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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Wednesday, January 22, 2020:
Visiting deer lease is about more than just hunting: When asked about hunting, American philosopher Henry David Thoreau mused, “When some of my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether they should let them hunt, I have answered yes –- remembering that it was one of the best parts of my education –- make them hunters.” This hunting season, I found myself deer lease-less for the first time in a very long time. I have a nice piece of property in Jackson County with blinds, feeders, plenty of places to hunt and a buggy to ride around on, but it really isn’t the same as a lease, which is why I was so pleased to be invited by some friends to join them for a weekend early in the season.
Conservation groups challenge USFWS opinion on Yellowstone-area grizzly mortalities: Conservation groups Tuesday announced plans to sue the Trump Administration over a decision that would allow federal officials to kill or remove more than 70 grizzly bears over the next decade near Yellowstone. Officials say this is necessary because of increasing conflicts with people and property on U.S. Forest Service land. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club say a 2019 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opinion on cattle grazing in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest threatens the population of roughly 700 grizzlies that live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. That opinion allows 72 grizzly mortalities over the next 10 years, and recommends conservation measures to be implemented by cattle grazers.
Search continues for Texas hunter missing for more than a month: The search continues for Ryan Kennedy, the Canyon man who disappeared at Lake Meredith more than a month ago. Kennedy was last heard from on Dec. 15 when he called his family and told them he was heading home from deer hunting at the lake. Officials suspect he tried to cross the lake when it was dark and there were high winds. Kennedy and his boat are still missing.
Tennessee constructing $1 million deer carcass incinerator to combat deer disease: An incinerator to address deer carcass disposal in will be constructed in one Tennessee county. The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission approved a $1 million budget expansion for the project at its December meeting. The incinerator will be constructed at the Fayette County Landfill and will be maintained and operated by Fayette County. The large-scale incinerator will be available to processors and hunters to dispose of deer from the chronic wasting disease-positive and high-risk counties of southwest Tennessee. The incinerator will get above 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature necessary to kill the disease. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has already sampled more than 10,000 deer for CWD this deer season and the reported number of positives this season is 148 thus far.
Mountain-lion hunting expands near Aspen; hope is to lessen conflicts with humans: When a mountain lion has been treed by hunting dogs, the animal looks distinctly catlike: powerful, annoyed and, yes, bored. Whit Whitaker and other winter sportsmen have hunted mountain lions in the Roaring Fork River valley for decades, but until this week, a small triangle of land above Aspen has been off limits. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife commission voted Wednesday to open the tract of land — officially called Game Management Unit 471 — for lion hunting. The change gives hunters more flexibility and range, and is designed to push the big cats away from town and reduce encounters with humans.
Best new hunting rifles of the 2020 SHOT Show: Based on the new offerings on display here at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, I’m ready to call 2020 the return of the light rifle. Over the last decade or so, thanks to the influence of long-range competition rifles, the weight of sporting rifles inched steadily upward, then plateaued, and only recently showed signs of going the other way. Now, with at least four new guns under 6 1/2 pounds and one under 5, there’s no doubt which way the wind is now blowing.
Hunter surprised by conservation officer accidentally fires muzzleloader through deer blind wall: A promising day of hunting recently ended in citations for a Michigan man when his muzzleloader blew a hole in his deer blind. According to an official DNR report, the incident occurred in Crawford County last month when John Huspen, a conservation officer, checked on a private property baiting complaint. Huspen located an elevated blind looking over a large pile of sugar beets where an antlerless deer was eating. After several minutes, the deer ran off and Huspen knocked on the ladder to inform the hunter to come down and speak with him. “What did you say?” the hunter said. “Conservation officer, I need you to come down,” Huspen repeated, according to the report. The subject then yelled “Hold on” as a loud boom came from the blind. The hunter then yelled, “My gun just went off.”
Why would someone want to go ice fishing? Why do normally stable people go out in extremely cold weather to venture onto a frozen snow and windswept body of water to freeze their tails off and stare down through a hole in the ice to catch a fish? Think about the scenario in that question. It would seem that this is not a logical or sane thing to do. Or, is it? Not joking, why do people go ice fishing? What are their reasons for enjoyment of the hard water angling scene?
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