Fairmount CA

The state Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider adopting a new package of sportfishing rules for 2012-13, as well as an increase in the number of multiple season hunting permits issued each year at an upcoming public meeting.

The commission, a nine-member citizen panel appointed by the governor to set policy for the state Fish and Wildlife, will convene for its regular meeting Feb. 3-4 in Room 172 of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington St. SE The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8:30 am both days.

A complete meeting agenda is available on the state Fish and Wildlife Commission website.

During the two-day meeting, the commission will consider adopting 18 sportfishing rules, which were developed with public input and discussed at the commissions December and January meetings.

The proposals range from closing steelhead fisheries earlier in a number of rivers in the Puget Sound area to allowing anglers to fish with two poles on the Pend Oreille River and the lower Spokane River.

All proposed changes are posted on the state Fish and Wildlifes website.

In other action, the commission will consider a bid to increase the number of multiple season hunting permits issued each year.

Since 2006, state Fish and Wildlife has conducted annual drawings for multiple-season hunting permits, which allow a certain number of hunters to participate in all general hunting seasons for deer and elk. Without the special permit, hunters must choose among archery, muzzleloader or modern firearm seasons.

State Fish and Wildlife has proposed increasing the number of deer permits from 4,000 currently to 8,500, and the number of elk permits from 850 to 1,250. State wildlife managers told the commission in January that increasing permit levels will expand hunting opportunities without posing a risk to deer and elk populations.

Also during the February meeting, the commission will consider a 165-acre land acquisition in Okanogan County for fish and wildlife habitat.

The commission also will receive briefings on the 2011 Puget Sound recreational and commercial crab fishing seasons, changes to the recreational clam and oyster seasons on Puget Sound beaches, the Wildlife Program, the Colockum elk herd, sanitary shellfish enforcement, and the inland fish stocking strategy and marketing plan.

The Rockingham County Hunting Advisory Committee voted Thursday night to change its name and host a spring meeting on deer in the landscape.

The committee, pending approval by the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners, will now be referred to as the Rockingham County Hunting and Wildlife Advisory Committee. Chairman Pete Bromley said the committee would most likely be dealing with issues beyond the scope of hunting.

Many concerns of the citizens of Rockingham County go beyond hunting and deal with wildlife in general, he said. Our decisions may include the consideration of coyotes, potential coyote damage last year and damage to livestock, pets and even vegetable crops. There have also been complaints about deer damage to plantingshellip;and these are not hunting issues per se.

A resolution in support of House Bill 459 was passed by the hunting committee and will be forwarded to commissioners. The bill to regulate hunting while impaired on private land in Rockingham County was passed by the House in June of last year but was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources.

The board will also sponsor a community meeting similar to the one held last year on coyotes. Bromley said it would be done again through the Rockingham County Cooperative Extension and would most likely feature presentations about deer in the landscape by Extension Agent Kathryn Holmes, Wildlife Office Barry Joyce and Bromley.

The meeting is scheduled to take place in the Agricultural Center on March 12.

In other business, Joyce brought up the idea of urban archery in Rockingham Countys municipalities. The only area currently enrolled in the program in Wentworth.

We have a lot of areas where people arent allowed to hunt and thats one of the problems, Joyce said. It would be nice to have someone from the cities who can look into this to open up the opportunity for bow and arrow hunting its not dangerous. I think a lot of these people are scared of hunting in the first place and are afraid to open up to something with potential liability issues, which is reasonable. But I think if they learn more about it, they will come on board.

Bromley said organizers will open the floor up during the deer landscape presentation on March 12 to present more information about the urban archery season.

The issue With lives increasingly busy, sportsmen and -women need every opportunity.

Where we stand The state should finally end its ban on Sunday hunting.

When most hunters have hung up their boots for the season, some
of us are just warming up. Now is the time for predator
hunting.

Why would you want to attract the attention of a predator? So it
can hunt you, of course. Calling predators takes a little planning
and a few tricks to lure in these guys, but the thrill of the hunt
is worth the effort.

Predators are not bad animals; they are an important part of a
healthy ecosystem. They can cause problems, but they still are cool
to have around and they can be hunted when managed properly.

