The Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area is a 5,100 acre upland tract, situated approximately eight miles west of Dansville, New York. Roughly two-thirds of the area lies in southern Livingston County, while the remaining third lies in northern Allegany County. The tract was purchased in the 1930’s under the Federal Resettlement Administration and is one of several such areas turned over to DEC for development as a wildlife management area.
The area is appropriately named after the Timber Rattlesnake, which may be occasionally found in the more remote sections of the “Hill”.
The area offers an interesting blend of upland habitats such as mature woodland, overgrown fields, conifer plantations, old growth apple orchards and open meadows.
The area is inhabited by a variety of game species and is open to public hunting. The white-tailed deer, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, grey squirrel, cottontail rabbit and woodcock are found on the area. An occasional snowshoe hare may be observed adjacent to thick creek bottom brush or conifer plantation habitats.
A number of small marsh units have been developed and provide limited hunting for waterfowl. Some of the area’s furbearing species such as mink, beaver and raccoon may be occasionally viewed at these marsh units.
The following state forests in Chautauqua County have designated campsites …
Chautauqua Gorge State Forest totals 538 acres. This state forest is located in the north western area of Chautauqua County in the town of Chautauqua, west of Mayville.
Mounnt Pleasant State Forest totals 1,522 acres and is located in the Town of Chautauqua in the western area of Chautauqua County.
North Harmony State Forest totals 2,561 acres and is used for many outdoor recreational opportunities such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, snowmobiling, and hunting.
Stockton State Forest totals 977 acres. This state forest provides opportunities for many outdoor recreational activities, including snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, horseback riding and hunting.
“… Avoid the trap of doing something. Locking in losses usually means missing the ensuing gains, too. Stay focused on your goals, maintain your disciplined approach, and enjoy the long-term benefits of a diversified portfolio.”
I was having trouble figuring out why ST_Area area calculations weren’t working correctly in R. The reason was I was dumb. For ST_Area to work correctly you have to use an equal-area projection, such as Universal Transverse Mercator or Consus Albers. Projections that distort area won’t work, if you want to use such projections, you have to reproject the data before calling ST_Area.
Cruise control in my truck. It sounds silly but cruise control is an easy way to comply with speed zones as you can adjust your speed appropriately, hit a button and cruise along at a constant speed without worries of speeding up as you go along.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that beauty of the state’s policy of keeping dispersed and wilderness campsites at least a 1/4 mile apart.
While that leads to fewer camping opportunities in popular locations, it also means a truer wilderness experience where other campers will not be disturbed by talking, music, chopping wood or other human noise, smoke from other fires or other privacy issues.
I enjoy having my space while camping and having nobody else in sight or sound while in the wilderness.
I’m not really into politics nor do I follow every news story or tweet, but my grotesque obsession over Donald Trump continues. He’s one part horror show, one part freak show, one part agent of change. I can’t decide if I hate or love the man or for that matter have much of an opinion of his presidency.
There are some things I think are just awful about Trump. He seems to have a very poor understanding of economics, international relationships, climate change and science. It’s fine to have an opinion and be a conservative, but you should have a basic understanding of the concrete facts your dealing with as our nation’s chief executive. Sometimes liberals insist on policy outcomes not based on the facts but their own values without considering values and priorities of other Americans — but they sometimes are more grounded in reality rather then rhetoric.
And I think Trump is just wrong on immigration. Immigrants are the fabric of our community, and while illegal immigration is problematic, we should find solutions to integrate immigrants already here, and go after employers who break immigrant law. Immigrants rarely take American’s jobs, because most of the lowest skilled jobs aren’t that attractive to Americans. If we want more jobs, we should have taxpayer-support of public colleges and training, so people can get the skills needed to succeed in our economy. We shouldn’t discourage international trade, we should encourage fair trade.
At the same time, I like the idea that Donald Trump is pushing a smaller government – I think the government at all levels had gotten too involved in too many people’s lives, pushing the trendy social causes of the day, spending too much time and money to save puppies and cute children. Government has core responsibilities, but we should empower private citizens rather then state to mediate conflicts. We don’t need more laws, we just need simpler, more enforceable laws, and fewer of them. Government needs to spend less time trying to stop the next so-called tragedy, and focus on making people’s lives better today.
To that matter, I am not that horrified by his budget proposal, as much as I’m amused by it, even if it spends too much on military defense and the police state. We need an honest discussion of government programs, and those that are absolutely necessary, Congress should reinstate. Sometimes it’s better to start at ground zero, and build back up. Maybe they shouldn’t keep doing things the same way in government, because that’s the way they’ve always done it.
To be sure, I’m not thrilled by Donald Trump. I thought Barack Obama had a better grasp of the facts, and delivered a healthcare program, while not perfect, helped out a lot of people. But as they say, there is always more to do. Mr. Trump has three years left to prove himself, and ultimately governing is not defined by who has the best rhetoric, but who gets the best results. People need to learn that things need to change, so we can make life better for people.
I was hearing on the radio that the second amendment is not applicable today with the overwhelming force of the US military. While this is true with against any individual or small group, the US military would be ineffective against any mass resistance using guerilla tactics.
Imagine the scenario that the federal government invaded New York City with the army. The state and city could respond by giving either official or implied immunity to those those who fought against the federal government. This could empower and encourage ordinary citizens to engage in gorilla tactics against the US Army with immunity from state prosecution.
The population numbers suggest serious problems for the invading US Army if there was significant civic resistance to the Army invasion. If one in 10 of the city’s population engaged in a gorilla tactics against the military – fire bombing army trucks, cutting brake lines or even improvised explosive devices – could be extremely costly to the US Army in both lives and equipment loses. Remember, 10 percent of the city’s population is 750,000 bigger than the America’s standing army at 470,000 persons and even if you called in the reserves of 190,000 your still talking one New York City resident against one soldiers.
Not to mention that citizens resistance against the federal invaders would be supplemented by local law enforcement and the state’s national guard and state police which have extensive military experience and a much better knowledge of the city then the defense department has. Other blue state national guards and law enforcement would come to the state’s defense.
So it is true that individuals are not particularly powerful but together they are a strong force. Guerilla warfare might be a far off possibility – most likely New York City and the federal government would resolve their concerns in the US Supreme Court or other democratic institutions but don’t think individuals, joined outside of official government channels couldn’t be incredibly different.
![Untitled [Expires November 1 2025]](https://andyarthur.org//data/photo_021447_large.jpg)
