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Outdoors

US judge questioning bison decision

The Associated Press YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revisit part of its decision not to protect Yellowstone National Park’s bison as an endangered species. The Buffalo Field Campaign and Western Watersheds Project groups have been fighting since 2014 to have Yellowstone’s bison declared endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. They have argued that two separate groups of bison in the park are genetically distinct. Rather than set a population limit of 3,000 animals for the entire park, ...

Wolf control board offering money for kills

By Keith Ridler The Associated Press BOISE, Idaho — State officials earlier this week requested $392,000 from the state’s general fund to kill wolves in Idaho, and with other revenue sources will have just over $1 million for that purpose starting this summer. The Wolf Depredation Control Board made the request to the Legislature’s powerful budget setting committee. The five-member wolf control board is contained within the governor’s office and allocates money for control actions approved by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. The board’s general fund request is the ...

Funding to help out Great Lakes area

The Associated Press A project that will boost the Great Lakes area to protect the systems from invasive carp will get big funding increases under the Biden administration’s infrastructure package, officials said earlier this week. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would pump $226 million to the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Illinois, where plans call for the installation of obstacles to prevent invasive carp from migrating up the Illinois River to Lake Michigan. The project has been a top priority for members of Congress from the eight states that border the ...

Hard to fall in love with the idea of winter

By Shirley Grenoble sports@altoonamirror.com I truly have a love-hate relationship with snow. I love the atmosphere it occasionally brings to my life but I hate shoveling it and driving in it. When the land lies covered with snow, it gives birth to a special sort of silence. It’s a heavy quiet, a noticeable absence of sound that we are not privileged to experience often. If you are on a deer watch in a freshly fallen snow, deep in the woods, every nerve stretched with the anticipation of a buck’s appearing, the silence is eerie and wonderful. When you do see the forms ...

Disabled youngster learns joy of hunting in Pennsylvania

By Bry McDermott The Associated Press INDIANA, Pa. — Eleven-year-old Lucas McCormick didn’t want to get out of bed when his mom, Kayla McCormick, woke him up on the first day of rifle season in late November. Like most young hunters, this Marion Center sixth-grader was stuck choosing between the determination to shoot his first buck and the desire to sleep in on a Sunday. In the end, Lucas chose to bundle up in orange and set out into the snow-covered woods with his dad, Dan McCormick. “He was giggling as I got him dressed,” Kayla remembered. “He was half asleep and I ...

Rare owl a hoot in DC area

By Christina Larson The Associated Press WASHINGTON — A snowy owl apparently touring iconic buildings of the nation’s capital is captivating birdwatchers who manage to get a glimpse of the rare, resplendent visitor from the Arctic. Far from its summer breeding grounds in Canada, the snowy owl was first seen on Jan. 3, the day a winter storm dumped eight inches of snow on the city. Since then, it’s been spotted in the evenings flying around Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, landing on Union Station, the National Postal Museum, various Senate buildings, and Capitol ...