Coyote calling from January to March is one of the greatest
hunting challenges in Nebraska. We are entering the breeding cycle
for bobcats, coyotes and other predators. For coyotes, this opens a
new door of communication between predator and hunter because
hunters can have good responses from both prey (distress calls) and
coyote (howls, barks and yips).

The setup

Predators make their living from keen eyesight and a nose that
can smell a mouse under the snow several hundred yards away.
Scouting an area will help you locate coyotes and tell you where to
start calling. Hunt into the wind or a crosswind, as predators
often will try to circle downwind to smell and locate the prey
animal.

Using decoys confuses the predator and takes the predators
focus off the hunter. I like furry decoys that flicker or gyrate. I
spray a bit of fox urine on the decoy to help with the confusion
part. The coyote usually will come into the call and head straight
for the decoy.

Howling for success

Howling can work any time of year, but greater opportunities
exist now. During the breeding season, coyotes become more
territorial, with males searching for females and willing to pounce
on any other male in the area. This is a great time to start a
morning session with a long contact howl or a challenge howl. I
give a couple of these and then wait for a few minutes, and then
come back with a prey distress call. If a coyote gives me a
challenge howl or barks, I come back with a challenge howl and the
fight is on.

If the distress call does not work, I use a female invitation
howl, which is shorter than the contact howl in length. I then use
the howler to make coyote yips and whimpers, which can really get
the attention of a big male.

Distress cries

Distress sounds imitate the cries of dying prey, such as a bird,
rabbit or other small mammal. Distress cries work any time a
predator is hungry and sometimes when it is just curious.

When I arrive at a site to call, I start with quiet distress
sounds just in case a song dog is near. Coyotes are agreeable to an
easy meal, but not if that meal sounds like a mad 75-pound rabbit
with bad intentions.

After calling for 10 seconds, I stop, watch and listen. I then
give a distress call but focus on the shrill screams more heavily
rather than the cries. After a couple of 10-second stints, I will
mix screams and cries of a distressed critter. I play this call for
10 to 20 seconds, and then sit quietly for 30 seconds or more. I do
this for about 30 minutes, and then I move a half-mile to a mile
before I call again.

Predator hunting is a great way to extend your season, spend
more time in the field, enjoy winter and help remove a few problem
animals for local landowners. Predator hunting combines all the
necessary stealth and skill of other types of hunting with the
excitement that comes from being the hunted.

Jeff Rawlinson is an assistant administrator in Game and
Parks Information and Education Division. Contact him at
402-471-6133 or jeff.rawlinson@nebraska.gov. Read his blog, Lock,
Stock and Bedlam, at OutdoorNebraska.org.

By Brad Fulton

Capital News Service

Virginians are one step closer to being able to hunt on Sundays. On a 29-11 vote Thursday, the Senate passed a bill that would allow Sunday hunting on private land.

Sen. Ralph Northam, a Democrat from Norfolk, introduced Senate Bill 464. Originally, it would have completely lifted the state’s ban on hunting on Sundays. A committee folded it into SB 464 legislation by Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, to permit Sunday hunting “on private property, either as a landowner, the landowner’s spouse or the children of the landowner, or with the written permission of the landowner.”

At the request of Sen. Charles Carrico, R-Galax, senators further amended the measure to prohibit hunters from hunting within 250 yards of a place of worship.

Of the 20 Democratic senators, 17 voted for the bill and three voted against it.

Of the 20 Republican senators, 12 voted for the bill and eight voted against it.

“I’m glad that the Senate acted decisively today to roll back an archaic restriction on a constitutional right in Virginia,” Petersen said after the floor vote.

The bill would rescind a state law that prohibits hunting on Sunday on public or private land, declaring it a “rest day for all species of wild bird and wild animal life, except raccoons, which may be hunted until 2 am on Sunday mornings.”

Gov. Bob McDonnell said last week that he agrees with lifting the ban on hunting on Sundays on private property.

Opposition to lifting the ban has come from groups such as the Virginia Farm Bureau and the Virginia Humane Society.

“Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, through its grassroots policy process, opposes hunting on Sunday,” said Wilmer Stoneman, VFBF associate director of governmental relations. “People are trying to couch this as a private property issue, but if it is, then you should be able to hunt and fish on private property 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, not just on Sundays.”

