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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Monday, March 16, 2020:
‘I could’ve died’: Larimer County deputy describes being attacked by rabid mountain lion: A Colorado Sheriff’s Office deputy believes she is lucky to be alive after a mountain lion attacked her. Video online showed the moment LCSO Deputy Michelle Ross was attacked by a 91-pound male mountain lion at the Riverview RV Park near Loveland on Wednesday. “I could’ve died. That literally was a fight for my life. It was either kill or be killed,” Ross said. “Within two seconds it went from underneath the trailer to on my shoulder where I got bit.” Ross was one of several law enforcement officers who responded to the park after a man was attacked by the same lion. That man, who was not identified publicly, was saved by a UPS driver who was nearby. “That cat wanted to kill me. It had its mind set six inches away from my face, my throat. That was it,” Ross said. “At that point you don’t really have time to sit there and ponder. You just do. I threw a mountain lion off myself, that doesn’t happen very often.” The mountain lion was later shot and killed.
Texas turkey hunting offers chance to get back to basics of tracking
Lucky to be alive: Stories of survival told by hunters who almost didn’t: Hundreds of thousands of hunters go afield each year in Mississippi and most return safely home at the end of the day. However, no matter how safety-conscious hunters are, mistakes are made and things can go very wrong. Here are the stories of three hunters that are lucky to be alive. Shot by his own gun, shot by a dog and a tree stand fall: These hunters are lucky to be alive after suffering near-death accidents.
TV fishing legend Babe Winkelman files for bankruptcy: A nationally famous fishing television show host and one of Minnesota’s most iconic outdoorsmen has run into an upstream financial battle in the changing world of outdoor media. Babe Winkelman — the burly, bearded, plaid-clad outdoorsman who for 40 years hosted the nationally syndicated show “Good Fishing” — filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in federal court March 9. Donald Edward Winkleman and his wife, Kristeen Winkleman, of Brainerd, also doing business as Babe Winkelman Productions and Winkleman Water Solutions, told the court they have about $1.4 million in assets, including their home, hunting land and personal items, and liabilities of more than $800,000.
Desperate for new sports, I watched 32 minutes of bass fishing. Here’s my diary: I probably don’t need to explain much here, right? I needed some sports on Sunday afternoon, needed it bad, and all I found in the channel guide were various replays. The day may come when I’m ready to watch a 2016 Big 12 Championship quarterfinal on ESPNU, or a replay of some old German soccer match on FS2, but that day is not today. I needed something new, something novel, something I had never seen before and that I could enjoy on its own merits without the depressing reality that I was just reliving the glory days of my usual sports. I needed something new, something novel, something invigorating. Something to defy the sense that I was turning into the sports fan equivalent of Miss Havisham. I needed bass fishing.
Zebra mussels discovered for first time in a West Texas reservoir: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has added O.H. Ivie Reservoir near San Angelo to the statewide list of lakes designated as positive for invasive zebra mussels after multiple specimens were found in the lake in 2019. In March 2019, four adult zebra mussels were discovered by the Colorado River Municipal Water District in an above-ground storage tank that is part of the lake’s water transmission system. Given the presence of zebra mussels in the water transmission system, the CRMWD and TPWD continued to follow up with additional sampling at the lake and in November found a zebra mussel veliger larva near the Concho Recreation Area boat ramp. Ivie is now the sixth lake in the Colorado River Basin with invasive zebra mussels along with Austin, Lady Bird, Lyndon B. Johnson, Marble Falls, Travis and Walter E. Long. Because Ivie is miles upstream of where they have been found before in the river basin, it is likely they were transported on a boat or other equipment.
Is shed hunting ethical? Shed hunting — the gathering of shed antlers in the wild, often to sell — sounds innocuous. But as a hunter and a biologist, I’ve seen the impacts of its burgeoning popularity, and I’m increasingly disturbed by the trend. The increasing popularity of shed hunting means that more people are on the landscape during the winter and early spring — a time that is often unforgiving for deer and elk. Seven Western states have passed laws that close shed hunting in certain wildlife areas to try to decrease the stress deer and elk experience on their winter ranges.
Dick’s Sporting Goods pulling hunting gear from 440 more locations: Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced plans to remove the hunting departments from “approximately” 440 additional locations, following a similar — albeit much smaller — effort last year. In a press release issued along with the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, Dick’s confirmed that it would be removing the hunting departments sometime “in fiscal 2020,” though there was no specific time frame announced. Dick’s also declined to say which stores, in particular, would be affected. The company had previously removed guns and ammunition from 125 of its locations roughly one year ago, after Dick’s first announced it would no longer be selling assault-style weapons — at any of its locations — in the wake of the tragic Parkland school shooting.
Here’s why the Land and Water Conservation Fund is good for all Americans: Congress has an important opportunity to permanently and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund by passing the Great American Outdoors Act. The LWCF has benefited every state in the country by investing in outdoor access for all Americans including urban parks, community trails, backcountry trailheads, fishing areas and many many others. These recreation assets serve as economic drivers by bringing high quality of life to communities around the country. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to fully fund this important program for decades. Right now, Congress can fix that. Many Americans treasure our public lands and the experiences these special places provide — fishing, canoeing, hiking, climbing, hunting or biking, just to name a few. Our national forests, national parks and other federal lands are essential components of the American experience, yet there remains a long-held bias against the federal ownership of land.
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