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Outdoors

Whipple Dam back open to the public

From Mirror reports HUNTINGDON — The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of State Parks reopened Whipple Dam State Park this past Friday. The park had been closed since September 2019 for a large-scale rehabilitation project the included the following improvements: Removal/dredging of approximately 40,000 cubic yards of accumulated sediment from the lake bed; re-paving of all paved surfaces in the park; addition of various fish habitat structures and turtle platforms; and addition of a wheelchair-accessible fishing pier and new ramp at the beach. Also, ...

Judge wants gov’t to fix wolf problem

A judge has ordered the federal government to come up with a plan to release more endangered red wolves from breeding programs to bolster the dwindling wild population. U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle signed an order this past week directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to draft a plan by March 1 for releasing captive-bred wolves into the wolves’ designated habitat in North Carolina. The preliminary ruling comes in a lawsuit filed late last year by red wolf conservation groups in a federal court in North Carolina, the only place in the world where the wolf roams wild ...

A little humor to brighten up your outdoors world

The news and political events currently going on in the world have left most of us depressed so maybe today I can leave you with a laugh and it’s all at my expense. My son, Mark, and I have been hunting and fishing buddies since he was 12 years old. But always, and I do mean always, there are strange, stupid and goofy things that happen any time we enter the woods together. Like the time I went to Missouri to visit him, and we went out on Lake of the Ozarks to do some crappie fishing. When we got out in the middle, the motor quit and we had to be towed back to land by a Pontoon ...

D&H Rail-Trail receives high honor from state

From Mirror reports HARRISBURG — Earlier this week Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn announced the Delaware & Hudson Rail-Trail was named Pennsylvania’s 2021 Trail of the Year. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, when Pennsylvania visitors and residents are heading outside for healthy and safe recreation opportunities, the D & H Rail-Trail has been a gem of Northeast Pennsylvania. It provides users near and far the opportunity to enjoy some of the most beautiful parts of the commonwealth, learn about the region history and engage in healthy ...

More hikers, photographers will see ‘The Wave’

The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — Outdoor enthusiasts and landscape photographers hoping to land one of the elusive permits needed to explore the colorful, contoured landscape of a hike called The Wave in the U.S. Southwest will have a better chance under a federal plan announced recently that allows more than three times the previous number of daily visitors. The plan takes effect Feb. 1 and will allow 64 people per day to hike the popular rock formation near the Utah-Arizona border, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said in a news release. That is up from the previous limit ...

Wait will be a little longer for licenses

From Mirror reports HARRISBURG — For those who haven’t purchased their 2020-21 Pennsylvania hunting or furtaker licenses, you might have to do some more waiting. Pennsylvania’s Automated Licensing System will be unavailable for a week, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. The state’s fishing licenses and permits also will not be sold during this time. The temporary shutdown is necessary to complete an upgrade to a new licensing system. More information on the new, more-user-friendly system will be available once the process has been completed. While most hunters and ...