a grant includes the essentials. (1-3-213, M.C.A. “Grant includes essentials. One who grants a thing is presumed to grant also whatever is essential to its use.”) It would avail the people little to reserve to themselves from government interference a freedom of the press if the government were allowed to prohibit use of the ink which pressmen use to put words on paper.

In the same vein, it avails the people little to reserve to themselves the right to hunt if the huntable game is absent, having been consumed by wolves. There is no constitutional right found in the Montana Constitution for wolves to hunt, or for wolves to consume the huntable game. In fact, wolves are not mentioned at all in the Montana Constitution. In Baldwin v. Montana, the USSC said, “The elk supply, which has been entrusted to the care of the State by the people of Montana, is finite and must be carefully tended in order to be preserved.” The decision also included, “If the elk is to survive as a species, the game herds must be managed, and a vital part of the management is the limitation of the annual kill.” Thus, fostering or mandating a scheme to allocate a significant portion of huntable game to wolves violates the right to hunt the people of Montana have reserved to themselves in the Montana Constitution.

9. Non-residents have no right, individually, or collectively, to Montana game. The USSC established in Baldwin v. Montana, that individual, non-resident hunters have no right to the game in Montana. Conversely, denying non-resident hunters the right to game in Montana does not violate either their equal protection or privileges and immunities.

The theory that Congress, representing many individuals, can make a claim on Montana game, via wolf introduction, that none of the individuals represented may make is oxymoronic. The game in Montana belongs to the people of Montana, a savings account that may not be raided by non-residents, no matter how many are operating collectively. For any national consensus to be interpreted as asserting otherwise is to propose that many individuals may give Congress power that no one individual has to give.

10. Violation of the Compact with the United States. In 1889, Congress, acting as agent for the several states, approved the Compact with the United States (Compact), as did Montana (Article I, M.C.), which included a guarantee at that time of the benefit of the limitations of the federal constitution to the people of Montana, and approving conditions of statehood, as they were both understood and accepted at that time. At that time, the ability of Montana to control predators and manage game was viewed differently than it might be today, but any change of view notwithstanding, there has been no amendment of the Compact, and no contract may be changed without the consent of the parties thereto.

The Compact specifically says that it remains “in full force and effect until revoked by the consent of the United States and the people of Montana.” Further, an essential element of the Compact is Ordinance 1, which says, “That the ordinances in this article shall be irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said state of Montana.” Neither Congress nor the people of Montana have adopted any amendments to either the Compact or Ordinance 1, much less has both Congress and Montana done so.

The Compact and Ordinance 1, by contract law, freeze in time the authority of Montana to control and manage wolves, as that authority was viewed, interpreted, understood, and effectuated in 1889. There is no evidence whatsoever that in 1889 either the people of Montana expected, or the Congress intended, that Congress would seek protect, breed and restock wolves in Montana. Any such assumed power by Congress is therefore a violation the Compact.

11. Federal Data Quality Act. The original science done to support federal protection of wolves under the ESA did not meet the criteria required by the federal Data Quality Act.

12. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments. There is nothing whatsoever in the U.S. Constitution that can be interpreted, consistent with the times and culture of the adopters, to allow the federal government to impose wolves on the states over the objections of the states. In fact, there are two provisions in the U.S. Constitution that reserve to the people and the states authority over all topics and endeavors not specifically granted to Congress in the enumerated powers. Those provisions are the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Thus, imposing wolves on any of the states is violative of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

13. Initial wolf introduction illegally funded. The initial introduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park was an illegal act, because Pittman-Robertson funds were taken and used illegally for that purpose.
By the doctrine of the fruit of the poisoned tree, all wolves in the southern half of Montana are descendents of wolves illegally introduced into Montana using stolen money.

14. Canadian wolves as invasive species. Canadian gray wolves are a subspecies that have not before been in Montana. Canadian wolves are significantly larger than, and hunt with different patterns than, wolves that existed in Montana before the 1900s. Therefore, the Canadian wolves transplanted to Montana by the FWS are an invasive species, illegal to introduce into Montana.

Distinct Population Segment Designation

The proposal to designate wolves in the northern Rockies as a Distinct Population Segment is an administrative effort to lump Montana in with Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Utah, and perhaps Colorado for a multi-state, one size fits all wolf management strategy that will make Montana dependent upon compliance by all other states. Not only do we object to this administrative change, but we assert that it violates the ESA and possibly other controlling federal laws and it violates Montana laws and Montana sovereignty (Article II, Section 2., M.C.) for many of the reasons discussed above, including that it violates the contractual relationship between Montana and the other states (the Compact) by which Montana accepted statehood.

Conclusion

These are all arguments why it was a mistake for wolves in Montana to come under federal protection, why it was a mistake for wolves to be reintroduced into Montana, and why it is important to remove all federal protection and control at the earliest possible date

Sincerely,

Gary Marbut,
Member – Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd

Posted by Tom Remington