Petersen noted that the National Rifle Association supports his efforts to eliminate the ban on Sunday hunting. According to a survey, two-thirds of licensed hunters in Virginia support hunting on Sundays, Petersen said.

The bill now goes to the Virginia House of Delegates. If passed, the measure could open up Sunday hunting as early as next hunting season.

Power struggle affecting vote?

The vote on whether to ban lead shot for mourning dove hunting could turn as much on a legislative branch vs. executive branch power struggle as on the issue itself.
Many lawmakers think the Iowa Natural Resource Commission, which is appointed by the governor, defied legislative intent by approving the ban.
Committees in both the Senate and House voted last week to void the ban. The Senate Natural Resources Committee passed Senate Joint Resolution 2001 on Wednesday 9 to 3. The House passed House Joint Resolution 2001 on Thursday 17 to 4.
Whether the committees? votes reflect the sentiment of their chambers remains uncertain.
Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said last week he hasn?t counted likely votes yet, but he expects sufficient support in the House to void the ban.
?This is not about lead shot or steel shot,? he said. ?This is about the Legislature passing a bill and the executive branch overreaching,? Paulsen said.
He noted that the House considered but rejected banning lead shot when it approved dove hunting.
?A decision was made by the Legislature,? he said. ?We enacted a bill, and then we had an executive agency that did whatever they wanted to anyway, and I have a problem with that.?
Iowa Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, who has the authority to allow or block consideration of legislation in the Senate, said he doesn?t know whether the issue will be considered.
?There is some sentiment for it and some sentiment against it,? Gronstal said.

Ghost hunting – regardless of whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or indifferent – has its own unique methodology, requiring both sophisticated technology and otherworldly tools, along with analysis, deduction, calculations, and the ability to discern when something is merely a fluke, rather than a brush with the spirit world.

It’s a practice Kolek, of Dracut, has been honing for years, and now he’s sharing his tactics in “Paranormal CSI – Ghost Hunting 101.” Offered for the first time through Northern Essex Community College’s noncredit personal enrichment program, the six-week course begins Thursday at Veasey. Kolek’s recent investigation of its grounds was meant to acquaint himself with the former estate’s unseen inhabitants.

In particular, he’s curious about two women – one big, one little – who have reportedly been seen walking right through a wall or hovering in the kitchen.

Then there have been less tangible specters. When the park’s events manager, Dorna Caskie, stayed over one night, she and her two kids were startled awake at 3 am by something “absolutely electric and very profound,” she says. “I felt like I was in a room full of very excited and very happy children.”

The rich amount of activity seems to correspond with the rich amount of history: Built between 1909 and 1910, the building was at first a summer home for wealthy mill owner Arthur D. Veasey. His three-building operation, lost with time, was the once thriving Groveland Mills. Workers there produced fabric and wool, some for Henry Ford’s car seats, according to Caskie.

Oregon hunters are getting ready for another shot at that trophy buck deer or bull elk, but they wont be carrying rifles or bows into the woods and tags arent required.

Late winter through summer is shed season, that time of year when deer and elk toss off last years impressive headgear and start growing new crowns to impress the ladies and challenge each other.

And an increasing number of collectors are using the annual event as an excuse to get out of the house. Theres a certain mystery about antler sheds, as theyre called; especially large ones that evaded us during the hunting season and will soon be just laying about in a Coast or Cascade forest or across a windswept Blue Mountain ridge, waiting to be found.

Its kind of like a big statewide Easter egg hunt.

Human collectors craft furniture, chandeliers, baskets, handles, door pulls, racks and artwork from antlers or, sometimes, sell them by the pound ($8 to $10; ask your taxidermist) for commercial production.

Searching for large, trophy-class sheds can be competitive. One of the prized finds is both sets, left and right, from the same buck or bull.

A website preaches ethical shed-hunting, helps collectors score their finds and maintains a shed record book.

Kent St. Clair of Blodgett, west of Philomath, doesnt have to go far in his search for black-tailed buck antlers around the edges of Coast Range clearcuts.

