Hard truths about Hunting, Activism, and Wildlife Conservation — Furbearer Conservation

|

Hard truths about Hunting, Activism, and Wildlife Conservation — Furbearer Conservation

The North American Model of Wildlife Management has set the standard for maintaining healthy wildlife populations upon the landscape by providing public access to public resources, and providing engaging recreational opportunities to connect folks with the landscape. A few years ago I was asked how I thought we could get more people interested in conserving land and water, and my answer was simple.

Teach them to hunt, fish, and trap. Give people an activity which intimately connects them to these resources, and then give them a place to do it.

Hiking, bird-watching, and photography are great, and I enjoy them all, but hunting is immersive to a degree which simply cannot be replicated by less demanding interactions. This very fact has driven the success of the North American Model. Hunters, trappers, and anglers, have worked hand-in-hand with state and federal wildlife agencies to restore and maintain healthy wildlife populations for over a century.

Burnt Hill Road

|

Driving along Burnt Hill Road at Burnt-Rossman State Forest.

Trump has made more than 12,000 false or misleading claims – The Washington Post

|

Trump has made more than 12,000 false or misleading claims – The Washington Post

President Trump’s proclivity for spouting exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasts and outright falsehoods has continued at a remarkable pace. As of Aug. 5, his 928th day in office, he had made 12,019 false or misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement the president has uttered.

August 12, 2019 Morning

|

Good morning! Happy Last Sunset After 8 PM 🌆! Entering the plunge where in three weeks the sun will be setting before 7:30. Two weeks to National Dog Day 🐩. Wasn’t last Monday National Work Like a Dog Day? It seems like Mondays are for the dogs. 🐶 Most dogs get to sleep in on Mondays after their owners go to work 👷. Three weeks to Labor Day, if my math is good. Mostly sunny and 67 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 57 degrees.

I’m already missing the weekend 😔 but it will come around on the guitar 🎸. Or the calendar 📅. Just wait. The work weeks are the brief intermission for the money 💵 to buy beer, gasoline and ammunition. I also need to get my hunting license. I should just order it online.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 83 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around July 26th. Maximum dew point of 64 at 6pm. Summer returns today. 🏊 Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 79 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1944. I bet Bud Shuster would approve, he had a thing for all things ninety nine.

The sun will set at 8:01 pm with dusk around 8:31 pm, which is one minute and 25 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look out for thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 75 degrees. The dew point will be 65 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 14 hours and one minute of daytime, an decrease of 2 minutes and 29 seconds over yesterday. No surprises there.

Looking forward to the Sweet Corn 🌽 I got from Shauls this weekend. It should be good for dinner tonight. Later on I’ll probably run to Walmart and do some shopping and maybe some fishing 🎣 on the Hudson River. Might be a nice evening 🌃 for that.

I fixed my wallet again. 👛 I like have a wire to tie it to my belt in case it falls out, but I keep ripping the wallet where I run the wire from it. This time I put a whole through the leather with my pocket knife, so hopefully this won’t rip out so quickly. I am trying to get more time out of it, because I hate to throw away something that is still at least marginally useful.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 66 degrees at 4am. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 7pm. West wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was sticky. It got down to 68 degrees. The record low of 43 occurred back in 1957.

Another picture perfect weekend on tap? 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Maximum dew point of 63 at 2pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Maximum dew point of 65 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 81 degrees. 🌻 I’m really surprised that we are going to have another extraordinary weekend. This nice weather is tough on the bank account but summer is rapidly fading away. Maybe back to the Potholers? I do like they have outhouses there, much easier than setting up the shitter bucket. 🚽

I do still need to look at getting a better camp shovel. 🥄 Dick’s would be a good place to get that but depise that place as they always screwed up things when I’d buy guns there and I don’t like that business’ politics. I’d rather support a business that supports our rights. I wish Albany had a Gander Mountain but we have many whinners in our community. Maybe the hardware store or Walmart. At least some businesses have courage. 🍆

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until National Dog Day 🐩 when the sun will be setting at 7:39 pm with dusk at 8:08 pm. On that day in 2018, we had humid, partly sunny, rain showers and temperatures between 84 and 63 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 79 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1948.

Towards Wysox

many of the “oldest” people in the world may not be as old as we think – Vox

|

Study: many of the “oldest” people in the world may not be as old as we think – Vox

We’ve long been obsessed with the super-elderly. How do some people make it to 100 or even 110 years old? Why do some regions — say, Sardinia, Italy, or Okinawa, Japan —produce dozens of these “supercentenarians” while other regions produce none? Is it genetics? Diet? Environmental factors? Long walks at dawn?

A new working paper released on bioRxiv, the open access site for prepublication biology papers, appears to have cleared up the mystery once and for all: It’s none of the above.