I find a lot along watering and feed areas like creek bottoms, where they might have to jump, he said. Another good place to look is along fencelines, where even higher jumps might jar a spent antler loose.

Eastern Oregon mule deer and elk, to a lesser degree, hang out on south slopes this time of year to catch the most sunlight. Elk also avoid heavy snow, so look, too, across bare ridges close to timbered bedding areas.

Steve Clark of Corvallis, a Sandy native and fisheries graduate student at Oregon State University, avoids bedding areas because I dont like harassing them (the animals), he said. Finding sheds is just a matter of getting out and walking around. Its like finding a needle in a stack of needles.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, incidentally, agrees about the dangers of shed hunting near stressed deer and elk in some winter ranges and this past week announced the seasonal closures of several state-owned wildlife areas in northeast Oregon, through the end of March to mid-April.

Matthew Fiorito of Junction City hunts for deer sheds on ridges of the Cascades, but prefers to target Roosevelt elk sheds in the exact opposite locations.

Go to the same deep, dense, steep country you would hunt them, he said.

Fiorito, a logging engineer, said sheds carry bragging rights in the timber industry. Hes mounted several matched sets of Roosevelt antlers for his family.

Clark just puts his in his garage where he can look at them once in awhile.

For me, I just like getting out in the woods, he said.

World flyfishing premier: The Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T), has begun its 125-city, 2012 trek, with Oregon showings this week in Bend (Wednesday at the Tower Theater) and Portland.

The Portland show will be Friday at the McMenamins Bagdad Theater amp; Pub, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

The Fly Fishing Film Tour is like a Warren Miller ski extravaganza, except for fly anglers. Clips include world-class flyfishing venues (Alaska to New Zealand, Belize to the Bahamas), Ernest Hemingways favorite fishing holes, an artsy segment starring just insects and even a punk-rock band fishing in Wisconsin.

Tickets might still be available at the door Friday for $15, but the event typically sells out. Online tickets are available for the same price at theF3T.com, but the better deal is a $12 ticket at either Royal Treatment Fly Fishing in West Linn, not far from Interstate 205, or Northwest Fly Fishing Outfitters in Portland at Northeast 109th and Halsey.

Early bird drawing: Applicants for big game controlled hunt tags in Oregon who get their bids in by Tuesday evening will have their names entered in a drawing for one of 50 Sports Pacs for 2013.

The drawing, an incentive for hunters to apply early, will take place Wednesday, said the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Winners will be notified by mail. Another 30 Sports Pacs will be drawn from those who apply by March 15 and 20 more for an April 15 deadline.

The final deadline for all controlled hunt applications is May 15.

Hatboro police are on the hunt for a suspect who committed an
armed robbery on Friday.

At approximately 12:40 pm, police responded to a report of a
robbery in progress at Burdicks News Agency, located in the 200
block of South York Road, Hatboro.

Upon arrival, police learned that the suspect had fled the
scene.

The man entered the store, pointed a handgun and demanded money.
The gunman fled the store with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Three clerks and the one customer in the store at the time of
the robbery were uninjured.

The suspect is described as a black male with light colored
skin, tall, thin build with facial hair.

He was last seen wearing a red plaid flannel jacket, with a
black hooded sweatshirt underneath, dark gray colored pants, a dark
knit cap and gray sneakers.

Police located security camera footage that captured images of
the suspect arriving at the store and riding a mountain
bicycle. 

After robbing the business, the suspect fled on the bicycle.

The suspect should be considered armed and dangerous.

If the suspect is seen, persons should contact the police
immediately and not approach. Anyone with information on this
suspect or this incident should immediately contact Hatboro Police
Department at 215-675-2832.

(CBS News)

NASAs prolific planet-hunting spacecraft has hit the jackpot again, discovering 11 new planetary systems with 26 confirmed alien planets among them.

The findings nearly double the number of bonafide planets found outside our solar system by the Kepler space observatory.

Prior to the Kepler mission, we knew of perhaps 500 exoplanets across the whole sky, Doug Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. Now, in just two years staring at a patch of sky not much bigger than your fist, Kepler has discovered more than 60 planets and more than 2,300 planet candidates. This tells us that our galaxy is positively loaded with planets of all sizes and orbits.